WEB Anime Style Lagann-hen Interview Part 1 & 2
Counting down to the DVD release of the movie, WEB Anime Style has been posting an interview with director Hiroyuki Imaishi and assistant director Masahiko Ootsuka. I personally found it really interesting, so I decided to translate it. It does include spoilers though, so for some people it might be better to read it only after seeing the movie.
Part 1
--Long time no see!
Imaishi: Yes, thanks. It's been a long time.
--I'd like to get right to the questions, so where did the plans for "Lagann-hen" start?
Imaishi: Plans? Well, it was decided that we would make a second movie since the time we were working on "Gurren-hen." There's even a preview for it at the end of that movie (laugh).
--Well, I mean plans for the contents of the movie. Especially this one; I'm curious to know how the climax ended up like that. When you're watching up to the part where the TV series finale would take place, you can't help but think "They could just tie that onto the end."
Imaishi: Well sure, everyone was thinking that.
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: "Let's not mess with the finale" was something that was unanimous among us. Well, we were thinking maybe that wouldn't fly in a corner of our minds, but we knew that if we started doing that, there would be no end to it. Instead, there were various things we'd left undone in the 3rd arc of the TV series, so we wanted to do that properly first. There was some lack of explanation, and drawing-wise it wasn't quite satisfying. And besides, the 3rd arc isn't a series of self-contained stories, but one big story, so we thought that compressing it into a movie would be effective. So when it came to "Lagann-hen," our plan was to mainly fix that part. And for the rest, anyhow we would just try not to fall behind schedule. So during the drawing process for "Gurren-hen," I had Kazuki Nakashima-san go ahead with writing the first draft of the script for "Lagann-hen."
--I see.
Imaishi: In "Gurren-hen," the new parts increase toward the end, but for "Lagann-hen," we were thinking that the first half would have many new parts, and as it goes into the second half, it would steadily start following the TV series. That way, we would be able to make it in half a year. But when "Gurren-hen" was completed, we all had the feeling that because there were new parts in the second half, that's what made it seem like a movie. And so in the next movie, if it feels like it starts to drop toward the end, that would be bad. That was already said straight to us especially by Nakashima-san, who had finished the first draft of the script. And though I thought that as well, I worried whether anything could be done with it.....but in the end we decided that we'll add more near the end this time too, that we'll expand it. We thought that we could scrape off parts of the first half instead, but well, we ended up doing both of them (bitter smile). Thanks to that, our workload simply doubled.
--In the endgame, when new mecha start appearing one after the other, it starts to come to life theatrically, giving us a strong impression that this is really an event.
Imaishi: That's right. Because the story itself hasn't changed at all. That part is completely just fanservice to make the movie into a festival.
--As a result, it became a climax where all members of the cast participate.
Imaishi: Yes. That was also one reason why we changed who lived and died among the Dai-Gurren-dan members from the TV series. If we're going to have them survive, there has to be a meaning to it, they need to have something to do. And so we decided to make them all participate, and that's how it developed. As for what they'd do exactly, again we had various disputes. There was even talk that maybe we should just cause the Spiral Nemesis already (laugh). We were even verifying what would happen if we did that. So as we thought over those sorts of surprisingly serious sci-fi developments, and the conversation gradually began to stiffen, I think it was You Yoshinari who said that "It's a Toei Manga Festival"?
Ootsuka: Yes. He said "Gurren-hen was a Toei Manga Festival. The target audience's age has gone down."
Imaishi: Hearing that, we thought, "Right, now that I think of it, that's exactly right." And we began saying, then let's have it match Gurren-hen and make it like a festival. And Yoshinari-san just happened to be present, so we told him, "If we're going to bring out so many new mecha, you're going to have to design them all, you know?" And his reaction was like, "Then I guess I'll do it" (laugh).
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: That was just like the unshakeable Yoshinari; he's wringing his own neck and he says it so calmly. And from there, we thought "Then let's do this" in earnest.
--Why was it that most of the Dai-Gurren-dan members survived?
Imaishi: To put it simply, the problem was time. Even in the TV series, the part with the Dai-Gurren-dan's deaths wasn't drawn sufficiently. And when it came to whether we could do it properly in a movie, as expected, that would require time and the addition of different situations. But we didn't have the room to do that, and to begin with, there was the opinion that it wasn't really needed in this movie. Conversely, there would be no point if Kittan's death wasn't accentuated. So we thought it would be better to narrow it down to only Kittan.
--The drama of a tragic death.
Imaishi: Yes. I think that, at least once, we thought of a pattern where none of the Dai-Gurren-dan members die.
Manabe (PR rep): There was also a plan to follow the novel version's events and have each of the Dai-Gurren-dan members die fighting a new mecha called "Nanda."
Imaishi: Right, right. In Nakashima-san's first draft, a giant snake-like machine appears, and they all get eaten by it. In short, the idea was to give the battle in the Galactic Spiral Trench a little more volume, but I thought, "A snake, huh...." (laugh). I thought that even if we do our best drawing it, it won't be much to look at. Putting aside CG.
--So it's not like you thought that killing the Dai-Gurren-dan members in the TV series was a mistake?
Imaishi: No, it's not really a mistake. It's just that considering the two-hour time span of the movie, and thinking over what would be the most effective, the result is what we have now. If there are any regrets we have with the TV series, it's things like, we would have liked to have depicted it better.
--Like having them die only after properly planting death flags.
Imaishi: Yes. If we properly planted death flags, did better work on it, and gave them all a highlight scene before having them die, that would have been better. Because that area was where we had the least amount of time, in all sorts of ways (bitter smile).
Ootsuka: Back during the TV series, and especially in the beginning, we were saying that we wouldn't plan out who lives or dies, we'll just kill characters when the story called for it. That's why, when there's a great battle with the Dai-Gurren-dan in the second half, it was like, well of course there would be casualties. Though I do think that we lacked a little description in that first step.
Imaishi: In short, it would have been great if we got across the nuance that, rather than lingering on endlessly, they were happier to have lived short, yet rich, lives. In episode 15, they had reached a peak in their lives, and then after that they just lived sluggishly on in a peaceful world. Though they managed to land high positions in the government, Rossiu is the only one actually working. There was that kind of halfhearted feeling with them, so when there came an instant where they would finally be able to bloom once more in the end, they began dropping like flies. We wanted to make people see that that was actually what made them most happy......but well, it seems that didn't work (bitter smile).
--You use episode 15 of the TV series, the climax of the 2nd arc, as the avant title in this movie.
Imaishi: Yes. When we decided to end "Gurren-hen" at episode 11, the first thing we heard was what are we going to do with episode 15? And then someone said, "Why not just do it in the first five minutes of the second movie?" and we were like, "Ahh, I see."
--The way it's edited is a little complex, but why is that?
Imaishi: For that part, we left it entirely up to the editor, Junichi Uematsu-san.
--Ah, I see (laugh).
Imaishi: Yes. I thought it would be great if there was something that Uematsu-san could play around. In "Gurren-hen," there was a segment where parts of the story are tied together with music like a digest, so we left that mostly up to him too. This time there weren't any scenes like that, so I thought maybe the opening would work. When it comes to episode 15, we have a mountain-load of material, so I thought if we have him edit this to his heart's content, maybe compilation-wise, that would be fun (laugh). Just in case, in advance I handed over all the lines we wanted to be said, the scenes that were absolutely key, and the new parts that we wanted to add in, and after that we left it to him.
--Did that include coloring it in black-and-white?
Imaishi: That's Uematsu-san's idea too. Since it skips ahead in time and shows Lord Genome and Simon's fist fight first, he must have thought that would make it easier to understand.
--So to go together with Simon and Anti-Spiral's fist fight at the end, it's constructed in a way to make it full-circle.
Imaishi: Yes. That's why I told him "Leave in the fist fight." Though it was Uematsu-san's plan to put it right at the beginning. That's a rather unusual method for "Gurren Lagann," making time go backwards like that.
--The depiction of the process of Kamina City being built is increased too.
Imaishi: That's right. When the idea came about of condensing episode 15 into the first five minutes, in the same way, I thought that maybe we could show those seven years by condensing them, then maybe that would connect well. That part is also something I'd been wanting to do someday. In order to build up to Simon feeling down in prison later, I wanted to fully show him in high spirits as he's set up as a king. Even if he himself didn't want to become the top, he did out of necessity, and gradually even he doesn't know what he wants anymore. While in episode 17 of the TV series, he started out with a washed-out feeling since the story begins after he's already in that position.
--For "Gurren-hen," you began creating it using a rough compilation of the TV series, but how did you create it this time?
Imaishi: We did that this time too, with a similar rough compilation. Though the battle at the end would be new, the first half had to be filled with scenes from the TV series. First of all, I had Ootsuka-san make a compilation up to episode 20. Did we include episode 15 in that?
Ootsuka: Yes, it was included. I had to use all of episode 15; it just wouldn't fit into five minutes.
Imaishi: Ahh, that's right.
Ootsuka: At first I thought I'll try to connect it all with just action. But then I thought that it would be bad if I don't leave in Nia and Simon's scenes too, and when I began to put those in, it came out to about ten minutes. When I did it, it was in a rather ordinary way; I didn't even shuffle things around or put dialogue over scenes like Uematsu-san did. So, when it came out like that, I thought, "Oh, so that's how he does it."
Imaishi: So, you could say the way it was created was similar to "Gurren-hen."
--So first you connected all the scenes from the TV series that you could, then began drawing storyboards for the new parts?
Imaishi: No, it was more like I was drawing it at the same time. In Ootsuka-san's compilation, I thought postponing the Lord Genome Head's revival was a good idea.
--How was it originally again?
Imaishi: In the TV series, the rioting citizens and Lord Genome's revival was going on at the same time, but this time, it went straight from the rioting to Simon's imprisonment, and we brought in Lord Genome's story after that. I thought that made it rather easy to understand.
--Was completely cutting episode 21's Korehana Island story also from the rough compilation stage?
Ootsuka: Well for that part, at the meeting stage before that, we were already saying "This part won't be able to go in."
Imaishi: At first, there was also a plan to start the movie itself with Yoko's point of view.
Ootsuka: We'd skip all of the middle and just suddenly start from Korehana Island. It would've been like, Hey, the surface is already peaceful! We were saying that for time's sake, unless we did something bold like that, we wouldn't be able to fit it in. After all, we couldn't fit in episode 15.
Imaishi: Starting with Korehana Island would have been pretty terrible (laugh). Well, it was clear that "Lagann-hen" would become Simon and Nia's story, and we'd done a lot with Yoko at the end of "Gurren-hen," so unfortunately, this time we had her take more of a back seat.
Part 2
--As a director, did you have a general idea of how it would turn out before you went into storyboards? As in volume or sense of speed.
Imaishi: Umm, I don't think I had much of an idea. This time, I had a greater problem imagining the entire picture than I did with "Gurren-hen." Well, I knew what kind of story would be going into it, but I didn't know what kind of emotions it would awaken in the customers when they saw it as a movie. Though personally I was thinking I wanted to make it a movie like "Battles Without Honor and Humanity," I didn't really know what kind of movie it would become. Since we had no choice but to use scenes from the TV series, it's different from the usual way of making the so-called theatrical climax. Especially in "Lagann-hen," bit by bit the scale of the climaxes continue increasing. In "Gurren-hen," the larger climaxes were still easy to make.
--Because from right after Simon gets out of prison, there is absolutely no place to rest.
Imaishi: That's exactly right. I can still understand the first half; that's basically the part that fits into the 3rd arc. Heading toward the climax that is recapturing the moon, everything feels like it cleanly connects. It's just what comes after that which I had some trouble getting my mind around. Did you get it?
Ootsuka: No, I didn't.
Imaishi: Of course (laugh).
Ootsuka: Honestly, there were parts where we kept going forward without having a good read of the volume. For the time being we'd just draw the storyboard, and if we just drew it naturally we'd go over the limit, and as we thought, it did go over. It was like that.
--Currently, the running time is 130 minutes, but originally, how many minutes did you plan on making it?
Imaishi: We were thinking not to go over two hours, but keep it around the same length as "Gurren-hen." To begin with, we really tried to make "Gurren-hen" about 100 minutes. And in the end, it just barely managed to fit into 120 minutes. Next time, we thought we'd try to fit it into 120 minutes, but that it would be impossible....and as expected, it was impossible.
--But it wasn't like it began running wild as you were making it and it got stretched out?
Imaishi: Running wild?
--As the audience, one would think that as you're being greedy with "we'll put out this robot and that robot," it just stretched out. Like, that's GAINAX for you.
Imaishi: Ahh, I see (laugh).
--But instead, you scraped and scraped away at it until it came to 130 minutes.
Imaishi: That's right. That's why near the end, I was wondering if I would have to make a risky decision while editing.
Ootsuka: At the first conception and scenario stage, we were running wild, but by the storyboard stage, including labor saving for the drawing stage, I think the director was having quite a difficult time. Rather, in parts where we had to make the best of scenes from the TV series, he was facing an uphill struggle around the 3rd arc area.
Imaishi: That's right.
Ootsuka: If it were entirely new, then I think he could have done the storyboard with more ease. But we had to use materials from the TV series, yet redraw some parts, and furthermore mix in new parts, and cutting and pasting all that together, form one movie. Even just watching that work from the side, I thought, "Wow, that looks difficult."
Imaishi: There were many things like that which I worried about. If it was entirely new, I could express the meaning of something in about three cuts, but when also using cuts from the TV series, I'd have to connect together about ten cuts or else the scene wouldn't end. Things like that. And well, with changing the scenery, changing colors, changing the lighting, adding one person into the background and etc., I had to devise various makeshift ways to do that. There were often times when it was like, "Wouldn't it be faster just to draw this new instead?"
--So you're actually adding people into scenes?
Imaishi: Yes. We add them subtly.
--Because there are people who die in the TV series who survive this time.
Imaishi: Parts like that, yes.
--So that's why the number of people lined up at the wedding at the end has increased.
Imaishi: We added them in. The frame of the panned cut has become a little longer.
Ootsuka: In the photography management, all those tiny parts also accumulated. I thought, "This might be harder than a new production."
--About how many entirely new cuts are there?
Imaishi: How many were there? I think there's enough for about two TV episodes?
Ootsuka: About 500 cuts?
Imaishi: That's it. Also, using the existing layouts and key animations, and including the added revised drawings, it becomes something over 700.
Ootsuka: Yes. One after another, there was an increase in those sorts of scenes. Like "Ah, this one, and this one too."
--In the 3rd arc area, there's a scene where a small drill appears in Simon's hand, as if he's manifesting Spiral Power. I didn't understand that very well.
Imaishi: That part is portraying Simon as on the verge of becoming the same as Lord Genome. In the TV series too, there is a scene where a drill of light appears in Lord Genome's hand, and that's supposed to signify that his Spiral Power is beyond control. If Simon doesn't put a leash on that power, he would become the same as Lord Genome, so we show him trying to restrain it. That was written in Nakashima-san's novel version. In the 3rd arc of the TV series, we didn't show most of Simon's emotions, and it was all leaning heavily toward Rossiu's side. That's why it was difficult to understand parts like why Simon would so easily accept the death sentence. So in this movie, we thought that we should show the events from Simon's point of view.
--In "Lagann-hen," you feel like Simon really becomes the main character.
Imaishi: That's right. Because we were able to show that he wasn't just getting swept along by events without doing anything (laugh).
Ootsuka: In the TV series, we also had an idea for a scene where Simon almost summons his Spiral Power. As he's facing the rioting citizens, he starts to get angry and.....
Imaishi: Ahh, that's right. Something like, as he's facing the riotous citizens, his angry emotions suddenly burst, and it's not like he attacks anyone directly, but just his power unwillingly comes out. And he accidentally blows away one of the citizens. Then, the guy who got blown away is like, "That guy hit me!" and the rioting spreads even further.....we were thinking of a scene like that. Well, direction-wise that would be a good idea, but animation-wise, I didn't want to do it (bitter smile).
--Because it would be too much trouble?
Imaishi: It was like, with this timing, doing so much drama with a mob is too scary! Furthermore, if we mess it up, it would be horrible. If it's just a riot, we could be somewhat loose with how it looks, but if we put in that kind of scene, unless we do it properly it's not going to work.
Ootsuka: You'd have to have a lot of guts to do that kind of scene.
Imaishi: Yes. If the animation is all worn out in that part, it would become such a farce. In the 3rd arc, we were constantly trying to lower the calorie level of the drawings, and in that process there were many parts that we cut.
--And so in the movie this time, there were parts that you made over again.
Imaishi: That's right. We intended to supplement it in a different way.
--The portrayal of Simon while in prison is rather different, but why is this?
Imaishi: That area might be fairly influenced by our own tastes. During the TV series, there was a lot more we wanted to do there, to the point that we were saying maybe we could make an entire episode just about prison. So under the pretext of a compilation, we decided to increase the amount of new parts there. Story-wise it's probably unnecessary, but well, we wanted to do it (laugh).
--So that's around where Simon is being bullied, with things like the parachute unit.
Imaishi: Yes. Direction-wise, I wanted to show Simon thoroughly come to ruin. We couldn't show that much in the TV series, so there was the impression that he turned out looking unexpectedly cool. In the movie, we were granted the chance to put in such hackneyed scenes like having his head get covered in food.
--Then you were able to realize those kinds of "Things you wanted to do in the TV series, but didn't" in "Lagann-hen" this time. So were things like the prison scenes and Cathedral Lazengann's appearance your big targets for this movie?
Imaishi: Well, they were an important motivation. It was like, if we were going to make it into movie, of course there would be no point in doing it unless we had those things. But that doesn't mean we were dissatisfied with the TV series. Rather, if asked "Which is the real Gurren Lagann?" I would probably answer that it's the TV series. All we did was simply give it a grade-up to show it movie-sized. Even in this movie, the essence of it are things that were already in the TV series. It's just, in spite of that, there were things that we couldn't present on air in a TV series, or things we couldn't do because of the schedule or lack of resources, so we wanted to do them in the movie. That's what makes a good compilation movie.
--I see.
Imaishi: After all, the story is already done. That's why this time we became absorbed in the depiction of the story, because we had room to delve into the details. To be frank, when we were doing the TV series, we had our hands full just concluding the story. In the movie, we can chew over it a little more, present the story while focusing on a few spots on the way. If we were to make a compilation movie, that's what I wanted to do.
--In the endgame, there is a scene where Gurren-Lagann is desecrated by the Anti-Spiral and is covered in blood. Is it because it's a movie that you were able to portray it in such an extreme way?
Imaishi: I wonder. We might have been able to do that in the TV series too if we tried. Because it's not a person, it's a mecha. Well, we might have been told not to color it red.
--How did Lord Genome becoming a CG character come about?
Imaishi: If I remember correctly, that first turned up in the script. The stage directions were abnormally long. You could really tell that Nakashima-san was laughing his ass off while writing it, and the moment I read it, the storyboard just popped in my head. And so, steamrolling over Ootsuka-san's objections......
All: (laugh)
--So you did oppose it.
Ootsuka: Well, we were already over the limit. But he said he still wanted to do it, so.
Imaishi: Dahahahaha!
Ootsuka: I also thought, would it be a good idea for Lord Genome to be in such high spirits at such an early stage? I thought it might be better for him to keep that bottled up until the end. But both the director and Nakashima-san were enthusiastic to do it (laugh). So I said, "Then please do it."
Imaishi: One of the things we'd left undone in the TV series was to have Narushi Ikeda-san, who plays Lord Genome, act with the same high spirits that he does on the stage. Nakashima-san introduced him to us saying "Here's an actor with a really great voice!" and that's why we asked him to play Lord Genome, but his performance is always completely different from how he is on the stage. Well, it can't be helped since Lord Genome is that kind of character. If you watch the various plays that Narushi-san is in, you'll see that Hacking Papa is the way he is normally. So that's why we wanted to do that at least once in "Gurren Lagann." And to do that, well, that's the only place we can.
--Moreover, story-wise, no one would mind if you didn't present it that way.
Imaishi: Yes. We wanted to use CG pointlessly (laugh). In this movie, the only thing we had new CG modeling for was Hacking Papa.
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: Really, it came out extremely well! From when we were doing the TV series, I'd continued telling Sanzigen-san, who's done all of "Gurren Lagann"'s CG, "Anyway, do it like TRON." And the results paid off here.
--Especially when you see it on the big screen; it was wonderful in a really bad way.
Imaishi: Yes, it came out extremely well on the first shot (laugh). I thought, as expected from Sanzigen-san. As for other CG shots, there's a cut where, during the fight against the swarm of Mugann, Gurren-Lagann throws a Gurren Boomerang and mows down the Mugann. I had him do that too. I asked him "Do it in full 3D please," but he ended up making a 3D shot that looked hand-drawn (laugh). Even looking at the individual frames, it still looks kind of hand-drawn.
Ootsuka: That's the part that moved Akira Amemiya's heart.
Imaishi: Yes, it's quite a highlight. As the two boomerangs fly together, round explosions go boom boom boom, and one time they hit each other, and then fill the screen again, and this time it changes from a follow to a TU, and from the back, more explosions come streaming out to the front. That part where the explosions stream from the back toward the front is completely following in the footsteps of Shoichi Masuo's timing of explosions in "Top wo Nerae!"
--Really.
Imaishi: For the effect where they go GAN! and hit each other too, he went and drew a pseudo-Yoshinori Kanada effect expressly in handwriting. It's hand-drawn (laugh). I'd requested 3D, so for this to be the result was unusual.
--That's amazing.
Ootsuka: I don't think the customers realized that was CG either.
Imaishi: No, I don't think they did. They must only think that someone like Amemiya must have drawn it.
--In the second half, you've also changed the parallel universe sequence a little.
Imaishi: Well, we haven't changed it that much. Though the Gurren-dan don't die, so Kittan is left all alone.
--Furthermore, he's forgotten yet again by Kamina.
Imaishi: That's right. He's a character who's forgotten each time he appears (laugh). I thought that would connect well if you've seen the previous movie. As for where to insert Kittan, we worried over that in the editing. We were saying, "Won't he just get in the way?" (laugh).
--Ahhh.
Imaishi: No matter what, it felt like he would be throwing cold water on Simon and Kamina's highlight scene. To tell the truth, at the end he was supposed to have one more cut. Before Kamina says "It's not goodbye, we're together," Kittan would say something too. We drew that in the layout, inserted it in the editing, and even recorded the line. But in the final stage, we ended up dropping it after all.
--Were the new parts where the Gurren-dan are captive in the parallel universes described specifically in Nakashima-san's script?
Imaishi: Yes, Nakashima-san wrote that in the script. Jorgun, Balinbow, and the others, they would be trading stock. Just how were we supposed to explain that in one cut? (laugh) Tempo-wise, everyone had to be limited to one cut. In the end, we just had them saying "Sell! Sell!"
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: I was saying let's make it as close as possible to the New York Stock Exchange. I even thought myself that I'm telling them to do something pretty difficult.
--As for the climax, basically you stayed true to the TV series' finale. Even though there are new mecha appearing.
Imaishi: That's right. Anyhow, we didn't want to change the contents of the finale. Or rather, we didn't want to change it in a bad way, so we stubbornly refused to relinquish that.
--In other words, you're saying that the TV series' finale was not a mistake.
Imaishi: Yes. Even if heaven and earth were to turn over, Nia would not be brought back to life. Or rather, let's say it's to the point that there is absolutely no route where she could be brought back to life. In that sense, this time there are death flags for Nia from the very beginning.
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: When she's writing in her journal, that's already a complete death flag (laugh).
--Even when I was watching the TV series, I thought "The director must not have much affection for the heroine."
Imaishi: No, no, that's not the case. It's like, if everything you eat is sweet candy, then you'll become sick.....that's not a good way of putting it either (laugh). Anyway, no matter the cost, I didn't want to change the ending.
--What was the reason you didn't want to change it? Being faithful to the viewers?
Imaishi: There's that, and also, changing it wouldn't be very manly of us. Especially considering that we don't think we made a mistake. Well, there were many opinions that people wanted to see a happier ending, but even knowing all that, we still took it upon ourselves to head toward that conclusion. Instead, we perceived the problem as our lack of explanation.
--So in the movie, you added more words of explanation.
Imaishi: That's right. We added more lines to make it easier to understand, to say that it's not going to change.
--This is trivial, but I thought the narration as she's writing in her journal was similar to "Top wo Nerae! 2 The Movie."
Imaishi: Yes, I thought it was similar. But that was just by accident; it was an idea that just came naturally from Nakashima-san.
--I see.
Imaishi: If you start pointing out things like that, there would be no end to it. The intentional homages and parts that just happened to turn out that way are all mixed together (laugh).
--You also stayed close to the original for the epilogue too?
Imaishi: Yes, something like that. That part has a sort of Plus Alpha feel.
--I thought that maybe you would try to connect it to the beginning of the first episode of the TV series. Did you have any ideas like that?
Imaishi: Umm......did we?
Ootsuka: No, we didn't.
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References:
Toei Manga Festival- An animation festival produced by Toei every summer that ran from 1964-1990. (Example)
"Battles Without Honor and Humanity"- A yakuza film often called the "Japanese Godfather."
"Hacking Papa"- Japanese fandom's popular nickname for Lord Genome's CG sequence, which the GAINAX staff seems to have picked up on.
Yoshinori Kanada- Japan's most influential animator. Imaishi is a huge fanboy of him. I highly recommend reading this link btw, it's pretty interesting even if you're like me and don't know much about animation.
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As for the next parts of the interview, Part 3 is about who animated what, and Part 4 is about what went into the creation of the Tengen Toppa Gunmen (Part 5 hasn't been posted yet). I don't know whether I'll be able to finish translating them before the DVD comes out, but I'll keep working on it! ~_~
Part 1
--Long time no see!
Imaishi: Yes, thanks. It's been a long time.
--I'd like to get right to the questions, so where did the plans for "Lagann-hen" start?
Imaishi: Plans? Well, it was decided that we would make a second movie since the time we were working on "Gurren-hen." There's even a preview for it at the end of that movie (laugh).
--Well, I mean plans for the contents of the movie. Especially this one; I'm curious to know how the climax ended up like that. When you're watching up to the part where the TV series finale would take place, you can't help but think "They could just tie that onto the end."
Imaishi: Well sure, everyone was thinking that.
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: "Let's not mess with the finale" was something that was unanimous among us. Well, we were thinking maybe that wouldn't fly in a corner of our minds, but we knew that if we started doing that, there would be no end to it. Instead, there were various things we'd left undone in the 3rd arc of the TV series, so we wanted to do that properly first. There was some lack of explanation, and drawing-wise it wasn't quite satisfying. And besides, the 3rd arc isn't a series of self-contained stories, but one big story, so we thought that compressing it into a movie would be effective. So when it came to "Lagann-hen," our plan was to mainly fix that part. And for the rest, anyhow we would just try not to fall behind schedule. So during the drawing process for "Gurren-hen," I had Kazuki Nakashima-san go ahead with writing the first draft of the script for "Lagann-hen."
--I see.
Imaishi: In "Gurren-hen," the new parts increase toward the end, but for "Lagann-hen," we were thinking that the first half would have many new parts, and as it goes into the second half, it would steadily start following the TV series. That way, we would be able to make it in half a year. But when "Gurren-hen" was completed, we all had the feeling that because there were new parts in the second half, that's what made it seem like a movie. And so in the next movie, if it feels like it starts to drop toward the end, that would be bad. That was already said straight to us especially by Nakashima-san, who had finished the first draft of the script. And though I thought that as well, I worried whether anything could be done with it.....but in the end we decided that we'll add more near the end this time too, that we'll expand it. We thought that we could scrape off parts of the first half instead, but well, we ended up doing both of them (bitter smile). Thanks to that, our workload simply doubled.
--In the endgame, when new mecha start appearing one after the other, it starts to come to life theatrically, giving us a strong impression that this is really an event.
Imaishi: That's right. Because the story itself hasn't changed at all. That part is completely just fanservice to make the movie into a festival.
--As a result, it became a climax where all members of the cast participate.
Imaishi: Yes. That was also one reason why we changed who lived and died among the Dai-Gurren-dan members from the TV series. If we're going to have them survive, there has to be a meaning to it, they need to have something to do. And so we decided to make them all participate, and that's how it developed. As for what they'd do exactly, again we had various disputes. There was even talk that maybe we should just cause the Spiral Nemesis already (laugh). We were even verifying what would happen if we did that. So as we thought over those sorts of surprisingly serious sci-fi developments, and the conversation gradually began to stiffen, I think it was You Yoshinari who said that "It's a Toei Manga Festival"?
Ootsuka: Yes. He said "Gurren-hen was a Toei Manga Festival. The target audience's age has gone down."
Imaishi: Hearing that, we thought, "Right, now that I think of it, that's exactly right." And we began saying, then let's have it match Gurren-hen and make it like a festival. And Yoshinari-san just happened to be present, so we told him, "If we're going to bring out so many new mecha, you're going to have to design them all, you know?" And his reaction was like, "Then I guess I'll do it" (laugh).
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: That was just like the unshakeable Yoshinari; he's wringing his own neck and he says it so calmly. And from there, we thought "Then let's do this" in earnest.
--Why was it that most of the Dai-Gurren-dan members survived?
Imaishi: To put it simply, the problem was time. Even in the TV series, the part with the Dai-Gurren-dan's deaths wasn't drawn sufficiently. And when it came to whether we could do it properly in a movie, as expected, that would require time and the addition of different situations. But we didn't have the room to do that, and to begin with, there was the opinion that it wasn't really needed in this movie. Conversely, there would be no point if Kittan's death wasn't accentuated. So we thought it would be better to narrow it down to only Kittan.
--The drama of a tragic death.
Imaishi: Yes. I think that, at least once, we thought of a pattern where none of the Dai-Gurren-dan members die.
Manabe (PR rep): There was also a plan to follow the novel version's events and have each of the Dai-Gurren-dan members die fighting a new mecha called "Nanda."
Imaishi: Right, right. In Nakashima-san's first draft, a giant snake-like machine appears, and they all get eaten by it. In short, the idea was to give the battle in the Galactic Spiral Trench a little more volume, but I thought, "A snake, huh...." (laugh). I thought that even if we do our best drawing it, it won't be much to look at. Putting aside CG.
--So it's not like you thought that killing the Dai-Gurren-dan members in the TV series was a mistake?
Imaishi: No, it's not really a mistake. It's just that considering the two-hour time span of the movie, and thinking over what would be the most effective, the result is what we have now. If there are any regrets we have with the TV series, it's things like, we would have liked to have depicted it better.
--Like having them die only after properly planting death flags.
Imaishi: Yes. If we properly planted death flags, did better work on it, and gave them all a highlight scene before having them die, that would have been better. Because that area was where we had the least amount of time, in all sorts of ways (bitter smile).
Ootsuka: Back during the TV series, and especially in the beginning, we were saying that we wouldn't plan out who lives or dies, we'll just kill characters when the story called for it. That's why, when there's a great battle with the Dai-Gurren-dan in the second half, it was like, well of course there would be casualties. Though I do think that we lacked a little description in that first step.
Imaishi: In short, it would have been great if we got across the nuance that, rather than lingering on endlessly, they were happier to have lived short, yet rich, lives. In episode 15, they had reached a peak in their lives, and then after that they just lived sluggishly on in a peaceful world. Though they managed to land high positions in the government, Rossiu is the only one actually working. There was that kind of halfhearted feeling with them, so when there came an instant where they would finally be able to bloom once more in the end, they began dropping like flies. We wanted to make people see that that was actually what made them most happy......but well, it seems that didn't work (bitter smile).
--You use episode 15 of the TV series, the climax of the 2nd arc, as the avant title in this movie.
Imaishi: Yes. When we decided to end "Gurren-hen" at episode 11, the first thing we heard was what are we going to do with episode 15? And then someone said, "Why not just do it in the first five minutes of the second movie?" and we were like, "Ahh, I see."
--The way it's edited is a little complex, but why is that?
Imaishi: For that part, we left it entirely up to the editor, Junichi Uematsu-san.
--Ah, I see (laugh).
Imaishi: Yes. I thought it would be great if there was something that Uematsu-san could play around. In "Gurren-hen," there was a segment where parts of the story are tied together with music like a digest, so we left that mostly up to him too. This time there weren't any scenes like that, so I thought maybe the opening would work. When it comes to episode 15, we have a mountain-load of material, so I thought if we have him edit this to his heart's content, maybe compilation-wise, that would be fun (laugh). Just in case, in advance I handed over all the lines we wanted to be said, the scenes that were absolutely key, and the new parts that we wanted to add in, and after that we left it to him.
--Did that include coloring it in black-and-white?
Imaishi: That's Uematsu-san's idea too. Since it skips ahead in time and shows Lord Genome and Simon's fist fight first, he must have thought that would make it easier to understand.
--So to go together with Simon and Anti-Spiral's fist fight at the end, it's constructed in a way to make it full-circle.
Imaishi: Yes. That's why I told him "Leave in the fist fight." Though it was Uematsu-san's plan to put it right at the beginning. That's a rather unusual method for "Gurren Lagann," making time go backwards like that.
--The depiction of the process of Kamina City being built is increased too.
Imaishi: That's right. When the idea came about of condensing episode 15 into the first five minutes, in the same way, I thought that maybe we could show those seven years by condensing them, then maybe that would connect well. That part is also something I'd been wanting to do someday. In order to build up to Simon feeling down in prison later, I wanted to fully show him in high spirits as he's set up as a king. Even if he himself didn't want to become the top, he did out of necessity, and gradually even he doesn't know what he wants anymore. While in episode 17 of the TV series, he started out with a washed-out feeling since the story begins after he's already in that position.
--For "Gurren-hen," you began creating it using a rough compilation of the TV series, but how did you create it this time?
Imaishi: We did that this time too, with a similar rough compilation. Though the battle at the end would be new, the first half had to be filled with scenes from the TV series. First of all, I had Ootsuka-san make a compilation up to episode 20. Did we include episode 15 in that?
Ootsuka: Yes, it was included. I had to use all of episode 15; it just wouldn't fit into five minutes.
Imaishi: Ahh, that's right.
Ootsuka: At first I thought I'll try to connect it all with just action. But then I thought that it would be bad if I don't leave in Nia and Simon's scenes too, and when I began to put those in, it came out to about ten minutes. When I did it, it was in a rather ordinary way; I didn't even shuffle things around or put dialogue over scenes like Uematsu-san did. So, when it came out like that, I thought, "Oh, so that's how he does it."
Imaishi: So, you could say the way it was created was similar to "Gurren-hen."
--So first you connected all the scenes from the TV series that you could, then began drawing storyboards for the new parts?
Imaishi: No, it was more like I was drawing it at the same time. In Ootsuka-san's compilation, I thought postponing the Lord Genome Head's revival was a good idea.
--How was it originally again?
Imaishi: In the TV series, the rioting citizens and Lord Genome's revival was going on at the same time, but this time, it went straight from the rioting to Simon's imprisonment, and we brought in Lord Genome's story after that. I thought that made it rather easy to understand.
--Was completely cutting episode 21's Korehana Island story also from the rough compilation stage?
Ootsuka: Well for that part, at the meeting stage before that, we were already saying "This part won't be able to go in."
Imaishi: At first, there was also a plan to start the movie itself with Yoko's point of view.
Ootsuka: We'd skip all of the middle and just suddenly start from Korehana Island. It would've been like, Hey, the surface is already peaceful! We were saying that for time's sake, unless we did something bold like that, we wouldn't be able to fit it in. After all, we couldn't fit in episode 15.
Imaishi: Starting with Korehana Island would have been pretty terrible (laugh). Well, it was clear that "Lagann-hen" would become Simon and Nia's story, and we'd done a lot with Yoko at the end of "Gurren-hen," so unfortunately, this time we had her take more of a back seat.
Part 2
--As a director, did you have a general idea of how it would turn out before you went into storyboards? As in volume or sense of speed.
Imaishi: Umm, I don't think I had much of an idea. This time, I had a greater problem imagining the entire picture than I did with "Gurren-hen." Well, I knew what kind of story would be going into it, but I didn't know what kind of emotions it would awaken in the customers when they saw it as a movie. Though personally I was thinking I wanted to make it a movie like "Battles Without Honor and Humanity," I didn't really know what kind of movie it would become. Since we had no choice but to use scenes from the TV series, it's different from the usual way of making the so-called theatrical climax. Especially in "Lagann-hen," bit by bit the scale of the climaxes continue increasing. In "Gurren-hen," the larger climaxes were still easy to make.
--Because from right after Simon gets out of prison, there is absolutely no place to rest.
Imaishi: That's exactly right. I can still understand the first half; that's basically the part that fits into the 3rd arc. Heading toward the climax that is recapturing the moon, everything feels like it cleanly connects. It's just what comes after that which I had some trouble getting my mind around. Did you get it?
Ootsuka: No, I didn't.
Imaishi: Of course (laugh).
Ootsuka: Honestly, there were parts where we kept going forward without having a good read of the volume. For the time being we'd just draw the storyboard, and if we just drew it naturally we'd go over the limit, and as we thought, it did go over. It was like that.
--Currently, the running time is 130 minutes, but originally, how many minutes did you plan on making it?
Imaishi: We were thinking not to go over two hours, but keep it around the same length as "Gurren-hen." To begin with, we really tried to make "Gurren-hen" about 100 minutes. And in the end, it just barely managed to fit into 120 minutes. Next time, we thought we'd try to fit it into 120 minutes, but that it would be impossible....and as expected, it was impossible.
--But it wasn't like it began running wild as you were making it and it got stretched out?
Imaishi: Running wild?
--As the audience, one would think that as you're being greedy with "we'll put out this robot and that robot," it just stretched out. Like, that's GAINAX for you.
Imaishi: Ahh, I see (laugh).
--But instead, you scraped and scraped away at it until it came to 130 minutes.
Imaishi: That's right. That's why near the end, I was wondering if I would have to make a risky decision while editing.
Ootsuka: At the first conception and scenario stage, we were running wild, but by the storyboard stage, including labor saving for the drawing stage, I think the director was having quite a difficult time. Rather, in parts where we had to make the best of scenes from the TV series, he was facing an uphill struggle around the 3rd arc area.
Imaishi: That's right.
Ootsuka: If it were entirely new, then I think he could have done the storyboard with more ease. But we had to use materials from the TV series, yet redraw some parts, and furthermore mix in new parts, and cutting and pasting all that together, form one movie. Even just watching that work from the side, I thought, "Wow, that looks difficult."
Imaishi: There were many things like that which I worried about. If it was entirely new, I could express the meaning of something in about three cuts, but when also using cuts from the TV series, I'd have to connect together about ten cuts or else the scene wouldn't end. Things like that. And well, with changing the scenery, changing colors, changing the lighting, adding one person into the background and etc., I had to devise various makeshift ways to do that. There were often times when it was like, "Wouldn't it be faster just to draw this new instead?"
--So you're actually adding people into scenes?
Imaishi: Yes. We add them subtly.
--Because there are people who die in the TV series who survive this time.
Imaishi: Parts like that, yes.
--So that's why the number of people lined up at the wedding at the end has increased.
Imaishi: We added them in. The frame of the panned cut has become a little longer.
Ootsuka: In the photography management, all those tiny parts also accumulated. I thought, "This might be harder than a new production."
--About how many entirely new cuts are there?
Imaishi: How many were there? I think there's enough for about two TV episodes?
Ootsuka: About 500 cuts?
Imaishi: That's it. Also, using the existing layouts and key animations, and including the added revised drawings, it becomes something over 700.
Ootsuka: Yes. One after another, there was an increase in those sorts of scenes. Like "Ah, this one, and this one too."
--In the 3rd arc area, there's a scene where a small drill appears in Simon's hand, as if he's manifesting Spiral Power. I didn't understand that very well.
Imaishi: That part is portraying Simon as on the verge of becoming the same as Lord Genome. In the TV series too, there is a scene where a drill of light appears in Lord Genome's hand, and that's supposed to signify that his Spiral Power is beyond control. If Simon doesn't put a leash on that power, he would become the same as Lord Genome, so we show him trying to restrain it. That was written in Nakashima-san's novel version. In the 3rd arc of the TV series, we didn't show most of Simon's emotions, and it was all leaning heavily toward Rossiu's side. That's why it was difficult to understand parts like why Simon would so easily accept the death sentence. So in this movie, we thought that we should show the events from Simon's point of view.
--In "Lagann-hen," you feel like Simon really becomes the main character.
Imaishi: That's right. Because we were able to show that he wasn't just getting swept along by events without doing anything (laugh).
Ootsuka: In the TV series, we also had an idea for a scene where Simon almost summons his Spiral Power. As he's facing the rioting citizens, he starts to get angry and.....
Imaishi: Ahh, that's right. Something like, as he's facing the riotous citizens, his angry emotions suddenly burst, and it's not like he attacks anyone directly, but just his power unwillingly comes out. And he accidentally blows away one of the citizens. Then, the guy who got blown away is like, "That guy hit me!" and the rioting spreads even further.....we were thinking of a scene like that. Well, direction-wise that would be a good idea, but animation-wise, I didn't want to do it (bitter smile).
--Because it would be too much trouble?
Imaishi: It was like, with this timing, doing so much drama with a mob is too scary! Furthermore, if we mess it up, it would be horrible. If it's just a riot, we could be somewhat loose with how it looks, but if we put in that kind of scene, unless we do it properly it's not going to work.
Ootsuka: You'd have to have a lot of guts to do that kind of scene.
Imaishi: Yes. If the animation is all worn out in that part, it would become such a farce. In the 3rd arc, we were constantly trying to lower the calorie level of the drawings, and in that process there were many parts that we cut.
--And so in the movie this time, there were parts that you made over again.
Imaishi: That's right. We intended to supplement it in a different way.
--The portrayal of Simon while in prison is rather different, but why is this?
Imaishi: That area might be fairly influenced by our own tastes. During the TV series, there was a lot more we wanted to do there, to the point that we were saying maybe we could make an entire episode just about prison. So under the pretext of a compilation, we decided to increase the amount of new parts there. Story-wise it's probably unnecessary, but well, we wanted to do it (laugh).
--So that's around where Simon is being bullied, with things like the parachute unit.
Imaishi: Yes. Direction-wise, I wanted to show Simon thoroughly come to ruin. We couldn't show that much in the TV series, so there was the impression that he turned out looking unexpectedly cool. In the movie, we were granted the chance to put in such hackneyed scenes like having his head get covered in food.
--Then you were able to realize those kinds of "Things you wanted to do in the TV series, but didn't" in "Lagann-hen" this time. So were things like the prison scenes and Cathedral Lazengann's appearance your big targets for this movie?
Imaishi: Well, they were an important motivation. It was like, if we were going to make it into movie, of course there would be no point in doing it unless we had those things. But that doesn't mean we were dissatisfied with the TV series. Rather, if asked "Which is the real Gurren Lagann?" I would probably answer that it's the TV series. All we did was simply give it a grade-up to show it movie-sized. Even in this movie, the essence of it are things that were already in the TV series. It's just, in spite of that, there were things that we couldn't present on air in a TV series, or things we couldn't do because of the schedule or lack of resources, so we wanted to do them in the movie. That's what makes a good compilation movie.
--I see.
Imaishi: After all, the story is already done. That's why this time we became absorbed in the depiction of the story, because we had room to delve into the details. To be frank, when we were doing the TV series, we had our hands full just concluding the story. In the movie, we can chew over it a little more, present the story while focusing on a few spots on the way. If we were to make a compilation movie, that's what I wanted to do.
--In the endgame, there is a scene where Gurren-Lagann is desecrated by the Anti-Spiral and is covered in blood. Is it because it's a movie that you were able to portray it in such an extreme way?
Imaishi: I wonder. We might have been able to do that in the TV series too if we tried. Because it's not a person, it's a mecha. Well, we might have been told not to color it red.
--How did Lord Genome becoming a CG character come about?
Imaishi: If I remember correctly, that first turned up in the script. The stage directions were abnormally long. You could really tell that Nakashima-san was laughing his ass off while writing it, and the moment I read it, the storyboard just popped in my head. And so, steamrolling over Ootsuka-san's objections......
All: (laugh)
--So you did oppose it.
Ootsuka: Well, we were already over the limit. But he said he still wanted to do it, so.
Imaishi: Dahahahaha!
Ootsuka: I also thought, would it be a good idea for Lord Genome to be in such high spirits at such an early stage? I thought it might be better for him to keep that bottled up until the end. But both the director and Nakashima-san were enthusiastic to do it (laugh). So I said, "Then please do it."
Imaishi: One of the things we'd left undone in the TV series was to have Narushi Ikeda-san, who plays Lord Genome, act with the same high spirits that he does on the stage. Nakashima-san introduced him to us saying "Here's an actor with a really great voice!" and that's why we asked him to play Lord Genome, but his performance is always completely different from how he is on the stage. Well, it can't be helped since Lord Genome is that kind of character. If you watch the various plays that Narushi-san is in, you'll see that Hacking Papa is the way he is normally. So that's why we wanted to do that at least once in "Gurren Lagann." And to do that, well, that's the only place we can.
--Moreover, story-wise, no one would mind if you didn't present it that way.
Imaishi: Yes. We wanted to use CG pointlessly (laugh). In this movie, the only thing we had new CG modeling for was Hacking Papa.
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: Really, it came out extremely well! From when we were doing the TV series, I'd continued telling Sanzigen-san, who's done all of "Gurren Lagann"'s CG, "Anyway, do it like TRON." And the results paid off here.
--Especially when you see it on the big screen; it was wonderful in a really bad way.
Imaishi: Yes, it came out extremely well on the first shot (laugh). I thought, as expected from Sanzigen-san. As for other CG shots, there's a cut where, during the fight against the swarm of Mugann, Gurren-Lagann throws a Gurren Boomerang and mows down the Mugann. I had him do that too. I asked him "Do it in full 3D please," but he ended up making a 3D shot that looked hand-drawn (laugh). Even looking at the individual frames, it still looks kind of hand-drawn.
Ootsuka: That's the part that moved Akira Amemiya's heart.
Imaishi: Yes, it's quite a highlight. As the two boomerangs fly together, round explosions go boom boom boom, and one time they hit each other, and then fill the screen again, and this time it changes from a follow to a TU, and from the back, more explosions come streaming out to the front. That part where the explosions stream from the back toward the front is completely following in the footsteps of Shoichi Masuo's timing of explosions in "Top wo Nerae!"
--Really.
Imaishi: For the effect where they go GAN! and hit each other too, he went and drew a pseudo-Yoshinori Kanada effect expressly in handwriting. It's hand-drawn (laugh). I'd requested 3D, so for this to be the result was unusual.
--That's amazing.
Ootsuka: I don't think the customers realized that was CG either.
Imaishi: No, I don't think they did. They must only think that someone like Amemiya must have drawn it.
--In the second half, you've also changed the parallel universe sequence a little.
Imaishi: Well, we haven't changed it that much. Though the Gurren-dan don't die, so Kittan is left all alone.
--Furthermore, he's forgotten yet again by Kamina.
Imaishi: That's right. He's a character who's forgotten each time he appears (laugh). I thought that would connect well if you've seen the previous movie. As for where to insert Kittan, we worried over that in the editing. We were saying, "Won't he just get in the way?" (laugh).
--Ahhh.
Imaishi: No matter what, it felt like he would be throwing cold water on Simon and Kamina's highlight scene. To tell the truth, at the end he was supposed to have one more cut. Before Kamina says "It's not goodbye, we're together," Kittan would say something too. We drew that in the layout, inserted it in the editing, and even recorded the line. But in the final stage, we ended up dropping it after all.
--Were the new parts where the Gurren-dan are captive in the parallel universes described specifically in Nakashima-san's script?
Imaishi: Yes, Nakashima-san wrote that in the script. Jorgun, Balinbow, and the others, they would be trading stock. Just how were we supposed to explain that in one cut? (laugh) Tempo-wise, everyone had to be limited to one cut. In the end, we just had them saying "Sell! Sell!"
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: I was saying let's make it as close as possible to the New York Stock Exchange. I even thought myself that I'm telling them to do something pretty difficult.
--As for the climax, basically you stayed true to the TV series' finale. Even though there are new mecha appearing.
Imaishi: That's right. Anyhow, we didn't want to change the contents of the finale. Or rather, we didn't want to change it in a bad way, so we stubbornly refused to relinquish that.
--In other words, you're saying that the TV series' finale was not a mistake.
Imaishi: Yes. Even if heaven and earth were to turn over, Nia would not be brought back to life. Or rather, let's say it's to the point that there is absolutely no route where she could be brought back to life. In that sense, this time there are death flags for Nia from the very beginning.
All: (laugh)
Imaishi: When she's writing in her journal, that's already a complete death flag (laugh).
--Even when I was watching the TV series, I thought "The director must not have much affection for the heroine."
Imaishi: No, no, that's not the case. It's like, if everything you eat is sweet candy, then you'll become sick.....that's not a good way of putting it either (laugh). Anyway, no matter the cost, I didn't want to change the ending.
--What was the reason you didn't want to change it? Being faithful to the viewers?
Imaishi: There's that, and also, changing it wouldn't be very manly of us. Especially considering that we don't think we made a mistake. Well, there were many opinions that people wanted to see a happier ending, but even knowing all that, we still took it upon ourselves to head toward that conclusion. Instead, we perceived the problem as our lack of explanation.
--So in the movie, you added more words of explanation.
Imaishi: That's right. We added more lines to make it easier to understand, to say that it's not going to change.
--This is trivial, but I thought the narration as she's writing in her journal was similar to "Top wo Nerae! 2 The Movie."
Imaishi: Yes, I thought it was similar. But that was just by accident; it was an idea that just came naturally from Nakashima-san.
--I see.
Imaishi: If you start pointing out things like that, there would be no end to it. The intentional homages and parts that just happened to turn out that way are all mixed together (laugh).
--You also stayed close to the original for the epilogue too?
Imaishi: Yes, something like that. That part has a sort of Plus Alpha feel.
--I thought that maybe you would try to connect it to the beginning of the first episode of the TV series. Did you have any ideas like that?
Imaishi: Umm......did we?
Ootsuka: No, we didn't.
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References:
Toei Manga Festival- An animation festival produced by Toei every summer that ran from 1964-1990. (Example)
"Battles Without Honor and Humanity"- A yakuza film often called the "Japanese Godfather."
"Hacking Papa"- Japanese fandom's popular nickname for Lord Genome's CG sequence, which the GAINAX staff seems to have picked up on.
Yoshinori Kanada- Japan's most influential animator. Imaishi is a huge fanboy of him. I highly recommend reading this link btw, it's pretty interesting even if you're like me and don't know much about animation.
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As for the next parts of the interview, Part 3 is about who animated what, and Part 4 is about what went into the creation of the Tengen Toppa Gunmen (Part 5 hasn't been posted yet). I don't know whether I'll be able to finish translating them before the DVD comes out, but I'll keep working on it! ~_~