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zafedda · 3 years ago

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Toshiki Inoue Interview about Shougeki Gouraigan and an overview of his writing process

This interview was published in the booklet with the first BD set of the series Interviewer: Please tell us how you became the main writer of "Shougeki Gouraigan!!"

Inoue: I got a call from Amemiya saying "It's been a long time, let's work" and I said "Ah, got it". Actually when we met, for the first step we started with approaching the setting of "Light vassal" and "Shadow vassal". Broadly I wanted to make something like a comedy but he wouldn’t listen to me.

Interviewer: Then director Amemiya wrote on his personal blog that Gouraigan would have aim to be a "strange thing"

Inoue: Maybe he was already tired with the same old stuff. (LAUGH) Even for action, he's not even using stuff like wires in town, because he portrays actions in an odd dimension. So he had in mind in the first place some kind of battlefield for actions. After that, to evoke that feeling of "strange thing" , the costumes (TN: the proper term used for costumes is kigurumi which means something like "cartoony costumes") interact in a contest of ordinary life, right? That's the main ingredient, it's not the costumes doing laundry. It's the gap related to daily life that's funny. I think that we moved in order to make that the core of the comedy.

Interviewer: There must have been several meetings, right?

Inoue: We sure had a lot of them, before putting hands in the scenario in order to decide the direction of the show.

Interviewer: That includes director Amemiya?

Inoue: Of course, but it’s like even he couldn’t figure out what to make out of this program? (LAUGH) It’s not a matter to just depend on his ideas, but i wonder how much time it would have taken to reach a common ground. It’s like we committed to pull it through, in the beginning. But, in the middle everyone gave up! It’s that sort of a show (LAUGH)

Interviewer: Considering it’s a comedy, everyone will have a different approach to it, and sure it will be hard to make them grasp this to those who want to watch it.

Inoue: Even if there was the concept of the gap made by the suits interacting in an ordinary life it didn’t pass so well I think. I even tried to convey it from the start in the script. Aaaaaah, why did it happen? I couldn’t make it pass. Not even once in that program. It’s not that a good point? When it comes to making the suits ridiculous you make them ridiculous. Usually everyone looks forward to the transformation, it elevates the coolness of the suits, but this product prefers to degrade this. That sure is new (LAUGH). It's Amemiya's idea. Rather than consecrating the suits you make them look uncool as they are. That’s the kind of treat they get.

Interviewer: In tokusatsu there’s a certain depiction of transformations' scenes

Inoue: In that way we turned around that conception

Interviewer: Depicting the suits in an ordinary life it sure makes harder the problem of giving the action scenes a peculiar flavor this time

Inoue: Isn’t this the cause of the battles in those odd dimensions? With stuff like the sophisticated mandala and that game feel in it, i think their purpose is to make the mind go “AAAAH”

Interviewer: Since they’re usually under human form, they really can return into the Light vassal form at any time, right?

Inoue: The human is a disguise, or rather that’s the point of view of the Light vassal, but what about the situation where “These humans are illusions” under their human eyes? It would be easy to accept such a situation. Maybe once they turn into humans even the point of view should be human. That is, their appearance is disguised by some kind of light that affects the human eyes, could it be? Because Light vassal (LAUGHS). Anyway that’s a directional matter, that’s why in the script I omitted the hints that indicate the human parts and Light vassal parts. So when you read the script I think it doesn’t turn out to be interesting. When it comes to watching it on screen though I find it very interesting.

Interviewer: I got the impression that the writing style differed from your previous works, were there any critical parts?

Inoue: It might be close to Changerion a little. I wrote it a long time ago but it’s still my reference point as a comedy. Sometimes I’m prone to write them. That’s why I didn’t find particular challenges concerning this product. Since the opportunity showed up again, I want to write comedies whenever there’s a chance

Interviewer: What comes to your mind when you write your ideal comedy?

Inoue: It’s true that Comedies are hard. You can’t make them pass as a low product, but it's no good to treat them as something intellectual. That’s why it’s important to have a lot of ideas. Then the dialogues. Situational dialogues are the bread and butter of comedy.

Interviewer: Any favourite part?

Inoue: In the first episode when Homeless Yamashita said something like “When life gets you a hangover, drinking will sober you up”, when I watched it on TV I thought it was a good line (LAUGH). Many good lines kept coming to my mind, That’s why I didn’t worry too much about it.

Interviewer: So there’s the impression that this work went according to your expectations, right?

Inoue: You can say it. Well, there’s a direction that makes everyone proceed according to expectations, it went mostly like this. But when it comes to shooting it the reactions were really perplexed. It mostly went according to the script but people were “What did you make us shoot!”. It’s just that in this kind of program people who disagree are really picky. I think there were a lot of unagreeable people.

Interviewer: As if they didn’t know what they wanted.

Inoue: Yeah. So it’s not a matter whether this program is good or bad. It’s more like a matter of if you can accept it for what it is. As a matter of course this program would get complaints.

Interviewer: There are people who also demanded to make it more serious right?

Inoue: A lot. It’s really a program that neglects that kind of person. There are also a lot of people who can’t understand where the fun is.

Interviewer: With its late night slot broadcasting, did you have in mind an adult audience?

Inoue: It came up something like that during the planning meetings, the scene of Hitomi making a bath would have certainly been accepted. But with tacit consent, I went to write scenes with sexual appeal as I wished, even Amemiya was left alone when filming in this regard.

Interviewer: The Navi outlook was really something

Inoue: I was surprised too (LAUGH)

Interviewer: When it came to broadcasting, any impression that striked you?

Inoue: The first episode is still sane (LAUGH). It may be a bit hard to understand it though. With stuff like human form and light vessel form, the point of view gradually changes. But watching it with the young staff they said “That’s not true, viewers can keep up this far”. But I got nothing that made me think of that, what about it?

Interviewer: The goal of the story, or how should i put it, it started with no explanation at all of the circumstances, I was surprised.

Inoue: That’s why the point of the drama has become whether they can keep up or not.

Interviewer: At the start of the first episode, the meta narration of Hitomi got me surprised

Inoue: That was an important device, it’s thanks to this that the events were easy to follow yet. We sorted out her feelings by placing her point of view on matters. If it wasn’t for that the scenario would have been all over the place I think. This program is all about Hitomi, or rather she’s really the main pivot. The first episode flows through the scenes involving Hitomi, in these scenes it also became a proclamation of intents that this program is meant to be funny. The gist of it, this product could be seen easily as the story of Hitomi’s personal growth.

Interviewer: On the screen even the supporters made an appearance (N.T: I made supporters = 黒子-> Kuroko are usually black guys on the background in theatre that put on scene any kind of theatrical postures, for example in the Ran episode whenever she transforms artificial butterflies pop up with the black dressed supporters or when Sailor gamer transforms the same dressed supporter lady pops up to undress her to change her clothes)

Inoue: That’s a directional matter, same with the Hitomi narration, i think it was established to give a certain touch to the product

Interviewer: Were there any solid directions from Amemiya about the development of the story of the characters and their backgrounds and the like, right?

Inoue: There were some regarding the characters like “The path is clear!” It's not a line that I put, Amemiya wanted it! It’s like a line that fits a character that confronts the sea shouting at it. Eventually, other characters' backgrounds were picked for me

Interviewer: Besides Gou were there any rough spots with other characters?

Inoue: More or less I developed the characters as they were talking to each other. But in the end many things came up when I was in the process of writing which I gave life to it. That’s why there weren’t any characters that were particularly hard to write (LAUGH). It went all smoothly. The most troublesome aspect was the Light Vessels’ lifestyles. That’s where the comedy parts are, it was hard to make them whatever in a riciclation shop or rather it was troublesome to think about it. Sexual scenes with suits floated in my head but when it came to writing them I didn't find them funny. Making some kind of osè skits when they were humans felt wrong yet. It’s precisely because they were designed for the suits that it can be said that the scenes were funny. Comedy and skits are separate matters.

Interviewer: Is there a favourite character?

Inoue: Hitomi was the most fun to write. With her rakugo mania, her aloofness, like a guy who’s fine with shutting himself off. In this environment Gou and the others brought her chaos. Hitomi’s absenceness of mind or rather her dull emotions was a really important factor. Then there’s Jin. it makes sense that he gives off a feeling of being out of place. And it makes sense too that Gou is a straightforward character. it’s stupid eh, just stupid (LAUGH).

Interviewer: Kinda all the Light Vessels are… (LAUGH)

Inoue: That’s true, everyone’s stupid. Sure no one is smart (LAUGH). But because they went to Earth there’s a sort of a gap. You can also say that when they arrived on Earth they got exposed to a lot of new stuff so they get more and more dense.

Interviewer: Originally the characters should have been passionate and wise right?

Inoue: It wasn’t thought of what kind of characters would have inhabited the Spirit World. Just, more or less they commited sins, so I had to put something to fit the occasion in everyone and putting something that would have made them not detached from the world would have been a little wrong.

Interviewer: Isn’t the character of the old lady really appealing?

Inoue: when the Light Vessels got all assembled, I thought that she would get too bothersome. Since depicting her like a young wife or in search of specific attention would have come out wrong in the moment. (LAUGH) There are Shou and also Hitomi, so the atmosphere would have changed up too much in the end. That’s why placing her as a perfect nanny was no good.

Interviewer: Inoue, did you have to go personally to the filming location to make instructions directly?

Inoue: I went just once but it wasn’t for this case at all. I couldn’t be there that much when they planned for the shooting periods, but the shop set was amazing, I was surprised.

Interviewer: You had to go to have a talk with the actors, right?

Inoue: Whenever I went it was mostly for that. Even if this is the case, I had the occasion to meet them in this regard once.

Interviewer: How did everyone get along?.

Inoue: It was full of youthness. It was full of spirit and they were good young lads.

Interviewer: If there were some stories behind this program please tell us!

Inoue: When the program was about to start the broadcast I went to drink with the staff, I was scolded to have drunk a very expensive wine (LAUGH). At the time everyone was fixed with the program and the feeling was great. It was fun to have a drink together. The directors were all zealous guys, so I think they had inside their head the purpose of this comedy. So we talked about various things. There was an episode like that.

Interviewer: From episode 1 to 4 please tell us what to look forward to.

Inoue: Gou starts the searching of the Dark Vessels alone but eventually he will make friends. Each character's introductions are surely interesting. There’s this sort of feeling that I like that gets you excited as the episodes go that it’s like “What kind of character will show up next?”. The exchanges with the leading actors and new characters are funny too. Please look forward to that.

#shougeki gouraigan #toshiki inoue #keita amemiya #tokusatsu

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