Is it any different writing for a tokusatsu Kamen Rider Fourze than for an anime like Kill la Kill?
Nakashima: One of the major differences especially in comparison Kamen Rider Fourze and Kill la Kill is that Kamen Rider is a children's show so it comes with a different rating and so there are certain depiction of violence and cruelty that you can't include. We may have high school age characters in fourze, but they could not engage in fist fights where as Kill la Kill is not rated for children, so I was completely free to have heads flying off, arms and limbs getting maimed.
Where there any particular challenges that you faced in the development of Kill la Kill?
Nakashima: The challenge for us with Kill la Kill was that we grew up watching anime was very fond of old school style. We wanted to impose the challenge of translating what we were fond of about the old school anime and make that palatable to a contemporary audience. This is in contrast to the previous show that we worked on Gurren Lagann because that was a story about the growth of a boy into manhood. In Kill la Kill we decided to go without having a central theme to improvise everything in development and see how far we can go in terms of turning that into a work of entertainment.
SUSHIO: There was an anime show called Mashin Hero Wataru that I had been particularly fond of during my childhood and it was the excitement of watching that show that I wanted to give back to a contemporary audience.
Toba: As a producer I will say that one intent of Kill la Kill was not to cater to market trends and this was an intentional decision made by the three core creators Imashi, SUSHIO, and Nakashima. They were very confident that they could come up with first-grade work of entertainment without going with the popular flow.
I want to ask about the concept of the life fiber. Some people have seen it as something allegorical or symbolic, and I was wondering if you could talk about your intention with them because they get used a lot during the second half of the show.
Nakashima: There is a certain troupe in Japanese anime where all the combatants are in uniform like Sailor Moon, but if you expand that idea you have combat clothes which makes you wonder what it means to have combat-ready apparel. There is an inspiration that comes from a science-fiction novel Garments of Caean by Barrington J Bayley and this story is about sentience apparel and we expand on that and turn that into sentient combat apparel that would be worn not only by humans, but all sentient life on Earth so that's the science-fiction element I incorporated.
In America there is a lot of controversy surrounding in the anime community about how revealing costumes are when people try to cosplay in order to make them authentic. Can you comment on this?
Nakashima: I think it would be more proper to do rendition of cosplay that would be more accurate or faithful to the anime rendition and perhaps North American cosplayers may have a figure more appropriate for that effect.
What inspired the crazy and outrageously delicious art style? We think it's magic mushrooms, but what inspired the style and what are some of the influences on this style?
SUSHIO: The inspiration for the character design certainly come from all the anime that I was fond of as a child, as well as the 70s manga that Mr. Nakashima is very well versed in, so there are a lot of characters that are inspired and play homage to those period characters. Also as work progressed, I submerged myself in the influences of the mushroom so that I would turn my self into a mushroom body.
Toba: To be serious the trippy aspect is something that director Imashi had hashed from his file you can see that in the second part of the Gurren Lagann movie in addition to Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, which isn't our work, that kind of "trippy-ness" is signature Imashi.
How social media has played a role in helping anime in spreading the word or giving you guys ideas?
Toba: There is a large population of Japanese anime fans who are on social media twitter and any other sites, so there is a whole lot of information that fans give out and receive. We really take twitter and other social media very seriously as a part of promotion, as well to see fan reaction especially right after broadcast. So we looked at twitter and I am sure American fans of other shows such as American TV, do simul-commenting with hashtags as the show is being broadcast. We follow all the hashtags as well as see what tweet rates are with hashtags. Also with Kill la Kill, Mr. Nakashima put in a small trick into the final episode of the final episode trailer he said "will trigger be able to complete the final episode" and that really lit up a storm with Japanese fans on twitter they sent trigger a lot of encouragement that they can do it, they can finish the episode, and that they can fight thru it. They also sent a lot of fan art sent to the staff along with encouragement.
Nakashima: We also followed what overseas fans were saying and so we had machines and translation staff so we could do immediately translation of what they were writing. We followed a number of sites, including 4chan.
Trigger did an online-only show that they called Infernal Cop. What brought on that project and was it an external product you were trying out in terms of distribution?
Toba: Since I was not involved in "infernal cop," I can only relate to the stories I heard from president Ohtsuka of Trigger and director Amemiya who worked on it. It was something they wanted to do as Trigger that would be experimental and they always had the option for online distribution. They decided to take that on and wanted to show that they could do something casual in the style of Trigger. None of us here directly worked on it, but we are really big fans of Infernal Cop.
What was your reaction when you were hired on to become the character designer for Kill la Kill?
SUSHIO: When I was first given the job of being the character designer for Kill la Kill, I didn't consider myself to be good at doing character designs for cute girls, so I wanted to decline, but director Imashi said that I am the only one who could do this. I took on his compliment as a challenge and decided that I should. Having been the animation director for the show, I got some sense of crisis that young Japanese animators aren't as skilled as previous generation so I felt the need to mentor a lot of them and try to raise the skill level of the current young batch.
Nakashima, did your plans for the show changed at all after writing it, after seeing the reaction, after seeing it in action? Did you change anything that you originally planned for the show while you were writing it? How does it compare to something like Kamen Rider which has 50 episodes vs. Kill la Kill that has 24 do you feel you have more room to change things?
Nakashima: When Kill la Kill went into broadcast, the entire screenplay had already been up, so there was not much tweaking of the story. There may have been some mention of some details that I over looked in writing that may have been brought up those were some small things that were modified at the recording studio. On the other hand, with a show like Kamen Rider it is a very big title it has big suits that are involved in production so they have a lot of say so TV stations and sponsors bring in a lot of input so there are a lot of changes and modification during the middle of production. In Kill la Kill, it was something that I could pretty much write all alone so I really enjoyed the independence and freedom that I had.
SUSHIO: The reaction from the internet does not really influence or cause my drawing style to change, but there were times that I was so drowsy that I could not go on with work. During that time, I tweeted and solicited for songs that could help keep me awake, and a lot of fans gave me good input so I could stay awake thanks to their help and keep working.
Toba: We do look at social media such as twitter to see what fans are saying, but that is not to solicit or even take input into the creative aspects. It's to see what aspects of the show or characters fans are liking so we can tweak our promotional efforts to make sure that they get the right part of the show that they like. So its not the concept of the show, or the core of the show, that we modify it's really to see that our creation is being received and understood. However we do monitor what fans are saying and those opinions are perhaps reflected on the next show that we will work on.
Could you tell us about your next project?
All: We are still thinking about it.
Since you worked in Gainax what sort of influence or lessons you might have brought over Gainax to Trigger?
Nakashima: What I learned from my senpai at Gainax is that you stick your life into making a good show. That is something I brought over to Trigger.