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Geats Finale Commemoration Producers’ Symposium: Translated

here’s my full 10k word translation of the geats producers roundtable, originally published on TTFC. i did geats’s one 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!

if you notice that i messed anything up please let me know!

Kamen Rider Geats TV Series Ending Commemoration Toei Producer Team Special Roundtable Discussion Distributed on Sunday, August 27th, 2023 10:00

The fourth Reiwa entry in the Kamen Rider series, “Kamen Rider Geats”, finished broadcasting all 49 episodes on August 27th. A new program, “Kamen Rider Gotchard”, will start in September, but there are certainly many people that still want to immerse themselves in Geats’s world.

So, this season will have a “Toei Producers Special Round-table Discussion” delivered like the ones before it.

It actually became over 25,000 words long, but please read through it once.

Attendees

Naomi Takebe (Chief Producer) Joined the Kamen Rider series as a producer starting with “Kamen Rider Agito” (2001). She was the Chief Producer for “Kamen Rider Kiva” (2008), “Kamen Rider OOO” (2011), “Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters” (2012), “Kamen Rider Gaim” (2013), and “Shuriken Sentai Ninninger” (2015), among others. Additionally, she is in charge of many other works, including the Toei Movie-Stage “The Shinigami Incident” (2020, 2022).

Minami Takijima (Assistant Producer) Met the requirements for the “Tokusatsu program producer recruitment”, and joined Toei. Was an assistant producer for the works “Mashin Sentai Kiramager” (2020), and “Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger” (2021).

Fumiki Yoshikawa (Assistant Producer) “Geats” is the first work he has been in charge of as an assistant producer. His personal history prior to entering Toei will be discussed in this round-table discussion text.

Interviewer

TTFC (Toei Tokusatsu Fan Book editorial department)

State of Mind I: Reaching the End of the TV Series

TTFC: First of all, a few days prior to this interview, the “Kamen Rider Geats” TV series finished filming the last episode, the first screening of it ended, and now there’s nothing left to do but air it. So truly, your work is finished. I would like to hear your present state of mind…

Takebe: The filming itself ended at the end of June this year.

Yoshikawa: We were filming for exactly one year.

Takebe: Fortunately, nobody in the cast was ever infected with coronavirus. We were following the excellent schedule perfectly until the end, so I am happy as you’d expect. By always wrapping up filming about 6 episodes ahead of time, there was a sense that the script was being made about 10 episodes ahead. It’s the help of the brilliant staff that made this happen.

Takijima: As the filming progressed smoothly, even though we thought we were going well ahead of the broadcast, there were several times where the script had to be rushed on the filming location. (Laughs)

Takebe: It’s because this year, we made Yu (Yuya Takahashi) write it all by himself. I think that made it difficult. However, thanks to our hard work, it’s now calming down a bit. Everyone in the cast is doing the summer movie campaign and such, and we’re moving on to preparations for the “Final Stage” being hosted from September to October. How about you two? It’s your first time being involved with the Kamen Rider series, Takijima, and Geats is the first work you’ve been in charge of, Yoshikawa.

Takijima: By now, the only thing I have to say is “It was fun”. I mean, even if I stumble in the middle of a work, at the end it’ll always total to happy memories. (Laughs)

Takebe: Really? I think it was fairly exhausting work, and you don’t have any criticisms? (Laughs)

Takijima: What was frantic was frantic, but it was because we did everything we wanted to do, as we should have. In this interview’s proposal too, “Please talk about what you regret not doing!” was written, but I don’t think I have many regrets…

Takebe: However, do you feel a sense of freedom now?

Takijima: I do. (Laughs) The delivery has finished up to the final episode; that’s big. And after that, the movie was successfully released to positive reception, so at any rate I’m feeling a sense of relief.

Takebe: Right now is the time when there is exactly no filming and no work. For the first time in a year (Laughs).

Takijima: Personally, I’m beginning preparations for a separate work, but I was able to take a long break the other day.

Takebe: I rested a little bit too.

Yoshikawa: While “Geats” was shooting, no one got sick. It wasn’t “sickness coming from the mind”, but it may be that we got through with fighting spirit.

Takebe: How was it for you, Yoshikawa?

Yoshikawa: I joined Toei because I wanted to work on the Kamen Rider series, but I really didn’t know anything about making television shows at the start. So I’ve basically just been learning over the past year. I hoped I would be able to grow alongside this particularly young cast because I was very involved with them while working. Because it was that kind of year, I started crying when I called for them to wrap up. I think that no matter what works I’m in after this, I’ll definitely remember “Kamen Rider Geats” my whole life. I will always treasure my “Geats” toys too.

Takebe: By the way, should we talk about your personal history, Yoshikawa? Truthfully, I’ve already met you prior to you joining Toei; we’ve worked together.

Yoshikawa: That’s right. I met Ms. Takebe during “OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let’s Go Kamen Riders” (2011) and she helped me. I was playing as a child actor, but because my dream of being in the Kamen Rider series had already come true, I quit too early. After that, I became the age to start looking for a job, and I thought I’d go overseas at that time, but at that exact moment, coronavirus entered the world… While wondering what I should do, I thought about how there hadn’t been a person credited under both cast and staff in Kamen Rider works, since I still liked the franchise. With that, I became determined and joined Toei.

Takebe: You’d also met assistant director (Junpei) Shiokawa a while back, right?

Yoshikawa: I did meet him. After that, I met (Soichiro) Hiragane too. When I was in “Tomika Hero Rescue Force” (2008)’s Shiokawa crew (episode 47, “Hurry Rei: Save the Parent and Child’s Bond”), the VE was Hiragane. (TN: I think VE is short for visual editor??)

Takijima: Speaking of, Hiragane worked on the “GARO” series too, so he was also acquainted with Kokoro Aoshima (who appeared as the heroine Alice Hiromi in 2017’s “Zero: Dragon Blood”).

Takebe: “Let’s Go Kamen Riders” is nostalgic… I was on (Osamu) Kaneda’s team, right?

Yoshikawa: That’s correct. I remember there was a scene where we jumped down from the Den-Liner, but supervisor Kaneda wasn’t happy with the shots, so it had to be redone about 10 times. Actually, I’m sorry for spending so much time on my personal stories; let’s move on to a different topic. (Laughs)

State of Mind II: Like a Fox

TTFC: It’s common to be asked for every season, but looking back on the past year, what kind of things were off course of the original plan, or plans by the production team that were rejected and moved past?

Takebe: First of all, (Hideyoshi) Kan of course. He literally “took the form” of his character.

Yoshikawa: He quickly became cooler and cooler.

Takebe: I also met Kan at auditions for “Avataro Sentai Donbrothers”, and he left an impression on me. I decided to gamble on him for Ace Ukiyo in “Geats” and see what happened. I wasn’t fully confident either, and I think it was hard on Kan to do things like take more than 20 redos of one shot in the early days, but he improved more than expected. He started with voiceovers.

Takijima: That’s right, that’s right. He first spoke as Geats in “Kamen Rider Revice”’s summer movie.

Takebe: Likewise, I have a feeling that He changed in the winter movie (“Kamen Rider Geats x Revice: Movie Battle Royale”).

Yoshikawa: The person himself said it well in another interview; during the filming of the winter movie, by performing with everyone from the cast of “Revice” and the legends from “Kamen Rider Ryuki”, his awareness of himself changed.

Takijima: At about the same time, (Koichi) Sakamoto’s team was filming their 3 episodes (13-15) and there was a big change there too.

Takebe: In past generations too, there’s an impression that Ryoma Takeuchi (Shinnosuke Tomari/Kamen Rider Drive) and others also greatly improved during the winter movies. I think because of that, receiving one big push of encouragement at that time, it’s definitely a good thing for them to have.

Takijima: What I remember well is when we filmed for the Blu-Ray bonus video. Volume 1 was released in April, so it was shot just about when the year was coming to an end. For “Quiz Tournament” (recording for Volume 2), we had to gather all the cast members playing supporters too, and Sara’s actor Nene Shida was the host, so doesn’t that make 11 people? That was the first and last time where so many members would meet in the same room. So we took a group photo as well, but Kan was strongly becoming “a man who wants to be able to properly stand in the center”. Of course, since he’s the lead, he had been standing in the center up to that point, but after filming the winter movie and the like, he had an aura of sorts.

Takebe: Something I liked about Kan was that because he played sports into his school days, he was able to get a really solid grip regarding the direction from the supervisors. He showed a positive attitude towards being taught, and from the directors’ perspective, they saw good results from their teaching. In the summer movie too, he was challenged by having to perform a variety of roles, but (Shinichiro) Shirakura also felt his development.

Yoshikawa: He said, “He had a certain presence”.

Takebe: So, I miscalculated about Kan… I’m sorry about that. Though I miscalculated in a good way. (Laughs)

Takijima: We were bewitched. (Laughs)

TTFC: From the beginning, we feel Ace was simply established as being “the strongest from the outset”, and having an absolute existence, but we wonder: was that always the aim?

Takebe: Yes. That is, when we were first talking with Yuya Takahashi, he said, “What kind of protagonist do you want to do?”. At the time, it was the beginning of a war, and coronavirus hadn’t settled down yet. In the midst of that situation, I said that I wanted to see a reliable protagonist… one that’s always at the center of the story. Yuya took that and completely realized it. At that time, I said I wanted to do a taiga drama (TN: I swear this is what it says even though it makes very little sense). Yuya really liked that direction too, so he said like, “I want to write all the episodes!”. Takijima, is there something you “miscalculated”?

Takijima: It wasn’t a miscalculation but rather a needless fear, but when we were deciding which Riders would become various forms, I had a little bit of unease that we were making it too difficult for the audience to tell who was fighting. However, more important than that, the impact that the masks made was strong. I think this is the simplicity of the designs and modeling that made a big difference.

Takebe: The fox and cat riders weren’t there.

Takijima: An “animal motif”, if you think about it now, is an idea that only surfaced in the second half of the design conference(s). With animals you can tell them apart, so until we reached the end, we were able to have a lot of different Riders. I think that was a success.

Takebe: It was natural to need to decide the design and concept of the work’s primary Rider—that is to say, the protagonist Rider—but during the design conference, Shirakura said “If it’s easy to understand, it’s good”. Shirakura left the conference when it was time to decide the primary Rider, but his prediction was correct just as you’d expect from him. I think the person who said “I want us to do the first white-colored Rider in a long time” was (Hideki) Tajima from Ishimori Productions.

Takijima: With that feeling, a part of me was uneasy, but when I was called on, what came out was “Oh, it’s okay!”. From there, we proceeded with confidence.

Takebe: I thought the fox and tanuki Rider motif was well accepted (Laughs). The design team and molding team did good work.

State of Mind III: A Colorful Set of Characters

Yoshikawa: I don’t have a “miscalculation” or anything like that either, but Geats didn’t have a character in the “mentor” position for the whole year. Instead, for every chapter, everyone was coming and saying “I can go in this time period”. For example, something like Koji Abe (Morio Koganeya/Kamen Rider Mary) who was only in a few episodes at the start, or staying for half a year like Ryo Kitamura (Niram) and Shiho Harumi (Archimedel). By socializing with a lot of people, a variety of actors participated in “Geats”, and that was truly great. Moreover, we got actors like Tsubasa Sakiyama (Win Hareruya/KR Punkjack) to come back later on after leaving one time. Shugo Oshinari (Girori) also was gracious enough to come back again at the end. I think this kind of pattern is pretty interesting. So many actors, as well as people with proven track records, helped with “Geats”.

Takebe: Regarding Sakiyama, he starred in a TTFC spin-off work as well.

(Photo of Win transforming from the Punkjack special)

From “Geats Extra: Kamen Rider Punkjack”

Yoshikawa: Ryuji Sato’s Jitt as well— even though he only appeared for about the last 10 episodes, he left an incredible impression. I liked how cool he was.

Takebe: More than anything, it makes me happy that everyone gladly took part. For such busy actors to take time out of their schedules…

Takijima: There were so many people who made do with their schedules for Geats despite being in stage performances (Laughs).

Yoshikawa: We get them to come to the film studio by saying things like “The morning of this day is okay!”.

Takijima: Kekera’s (Mitsutoshi) Shundo for example. When he first appeared, it was just his voice, but at the exact same time he was going around the country on stage in “Ganryu-jima”. But when he was still traveling, we had a scene where we really wanted him to appear in person, so we made him come back to Tokyo just for one day. With such circumstances, we had to decide what we’d shoot on which day, and set up the schedule. I think there were many parts that had trouble on the set too… Regarding actors who were stitching together their schedules with separate dramas, we checked the live schedules for the people who were playing together for one scene, and they couldn’t appear together on this day, so we had to change the scene or negotiate… it’s never-ending (Laughs).

Takebe: But that did result to something, right? Like with Kitamura, action director (Toshi) Fujita was praising him. In his henshin pose, there was agility in each separate motion, and he always executed it well.

(Photo of Niram transforming)

From “Kamen Rider Geats” episode 21, “Divergence V: Gazer’s Crushing Blow!”

Takijima: That in particular, what we really tried to get across was to make a big impact in one scene. Everyone in the audience too, since Geats is a system where they’re “dropping out” from the beginning, they don’t know which character will appear when, and that part makes it interesting. We on the management side can’t be careless either (Laughs), so that’s why when characters who already left appeared again for the first time in a while, it’s similar to having legend Riders from past shows come back.

Yoshikawa: And “Geats” itself still hasn’t ended, either (Laughs).

Takijima: In that sense, it wasn’t strange to disappear at any time, and yet ultimately, who ended up staying until the end was Daichi (Laughs).

Yoshikawa: That may have been the greatest miscalculation (Laughs).

Takebe: He really came in and stirred things up. None of the main Riders, even Michinaga, can fully turn to the “evil” side. So an existence like Daichi’s became essential. Of course, if you’re bringing someone in you always have to consult with their schedule, but that feeling of tension worked better than expected. Naturally, the idea of arranging it into “chapters” itself was decided on from the very beginning, but once we did it, we had fun ourselves too (Laughs).

Takijima: Daichi might have been symbolic of that. He was appearing the whole time, but his position changed with each chapter (Laughs).

TTFC: I don’t think anyone in the cast could tell what was going to happen next either. New characters were introduced when they didn’t expect it.

Yoshikawa: On that topic, when Kan read Fuku (Suzuki, playing Ziin)’s name in the script, he was pretty surprised. “Wait, Fuku?! That Fuku?”

Takebe: Fuku turned down a work. We were also surprised to hear that his papers were coming to auditions. However, he didn’t really fit the main character role we were thinking of. But since he went through all that trouble to audition… it only seemed natural.

Takijima: They said that strictly speaking, it was difficult to let him appear from the beginning schedule-wise as well.

Takebe: So he got lucky, and we got lucky too (Laughs). We’d already decided that whoever played Ziin would be appearing starting in the middle of the show. We said, “Now that you say it, he’s a good fit, isn’t he?”, so the story progressed concretely. But even with that casting, if the papers didn’t come from Fuku’s side, I don’t know if I’d have brought the story to him. Even if I thought of him, I would have assumed that surely he’s too busy for it.

Takijima: So, Fuku “has it” after all.

Yoshikawa: When we were recruiting, there was an age limit. For “Geats” we were looking for men aged 18 to 26 years old to play regulars, and Fuku had just turned 18. It seems like he wanted to apply the first year he could. He said, “I’ve been waiting (for when I was old enough to apply) a long time.”

TTFC: With the position of “Supporter” unique to “Geats”, and moreover those being characters that transform into Kamen Riders themselves, it was already a perfect fit, wasn’t it?

Yoshikawa: After we began filming too, each time he saw a new Rider form or suit on the location, he would say “That’s so cool!”. I don’t know if he was saying it as Ziin or himself (Laughs).

Takijima: While he participated in various other media, he continued to show his love for Kamen Rider. We were glad he was able to appear in the show too.

Takebe: When the episode where he “Finally transformed!” released, the celebratory mood from all of the fans was amazing. And his speech when it was time to wrap up recording was moving as well…

Yoshikawa: ‘Isn’t “Geats”’s theme “wishes”? With that kind of show, for one’s wish that they’ve had since they were three to come true in it makes me happy. I wanted to convey the idea that “If you keep wishing for it, it’ll come true someday” through me transforming into Kamen Rider Ziin in “Geats” to kids across the country as well’…

Takijima: It was an amazing speech.

Takebe: Even though acting is his entire career, he started crying the moment he received his flowers. We were deeply moved as well, and cried along with him. After that is Beroba. Right when we were rehearsing the first scene she would appear in, Yuya came to the filming studio…

Yoshikawa: It was the day he came in for hon-uchi (preparatory meeting for scriptwriting; TN: ‘hon-uchi’ is an abbreviation that the transcript explains. I kept the term in case anyone needs it). That ended and I told him that Beroba was coming in, so he stayed and watched the rehearsal.

Takebe: Maybe Yuya saw (Ayaka) Namiki’s visuals and acting for the first time there and was inspired. If I think about it, I didn’t expect Beroba to survive as long as she did (laughs).

Yoshikawa: I guess Yuya was following along with the script as well.

Takebe: Turns out that we’d found an incredibly talented person, and Beroba, who I thought wouldn’t make it that far, performed excellently. It was another miscalculation (Laughs).

Takijima: She was good from the start, but kept getting better after that.

Takebe: I don’t know if she’ll ever stop getting better.

Takijima: She does her homework perfectly on the site (Laughs).

Takebe: I think it’s okay to say this, but she took a high school test during filming and passed it perfectly. She talked about normal things as well—you wouldn’t think she was a 15-16 year old, she was very reliable.

Takijima: She was excellent in giving answers for interviews and the like as well. I think it’s a little because she’s been a “Chao Girl” since elementary school, and had many chances to interact with adults, but I feel like that’s not all it is. I wonder if it’s a talent of hers.

Yoshikawa: I first met her when she was auditioning to appear in the role of “Kozue Hayama” in episodes 11-12 for (Teruaki) Sugihara’s team. She didn’t fit Kozue’s role then, but Director Sugihara said that if she kept learning, she’d be good. After that, when it was time to decide who would play Beroba, she was invited again.

TTFC: Beroba’s first appearance was unique in Geats, being in episodes 20-21 which director (Kyohei) Yamaguchi was in charge of.

Yoshikawa: Since Beroba would be a regular cast member, the head director (Shojiro) Nakazawa was there as well. There was a passage in the script that said to “laugh like the devil”, and she performed that with great vigor. Because of that, Sugihara, Nakazawa, and Yamaguchi all seemed to decide that she was going to appear. When Director Sugihara wrote the report later, he did so gladly. “She was good after all!” he said.

Takebe: Director Yamaguchi was also very particular about Beroba’s clothes. He spent a lot of time on it. It’s because of him that she’s covered from head to toe (Laughs). He included the color compact, and the jelly beans…

(Photo of Beroba and Archimedel)

From “Kamen Rider Geats” episode 20, “Divergence I: Jyamato Deliveries!”

Takijima: Truthfully, it seems like the image that Directors Nakazawa and Yamaguchi had in their heads were a little different. So that’s a “chance encounter”, too. I think that maybe if Director Nakatsu was the one filming her first appearance, her clothes would have been different as well. But Director Nakazawa left it to Director Yamaguchi.

Takebe: That’s also an interesting part of the Kamen Rider series. Because many directors are involved, a variety of styles mix together.

Yoshikawa: The basic idea of the Supporters was solidified at an early stage. I remember what Ms. Takebe was writing on the whiteboard while everyone was discussing: “I wonder if a girl would be good for Michinaga.”

Takijima: On the topic of Michinaga, “Maybe a person who’s a carpenter?” appeared for just a moment, didn’t it?

Takebe: Because Geats, Tycoon, Na-Go and Buffa are a group of 4, I was thinking about how to make them not overlap.

Yoshikawa: As a result, Michinaga got a “heinous young woman” attached to him (Laughs). Speaking of girls, I think the ages might have been being decided at the same time.

Takebe: Ziin, Kekera, Kyuun and Beroba are described in words that express emotions. Yu is also good at naming. And the management side’s Girori, Tsumuri, and et cetera… including the change in perspective, I was always impressed because he thought of names that were simple but nothing alike.

Forward I: To Create “Uniqueness”

Takebe: The timing of Ziin’s first appearance was planned by Yuya from the start, where, as the existence of the audience for a reality show which is the Desire Grand Prix is revealed, the plot 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 structure was one that Yu also took pride in.

Takijima: On the other hand, the design tasks are always planned pretty far ahead, but I remember that when the jumbled concept art for the varied Rider forms that DGP players and supporters was presented, Yuya really got the idea that “fighting as a tag team sounds interesting” in his head.

Takebe: That had its ups and downs too…

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

Takebe: I guess because it’s a kind of cat. At least Yuya was thinking about these various things ahead of time, which was helpful. Well, on the topic of Yuya trying to do things too early, something we kept saying “Please wait a little bit” about and stopping him on was the twist of Sara’s death and Keiwa’s awakening.

Yoshikawa: We kept arguing back and forth about that.

Takebe: The existence of Sara as comfort was precious, and even if we had to do it at some point, the image of the work would darken, so by saying “a little further” and “a little more”, I waited to have him do it for a considerable amount of time. As a result, Tycoon’s awakening was delayed for 40 episodes.

TTFC: With the style of having not only the Riders as game players, but also supporter Riders and management Riders, there is a lot of people and variation, and I think it differentiated itself from the so-called “many Rider” seasons up to this point.

Takijima: As the Kamen Rider series gets longer, it’s really difficult to do 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. I think that to differentiate it from recent seasons, something we should have done was discuss it a lot. Because “Geats”’s situation was firstly the “structure” called the Desire Grand Prix, we made the increased number of Riders “inevitable”.

Takebe: But, we also had an intention to explain the setting, so we had a lot of Riders appear in episodes 1 and 2. That was difficult in the first place. Each year, the number of Riders gradually increases from the primary or secondary, but in the case of “Geats”, since we want to see how the system works at the start, it was necessary to make many Riders appear at once. In the announcement as well, 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 because we were being so different from the usual, our schedule had to be tight… that was a lot of trouble.

(Photo described above)

From “Kamen Rider Geats” episode 2, “Encounter I: Treasure Hunts and Bandits”

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

Takebe: Yes. With the middle stage progressing into the second half, the focus was moving away from the game, but for the first part of the show, everyone was worried about the contents of each game. I was reassured because Yuya already had experience with continually writing for shows in the Kamen Rider series twice. He wrote in the large amount of characters and items truly well. There were naturally things we couldn’t do due to budget and schedule issues, but I think that even so, it was a year where we were able to do as many things as possible in the most extravagant way possible.

Forward II: The Personalities of the Directors

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

Takijima: Because he had past experience writing “Kamen Rider Ex-Aid” and “Kamen Rider Zero-One”, he was able to do that.

Yoshikawa: For example, Sakamoto’s team likes to have action in the state before transformation (civilian fights), so he decided to write an episode (13) where the belts get stolen and they can’t transform (laughs).

Takijima: And it seemed like Keiwa (Ryuga Sato) could somersault, so he decided to try that when Keiwa transformed into Ninja (episode 27).

Yoshikawa: Director Yamaguchi likes to use napalm, so episodes 20 and 21 are a bomb game.

Takijima: After that was a scene with riding bikes. He would decide what he would do for the directors before he knew who was going to drop out (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 all participated too. Even if just for one or two episodes, I’m glad they did it. It’s been decided that Director Tasaki will be doing the pilot for the next season, “Kamen Rider Gotchard”, but he was able to do a few (episodes 31-32) before starting preparations for that. I’m glad we could work with Fukuzawa’s team (episodes 35 and 36) too. I felt good excitement on the filming scene.

Takijima: 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 asked him to do this first, too. We had already decided to ask him at some point, so we said to please try “Geats”. Director Nakatsu was always saying “I want to see Fukuzawa’s team do it” too. I’ve worked with Director Fukuzawa as a director and action director in the Super Sentai series for many years, and seen his talent up close, so I believe he was confident he could create something interesting. And if he was not in charge (as action director) of the next Donbrothers movie, he might have had more time in his schedule to shoot.

Takijima: When you listen to the stories from the cast, it seems like they hadn’t seen that kind of direction before then. “Try this position”, and things like that. I think the approach of having the play come from the movement was refreshing for them.

Takebe: In my personal experience, during “Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters” (2012), I still like the times when we got people like Directors (Osamu) Kaneda and (Hiroshi) Butsuda to enter, but those were directions that make the best of their backgrounds in action or special effects direction. Director Kaneda’s foundational way of thinking is “the rest of the acting is also action”, and that was also being reflected in his direction, so when Fukuzawa’s team was doing it this time as well, I wasn’t worried at all, and if anything I was looking forward to it. What was more adult-like than I expected was impressive. Even though Fukuzawa’s team really likes to do it, we couldn’t do many action scenes timing-wise, and I’m sorry about that.

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

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

Takijima: He was originally a player (suit actor) too. He said that because he understands what it’s like to be playing the roles, he didn’t stop many shots while they were happening. 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.

Takijima: With the timing for 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: As for Fukuzawa’s team’s sets, they were very bright.

Takishima: Fukuzawa keenly said “It’s a good and warm set.” but I would say it as “This is Fukuzawa’s personal virtue” (Laughs).

Takebe: The assistant director (Koichiro) Hayama and archivist Hideko (Takayama) were candidates themselves too since they did Sentai together, and they helped Fukuzawa with his debut. The end result was good, and many people said they wanted to see Fukuzawa’s team again, so I’d say it was a success. Tasaki’s team doing the “Heaven and Hell Game” as Tasaki’s team was as great as you’d expect. 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 in the endgame. He did the episode when Izu died from explosion (ep. 42).

TTFC: Director Tasaki filmed “Zero-One” for episodes 33-33 too, but those were the exact ones where Masaya Kakei wrote the script.

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 this year’s Golden Week, we worried if the timing was right. But it fit into his schedule right after “555” and before “Gotchard”. Because Director Tasaki is a person who nurtures cast members, we wanted him to at least do one set of episodes.

Yoshikawa: Really, someone like Kan was saying, “I wanted to work with Director Tasaki more.” At that point in time we were over halfway through the year, and he was playing the role of Ace, but in Director Tasaki’s episodes he got a lot of new surprises, saying, “Is there anything like the way he does it?”

Takebe: So to speak, they were called guest directors, but we rotated between only one group of directors: With Directors Nakazawa (who hadn’t been a main director before), Sugihara, (Takayuki) Shibasaki, and Sakamoto, there was a good balance with who was in charge. 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 was saying “I want to do the final episode and another one again” (Laughs).

Takebe: He might have accidentally become the main director (Laughs). But even with the aspect of the director making the script, he helped a lot. It was a place where the summer movie and final episode fit the view of its director well. Speaking of the finale, I have a feeling that the chronology and the like isn’t especially straightforward, but that was Director Nakazawa’s idea. “Geats” is fundamentally supposed to be easy to understand, but he decided to structure it differently with the idea that it’s good to leave some things up to the viewers’ interpretation for the last episode.

Takijima: The preparatory meeting regarding the final episode with the director was after the one for the movie soundtrack.

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. To some extent, I’m glad we made deposits in the early stages. (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’s a sense that it’s being done as much as possible “so everyone can be happy.” Actually, Producer (Taku) Mochizuki also stuck with “Revice”, and as the year went on, it seemed like a lot of things improved. When 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 depending on the work, so… While working in order to avoid that feeling, the schedule was stabilizing, so taking as many break days from filming as possible, he made it all the way to the end.

Forward III: The Assistant Producers’ Work

Takebe: Sentai and Rider— thinking about both, Rider has a storied history, but Sentai’s (having had more continuous series) is longer, so a lot has been established in its system. Including 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 Takijima, 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 themself than with Sentai.

Takijima: 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 Takijima.

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.

Takijima: On the filming site too, while doing whichever group it was at the moment, and preparing for the next group, that kind of feeling, it’s always running smoothly. So I’m ordering minor props and the like, doing irregular things that are often carelessly left out. Accidentally falling into the mindset of “I think someone will do it” is bad, so let’s move it along here, or let’s ask the supervisors to decide ahead of time too. I might have been a little pushy, I guess.

Takebe: But I think that helped fairly well on the site.

Takijima: In Sentai, especially these last few years, it’s changed a lot, and there are many original components that seem to overturn the series’ accepted practices, 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 replacement episode”, they say, “alright, a replacement episode”, or rather, before doing bi-uchi (preparatory meetings for art), the things that seem necessary get prepared one after another (Laughs). I guess those sorts of things are different from Rider after all.

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

Takijima: Right. Anyway, for myself, although I wonder “is it good that I did this much?”, the part of myself that was happy to be doing this is big.

Takebe: You were also writing letters, right? Kyuun’s letters.

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

Takebe: But, were there auditions within the staff to write the letters?

Yoshikawa: Yes. I failed it (Laughs).

(Picture of a letter from Kyuun here)

From “Kamen Rider Geats” episode 23: “Divergence T: Now, For the Sake of My Favorite!”

Takebe: In the end, I feel like there was a deadline, but the good thing is that you were moving so fast I barely had to ask you to do anything. From there, what was done by Yoshikawa was now done by you. You’re already fine standing by yourself!

Takijima: Ah, no need to say that… I’d like to thank Bandai’s design team too. Especially (Takato) Yamashita (Plex), who made Geats’s design, was great to work with. Every time, even with the small requests, he still responded quickly.

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, when one work is made, I only interact with the many people in this… Of course, when I was on the acting side as well, I knew many staff folks who came in. But I didn’t concretely know what kind of work those people were doing at that point. More than that, the reason is there is also a lot of staff who aren’t present while filming. There are many great people that just do 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 hall! It’s at the filming site!” (Laughs), but the staff and anyone that doesn’t come to the set puts zeal and love into the work. I think there might be staff members that I still haven’t met personally. Because I knew that from my standpoint, I tried to keep that in mind for the young people in the main cast. Of course, I think they are thankful for each thing 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 memorize their lines about the same difficulty 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 do things the assistants would normally do without worrying about them. But the reality is that’s only here (Laughs), so I don’t want the younger newcomers there to get the misconception that this is normal after all. In the distant future, who loses money will be themselves. What I was asking Yoshikawa was to listen to 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 among others. He gave them movie recommendations too.

Yoshikawa: Kan was eager. There were times where we’d talk on the phone late at night. “I still don’t know how I’m supposed to perform this place here in the script for the scene we’re filming tomorrow.” Still, I wonder if it was difficult to listen to the directors timing-wise. I don’t know how helpful I was to him… Things like the day he couldn’t understand his own acting and said, “Yoshikawa, do you have time today after this?”, 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”, so I said “They have that expression because this course of events happened!”, and he responded, “I see,” immediately writing a memo on his phone. For how inexperienced in acting he was, 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 when you get them intimate with printed text, their way of reading the script changes too.

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.

Takijima: 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 they’re made to 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, so they develop little by little.

Takebe: Rider and Sentai have had “schools” as sets often, but truly, we teach that kind of thing and we get them to study. Of course we include manners, and the fundamental things…

Review I: A Lively Group of Riders

TTFC: You’ve just returned to talking about Kan, and since you touched on the supporters and management side cast at the start, now I’d like to hear about the main cast other than Kan, if you could.

Takebe: Ryuga (Sato) was inexperienced in acting, but his looks and physical ability were points that I liked.

Yoshikawa: In video auditions at the start, his ratings were high and he moved on to face-to-face. I looked back at his material and found that Ryuga was getting an A from Ms. Takebe. So it was our first time meeting him in person too. He was filled with wonder, and while other people were auditioning he was saying things like “Whoa…” (Laughs). Well, the real person is fairly different from Keiwa. If I said something, he can do it immediately, and fairly dexterously.

Takebe: “Satoshi” is a good way to describe it. (TN: I have no idea what this is referencing) I don’t mean that in a bad way at all, he’s very attentive and and he completely understands things.

Takijima: Director Nakazawa likes to make comedic scenes even in serious episodes. I was impressed that he gave that to Keiwa often. The director must have decided that Ryuga could do it and left it to him. He was even doing that in the endgame at the soba restaurant in episode 48.

Yoshikawa: He can put together scenes himself like that without being told in detail. I think that’s his talent.

Takishima: Director Nakazawa also happily said to Ryuga, “You’re good at this kind of thing.”

(Picture of the scene referenced)

From “Kamen Rider Geats” episode 48, “Creation X: Tsumuri’s Requiem”

Takebe: So as for Ryuga, I think there is a matter of which way he’ll fall from now on. On the other hand, there will be scenes in the future where such responsiveness alone is not enough for what the directors ask, so sometimes he should should be an “acting fool”, or rather, be deeply immersed in his role, and grow even further. He’s promising.

Takijima: That’s right. He has the ability to see himself objectively, so he can immediately come up with ideas like, “If I do it like this, the people watching will like it” (Laughs). Of course, that’s also a good side of it, but I want him to go even further than that. Because I think he can do that.

Yoshikawa: You’re not deciding what suffices by yourself, you come to look closer at your expressions, like Ms. Takebe and Takijima said, I think new opportunities will open. Because there is clearly “room for growth”, he wants to do his best.

Takebe: Next is Yuna (Hoshino). How is she? From the start, she had a strong image.

Takijima: After all, she was only a person who had a lot of activity in the YouTube and modeling worlds, and still young, so her professionalism is amazing. It seems like her mother said to “always be aware of the people watching you”, and she tightly follows that idea.

Takebe: No matter what or when, she never lets her smile die. I don’t think she can.

Takijima: I think that with such a small figure, she came to energetically persevere. There are definitely times where she gets tired. But she never lets that show on her face.

Yoshikawa: She was 17 when filming started, and now she’s 18. But even then, she was able to care for those around her so much, and always kept them lively.

Takebe: Regarding her acting too, the only word I have is “confidence”. The staff certainly loved it too.

Takijima: In things like her speech at the winter movie premiere she seemed nervous, which is surprising when you think about her background, but I guess she’s honest at the core.

Takebe: During the speeches for the summer movie, Director Kamihoriuchi said “The most improved one is Yuna”, and she started crying with joy.

Takijima: Isn’t the Kurama family amazing. Ryoko Yui as her mother, and Shinji Kasahara as her father. She called them “acting monsters” without realizing that could be misunderstood (Laughs), so that arose. She got her role so well, and she is amazing too.

Takebe: She deeply wanted to be an actress, and I’m sure that when her performance was announced, she cried with joy too. Having that determination is great, and although this isn’t “Geats”, if Yuna keeps wishing, that wish will surely come true.

Takijima: To say just one thing, I’m happy she tried to keep the scene calm, but I say when the moment is right, it’s also good to not care about your surroundings and instead enter your own world and zone in. I guess she’s so kind that she can’t help but look around her… As much as I think that, I have lots of thanks and encouragement for Yuna.

Yoshikawa: As for (Kazuto) Mokudai, can I talk about him? Truthfully, he was busy with other jobs and such, and couldn’t attend auditions. But I liked him a lot and wanted to meet him, so I prepared a chance for him to try out on a day when he was available. Then he took that opportunity, and he was decided to be Buffa… Michinaga. His answers on the audition questionnaire were interesting— For the question “Are you good at a sport?”, he calmly wrote the response “I can do anything”. Also, during auditions, we met with 4 people who had taught Mokudai, but even though no one was asked, they kept changing the subject (Laughs). Like, “Really, is that so? Then, how is (so-and-so)?”. He, like Yuna, was 17 at the time. Despite this, he would always go about unabashedly, and I would think “Who does this guy think he is?” (Laughs).

Takijima: You said back then that it felt a little like Kiita (Komagine, who played the lead in Zenkaiger).

Takebe: That’s true, I was saying that.

Takijima: Kiita and Mokudai both listen well to what people said, and are able to further respond accurately based on their opinions. By the way, after the auditions for “Geats” ended, when the manager asked how it went, (he/I) replied, “I got a good laugh out of it” (Laughs).

Takebe: Mokudai was decided, with Kan as Ace and Ryuga as Keiwa, and it felt like the last piece of the male group was filled. Our opinions on who would get which one were divided until the end, and like what we said at the start, Kan’s Ace was a part we made a gamble on, but it turned out amazing.

Takijima: Next is Tsumuri. Kokoro Aoshima.

Takebe: With respect to her, in auditions, she seemed to be a little unfit for a cheerful character, but Tsumuri was probably the only character at the Desire Shrine who would become an ally of Ace and company, so we wanted her to perform cheerfully. She was tempted to perform the character in a role like that more mysteriously, but we kept saying “Be cheerful” and it paid off, and before our eyes, a bright and sweet character became established. Director Nakazawa especially took care to that. Nakazawa’s team’s Tsumuri was always cute (Laughs).

Takishima: No matter what, Tsumuri would always get a lot of exposition lines, so we had a lot of trouble with that in the early days. But she got through that period wonderfully. Even so, there was a lot of greenbacking, and she had to say things that she hadn’t known before as if she knew them. I think it was difficult.

Takebe: It’s because Yuya loves Tsumuri too. There’s also Neon as a heroine, but Tsumuri is a different kind of heroine. As the keyman of the endgame, she showed a lot of growth over the year. I think she persevered well. At the beginning, she said, “If people remember the role of Tsumuri better than myself, I’ll be happy” and that was striking.

Review II: “Second Times” and Action

Takebe: To speak of the characters other than the main 5, the keyword was a sense of “second job”. They did their first job not as a Rider, and by then it’s easier to work with them because we know those people’s abilities and personality to some extent, and those actors are more willing to work with us because they think we liked their previous performance. To cite something specifically, Ryo Kitamura as Niram, and Tsubasa Sakiyama as Win Hareruya both appeared together in the “Toei Movie-Stage” The Shinigami Incident (Shibasaki), and because of then, we thought about having them appear in “Geats” too. Daichi’s Dai Gotou was in the stage show “Kamen Rider Zangetsu”, and Fuku Suzuki was also in the movie “Saber + Zenkaiger Super Hero Senki”…

Takijima: Kekera’s Shundo is “Kamen Rider Amazons”.

Takebe: Shinji Kasahara was a guest role in “Amazons” too, but in terms of Toei shows, he appeared in “Mirai Sentai Timeranger” way before then.

Takijima: Girori’s Oshinari too, he appeared in a movie for “Kamen Rider Wizard” directed by Nakazawa.

TTFC: Speaking of connections to Director Nakazawa, Haruka Kudo from “Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger” appeared as a guest in the summer movie.

Takebe: With that feeling, this year had a pretty big group of returning actors, but everyone did it happily, and lent us their help as much as they liked. Everyone certainly delivered performances that exceeded expectations. If you think about it, while the framework of long-running dramas and serial dramas is their many returning actors, in tokusatsu, the mental images of the characters performed are strong, so it’s hard to call back people who were playing former regulars. Of course, even when new people are cast in lead roles, Yu has many reliable abilities in alumni, so there should be no difficulty with talking to those people again. So, Takijima and Yoshikawa, from here on out, whatever work you’re in charge of, when the time comes, I want you to talk to the cast members that you came across in “Geats”. Also, we didn’t talk about action very much, so… I think the greatest outcome left to talk about in “Geats” is its action. The action director Fujita, and (Hiroshi) Nakata, who played Geats, those two are the show’s treasure.

Yoshikawa: I’ve been watching the Kamen Rider series for more than 20 years, but I’ve never seen action that cool. As one of the people who were involved in Kamen Rider mania, I really liked the action that I hadn’t seen yet. The shots that Fujita did were amazing too, and Nakata’s Geats was always sexy.

Takebe: However you do action, what you do to make it new is always something you’re worried about. When I enter the position of Chief, I have to find a replacement for last year’s action director: (Michihiro) Takeda for “Kamen Rider Kiva” (2008), Fukuzawa for “Go-Busters”… Fujita in “Geats” was that kind of aim. Thanks to you, there was a lot of “You’re doing your best with the action”s, but I think we were able to revolutionize action in Rider, and it had a big impact on other works too. “To change” and “being changed”— for example, it was the ikemen boom at the time of “Ryuki”, and the popularity of voice actors and suit actors for “Den-O”. Those spread to the Sentai and Ultraman seasons that started there. I think these tokusatsu programs establishing new practices is how you say they “changed”. There is a reaction to the new “beginning” that Geats’s action created, and I look forward to the action that Fukuzawa will make in “Gotchard”, being the one that comes after.

Takijima: I think it’s good that there’s a cause-and-effect with Fujita’s action. With the beginning of battles in the script, you’re writing which side wins in the end, but you aren’t really pointing at minute details related to physical movement or the items they use. Because of this, Fujita is making the flow of events after the battle starts, but the enemy weapons are troublesome, so they block the arms a lot, or they took a hit and lost their balance, but at that rate they barely escaped on their feet, things like that. Without the fights onscreen stopping, the “battles” have temperature and are always incredible. (TN: she made a pun on the word for “battle” sounding similar to the word for “warm”) Like Geats vs. Buffa in episode 32, I thought it was their final battle. Honestly, at the beginning, I wondered if they would get short of breath somewhere if the fights were this densely packed.

Takebe: It was amazing from episodes 3 and 4.

(I assume there’s a photo here from episode 32 because the Bilibili article had the caption but not the actual photo)

Takijima: That’s right. Well, I assumed it was the start of a new program’s trade fair, or a one-time highlight reel, but it kept going.

Takebe: I really think about Fujita thoroughly. So when it was the summer movie, he seemed tired since it was side-by-side with the TV series, but he wanted to do the summer movie himself no matter what, so I respected his wishes and let him do it.

Review F: Reiwa Riders Continuing to Battle

Takebe: On Rider sets, we have staff capable of filming the new boys in cool ways. I think filming the famous experienced actors well is not a difficult thing because they have their own potential, but truthfully, filming the newcomers well is challenging. However, the first episode of each series is made possible by the director. as well as the cinematography and lighting teams. I say “Our company’s staff is incredible!” with honesty, including the fact that they support them as they grow. More than that, there were times when even the main characters Keiwa and Neon didn’t appear, and Ace couldn’t let his guard down even though he was the star (Laughs), but how was the cast with handling this area?

Takijima: About that, the one I worried about most every time was Dai Gotou. He (?) would check a new script and go “Oh, Daichi is still out! Thank god!” (Laughs). Compared to Gotou, everyone who played the main Riders wasn’t worried about it.

TTFC: If this series continues, I wonder if it will somehow be a tendency. “I guess this character won’t die.” Of course, having exceptions is still an interesting thing.

Takebe: After all, during “Kamen Rider Ryuki” 20 years ago, it was different in many ways. That time there weren’t exceptions, so when the next script came, the first thing everyone did was check if they were alive or dead (Laughs). They had a hunger for success. That’s something you need to have in order to grow, so we want today’s kids to have that knowledge too.

TTFC: With 20 years, the ways viewers regard TV itself have also changed. Because of that, us at TTFC are also supported by a lot of members, but the way of enjoying dramas that are distributed has also been established.

Takebe: To get them to continue watching one-year-long TV series, you can’t make careless decisions. It wasn’t like this in the old days, but now there are already plenty of attractive contents outside of television, so we’ll do something to advance against competition. Kamen Rider is a strong brand, but that isn’t enough to get them to watch it. The way me make trailers and things like that are planned to the furthest extent possible. In the week leading up to the next season, we can’t let them forget about the program. And not just one, but if the “favorite” works continue to come back, they can keep watching. For that, the things we can do inside the work after we’ve first done everything, and also the promotional material, without caring about looks, we did it. So Takijima and Yoshikawa, the two of you, you kept at it. On that chance, if you argue unreservedly, anything goes. You know about the work “Kamen Rider Geats”, you’re interested in it, so we get you to watch it. I’m realizing that this effort has never been more important than right now. It’ll be time before long (Laughs), but do the two of you have something you want to talk about?

Yoshikawa: Because it’s the first work I’ve been in charge of, I think there are still many parts I’m not useful with, but the other day, when I went to drink together with Director Nakazawa, he said, “As for Kan’s growth, you’ve become a good mentor for him”. Without thinking, I asked, “Director, are you drunk already?” (Laughs), but I was already crying. Kan was a good guy, and I think I had good chemistry with him, but to hear those words coming from the main director in my first work… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget that.

Takijima: Even in the next work you’re involved with, you might be nominated as “in charge of mentoring the lead actor” (Laughs).

Takebe: Director Nakazawa is incredible too. I think he also saw that point. After all, a director has a wide field of vision over the people they work with.

Yoshikawa: I already talked about this and my personal history, but I was really happy with the many Kamen Rider names I devised. Tycoon to start, plus Glare, Gazer, and Regad. Because English is my specialty, I was also entrusted with the English translation of the Desire Card in the opening and such. As a big Kamen Rider fan, I wouldn’t have regrets even if I died tomorrow, and even if I did die, Tycoon’s name would remain! (Laughs) It was truly a privilege to be part of this year.

Takebe: You also came up with the message at the very end, “Ace with us”.

Takijima: I have the character songs.

Takebe: The character songs! People seem to think that I do the character songs, but I don’t (Laughs).

Takijima: It’s a good thing to have a mental image like that when you’re involved with the work (Laughs). I made a lot. I’d only worked on Sentai shows up to now, so it was my first time working with Avex, but the group of writers is kind here too. The music producer (Mayu) Iida’s selection and distribution is also as expected, and the ideas I conveyed to her were realized at a terrific resolution. While discussing the lyrics, I came to understand the characters even more, and it was fun work. Because all of the producers paid great attention to the music videos as they made them too, the fans predicting “Geats” certainly want to look over these too.

Takebe: Even in the nationwide Final Stage, everyone in the cast will be singing, so please look forward to that too. Speaking of, the other day there was a lot of excitement in the summer movie’s Kansai campaign, surprisingly at the same time, and I was happy.

Yoshikawa: Kan is from Kyoto, so he probably said “I’m home!” with his speech (Laughs), but really, there was a frenzy to the point that the meeting hall shook.

Takebe: I’m relieved that “Geats” has provided good results in television ratings, box-office scores, and toy sales. Especially from the beginning of the year onwards, the second half saw an increase, so it was worth everyone’s effort. When you’ve been doing it for this long, you see some cases where the hard work doesn’t amount to anything, so… in that sense, I’m extremely grateful. Even though we’re announcing the Final Stage and V-Cinext, there are still many other “Geats”-related projects in the works, so I would appreciate your continued support!

#kamen rider geats #avataro sentai donbrothers #kikai sentai zenkaiger #kamen rider gotchard #hideyoshi kan #ryuga sato #yuna hoshino #kazuto mokudai #op #guster translates rider

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