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Translator's Note: Com-Battler V & Voltes V & Daimos & Daltanious Chronicle, published by Futabasha in July 2003, is a book devoted to the "Romantic Robo" series directed by Tadao Nagahama—namely Super Electromagnetic Robo Com-Battler V, Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V, Fighting General Daimos, and Future Robot Daltanious. It features a variety of exclusive creator and staff interviews, and I've chosen one in particular to translate here. |
Profile
Takeyuki Suzuki: Born in Tokyo Metropolis. Joining Toei in 1968, he produced masterpieces such as Ganbare!! Robocon (1974), Akumaizer 3 (1975), and Superhuman Bibyun (1976). His participation in the "Super Sentai" series began with Taiyō Sentai Sun Vulcan (1981) and he went on to do Kagaku Sentai Dynaman (1983), Chōdenshi Bioman (1984), and so forth. His field of activity also expanded to include animated works such as Fighting General Daimos and (New) Cyborg 009 (1979), and he helped spread these genres among older audiences by incorporating the advantages of both live action and animation as well as current trends. As of 2003, he is supervising the production of Bakuryū Sentai Abaranger and Masked Rider Φ's.
Interview & Composition: Kazumitsu Okubo
Suzuki: The ones I worked on were Fighting General Daimos and Future Robot Daltanious. At the time, live-action works were in a dramatic decline, and anime was booming, so in that situation I had no choice but to do anime works too.
Suzuki: Actually, since I'd been working in the live-action field, at first I honestly wondered why they were making me do anime. (wry laughter) But as I was doing it, it became really interesting. There were so many things that you couldn't do in live action.
The biggest thing I learned was my own way of making a giant robot show enjoyable. I wasn't interested in doing things the usual way, so I called in a fight choreographer. (1) I showed his moves (stage combat) to the staff at Nippon Sunrise (now Sunrise), recorded them on video, and asked them to work with that.
Suzuki: They were all quite surprised (smile) and asked "Why do we have a fight choreographer?" But I thought it was essential if we were doing action. We used to have fight choreographers come over to Toei Doga (now Toei Animation) from the film studios, too. After all, there's always a gap between the moves you come up with in your head and the real thing. And while they were watching that video, everyone started saying "Oh, interesting!" and tracing the movements as they drew.
That's why the movement is a little different from other works. I think we were able to add some of the fun of real action, that is, the action scenes you see in live action, rather than just the imaginary kind.
Suzuki: On the other hand, I also learned things from anime that I've used in live-action works. At the time, anime works had a lot of beautiful characters. When I later returned to live-action works, I tried including these kinds of "beautiful" characters in things like Kagaku Sentai Dynaman (1983). For example, Prince Megiddo (Kenju Hayashi) and Princess Chimera (Mari Kono).
At the time, some said "There aren't any Japanese people who are that 'beautiful' in real life," but I thought we should make them look like that, so we put in Megiddo and the others. I think that made it even more interesting.
Another big thing I learned was definitely the fun of design. In anime, they did things differently from live action, and that was very interesting. When I entered the world of anime, I felt that live-action design was lagging behind, and I thought I'd try to bring some of that into live action.
Suzuki: That's right. At that point, I think he was taking a gap year to retake his college entrance exams... I met him on Daimos. Then, during Dynaman, I invited him to come and work on the "Super Sentai" series, and he took me up on it. As I think everyone knows, the design of the "Sentai" series changed dramatically as a result.
Also, in Daimos and Daltanious, the drama developed in the form of a continuing series. In their broad outline, they were serials, but in style they were standalone episodes. I think incorporating this into Toei's live-action hero shows also proved to be a major turning point.
Suzuki: They did. We decided to try doing a love story between the hero and heroine, in a space setting. We wanted them to overcome various tribulations and fulfill their love.
I was very satisfied with how we were able to weave in the romance as we made Daimos, so later on I tried to do it again in Chōjin Sentai Jetman (1990). Ultimately, it turned out that it's better not to emphasize the romance too much in a hero show. (wry laughter) To a certain degree, Fighting General Daimos also taught me dramatic techniques for making things enjoyable even for older audiences.
Suzuki: Mr. Nagahama was a passionate person, and he enjoyed making things. For example, he was exacting when it came to adding sound effects. The sound itself was also very intense. I learned a lot working alongside him, and I thought I definitely wanted to try that when I went back to doing live-action works. And of course, it was implemented in the "Sentai" series in later years.
Suzuki: He was really passionate. I think he was an unusual type in the anime field. People in that field tend to give the impression of being rather quiet, but Mr. Nagahama was very intense. He'd finish the rush (film) at Sunrise, then head straight to the Tohokushinsha studio to add the sound (sound effects and music recording), and the whole way from Sunrise (in Tokyo's Suginami Ward) to the Tohokushinsha studio (in Tokyo's Minato Ward), he'd be singing the show's theme song over and over again in the car. (smile) He was an amazing person. (laughs)
For the full rush, sometimes Mr. Nagahama would do all the voices himself. (3) He'd mimic the voices of all the characters. There was nothing halfhearted about his enthusiasm. In that sense, he really had his own style—what they called the "Nagahama style"—and it was great fun working with him. He was someone who had some of that live-action sensibility.
Suzuki: That's true. I think the robots in those shows progressed rapidly. It's obvious when you look at the "Sentai" series, but over time we had five-part combinations, combinations with power-up mecha, two robots combining, and all kinds of other combination patterns depending on how they joined together. In that respect, there were times when the technology couldn't keep up with what we actually wanted to do in the "Sentai" series. But the engineers steadily persisted, and at this point, they can pull off pretty much any kind of combination or transformation. They let us get away with some ridiculous requests. (laughs)
The engineers have been giving it a lot of thought and applying their creativity, and now they're skilled enough not only to keep up with our ideas, but to take the conceptual lead. They can already light up and make sounds, and they have built-in power and speech circuits, so pretty soon they might end up becoming actual robots. (smile) I suppose robots are now a part of Japanese culture. Whether in live action or anime, we have to keep on doing new things... This isn't normal drama, but the world of SF.
As creators, we too are following our dreams. I hope you'll all keep on doing likewise, and even when you become adults, I'd like you to enjoy the world of dreams.
(December 11, 2002, at Toei's head office in Tokyo's Chuo Ward)
(1) The Japanese term tateshi (殺陣師) technically means a swordfighting choreographer, but on Daimos the job also involved karate action.
(2) The Tokyo Movie School's online glossary defines the Japanese term tame (溜め) as "a brief pause just before the big action begins." I've phrased it here as "anticipation."
(3) The Japanese term "all rush" (オールラッシュ) means a rough edit in which all the film is spliced together in story order for test screening. I've phrased it here as "full rush."
Mobile Suit Gundam is copyright © Sotsu • Sunrise. Everything else on this site, and all original text and pictures, are copyright Mark Simmons.
