Sunrise Festival 2021] Director Shinya Watada and Series Composer Yasuyuki Mutou talk about behind-the-scenes together for the first time!　Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE" Talk Show Report

A screening event of the anime "Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE" was held at Shinjuku Piccadilly in Tokyo on October 17, 2021, with director Shinya Watada, series director Yasuyuki Muto, and producer Takuya Okamoto on stage for a post-screening talk show.

This event was held as part of the "Sunrise Festival 2021 REGENERATION," a screening event being held from October 1 to 31, 2021.

Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE" is the latest in the "Gundam Build" series, which tells the story of the "Gunpla Battle" competition using Gunpla, and will be shown on the official Gundam YouTube channel "Gundam Channel" and other channels, The 1st Season was released in 2019, and the 2nd Season in 2020. While the previous "Gundam Build" series was based on Gunpla battles in the real world, the "Gundam Build Divers" series depicts Gunpla battles in the network game "Gunpla Battle Nexus Online (GBN)". In the sequel, "Re:RISE," the story and worldview were further expanded with the introduction of the alternate world of Eldora as the setting.

At the screening of "Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE," episodes 22, 24, 25, and 26 were shown, followed by a talk show.

First, looking back on episode 22, Director Watada said, "I thought it was going to be a heavy episode, but Mutou-san gave us a powerful scenario, so I made it with a lot of energy, thinking that this could be the final episode. Mutou also said, "I didn't calculate it, but after episodes 19 and 20, I felt as if episode 22 was the final episode for Hiroto personally. Director Watada commented on the Satanix Gundam that appeared in episode 22, "I was worried about how well the drill would be received by Gundam fans, but after receiving the design, I decided to make it as cool as possible.

Director Shinya Watada

During the talk, the topic of the gimmick of the combined body in episode 25 was also discussed. Director Watada said, "I had the idea of doing a combined body since I was working on "Gundam Build Fighters Try," but I wasn't able to incorporate it into the storyline properly. So for me, it felt like a retry. Because the characters are children with disparate backgrounds, I wanted to separate the origins of the aircraft into UC, Space Century, SD, and Another series. I can only thank Ebigawa-san (who designed the mechanics). According to Producer Okamoto, Director Watada had proposed the idea of doing a combined gimmick at a very early stage of the planning. Mutou-san also expressed his satisfaction, saying that he was able to create the natural flow of the storyline with the combining of the two characters, rather than the adult situations of a hobby anime.

Mutou-san mentioned episode 24 as one of his personal highlights, saying, "I wrote the dialogue between Hiroto and Riku at the end with a great deal of care, linking it to the previous episode. I tried to create a scene in which both characters seem like good kids while standing up for Riku and his friends. It seems that the complex relationships between the characters came to fruition in episode 24. The director's unique phrase, "The characters from the previous film (in which Mutou-san was not fully involved) are like the director's stepchildren, so there should not be any conflict between them," was impressive.

Producer Okamoto focused on the music aspect of the film, saying, "What impressed me (was) the use of the theme song as well as the accompaniment. We were able to incorporate the theme song at the end of the film with the help of the artists.

Mutou-san commented on Mukai Hinata's unique position as a heroine who rarely logs into GBN: "Hinata was not in the director's original plan, but I asked him for a girl like her and he put her in. So I wrote the story while worrying because I felt that I would be held accountable if I did not get the story right. I think I was able to create a new type of ending.

In a discussion about the title "Re:RISE," the director talked about the twists and turns that led to the initial idea of "Cross Edge," as well as "Cry," "Rebuild," "Arise," and "Heroes. Director Watada's words, "I didn't want to make the theme of becoming a hero too explicit, so Heroes didn't feel right," offered a glimpse into the thinking that went into the production. The title "Re:RISE" seemed to have brought a strong inspiration to the production site, and Mutou said, "As soon as we decided on 'Re:RISE,' I could see where we should go.

Since "Re:RISE" is also used as the title of episode 26, the discussion turned to naming the subtitles for each episode. The most difficult subtitle was "To Fly Again," episode 21, for which Shogo Yaskawa was in charge of scriptwriting, and the discussion turned to the good episode 14's tentatively titled "Run Freddy" (officially titled "Meguriai, And"), and episode 22's "Kokujin no Zeltozamu," which was decided in one shot. The title of episode 22, "Zeltotherm of the Time Limit," was decided in a single shot. The 25th episode, "To the Future I Draw," was proposed by Mutou, who thought "This is the only way to do it." The title was so natural and was decided so easily without any opinions that he was worried about it.

Regarding the theme of Hiroto's main character, Director Watada said, "At first, I had a rough idea of four children who lacked something, and I asked Mutou-san to flesh them out. The Wizard of Oz was the motif. I couldn't find anything lacking in Hiroto, so it was actually a bit of a spur-of-the-moment decision." Mutou also confides, "At first, we decided to go ahead with Hiroto as a downer character.

Producer Takuya Okamoto

According to producer Okamoto, up until around episodes 5 or 6, he was searching for the content of Hiroto's lack. When asked about the concept of "another Riku who couldn't save EL Diver," Mutou said, "It's a delicate setting, so I couldn't have proposed it unless the same person who directed the previous film had been the director. Since Director Watada had a similar idea in mind, he felt that since the two of them came up with the idea, it must be a setting that would lead to something beyond that.

After that, the production ran through every week, with no New Year's holidays or Golden Week holidays, and Mutou-san revealed that it was difficult for him to write the script himself because he had to focus on the series composition.

Many of the names of the main characters were chosen by Mutou based on his intuition and inspiration, such as "Kuga (Hiroto)" because he had a meeting in Kugayama for another work, but what was interesting was that the naming rules for the residents of Eldora were revealed. What was interesting was that the naming rules of the residents of Eldora were revealed.

The first three children chosen by the people of Eldora, Asha, Twana, and Furun, were named after the "Red Comet" of the past: Char, Quattro, and Full Frontal.

Similarly, the originals are also diverse: Mya is Mirai Yashima, Stra is Rock-on Stratos, Tonoy is Bright Noah, Jirik is Banagher Link, Muran is Kamran Bloom, and the holy beast Quadrung is Cruculus Doan.

The only exception is Freddy, whom Mutou-san somehow put on the name after seeing the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" and it has become a permanent fixture. The conversation ended with a laugh about whether or not he should add the character "Dilev" to "Mobile Suit Gundam: Senko no Hathaway," for which he wrote the script, to create the original story.

When asked what "Re:RISE" meant to each of them, Producer Okamoto replied, "It was the first work for which I was allowed to work as a producer, and it was a difficult work to produce because of the Corona and other things that happened. But I often felt the warmth of this work, and I think that pushed me to make it. It is an important work for me.

Mutou said, "Recently, some people recognize me as a 'Gundam person,' but I often participate as an arranger for works that have a base, such as "Mobile Suit Gundam UC" and "Senko no Hathaway. It was great to be able to be fully involved in the production of an original "Gundam" title with this film.

Director Watada said, "This is my third "Gundam Build" series, and I am always thinking about what is new, what is not new, and what is the same as before. I don't want to call it the culmination of my work, but I think I was able to create a complex work that included what I wanted to do in a series that requires various elements, what I was aiming for, and what I wanted to do in terms of merchandising. It is rare to find a work in which I feel that the landing went so well. （The fact that we were able to create something that was the complete opposite of "Build Divers" (the previous work), yet essentially the same thing, was also in line with our goal. I feel as if I was guided rather than created, and the synergy of not only myself but also the staff and everyone who is watching this work makes it a work that I feel a "connection" with.

In his closing remarks, Mutou-san revealed that this was the first time he had the opportunity to speak with Director Watada, and expressed his hope for another opportunity like this.

In closing, Director Watada said, "While the world is not as it used to be, we were able to have this kind of opportunity over the past year, and the fact that so many people gathered here made the entire staff happy to see the faces of the audience. The theater was filled with thunderous applause as he concluded, "I would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much.

(Reporting, writing, and photography by Kiri Nakazato)