––The two of you were just working on Star Driver and its movie, but just what is this new project going to be like?
IGARASHI: Star Driver was a project about balancing "school" and "robots." So this time, we decided to try digging deeper into the 'robots' part of that. And that's how we got started with this project.
ENOKIDO: I think it's pretty risky to make another series in the same genre right away. People might start thinking we were one-trick ponies! Or that we'd lost our groove. But, with all that in mind, we wanted to try taking it to the next step this time.
––So, what sorts of things is this new project inheriting from previous works and what sorts of things are completely new?
IGARASHI: I guess you could say the themes of youth and adolescence that have shown up in my previous projects are sort of my 'life's work.' So, those themes will be a component this time and I thought I'd try my hand at some 'tear-jerking drama' too.
––Just what kind of robot anime is this going to be?
ENOKIDO: To put it simply, Star Driver was a series where robots could only move in a special, closed space called Zero Time. That was a bit of a curve ball for robot anime, but this time I thought I'd try pitching a straightforward game (lol). {tl note: I can't in2baseball so I'm sorry for butchering that metaphor}
IGARASHI: If you think of Star Driver as a story about leaving a closed space, in this project, that happens in the very first episode. Once we leave Earth for space, what happens next? I think that's one thing to look out for.
––The title is 'Captain Earth.' What does it mean exactly?
IGARASHI: I just think clear and easy-to-understand titles are nice.
ENOKIDO: I wanted to give it a more mainstream title. When it occurred to me that there wasn't any 'Captain Earth,' I thought it might work. So there's 'Captain Future' a captain from the future, and there's 'Captain America' a captain of America, but there's no captain of Earth. And its seemed perfect for the story of a boy leaving earth (lol).
IGARASHI: I was a little hung up on questions like, 'just what does "captain" mean and what kind of captain are we talking about here?' It's really a question of what it means to be an adult. And what it means to lay your life on the line for someone. This time, we wanted to center [the story] around those themes.
––I'm looking forward to seeing how this location is used in the story.
IGARASHI: I'm so happy that I can keep making original works in this day and age. And mecha anime is sort of a special genre of animation––there's a lot of staff involved and a lot of elements [in general]. I think it's [a genre] full of the feelings of a greater number of staff. So I've been whole-heartedly focused on how to convey all of those feelings on the screen.
ENOKIDO: This time, I'm planning to challenge [the audience] with such a simple robot gimmick that it'll make everyone wonder why no one's done it yet. But, the 'strike-zone' that'll make people go, 'now THIS is mecha anime!' is a little different [from what we're doing]. I'm facing the difficulty of doing that and pitching straight down the middle at the same time.
IGARASHI: We've gotta throw fast balls straight over home plate hard enough to blow the catcher away. That's the issue Enokido and I are facing right now.
BONES WATCH!
"If I hadn't joined BONES, I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to make mecha anime. This time we plan to have the robots drawn by hand again. I think I have the opportunity to take up that challenge over and over thanks to BONES as well." (Igarashi)
"The first thing I worked on at BONES with director Igarashi was Ouran Host Club. It was based on a shoujo manga, playing to our personal strengths. But, BONES's forte is definitely mecha anime. Since we went to Tanegashima, I wanted to see a rocket launch. And since I'm working at BONES, I figure I should be making mecha anime. Something like that (lol)." (Enokido)
