Over the Sky | Image Gallery | Artbooks | Last Exile Aerial Log | 056
Murata: Well, no way she is 19 years old (laugh).
Suzuki: Actually, in the liner notes she is a self-proclaimed 19 years old. However, even taking into account the special youth section of the military academy, she should be at least 25 years old.
Murata: As for the other characters I created, I assumed they were about 27-8 years old. For Lavie however, I deliberately lowered her age to 14, so this is undisputed.
IN: I think that making Claus and Lavie still underage was the perfect choice to support the development of the story. That age is ideal in that you can easily cope with new things and changes.
Chigira: Lavie was a straightforward character, who spoke for my feelings. Claus was a more serious character, But Lavie was perfect to show the everyday life.
IN: After listening to a frank discussion like this, I wish there were 5 or 6 more episodes.
Suzuki: I actually wanted to run the show for one year altogether, although everybody kept telling me that nowadays it is impossible to have a late night [anime show] running for a whole year. That’s why I stretched it as much as possible and made it into two seasons, but it appears I could not fit everything in it, after all.
Chigira: In the end it was a pleasant job. I had to be very responsive while taking care of the direction. I had to manage many changes with both the Planning [team] and the Producers. That of supervisor is an unexpectedly delicate role in the process. There is the hardship to reject somebody’s view because of someone else’s good points. So his role is to guide the discussion with his persuasive powers. In fact it was a job that provided a continuous sense of tension as if everything would be lost if you messed up things. However, it was a job I myself was strongly used to.
Murata: We were under a terrible pressure. There was a sort of strong aura surrounding Mr. Chigira that made him hard to approach. Whenever I had to go to the desk of Mr. Chigira first I asked the lady from the production “Hey, how is it going these days” to calm down a bit, then UGH! I had to go and face him.
Chigira: That sounds like I have a bad temper. There is no reason to be that scared (laugh).
Murata: Not at all, since the storyboard was carefully examined I used this approach until it was over, it was a habit of mine. After all, wasn’t it hard to approach the desk of Mr. Horiuchi (note 8) as well?
Tanno (note 9): Because the rooms are also different, like the difference between a smoking room and a no-smoking room? Mr. Horiuchi was a serious person who, although very busy, took care also of all the copyrighted pictures to be included into the anime magazines.
Murata: He was strict both with himself and with the others.
Murata: Although being strict on deadlines coming in 2 weeks, he has the ability to instill the feeling that if I can do it, then you can do it too.
IN: There are no parts that are actually obscure or that have any inconsistency if compared to the model sheets, nevertheless it looks like many scenes were omitted because of time constraints, which I believe was a waste.
Murata: The screenplay had about 100 half-papers (note 10), we produced a revised screen play in which many pages were scrapped. That was a refinement, but please keep in mind that removing some parts from the storyboard was an unusual luxury. I truly condensed the material for three seasons into two seasons…
IN: Anyway speaking on the audience’s behalf I think that, contrary to the others, the last episode is so packed with stuff and the time is flying to the extent that it would be difficult to understand it if it weren’t divided into a first part and an epilogue (everybody laughs).
Chigira: Yes. However I wanted to give more or less a final picture of what was going on. It’s quite long though.
Murata: Actually the transition from Prester to Earth was the turning point.
Chigira: We showed the seasons changing, the ocean, and the passing of time on Earth. Well, that’s a sequel in its own way, albeit insufficient.
IN: I already asked but, any plans for a sequel?
Chigira: I am often asked this, but this was a big project so I cannot come up with an ordinary sequel. Indeed, that was a turning point in GONZO’s history, so it is certainly difficult to improve if we don’t create something great. However by all means it’s something I personally would like to do, so I think a lot about it.
IN: We’ll be looking forward to it.
Everybody: Please look forward to it (laugh).
IN: Today this has been a very busy event, thank you very much.
(September 10th, 2004, in Shinjuku)
Note 1: Mr. Murahama is the president of Studio GONZO.
Note 2: The three-wheels compact car that the Messerschmitt company, who also built the old German fighter Me-109, designed in the 1950s.
Note 3: OP, ED were managed by Tomohiro Hirata
Note 4: Mr. Murata lived in Osaka and came to Tokyo for a business meeting, however he started to work on that very day and so he could not go back home. Also, since his house was had metallic interiors it appeared extremely cold without houseplants.
Note 5: A French auto maker, named after car designer Ettore Bugatti. Bugatti's are characterised by outstanding performance and a unique style, so they are considered “running jewels”.
Note 6: In the model sheet it is stated that her physical age is 11, whereas her mental age is that of a 9 years old.
Note 7: The frightened attitude she showed in the first episode is in line with her being 9 years old, however the hardships she faces in the second half of the story make her mature, so she seems older than Al.
Note 8: Osamu Horiuchi, character design animation.
Note 9: [Hideki] Tanno, GONZO Copyright Manager, arranged Mr. Murata’s appearance in today’s session. He is also in charge of Mr. Horiuchi’s, so in the end he is the one who worked behind the scenes.
Note 10: 1 half-paper is a manuscript of about 200 characters, however in ordinary anime production it is usually of 70 characters.
