Sunrise Festival 2019 Special】Many secret stories by the original staff at the time of the broadcast! Report on the "King of Magic Granzort" Talk Event "The 30th Anniversary Rabiruna Reunion"!

Sunrise Festival 2019 Fugetsu, an annual event in which Sunrise, which has produced numerous animation works, screened their films in movie theaters every day, was held from September 13, 2019 to September 27, 2019.

On September 27, the final day of the festival, the screening event "The Demon King Granzort" was held at Theatre Shinjuku in Tokyo. This work is a TV animation broadcasted in 1989. It is the follow-up program to "The Heroic Legend of Magus Wataru," and has many similarities in the motif of boys, robots, and adventure, as well as in the participating staff members.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the broadcast of the TV series, an all-night screening and talk session was held. The first part of the animator talk, held before the screening, featured Hiroshi Kamishina, Hiromi Matsushita, and Takahiro Yoshimatsu, while the second part of the scriptwriter talk featured Hideki Mitsui and Ryota Yamaguchi. In addition, Kenji Suzuki appeared for a surprise theme song live performance and performed the opening theme "Hikari no Senshitachi" (Warriors of Light).

In addition, to commemorate the Sunrise Festival special, five visitors were selected by drawing to receive a "Demon King Granzort" poster as a special visitor prize!

For more details, please check the article linked below.

Part I: Animator Talk

The first part of the event featured Hiroshi Kamishina, Hiromi Matsushita, and Takahiro Yoshimatsu. Mr. Koshina commented on the illustration of "Granzort" that he drew for the 30th anniversary, "I thought that it doesn't resemble anything that I have drawn in a long time. Since the time of my master, Toyo Ashida (legendary animator who designed the characters for "Wataru" and "Granzort"; passed away in 2011), it has been a tradition at Studio Live to draw pictures that differ from the setting list. All I could think about was how to break the setting list and how to make the characters act," said Mr. Yoshimatsu. "Mr. Ashida always said that the setting is just a blueprint and that it is something that grows. Mr. Yoshimatsu responded, "Mr. Ashida always said that the setting is just a blueprint, and that the characters will grow as they grow.

At the time of "The Demon King Granzort," Mr. Kamishina and Mr. Matsushita each had their own drawing team. Speaking about the production system at that time, Mr. Matsushita said, "At that time, three to four people were working on the original drawings, so we knew who to fix and where to fix it. According to Mr. Kamishina and Mr. Matsushita, Mr. Ashida's style was to look at only one episode and let the team draw whatever they wanted using that as a base line.

And it was Mr. Yoshimatsu who belonged to the KAMISHINA group at that time. Mr. Yoshimatsu, who would later make his breakthrough as a character designer for "Neon Genesis GPX Cyber Formula" and "Slayers," as well as for his activities under the name Something Yoshimatsu, took on the role of animation director for the first time in the final episode of "Grand Resort. About his first episode as animation director, Yoshimatsu said, "I had been working on "Granzort" for a long time, so I was not really conscious of the final episode, and just said, 'Yes, I will do it.

On the topic of which characters are easy or difficult to draw, all three directors agreed that "Daichi's hair is difficult to draw. On the other hand, as for easy characters to draw, "Rabbi is fun to draw. I think he has an excellent design (Yoshimatsu)," "Rabbi is well symbolized as a rival (Kamishina)," and "Gus is interesting to draw because he has a good personality. The enemy Agramant was easy to draw (Matsushita).

Mr. Yoshimatsu said, "It was like a character design school for Toyo Ashida, and if I had any trouble designing a character, I could always start with the one I wanted. It was like a Toyo Ashida character design school, and I learned a lot of know-how, for example, if I had trouble with a design, I would first try stretching or shrinking the face. When I design characters, I often think about what Mr. Ashida would do.

Mr. Ashida's policy was to leave the drawing to the creators, but he was very particular about checking the character designs. When Mr. Matsushita designed Shaman, he was asked to draw a cool enemy, and he came up with a beautiful, slender figure, but the image of coolness seemed to be wrong, and all the designs were rejected.

In the summary of the talk, Mr. Matsushita said, "Granzote's mechanical parts were very difficult to draw, and Wataru's were easier to draw. Mr. Yoshimatsu seemed surprised. Yoshimatsu-san said, "At that time, I used to draw cartoons every day to make the staff happy. Animage remembered that and introduced me to someone when they were looking for someone who could draw manga for "Cyber Formula. That's how my life as Something Yoshimatsu began, so I have a deep attachment to this work. I like Granzort, where three boys travel together, and I think the first episode is so jam-packed that I lose track of time when I watch it now.

Surprise Live "Warriors of Light

Between the first and second parts of the event, Kenji Suzuki, the theme song artist, gave a surprise live performance. Mr. Suzuki, who walked lightly to the stage, sang the opening theme song "Hikari no Senshi-tachi" (Warriors of Light). The audience responded enthusiastically, smiling and saying, "It's great that everyone knows Granzorto! he said with a smile. Mr. Suzuki made his debut 30 years ago with "Hikari no Senshitachi" (Warriors of Light). After finishing the song, Mr. Suzuki said, "I didn't think I would be singing 30 years later, but it's still cool to listen to now. I was a big fan of Yukihide Takekawa, who composed the song, and when I was recommended to audition for an ani-song audition by Columbia and accepted, I was surprised to hear Mr. Takekawa sing the song. I was surprised to hear Mr. Takekawa sing a song. I even had singing lessons at his house. Mr. Suzuki then shared an episode: "The demo tape that Mr. Takekawa tentatively sang was a love song with completely different lyrics. Mr. Suzuki then sang a love song version of "Hikari no Senshitachi" written by Yukihide Takekawa in his sweet a cappella voice. In the original song, the last phrase of the song, which ends with a cool "Granzort! The last phrase of the song was surprisingly "love you...". I was surprised that the last phrase was "love you...". Mr. Suzuki closed the concert strongly, saying, "Granzort is the magical power that changed my life.

Screenwriters' Talk in the Second Part

Hideki Mitsui and Ryota Yamaguchi appeared in the second part of the scriptwriters' talk to talk about their scripts. Ryota Yamaguchi, who was brought by Mr. Mitsui as a surprise this time, has worked on "Dokidoki! Pretty Cure" and "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Stars" series composition, but his name is not credited on "The Magic King Granzort. However, Mr. Yamaguchi actually made his debut as a screenwriter under the name "Shizumu Higa" when he was working as a production assistant at Sunrise, in the 33rd episode of "Mado King Granzort," "This Flower is Orenda. The name was a pseudonym for an employee of Sunrise, so it was Higa Shizumu.

Mr. Yamaguchi said, "At the time, I was working on the production of 'Granzort. My desk happened to be in front of the Sunrise conference room, and the script conference talk that leaked out from there was very interesting, so I wrote a test script and it was adopted for episode 33, "This Flower is Orenda. No one else was going to do that, so I asked Mr. Iuchi (Shuji Iuchi. He was the director of this film and passed away in 2016) must have found it interesting," he reveals. Mr. Mitsui says, "At the time of the first preview, it was Mr. Yamaguchi who was driving the car to the film studio. That was before I knew it," he said, speaking of his surprise at the time. That was the episode when Mr. Ryota Yamaguchi was 20 years old, and he continued to work as a production worker until "The Hero of Magic: Wataru 2," which was a surprise to him.

When Mr. Yamaguchi introduced the episode, "It was Mr. Mitsui who came up with the name of Granzort's special move," Mr. Mitsui replied, "At first, Granzort was named "Azote" and "Granzort " was the name of the sword. When Granzort became the name of a robot, I couldn't use it as the name of a technique, so I wrote Ittoukaidou Eldikaiser and it was adopted as it was," he said, recounting the story behind the birth of the special move.

When asked about the most memorable episodes he had written at the time, Mr. Mitsui selected the 11th episode, "The test of courage is scary! and recalled, "I was glad that I was able to portray Ravi as more than just a jerk. Mr. Yamaguchi also commented, "It was easy to write the story about Rabi, because the story just rolled along on its own. Mr. Mitsui said, "The difficult part was the relationship between Daichi and Granzorto, and I was worried about how to differentiate it from the interaction between Wataru and Ryujinmaru. The main character becomes an honor student, so there are many things that are difficult to do".

In the closing talk about "Granzort," Mr. Mitsui said, "I have nothing but gratitude. I worked hard to become a scriptwriter, and this was my first regular work. The days when I went to 7STA (Sunrise Studio No. 7) seem like yesterday. Today I have told you who Shizumu Higa is, but there is so much more I want to tell you. Let's continue to enjoy all kinds of things!" Mr. Yamaguchi said, "I think the magical power is that even after 30 years, you still love my work and it remains in your hearts. I think the director, Mr. Iuchi, is happy to see you all here today. Please enjoy the screening today.

The screening continued until around 5:00 a.m. and was a fitting end to the "Sunrise Festival 2019 Fugetsu". Currently, all episodes of the anime "The Demon King Granzort" are being distributed free of charge on the official Sunrise channel on YouTube for a limited time in sequence, so be sure to check it out. Also, as a special project to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the start of the series, the "Wataru & Mado King Granzort Exhibition" will be held from November 22 to December 15 at Space J on the 7th floor of Seibu Shibuya's Movida Building.

(Reporting and writing by Kiri Nakazato)

Five winners will be selected by lottery to receivea "Mado King Granzort" poster asa Sunrise Festival visitor'sprize!

For more details, please click the link below!