This is taken from Gunota headlines and it's from 2003. Some of you have probably read it, but for those who haven't there are some cool things (note though that some of it has been changed since because Destiny has come along and whatnot). I particularly like Fukuda's original ending... it's a pity he changed it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]
---
A while back, I did promise a Fukuda interview. Well here it is (even though it's not the same one). This was taken from Fukuda's appearance at Kyoto University on Nov 23rd. The interview report was posted on Char Custom BBS and its contents have been confirmed by people who attended this event.
Warnings (at the event):
- No autographs or handshake
- No tape-recording or video-recording
- No use of cell phones
It started off with Fukuda saying "please don't post this (interview report) on the internet" and he kept repeating this throughout the event.
Apparently Fukuda never worked for Tomino.
Q: Reasons why you became part of the anime business?
A: I love Tomino-san! Only saw the last part of G. My favorite series is Turn A. Haven't watched anime in the past 10 years. Instead, watched a lot of drama and movies. Star Wars is my favorite movie. Tomino hates Titanic. Though I like it *laughs*
Q: Difference betweeen reality and anime?
A: After all, anime's war is only a fashion. I read newspapers like Mainichi and Asahi, but anime isn't really serious. They call it "anti-war discussion", but can't comprehend it because it's hard. With my son, I only discuss war on the level that it is bad.
Q: Difference between First (MSG) and SEED?
A: First was during the Vietnam War era while SEED was created during the Iraqi War. They say war, war, but it's only a robot anime afterall. Gundam elapsed on its own through the times so I wanted to bring it back to a pure robot anime, Combattler V-type.
Q: Are Mwu and Raww Newtypes?
A: Both are the last remaining Newtypes. They were the last Newtypes in the world so I wanted to write a story where non-Newtype people try to solve the problem.
Q: Any plans for the next series?
A: I can't say it. It's top secret. Movie plan was killed. There are plenty of Gundam and Mr. Tomino is still doing it so please guess. (translator's note: talking about the Zeta compilation?)
Q: Why did Waltfeld live?
A: Originally, I didn't plan for him to live, but let him live because there weren't a lot of cool adults left. When I saw the VA's acting on screen, I said to myself, "Man, he's not going to die." When Morita-san heard that, his face had a look saying, "What are you saying when he's planning to die."
Q: About Yzak?
A: He wasn't really a hot-blooded-type character, but his personality changed due to Seki-san's (Tomokazu Seki = VA for Yzak) acting.
Q: About Dearka?
A: Dearka wasn't suppose to switch sides, but I made it happen since the sales of Buster Gundam were bad. Sasanuma, Dearka's voice, had a real sweet voice so it was hard for him to completely become a bad guy.
Q: About the 3 dudes (aka EA Gundam pilots)?
A: I'm not going to give out their profiles. Just between ourselves, they are criminals sentenced to death. They plea bargained as Gundam pilots in return for lesser punishment.
Q: About Raww, Azrael and Patrick Zara
A: They are type of people you can't talk to to solve things so their deaths were forthcoming.
Q: About Athrun?
A: Unlike Kira, Athrun was a disciplined soldier at the start. Which is why I eventually had to 'break' him, but that didn't happen until episode 36 *laughs*
Q: About Cagalli?
A: Even though she told Kira that he's a coordinator, she has no discrimination feelings. Her father told her to study, but that's not her personality which is why she piloted Rouge. Originally, Fllay was suppose to pilot it, but I made them change it halfway.
Q: About Lacus?
A: People say they don't really understand Lacus and even the staff don't. Only I and Morozawa know her. Her personality never changed from the start.
Q: About Fllay?
A: A worried woman who was looking for a place to stay.
Q: About Fllay's Lalah-esque meaning?
A: The title of that scene was "What Fllay wanted to tell him." (a way to let the audience know what Fllay wanted to say). However a dead person can't express their feelings so Kira never heard those words. Which means Kira never got to know Fllay's feelings and he has to carry the burden of her death.
Q: The finale you had in mind?
A: Fllay was suppose to be a human bomb. She returned as a human bomb to Archangel. She was going to blowup outside of the ship along with Ssigh. Then Kira was going to die with Athrun losing an arm...
Q: The meaning of the neutral country Orb?
A: That's just an ideal. Japan that is. However, they weren't occupied. Think about it, in order to be ruled you need massive military power and that's troublesome.
Q: Any thoughts on any episodes?
A: Hmm, names... I'm not good at naming. Idea of SEED came up while I was on the phone. It started with a discussion of naming it with 'S' and I thought of Sin Gundam. However, you can't use that in America. God Gundam was no good in America so... *makes a joke about God Gundam's name* so I named it Freedom. When I thought of this name and announced it to everyone, everyone sorta froze and said, "What?!" This is when I believed, "This is it." About Justice, you have Ultraman (Justice). Usually you avoid having the same names, but "Hey, this is the almighty Gundam! Move out of the way!" Kira derived from "killer". Yamato is very Japanese. Amuro was "Zerosen" (aka the Japanese WW2 Zero fighter). Kai Shiden was from Shidenkai (another Japanese warplane), but Yamato is very easy. BTW, Athrun was derived from yo-ake (dawn), Cagalli from kagaribi (bonfire), Lacus from mizu-umi (lake).
Q: Meaning of SEED?
A: At first, there wasn't a meaning. Those came afterwards *laughs*
Q: Problem between Natural and Coordinator?
A: Since DNA-related subject is a complicated matter in reality too, there were a lot of gray area in the anime as well.
Q: How come the corpses were very graphic?
A: It was necessary. The TV producer stressed, "Show what you have to show" so Fllay's sex was included. About the death of Fllay's father in episode 11 and death of Elle-tan (the girl on the shuttle) in episode 13, the producer passionately said "it has to be more cruel!"
Q: About Fllay?
A: I thought of 2 ways to keep Kira attached to Fllay. One was to give Fllay a big scar on her face and other was sex. I wonder if I should have given her the scar *laughs*
Q: About the VA?
A: Auditions, but I already decided who was going to do whom. I fell in love with Kuwashima-san (VA for Fllay and Natarle) from her works in movie dubs. Same with Ishida-san (Athrun's VA). Fell in love with his dub as Luke Skywalker. I was definitely going to use Mitsuishi-san and Seki Tomokazu-kun.
Q: Meaning of each coul? (one coul equals a 13 episode segment of the show)
A:
1 & 2 - Kira's war intervention
2 - Kira destroying himself due to woman relationships
3 - Recovering Kira
4 - didn't comment
Q: Models of each character?
A: Kira's model was Tatsuya Fujiwara (played Shuya Nanahara in Battle Royale). During that time, Battle Royale was on. Lacus was Audrey Hepburn.
Q: Merchandise aspect?
A: Anime has to be successful in the merchandise department. Turn A was sorry in terms of merchandise. *laughs* The plamodel staff froze after looking at the moustache. I was shooting for something in between First and Wing.
Q: About the difference between the planned story and the final product?
A: Aile/Sword related Strike series plamodel sold over 900,000. I wanted it to hit the one million mark so Rouge appeared. <-- this may have been a joke) The name 'Rouge' was already decided.
Q: Any influence/ideas from other Gundam?
A: Before I started, I watched CCA and F91. I watched the first ep of X and returned the video. *laughs*
Q: Who does Kira like?
A: He doesn't really like either of them (Fllay and Lacus).
Q: What is your message of this anime?
A: If it's boring, please turn off the channel. Isn't it funny when people still watch it even after they call it boring. *laughs*
Q: Morozawa is the scriptwriter because she is related? (ie they are married)
A: No. I fell in love with her abilities. Cyber Formula went well too.
Q: Any SEED production stories?
A: The plan was set in August. The plan went to Mr. Tomino in December. When I was working on SEED, the president told me, "Mr. Tomino won't be involved." The president told me to go greet him anyway so I visited him during the New Year's holiday. Tomino was enraged, "I made Turn A to unify Gundam!" He later said, "Don't trust Bandai" and recommended the book "Cure of Turn A".
Q: About Gundam?
A: Out of all of the previous series, only Tomino-san's Gundam lasted a year (Translator's note: Not quite sure what Fukuda means here). Gundam is serious. Production cost of other anime is about 10-12 million yen, but SEED was 25 million yen (Further note: Presumably, Fukuda means on a per-episode basis rather than the entire series cost as a whole). This is a business where money comes by adding "Gundam." Gundam is awesome. For normal anime, they have to get it within 9 million yen. However, there are times you go over the budget which means you cover the excess cost with merchandise goods. For Gundam, no one argues if you use 15 million yen because it is guranteed that you can recover the cost with merchandise goods.
Q: Where did you spend the most in?
A: About 10 million yen went to 3DCG. (*many who attended said this really didn't answer the question)
Q: About Mwu stopping Dominion's beam. Is that a miracle?
A: It was an anti-beam shield so it can stop it, right?
Someone refutes Fukuda by "Isn't Lohengrin an anti-fortress beam..." and Fukuda replies, "I didn't know that *laughs*"
Other random comments by Fukuda:
- Currently working on next Cyber.
- Director pay for Gundam is good *laughs*
Comments by RGZ
- This is about how most of Fukuda's recent interviews are.
- Based on people who attended this, some were saying Fukuda didn't seem to fully understand the meaning of the questions (which might explain some of the answers being weird) and kept saying "off the record".
- In case you didn't catch it, SEED movie seems dead while Zeta compilation is still ongoing.
- Last, I would like to thank Neo-Era for proofreading this [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
Reply With Quote
