Interview] Hiroyuki Hashimoto is the director, so I wanted to bring out cute girls. Series Compositionist, Soji Kado, talks about "Estabulife Great Escape," an anime with a blistering script.

We present the second interview of the TV anime "Estabulife Great Escape"!
The "Estabulife" series is a media mix of TV animation, video games, and theater animation under the creative direction of Goro Taniguchi, and the TV animation "Estabulife Great Escape" is the first in the series. The TV animation staff was asked to work with Mr. Taniguchi to create the entire world setting. Along with director Hiroyuki Hashimoto and the producers, Mr. Choji Gato played a part in this process. How was future Tokyo, divided into various "clusters" (cities), and how were the main character Ekua and other characters created?　And what is the climax to which the TV anime is heading? From the standpoint of the series director, he talked a lot about "Estab Life: Great Escape"!

About half of the basic settings were created by the TV anime staff!

───First of all, please tell us how you became involved in the TV anime "Estabulife Great Escape".

Kato: I was first contacted by a producer from Slow Curve, Inc. who planned and produced the project. I was attracted to the project because it involved prominent people such as Goro Taniguchi and Hiroyuki Hashimoto. I knew that series composition for an original work was a tough job, but I thought it would be a good learning experience and I would give it my best shot.

─ ─ The TV animation is the first work in the "Estabulife" series, which will be developed into a game and theater animation in the future. When you joined the project, how much of the worldview of the work had been decided?

Kato: First, there was the setting created by Taniguchi-san, and then there was the setting created by the TV animation staff, including myself, and the ratio was about 50-50. For example, "clusters" such as Shinjuku and Ikebukuro were initially called "areas," but we changed the name to "clusters. The staff on the animation side also made the name "Moderator" for the AI that manages the clusters. In the initial setting, the worldview was that an AI called "The Manager" was managing each area as it was. But that would be like a sole god, too powerful. So, after discussions with Director Hashimoto and his team, we changed the worldview to a polytheistic one, where each cluster has its own moderator.

─ ─ The staff of the TV anime was also heavily involved in the creation of the basic setting, wasn't it?


Mr. Kato: Mr. Taniguchi's stance was, "This is the world in general, and you can tweak it as you like," which gave us a lot of freedom. Rather, we were actively involved in proposing the worldview. That is why many of the basic settings for the "Estabulife" series were created based on the TV anime. That is why there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning.

─ ─ I heard that Taniguchi-san asked you not to close the world in the final episode, since the TV animation was the first work in the series.

Kato: Well, of course I was well aware of that. I had no intention of ending the world from the beginning (laughs). The climax of the story does get more serious, but the basic concept of the TV anime was to create something entertaining and enjoyable, so that the audience could enjoy it without thinking too much.

─ How about the main characters?

Gatoh: We had an initial draft of the main characters, but we were not bound by it and created them freely. Since Mr. Hashimoto was the director, we decided to create cute girls. The supporting characters, Arga and Ulla, are in the category of male characters, but we made them into beasts and robots so that the audience would not feel sexualized. This way, the audience can feel comfortable watching the interaction between the girls.

───Adding to that, Ulla doesn't speak a word.

Kato: She only says "wan," but at first she was supposed to talk. She only gets better when there is a full moon, and then she is able to speak. In fact, in the first draft of the scenario, there were a number of episodes in which I had her talk, and she talked so much that I wanted to tell her to shut up (laughs). (Laughs.) However, the staff members felt that "we've been rambling on and on for so long, it's not worth talking now," so we decided to stop making them talk.


─ So that's how it happened.

Kato: In the end, he became a taciturn character who did not say "wan" very often. That's why Mr. Miki (Shinichiro Miki) gave a lot of thought to each "wan" he said.

─ ─ The "wan" line contains a lot of emotions in each scene, so it must be rather difficult for the actor to play the role.

Kato: Mr. Miki is indeed very good. And in fact, the script includes a detailed description of what the "wan" would look like if it were put into words (in parentheses).

I see. So the meaning behind the "wan" is clearly written in the script. Ulla doesn't talk much, but Arga is very talkative, and he doesn't hesitate to talk to the girls.

Gatoh: Hayami Tadashi's acting is wonderful, isn't it? He is in the middle of a heated exchange with the girls on screen, but actually, due to the Corona disaster, we were not able to record the scene together. It was as if we were all in the same room together.

─ How was the character of Arga created?

Kato: I wanted him to play the role of a troublemaker, or rather, a liven-up person. He also has a strong sense of humor for the girls, but since he is a robot, I thought they wouldn't hate him (laughs). (Laughs.) In the beginning, I had many other ideas, and I was even thinking of an Arga episode, but I decided that it was not necessary from the perspective of the story as a whole, so I did not go through with it.


─ So you are saying that you are going to play the role of a comedian and a disturbance.

Kato: I think the five of us have reached a good balance. Estabulife: Great Escape" is a pre-scripted movie, so we record the voices during the storyboarding stage, and then draw the animation to match the voice actors' performances. That gave the voice actors a lot of freedom in their performances, which probably contributed to the good vibe of the film. It's just a shame that we couldn't get everyone together for the recording until the final episode. If we had been able to do it together, I think it would have made for more interesting dialogue.

─ That's the hard part of the Corona disaster, isn't it?