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FanimeCon - Gurren Lagann Staff - 2008 One reason this site traveled to FanimeCon was an assignment from the editors of PiQ Magazine to cover the convention and interview the creative team from Gainax that had produced the Gurren Lagann series. However, three weeks after the interview, the magazine was cancelled. Since the PiQ issue where the interview would have been appeared will never be published, we're presenting the interview on the web site. At the interview were: Hiroyuki Yamaga – president of Gainax, planning Yasuhiro Takeda – producer Masahiko Ohtsuka – assistant director Yoh Yoshinori – designer Interpretation by Toshifumi Yoshida Gainax has done many mecha shows in the past. What did you want to do differently with Gurren Lagann? Takeda – I guess the biggest difference was that we had a lot of young staff members. One of the plans for this project was that  instead of using the Annos (Hideaki Anno, Gainax' co-founder) one of the plans early on was to  use new staff members  for episode direction instead of the usual suspects, as you might say. Regarding the main characters: Each one seems to be easily captured with a simple, iconic image. Kamina has his sunglasses, Simon with his goggles and drill, Yoko with her rifle. Did you start with the icon and create the character from there, or did the character come first? Ohtsuka – The director (Hiroyuki Imaishi) already decided ahead of time with his directions what type of characters they were along with what they would be wearing or carrying. Regarding the mecha design, some of the designs, like the Gai-Ganzan/Dai-Gurren, are truly crazy. What was the philosophy of mecha design in Gurren Lagann? Did it tie into the character design? Yoshinori – The basic concepts came from the director, of course, but the emphasis was on the face. Get rid of everything else and leave only the face, and let the expressions speak. How does a mecha express character? Yoshinori – Realistically speaking, mecha can't have an expression. Let's just call it a unknown advancement in technology. When the mecha were created, they were created to cause fear in humanity, so there had to be some sort of expressions already preset on the faces of the robots. Gurren Lagann is crazy, even silly at times, yet many fans find it powerful and moving. How did you create a show that is both funny and deep? Ohtsuka – Each staff member has a characteristic that is sort of unique. And the director, rather than forcing them to move in a certain direction, allowed them to express themselves pretty freely, but still maintain a story structure. So it could come from that. Yamaga – Each company or organization has its own characteristics and culture. If you were to have Gonzo create a show, it would be like a Gonzo show. And if you get I.G (Production I.G) it'll be an I.G show. When Gainax creates a show, perhaps that craziness come out because that's the culture of Gainax. Takeda – Under the guidance of Yamaga many years ago to the person who was doing the stories for the shopping mall Abenobashi (Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi) Yamaga told him to “do what you want.” And of course, you see what kind of show that turned out to be. Gurren Lagann is an original story. How much freedom did you have in creating that story? Yamaga – We had complete freedom. We were so free we almost didn't get it on TV. Takeda – One of the things with having this freedom is that since you have the freedom to decide how many cuts you would use in an episode, but rather than worrying about financial matters, one of the biggest worries is that because we had the freedom, one of the concerns was “Will we finish it on time?”  We didn't have any problems, other than painting ourselves into a corner by making something possibly too difficult to finish on time, because we couldn't break the schedule. The scripts would come up from the writer, they'd look at it and go “Hey, this is a great story,” but the writer said “Are you sure, because you're not going to get this done in time.” That would be the biggest difficulty, because it was so good, they would have to push it through and get it done. How was the Gurren Lagann concept born and developed? Yamaga – It's not any one person's creation, really. We put a lot of emphasis on the vision of the director and what the writer felt the story should be and the overall planning, but since it grew up in the culture of our company, we almost didn't have to talk to each other that much. It was almost telepathic. We knew, overall, among us, what kind of story we were going to put together. Even the fringe staffers. Not that we get along sometimes, but we understand each other. Why are there certain factors in the show -  young guys, robots and partially clad women? Yamaga – The underlying theme was were doing a robot anime. So everybody wanted to make a robot anime that could appeal to various ages. Gainax is full of people who love anime. So everything built up from that basis. Why robots? Yamaga – There hasn't been very many of them made lately. But just as the planning was moving into production, a lot of companies started making robots (robot shows). I guess everybody in the industry was thinking the same way. What will attract people to Gurren Lagann? Yamaga – It's interesting to see the characters age in the show. They get older. Not only in the story do people age, a lot of the architects of the show were in their 40's and 30's and the people who created the show were in their 30's and 20's. You really got to see everybody grow up, in a sense, in producing this show. Any messages for fans in the United States? Yoshinori – Please enjoy the show. Ohtsuka – As a staff we work very hard. Please, I hope everyone enjoys what we put into it. Yamaga – In terms of  the series, I think we're still growing. We're still children in this storytelling. Please watch Gurren Lagann as a series grow, hopefully in the next 10 to 20 years. Takeda – As a company we will have other titles, but we hope that Gurren Lagann is a series that we can continue to create, whether it be web clips and music clips online, or, of course, the theatrical releases. We think it's a show worth continuing, so we hope you come with us. May 2008 Main Page