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Kamen Rider Zero-One Finale Commemoration Producers’ Symposium: Translated

i haven’t watched zero-one so i was asking someone who had what “raider” is and they genuinely had no idea what i was referring to

do NOT make jokes about a producer’s name. it’s not even pronounced the same way. i had to adhere to my own rules for romanization

this too is all for the henshindex wiki

TOKU TRANSLATION MASTERPOST HERE

The first of the “Reiwa era” of the Kamen Rider series, “Kamen Rider Zero-One”, has finally reached its final episode. While carrying the promise of creating a new generation of heroes, “Zero-One” is also the first in history to have had filming postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, all of the staff and cast members gave their all to the work, and thanks to them, they have reached the goal of completing the TV series. Thus, TTFC is releasing a special round-table discussion with the Toei producer team right after the end of the show.

We quickly looked back on the year and some more that “Zero-One” has taken up. Please take a moment to read it.

Participants

Takahito Omori (Chief Producer) He first joined the Heisei Kamen Rider series in 2005’s “Kamen Rider Hibiki” as an assistant producer. Has been a producer since “Kamen Rider Kiva” (2008). After that, he produced “Samurai Sentai Shinkenger” (2009) and “Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger” (2011), and then led as a Chief Producer for the first time with “Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger” (2013). After that, he handled “Kamen Rider Drive” (2014), “Kamen Rider Ex-Aid” (2016), and “Kamen Rider Build” (2017). In recent years he has also participated as a producer in the Toei Movie-Stage “Go Zen” (2019) as well as Fuji TV’s 60th anniversary special project “Ōoku: Final Chapter” (2019).

Chika Chikamatsu (Assistant Producer) Yosuke Minato (Assistant Producer) Applied to a “Tokusatsu Program Producer Recruitment” put out by Toei in 2018, and joined the company together in 2019. Their personal history prior to that will be expanded on in this book.

Ryosuke Momose (Assistant Producer) After being involved with all kinds of live events as a producer in Toei’s Enterprise Department, he transferred to the TV Planning Department in June of 2019. He took on a new role as the third assistant producer of “Kamen Rider Zero-One”.

Interviewer TTFC (Toei Tokusatsu Fan Book Editorial Department)

Act 1: What Happened Before the First Take

TTFC: In “Kamen Rider Zero-One”, the Toei producer team had a structure of the chief producer Omori and all 3 of the assistant producers. Because of how rare an occasion this is, I’d like for you all to talk to me for as long as you can. Chikamatsu and Minato were recruits from the “Tokusatsu Program Producer Recruitment”.

Chikamatsu: That’s right. I joined in April 2019.

Minato: I interviewed at the same time as her, but I was a little later and joined in May due to circumstances with my previous work.

Omori: Momose transferred in after that, right?

Momose: I did. I joined in June. At that point, we were already preparing to announce the work.

Omori: When you trace it back, “Zero-One’s” planning began around the summer that “Kamen Rider Build” was airing. In my experience before then, you don’t know how quickly the time will go by, no matter how quickly you are able to start it. So the main writer Yu (Yuya Takahashi) also started working on it from that point onwards, but we still didn’t have anyone for the assistant producers (Laughs).

TTFC: What’s this “Tokusatsu Program Producer Recruitment”…?

Omori: The way we put it at the time was that there were important aspects of inviting capable personnel to work as assistant producers in the shows following “Kamen Rider Zi-O”. I looked at written applications and participated in the first round of interviews.

Minato: That was around the end of the year before last.

TTFC: And then in April, May, and June of last year, in the period where the imperial era changed from Heisei to Reiwa, everyone joined in succession.

Omori: Auditions also began in April.

Chikamatsu: That’s right. I helped with the document screening as well, but when Minato joined in May, the auditions had already pretty much ended (Laughs).

Minato: Pretty much. I joined just about when you were deciding which members to go with.

Omori: What I remember most from that time is when we first went to the National Institute of Informatics. It was myself, Chikamatsu, and Yuya. I thought that they’d definitely just have three or four people there to meet us, no more, but more than ten professors wound up coming (Laughs). We were very surprised by that. For us, we were going to gather information about artificial intelligence, but as we spoke to them, even the professors that came in along the way had different opinions on the matter. As I listened to them, I thought, “I see— there are a lot of different viewpoints and potential outcomes”. If it’s that way, then we should depict themes surrounding AI in a wide variety of ways. After that, we also went to the “National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology”. Chikamatsu should talk about this.

Chikamatsu: Because I’d collected information in previous jobs, I went to ask to talk with them. While the NIST does actually make advanced robots, they also have advanced 3-D printer technology. I used the the 3-D printer I was shown while interviewing as a reference for the Tajimoto printer set that appears in “Zero-One”.

Omori: There was a lot of information about robotics that they couldn’t share with outside sources, so we had to go many places to gather information. We also went to Hachioji.

Minato: I also went there. It was to the Nippon Engineering College. There’s a robotics faculty department there. The campus is, to make it easy for TTFC members to understand, the Solbrain (Super Rescue Solbrain) headquarters (Laughs).

Omori: We were able to be shown aibo there, too. I would never have thought that we’d later show aibo in “Zero-One” (Laughs). That happened around April or May, right?

Chikamatsu: The script was being written at the same time…

Minato: If I’m not mistaken, the draft script for episodes 1 and 2 was finished on May first. The exact same time that I joined (Laughs).

Omori: After that, we really wanted to start filming at the beginning of June, but a lot of things happened and it was delayed until the middle of the month.

Chikamatsu: Omori was extremely busy when I joined in April as well. That was when the TTFC special “Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Brain” and the like happened, right?

TTFC: Definitely… It was filmed at the end of the Heisei era, and the plan was to release it on streaming from Heisei to Reiwa.

Chikamatsu: I had just joined, so naturally there wasn’t just work on “Zero-One”, but there were days when Omori couldn’t meet because he was busy. Other people told me that “Omori is a person that likes to do everything by himself, so you don’t ask him for anything, he won’t give you work,” so in order to not have that happen, I tried to let him know about it.

TTFC: I see… Come to think of it, not only “Brain” but “Zi-O” was very busy broadcasting. And the Build V-Cinexts and the Kyoto projects…

Omori: Well, we started early based on that, too. But I think we didn’t hold steady on that as much as we said we would. After you all arrived, I relied on you.

Momose: But I was already at Toei, so I was already somewhat familiar with the scope and quantity of an AP’s work. So it didn’t feel as hard as I expected when I actually started working as one. In that sense, you really did have important responsibilities, Omori.

Omori: No, I think it was really just important to have three people on the job. Because even in “Build”, it was just (Kazunari) Taninaka (Laughs).

Act 2: Each Producer’s History

TTFC: I’d love to hear about Chikamatsu and Minato’s previous jobs and why they applied to Toei, if it’s alright with you all.

Chikamatsu: I spent ten years as a director for NHK. The interview with AIST that I mentioned was also a result of that time. It wasn’t that I was unhappy with NHK (Laughs); I simply applied because I was a fan of Producer (Takaaki) Utsunomiya. “Samurai Sentai Shinkenger” (2009) was airing the year that I became a working adult, and watching “Shinkenger” each week that year motivated me to keep working. And the year where I applied was right during “Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger” (2018). I went to the next available interview, and to my surprise, my role model Utsunomiya was the one conducting it. I remember that I couldn’t stop talking about my love for his work.

Omori: You’ve made your love for Utsunomiya very clear (Laughs).

Chimamatsu: Well, I like your works, too…

Omori: (Laughs). Well, I also had a hand in “Shinkenger” and “Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger”. So in a sense we’re “Utsunomiya Children”.

Chikamatsu: Of course, I’m aware of that (Laughs).

TTFC: Did you meet because of that love for him?

Chikamatsu: I don’t know about that, but I’d say I got lucky. I received a long email from Utsunomiya after the interview, and that really struck me. Also, I’ve been a TTFC member since the very beginning (Laughs). I’m still subscribed.

TTFC: Thank you very much! And now, how about you, Minato?

Minato: I watched “Super Rescue Solbrain” (1991) and “Chojin Sentai Jetman” (1991) when I was three years old, so I’ve been a tokusatsu fan for nearly thirty years. Because of this, I’d wanted to join Toei… After graduating college I went to grad school, and along the way I decided to take a year away and studied abroad in the United States for only half a year. So I was 25 when I was ready to start job hunting, but Toei’s requirements for graduate recruitment were limited to people 24 and under… I tried my best to do something about it, and even tried calling them, but I was told that they wouldn’t make exceptions. I was very frustrated. I chose to work on anime, and joined Madhouse. I was a production assistant for quite some time, and then moved to the production desk position. When I finally got more freedom at work, that’s when I was made aware that Toei was recruiting producers for tokusatsu programs (Laughs). I think it was around 2 o’clock in the middle of the night.

TTFC: Did you immediately think, “This is it!”?

Minato: No, I ruminated over it like I always do. Working on anime is also interesting. It was going well, and I was in the middle of some projects. But this was my only chance. I didn’t know if I would be accepted or not, and this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so I decided to apply (Laughs). I also told my boss about it when I had the interview, and gave excuses to my coworkers and juniors just in case. I said, “I happened to reunite with my dream girl from high school and I can go on a date with her for one day. I should go, right?” (Laughs).

TTFC: That’s a very convincing metaphor (Laughs).

Minato: So I went to the interview. I was with [Hideaki] Tsukada and Omori, and in the papers I filled out, I listed my favorite works as being “Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger” (2004) [which Tsukada was the chief producer of] and “Kamen Rider Ex-Aid” (2016) [which Omori was the chief producer of]. Similar to Chikamatsu, I remember that they felt my passion. I made it to the final interview, but everyone besides me had experience with live-action and there was no one else who’d specialized in anime. There were big differences in our areas of expertise, and I thought there was no way I’d make it, but I was recruited. I had a bit of difficulty afterwards, however. I was told by Toei that I’d join the company in April like Chikamatsu did, but we had to find someone to take over my role in the project I was working on, and it was pushed back until May. On top of that, my wedding was scheduled to be March, and my bride-to-be a senior at my company… (Laughs). In the end, the company’s president came as planned, as the guest of honor at my wife’s side. I spent many days apologizing to the president and then other people from my former company.

TTFC: How interesting. By the way, did you hope to become a producer, Momose?

Momose: Like I said earlier, I was transferred to a different department in the company, so there wasn’t as much drama as the other two had… (Laughs). I originally joined Toei wanting to help with video, so I had thoughts on which video department I wanted to go to. There was some contact with Kamen Rider and Super Sentai when I worked on their events, but I wasn’t as crazy about tokusatsu as the two over there (Laughs). But as time went on I started to like things with action scenes more and more, and I directly told the head of my department that I’d like to transfer. A short time later, I was told that I’d be transferred. As I was talking with Tsukada and the then-executive director (Hiroshi) Tezuka on my first day in the department, Omori then came in. He told me that he was going to be in charge of “Zero-One”, and that he was coming to ask me to work on the show.

Omori: It sounds like you were disappointed by that.

Momose: No, I wasn’t (Laughs). To add to that, when we’re creating Rider and Sentai events in the Enterprise Department, we naturally had opportunities to talk with the producers of each work. I was able to learn a lot from and come to respect Utsunomiya and Omori in particular as I talked with them. So I was grateful to be able to work under you for my first project, Omori.

Omori: That’s the first time I’ve heard that. Please say so more quickly (Laughs).

TTFC: How did you divide your work between yourselves?

Omori: There were responsibilities for small parts, and we switched this up along the way, but we had a rotation for casting the guest actors and researching “jobs” for the beginning and middle stages of the show.

Minato: That’s right. Specifically, Chikamatsu was in charge of (Director Shojiro) Nakazawa’s episodes 3 and 4, I did episodes 5 and 6 with (Director Takayuki) Shibasaki, Momose had 7 through 9 with (Director Kyohei) Yamaguchi, and 10 and 11 were Nakazawa and Chikamatsu again. In the “business competition” arc, Momose was in charge of flower arranging, judging, and firefighting.

Omori: Ultimately, when you decide to divide the work between yourselves, you will have tasks that you haven’t experienced before. That wouldn’t be a good learning experience for an AP, and I was also told, “Omori, you had three assistants, but what are you teaching them?” (Laughs). I thought about that, and decided on a rotation system. The original foundation of this show was wanting to deal with “work”, and if that’s the case, we couldn’t just ignore “work practice reform”. At that point, I thought that everyone would have more room to research things with a rotation system.

Act 3: This Person and That Person

Minato: We focused on manga artists and voice actors in episodes 5 and 6.

TTFC: It’s Mr. Choichiro Ishizumi’s big hit, “Perfuman Tsurugi”!

Minato: We made the script for that episode in around June, and originally the plan was to make it about anime. However, episodes 5 and 6 aired in late September and early October, and they were filmed in August, so we said, “We can’t have just two months to make an episode. If we’re going to do things like this, I want to have half a year to work on it.”

Omori: I was told, “We can’t just do that.”

[TN: Kamen Rider staff did eventually make this happen five years later, with the filming of Kamen Rider Gavv starting around 6 months before broadcast. The change was apparently made to get the show’s episodes past Chinese censorship screenings sooner. Although the initial change meant that the show was being filmed at the same time as the later episodes of Gotchard, meaning that they had a smaller director team and an entirely new set of staff, Gavv’s producers have said multiple times that the shift in schedule was much needed and should’ve happened sooner. This wasn’t really necessary to mention but I feel obligated to say it.]

Minato: Live-action and anime are very different in that regard.

Omori: When Minato joined, I thought, “he could do an episode about anime” (Laughs), but as I thought about it I realized that couldn’t be done, and I changed the premise slightly.

Minato: But even so, the images on the monitor in the scene where they record voice lines, for example, had to be made to look like the original, even if the pictures were not ready in time (Laughs). For things like this in regular anime, you’d use “storyboard footage”, which is like videos connecting to the storyboard, instead, but you also can’t use this “storyboard footage” with its storyboard and filming for more than a few seconds. So I asked the people who specialize in this stuff. Like with the poster that appeared in the show, I entrusted it to expert animators and our finishing effects crew. By no means did I think my old job would come in handy so soon (Laughs). Momose introduced me to the character designer Mr. (Masato) Hisa.

Momose: I knew Mr. Hisa as a character designer from the Super Sentai series, but his love for the projects was profound, and he’ll definitely come to Osaka on the last day of the Final Live Tour. I attended to Mr. Hisa every year in my Enterprise Department days, so knowing him, I’ll make sure to ask.

Minato: I created the concept of “Perfuman Tsurugi”. It was a long-running work, so I prepared to make it a 70-volume comic series. Where a stretch of volumes was “chapter __”.

Momose: Because it’s a story of a world where anthropomorphic animals live, the protagonist that Mr. Hisa drew, Tsurugi, feels a little similar to a Ga[REDACTED] from a certain other work (Laughs).

Minato: You’re right, it did look like [REDACTED]l.

[TN: if anyone knows the full name of this redacted character please let me know]

Then I faithfully recreated the workplace of a cartoonist, so I asked an acquaintance of mind who works as an assistant. The master that they assisted (Mr. Tetsuya Takahashi) liked the Kamen Rider series, and gladly helped me out. He also came on the days we filmed the episodes, and gave guidance on how to design a realistic desk for a cartoonist.

Omori: For that episode, Director Shibasaki verified everything related to “Perfuman Tsurugi” with Minato.

Minato: I also explained things like how Tsurugi ends his sentences to his voice actor Mariyo Ise (Laughs).

TTFC: From the beginning, “Zero-One” has always focused on the “jobs” shown in it, the Humagears made for those jobs, and the magnificent guest actors, all working in tandem.

Chikamatsu: In a sense, the last one of those was Shinya Owada (episodes 10-11).

Omori: I think we also talked about it in “Ura Kamen Rider”, but at the beginning the character wasn’t “Shinya Owada”. He had a different actor. Fundamentally, that episode being about “actors”, I think it’s better for the actors involved with Humagears to feel like “THE Actors”. So as I worried about casting, Producer (Chihiro) Inoue of TV Asahi said, “Owada would be good.” He suggested, “I think Owada can definitely do a lot of things.” Then I thought about what he could do…

Chikamatsu: You reached out and he said it sounded good.

Omori: In response to that, the scriptwriter (Masaya) Kakei rewrote the script for Owada.

Chikamatsu: The character’s age also was changed to fit him.

Momose: As for an episode that I was in charge of, the flower arranging episodes (17-18) were very memorable. I have a friend from college who’s an instructor at the Sogetsu School of Flower Arrangement along with his mother. Their family is wonderful. The two of them helped with movement guidance and creating flower arrangements. I wanted to try having the mother’s arrangement for the Humagear Sakuyo, and the son’s for Rentaro. I thought that the differences in the opponents’ work will show if we did it that way. What’s interesting is that the mother got hooked on “Zero-One”. She’s kept watching it, and on Mondays she always goes to LINE to ask for suggestions. During the time when we couldn’t air new episodes due to COVID, we made compilations. At that time, she said, “I’m glad you did that”; she hadn’t known what the story was before Sakuyo’s appearance. She also wrote that she “understood Metsuboujinrai’s members very well” (Laughs). In the lawyer episode, I called up another acquaintance to supervise everything from the contents of the script to behavior in the courtroom. And in the firefighter episodes (26-27), we received help from Tsukada of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ Fire and Disaster Management Agency, as well as the people at Shakujii Fire Station, which was also close to the filming site.

TTFC: The burning building in that episode was right next to the entrance to the filming site, at Toei TV Productions’ main building. Even though the staff members clearly have a long history with this building, it’s a huge spectacle…!

Momose: That was Director Kamihori’s (Kazuya Kamihoriuchi’s) special magic. The people from Shakujii Fire Station also came to the filming set, and they were incredibly helpful.

Omori: The people from all the “jobs” gladly helped us out. If these continued for a year, it might be different, but because they were basically all two-episode arcs, everyone was really enthusiastic to do it. A fundamental attitude of “Zero-One” is wanting to pay respect to these “jobs”, and the people who helped us out had nothing but respect. I’m grateful that we continued to meet good people throughout the work.

Act 4: Things That Didn’t Go as Planned

TTFC: There are lots more inside stories for “jobs” that I’d love to touch on, but I’d also like you to look back on the bigger topic, being how the last year has progressed… When the program first began, it felt like the public’s attention was obviously drawn to how the Reiwa era of “Kamen Rider” would change from the Heisei era, but Omori didn’t put that much emphasis on that point…

Omori: I think I probably said this at the time, too, but it starts right after the previous program ends even if the imperial era has changed, so those fundamental things wouldn’t be immediately changed (Laughs). However, we could still change the viewers’ feelings, and I myself became a chief producer and this was my fourth work, so I thought about how I wanted to expand the limits of the “Kamen Rider” shows a little more. Like, an un-“Kamen Rider”-like “Kamen Rider” work.

TTFC: I got that impression when I watched episode 1. I guess it’s extremely “easy to watch”… That might have also been impacted by the cast’s extravagance.

Omori: They truly were extravagant. However, I think it’s more from the accumulation of the Heisei era that all those people appeared.

TTFC: The people you cast as the characters surrounding Aruto affect the whole work. Even when you know how important they are, Akio Kaneda’s performance in episode 1 is still over-the-top… (Laughs).

Chikamatsu: I occasionally meet Kaneda at the filming studio, and he keeps telling me, “I want to appear again” (Laughs).

Omori: The most talked-about thing in this first episode with so much stuff going on was Taro’s abs shattering (Laughs). That was a miscalculation on my part. There are humans and Humagears, and the first big events are Humagears… We thought about beginning with Metsuboujinrai.net appearing evil because they’re trying to destroy humanity, and that idea eventually being reversed… but we noticed that people interpreted it more as Taro being pitiable rather than Metsuboujinrai being evil. I thought that after we tackled the theme of “AI”, we’d inevitably need to confront the topics of human “hearts” and essence, but when I saw the reaction to the first episode, I once again realized, “Oh, that’s what’s going to happen.” It was a profound theme after all.

TTFC: In the early stages, the series progressed while providing topics of discussion through various devices, but the growing popularity of Metsuboujinrai.net led to their temporary exit by the end of the year. Then, at the beginning of the year, the cour [TN: if you’re reading this droplet subs hi big fan and if that post was about me then i’m sorry but i’m gonna keep spelling it this way because french is stupid] for January to March was the “business competition” arc, expanding on the rivalry between Aruto and Gai.

Omori: The “business competition” arc was unpopular among fans~. We’re aware of that. However, I love the arc, and our numbers (television ratings) actually increased. Moreover, I think we had to make it this way in “Zero-One” because we couldn’t in any other series.

TTFC: It’s precisely one cour, but it’s also a fairly rare technique to call it a “competition” from the outset in recent years. (?)

Omori: In the very first plan, Hiden Intelligence was going to be taken over by Gai sooner, and Gai and Izu would be in the president’s office starting at the beginning of the year. But people said that would be a little early. Many of them said they wanted to see more of Aruto as the president of Hiden Intelligence, so we tried to have one cour be about Aruto and Gai clashing heads as fellow presidents. The “business competition” was born from that. I thought it was meaningful to do it while also aiming to delve more into the theme of “work”. However, it ended up becoming a drama that could’ve been done without being a Kamen Rider show. The “business competition” didn’t mesh well with the battles between Kamen Riders and the Magia and Raiders.

TTFC: I see. It’s like there are two “matches” that exist on different mornings…

Omori: Gai’s malice might have been a little too realistic because of that. The themes of power harassment at work were maybe a bit heavy for a Sunday morning program… It’s only there because work is a theme.

TTFC: Aruto’s seat as president was finally taken as a result of the “competition”.

Omori: But we made a premise where Aruto was required to be the president to transform into Zero-One, so a way for Aruto to continue being the president in some form was expected. So, now the “Hiden Factory” became Aruto and Izu’s new base of operations.

TTFC: That development was in episode 30. From here, Gai/Thouser becomes more worn down every episode.

Omori: It was a reaction to the “competition”, or some form of one.

TTFC: Metsuboujinrai.net was revived, there were big things happening with Isamu and Yua, and the story was going to soon reach its climax… and then filming was interrupted. It became something that would also stop new episodes from broadcasting.

Act 5: Who Wished to Destroy Humanity?

TTFC: Well, now for a point that many fans are curious about… I’m also sure that many people find it very hard to talk about and sort out their thoughts on, but because of the situation, the episode total was shortened by six episodes. I imagine that there are endgame developments that came because of that, but how did it feel when it actually happened?

Omori: We had an idea of how we wanted to proceed, and while we were generally able to follow that plan, there were some parts that we changed, and some parts that we were unable to depict. We didn’t know exactly how everything would turn out. We kept moving forward while not knowing how the episode count would change, what episodes would be shortened or removed, or how long we could continue filming. However, there were developments that happened specifically because the show became shorter. At least, the ending definitely changed because of the postponement caused by COVID.

TTFC: In that middle period, the members of Metsuboujinrai.net all gather. In a way, this was the perfect time to stop. And when we returned, Ark was revived and Ark-Zero debuted.

Omori: The script drafts were finished up to the aibo episodes after those, episodes 38 and 39. The state of emergency was declared then, and production on the scripts after that was halted. We didn’t know how long we wouldn’t be able to film for, or how much the number of episodes would change. While I say that, at first we decided that we could rest for two weeks at most and then restart broadcasting. We made the two “President Specials” from that assumption. We thought that, if we picked up the plot threads relating to Ikazuchi and the Ark well, we’d smoothly connect into the next episode.

Momose: The Ark’s (voice) actor Sho Hayami essentially debuted a little bit ahead of time in the latter part of “President Special”.

Omori: And then, as you all know, despite what we assumed, the state of emergency was extended by one month… This was difficult. Even though it was what it was and we couldn’t change the situation, there’s a big difference between cutting off two episodes and six.

TTFC: The remaining episodes went from fourteen to ten. However, the next four episodes already had finished screenplays, so in a sense it was only six episodes…

Omori: Furthermore, there was no guarantee that we’d be able to shoot the last ten episodes. Even though we were able to restart filming, we didn’t know where or why we might have to stop again. That meant that Nakazawa’s episodes 40 and 41 had a possibility to be the last ones in the show. Because of those circumstances, I was happy when we safely finished shooting the finale. I’m relieved to hear that the next show, “Kamen Rider Saber”, has also finished filming its first two episodes.

TTFC: Was there not an option to extend the broadcast period so that you wouldn’t have less episodes?

Omori: We ran many different simulations, at least. But first of all, that would also have an effect on the release of the summer movie and the second part of the Blu-ray Collection’s exclusive original drama “Project Thouser”, so we wanted to have the most beneficial plan.

TTFC: I see. Back to the episodes… After the aibo arc in episodes 38 and 39, there were episodes 40 and 41, where Aruto loses both the satellite Zea and the Zero-One Driver. Here, Kamen Rider Zero-Two is born in episode 40, and in episode 41 Aruto finally returns to being the president of Hiden Intelligence, and the previously shown Humagears were shown saving people from danger.

Omori: That was what I wanted to do the most. Originally, when we had meetings preparing for the movie which will release soon, I said at the start, “I want to have humanity be destroyed this time”. I wanted to do something where humanity is saved by the Humagears when they’re on the brink of complete extinction, because of what they’ve taught the Humagears. I thought, can’t we have humans and Humagears finally join hands there? We expected the movie to happen close to the final episode, so that was changed to be implemented as the great gathering of Humagears in episode 41, but nobody accepted the idea of “destroying humanity”. If anything, it felt like everyone pushed back against it (Laughs). By the way, I proposed this before the COVID pandemic happened.

Minato: The idea might show just a little on the movie’s poster and other visuals.

Omori: So personally, when we reached episode 41, I felt like I’d already used up all my strength. Director (Ryuta) Tasaki laughed at me when I said that much at the preparatory meeting for episodes 42 and 43.

TTFC: In episode 41, Aruto said the line, “the people in the current world are facing hardships they’ve never experienced before”. It felt like a story that could have only been written during the COVID pandemic.

Omori: I think that Yuya just wrote that part itself very well, rather than aiming for something. And more importantly, the destruction of mankind… Before now, most people thought, “destruction?!”, but I was rather thinking about a story of rebuilding from very near “destruction”.

TTFC: Just a short time ago, you said that “episode 41 could have possibly been the finale”, but episode 41 brought about the idea of Zero-Two and Kamen Rider Horobi destroying Ark together, and in a sense, this was only concluded at the very end of the last episode.

Momose: Sho Hayami’s Ark was extremely cool and well-knit. Hayami was always recording the voice-overs by himself, but I’m glad that he did it with the other cast members in just the last episode. But he said, “it (the time he spent in the show) went by quickly”, and he seemed disappointed about that.

TTFC: It really was no time at all.

Act 6: Where Did the Story Go?

Omori: Four episodes were left because of the situation. Some of the planned events remained, like the beginning of Kamen Rider Ark-One’s appearance, and Yotagaki Williamson coming from Zaia Enterprise management, but the rest would have to be remade from nothing. When we first cast (Seiji) Takaiwa as Kamen Rider Horobi’s suit actor, we’d decided that the final battle would be Zero-One vs. Horobi, but not how we’d get to that point. As I sort of said said a little earlier, I was thinking of a storyline where Horobi would start to look more like a righteous hero as we progressed towards the endgame. But what came up during the prep meetings was the idea of Aruto becoming Ark-One. Izu was lost because of Horobi, and because of that, malice is born within Aruto, Ark is resurrected, and Aruto becomes Ark-One (episode 42).

Chikamatsu: Meanwhile, on Horobi’s side, he loses Jin in a battle with Aruto/Ark-One (episode 43).

Omori: Horobi is now also grieving. On that cue, a total war breaks out between Humagears and humans.

Chikamatsu: The many things leading up to the final battle were set up in this incredibly short span of time. As for Azu, she wasn’t assumed to appear again and so she wasn’t given a name, but then that was changed.

TTFC: I was surprised that it’s mostly just Azu appearing in the last 3 episodes.

Omori: I felt a little bad about that…

TTFC: It’s also surprising that Aruto’s so-called “dark turn” wasn’t originally planned. I think there was an amount of foreshadowing leading up to that.

Minato: That was more of Yuya’s “witchcraft”.

TTFC: It was wonderful when episode 44 showed the surrounding characters thinking about Aruto and Horobi.

Omori: Looking back, having less episodes meant that many things were wasted, including the opportunities to delve into each character more. If we had the originally planned amount, we’d definitely have been able to do it with much more care. That was sad, and I think that all of the directors and the cast members themselves probably feel disappointed by that, too. On the other hand, the development of Izu being destroyed and Aruto becoming Ark-One… it can be said that the shock of that moment was only made because things were cut back, so that’s a really difficult point to decide.

TTFC: In episode 45, the finale, Aruto has returned to being “Zero-One” and fights Horobi, now Kamen Rider Ark-Horobi, and the two of them overcome “evil”.

Omori: I’d imagined something where Horobi is destroyed and brings Ark down with him, but it didn’t end up like that. It feels like a very “Zero-One”-esque landing.

Chikamatsu: The exchange between Aruto and Horobi also felt like a message to mankind as a whole. I was constantly on the set for (Teruaki) Sugihara’s group in episodes 44 and 45, and the Director’s fixation was incredible. He took a while to give the OK on scenes like the one where Horobi hits Aruto. He said, “You can do better than that!”

Omori: I was inspired by the director team’s passion again too. Of course, all of the staff members have also been putting in their best effort even more since the lockdown. And the most surprising thing was the cast’s growth. It seems like they all gave even better performances when filming restarted. I’m sure they all had many things to think about during quarantine. It’s unfortunate that we had less episodes to work with, but by experiencing unprecedented hardship, they underwent change with unique meaning, and took on the form of the art. There’s no doubt that it gave them some kind of power.

TTFC: Our time will be up soon, so I should ask you to talk for the remaining time we have about any little-known or new material, while also summarizing them as best as you can… Now, everyone on the AP team, please say your thoughts on “Zero-One”, or anything you’d like to tell TTFC members with this chance.

Momose: On the topic of TTFC, us at the AP team are currently producing “Zero-One’s” short anime. Omori-P “left this matter” to us (Laughs). Episode 1, with Aruto and Izu, and episode 2, with Isamu and Yua, have already been released, and we would be happy if you helped it do well.

TTFC: Voiceovers for episodes 3 and 4 were done the other day, and these also seem to contain interesting things…

Momose: I met the scriptwriter Tete Inoue when we worked together on items for G-Rosso. We had the prep meetings for episodes 1 and 2 during lockdown, so we would always work on it while talking on the phone, and I would tell Chikamatsu and Minato about what happened while continuing to work on it (Laughs). The concept of the short anime was that its story isn’t serious at all, and the prep meetings always had an atmosphere like a bar, so I had fun making it. Please look forward to the next episodes too. As for my thoughts on the year of “Zero-One”, it feels pretty different from the event work I’ve done in the past. When planning events, you of course make the events themselves from scratch, but the main part was figuring out how to make it fit with the already existing work that it’s for. It was very rewarding, but the difficulty of making things from scratch was something else. On reflection, there were things I could’ve done better, but I want to make the best of that in my future work.

Minato: As a tokusatsu fan, I’m extremely happy to have been a part of the Kamen Rider series that I’ve always watched. What I’m happiest about is that I made it through without feeling disappointed (Laughs). I worried about what would happen if this work that I’d wanted to be in for so long turned out to be different from what I imagined on the inside, but if anything I was surprised in the complete opposite way. I realized that everyone is truly interested in what they were doing, right down to the tiny details, and trying to make interesting art. I’m happy about that. “Zero-One” itself had a theme of “work”, but I myself think I made a good decision in changing my job. I feel like it’s work that I can be proud of, and with the way I feel now, I’ll continue to work hard in “Saber” too. Now, I want to extend my thanks to the cast of the show. When I worked on anime, I was mostly conversing with the staff members, so I hadn’t been able to see the younger actors shine more and more with every episode at such a close distance before. “Zero-One” was also interrupted by the lockdown, and I think that was emotionally tough for everyone, but we got through it well.

Chikamatsu: I’d also like to talk about the cast. Having been able to attend auditions, I’m especially attached to them. All of the regulars have devoted a long time, over one year, to “Zero-One”, and I’m thankful for even just that, but more than anything, I’m grateful that they came to love the show and bring their roles to life. The writing and direction was also amazing, but the actors took that and brought the quality to the next level. I can’t even put into words how much they’ve grown since their auditions. The lead role of Aruto was really tough to decide, and I worried about if there was someone who could play the role well, but when Fumiya Takahashi appeared, everyone said, “It has to be him”. As we’d hoped, he fit wonderfully with the role. When I saw his performance in the final episode, I thought, “I’m glad Fumiya is Aruto,” even more strongly this time. I think Isamu was a comparatively easy character to get the idea of, but (Ryutaro) Okada actively brought his own thoughts into it more and more, and it feels like no one else could have made this reckless character like he did. Izu was Noa Tsurushima’s first role, so having created such an amazing character shows just how much potential she herself has. Yua’s actor, (Hiroe) Igeta, struggled with a role that’s very different from how she herself is, but she brought out charm that only she could’ve shown. (Daisuke) Nakagawa as Jin also had anxiety about his lack of acting experience, but gradually took on his role with serious dedication, and became fascinating. Horobi’s actor (Shuya) Sunakawa had a role that didn’t show much emotion until the last part, but at the end of the end, he showed an incredible performance. I’ll look forward to how they all do in the future.

TTFC: Thank you, everyone. By the way, even though the TV series has finished, there’s more to come later. You have the “Final Stage & Program Cast Talk Show” in the fall, and the movie, which had its release delayed.

Momose: It’s unfortunate that the “Special Event” scheduled for spring (May) of this year was postponed, and that we couldn’t do any of the summer events or stage shows. We can’t do much about it given the circumstances. However, we’re currently preparing to put on the “Final Stage”, so I hope you look forward to that. The “Super Hero Festival” in January was done amazingly by my old department’s staff, so I think the events this fall will be great, too!

Omori: The second part of “Project Thouser” was also filmed the other day.

TTFC: The original drama made for the Blu-ray Collection Volume 2, which had its release delayed?

Omori: It was originally scheduled to release in August, but then the show couldn’t film and it was delayed. It will release in November now. Yotagaki Williamson was originally planned to appear in this second volume of “Thouser”. The shooting and release periods fell out of sync, but he still appears. I think it’s a story that will pull on the heartstrings of “Zero-One” fans quite a bit, so please look forward to this as well.

TTFC: That reminds me— in terms of filming order, the first appearance of Metsuboujinrai.net’s Naki was in the first part of “Project Thouser”.

Omori: They were actually a character created at that time.

Momose: When we were casting them, we’d decided that they’d appear in “Thouser”, and then appear in voice only in the show. However, in the latter half their position became pretty essential to have and they appeared in the show.

Chikamatsu: Originally they were just a joke. Like, “there’s Horobi and Jin in Metsuboujinrai— do Naki and Ikazuchi also exist?” (Laughs). And then we had “Naki”, so why not have Ikazuchi?

[TN: In case you didn’t know, the names of each MBJR member come from one of the four kanji in “metsuboujinrai” (滅亡迅雷— Horobi, Naki, Jin, Ikazuchi).]

Omori: Originally, Ikazuchi came from the form of Raiden Uchuyaro and transformed into a Kamen Rider (episode 14). Then I began to think, “could we possibly have four Metsuboujinrai members transform into Kamen Riders?” (Laughs).

Minato However, Ikazuchi’s return was also not yet specifically decided at the beginning, and the way we communicated it was similarly “there may be an opportunity for you to appear again”.

TTFC: The TV show ended with all four members of Metsuboujinrai.net surviving, and Izu reappearing as her alter ego… but there was a big surprise at the end, where “Es”, played by Hideaki Ito, transforms into “Kamen Rider Eden”. Should I assume that this is setting up for the plot of the movie?

Omori: You’re right about that. I can’t go into detail, but you’ll see what he does when it releases on (Friday) December 18th as we’ve announced. The release period has changed from the original plan, so the finished script has been drastically modified, but Hideaki Ito’s appearance has always been planned.

TTFC: I’ve read the script before it was revised. There were amazing plot points in the structure of the movie itself, and I thought there had never been a plan like this before. I was excited that you were going to try something like this. As for any other things…

Omori: We still can’t let too much be revealed, so that’s all for now (Laughs). I hope you enjoy the movie.

TTFC: One last thing… This might be impatient, but could I ask if there’s potential for any “spin-off” works? There are less episodes than there were supposed to, so there are probably many hopeful fans…

Omori: All I can say is that we have plans to do things. The world will be how it is right now regardless of what we say, so I don’t know how things will go. Still, many things about this show are already unusual, so it hasn’t been “finished” yet. Of course, “finishing” it in the same way as before won’t be possible for a while, but I would definitely like to “finish” it someday, in some form. It’s also because of that (Laughs) that I want to think about spin-offs going forward.

TTFC: Thank you for gathering today while you’re so busy!

#kamen rider zero-one #guster translates rider #tw covid #op #kamen rider #aruto hiden #isamu fuwa #yua yaiba #gai amatsu #takahito omori #yosuke minato #chika chikamatsu #ryosuke momose

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