For archival purposes, here is a text version of the old G-FILES from the original Bandai DVD release of the series.

DISC.01

Q1: Explain how G Gundam relates to conventional Gundam series.

People generally say that G Gundam is not Gundam, don’t they? At times, even I think that it is not Gundam. That is, G Gundam is not a Gundam series at all, but its own “G Gundam” series. It is a title totally independent from the Gundam tradition. However, I have started thinking like that only quite recently.

I believe that the feeling the production staff had at the beginning of the show, and how the audience feels after watching it, have grown in the same direction. Like everyone else, I was having second thoughts. I was also annoyed by a lot of second and third thoughts in a different way. When we started making the program, there were some portions of the work which were influenced by the Gundam tradition, like character actions and poses. As a “Mobile Fighter” series, it should’ve been clearly distinct from the original Gundam scenario, since these Gundams in the story are striking their poses as Mobile Fighters, not as war machines.

If you asked me about G Gundam compared to the conventional series, my answer would be different depending on where we were in the production. My own impression of G Gundam at the beginning and at the climax stage are totally different, and there is no longer such a thing as a “conventional” Gundam series in my head. In my mind, the work has become totally independent from the original, so I would dare say it is totally meaningless to compare the two series.

Q2: What about the similarities in their settings?

There is no connection between the G Gundam setting and that of the traditional Gundam universe. I think you can tell that when you see the colony design (laughs). This is what I thought at the beginning of production. For example, kids who experienced an SD Gundam series as their first Gundam series wouldn’t be shocked by a program like the one we made; they would feel something totally different. There is something like a spell binding us to the Gundam series. I think, just like the Beatles to rock ‘n’ roll, the Mobile Suit Gundam series has a great influence that works just like a spell to bind all anime and even the Gundam series itself. I wondered if we could remove the spell and release ourselves now. I thought that the Gundam series is one huge brand to those kids who do not feel the magic of this spell nowadays. So a work like G Gundam can stand on its own just as SD Gundam does. One major difference between G Gundam and SD Gundam is that it was a TV series. Had it been made as an OVA series, I believe it would have originally been received differently by the fans.

Q3: How does each country transport their Mobile Fighters?

Because we are not able to completely rid our minds of our preconceptions about Gundam, there were definitely some conflicts during production. For example, at the beginning stages, there used to be a series of discussions called “Where Will the Gundam Appear from This Week?” Other than the Statue of Liberty in the second episode, we were also planning to make a Gundam come out of a horizontally-opened Arc de Triomphe (laughs). People might wonder how they could be hidden there. We can laugh at such situations after watching it, but I think the manga and TV anime that we used to watch were just like that. We thought it was cool to have the hero robot make an exciting entrance with good timing. Since the show was for kids, we decided to make the pictures appealing to kids. So, I thought it was ok to have a Gundam coming out of the Statue of Liberty. I anticipated that, if we had to think out the methods of Gundam transportation, the show’s style would be too rigid and inflexible for kids’ taste.

With older shows, we did not have to think of these things since there was usually something like a research lab that functions as a base. However, for G Gundam, we could not set up a research lab. The Gundam Fighters had to travel on food all over the world without a base. Besides, there is no White Base! Then, I developed an “I don’t care” attitude. We weren’t thinking about it too much, so we wouldn’t let our audience think about it too much either. I just pushed the ideas based on the feeling, “It’s ok if it’s fun to watch!”

Q4: Why is Neo Japan’s transportation capsule flower-shaped?

In the beginning, there were plans to create a cool Gundam and a beautiful Gundam. For a time, I was planning to take ideas from Thumbelina for the Gundam’s entrance scene, and it is the resut of that idea that Shining Gundam comes out of a flower-shaped capsule. In fact, the idea came from Sachiko Kobayashi (laughs). I wanted to try something like “Oh, a Gundam is coming out of a flower blossom!! It’s Sachiko Kobayashi, it’s Kouhaku!!” (laughs)

[Sachiko Kobayashi is a famous Japanese enka singer. Kouhaku is an abbreviation of “kouhaku-uta-gassen,” the annual Red vs. White Team-Singing Competition, which is broadcast in Japan at the end of each year. Sachiko Kobayashi always attends the competition as a singer, wearing a gorgeous flower costume.]

A while ago, there was a TV commercial for frozen udon noodles or something, in which, as a refrigerator gets opened, Sachiko Kobayashi comes out singing, “Because it’s frozen…” I loved this CM a lot. You know why? It’s because at that time I was working on Mr. Ajikko and I got a strong impression that they made that CM after watching Mr. Ajikko. In fact, I was already using that idea for Ajio-sama (“venerable Taste Emperor”), an old man authority character, who judges the cooking contests in Ajikko, and usually came out of a flower blossom. Thus, I was also taking the idea from Ajio’s image as well. So, the original idea came from Ajio-sama and Sachiko Kobayashi.

Q5: Was it challenging to depict all those country settings in the show’s first half?

When I heard that the heroes travel on foot all over the world to fight with each other, I thought I had to depict the world as realistically as possible. So, if the characters went to America, I wanted to depict something like America, and when in China, I wanted to show Chinese culture and atmosphere. In other words, I believed that how much national character we could include in the picture would be one of the most important parts of the setting design. Originally, I thought that sightseeing guidebooks would be good enough. Of course, there would be no way to do location hunting for each episode. It would have definitely been best if we could afford for it, though (laughs). However, the only problem that we encountered with referring to those guidebooks was that those books were trying to show landscapes and beautiful buildings, rather than showing something from the perspective of everyday people.

I believe a film needs to have such a perspective for an audience to believe in the film. So instead of location hunting, I thought of films. Film production of any sort always involves location hunting, so they can create a good setting. Besides, I think the perspective from a film camera has something very close to that of human eyes. If we could choose good images from films, I thought we could make settings from a fairly realistic point of view. So, I decided to refer to films. We didn’t just copy the images, we tried to recreate the feeling that we got from them. This wound up causing trouble later on, though…

The image of Rome in episode one is from Fellini’s Rome. However, I had not watched it at the time. I was actually watching Ginger and Fred [also by Fellini]. This film depicts the city of Rome as a place strewn with garbage. It’s so messy. I thought the Rome suitable to the moral in episode one would be this kind of Rome. The reason why I like this film is that it dares to show the dirty portions of one’s own country, rather than trying to make it appear beautiful. It was a good reference for me in that it showed me how a messy portion of something can turn into a good picture. Also, I liked to watch “Powers of Evil” in Fellini’s Histoires Extraordinaires. The image of Rome in this film is especially strong. It is a horror film, but Rome is a city of history, isn’t it? When I discussed it with Mr. Junichi Higashi, the Background Art Director, he told me that each country should be treated as a character. Then, he suggested that Rome is a city of ghosts. So, we decided to go for it with the image that “a GUNDAM, a giant robot, is going to fight in a town of ghosts!”

During production of episode two, I was constantly telling the staff to draw a picture of a place that they would easily think of as being America or New York. When I told them it could be anything that they know, they said the Brooklyn Bridge. As I thought of which film best depicted the Brooklyn Bridge, I decided on Woody Allen’s Manhattan. I brought a video cover of this film to the studio, and said, “Isn’t this good? Here, Domon will collapse, all right!?” We actually had never seen such thing as the sunrise in New York, so we had to express something that we haven’t ever seen before. As Domon wakes up, he will see New York’s sunrise. But there is no way for us to depict something that we’ve never seen, after all. At least, we wanted to get the feel of it in terms of mise-en-scene. Then, we came to think why not experience America with Woody Allen’s film?

The reason why the Gundams fought on Broadway was that there was a Genesis CD titled The Lamb Lies on Broadway, and I was deeply impressed with the song’s lyrics. In the song, a person who has never been there suddenly feels the atmosphere and image of Broadway. So, we decided to make a picture from that lyric. Bunny standing alone there is the lamb. There is no meaning for the show at all, though. If asked what this meant, I would say that Bunny was standing alone in the morning mist as I tried to depict my own image of Broadway. This is my “The Lamb Lies on Broadway.” It is very interesting since a battle takes place in such a mysterious situation. So the fascination starts from there.

Also, in episode 2, there is a scene where Rain comes into Domon’s room. The idea for the hotel’s structure and room is taken from the apartment in Hitchcock’s Rear Window. I usually draw a square room if I have to depict a hotel room. If one is staying in a cheap hotel in downtown New York, the room should be a floor with 2 or 3 stairs in front way, rather than a neat-looking square room. It should be very different from a Japanese hotel room. I did not want a parody of Rear Window; I wanted to use the apartment since it has a very American feel. And when I thought about why I felt that way, I realized it was the stairs. Also, there was one scene in the film Vertigo where a woman opens a window and is back-lit by the hotel’s neon lights outside the window. I tried to make this cheap hotel feel more American by placing neon signs outside of the window. So, I rather enjoyed creating the settings for episode 2.

I loved the world of episode 3. Since China is full of peaceful and tranquil towns, it is not easy to draw. So, rather than specifying a location, I preferred to choose a place that I personally liked. The Hong Kong film series that never made it to Japan but is a personal favorite of mine is the Won Fei-Fong series. I also picked some ideas from older films by director King Hoo, since I expected there would be more films that depicted the image of China more realistically than we would imagine. The settings are largely influenced by these films as well. The atmosphere in the town was borrowed from the Won Fei-Fong series, and it becomes a world of traditional Chinese landscape painting as the location shifts to the countryside in the latter half of the episode. There are tall mountains, waterfalls, and pine trees. I said it would be perfect to have this three-piece set (laughs). Also, I remember that I was paying special attention to small items in town scenes. This episode was a good experience for us to learn that, even though these little details appear insignificant, they would make a huge difference. I suppose especially Mr. Higashi was having difficulties at the time, but he made really excellent setting designs for the town so I approved them with one blow, saying “Oh, you got me!”

The country for episode 4 was France. However, French cinemas were fairly difficult to transfer to anime, so I used the images in Swing Out Sisters’ early video clips, with the concept that the two walk around in the city of Paris. The video clip showed something of Paris that I have never seen in other countries. It provided good references for things like hand railings and neatly aligned staircases. We also had a reference for the place where Maria Louise was tied to a tree. There should be a restaurant with a terrace on a hill, and this restaurant is designed so people can eat and enjoy the view. I wanted the restaurant to look old and rather worn. Well, I wished to create the atmosphere of the stores on Aoyama Avenue in Japan. I believe it was difficult for us because France is a country which was originally clean and beautiful but eventually became aged and frayed.

DISC.02

Q1: Please continue discussing the episode settings.

In episode 5, I learned a lot about the significance of location hunting and settings. People ask me why this prison is in Russia, since it is based on Alcatraz. Fortunately, the year before making G Gundam, I went to America; so I asked if I could visit Alcatraz. In fact, I really wanted to see Alcatraz as a location reference for the one of the Giant Robo episodes. When it was time to create Argo’s prison, I supposed a small one would be too boring to hold the powerful Argo. I used the idea of the jail as “practice” before using it for Giant Robo. So, I used portions of Alcatraz wherever possible. For example, the place where Argo and Domon meet for the first time is an actual place. So, I made scenes of this episode using videos and pamphlets as references. Photographs were definitely useful. But all in all, the experience of actually going out and seeing things out there was clearly more beneficial. Perhaps because I am a man of stage direction, I constantly wondered how to convert my experience into pictures. This sort of memory was the most useful. Another good reference was a “Take-Home Alcatraz,” a paper model of the prison that was sold at the gift shop. I presented this to modeler Makoto Kobayashi, and he was very happy. Then, after he made it, I borrowed the finished product and showed the animation staff exactly which part of the jail Argo and Domon do this and that in, and so on. Also, it was quite useful for deciding the perspectives and camera angles. I asked the staff to set their perspectives on the table, and told them it would feel like this to be at Alcatraz.

Thus, I learned the importance of location hunting through the experience of actually seeing Alcatraz. (However, actual location hunting could not be done, so we had no choice but to do location hunting by watching films after all!) In episode 6, the place Domon was drinking a cup of tea was Ryuan-ji in Kyoto, which is famous for its zen rock garden.

Domon’s house within the colony is from Woody Allen’s Sleeper. We had a huge problem with Japan in this series. You know, we showed the interior side of a colony for the first time [in episode 6], and we all wondered whether or not it was really okay to show traditional Japanese houses. The people who reside there are all doctors and scientists; I did not think it was appropriate to have them live in places like thatched-roofed huts or Buddhist temples. After all, since it was a future world, they should be living in some place like a research laboratory. So I decided to borrow the idea of the mansion from Sleeper. The interior of the house is also from Sleeper. I did pull one prank in this episode. If you watch foreign films which take place in Japan, you can often find some things that make you laugh and say, “Oh, no! That’s not Japan!” I used such a setting on purpose. There is a landing pier extending from the front side of a house and on it there is a Torii [Japanese Shinto Shrine Gate].

If you know what film this is from, I’m impressed! [Director’s Quiz! What film is the director talking about? The answer in volume 3!]

For parody, I used ideas from films when it was subtle and didn’t affect the content. So, I often mischievously twisted their ideas. In the case of the seventh episode, I just left it all to the unit director. Episode 7’s setting is simply Neo Mexico. That’s all. Episode 8 was just so coincidental. I was thinking of showing Niagara Falls since the next episode would be Canada. Then, as I went home and turned on a TV, NHK was showing a program on Niagara Falls. I learned there is a paved path underneath the waterfall for people to walk through. I planned to have Domon and Rain in a scene there. The issue was how we could show the waterfall. Also, another issue with this episode was how we could show the interior of the forest. I borrowed the image from a very impressive forest picture on the back of the CD album MERCI by my favorite group, Magma. The sunlight was shining through the leaves, there was a pond, and mist was cast in the back of the forest. I was not quite sure whether it was a Canadian forest or not, but I decided to use it since it “looked like one!”

Q2: What is the ring rope built around the Earth for? (Ep 1)

The primary function of the ring rope is to set a barrier. The barrier prevents the escape of those Gundams that came down to Earth. There is no way they can escape the cage which is the Earth; this is the meaning of the rule “The Earth is the ring!” So, it must actually be illegal for Domon to leave Earth and return to the colony in episode 6. It was obviously done secretly by the government. Or perhaps Karato helped him out with a special permit. Under normal circumstances, leaving Earth and returning to one’s colony would be illegal.

Q3: It was very rare to have Mr. Yoshitada Otsuka, who played Chibodee, play regular roll in an anime. Is it because he was Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation?

My image of Mr. Yoshitada Otsuka’s voice is that it’s more like Chibodee’s than Data’s. Early in my career, I worked on Heavy Battle Machine L-Gaim, and Mr. Otuska played Cao, one of the three main characters in the series. Cao was a sort of tough rebel character. I thought the voice sounded just like that of an American Yankee guy. He also played the role for Yoichi’s father in Mr. Ajikko. There were about three actors for the role due to the schedule conflicts. The role wasn’t a regular role, due to its infrequent appearances. The first voice for the father was done by Mr. Otsuka. So, I worked with Mr. Otsuka relatively often, and did not have any weird bias about his voice. I really love his voice. Rather, the thing that I was more surprised was that Mr. Otsuka was playing the Japanese-dubbed version of my favorite actor, Chow Yun-Fat, in the Hong Kong film Somebody Loves You. His voice perfectly matched the character. The character was sort of funny and played dumb, however, the last word he said was a great performance and made me reaffirm how great Mr. Otsuka was as an actor. Nowadays, however, Mr. Otsuka, is probably best-known as Data.

For G Gundam, I wanted to use a lot of fresh, young actors. I had a feeling that it would be all right to use rookies. One of the reasons I cast Mr. Otsuka was to better organize and direct the younger actors and actresses by putting him in the show as a corner stone for the others to work with and learn from.

Q4: Where did the idea for the Fei-Long Flag come from? (Ep 3)

There is no source for Fei-Long Flag itself, it’s just that I love flags. Do you remember a TV commercial for a tea called “Cha-Ryu Sai-Sai”? Someone runs away swinging a flag around, right?

That’s the commercial that has the Chinese flags I’m talking about. And characters in many Hong Kong movies run with flags, don’t they? I love the way these flags wave in the wind.

Q5: Is the Graviton Hammer Argo uses a throwback to the Gundam Hammer? (Ep 5)

There aren’t a great many external sources of ideas for the mechanical designs. When we were discussing the Russian Gundam’s weapon, I realized it was fairly easy to “Gundamize” our perception of Russian culture. I thought of the concept of a prisoner. Building on that, I thought it would be cool if the Gundam would use chains and iron balls. We did not think too much, and thought it was going to be alright since it looked strong. Also, since boxing is an American sport, I thought why not to make an American Gundam capable of punching in a boxer mode? I also asked the designer to put a dragon mouth on the Chinese Gundam (laughs). I said, “I just wanted to do this for this series, you know.”

Q6: The Devil [aka Dark] Gundam was not created to be a fighting machine, so why is it a Gundam? (Ep 6)

This Gundam is a very scary-shaped machine built for some special purpose. When we decided that a mechanical character would be the most terrifying enemy, it had to have the face of a Gundam. In this series, any sort of human-shaped machines are basically supposed to be a Gundam-type. Compared to MA’s [Mobile Armors] like the Fantoma, general know-how is more established and it is easier for us to use them as the basic format for mecha. If we attempt to mix some specific kinds of elements into mechanical characters, it would be far easier and more efficient for us to mix them into a Gundam rather than a Fantoma. In that sense, we are using the concept of the Gundam as the basic and universal format in the story.

Q7: Both the Tequila [Spike] Gundam and MS Pescatore are designed as weapons to fight under water, but why is Neo Mexico gearing their efforts towards the development of Mobile Fighters capable of underwater battle? (Ep 7)

Personally, I just call Neo Mexico’s MS Pescatore “Duck-chan.” (laughs) Duck-chan is not only for underwater battles, but rather, is capable of both underwater and ground battles. In the case of Tequila [Spike] Gundam, I really wanted to express the national color of the country.

Q8: Lumber [Grizzly] Gundam is obviously designed to counter Bolt Gundam. How did Graham know about the format of Bolt Gundam, since all the data about Bolt Gundam was confidential until its fight with Shining Gundam? Also, why did the Neo Canadian government approve of Graham, who wanted to be a Fighter to get revenge? (Ep 8)

They developed their Gundam around their chosen pilot, Graham. And Graham had become a very strong guy. That specific Gundam was the type of machine that brings the pilot’s characteristics into play. Theoretically, there are two ways a country can build its Gundam: either they choose a suitable fighter for an already-built Gundam, or they make a Gundam for a specific individual. Which method they choose is left up to each country, and in Neo Canada’s case they made the Gundam for a specific Fighter. The reason why Graham could have countered Argo is that he remembered Argo from his past, and, being a skinny guy, he thought he had to develop his muscles in order to fight Argo. Therefore, he wound up with a bear-like shape. Naturally, the Gundam he uses is one suitable to his physical body as well. On the other hand, Domon’s Shining Gundam was designed as a standard Gundam along totally different lines, it was not a Gundam that limited its pilot. However, the most suitable person for the pilot in order to achieve maximum performance should be Domon. In fact, later on in the story

Dr. Mikamura and the others start revealing that Domon is the one most qualified for the emotional energy system of the Shining Gundam.

DISC.03

Q1: Please let us hear more about the films that you referred to for G Gundam settings.

My interpretation of England for episode 9 is a town of ghosts just like Rome in episode 1. However, in the case of England, I wanted to create a more realistic image of a ghost. In my early ideas, I was planning to use something like the shadow and light in Hitchcock’s works from when he was in England. In terms of the background, although it is totally different, in order to depict a very realistic London, I used the scenery from Monty Python.

It turns out there is a common reference for episodes 2 and 9. For episode 2, I was also using Overnight Success, a film about a Broadway audition. The idea for Chapman was a scene where a daddy-o with a mustache and London cap sings with an old man who plays the accordion. The character was totally different, but he was the source of Chapman. I wanted to start England from its formal and noble past. After all, the reason why England had won three times is that it is the country of King Arthur!

The setting of Egypt in episode 10 came indirectly from creating the character of Stalker. Not to be presumptuous, but he is like the conductor character in Mystery Zone. I wanted to actually imitate the beginning of Mystery Zone, and when it was time to discuss the ghost stories of Egypt, it was like Ultra Q. [A Japanese science-fiction TV series that was the forerunner to Ultraman.] In this episode, I wanted to create the sort of atmosphere that those type of programs had. The original model of the mummy scene itself was the beginning scene of Saboteur (directed by Alfred Hitchcock). While the title credit rolls, a man’s silhouette is projected on the wall of a factory. And after one scene, we see smoke come over the wall. I was impressed with this image, which makes us imagine that the man in the silhouette set the fire.

The reason why Stalker appeared starting in episode 2 is that he did not exist in the first scenario. To be honest, the thing that I wanted to prevent the most was the explanatory narration that Gundam series always use. You know, “Universal Century whatever, in this period of time, this and that…” If I had done that, the work would be constrained by the feel of Gundam. That’s why, in episode 1, everything was eventually explained by Inspector Belcino. I wanted to have the character explain from his own point of view about how people on Earth view the Gundam Fight. However, he would not appear after the first episode, and I did not want to repeat this same pattern, as it would be fairly difficult to continuously insert such explanations.

Then suddenly I had an idea, and just thought, “Let’s forget about that, and let’s just explain if we need to explain!” (laughs). I decided to start the main drama from the episode title. However, the reason for doing that came from Hitchcock Theatre, Mystery Zone, Star Trek, and shows like that. American dramas like Star Trek are so cool. Even the beginning portion of each episode presents a very interesting avant-title, like the opening narration that starts “Space…” The fun part of American TV programs is how the introductory portion of the program grabs the audiences’ attention at the beginning of the story. I thought this sort of thing would work for both a kid and adult audience. So, I wanted to do something like that for kids when I made a robot anime. Also, given the format of Gundam Fight, especially from episodes 2 through 5, I decided to have the referee Stalker provide the explanation of the episodes, like “Today’s fight is…” I wanted to make such avant-titles so the kids would think, “Oh, today’s fight will be between this Gundam and that Gundam,” or “Today’s story will be like this…”

I wanted Stalker to provide depth for each episode after episode six. For example, Stalker is the person who picked up the picture dropped in episode 6. I wondered how much this character gets involved in the program and the story, and where he draws a line to keep himself from being too involved. To be honest, after the gambling match between Domon and Chapman in the casino in episode nine, I was planning to have a voice shout “Hold on!” and after a moment of silence, the camera gets pulled back and Stalker, who was playing Poker, says “Well, today’s card is…” I wanted to have Stalker get more and more involved and be among the crowds.

However, the reason this could not be done was because, due to time constraints, we had only 90 seconds before the title card. Since we had to shorten the prologue, this aspect of Stalker’s character had to be discarded. It’s sort of a shame we could not do it.

For episode 11, I used Turkish director Yulmaz Guney’s film YOL (The Way). Also, I referred to a photo album I got as a gift from someone. In G Gundam, the characters couldn’t stay at great hotels, so I was always wondering how many cheap hotels I could have them stay in. The point here is whether or not the camera can really show people’s life in a place. The most helpful scene to express this was the scene of Domon eating food. In YOL, there is a scene in which five prisoners eat their food at a place like a rest stop or a bus station. I kind of used the picture of the scene as a reference. It is a film that you can rarely find even in video rental stores. And the name of the person introduced at last among the five men is Saette. I could hardly imagine a name that sounds just like Turkish, so… I thought it would be kind of fun to have this sort of funny tale as a inside joke later on, so I borrowed the name out of the film without a second thought.

In the film, Saette’s wife betrays him. After returning from prison, he must take his wife up onto a snowy mountain as punishment. The path is extremely rough and so cold that their horse dies on the way. If she makes it over the mountain, she will be forgiven, but if not, she has to pay for her sin with her life. The husband is the one who judges her, and whether or not she gets forgiven is up to heaven. And of course, the husband cannot help her. The wife gets exhausted and falls down. Following after her husband, she screams, “Please help me, Saette! Saette!!” That wailing voice left a really strong impression on me. Of all the scenes of a woman shouting a man’s name that I have seen, I can hardly think of any others that touched my soul this much. So, if Rain calls a man’s name in that context, I decided to use Saette as the name of her past love because I could not think of any other name.

One very difficult thing here is that I had to emotionally involve myself with new characters each episode since this part of the series was following a one-shot episode format. The issue was how much I, as a writer, could become one with the characters that would end up appearing in only one episode. So, what I did with the character of Saette was one of the ways to cope with this situation. It is nothing more than a methodology composed of my memories. However, this method works well whenever I’m really busy.

Q2: What’s the secret behind the blank period between the eleventh and twelfth Gundam Fight Tournaments?

The reason why there is an eight-year blank between the eleventh and twelfth tournaments is because I thought we would be able to make a story about it later… Sorry, this is what I’ve thought of (laughs). Actually, when calculating how many times the Gundam Fights are held and how many years have passed since the first Gundam Fight, I thought it would be appropriate to set it around Future Century 60. Because I wanted to set the show during the thirteenth tournament, and if we do a reverse calculation, 60 years is not enough for 13 tournaments. So, I decided to make the primary tournament held in FC (Future Century) 8, and there would be 13 tournaments if we had a blank of 4 years.

The reason why there is this mysterious blank is: due to three straight victories by Neo England’s Gentle Chapman, a war nearly broke out and the tournament was delayed. And having Master Asia win the 12th tournament would give the character a stronger presence in the series.

The number 13 is an ominous number, and because the Devil [Dark] Gundam, an evil force, has appeared, a very bad year is about to start. You know, it’s just like Apollo 13. The number 13 is quite effective in foreshadowing trouble.

And now…
Everyone, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for!
The answer to the Quiz posed by Director Imagawa in Volume 2!
And the answer is: The Man who Fell to Earth (1975)

DISC.04

Q1: The story starts the Shinjuku chapter with episode 12…

There was a purpose for choosing Shinjuku as the stage: location hunting, which I talked about previously. After all, I have less experience with location hunting since my main career has been stage direction for animations. Once I created a setting within my mind, I just followed that image. Since there have not been many chances for the staff to experience location hunting, I knew they weren’t used to it. So, when we talk about why I chose Shinjuku, and why not Osaka, or Hokkaido, it is because I wanted all the staff to learn and practice location hunting.

If the setting was Shinjuku, they could just go there to hunt for locations, right? By doing this on their own, I wanted them to experience and actually practice what I was saying to them over and over for the first eleven episodes. I learned how drastically the production of anime could be upgraded by location hunting when I went to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Chapter of Mr. Ajikko. I also learned that direct experience can be supplemented by indirect experience with films to a certain degree. However, since I really wanted the staff to have this experience, I chose Shinjuku as the setting for this chapter of the story.

I went to Shinjuku one morning with Setting Designer Yoshitaka Kawaguchi, and we photographed the areas around Tokyo Metropolitan City Hall, and also some places around the police station in front of Isetan Shopping Center, until we went to the af-reco (after-recording). We made a map to indicate which portions would be the stage for the show. We described the path of Domon and others at the beginning of episode 12 and indicated the next cut would be here, etc.

Q2: From episode 12 onward, the direction of the entire program was drastically changed, wasn’t it?

One of the things I heard from the producer when we had a finalized project plan was, “We don’t need Imagawa color this time. Please make a work without ‘Imagawa direction.” However, it was extremely difficult for me to do such a thing. To suppress one’s character is just as hard as breaking bad habits. Well, I was stressed out (laughs). I never meant to ignore this, it’s just that I came back to a natural way of doing things (laughs). I wound up thinking, “Well, I will just do whatever I want!”

During episode 12, the issue of whether or not it was okay to have a human defeat a robot came up. This program is actually a story about Gundam fights, so people were afraid that this would degrade the significance of robots. I understand their position. However, the reason why I had done such a thing was that the strongest enemy should be able to do this. The biggest problem in G Gundam was that there was not an ultimate enemy. The fighters who appear prior to episode 12 seem to be enemies, but in actuality they aren’t. In this type of situation, it is fairly difficult for us to create stories. I already created Chapman to be the strongest character, you know. So, the ultimate enemy needs to be more powerful than him.

While trying to decide on the name of our ultimate enemy, a lot of films provided “key words.” I used the title of a film called Toho Fuhai (Undefeated of the East) as a beginning. It’s a favorite of mine, and I also love the use of the four-character title. Since my admiration for the film was so great, it grew into the character’s name. I felt that no one in Japan would know such a minor film.

However, suddenly the film came to Japan and was shown in theaters, and I panicked! People would think that it was the same character from the movie.

However, his name is Toho Fuhai Master Asia. I meant for Toho Fuhai to be his street name, and Master Asia to be his real name. Actually, I didn’t know which was which.

Q3: Is Sai Saici’s “Hoka-kyoten” related to the “Kika-houten” that appears in the film Toho Fuhai (Undefeated of the East)? And what about “Chokyu Haoh Den’eidan” (from episode 12)?

To be honest, I just forgot the word Kika-houten [A legendary scroll of occult arts that grants enormous power. The owner of the scroll is said to be able to rule the world. In the first volume of the Swordsman series of films, the story mainly revolves around the fierce scramble to obtain this scroll. In the setting of the second volume Toho Fuhai, Toho Fuhai has attained this scroll, and due to its influence, his body is changing into a woman’s.] I forgot to check the name before af-reco (after recording), so I just decided to use the word “Hoka kyoten.”

“Chokyu Haoh Den’eidan” was taken out of the film version title name of the Super School Fighters // made in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, it is called Chokyu Gaitou Haoh, which is the Chinese version of Street Fighter II. At the beginning, the film was being produced with the title and content as a work faithful to the original game. However, because the game’s production company Capcom had an exclusive contract with Hong Kong publisher Jade Man Comics, other companies were unable to use the Street Fighter II name. Because of this, even though the film production was already started, the film’s settings had to be changed. So, it was changed into a school fight and thus, the film was renamed and completed as Chiaou-Chi Xie-Xiau Pa-Wang (Super School Fighters).

Den’eidan (Electric Shadow Bullet) is wordplay… The idea is from “energy equals light.” Den’ei (literally “electric shadow”) means “film” in Chinese. A film is made of illuminations. It is a bullet of light, isn’t it? I do not mean to work in a light-hearted frame of mind (laughs). Vigor, you know, it’s a matter of vigor (laughs).

Q4: Okay then, let me ask you a question about one of the biggest mystery of G Gundam. How can the previous Shuffle Alliance members – including Master Asia – operate Mobile Fighters without wearing Fight Suits?

This is a frequently-asked question. Why doesn’t Master change his clothing as he gets into his Gundam? To this question, I have only one thing to say. It may contradict with what I’ve been saying here, though… “Forget about it.” (laughs) Or perhaps, “We had no choice.” (laughs)

I had absolutely no reason for this. I just did not want them to wear the suits, you know (laughs). If the character looks good with the suit, then I would go ahead with the idea. No matter how much it doesn’t make sense, I wouldn’t care! Basically, I just want to make it cool.