Sunrise Festival 2019 Special】The day of the next entanglement is near! Report on the "Zegapain ADP" talk stage, where new setting materials with high expectations were also revealed!

Sunrise Festival 2019 Fugetsu, an annual event in which Sunrise, which has produced numerous animation works, will screen its films in movie theaters every day, from September 13, 2019 to September 27, 2019. Among them, the "Zegapain ADP" screening event was held on September 24 at Theatre Shinjuku in Tokyo.

Zegapain ADP" is a theatrical film that uses visual materials from the 2006 TV series "Zegapain" and re-edits them to create a completely new story, which was released in 2016. Utilizing the film's unique setting of looping over a predetermined period of time, the story depicts the loop leading up to the TV series, drawing attention to the original characters of the theatrical version and the drama that was not depicted in the TV series.

Since "ADP" was being screened in theaters for the first time in three years, director Masami Shimoda and Yuya Takashima, who worked on the science fiction research for "ADP" and the spin-out novel "Entangled: Girl," took the stage for a pre-screening talk session.

Although there was a slight delay in the start of the talk due to equipment trouble, the event itself proceeded in a friendly atmosphere.

In commemoration of the Sunrise Festival special, 5 winners of the "Zegapain ADP" poster were selected in a drawing to receive a special prize for visitors!

For more details, please check the article linked below.

The talk started with the story of "ADP" production.

According to director Shimoda, "At first, we were asked to make a compilation, but it would be boring if it was just a compilation. （We decided to use the material from the TV series, which is the story of Kyou Ver. 2 (the main character), to create the story of Kyou Ver. 1.

The initial length of the film was 90 minutes, but when the producer told us that 10% of the total length could be used for new footage, we thought, "Well, if we make it 120 minutes, we can make a new 12-minute film! So, the current volume of the film was created.

The production process was also unique, starting with cutting a storyboard without creating a scenario from the beginning. Director Shimoda recalls that the process of creating a new story while using the original material was both difficult and enjoyable.

However, when the rough structure was completed, Takehiko Ito, the author of the original story, asked him to "change the story to one in which someone is trying to falsify data in the world of Kyou in Ver. 1. Director Shimoda was quite surprised. The director's idea was to "add a scene in which Kaminagi sees the future," he said. The final flow of the film was decided upon by the director, who said, "I think we can smell the nuance of the film in this way.

This order was reflected in the final product, and he said of Mr. Ito's point, "I thought that the original author was indeed looking at things differently, since the scene was created to bounce around while the looping scenes were simply being connected.

Yuya Takashima, who was originally acquainted with Mr. Ito as a novelist, said he was just a viewer of the TV series when it aired. Director Shimoda said that he decided to join "ADP" because "Zegapain" had been made by a staff of about the same age, but he wanted to add new blood to the project in its 10th year, and by adding a new science fiction setting, the content should last for another 10 years.

Mr. Takashima's title in "ADP" is science fiction research. For example, in the scene where the main character's mother ship, the Okeanos, heads for the moon, he played an important role in ensuring the persuasive power of the film by asking what route it would take and what the physics of the situation would be.

From this point on, Director Shimoda revealed the background of "ADP" one after another.

First of all, although this work is a prequel to the TV series, in fact, "about 85%" of the elements are connected to each other," said Shimoda. This is because the appearance of Minato in "ADP" is not chronologically correct. However, he said that he did appear in "ADP" because he "would have missed him if he was not there" and because "many of the staff members were also fans.

It was also revealed that Minami Maihama, where "Zegapain" takes place, was composed of data spliced together on a server. Therefore, it is actually a combination of various locations in Chiba Prefecture, such as in front of a station in Chiba and in Shinkiba.

In addition, as a backstory to the TV series, the staff at the time called the memory of Cerebrum "summer memory" and the memory with the design of Galsorum "winter memory" out of the two memories recovered by Zegapain Altir in the 25th episode.

The summer memory contains data for a five-kilometer radius of Maihama and data for 500 phantom bodies that loop through five months. The winter memory, he said, stored data that could be used for anything, such as deep human psychology and unknown areas. And the data from these two data are combined to complete a one-year loop ...... as of the last episode.

The data of Shibuya may have been included in the data, and so the scenery of "Shibuya in winter" is shown on the screen here. It was revealed that Director Shimoda and other staff members already had a plan to expand the setting of the film, saying, "It would be interesting to expand the stage.

It has been three years since we promised NEXT ENTANGLE at the end of "ADP. We are thinking of various things so that the content will be just what you have been waiting for," said Director Shimoda, who also revealed some of the setting materials for the project!

The first thing shown on the screen was a mass-produced Anti-Zeiga, which will come out in large numbers and attack Okeanos in the final episode of the TV series! However, at the time, director Shimoda was unaware of the production of this machine, so it did not appear in the film. The director was unaware at the time that this aircraft had been created, and so it had not appeared in the film.

And then there is the unknown anti-Zegapei Bunil. This is the machine that appeared in the novel "Zegapain: The Door of Loss," and it seems that this will be the first time it has been made into a movie. It is characterized by its cylinder-shaped legs and black light armor. The pilot is still a secret.

Next, the battleship of GALZORUM was introduced, which was the long-cherished wish since the TV series, as it was impossible to introduce the battleship of the enemy side due to scheduling constraints at the time of the TV series.

The concept is "Dark Okeanos," five times the size of Okeanos. It is characterized by its rotating body.

The name of the operator who also appeared in "ADP" was also announced. The name "Tamotsu Mikasa" was chosen because "it sounds like a logistical support character. The cast of this character has been almost finalized" for when he will appear in the future.

Finally, a video of Zegapain Altir was shown.

In this video, the armor around the cockpit is transparent, reflecting the "optical armor" setting, and is a "CG model in its original form.

At the time of the TV series, it was difficult to put a 2D character on a 3D mecha due to technical problems, but after more than 10 years, we were able to do so," said director Shimoda. However, "After compositing, we had to make the 2D characters act in the 3D cockpit, which was still difficult," he said. He said, "I hope to use this CG to create images." The talk stage raised expectations for future developments that will be reborn with the latest video technology.

The talk stage ended with the audience calling out "Entangled! with the audience, hoping that this event would lead to the next stage. The screening of the film began amidst a sense of unity.

Comments immediately after the talk!

───What are your impressions of today?

Director: From the stage, I was able to talk calmly with my usual group of people, or rather, my core fans, who were warmly watching me. I am grateful to all of you.

Takashima: I had an autograph session the other day, and I met some of you there. Ever since I joined the ADP staff, I have felt the warmth of all the celebrants (fans).

Director I am sure they came from various servers. I hope you can look forward to the development of Next.

─ ─ Thank you very much!

■Five winners will be selected by lottery to receivea "Zegapain ADP" poster asa Sunrise Festival visitor'sprize!

For more details, please click on the link below!