#Hirofumi Fukuzawa

[guster-animations]

Kamen Rider Geats Finale Commemoration Producers’ Symposium: Translation (V2 Part 2)

this is part 2 of my revised translation for kamen rider geats’ producer round-table.

part 1 | part 2 (HERE) | part 3

i originally did geats’ symposium first because it’s already been graciously transcribed and posted by other people (with a few typos)— you can find that transcription of the original japanese text here.

TOKU TRANSLATION MASTERPOST HERE

this translation was done for a few projects of mine. join the henshindex wiki today!

Forward I: To Create “Uniqueness”

Takebe: The timing of Ziin’s first appearance was planned by Yuya from the start. When the existence of the audience for the reality show of the Desire Grand Prix is revealed, it seems to turn on its head for a moment. We did that between the end of the year and the beginning of the next. That part of the plot was one that Yu also took pride in.

Takishima: On the other hand, the design work is always planned pretty far ahead, but I remember that when the miscellaneous concept art for the varied Rider forms for the DGP players and supporters were presented, Yuya really got the idea that “fighting as a duo sounds interesting” in his head.

Takebe: That meeting had its ups and downs…

Takishima: Yes. Like Kamen Rider Kyuun’s motif being changed from a dragon to a lion. I don’t remember why it was changed (Laughs).

Takebe: It was to have a matching cat motif, wasn’t it? At least Yuya was thinking about many things ahead of time, which was helpful. Well, while we’re talking about Yuya trying to do things too early, something we kept saying “Please wait a little bit” on and stopping him from doing was the development of Sara’s death and Keiwa’s awakening.

Yoshikawa: That was a constant back-and-forth exchange.

Takebe: The existence of Sara as comfort was precious. Even if we had to do it at some point, doing it too early would make the work feel bleak, so I made him wait do it for a considerable amount of time by saying “a little further” and “a little more”. As a result, Tycoon’s awakening was delayed for 40 episodes.

TTFC: With the style of having not only the Riders playing a game, but also having Supporter Riders and management Riders, there are a lot of people and you have a lot of variation. I think it’s differentiated itself from prior so-called “many-Rider” seasons.

Takishima: As the series gets longer, it’s really difficult to do something like that. Even recently, “Kamen Rider Saber” was a many Rider season, and “Kamen Rider Revice” had a fair amount of people transform by the end as well. We had to discuss how to differentiate it from recent seasons a lot. With “Geats’” situation having the “setting” of the Desire Grand Prix first and foremost, we sort of made having an increased number of riders an inevitability.

Takebe: But we also intended to make the setting clear, so we had a lot of Riders appear in episodes 1 and 2. That was the first difficulty.

Each year, the number of Riders gradually increases from just one or two people as the story goes on, but in the case of “Geats”, it was necessary to make many Riders appear at once since people want to see how the system works at the start. In the announcement, too, we showed an image of seven pitch-black Riders running closer, and wanted to make them think, “Just what will happen this year?”. We were picky about that area, but our schedule was tight because we were being so different from the norm… that was a lot of trouble.

TTFC: You had to show what the “Desire Grand Prix” was like at the start regardless.

Takebe: Yes. The game was shown less as the middle stage progressed into the second half, but for the first part of the show, everyone was focused on the contents of every episode’s game. I was confident because Yuya already had experience with continually writing for shows in the Kamen Rider series two different times. He wrote in the large amount of characters and items really well. There were naturally things we couldn’t do due to budget and schedule issues, but I think that even so, we were able to do as many things as possible in the most extravagant way possible this year.

Forward II: The Personalities of the Directors

Takebe: This time, Yuya wrote for each director… He tried to write things that fit the personality and strengths of whichever director was in charge of the episode.

Takishima: He was able to do that because he had past experience while writing “Kamen Rider Ex-Aid” and “Kamen Rider Zero-One”.

Yoshikawa: For example, Sakamoto likes to do action with untransformed characters [civilian fights] in his episodes, so he decided to write an episode (episode 13) where the belts get stolen and they can’t transform (laughs).

Takishima: And it seems like Keiwa (Ryuga Sato) can somersault, so he decided to try that when Keiwa became a ninja (episode 27).

Yoshikawa: Director Yamaguchi has an affinity for napalm, so he made episodes 20 and 21 a bomb game.

Takishima: After that was a scene with riding bikes. That episode, he was trying to decide who would drop out next, so he picked based on what would fit the director (Laughs).

Takebe: That way of making things is interesting. I think more than anything, all of the directors for “Geats” did great work. Not just Director Yamaguchi, but Directors (Kazuya) Kamihoriuchi, (Ryuta) Tasaki and (Hirofumi) Fukuzawa too. Even if just for one or two episodes, I’m glad they did it. Director Tasaki will be doing the pilot for the next show, “Kamen Rider Gotchard”, but he was able to help with “Geats” (in episodes 31-32) before starting preparations for that. I’m glad we could work with Fukuzawa in (episodes 35 and 36). There was good excitement on the filming set.

Takishima: In terms of the filming order, the TTFC special “Avataro Sentai Donbrothers VS Avataro Sentai Donburis” was ahead of it, but Fukuzawa’s work in “Geats” was released sooner.

Takebe: We actually asked him to do this first, too. We had already decided to ask him at some point, so we told him that he should watch “Geats”. Director Nakazawa was always saying, “I’d like to see some Fukuzawa episodes,” too. I’ve worked with Director Fukuzawa, him being a director and action director in the Super Sentai series for many years, and I’ve seen his talent up close, so I believe he was confident that he could create something interesting. And if he was not in charge (as action director) of Donbrothers next, he would have had more time in his schedule to shoot.

Takishima: When you listen to the stories from the cast, it was like a completely different way of direction. Things like, “Try doing this kind of stance.” I think this movement-based acting approach was refreshing for them as well.

Takishima: When you listen to the stories from the cast, it was like a completely different way of direction. Things like, “Try doing this kind of stance.” I think this movement-based acting approach was refreshing for them as well.

Takebe: In my personal experience, I still like the episodes when people like Directors (Osamu) Kaneda and (Hiroshi) Butsuda were able to join in during “Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters” (2012), but those were directors that made the best of their backgrounds in action or special effects direction. Director Kaneda’s foundational way of thinking is that “acting is also action”, and that was reflected in his direction, so when Fukuzawa did it this time, I wasn’t worried at all, and if anything I was looking forward to it. It was impressive how much more adult-like it was than I expected. Even though Fukuzawa really excels at it, we couldn’t spend much time on action, and I’m sorry about that.

Takishima: It was one where the characters were talking to each other a lot more than usual.

Takebe: I think it was difficult for all of the lead cast members to gather in episodes 35-36, even though it was a new director in the second half.

Takishima: He was originally a player (suit actor) too. He said that he didn’t stop many shots while they were happening because he understands what it’s like to be playing the roles. That way it’s easier to act than if you cut it short. So it’s a longer take than usual, and you have a little more footage to work through.

Takebe: I thought that when I was watching.

Takishima: At the time we did episodes 35-36, the cast had also come to the point where they grasped each of their own roles, so it fit well.

Takebe: More than anything, because he has a career as an action director, he really excels at bringing the set together.

Yoshikawa: The mood was incredibly cheerful on the sets for Fukuzawa’s episodes.

Takishima: Fukuzawa sincerely said, “it’s a good and warm filming set,” but in our point of view, it’s something special of his (Laughs).

Takebe: The assistant director (Koichiro) Hayama and cameraperson Hideko (Takayama) were candidates themselves too since they did Sentai together for his debut, and they helped Fukuzawa with this. The end result was good, and many people said they wanted to see Fukuzawa episodes again, so I’d say it was a success. And of course, Tasaki episodes being Tasaki episodes, the direction in that “Heaven and Hell Game” was great. That was one that Yuya liked doing too. It was an unexpected chance for him to team up with Director Tasaki that had barely happened before now. Only once in Zero-One (episodes 42-43).

Yoshikawa: It was near the end. He did the episode when Izu died from explosion (ep. 42).

TTFC: Director Tasaki also filmed episodes 32-33 of “Zero-One”, but Masaya Kakei wrote the script for those specific episodes.

Takebe: At the time when he was filming for “Geats”, there was a good balance with his work for “Gotchard”, but because Director Tasaki was also doing “Kamen Rider 555 20th Paradise Regained”, announced for this year’s Golden Week, we worried if the timing was right. But it fit into his schedule right after “555” and before “Gotchard”. We wanted Director Tasaki to do at least one set of episodes since he is a person who nurtures cast members.

Yoshikawa: Actually, people like Kan said, “I wanted to work with Director Tasaki more.” At that point in time he had been playing the role of Ace for over half a year, but in Director Tasaki’s episodes he got a lot of new surprises, saying, “Is there anything like the way he does it?”

Takebe: There were four directors who only did one set of episodes—guest directors, so to speak. But we had a rotation beginning with the main director Nakazawa, then to Directors Sugihara, (Takayuki) Shibasaki, and Sakamoto, it was well-balanced. The winter movie was done by Director Shibasaki, and the spin-offs and character song music videos by Sakamoto.

TTFC: It’s amazing that Director Nakazawa is filming one episode, the summer movie, and the final episode.

Yoshikawa: On the contrary, he was in charge of most of the chapter finales, too. Especially in the first half, like with episodes 9 and 10, and 16 and 17. The director said, “I want to do the final episode with another one again” (Laughs).

Takebe: All we can say is, “He’s the main director, that’s how it usually goes” (Laughs). However, he also helped out a lot with making the script. In the summer movie and the final episode, there were quite a few things that were changed based on his opinions. Speaking of the finale, we dared to make the timeline and other parts less straightforward, and that was Director Nakazawa’s idea. “Geats” is fundamentally supposed to be easy to understand, but he thought that, for the final episode, it would be good to leave some of the interpretation up to the viewers, so it turned out as you saw.

Takishima: The preparatory meeting with the director for the final episode was after the one for the movie’s music.

Takebe: The last episode to return to the TV series before the movie was also getting the finishing touches, and there were many close calls, but I think we were progressing relatively easily at that point in the year. We took care of our schedule, anyway. I’m glad to some extent that we saved up money in the early part. (Tsuyoshi) Miyazaki had already joined as action director for the winter movie, and thinking about the progress of the TV series, I thought it would be difficult for Fujita to cover the movie. Of course, Fujita was inserted into the winter movie when he could do it, and I strongly asked him to be in the summer movie for “Geats”. As long as you’re doing that kind of work, it won’t be easy, but still, there was a sense that he was doing as much as possible “so that everyone can be happy.” Actually, Producer (Taku) Mochizuki also stuck with “Revice”, and it seemed like a lot of things improved as the year went on. While getting handed the reins, improving dramatically was difficult, but he tried to improve little by little. If you pay attention, there are cases where the situation gets gradually worse for a project, so… The schedule stabilized as we tried to prevent that from happening, so we made it all the way to the end while taking as many break days from filming as possible.

Forward III: The Assistant Producers’ Work

Takebe: Thinking about both Sentai and Rider, Rider has a storied history, but Sentai is longer (having had more continuous entries), so a lot has been established in its system. Beginning with the event planner 104, there is a large number of staff that have been continuously involved since old times on the Sentai side. However, Rider still isn’t there. It’s a characteristic of Rider to have our work change depending on the season. Changes in staff are also frequent, and we have things where the work doesn’t flow automatically. So, Takishima, since this is your first time with Rider, you must have been bewildered, right? There are probably more things that an AP (assistant producer) has to think about and do than with Sentai.

Takishima: That’s right. But I also like working on the small things, so I’m fine with just doing that, unless it seems like I’m always doing it (Laughs). Really, I can’t go that way either.

Takebe: This year the first thing at the back of the script was a table for the Riders who appeared that time, and the person who did that was Takishima.

TTFC: Indeed. From a perspective like ours, that was very helpful too.

Takebe: I think it was quite difficult. But it was very much needed. If new models were involved, “There are new models!” was written in red letters like a price tag. Having that kind of thing in the scripts became common for the whole staff to do.

Takishima: Onsite work is always moving from the current production to preparation for the next production, and so on. So even orders for small props can be irregularly left out sometimes. Accidentally falling into the mindset of “I think someone else will do it” is bad, so I tried to move it along, or to ask the supervisors to decide ahead of time too. I might have been a little pushy, I guess.

Takebe: But I think that was fairly helpful on the sets.

Takishima: Sentai has changed a lot, especially in these last few years, and there are many new components that seem to overturn the series’ traditions, but we have a scheme that’s been developed over decades of kaijin and demon attacks, so to some extent I think we can still handle those changes. For example, when we say “the next episode is a filler episode”, they say, “alright, a filler episode”, or rather, the things that seem necessary get prepared one after another before doing bi-uchi (preparatory meetings for art) (Laughs). I guess those sorts of things are different from Rider after all.

Takebe: On the opposite side, the quantity of form changes and the like is special to Rider. There aren’t many of those in Sentai.

Takishima: Right. Anyway, for myself, although I wonder “is it good that I did this much?”, a big part of myself is happy that I did so.

Takebe: You also wrote the letters. Kyuun’s letters.

Takishima: That was my writing too, I wondered if it was alright…

Takebe: But weren’t there auditions within the staff to write the letters?

Yoshikawa: Yes. I failed it (Laughs).

Takebe: I asked Takishima to do most of the work that needed to be done by a deadline or that needed to be done as quickly as possible. From there, what was assigned to Yoshikawa was now done by Takishima. You’re already doing it all by yourself!

Takishima: No, not at all… I’d like to thank Bandai’s design team too. Especially (Takato) Yamashita (Plex), who made Geats’s design, was great to work with. He responded quickly every time, even to the small requests.

Takebe: He has excellent taste. With the sheer number of Kamen Riders, they were always able to design them to be differentiated without fail.

TTFC: How about you, Yoshikawa? Please talk about what you noticed or felt as you shifted to working “behind-the-scenes”.

Yoshikawa: First of all, I’ve interacted with many more people involved with making the show… Of course, I knew many staff members who came in when I was on the acting side as well. But I didn’t concretely know what kind of work those people were doing at that point. More than that, there are also a lot of staff who aren’t present while filming. There are many great people that just work in post-production, as well as the people at Bandai and Plex that I just talked about, and (Takayuki) Taketani who designs the Jyamato… There are the famous lines “Nothing’s happening in the conference room! It’s at the filming set!” (Laughs), but all of the staff members that don’t come to the set put passion and love into the work, too. I don’t think I’ve met all of them personally yet. I tried to keep that in mind for the young people in the main cast because I have that knowledge. Of course, I think they are thankful for everything that the staff provides, but they come to take it for granted when they spend so much time in the same place. However, aren’t, for example, the actors who don’t properly insert (memorize) their lines just as troublesome as staff members who forget the filming equipment? When I realized that kind of thing, I tried to convey it.

Takebe: It’s because our company’s staff is all so kind. They all care about the actors a great deal, and they even do things normally done by assistants, but they don’t mind. But the reality is that not all places are like that (Laughs), so I don’t want the younger newcomers there to get the misconception that this is the standard. They’re the ones who will lose out in the distant future. I asked Yoshikawa to listen to their conversations, especially the young men. Because he’s close in age to them, his past experience (as a child actor) can be put to good use. He deeply communicated with them, especially with Kan. He gave them movie recommendations too.

Yoshikawa: Kan was very eager. There were times where we’d talk on the phone late into the night. He’d tell me, “I still don’t know how I’m supposed to perform this part in the script for the scene we’re filming tomorrow.” Still, I wonder if he found it difficult to listen to the directors at the same time. I don’t know how helpful I was to him… One day he couldn’t understand his own acting and said, “Yoshikawa, do you have time later today?”, and I went along with him to dinner. Regarding the movie recommendations that Ms. Takebe talked about, he made sure to watch them, and told me his own thoughts about them. In addition, he said things like “When this scene happens, I don’t really get the meaning of that actor’s performance”, and I responded, “These event happened, so that’s why they have that expression!”, and he responded, “I see,” immediately writing a note on his phone. Since he had little acting experience, he was eager to try and take in as much as he could.

Takebe: I’m glad you feel that way. This isn’t about anyone in particular, but today’s young generation doesn’t read books a lot. Personally, I think their way of reading the script also changes when you get them intimate with printed text.

Yoshikawa: That’s right. Because “moved to tears” is written in stage directions, you will read that and cry while acting, but the truth is it’s more important to think about why the character is crying while playing the role.

Takishima: In that area, for example when it is Director Tasaki he’s asking the actors themselves, “Right now, what feeling are you hitting with?” or “Why are you gesturing by raising your right hand?”, and he makes them think about it. After all, if you’re not reading the script, you’re going to move without knowing why. The newcomers start thinking about that going forward, and they develop little by little.

Takebe: Rider and Sentai have expressed “schools” in their sets often, but truly, we teach that kind of thing and have them study it. Of course we also include manners and fundamentals…

[ikemenomegas]

Too cute

so my cats do this thing where they will groom each other, nap a bit, then start snapping at each other until they have a chase around the house

It was really difficult to cull this list, so I chose ones that seemed fun or obvious from my character list. The experience illuminated the separation and overlap between whumpable characters and ones you want to mess up with your own hands oop.

▷∥ Jihyun (V), Alucard, Joanne Harcourt, Kunikida, Dazai, Jōno, Sasuke, Itachi, Obito, Haku, Jiaoqiu, Sunday, Lucio, Asra, Yoshida

now, this list looks deceptively short, but as a vertical post is excruciatingly long. hopefully there's something for everyone, below the cut!

🐊 read until the end for a few extra treats🐊

Omegas who elicit cuteness aggression:

Jihyun (V)

Extremely biteable, extremely squishable, much more playful rather than passive after he learns how to put up boundaries. He's especially nice to overstimulate because he gets wriggly and does a particularly weird thing where he chirps at you, like calling you, and yes, it is very sweet because it's like a reassurance thing, but also it's a bit silly how it gets faster and more frequent the most overstimulated he is. He does overlap quite strongly with a whump factor. He is very pretty when he cries and when he behaves gently or pitifully this makes him even more biteable. Pounce on him. Nicely.

Alucard

Blonde goth sad boy aesthetic, especially with the season 4(?) outfit, makes you want to hug him. Harder. Harder!!! Squeeze him hard!! Luckily, he's very durable and tolerates this with good grace. Biting is interesting because of the whole vampire thing, which I like to think is mutually erotic if you both bite one another. He develops a bit of a degradation thing at some point, and he'll get cute and bratty if you tease him about being a needy little thing, letting you punish or goad him into compliance. He also has overlap with the whump part of the venn diagram but probably don't squish him when he's actually feeling down. Measure out the cuteness aggression by kissing him lots, it'll make you and him feel better.

Joanne Harcourt (before anyone gets stupid, when I talk about Joanne Harcourt he is of course aged up, having survived having the Earl Phantomhive as a friend and hopefully graduated from fantasy Eton little worse for wear)

Joanne gets overwhelmed easily, and whines and trembles when he is. It is exceedingly cute. Tall and willowy with a shy demeanor, luminous eyes, and lightly wind-blushed cheeks (oxford commas!), Joanne is a true English-rose of an omega in traditional high collars and never caught without gloves. If you want to be the one to mess him up with your own hands, you have to be a little bit willing to growl at other alphas who want to do the same but won't take responsibility for it. However, Joanne doesn't carry a strong "whump" factor. He mostly seems to elicit pity and protective instincts when he interacts with the worse part of Phantomhive's magic nonsense, or the underbelly of London.

Kunikida

I never said acting on cuteness aggression is smart with every omega. The first time you finally give in and just... nibble on him, I think Kunikida would start yelling "ouch, what was that for, what a degenerate alpha doing this where anyone can see" yadda yadda, etc etc, honestly a total diva about it, okay maybe you feel a tiny bit guilty, but that is what you love about him. He has a cranky old man attitude, no filter, and a tsundere demeanor that absolutely doesn't land with everyone, but it's extremely funny to make him mad, you get why Dazai does it, and in your case the more he puffs like a done kettle, the more you want to pin him down and make him yell more (he yells after you leave him covered in marks too 😈, it's a shame you're too tired from making them to do more)

Megumi

Triggers cuteness aggression and is just aggressive rip. Snappish, sullen, extremely shy when he reciprocates romantic affection (because it means confronting feelings besides justified irritation and righteous anger and self-effacement). You'd think he'd have Sasuke energy but he's more grumbly than outright lowkey hateful to individuals but does occasionally exhibit some like, aggressive puppy behavior, including the "gets tired and just lays tummy-up on the floor". He's also a little bit used to it. His... Gojo, Gojo's alpha, his sister's friends (Tsumiki knows him too well to be taken in most of the time), Yuuji, Maki... you get it. It's that cute face and "you can't make me admit I like attention" that draws everyone.

Sasuke

Unlike his glass doll of a brother, Sasuke can take some roughhousing and is used to it... from his brother, but also from Shisui and some other cousins/mentors (more on this later). He's sort of resigned to it when he first realizes his alpha is sneaking in some extra squishing or nibbling (as long as it's not so visible it ruins his image). Later though, he starts to expect it and will pout mightily if you don't roughhouse with him extoling both his behavioral and physical delights. This happens the first time during a heat and he is ruthless after, due to being thoroughly embarrassed. When you tone it down to give him time to calm down... he gets petty. Don't you think he's cute anymore! Why aren't you pinching his thighs or his butt when he walks by, why don't you "sneak" up behind him and burry your face in his shirt! Thus comes a rare moment of him sitting on your lap when you're reading and intentionally being cute and putting your hand on his legs to tell you to get on with it again.

Jiaoqiu

The first thing is he makes cute sounds. When he yawns it's like a kitten or a puppy yawning. If you rub his ears or massage behind them, he can make this high-pitched sighing sound that is so cute it literally can flatten someone. The second thing is that his fur parts are so soft he has to scold you for touching him too much/all the time, squeezing too hard like a rambunctious pup. If you look pathetic about it, he will show you how to grab him in ways that are not uncomfortable (and my even lead to something else 😉). The third thing is he is cute when he is cooking (or making medicine but we have to have some self-control). He hums to himself and shuffles in place like he's dancing when he's cooking, and he's so happy when something tastes good. He doesn't cry but super spicy things still make him look uncomfortable and there's something to be said for having to baby him while he's enjoying the pain.

Sunday

He is typically so stiff and anxious it is very difficult to find him doing anything interesting enough to be considered cute, unless you clock this behavior as just really strange and then it becomes sad because it's to do with the collision of personality and upbringing making him really scared to make a "wrong" move. This isn't the part that inspires cuteness aggression. When he finally loosens up (literally, like his tie isn't tight enough to choke him anymore if he's not keeping perfect posture), that's when this show of trust and vulnerability inspires a slightly unfortunate urge to do to him what you cannot reasonably do to small, cute animals. His alpha feel really badly the first time they leave bruises from grabbing his thighs far too hard. Sunday is scared by the cognitive dissonance of his sculpted persona not being the kind of person to let his happen and the marks being result of an unguardedness that felt so good it feels wrong now that he's out of that headspace. It takes a lot of work both with and without a partner to for him to accept the natural messiness of intimacy.

Levi

Oh boy, another grumpy old man. At this point, I think it's to do with my tastes, but I won't apologize for it! Personally, I find the grumpiness cute, like with a grumpy cat. Rbf-disgruntled Levi is just a cute Levi (can be drawn in for some mutual snarking if in public, otherwise just be near him so he's not awkward and alone), a sleepy Levi is a cute Levi (that needs your shoulder as a pillow stat). He's not so cute when he's dressing down a cadet who nearly took another cadet's head off but at least that's not you because Levi has a competency kink. He has this very alert yet relaxed, dare I say perky, way of walking when you tidy your shared spaces to his satisfaction, it makes his butt look very cute and he kind of knows it. Mostly he's the target of cuteness aggression when you're being intimate together. His face just makes you want to bite him and touch him and make him cry more, he needs to fall apart and let you take care of everything.

Omegas with cuteness aggression:

Dazai

He's someone who makes you want to mess him up. Those big pouty eyes, and soft, mischievous mouth, the lanky clumsiness all puts ideas in your head all too easily. However, your impulse absolutely pales compared to his. Dazai is someone who goes above and beyond the simply "want to bite, want to squeeze, want to pinch" of cuteness aggression (see exhibit A, blowing up an old partner he has complex feelings for's car). He isn't destructive with his Alpha, but he isn't above tricking them into situations he will find them cute or responding in a cute way. Innocent methods include trying on cute accessories and going extra cute cafes so his alpha get excited about the food. Less innocent methods include getting himself used as ransom or putting you in a situation where you experience other emotional upheaval (with a suitable catharsis of course).

Obito (and Tobi)

I mean, you had to see this coming, right? The jokester with a savior complex, ridiculously devoted to the people he loves, puts them on a pedestal. Of course he has moments where he thinks his alpha is the cutest thing in the world. And then there's this itch in his teeth that can't be satisfied by anything except for biting, or wrestling, pushing, shoving, play fighting. A non-massacre Obito tones it down a littlem but he's well known to simply enjoy cute things, small animals, sweet old people, butterflies. No one's surprised that he chooses an alpha who matches this aesthetic sensibility of his. He has ADHD so bad (basically as bad as Naruto) and one of the things he hyper-focuses on is his mate, to the point he'll have something similar to Kakashi vs Guy level fights around the village where his blood is pounding, he keeps looking behind him, grinning like mad because isn't his alpha just perfect, so cute how they can't catch him yet, that focused look on their face, ah, that's a clone, the real one's on his left. They've got him and he's got them.

Jōno

Are all of these omegas a little scary?! Scary pretty husbands. Yes. A rarer but no less beloved breed. It doesn't matter than Jōno can't see you, since he can sense changes in your moods and hear everything (rip to your privacy when he's curious). He finds it extremely cute when his alpha is flustered, if his alpha laughs quietly and no one but him can tell they think something is funny, if his alpha gets irritated by people being rude and uses their skills to fix the problem (or even if they just grit their teeth and bear it to preserve decorum), if his alpha does silly things like stockpile way too much of a favorite snack when it's on sale... He knows some of it's silly, but apparently silly is what love makes you. His version of cuteness aggression ranges from saying he wants you to guide him and mushing himself against your side and grabbing your arms too tight to fantasizing about living his life as a vapor so that he can literally sink into your lungs and tissues. He knows this is abnormal, but so is a lot about him, so he keeps these thoughts mostly to himself and limits himself to using very small parts of himself (mostly with permission) or just pressing himself as tightly to your body as possible.

Itachi

Itachi also elicits cuteness aggression, but his reaction outweighs his alpha's and he also gets overwhelmed with others offering those kinds of outbursts at him so he prefers his alpha not to do it [too aggressively]. His cuteness aggression = his feral kitten energy showing. It started with Sasuke. Itachi finds Sasuke unutterably adorable. However, itach is also very reserved and has limited attention to dispense to others, so apart from holding Sasuke all the time when he was a baby and later finding that his hands sort of clench and his teeth ache when his alpha does something very attractive (mitigated by his shuffling closer and perhaps tugging their sleeve so they scent him thoroughly and make him melty and too weak to do anything silly), he never acts on it. Even when he knows what the feeling is, it's mildly disturbing for him to be hit with a destructive urge directed at someone infinitely precious to him, so he mostly attempts to resist it. He's happy enough with a pillow to make biscuits upon if you give it to him (but he'll also be happy to do something like suck on your fingers).

Haku

Haku has a strong affinity for dark mischief and the attitude that necessity is a good excuse for any course of action. He has no qualms about an urge to squeeze his alpha until their bones creak or shaking them until they're dizzy or gnawing on them while they pat his head or biting at their neck and chest and scratching them silly until even they struggle or, or.... okay better calm down now. Sometimes his mate catches him staring at them with this rather intense look, smiling, leaning his head on his hand. Every time you ask him what he's thinking about, he says something that is either nonsensical, or simply distracting like how he spotted a bird in the plants behind you, or something embarrassing about how much he appreciates you, or some other compliment. It's disarming because he's a teeny tiny bit concerned you'll be taken aback by what's in his head. It's better to fantasize anyway where reality cannot bridge the gap.

Lucio

Lucio has a really bad case of cuteness aggression, and he's both obnoxious and loud about it. He's also kind of a wimp though so it comes across more like his typical bratting behavior and is pretty easy to turn the tables on him. Unlike some of the others, this doesn't quiet his mind and get him to back off but makes him more aggressive. If you get him into a spare room or a dark corner, or even his room since somehow the count doesn't do any counting, trying to deal with him, he just gets mouthier and mouthier until the exertion catches up with him and the energy is all worked out. He'll openly say whatever he is thinking. To others, if they were to hear, it may seem a bit scary, but his alpha treats him more like one of his big hounds, ruffling his hair, tickling his tummy, and his teeth aren't so sharp for them.

Asra

I'm pretty sure he engages in some behavior drawn from this emotion in the game. Asra's icon is a fox and his familiar is a snake, he loves twisty puzzles and causing an innocent amount of trouble. Sometimes you catch him digging his fingers into his scarf or bag and staring at you, his lovely eyes practically predatory. He's entirely unrepentant about it. Biting his alpha is something he portions out, lest they get used to it, because the cute, surprised yelp is part of the charm. His cuteness aggression is primarily contained within his thoughts, during which he will just sit happily or wriggle around in a stack of pillows while thinking about the cute things his alpha has done.

Yoshida

He already "liked" Denji so much he ***** and helped ****** and got him*******, it might be scarier to see what he does to someone he loves. Octopi often cannibalize their mates too, as he frequently reminds you when he starts nibbling on you while you're still knotted together. Yoshida is very good at blending in, remaining just the right amount of visible, but with his alpha, he likes to flirt, to fluster, to make them slightly embarrassed or knock them off balance. He likes to cling and suck bruises on your skin, mostly for him, but it's nice when someone who's looking sees it and gets secondhand embarrassment, especially when his alpha mostly looks shy and a bit pleased, like he's given them an amethyst or ruby or a mother-of-pearl to wear rather than just a bruise.

Honorable mentions:

Fukuzawa and Akutagawa both inspire semi-infrequent bouts of cuteness aggression. Fukuzawa usually tolerates his alpha's with good grace, although he feels a bit cornered if you're loud about it out of doors, he is deliciously quiet, if that's a turn-on for anyone. If you try and bite Akutagawa without warning... you'll end up being very grateful for his good reflexes. He doesn't like it much. He's afraid he'll hurt you so probably don't startle him, okay?

Satoru has a mild case of cuteness aggression, but he isn't used to touching people, so he mainly acts annoying about it when he finds you cute. Sometimes he'll yank you in and rub his cheek on you, but it's all an act, usually to put some nosey omega off. Shisui can be an abominable menace in the same vein, eating with his eyes and storing away every memory of anything that endears him since he's unused to contact not associated with either family or violence. Before he's comfortable, he'll do it the same way, too possessive to let the one he wants completely go, but knowing he can't flaunt a claim he doesn't have with anymore more substantial than his presence. Satoru occasionally does something so cute his alpha wants to run at his screaming to bite his throat, but he usually ruins it by saying something stupid. The same impulse in Shisui's alpha scares him so he does the same, redirecting them, once by giving them a literal chew toy, which was a very low moment for their ego.

Aventurine likes to annoy people he finds fascinating. It wasn't always this way, but he likes to give real excuse to people he's worried won't like him, rather than have them hate him for his eyes or his blood or his money or his unattainability or his slutty waist or any of a dozen other things he hardly has control over. When he finally is interested in an alpha, the interest is both irritating and endearing (for him). When he finds them cute, there several layers of panic suddenly embedded under that feeling, under that desire. This ratchets his emotions up high enough that suddenly he wants you small enough to squeeze in his palms, wants to strangle you with pearls, wants you studded with emeralds and sapphires and rubies like they'd made up a stained-glass window you crashed through. The world made sure he was perfectly capable of very visceral violence and he has a very good memory. He bares his teeth in the mirror and sees if he can scare you off so he can stop worrying about this new vulnerability.

Toge lives daily with the knowledge that opening his mouth could hurt his mate very badly, a fact which easily lends itself to intrusive thoughts. He could make them do anything, embarrass them by demanding cute but embarrassing behaviors, command them to stop breathing unless they're looking at him, tell them come to me and see how far they'll go to do so, beg them to put their mouth on him just so he can see that adorable, glassy-eyed looked they get when they taste him for long enough. In some ways they're nice fantasies, where he has a voice he's able to use, where the danger sealed inside him is dangerous but also, not really because it's not his mate, it's a figment of his imagination. When he sees his mate do something cute, habit denies him, but his chest aches to say something but saying anything normal could have unbearable consequences. Sometimes, when his mate catches him in the midst of these daydreams, it helps him to just squeeze them hard and purr, making some kind of noise that tells them how he really feels.

[koishiro]

< 𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅ moodboards 𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅

𝓂𝓊𝓁𝓉𝒾𝒻𝒶𝓃𝒹ℴ𝓂 .ᐟ‪‪‬ [cw: afab!reader]

3rd moodboard mlist here .ᐟ‪‪‬

.HAIKYU!!.

— # 𝒽𝒶𝒾𝓀𝓎𝓊.ᐟ‪‪.ᐟ‪‪‬𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating kenma kozume 💌 📓♫₊˚.🎧 ✩｡☕︎

Dating kei tsukishima 💌 ☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★

Dating tobio kageyama 💌 ‧₊˚ 🍮 ⋅ ☆

Dating keiji akaashi 💌 ⋆ ☄︎.·˚ * 🔭

Dating satori tendo 💌 𖦹⋆彡🫧꩜♪⋆

Dating yu nishinoya 💌 ₊ ⊹ ᰔ

Dating ryūnosuke tanaka 💌 🏀 ౨ৎ .⋆☾⋆

Dating koshi sugawara 💌 💭.ᐟ 𖦹°‧★

Dating suna rintaro 💌 ₊˚ʚ 🌱 ₊˚✧ ﾟ.

Dating toru oikawa 💌 ᯓᝰ.ᐟ

Dating kuroo testurō 💌 ⋆♱✮♱⋆

.BLUE LOCK.

— # 𝒷𝓁𝓁𝓀 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

.CHAINSAW MAN.

— # 𝒸𝓈𝓂 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating aki hayakawa 💌 ₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.

Dating aki hayakawa pt.2 💌 💋⋆˙ᝰ.ᐟ

Dating yoshida hirofumi 💌 ᐟᐟ☆ ﾟ.

Dating kishibe 💌 […coming soon] ☕︎ ₊˚ ⋅☕️ 𐙚

.ATTACK ON TITAN.

— # 𝒶ℴ𝓉 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating levi ackerman 💌 ✧˖°.

Dating eren jeager 💌 ‧₊˚ 🍮 ⋅ ☆

Dating erwin smith 💌 […coming soon] ｡⋆°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Dating jean kirstein 💌 […coming soon] ᐟᐟ☆🗒️💭.ᐟ

Dating armin arlert 💌 ⋆ ☄︎.·˚ * 🔭

.GENSHIN IMPACT.

— # ℊℯ𝓃𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃 𝒾𝓂𝓅𝒶𝒸𝓉 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating neuvillette 💌 ˚˖𓍢ִִ໋🌊🦈˚˖𓍢ִ✧˚.

Dating alhaitham 💌 ༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚˖𓍢ִ໋🦢˚

Dating xiao 💌 ｡⋆୨୧˚

Dating zhongli 💌

Dating diluc ragnvindr 💌

Dating kaeya alberich 💌 […coming soon]

.HONKAI STAR RAIL.

— # 𝒽𝓈𝓇 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating jing yuan 💌 ᡣ𐭩 *.ﾟ

Dating blade 💌 🗡️⋆ ⊹˚ ⚔️⋆˙⟡₊ ⊹

Dating sunday 💌 ˚ ༘ ౨ৎ⋆｡˚

Dating aventurine 💌 ʚ ✮ ɞ

Dating aventurine pt.2 💌

Dating boothill 💌

Dating boothill pt.2 💌 […coming soon]

.THE CASE STUDY OF VANITAS.

— # 𝓉𝒸𝓈𝓋 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating noe archiveste 💌 ₍𐙚ᐢ..ᐢ₎

Dating vanitas 💌

.DEMON SLAYER.

— # 𝓀𝓃𝓎 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating obanai iguro 💌 🐰ྀི

Dating obanai iguro pt.2 💌 […coming soon]

Sanemi Shinazugawa 💌

Dating gyomei himejima 💌 […coming soon]

.DEATH NOTE.

— # 𝒹𝓃 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating l lawliet 💌 ᯓ ° ᡣ𐭩 . ° .ᯓ

Dating mello 💌

Dating misa amane 💌

.ALICE IN BORDERLAND.

— # 𝒶𝒾𝒷 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating kuina 💌

Dating banda sunato 💌

Dating shuntaro chishiya 💌

Dating shuntaro chishiya pt.2 💌

.KUROKO NO BASUKE.

— # 𝓀𝓃𝒷⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating aomine daiki 💌

.HUNTER X HUNTER.

— # 𝒽 𝓍 𝒽 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating kuropika 💌

Dating illumi zoldyck 💌

.TOTAL DRAMA ISLAND.

— # 𝓉𝒹𝒾 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating gwen 💌 ⊹ ࣪ ˖

Dating Alejandro Burromuerto 💌 […coming soon] 𓍢ִ໋🍓͙͛ ๋࣭

.BUNGO STRAY DOGS.

— # 𝒷𝓈𝒹 𝓂ℴℴ𝒹𝒷ℴ𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓈⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Dating fukuzawa yukichi 💌

Dating fyodor

[halaxia]

✩ ‧₊˚ ✩。 request rules !

please refer to these before requesting anything as if the request doesn’t abide by these rules then i won’t be writing it, thank you!!!

please specify the gender pronouns you would like for me to use and if you would like nsfw to be afab reader or not—otherwise, i will write requests for a gender-neutral reader :)

not what you were looking for?

— what i won’t write :

- rape, noncon, etc.

- smut (i’m bad at it)

- incest

- male!reader

- any kinks including intense physical/mental harm

- eating disorders

- pregnancy/miscarriage

- yandere

— what i will write :

- pretty much anything else lol

- suggestive content

- fem!reader, gn!reader, afab!reader

- suicidal themes (not overly graphic)

- fluff, angst, dark content (as long as it abides by the rules above)

- alternate universes

thank you for reading :)

— who i write for :

this list is changing often—if you don’t see a character here you would like to request, shoot me and ask and i’ll let you know if i’ll write them or not :) (bolded characters are who i enjoy writing the most)

attack on titan

╰┈➤ eren yeager, levi ackerman, jean kirschtein, connie springer, armin arlert, bertholdt hoover, reiner braun, porco galliard.

bleach

╰┈➤ kurosaki ichigo, abarai renji, kuchki byakuya, hisagi shuhei, urahara keisuke, uryu ishida, shihoin yoruichi, aizen sosuke, ayasegawa yumichika, ichimaru gin, ukitake jushiro, hirako shinji, kira izuru, ulquiorra cifer, grimmjow jaegerjaquez.

bungo stray dogs

╰┈➤ dazai osamu, akutagawa ryunosuke, fukuzawa yukichi, nakajima atsushi, edogawa ranpo, nakahara chuuya.

chainsaw man

╰┈➤ hayakawa aki, denji, power, hirofumi yoshida.

demon slayer

╰┈➤ kamado tanjiro, uzui tengen, rengoku kyojuro, tomioka giyuu, iguru obanai.

final fantasy vii

╰┈➤ cloud strife, sephiroth

jojo’s bizarre adventure

╰┈➤ joseph joestar, caesar zepelli, kujo jotaro, kakyoin noriyaki, higashikata josuke, kishibe rohan, jolyne kujo.

jujutsu kaisen

╰┈➤ geto suguru, gojo satoru, fushiguro megumi, fushiguro toji, itadori yuji, inumaki toge, okkotsu yuta, nanami kento, mahito, kamo choso, higuruma hiromi, shiu kong.

my hero academia

╰┈➤ dabi, shigaraki tomura, hawks, shoto aizawa, todoroki shoto.

obey me!

╰┈➤ lucifer, mammon, asmodeus, leviathan, beelzebub, belphegor, satan, barbatos, simeon, soloman.

one piece live action

╰┈➤ roronoa zoro, sanji, shanks, luffy

spy x family

╰┈➤ loid forger.

the disastrous life of saiki k

╰┈➤ saiki kusuo, kaido shun, kuboyasu aren.

tokyo ghoul

╰┈➤ kaneki ken, nagachika hideyoshi, nishio nishiki.

vinland saga

╰┈➤ thorfinn, canute.

[almightyrayzilla]

”Gamera vs Iris”; two 5x7 panel canvases; acrylics

Some more painting in anticipation of All Monsters Attack and guests Hirofumi Fukuzawa and Akira Ohashi, who portrayed Gamera and Iris, respectively, in GAMERA 3!

Also, you read that right - these are actually TWO 5x7 canvases! While I have done this before, I had never done so with painting, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

[mo-ok]

Juken Gattai GekiTohja 🤖 RoboTalk Time 🤖

things that are great about GekiTohja:

despite being huge and powerful it moves with such graceful ease and agility. it fights how you'd expect three synced up martial arts students to fight. hands down the most memorable robot suit performance (thank you Hirofumi Fukuzawa)

the robot and the rangers moving in the same way is very satisfying to watch (the fight choreo as a whole is a shininig strong point for gekiranger)

the animal upgrades all offered a nice spin (haha) on the robots toy gimmick while ALSO adding to character growth and developing the shows central theme of learning

it has such a sweet little face???????? with its big ol kitty cat helmet and lil clawed gauntlets?????????????????? perfect. thank you

i've never had a problem with some components of the robot being bigger than others and imo the uneven design works very well here. it makes sense to have Ran and Retsu as the legs supporting the hulking Jan torso

i personally think Bae's fight commentary is delightful. i have a very strong sense of kinship with the fly

shout out stompy baby gekitohja wolf

[setsunasbabe]

☆ FANDOMS/CHARACTERS I WRITE FOR

*•. anime .•*

my hero academia:: denki kaminari, katsuki bakugo, shoto todoroki, ochako uraraka, kyouka jirou, momo yaoyoruzu, izuku midoriya, tenya iida, eijirou kirishima, hanta sero, nejire hado, tamaki hamajiki, himiko toga, setsuna tokage, sen kaibara, juzo honenuki, kinoko komori, itsuka kendo, tetsutetsu tetsutetsu, keigo takami, toya todoroki, rumi usagiyama, moe kamiji, kaina tsutsumi, yu takeyama, shino sosaki

attack on titan:: jean kirstein, mikasa ackerman, eren jaeger, armin arlert, annie leonhart, reiner braun, sasha braus, hitch dreyse, bertholdt hoover, pieck finger, porco galliard, colt grice, levi ackerman, hange zoe, historia reiss, ymir, onyakopon

jujutsu kaisen:: megumi fushiguro, yuuji itadori, nobara kugisaki, yuuta okkotsu, maki zenin, toge inumaki, kirara hoshi, kinji hakari, mai zenin, momo nishimiya, noritoshi kamo, kasumi miwa, kokichi muta, suguru geto, satoru gojo, shoko ieiri, utahime iori, choso kamo, hajime kashimo, yuki tsukumo, hirumi higuruma

demon slayer:: inosuke hashibara, zenitsu agatsuma, kanao tsuyuri, genya shinazugawa, giyuu tomioka, shinobu kocho, mitsuri kanroji, iguro obanai, sanemi shinazugawa, tengen uzui, makio uzui, hinatsuru uzui, suma uzui, kyojuro rengoku, tamayo, akaza, aoi kanzaki

haikyuu:: tooru oikawa, hajime iwaizumi, issei matsukawa, takahiro hanamaki, daichi sawamura, koushi sugawara, asahi azumane, yu nishinoya, ryunosuke tanaka, tobio kageyama, shoyo hinata, tadashi yamaguchi, kei tsukishima, keiji akaashi, koutaro bokuto, wakatoshi ushijima, eita semi, taichi kawanishi, tsutomu goshiki, hayato yamagata, rintaro suna, aran ojiro, osamu miya, atsumu miya, akira kunimi, kiyoomi sakusa, tetsuro kuroo, kenma kozume, morisuke yaku, yutaro kindaichi, keishin ukkai, kiyoko shimizu, hitoka yachi, komori motoya

tokyo revengers:: keisuke baji, takashi mitsuya, takuya yamamoto, manjiro sano, senju akashi, chifuyu matsuno, rindou haitani, seishu inui, hajime kokonoi, haruchiyo akashi, soya kawata, wakasa imaushi, shinichiro sano, ran haitani, emma sano, yuzuha shiba, takeomi akashi, izana kurokawa, ken ryuguji, takemichi hanagaki

bleach:: ichigo kurosaki, rukia kuchiki, orihime inoue, uryuu ishida, rangiku matsumoto, yoruichi shihouin, retsu unohana, shunsui kyoraku, soi fon, kisuke urahara, byakuya kuchiki, renji abarai, ulquiorra schiffer, grimmjow jaegerjaquez, shinji hirako, ikkaku madarame, jushiro ukitake, yumichika ayasegawa, shuhei hisagi, izuru kira, szayelaporro granz

bungo stray dogs:: osamu dazai, chuuya nakahara, atsushi nakajima, ryunosuke akutagawa, ranpo edogawa, akiko yosano, fyodor dostoyevsky, sigma, michizo tachihara, tecchou suehiro, doppo kunikida, junichiro tanizaki, gin akutagawa, ichiyo higuchi, lucy montgomery, mark twain, mushitaro oguri, ozaki kouyou, bram stoker, yukichi fukuzawa, sakunosuke oda, ango sakaguchi, margaret mitchell

chainsaw man:: denji, power, aki hayakawa, quanxi, angel devil, asa mitaka, reze, kishibe, kobeni higashiyama, hirofumi yoshida, michiko tendo

blue lock:: rensuke kunigami, yoichi isagi, meguru bachira, hyoma chigiri, reo mikage, seishiro nagi, rin itoshi, sae itoshi, shouei barou, asahi naruhaya, wataru kuon, michael kaiser, alexis ness, ryusei shidou, kenyu yukimiya, zantetsu tsurugi, ikki niko, aoshi tokimitsu, jin kiyora, nijire nanase, ranze kurona, tabito karasu, yo hiori, julian loki, jyubei aryu, oliver aiku, shuto sendo

naruto:: sakura haruno, neji hyuga, rock lee, shikamaru nara, hinata hyuga, temari, ino yamanaka, ten ten, kurenai yuhi, sasuke uchiha, orochimaru

one piece:: nami, vinsmoke sanji, roronoa zoro portgas d. ace, nico robin, vivi nefertari, usopp, trafalgar law, shanks

hunter x hunter:: kurapika kurta, chrollo lucilfer, feitan portor, leorio paradinight, phinks magcub, nobunaga hazama, machi komacine, pakunoda, shizuku murasaki

seraph of the end:: shinoa hiragi, guren ichinose, mikaela hyakuya, yuichiro hyakuya, shinya hiragi, shiho kimizuki, lacus welt, mitsuba sangu, rene simm, shigure yukimi, rika inoue, krul tepes, ferid bathory, mito juujo

*•. cartoons .•*

incoming...

*•. movies .•*

incoming...

*•. shows .•*

incoming...

*•. other .•*

incoming...

dividers by @cafekitsune

>>> navigation

[biomic]

i really can't believe how different the suit actor lineup is. other than ito and fujita none of the usual suspects are in main ranger roles this year. where is my friend ms shimozono. yasuhiro takeuchi has played a main ranger every year save for like three seasons since dairanger in 1993 he has as much claim to the title of mr. super sentai as takaiwa does to rider and he's just NOT HERE?? you're insane

i AM always excited to see newer suit actors get promoted to main roles it's just usually not over half the team

[guster-animations]

Kamen Rider Gotchard Producers Symposium PART 3

part 3 finally! a lot of really interesting information in this one. i’m gonna make a few small changes to parts 1 and 2 after i post this, and then i’ll get started on revice

TOKU TRANSLATION MASTERPOST HERE

again, this is for the henshindex wiki. join today!

Kamen Rider Gotchard: TV Series Conclusion Commemoration Toei Producer Team Special Roundtable (Final Edition)

“Kamen Rider Gotchard” will soon be at its climax!

This year, we are delivering a Toei producer symposium like usual, split into three parts. Continuing from the first and middle volumes last week, this time it is the final volume. The three parts totaled up to an over 30,000-word talk. The participants are, naturally, the producer Yosuke Minato, as well as assistant producers Daigo Matsuura and Kaho Miyashima. In the final volume, they will discuss their three most profoundly memorable “Gotchard” episodes, secret stories from contents made with TTFC, and then curious “future” topics too…?

Act 8: Assistant Producer Harashima’s Top 3

TTFC: By the way, for today’s interview, each of you thought about the 3 episodes you personally have the most profound emotional attachment to… Could I ask you what yours are, Harashima?

Harashima: Third place goes to episode 12, “Runaway Liner! Abyss Rider!”. The one where Sabimaru becomes Kamen Rider Dread. The reasoning behind it was first that action director (Hirofumi) Fukuzawa had also been working as story director, and has shown very fresh direction. Also, I like dirty action as originally shown in Korean films and drama (Laughs).

Matsuura: You’re like that too? (Laughs)

Harashima: I think that in that episode, that roughness was definitely needed, and Fukuzawa made such different action more unrestrained than ever. While I say that I like dirty things, it was a standpoint that had to be adjusted for a children’s program, so I’m also curious about the impact of this portrayal—where so much pain was inflicted on Hotaro—had on everyone in the audience…

Matsuura: But as much as we worried, we were surprised that there wasn’t a strong negative reaction against it. Especially for today’s kids, aren’t they seeing a lot of things like “Demon Slayer” nowadays? I think they’re more used to that kind of expression.

Harashima: That’s right. Then, episodes 9-10 just before that were a school trip. I still felt like there was chitchat around “Chemy searching” as the basic story premise, so I also wondered if it was okay to have a development as serious as possible. But a development like that is just right for “Kamen Rider”. A difference with the Super Sentai series, where teamwork is highly valued, is that in that situation, the protagonist should not bear their pain and suffering alone. I fully understood that in that episode. Because I was a “Kamen Rider beginner” at that time, it’s a very memorable episode in that sense too. To say it more accurately, I really like the course of events through episode 12 and up to Director (Katsuya) Watanabe’s episode 13, “Get Him Back! UFO X Friends Forever!”.

Second place is “Rinne’s Dawn! Transform, Majade!”. Protecting the opponent Atropos, and showing one’s own “decision”, was a single pattern, and Rinne’s actor Reiyo (Matsumoto) showed incredible acting and expressions. In Reiyo’s case, Rinne first awakened in “Kamen Rider The Winter Movie Gotchard and Geats: Operation to Find the Strongest Chemies”, and this episode 19 was another step in her growth. Majade, which Rinne transforms into, has a really good appearance, and it brings back memories of when I watched the “PreCure” series as a kid.

Matsuura: Mr. (Hiroshi) Takagi’s music was amazing again too. It’s sparkling. There are parts unlike Kamen Rider music, but it fit “Gotchard’s” setting wonderfully.

Minato: Matsuura was the one who originally recommended Mr. Takagi.

Matsuura: I knew Mr. Takagi from the work called “Go! Princess PreCure” (2015) which he had composed the music for, and that work’s music was also excellent. Then the music for “Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger” (2018) was wonderfully done. I wanted to work with him sometime. It always becomes difficult to decide which composer to ask, but I’m really glad that I got Gotchard to be done by Mr. Takagi.

Harashima: I felt like the Rinne-related tracks especially had phrases that resonate emotionally with girls. A sparkling feeling that evokes memories of “PreCure” or “Sailor Moon”. Then of course my first-place is Zukyumpire (episodes 22 and 23) (Laughs).

Matsuura: You really don’t waver on that (Laughs).

Harashima: Something we didn’t talk about when it was a subject earlier is that (Akiko) Inoue had been talking about Zukyumpire from the screenplay meeting stage, but Yua (Yamashita) sympathized when she heard at some point that it’s about a girl who was dependent on him and becomes independent. Of course, “Gotchard’s” main character is Hotaro, and the main guest character is Zukyumpire, but I knew Inoue’s stance that she wanted Yua’s portrayal to be important too, being involved with the story, and I learned from that. I especially like episode 23’s final scene. For Yua, the ex-boyfriend Tacchan comes in and says he wants to take Yori back, but Yua can clearly state, “I’ll make my own happiness on my own terms”. Then the background song “Kimi ni Zukyun” is played and the episode ends.

Minato: Yeah, if I’m not mistaken, in the second draft Inoue proposed “Can I add this kind of scene?”, and it was added. It wasn’t in the first draft, and even at the point when it was added, it was a mood of “This might be cut if it’s introduced…”. I think that was at the time that we received the final manuscript, but actually, at that time, there was a scene about the people who got memory-wiped in “Kitchen Ichinose” coming in again, and saying something like, “I feel like I had some kind of amazing dream, but I can’t remember…”. When it became necessary to cut either that scene or Yua’s scene, I asked Inoue, “Which do you want to remain?”, and she wanted Yua’s scene. So I guess Inoue had emotional attachment there too.

Harashima: If it were the “Kitchen Ichinose” scene that was there, it would be a much more comedic ending. That’s fine too, but because we kept Yua’s scene, the relation between Chemy and human progressed a little further. In the beginning with WrestlerG (episode 5) it was nothing but a human and Chemy being separated, but during Zukyumpire it’s already been over 20 episodes, so it’s very good that a depiction was done showing the impact that memories of a Chemy has on a human, like the flower that Yua received from Zukyumpire have been pressed and used as a planner bookmark, and Zukyumpire’s words remaining in Yua’s heart. It becomes an episode with an ending that always feels a little different, and it’s personally moving for me.

Minato: Also, the existence of “Tacchan” was featured in that episode, and in the endgame he’s doing something completely different (Laughs).

Matsuura: He stands out way too much however you think about it… (Laughs).

Harashima: That was originally just decided to be “the ex-boyfriend Tacchan in the last part”, and when I was thinking about what person to cast, Director (Kyohei) Yamaguchi said, “In that case…!”. A “bad-feeling editor” character appeared in Watanabe’s episode 14.

Matsuura: “That guy! With that flashy blond hair!” (Laughs).

Harashima: With Director Yamaguchi saying, “The bad feelings from that time would fit perfectly with Tacchan”, we got Takato Nogami to come back a second time.

Minato: Doing it that way is Director Yamaguchi’s usual practice (Laughs). In “(Avataro Sentai) Donbrothers” too, when the “Old Ninja Man” Ono’s (Takashi Sakakibara) mother came in (Don 32: “Duel Part 2”), he proposed, “Let’s do that person who took a blow from Taro Momoi in Don 18: ‘A Shark’s Blow’!” (Laughs). [note: i haven’t watched donbros]

TTFC: No negligence or missed opportunities (Laughs). You don’t know which character will connect to whom or what style…

Minato: Speaking of casting in “Donbros”, the sudden appearance of a mysterious comedy duo in the Romeo and Juliet episodes (episodes 30-31) was Matsuura’s wrongdoing (Laughs).

Matsuura: Hello, I’m Matsuura, a principal offender (Laughs).

TTFC: Now I’d like to hear about your “Best 3”, Matsuura.

Act 9: Assistant Producer Matsuura’s Top 3

Matsuura: I thought I’d have each episode in my top 3 be by a different scriptwriter. (Keiichi) Hasegawa is the Romeo and Juliet episode we just talked about… (Hiroki) Uchida is episode 24, “Sudden Turn of Events! The Forbidden Steel Rider!”. That’s a compilation episode too.

Minato: It was good, Uchida’s structure. That was wonderful.

Matsuura: And Akiko (Inoue) is episode 40, “Wicked Descent! Three Great Dark Kings”. But a runner-up is the Wheel Malgam episodes (20-21) written by Hasegawa. I’ll touch on that a little bit. Those two episodes’ primary centerpiece was Spanner transforming into Kamen Rider Valvarad for the first time. “Kamen Rider Valvarad’s debut” itself has already appeared as information before, like it was said at the start of this symposium. So, separate from that, I prepared a surprise component in this episode.

[SPOILERS FOR AVATARO SENTAI DONBROTHERS AND KAMEN RIDER FAIZ]

What I came up with there was the development that “Spanner is turned into a Malgam”. We keep coming back to “Donbros”, but it’s because Tsuyoshi Kijino repeatedly becomes a Hitotsu-oni (Laughs). For me, though, the impact of the protagonist of “Kamen Rider 555 (Faiz)” (2003), Takumi Inui, being the Wolf Orphenoch has always stuck with me… During the hon-uchi (preparatory meetings for scriptwriting), I proposed to Hasegawa the idea to match that shock.

[SPOILERS END]

Again, before then, I hadn’t really gotten the chance to work together with Director (Teruaki) Sugihara, so I was very happy to be able to see the visual wonder of Sugihara’s direction.

TTFC: Director Sugihara only did those two episodes in “Gotchard”. I’m looking forward to “Kamen Rider Gavv” from now on.

Matsuura: To follow this— with Hasegawa’s Romeo and Juliet episodes, that was slotted for episodes 30 and 31, and Hasegawa thought that might be the last time an “adolescent drama” could be done in “Gotchard”. At first Hasegawa wanted do a band episode for it.

Minato: That’s right, at first there were discussions that it would be interesting to do something like a band episode somewhere, since Junsei (Motojima) plays the guitar and Kajiki’s actor Amon (Kabe) plays bass.

TTFC: I see. Like, let’s make the best of their special skills?

Minato: Yes. For Hasegawa, there was “the times we can do an adolescent drama” which Matsuura talked about, but actually, we had already decided to begin working on the summer movie after episodes 30 and 31 were written. So, when we returned to the TV series, it was unmistakably nearing the final portion. Taking that into account, we wanted Hasegawa to do what he wanted to there.

Matsuura: A band story sounds interesting, but in practice, a lot of problems will come up with it, like wanting to make a song for that, and not having much time to spare for music practice. That’s a common issue for planning. So, unfortunately, I had to ask to do a different concept. That’s how together we came up with the idea of a school talent show where interesting events occur. I remember various ideas like maybe a concept café or a takoyaki shop. Then, a “play” story appeared, relatively close to the band idea, and Hasegawa was on board with that too. The “transfer student” as a different development in the show was something Hasegawa had been pushing since the band idea. It’s a cliché, but the idea was that a beautiful girl transfers to the school, and it has some sort of effect on Hotaro and Rinne’s relationship. I, as a “cliche-loving man” (Laughs), was very motivated. Immediately, Director Yamaguchi presented Kanon Matsuzawa, who’d appeared as Kei during the V-Cinext “Kamen Rider 555 20th: Paradise Regained”, and she was decided to play the transfer student, Seina Tsukumo. At any rate, it was Hasegawa’s order to have her be an “unmatched beauty”.

TTFC: You mentioned it a while ago, but there was also the surprise appearance of Hirofumi Suzuki and Shinnosuke Takahashi. Tsuyoshi and Sonoza in “Donbrothers”.

Minato: I remember that was decided somewhat suddenly (Laughs).

Matsuura: That’s also a tentative goal. Isn’t there a scene where the drama club president Hajime Mikuriya gives a speech to everyone? Director Yamaguchi said it could be interesting for the audience to get really excited right before then, to more effectively show that everyone is disinterested in the speech. That way, Mikuriya seems more “pathetic”. So we talked about calling in pro comedians, but when I wondered if there were actors who weren’t comedians but could make the same people laugh, I went, “Oh!” (Laughs).

TTFC: The “Super Hero Time” fans were happy too (Laughs).

Matsuura: As the person in charge of the casting, I can’t say I “slacked off” with it… no, it’s not like that! (Laughs) It was also “luck”! (Laughs) It was quite an “unreasonable request”, but I’m very grateful the two of them came and did it happily. Well, even separate from that, I think those Romeo and Juliet episodes were a masterpiece. I myself had a period in school where I was reading a large number of Shakespeare works like “Macbeth” and “Hamlet”, but I once again realized the power of a work that still continues to be read even after 400 years. With this universal appeal, the way that Hasegawa skillfully intertwines the main parts of “Gotchard”, the relationship between Hotaro and Rinne, and other things, was deeply moving. By the way, I might not need to explain it here, but the full version of “Romeo and Juliet” that Hotaro and Rinne performed in can be watched on TTFC, so if you still haven’t seen that, you should definitely do so (Laughs).

TTFC: How about episode 24?

Matsuura: The TenLiner episode. Minato was saying a little of this before— we can make compilation episodes a little loosely, but this one wasn’t like that at all. It was a very well-structured and interesting episode.

Minato: That episode was at the turning point of “Gotchard” in its entirety, so filming-wise, it was the first shot of the new year. We also did bi-uchi (preparatory meetings related to designs) at the end of the year, so we wanted to decrease the staff’s workload. If we did a lot of complicated location scenes at that point, we would definitely end up being overloaded during the New Year holidays. But preventing that wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be (wry laugh).

Matsuura: There are difficult places in that point in production. But what I can say is that it’s just like Uchida to be able to convey the story and items in “Gotchard” as much as possible to everyone in the audience, at that time in the year. It couldn’t have been written if it weren’t him.

Minato: Uchida wrote the compilation episode in “Kamen Rider Revice” too. Where everyone shows the history of their battle to try and restore Hiromi Kadota’s memory. That was done in an interesting way, and honestly, there were parts that showed promising skills.

TTFC: And one more, episode 40. The one where Germain and Gaeliya arrive. And with the existence of the Dark Kings as a “Trinity”, three of them appear.

Matsuura: When I look back on it, Akiko was mostly writing the Dark King characters. She’s writing Germain and Gaeliya’s debut episodes, and Gigist was appearing starting a little while ago, but his first story was when a gorgeous person (Laughs) came in too, and Gigist’s character didn’t really show before then.

Minato: It’s around episodes 32-35. There were parts that I still wanted to stay “mysterious” at that point.

Matsuura: So, it was in the Hopper1 Malgam episodes (36-37) which Akiko wrote that we got to see what Gigist’s character is really like. If I think about what feeling it was written with, the words “understanding all humans” come to mind.

Minato: That was amazing.

Matsuura: Since then, we’ve come to call Lord Gigist “the old man who understands feelings” (Laughs), but there was surprise that “He ended up like that?!”.

Minato: Enemy characters are always hard to make. It turns out that whatever you do, they’ll hold ambitions, and they’re fighting to realize those ambitions. For “Gotchard”, Glion was defeated first, and we worried about how to portray the Dark Kings who would appear after that. This was decided in the structure of “Gotchard” itself, but as an enemy of the always-progressing Hotaro, it’s maybe something about a static existence, or to say it in the words of today’s world, an existence of “problems caused by old people”. I’ve been consulting with Inoue since that stage, so when she wrote Gigist, it was an “Aha!” moment.

TTFC: It’s a little unique for an enemy to hold that stance.

Matsuura: Also, it’s unbelievably intimidating when (Ryotaro) Okiyuki says those lines. It simply gives the feeling that “he seems strong”. And then, I loooooove the character of Germain. He Zukyun’d me (Laughs). When suit actor (Kosuke) Asai plays the “domestic violence boyfriend character” [i swear this is what he says] Germain which Akiko wrote, he made me think, “this guy is completely going at it” or “what an awful guy”, even just with little movements. Furthermore, the performance of his voice actor (Kohei) Amazaki synchronizes beautifully with Asai. Episodes 40 and 41 were (Koichi) Sakamoto’s, and when I was watching Amazaki do voiceovers with the director, he seemed to be completely satisfied too. As you know, we were thinking about Germain being used as Glion’s new body from the beginning, so it was decided that his appearance would only be for episodes 40 and 41. So he was a “stepping stone” in the overarching structure. But I gave orders that I wanted him to be depicted as the strongest being until he’s defeated, and to show so strongly that it makes you think he’ll be the final boss. So Akiko, Asai, and Amazaki each responded to that to their heart’s content, and I’m grateful for that. However, consequently ending up making a character who’s too good to last only two episodes is nice for the people watching, but as a producer, I kind of feel like it was a mistake (Laughs). But, as I can think even that was an amazing “miscalculation”, the scriptwriter, suit actor, and voice actor were a wonderful “trinity”.

Act 10: Producer Minato’s Top 3

TTFC: How about you, Minato?

Minato: I thought I’d also do it this way and have one episode each from the three writers, but it’s difficult. It’s not in the TV series whatsoever, but for Uchida, it’s “Kamen Rider Gotchard vs. Kamen Rider Legend” (all 2 episodes), on Toei Tokusatsu YouTube Official and for Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club members. I was already putting energy into making one new program into the work. Timing-wise, episodes 3-6 were all by Hasegawa, and Uchida’s hands were free, so ahead of time, I asked him to do it before writing episodes 7 and 8. What I was first concerned about was Kaguya’s character. He was working out the minute details with LINE up to right before sending the manuscript. I think Kaguya became a very good character as a result. There was also the direction of Director (Takayuki) Shibasaki, and from the starting point, he was able to lay the groundwork for connections regarding Legend/Kaguya to episodes 33-35 and the summer movie. I have a feeling Kaguya will be active for a long time afterwards and won’t just be there. They were two 15-minute short films, but they were strong (Laughs).

TTFC: The way you made a new Rider like Legend appear was likewise a new experiment.

Minato: With Gotchard being a card Rider, we wanted to make things called Ride Chemy Cards a hit, and with that course of events coming first, there are also Legend Ride Chemy Cards, so we wanted a person (Rider) who uses that. There was also an idea to bring that about in “Gotchard” proper, but ultimately Legend was first streamed on Toei Tokusatsu Youtube Official and such, and we also had him appear in the TV series after that. But of that happens we have to think about how to do it so that it’s shown to a lot of people, and how to make it interesting. Because there are people who wouldn’t have seen “Gotchard” on TV… I guess some have only watched a bit of it too. So, we couldn’t do him as anything but a person from yet another world (Laughs). So the people who don’t know “Gotchard” can watch as much as possible and look forward to how the next episode is made.

TTFC: Having a new character in a position as Decade’s successor is also an observation point.

Minato: In terms of results, that area was also able to be returned to in the summer movie, but from Toei’s perspective, it was still significant that they had introduced the character Twokaizer in “Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger” (2021). It feels like Decade and Legend are directly linked because Twokaizer had a relationship to (Kaizoku Sentai) Gokaiger. Next is Akiko Inoue’s work, and I touched on this a little before (in the second volume), but it was (Kiyotaka) Taguchi’s group’s episodes 28 and 29, where Renge’s grandma appears. I talked about this on the official homepage’s “Gotcha Place” too, but I wanted those two episodes to be a “change of pace” after the big roadblock of defending Glion was over, one that you’d remember as “some kind of weird episode” into your later years. It’s an episode where Inoue and Director Taguchi met those demands excellently. To give concrete examples from past works, a similar mental image to the taiyaki expert episodes in “Kamen Rider Blade” (2004) (episodes 29-30) or the “dark kitchen” episodes in “Kamen Rider Kabuto” (2006) (episodes 29-30) (Laughs).

[THEN IT SHOWS THE PROMO SHOT OF THE FEET LMAO]

TTFC: It’s the exact same episode number as those episodes too (Laughs).

Minato: Personally, I think it’s fun to experience watching a 30-minute-per-episode tokusatsu show where every episode is interesting, and where there are a lot of episodes full of personality. Of course, as a story that’s spread out throughout a year, it’s also important to have characters that are liked. With that feeling, I’m glad Renge’s focus arc also was able to delve into her character. I think we were able to broaden the scope of the one-year production with Director Taguchi, who became the “senior students’ director” after he did episodes 42 and 43.

TTFC: And the last one is Hasegawa’s work…?

Minato: Hasegawa began working on the summer movie after episodes 30-31, so the next thing I asked him to do was episodes 44 and 45. After that, with episodes 46 and 47 being by Inoue, I tried to have everyone write a part of the final trilogy, so in the exact same way as 30 and 31, I asked Hasegawa something like “is there an episode you want to make happen here?”. As a result, what he finished was a story about Kajiki and Hijiri. In Hasegawa’s episodes, he raised 44 and 45. Hijiri’s name had occasionally appeared in Kajiki’s lines, but she re-appeared here. According to Hasegawa’s post by the way, during the first draft preparatory meeting, Minato said to him, “This reminds me of ‘Ultraman Tiga’s’ ‘Farewell to Darkness’”…

[Footnote: “Ultraman Tiga’s” 22nd episode, “The Fog Comes In”, is Hasegawa’s debut work as a screenwriter. The character Horii, who acts in a comedic relief character role and is part of the defense team, meets her future spouse. The only episode he wrote in the last part of the series was “Farewell to Darkness” (episode 47). This is a continuation of episode 22, as well as episode 11, “Requiem of Darkness”. Horii and Kajiki’s roles share similarities in their positions and their approach to “light and darkness” within the hearts of people. Of course, also the beauty of the guest heroine. Incidentally, the day that “Farewell to Darkness” was July 26th, which is very close to “Gotchard” episode 45’s air date of July 21st.]

Minato: That’s correct (Laughs). This episode is at a similar time in the structure of the series too. “Farewell to Darkness” is also a little bit before “Tiga’s” final trilogy (episodes 50-52).

TTFC: In “Tiga’s” case, the last two episodes were listed with the names of three screenwriters who worked on it, including Hasegawa. Compared to that, “Gotchard” has three writers each in charge of one episode in the final trilogy. It feels like that direction hadn’t happened in the Kamen Rider series until then.

Matsuura: Huuuuh… I see, “Tiga”… (Laughs). You were thinking in a “Tiga”-esque pattern that the most recent Rider season isn’t considered to be the last. I somewhat understand that.

Minato: However, we didn’t do anything like “Ultra’s Star” (episode 49).

[Footnote: An episode that breaks from the standard right before “Tiga’s” final trilogy. It’s one with a meta component of the protagonist slipping in time to the filming of “Ultra Q” at “Tsuburaya Productions of 1965”. Incidentally, the space monster Chaliger, who appeared in this episode and has the power to travel through time, was played by Masanori Machida— Koichiro Asahi in “Gotchard”.]

The episode where the protagonist Daigo and company slip in time to the past and somehow go to Tsuburaya Productions. Hotaro went to the future in the summer movie, but if we did some sudden episode like that now where Hotaro goes to Toei Ikuta Studio, no one would watch the essential final trilogy (Laughs).

TTFC: And speaking of “Tiga”…

Minato: That’s right. “Gotchard” has the theme of alchemy, so I became picky about the number “three” which is connected to that, and “Tiga” means “three” in the Indonesian language (Laughs).

Matsuura: Since you said that, my name is also Daigo (Laughs). And Future Hotaro’s actor is DAIGO too. What is this?!

Act 11: Mother and Son, and Then the Gotchanime

TTFC: At the point in time that we’re recording this round-table discussion, the final episode (episode 50) has still yet to air, but I looked at it ahead of time, and the scene where Tamami sends Hotaro out really struck me.

Matsuura: (Yoko) Minamino was really excellent in the finale.

Minato: To speak frankly, there’s a part of me that asked Minamino to play the role of Tamami specifically intending to have her do that scene. After we established Hotaro’s mother, it was almost a given that we would have that kind of situation at the end.

Matsuura: Minamino in the winter movie was incredible too.

Minato: Originally, we weren’t planning to do a story about Hotaro and his mother in the winter movie, but I’m glad that, along the course of making the story, we put in a drama about Hotaro arguing with his mom over something trivial and running away at the start, then returning home at the end. I think that, because that development happened, we were able to “lift Hotaro up” even in a movie where a lot of characters appear.

TTFC: This might be too meta of an angle, but I wasn’t especially surprised when Tamami said she had known her son’s identity (Laughs).

Matsuura: Did you guess that she knew because it’s Minamino? (Laughs)

TTFC: I guess it’s natural that she would know…

Matsuura: So it’s not because she’s Tamami, but because she’s Minamino. Because she was in “Legend of the Iron Mask”.

TTFC: Of course, I don’t think there are many generations that know of that.

Minato: Speaking of that, the work “Sukeban Deka II: Legend of the Iron Mask” was the late Toei president (Osamu) Tezuka’s debut work as a producer before he passed away last year (2023). While I was making the screenplay for “Gotchard” episode 1 and 2, I was thinking about asking Minamino to play the role of Tamami, but after I talked with Department Head (Hideaki) Tsukada, it turned out that I would meet with Minamino several days later to shoot a video that would play at Tezuka’s memorial gathering. Then as Tsukada introduced me to her, I immediately asked, “Do you have any interest in doing the current ‘Kamen Rider’?”. After that I gave her a formal offer, and that’s how she ended up in the role. Minamino was always saying “It’s because I grew up with Toei” because it was that timing. As long as I’m watching, with the feelings of conveying that she’d learned at Toei when she was a new actor herself to the young cast members, I think that she entered the daily scene. It felt like I wasn’t thanking her enough. Junsei (Motojima) is also a new actor, and shots have to be retaken a considerable amount of times, but she always watched over Junsei, and no matter how many takes we did, she stayed with him. So we also strongly think that she helped us in more ways than just her acting.

Matsuura: Junsei kept at it, too. It was the Platina Gotchard episode (26 and 27), and the Hopper1 Malgam (37) and Rainbow Gotchard (38) where he really showed the difference in his acting, and I felt his growth. Of course, now for Reiyo. I think you can see it in the summer movie; she’s always really reliable with her acting.

Minato: Reiyo was talked about yesterday (the day before the symposium), while recording audio commentary for the summer movie and many other things. When I think about it, she definitely started to become good in the winter movie, but she got even better in “Televi-kun Hyper Battle DVD Kamen Rider Gotchard: What’ll We Do?! Hotaro and Rinne Switched Places!!”, which was filmed right afterward. She’s always been a cheerful girl, but she wasn’t good on sets at first, and there were points where she seemed very tense. At that time, with that “Televi-kun DVD”, she did a so-called “body-swap episode”. That was (Koichiro) Hayama’s group, and they did a thorough rehearsal before filming. After getting to do varied performances there, it seems like she came to enjoy it. Her expressions got gradually better.

Matsuura: That was the best performance she’s done (Laughs).

Minato: I think there are also a lot of people who didn’t watch the “Televi-kun DVD”, but it’s a work I’d certainly like them to watch.

Matsuura: On that note, I asked (Katsuhito) Onishi to write the “Televi-kun DVD” screenplay. And speaking of Onishi, I’m indebted to him for writing the script for “Gotchard Short Anime - Gotchanime: Gotcha Furasu High School’s Seven Wonders!” much in the same way… This is an article aimed towards TTFC members (lol), so let’s talk about the “Gotchanime” too.

Harashima: Okay. Well, I was allowed to do a lot of things, and that was fun (Laughs).

Minato: For some reason, I feel like I mostly just threw things away, I’m sorry about that… (Laughs)

Harashima: Don’t worry about it (Laughs). At the point in time that this article will enter the world, its final episode still hasn’t been broadcast, so please look forward to that.

Matsuura: Is there a behind-the-scenes story here?

Harashima: A behind-the-scenes story… (Considers for a while) Something unexpected was that episode 36, where the Hopper1 Malgam appeared and the TV series got a serious plot twist, was right when we could distribute a light-hearted story with the “Gotchanime”. I’m personally glad about that. We weren’t intending for it whatsoever, but it feels like there were many people who came to watch “Gotchanime” to feel better (Laughs) Like it was linked to the original work (the TV series) well. Again, at the start, what I heard from Matsuura was that it’s in a short anime, but there are separate contents and it’s a work in the world of “Gotchard”, so we should properly think about what components we’re putting in to “draw” people to watch it. We were aware of that while making it. More than anything, all of the cast members were excited, and did better than we imagined. Naturally, that was expected of (Misato) Fukuen, a pro in voice work. If there are still people who weren’t watching, it’s not too late even now, so please give it a watch right away. The final episode has a lot of surprises too!

Act 12: To Love, To Be Loved

TTFC: Matsuura, you were in charge of “The Dark Sisters Present Kamen Rider Gotchard: Unfinished Plans”.

Matsuura: Yes, I was very self-indulgent in my work (Laughs).

TTFC: Episode 0, “New Year’s Eve Special”, was very novel (Laughs).

Matsuura: That was natural because New Year’s Eve of 2023 was a Sunday, but “Gotchard” didn’t air that week. It was started so we could make something to coincide with that. We were really just scared that various things would be forgotten if it wasn’t airing, even for just a week. So I planned something on short notice. There were no other people I could ask to help, so I wrote the script and whatnot by myself in about half a day. Minato liked it when I showed it to him and asked if it was good, so then I rushed to finish it (Laughs). I’d done all the (audio) commentary episodes for “Donbros” with Minato, and that did well. I guess this was something we felt like we’d already done… The workload was already big since it’s a weekly schedule, and it felt like things were getting too repetitive for me as a creator. When I thought about how to make TTFC more interesting and less habitual, I remembered “Kamen Rider Zi-O: Supplementary Plans”.

[Footnote: A spin-off work released on TTFC in the early days of “Kamen Rider Zi-O’s” broadcast. Naturally, you can still watch all sixteen episodes in the present. With the recitation style of entrusting the script to the cast while they acted, the strong meta component was a distinct feature (Producer Shinichiro Shirakura was in charge of the script). There were many legend actors who guest starred in “Zi-O” on TV and then came in to appear on “Supplementary Plans”.]

I took inspiration from that for “Unfinished Plans”. Even though it’s released irregularly, I could continue it until the end. I definitely hope you look forward to the finale too.

TTFC: Information about Clotho’s model was only revealed in “Unfinished Plans”.

Matsuura: It wasn’t talked about in the TV show, so… When I asked Hasegawa to talk about the situation and write something for “Unfinished Plans”, he surprised me by immediately responding.

Minato: If you think about it, the Toei video Blu-Ray Collection’s extra video, “We Are Class 3G”, is like that too, but each of the various plans are independent from each other and became interesting-looking things. You don’t have to watch it all to enjoy the whole TV series.

Matsuura: To sum it up, I think it took the happiest form because of the charm that the cast and characters have was supported.

TTFC: “Class 3G” and the aforementioned Romeo and Juliet and such were like a “Gotchard Acting Troupe”. As for these members, it seems like no matter what they do or when, it always turns out interesting.

Minato: It’s valuable that all of the actors involved, including the adult cast, loved this work. That was definitely the strength of “Gotchard”.

TTFC: In the meantime, as for things you’re planning to show in September (of 2024) and beyond, there’s the “Final Stage” in four cities across the country.

Minato: This is also becoming a pretty extravagant matter. We’re making elaborate plans for it. The Final Stage, as already announced, had its script written by Hiroki Uchida. Regarding the developments beyond that… there are a lot of things that I can’t say yet. But, for all of the fans, I’ll tell you to please come and watch the Final Stage. Even with what’s being broadcast now, you can still see it!

Postscript

TTFC: Our time will be up before long, so I just have two points left. First of all, if you could talk about the director’s cut of the final episode, which will be released on TTFC…?

Minato: Okay. For this director’s cut, I have TTFC to thank for making my proposal a reality. So, from the beginning, I asked Uchida to freely write lines that got close to all the characters’ emotions, without taking the normal episode length into account too much.

Directors are people that normally think about length while filming too, but this was filmed with more room for the acting, so consequentially, the version of the finale that aired had a suitable amount of good scenes. Moreover, since the director’s cut is showing everything, I think the people who watched the TV version can enjoy it too.

TTFC: Thank you. Now, everyone, if you have anything else you want to share here, even something minor… (Laughs).

Matsuura: Umm… oh, right! There was one small thing. The hands that appear at the start of the opening are actually mine (Laughs). For some reason, Director Tasaki asked me to do it… So, for the fine individuals who want to see Matsuura’s hands, once again, please watch the OP on TTFC. That’s it. I wanted to say that somewhere (Laughs).

Minato: On that note, Harashima, you have a story about the roast beef stand, right?

Harashima: I did. That was a Yamaguchi episode… I think it was episode 31.

Minato: The scene where Kyoka and Lachesis are talking to each other at night. About the Ouroboros Realm, and the Dark Kings.

Harashima: I played the role of the woman working at that shop (Laughs). I was filmed for the back-and-forth with Kyoka in the filming stage, but a lot was cut out for the broadcast (Laughs). In the end, I show up in some shots, but you can’t see my face at all. So, I don’t think you would notice it, even if you rewatched it on TTFC, but all I can say is that I did actually appear in that scene (Laughs).

TTFC: I see… What about you, Minato?

Minato: It’s a little more serious of a story than what they’ve told, but it’s about Hotaro and Rinne. I thought about where the two of them would go and how to depict them for the whole year. But when I think about it, if they finally reached some kind of goal, their “youth” would end. It’s a program where the protagonist’s main ideal is to “push towards change without fear”, and if we showed that only until the conclusion, it would feel like it lost the spirit of “Gotchard”. So, in the summer movie and TV finale, the end of the story was shown, but I won’t hint at anything concrete for the future of those two. Again, I really focused on having those two be “Rider 1 and Rider 2” rather than “hero and heroine”. I wanted to emphasize that aspect. Something like an irreplaceable partner? It’s close to the Riders-1-and-2 relationship between Sento Kiryu and Ryuga Banjou in “Kamen Rider Build” (2017), but if we went that far, it would be a little too romantic (Laughs). It might change in many ways in the future, but for now, those two are good as they are. And if Hotaro, Rinne, or any other characters remain for a long time in the memories of anyone who watched “Gotchard”, that would make me happy.

[char350]

Photos and autographs from various guests at Japan World Heroes!

Noboru Kaneko (Gao Red)

Hirofumi Fukuzawa (Veteran Sentai Suit Actor)

Bin Furuya (Original Ultraman Suit Actor)

Renn Kiriyama (Kamen Rider W)

Was a challenge trying to hold all the Ranger Keys that Fukuzawa-san did suit acting for, even the mecha ones!

[leenaevilin]

[Announcement] 舞台「KING OF DANCE」(butai king of dance)

the DVD/Blu-Ray will be released on December 2020☆ ☆ ☆

[leenaevilin-stage-market]

[Video] 舞台「KING OF DANCE」(butai king of dance)

the DVD/Blu-ray will be released on December 18th, 2020☆ ☆ ☆

☆ DVD  ☆ Blu-ray         ♪ Amazon

[fighterxaos]

Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger - Tenth Kyuranger Revealed?

Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger – Tenth Kyuranger Revealed?

A new magazine shot has surfaced online that reveals that a tenth Kyuranger will possibly be appearing on the show.

*Keep in mind this news hasn’t been 100% confirmed so please take this with a grain of salt.

The tenth Kyuranger will apparently be named RyuuCommander and his identity will be none other than the Kyuranger’s mentor, Shon Ronbou. 

Hopefully some full confirmation will be revealed…

[ikemenomegas]

Character List + Masterlist Links

Bungou Stray Dogs (ongoing manga; beware of spoilers)

Dazai Osamu Tanizaki Junichirou Kunikida Doppa Nakajima Atsushi Edogawa Ranpo Yosano Akiko (Alpha Yosano requests only) Fukuzawa Yukichi Miyazawa Kenji Nakahara Chuya Akutagawa Ryunosuke Jono Saigiku

Jujutsu Kaisen (also an ongoing manga, beware of spoilers)

Gojo Satoru Getou Suguru Yaga Masamichi Kiyotaka Ijichi Ieri Shoko (Alpha or Beta Shoko requests only) Fushiguro Megumi Itadori Yuuji Inumaki Toge Okkotsu Yuuta Iori Utahime (Alpha or Beta Utahime requests only) Nanami Kento Mei Mei Choso

Naruto (no Boruto, the sequel is a mess. If you want to adopt the children, that may be arranged)

Kakashi Hatake Gaara Itachi Uchiha Haku Sai Sasuke Uchiha Kankuro Obito Uchiha Nagato Sasori Iruka Umino Yamato Uchiha Shisui Izuna Uchiha Konan (Alpha Konan requests only) Temari (Alpha or Beta Temari requests only)

Mystic Messenger

Zen Jumin V (Jihyun)

Castelvania

Adrian Tepes (Alucard)

The Arcana

Asra Julian Muriel Nadia Lucio Portia (Alpha Portia requests only)

One Piece (an ongoing manga literally since I was a child. I am in and out with the manga, I only watch episodes I am interested in because it would take a whole year to catch up to even one arc… but still may be spoilers)

Shanks Trafalgar Law Portgas D Ace Sabo Zoro Sanji Pell

Shingeki no Kyojin

Levi Ackerman Erwin Smith Jean Kirstein

Honkai Star Rail

Jing Yuan Jiaoqiu Sunday Aventurine Mr. Reca Mikhael

Psychopass

Homura Shizuka Nobuchika Ginoza Shuusei Kagari Kogami Shinya

Black Butler

Vincent Phantomhive Joanne Harcourt

Chainsaw Man

Yoshida Hirofumi Hayakawa Aki

Multifandom:

Thick thigh gang Which omegas might have a cryptic pregnancy (Suguru, Muriel, Erwin) Actor AU headcanons (Naruto, Mystic Messenger, The Arcana)

Prompt lists:

One word prompts

Make a Wish

Spice and nice event

Omegaverse world

Pup gifts (replies)

Other tags:

#naruto kids

[toku-action-figure-news]

More information revealed on Shinkocchou Seihou S.H. Figuarts Gokai Red and Riderman

While release announcements have not been given yet, Tamashii Nations 2022 has once again shown off the display models for the renewals of Riderman and Gokai Red with new information. Gokai Red is confirmed to be a Shinkocchou Seihou release and, like the Ultraman figures in the line is based on a 3D scan of his main suit actor; Hirofumi Fukuzawa. Riderman meanwhile is revealed to have a wired cloth cape like V3, and features actual rope for his signature Rope Arm. Release announcements for both figures should hopefully come shortly.

[biomic]

legendary sentai suit actor and action director hirofumi fukuzawa?!