KUNIO OKAWARA
Mechanical Designer

MOBILE SUITS WERE NEARLY COMPLETED 18 YEARS AGO

Okawara: As most of you probably know, after Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY finished airing, there was talk of a movie version. Believe it or not, what I drew for that has hardly changed since then. It was around 2006, I think. Nearly all the mobile suits that appear in SEED FREEDOM, both allies and enemies, were drawn once at that time. Some of them were even fully cleaned up. (He shows the interviewer rough illustrations not present in article) Like these. It changed to a Z’Gok, but I drew an Acguy back then, too.

――The rough drafts have things like “New Justice” and “New Freedom” written on them, right? Is the unit labeled with “angel’s wings” what we now know as the Proud Defender?

Okawara: That’s right. 20 years have passed, so I’ve done some tweaking, but…

――You always say that you “draw while reflecting the era in your designs.” Were there any little adjustments you made this time around, thinking “this has changed” from back in the day?

Okawara: Initially, Director Fukuda said he was going to make it a hand-drawn anime, so I designed things to be as simple as possible. But after 20 years, everyone wants more intricate models, and it was decided to use 3DCG for the mobile suits. Modeling is tough in its own way, but once you make it, you can reuse it later, so I’ve ramped up the density quite a bit at the design stage. I haven’t added any weird parting lines, but I’ve adjusted it so that you can feel the density. In the past, Bandai (at the time) would have handled that part for us, but now they expect the animation cels and the products to have the same level of detail. It’s tough for us designers. Director Fukuda likes his backpacks, and they transform and stuff, so a single mobile suit takes about twice as much work. And we had to clean it all up in a short timeframe. At my age, my eyes aren’t what they used to be, so I’m always second-guessing if I connected the lines right. But Yasuhiko (Yoshikazu) is still going strong, so I gotta keep at it, too (laughs).

――If I remember right, SEED FREEDOM started picking up steam again about 3 or 4 years back. So the base orders are still the same as before, and you add contemporary elements as needed?

Okawara: Yes, that’s the gist of it. Director Fukuda’s roughs come in through the setting production crew at Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), and I work from there. Although, after I wrapped up, there was a request during the modeling stage to make the Z’Gok a bit sleeker. I just told ’em, “Go ahead and tweak it as you see fit” (laughs).

THE REVAMPED MOBILE SUIT LINEUP THAT EVEN OKAWARA IS FOND OF

――Was the Cavalier in the mix from the start of the movie?

Okawara: So with that, in Metal Armor Dragonar, I figured if Dragonar made a full-on appearance in the first episode, it wouldn’t pack much of a punch. That’s why I pitched the idea back then, like, “Let’s put a sandogasa on it at first.” Never thought it’d make a comeback like this, though.

――You’re always talking about designing with the animators’ ease of drawing in mind, but it feels like the demands might be shifting again in the age of CG.

Okawara: CG is hard to fake. I had to draw a boatload of RX-78s, and those five holes on the sides of the head were a real drag (laughs). So, starting around the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam days, I made a point of cutting those down.

――Rising Freedom Gundam doesn’t have the slits on its face.

Okawara: I’m guessing that’s Director Fukuda’s way of setting it apart. Otherwise, he would’ve been like, “Mr. Okawara, you forgot to draw them” (laughs). It usually comes down to “I want this detail, lose that one.” But hey, it’s not like I’m spending weeks on end on these designs.

――Anything else stand out to you about the designs?

Okawara: Hmm, I do remember Freedom’s wing deployment being a bit of a headache (laughs). Apart from that… I mean, it’s been 15 years. Director Fukuda’s got a long history with robot anime, so the man’s bursting with ideas. I draw based on the roughs he sends my way, and it makes a huge difference whether I have them or not. Some roughs I can knock out in a day. With directors like Yoshiyuki Tomino, who’s got a different take on mecha than I do, it’s a real pain to get on the same page when there aren’t any roughs. When Director Tomino was doing Mobile Suit Gundam, things got smoother after the Dom because he started providing roughs.

――What was the approach for the revamped units like the Gelgoog Menace?

Okawara: Since the time of SEED DESTINY, they’ve been throwing some pretty wild stuff my way, like the Zaku Warrior. So I was in the headspace of, “Alright, let’s do all the things we couldn’t pull off in the original Mobile Suit Gundam.”

――For the original Zaku, there were roughs from Director Tomino, but in the end, your design was almost completely different except for the “mono-eye.” But from the Dom onward, it seems like you stuck pretty close to the roughs.

Okawara: In Mobile Suit Gundam, for the mobile suits that showed up in the second half, there were specific roughs from Director Tomino. So there wasn’t much room for me to be like, “Let’s take it in this direction.” That’s another reason why the movie version coming off of SEED DESTINY was such a blast to work on.

KIMITOSHI YAMANE
Mechanical Designer

GIVING THE MILLENNIUM A DIFFERENT SILHOUETTE THAN THE MINERVA

――I spoke with Kunio Okawara about his designs for SEED FREEDOM, and he mentioned that he only made minor adjustments to the ones he created around 2006, which was nearly the first time the movie version was discussed.

Yamane:I had a similar experience. I made some small tweaks to what I designed back then and drew some additional concept art, mainly for the interior of the Millennium‘s bridge. When it came to creating the movie version of the Millennium, Director Fukuda requested, “I want to change the bow design.” Around 2006, we were referring to it as the Minerva class, so the bow’s aesthetic was inherently linked to the Minerva‘s. Although it had been approved at that point, Director Fukuda must have come up with new ideas and visions after nearly two decades. As a result, the bow underwent a significant redesign. I also created designs for the weaponry based on the ideas I received.

――So it was initially conceived as an evolution of the Minerva?

Yamane: I can’t recall all the specifics from nearly 20 years ago (laughs), but based on the feel of the initial bow draft, it seems it was meant to be a progression of the Minerva. The directive was likely along the lines of, “Design it in the spirit of the Minerva.” Apparently, it was classified as the third Minerva-class ship until just before the release. Bandai Namco Filmworks’ production team even confirmed, “Is it alright if the ship class remains the third Minerva-class vessel?” However, looking at the current design, there’s hardly any resemblance to the Minerva, right? I was hesitant to label it as part of the Minerva class, so I proposed three or four alternatives, including the “Super Minerva-class.” Ultimately, Shigeru Morita selected the name, and thus, it became the “Super Minerva-class,” implying a ship that surpasses the Minerva.

――It evolved from the original request for a “Minerva-class style” ship?

Yamane: Rather than focusing on the Minerva-class specifically, the order was for a newly designed ship for Compass. The reason the bow resembles the Minerva is likely because it incorporates ZAFT technology.

――Now that you mention it, the bow’s silhouette does bear a resemblance to the Minerva.

Yamane: However, the main wings’ positions are vastly different. From the start, the Millennium exudes a combative, or rather aggressive, aura, don’t you think? That stems from Director Fukuda’s conceptual sketches. I got the impression that he was undoubtedly drawing inspiration from those “space battleship” and “space pirate” themes (laughs).

――Particularly in recent years, creators of Director Fukuda’s generation seem to directly incorporate imagery from “what they’ve seen and enjoyed.”

Yamane: I believe this movie version not only pays homage to other works but also unabashedly embraces the fans of the Gundam SEED TV series. The increase in remakes and reboots lately may have played a role, but it’s remarkable that they were able to bring a 20-year-old script to life.

ENHANCING DETAILS FOR CG PRODUCTION FROM THE BEGINNING

――The intricate details on the Millennium and the ZAFT ships are undoubtedly due to it being a movie version, but considering CG, the Archangel has utilized CG since the original TV series. Over these past 20 years, advancements in anime production technology have allowed for even more detailed CG renderings, right?

Yamane:CG was already being implemented since the TV series, and even around 2006, there were discussions about “using it more extensively” for the movie version. Consequently, we were also refining the designs of the Nazca-class and Laurasia-class ships. However, nearly 20 years had passed since the work was interrupted, and suddenly, the movie version was given the green light. With limited production time, the detailing of the ships hadn’t been completed. We found ourselves wondering, “Well, what should we do now?” That’s when Director Fukuda introduced us to a designer named Zenseava, suggesting, “I’d like to have Zenseava handle the detail work.” Zenseava did an incredibly thorough job on the Archangel, Kusanagi, and Earth Alliance battleships, allowing us to focus on working on the Millennium.

――The Nazca-class and Laurasia-class convey a real sense of scale.

Yamane: Their shapes have been slightly altered and enhanced with additional details, giving them a revamped feel. The fundamental concept during the TV series was a spaceship-like design constructed in zero gravity, with a clear distinction from the Earth Alliance’s aesthetic. In terms of details, they were relatively simple, weren’t they? The Nazca-class and Laurasia-class designs followed in the footsteps of the Musai from Mobile Suit Gundam, aiming for a striking silhouette at first glance. At the time, there was a notion of creating a “21st-century remake of Mobile Suit Gundam.”

COMMANDING FROM THE TOP OF THE BRIDGE: A NAVAL TRADITION

Yamane: The most challenging aspect of the Millennium was the bridge. Nearly all of the art settings for the SEED series, including the ship’s interior, were handled by Mr. Shigemi Ikeda of Atelier Musa. However, this time, I was tasked with designing the bridge exclusively. From the outset, Director Fukuda requested a “circular seating arrangement on the bridge.” I’m unsure of the reasoning behind the circular layout, but I recall thinking, “It’s going to be tricky to position the births and draw it.” I wondered if the inspiration might have been the Enterprise from Star Trek (laughs). With the windows also arranged in a circular pattern, I had to consider how to harmonize the bridge’s exterior design. The result was a shape rarely seen in Gundam series battleships, and I believe it successfully conveyed the atmosphere of a cutting-edge vessel, both inside and out. The system where the captain’s seat elevates to the top of the bridge was Director Fukuda’s idea. Many people might attribute it to the aforementioned “space pirate” influence, but if you’re familiar with real-life battleship combat, it’s a long-standing tradition for the captain to command evasive maneuvers from the bridge’s uppermost open deck. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Pacific War, the sharp commands of Captain Morishita of the battleship Yamato minimized the ship’s damage. I think that’s what “space pirate” themes also encompass.

――The catapult design is quite distinctive. What inspired that shape?

Yamane: With the Minerva, the hatch would open, and the units would launch from within the ship. However, this time, the open-air catapult was Director Fukuda’s vision. He might have wanted to capture a dramatic shot, like a view panning across the bridge or a mobile suit standing imposingly in front of it. It could have been a nod to Dragonar (laughs). As for the linear catapult, the concept of “a bar rising from the deck to create a magnetic field line” was established back in 2006. There was also a directive from the beginning for the mobile suits to enter the hangar, ascend to the deck, and launch one by one. Considering the staging of where the hangar is located and how to move it to bring up the next mobile suit, I designed a split hangar on the left and right that could fold and be stored beneath the deck. The hangar’s interior and other areas were designed by Atelier Musa. Finalizing the hangar design was a task I undertook after the movie version’s restart, and along with the bridge’s interior, it was one of the significant projects post-restart.

THE MILLENNIUM’S RAM IS NOT ACTUALLY MEANT FOR ANTI-SHIP COMBAT

Yamane: The bow has undergone significant changes since 2006, and while I can’t say for certain without discussing it with Director Fukuda, I believe one of the reasons for the modification was the idea of “attacking by ramming.” Director Fukuda proposed concepts like making the bow pointed or slightly elongated. Although it did remind me of those “space pirate” themes (laughs), I struggled a lot when it came to drawing it. In the SEED universe or any other Gundam series, ships are rarely, if ever, designed with the intention of ramming enemy vessels from the outset. As a designer, I had serious doubts and reservations about suddenly incorporating such a primitive function into a cutting-edge ship, especially when the tactic of “ramming with a space battleship” hadn’t been established. So, my first question was, “What is the functional purpose behind this feature?” That’s when we asked Morita to consider “why the ram is attached” for the first time. The explanation he devised was that “it was constructed by radical factions to destroy the colonies of moderate factions in the event of internal conflict within the PLANTs.” That made sense within the context of the story and helped justify the design choice.

――As a viewer, it’s easy to simply think, “Oh, they just wanted to have it ram into things.”

Yamane: True, but as a designer, you crave a functional justification. Thankfully, Morita came up with a plausible reason that fit within the narrative. Knowing Director Fukuda, I anticipated he might opt for a flashy presentation where the bow extends like a saber and slices through the opponent (laughs). I even sketched a concept along those lines, with the ram extending to about twice the length of the bow for a dramatic charging visual. However, when I presented it to him, he said, “You don’t need to go that far,” so we ended up with a more modest extension. The name “Goten” was given by Director Fukuda. I’m sure everyone recognizes it comes from “that” (laughs), but it’s interesting that it’s in Japanese when everything else is in German or other languages. It’s a testament to Director Fukuda’s creative liberation in certain aspects.

WHAT DESIGNERS NEED IN THE ERA OF CG DOMINANCE

――Viewers don’t need to know the original inspiration, but I think the intention is for those who do know to appreciate it.

Yamane: It’s Director Fukuda’s way of providing fan service, I suppose.

――Because you designed the mecha around 2006, the audience might have been able to genuinely view this work as an extension of SEED DESTINY.

Yamane: That’s a possibility. If we were designing it now, the pressure to make significant changes might have led to more deliberation. Starting the movie project when the TV series was still fresh in people’s minds might have helped us avoid going overboard. The mobile suits also heavily utilize CG, but they move naturally and look impressive. It really captured Shigeta’s style and turned out great.

――Looking ahead, do you think there will be more opportunities for designers in terms of creating details and structures specifically tailored for CG?

Yamane: Even as the technology to reproduce complex details in CG improves, I believe it’s crucial to prioritize the aspects that convey the character and the atmosphere of the world. When drawing by hand, there’s a tendency for designs to become similar, but based on my recent work, I feel that CG can also easily fall into patterns. While intricate details have their allure, they alone don’t define a character. In a series, there’s a mindset that details should be “reassuring” and consistent with the established world. However, depending on the work’s style and goals, it’s also important to question “whether there’s a future in that approach.” CG will likely become a valuable tool for breaking through such conventions in production. As designers, we are always driven by the desire to “inject fresh perspectives” and innovate with each new project.