I haven’t forgotten what the world was like four years ago. I’d long been hesitant to talk about anything political on Ogiue Maniax, but the importance of the US election in the face of a pandemic that killed a previously unfathomable amount of people made me address it more directly. When the dust cleared, I thought (or perhaps hoped) that at least one of the monsters we had to deal with would be gone for good, but I was apparently too naive. So here we are again.
I hope everyone can vote if they are able to. I won’t say who to vote for (though my leanings are probably obvious), and I know that voting is a drop in the bucket in terms of effective political engagement, but I truly think this is a crucial election that will determine so much of the future. Let’s do away with the fearmongers who want to scapegoat various groups while they pick the pockets of their supporters.
In other news, I need to mention the fact that Patreon is changing the way it bills supporters due to Apple shenanigans. Whereas I used to bill everyone at the start of the month, now it depends on when you started subscribing.
So thank you to my supporters on Patreon. I still have no idea what this will look like next month!
Kio has been thinking up the plot of an eromanga (different from the one he’s currently working on), and is now up to 4 chapters. He hopes he can get around to actually drawing it eventually.
Kio watched The Queen of Villains, the Netflix series about the iconic Japanese heel pro wrestler Dump Matsumoto. He found it to be a really good and intense work. The scene where Dump “awakens” to herself was cathartic.
Kio’s PC went into factory reset mode. He thinks it might have been because there was a power outage when Windows was updating. A person in the replies helped Kio with some troubleshooting, but seemingly to no avail. Kio had stuff backed up, though, so it should be okay.
Kio is a fan of the manga Fist of the North Star: Legend of the Apocalyptic Drama Shoot, which presents Fist of the North Star as if it were a live-action television production where all the characters are actors. He likes that the production issues feel plausible for what happens in the original work.
Kio watched Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance. He likes how the Zakus really comes across as weapons, whereas normally mobile suits come across as more like living beings, or like ASIMO vs Atlas.
Requiem for Vengeance is practically a monster movie.
Kio watching another DVD from How Do You Like Wednesday? This time, they’re in Vietnam.
One person in the replies talked about how at the time, it seemed like this might be their final show, but Kio didn’t get into How Do You Like Wednesday? in real time, so it was different for him.
Kio finally inked the line work for the final 80 pages of his doujinshi. He still has to add grays, blacks, text, and color for the cover, though (all of which take quite a bit of time).
Kio talked to a younger person who was aware of the fact that Patlabor came out first with Yuki Masami’s manga. As Kio looked at this month’s issue of Model Grafix, it hit him that the people who would naturally know this are probably around 50 years old.
I wanted to express my brief thoughts on three different Japanese voice actors who passed away recently. I don’t mean to diminish any of them, but I’ve been unable to write in a timely fashion as of late, so this is the best I can do.
The first is Tanaka Atsuko, voice of Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell and Bayonetta. Her voice had this wonderfully mature and rich quality, and every time she showed up, it felt like she elevated whatever character she played. This death blindsided me—it almost didn’t even seem possible that she would be gone so soon. She was 61.
The second is Shinohara Emi, voice of Sailor Jupiter, Kaho in Cardcaptor Sakura, and Youko from Maria-sama ga Miteru. She was also 61, and could sound powerful in different ways. I think just seeing voices from Sailor Moon leaving us really makes me feel the passage of time.
The third is Ohyama Nobuo, the original voice of Doraemon. While she was 90 years old with a long and successful career, her work was important to me because of another starring role: Kappei, the main hero of Zambot 3, whom Ohyama played two years before Doraemon. Reportedly, Zambot 3 (and Gundam) director Tomino said that he was unsurprised that she got the part that defined her career because she was an incredibly versatile performer. While Ohyama hadn’t voiced Kappei in a long time, and you can tell that her clips in later Super Robot Wars games are recycled from previous appearance, her passion was more than evident. She also now joins Daitarn 3’s Suzuoka Hirotaki as being immortalized in those recordings.
The past few months have been a lot. I hope we can continue to celebrate their careers
Last year, I got the chance to interview Tanaka Rie, the voice of Lacus Clyne in Gundam SEED. She mentioned to me that there were certain answers I could not record, and I wondered why. Not long after, the Gundam SEED Freedom movie was announced, and I realized that it was the reason why Tanaka couldn’t say as much as she might have wanted to.
Receiving the news about the film, I felt rather ambivalent. That’s because my feelings towards the SEED franchise are rather mixed. I adored the original Gundam SEED. Not long after, I was actually living in Japan while Gundam SEED Destiny was on TV. I was such a fan of the first seriesthat when SEED Destiny was airing, I would make sure to be in front of the TV every Sunday evening so I could catch it. I remember once leaving a group of friends to not miss an episode, and one other time frantically biking to get back home. And in those early days, I really felt the show was exceeding my expectations, as I wondered where all its hints and plot threads would lead.
Then came one disappointment after the next, and my opinion of it soured accordingly. Worst of all was the way SEED Destiny treated my favorite character, fiery tomboy Cagalli Yula Athha, into a constant whimpering mess. Her relationship drama with her partner, Athrun Zala, felt contrived and an insult to what they had built up in SEED. The ending was a mess that felt rushed and made all the characters look terrible—even the franchise protagonist Kiara Yamato and his romantic interest Lacus Clyne, who came across as too perfect. There were some supplementary endings to make up for the rushed finale, but it was too little, too late.
To this day, I will say I’m a fan of just SEED (and the manga Gundam SEED Astray, but let’s leave that aside). So with Gundam SEED Freedom, I couldn’t help but feel apprehensive: How much would it be SEED and how much would it be Destiny?
To my relief, it turns out to be a solid movie that repairs some of the damage caused by its predecessor, and reminds me enough of what made SEED good while also avoiding being a complete nostalgia grab.
Plot
Gundam SEED Freedom takes place not long after the end of SEED Destiny. After having stopped the machinations of political leader Gilbert Dullindal, which involved basically eugenics and a giant space laser (of course), Kira and Lacus have formed an independent peacekeeping force called COMPASS. Among their ranks are even SEED Destiny characters (and former foes) Shinn Asuka and Lunamaria Hawke. Despite winning a crucial (and lethal) victory against Dullindal, humanity is not at peace, and the tensions between Naturals and genetically engineered Coordinators continues to be inflamed by extremist groups. Amid this ongoing turmoil, a small nation called Foundation emerges as a potential ally of COMPASS. When Lacus meets with its leaders, she feels an unusual and entrancing connection to Orphee Lam Tao, one of the country’s elite Black Knights, all of whom are a new type of human called Accords, with abilities surpassing even Coordinators. Machinations behind the scenes put COMPASS in danger, with Kira ending up a scapegoat amid battle.
Playing to SEED’s Strengths
SEED Freedom is primarily centered around Kira and Lacus, and this is not a bad thing. Especially in Destiny, this main couple of the franchise could feel weirdly distant and robotic. But here, the pressure each faces in their respective roles as fighter and politician are shown to create tension and even a few insecurities. This doesn’t mean that SEED Freedom is contrived in its melodrama, but rather that the two are shown to have moments of real weakness that make them feel human on a level that even the original person SEED doesn’t always reach. It’s a good supporting foundation for the film as a whole.
Character Designs
I want to address one concern I had about the film: the character designs. In the promotional material. A lot of the new characters seem to have mildly bizarre strange proportions, like their heads are a tad too big or their legs a little too short. All the girls for some reason now have extra pouty lips, even then they weren’t like that originally. I wondered if these changes would be distracting, but either they’re not as bad as I thought, or the other elements of the movie distracted me enough to not notice it as much.
SPOILER SECTION
A lot of the more interesting parts occur in the second half of the movie. So from here, it’s going to be spoilers. Be warned!
The VIllains Are Walking Right-Wing Memes
The Accords are (unsurprisingly) the main antagonistic force of SEED Freedom, and I find their role in the story fairly intriguing. They are the main proponents of restoring the Destiny Plan (i.e. space eugenics), and their reasoning and justifications end up feeling (perhaps unintentionally) like talking points from right-wing manosphere-esque communities. While created to be superior in every way, they can’t wrap their heads around the fact that being designed for specific roles in life doesn’t automatically mean that others have to play along. Orphee in particular was meant from birth to be Lacus’s ideal partner, and the fact that she rejects him for someone “inferior” in Kira bedevils him to the point of obsession.
(As an aside, I find it funny that this obsession with perfection and intolerance towards any sort of failure is very similar to the Perfect Choujin, the villains of the recent Kinnikuman anime.)
The very idea that someone might have an “unideal” partner, or devote their lives to something they’re not inherently talented at, bothers the Accords. When Orphee exclaims that Lacus is supposed to love him, it’s a sentiment cut from the same cloth as nonsensical beliefs about alpha, beta, and sigma males; angry incel notions of relationships (or lack thereof) as genetic inevitabilities; and other weird nonsense. The movie indirectly hits back at all this, especially in a key line by Lacus: “You don’t love people because you need them, you need people because you love them.”
Character Un-Assassinations
Another welcome part of the film is that a lot of it seems to be devoted to salvaging characters who were made to be rather pathetic in SEED Destiny. This is especially the case for Athrun and Cagalli, who aren’t as prominent in the movie but impact the narrative in their own ways that restore what made them great.
Athrun makes a big splash in his first appearance in a Z’Gok, which is later revealed to have the Infinite Justice Gundam inside, not unlike the Black Sarena from Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness. He’s the only one who can knock some sense into a distraught Kira, emphasizing their enduring friendship. Cagalli is portrayed as a bit overwhelmed by the current situation but still firmly in charge and capable as the young leader of a small nation, far from the crying mess she was in SEED Destiny. Their relationship seems to be one where they’re often not able to be physically together but are connected through their feelings, and that’s more than enough. The movie even literally has a scene where they’re working together long-distance in battle to thwart the mind-reading powers of an opponent by having Cagalli remotely pilot the Infinite Justice. They’re shown to be capable and reliable friends individually, and clearly full of love for each other as a couple.
Even Shinn is shown to have less of a chip on his shoulder, but in a way that still shows him as endearingly hotheaded. When the Accords try to read Shinn’s mind and are greeted with a monstrous(ly protective) ghost of Stellar (Shinn’s starcrossed lover who died in SEED Destiny), they basically recoil over the fact that Shinn’s angsty darkness is too angsty and dark for them to handle. It’s perfect in a way.
Other character appearances in the movie can feel like fanservice in the sense that the work is often saying, “Remember this person? Aren’t they great?” but it’s a form of fanservice I welcome. One of SEED’s strengths is its portrayal of character relationships, and it collectively feels like a return to form for the franchise as a whole.
(There’s also a bit of actual fanservice. In fact, one joke I made about the movie while watching was to exaggeratedly call it “Gundam SEED Freedom: Godannar Season 3” in reference to a particular Lacus scene.)
(I also called it “Oops, All Sciroccos” due to the seductive nature of the Accords.)
Cool Robots Fighting
While this doesn’t play a huge factor in my assessment of the movie, I do want to say that the mobile suit combat in this film is excellent. It’s not just a matter of good animation or crisp action scenes, but rather the fact that SEED Freedom really incorporates the fantastical and technical parts of its mecha lore into satisfying moments. Whether it’s giving everyone even more ridiculous backpacks, the Infinite Justice chopping an enemy in half with its head-mounted beam saber, or Shinn being at full strength in the Destiny Gundam when he can go full “no thoughts, head empty,” a lot of moments just work. And the Mighty Strike Freedom at the climax is the peak of all that excess.
SPOILER SECTION OVER
Final Thoughts
I’m glad Gundam SEED Freedom happened, even if it took forever to get here. And I would gladly allow the franchise to ride off into the sunset, only it turns out that they’re doing two additional epilogues that they’re going to air in theaters.
Kakazu Yumi is a voice actor arguably best known for her role as Yuffie Kisaragi in the Final Fantasy franchise. I had the opportunity to interview her at Otakon 2024, where my questions focused primarily on her work in mecha anime.
One actor you seem to work with pretty often is Hiyama Nobuyuki, such as in Gaogaigar, Godannar, and even Initial D. Do you have any fun memories of performing alongside him?
Thank you for coming to this interview. I’ve been a fan for many years, and I want to start off by asking about one role I know you for that others might not think about: Shizuru in Godannar. Do you recall what it was like working on that series, and how you approached the character?
Kakazu: Shizuru is a very grounded, very mature character, and she was also a commanding officer. It is a characteristic that’s unlike me, so I tried to perform that part when I was voice acting.
Another staff member who was on Godannar was Kimura Takahiro, who recently passed away. He also worked on another series that you were involved with: Gaogaigar FINAL. Did you ever get to know him, and do you have any memorable stories about him?
Kakazu: Actually, Kimura-san came to visit the studio when we were recording, and we also spoke together on stage. At the event, he tried to apply his own makeup, but he had never done it before, so he asked, “Kakazu-san, can you help me with this?” So behind the stage, I was doing it for him.
I never knew that he cosplayed! Do you remember who he cosplayed as?
Kakazu: I think he had a white wing…? Or maybe it was Shishioh Guy. I forget.
On the topic of Gaogaigar, you returned to the role of Renais a few years ago in Super Robot Wars 30. What was it like playing Renais back when you first worked on FINAL, and did anything change for you playing the role over the years in SRW?
Kakazu: Not a lot changed.
Related to that, I was actually at the Final Fantasy panel earlier, and you mentioned playing Yuffie since Ehrgeiz. So, similar question: Do you think your performance has changed, or has it been pretty solid throughout?
Kakazu: I said this on stage, but when I first started voicing Yuffie, she was one character in a fighting game. The only sounds she had were “Hahh! Hahh!” type noises.. But over time she’s gotten more chances to speak and more lines, and now she stands alongside the other characters, showing how mainstream she’s become. I’m grateful that I was able to meet Yuffie all the way back in the beginning, and also even more grateful to the people who have supported her up until now.
Another anime you worked on is a series called RahXephon, and your character, Hiroko, has a very powerful and tragic death. And do you have any advice for voice actors on how to approach such a challenging scene?
Kakazu: So I remember getting the script when I was recording, and I remember being very focused on reading and trying to understand it. Also, I remember the pain I felt when I was recording. When I’m acting out these tragic scenes, I try to recall my personal experience, and also use my imagination to expand the performance. So maybe this isn’t advice, but I realize that everything I’ve experienced in my life has become a resource that fuels my acting and performance. So maybe the advice I would give another voice actor is to find meaning in everyday life.
You seem to act alongside the actor Hiyama Nobuyuki pretty often. Do you have any fun memories of performing alongside him in any of the shows you worked on together?
Kakazu: I actually have a lot of fun memories with him. When Hiyama would say the line, “GAO! GAI! GAAAAR!,” he would shout the line in a great big voice, and it would reverberate through his entire body. I remember the first day of this recording, he did the line, and the mic actually broke!
Oh, I found the cosplay that Kimura-sensei did. [Shows a picture of Guy from Gaogaigar.]
Ah!
I interviewed the director of Gundam X, Takamatsu Shinji, at Otakon nine years ago. Do you remember what it was like working on that series and playing the character of Sala?
Kakazu: Sala was actually my debut role as a voice actor. She’s actually second-in-command and has an important role, but she’s only 17 years old. So there’s a difference between how she has to behave as second-in-command versus how old she actually is. So it was really difficult to figure out the balance between her age and her having this mature, heavy responsibility as second-in-command. I remember working very hard figuring that out, and this contributed to learning more about voice acting.
Kio recently had a talk at Umeda Lateral, an Osaka-based live music house and talk venue, to celebrate the release of his new artbook. Below are my notes from watching it.
(Unfortunately, the VOD is no longer available. Also, screenshots are not allowed.)
There are three people: the host, Kio, and his editorial manager Moteki.
For the event, Kio drew special signboards featuring the Genshiken characters, one per character: Ogiue, Madarame, Sue, Ohno, and Saki.
Apparently, it’s normal for the hosts and speaker to drink on stage at this venue. Kio’s first order was draft beer.
He has been to Osaka before, for work and for sightseeing. Was on the train for 9 hours to get there.
The artbook was not his idea. It was Moteki’s, who brought it up because it’s Kio’s 30th anniversary. Kodansha wouldn’t do it themselves? Moteki actually reached out to him through Pixiv.
Kio wanted to reply, and he got motivated to actually make the book happen.
There were cases where Kio was looking through his old work and thought, “Did I draw this?”
Starting doing digital after Genshiken, starting with Jigopuri. At the time, he still scanned in his pencils, though.
Works prior to that transition were newly scanned for the artbook. He had a bit of experience doing it for the Shinsouban (the special edition that has new covers and changes the nine volumes of the original into five).
Kio admitted that he doesn’t actually remember much of his works before Genshiken. Moteki jokingly expresses concern that this pre-Genshiken period was eight years.
Moteki: Ogiue is a character who really takes the story places, but is there anyone from before Genshiken like that?
Kio: Nope, I don’t think so.
Kio actually doesn’t think Ogiue is that much of a driving force. Madarame was originally planned to be there from the start in some form.
Kio showed early concept notes about Genshiken. At the time, it was still written in kanji.
The original 3 characters were early versions of what would become Saki, Kohsaka, Madarame.
Saki (or her prototype) was the original protagonist. Prototype Kohsaka’s gender hadn’t been determined yet—the character was labeled “Hero (Heroine?)” One note mentions that he maybe looks like Squall from Final Fantasy VIII.
The school setting was based on Chuo University, just like in the actual Genshiken.
Kio wanted to make the series focused on character gags.
Prototype Madarame looked very different. Labeled as the “Rival.” Second-Year, otaku.
All the characters are listed with a specialized otaku genre. Proto-Kohsaka and Proto-Mada are both labeled as being into “everything.”
All the characters are labeled as virgins.
Prototype Kugayama was labeled as being a third-year, having a good personality, and also being a lolicon. Otaku genre: anime.
Another character with glasses specialized in games, and another shorter character has manga.
One unused design was a girl who was a second-year. She was a little unattractive, but with big boobs. (This might be the prototype for Ohno, but they look quite different.)
Kio does not actually particularly like kujibiki lotteries. But it is funny that Kujibiki becomes a plot device in Nidaime when all the girls are drawing straws for the order in which each girl has their date with Madarame.
Kio ordered octopus karaage next.
The first gunpla he built was probably the Guncannon. He built it right before the Gundam boom, when he was in elementary school. He has an older brother who was buying gunpla before him. Actually, it might not have been the Guncannon. Kio mentioned not having a good memory.
Did Kio have an inscrutable senpai like the original club chairman? He had senpai, but he wasn’t sure if they were quite like that. But Tanaka was based on someone Kio knew—a person who loved plastic model kits.
Kio used to build a lot of gunpla and kits, and broke them at the joints all the time. But with more recent models, he remarked that they really don’t break easily. He also compared the old days of gunplay that used polycaps to the improvements of modern kits.
For the scene in Genshiken with the gunpla, Kio tried to break the hip joint of a real model for reference, but it wouldn’t snap. But he wanted to do the scene, so he had to force a break.
He checked with Bandai if showing a busted gunpla would be okay, and they said as long as the break was shown to be by accident and not on purpose, it was okay.
Kujibiki Unbalance was made to be an original parody series because getting permissions for actual things was difficult.
Host mentions that he wasn’t a pure otaku, and it’s because of Genshiken’s numerous reference lines that he got to be one. Chapter titles are references, and Kio had to constantly rack his brain for them. Kio does not consider himself a high-information-retention otaku.
He had a desire to draw and write about the old-style 90s-era otaku of his own generation.
When Kio got Genshiken serialized, it made him feel like a real pro. When it got an anime he was ecstatic. “It felt like I had won at life.”
Kio was worried that if he tried to make a manga about the newest things, it would quickly feel dated, so that’s why the otaku stuff was more 1990s.
In that time, video tapes were still the standard, and official recordings of the anime were still done on tapes. He was okay with the work, but saw the struggles of the anime’s production in the anime, accepting that those are kind of inevitable.
The host asked about the OVA, believing that Kio wrote it himself, but Kio himself didn’t remember if that’s the case. He did work closely with Genshiken 2, as well as the original Kujibiki Unbalance anime.
Kio mentioned being involved with a scene involving Tanaka and Ohno, and the host instantly guessed correctly that it’s the spicy scene of them getting together. In response, Kio asked, “Why did you know what I was talking about?” It was later that he realized the scenes he drew for the fictional eroge Ohno made Tanaka play were just used straight-up in the anime.
Kio showed his actual old notebooks.
“It’s not your dark history.”
Kio: But it is.
Kio loved Famicom Detective Club, and made his own story based on Famicom Detective Club II.
He wanted to make a manga of Ghibli’s Laputa in middle school, so he drew one. Here, he showed it to the audience, page by page. He even did the title logo. However, as he turned each page, he would have his eyes closed because he didn’t want to look at them.
(It actually looks really well drawn for a middle schooler.)
Kio actually wanted to change the story partway through in a way that would make it more interesting, but he couldn’t quite decide on where to take things after they get to the fortress, so he stopped drawing it.
Another notebook is filled with his attempts to draw like Miyazaki, clearly copying famous Nausicaa images. He also feels embarrassed about these.
He also showed that he made lots of drawings of Elpe Ple from Gundam ZZ.
He didn’t watch Gundam as it aired, but he did keep up with Dunbine and L-Gaim in elementary school (4th grade, 6th grade, thereabouts).
Also showed a piece of fanart for Metal Armor Dragonar in there, along with a drawing of the Queen Mansa from Gundam ZZ.
Because Kio was clearly into fantasy-like settings as a kid, the host asks if he ever wanted to make manga along those lines. Kio says that he actually worked on a real manuscript from high school to college. “Any plans to announce it?” “None.”
After the break, Kio got a lemon sour. Host a highball. Moteki got another draft beer.
Host talked about how some people considered Nidaime to be like a fan sequel. After the first series ended, everyone tried to imagine what would come next.
Kio got back to drawing Genshiken after doing the art for a budget edition box set of the anime (the ones with the white cases), which led to the one-shot, and then he was asked by Kodansha if he could come back for a short run, like a single volume. (Nidaime ended up running for 11.)
Kio hadn’t planned to resolve Madarame and Saki. Couldn’t it have just ended at the school culture festival?
The second half of the talk was Kio answering questions they had received from fans.
Will Spotted Flower get an anime?
Kio: That’s not up to me.
There are also challenges to getting a story like that made into anime. If he had to say whether he’d want one or not, he’d say yes.
What was a gathering spot for otaku in your days?
Kio was only in a circle for half a year. But there had to have been a place where people gathered to draw.
Kio was in the art club in high school, but it didn’t have an otaku feel. Same for middle school. But the otaku in middle school did meet up after school.
Kio actually bought his own Neo-Geo machine! They reminisced about the massive cartridges.
What works are you into recently?
Manga: A current work in Harta magazine by the author of Hinamatsuri, Ohtake Masao, called J⇔M.
Doesn’t watch dramas. Closest is taiga historical dramas like Kimi Hikaru e.
Couldn’t decide for anime or movies (mainly watches anime movies).
If you drew Genshiken now, what would the characters be into?
VTubers, not that he knows much about them.
Moteki mentioned that Kio must have done research about fujoshi circles and slang for Nidaime, but Kio said he was doing it since the first series. He got some things wrong, though. In college, Kio was surprised to discover fan-derivative works and 18+ doujinshi in college (much like Sasahara).
How did you decide who Madarame would end up with?
Kio didn’t even know who it would be as he was drawing it. He was thinking of having it conclude with Madarame alone, but he actually said to himself, “Are you really going to end it this way?” Even he as the author couldn’t accept that.
Moteki: When it comes to The Fifth-Year and Genshiken with Ogiue, these characters realized about the kind of people they are, and it helped them decide on their feelings. But Madarame even to the very end did not have that self-awareness.
Also, lots of people thought it’d be Sasahara’s sister, because she’s so similar to Saki.
Kio: Yeah, even now. When you mention it, that pairing could’ve worked. But I wasn’t thinking about Saki (or Keiko’s similarities to Saki).
Kio-sensei switched to tablet in Nidaime. How was it?
Actually, Kio switched during Jigopuri. Back then, he still drew the manuscripts on paper and scanned them in before doing digital drawing over them. Eventually, he switched to all digital.
Is there something you feel about the Otaku of the 2010s and 2020s?
Based on what he sees with his daughter and her classmates, it’s almost like there’s not really a distinction between otaku and non-otaku.
Host: Even gyaru are into Frieren.
Kio: Maybe there’s no need for a series like Genshiken anymore.
Kio wanted to do Nidaime as a series where there were more members of the club who were like Ogiue and Ohno along with one new male character. However, he actually thought up a version with a more typically masculine guy, but thought it felt a little too normal.
Host: It’s like the barrier between otaku and non-otaku is gone.
What’s important to remember while making works?
Kio: I can’t really think of anything. Maybe, if you think of it too much like work, you’ll lose what makes it unique. Don’t try too hard to make a “manga-like manga.” Don’t focus on how things are supposed to go at the expense of making it interesting.
Genshiken wasn’t intended to capture the zeitgeist, but it ended up doing so.
Did you see the online reaction to Genshiken or the doujinshi during serialization?
Kio did not look at comments. The people at Kodansha looked at it though.
Kio bought all the doujinshi of Genshiken he saw. Didn’t have any problems with any content, knowing that it’s up to the doujin creators. He might occasionally check out the website of one of the artists.
He got some of them for the Genshiken 8.5 doujin project.
What was it like working for Afternoon?
Thought of Shounen Sunday first for Kodansha, but Kio remembers Parasyte being a big title. Minor no Pride, Major no something (a cooking manga).
In response to Ogiue is drawing for Afternoon in the manga: “It’s meta.”
What do you think of making H-manga?
Kio always wants to do it. He’s working on Part 2 of his doujinshi project, and the manuscript has gotten to 134 pages.
Moteki: What was the reaction to you announcing an 18+ doujinshi? Was it like, “Here we go!!!”
Not a particularly strong response, but when Kio posted it on Fanza (an adult site), some people who were fans asked him if it’s okay to do this at his age (he’s 50).
Can you do a live drawing?
He was unsure of his live drawing ability. Before the talk, Kio ended up putting a lot of time into the five signboard drawings at the talk, as well as the 30 that were included in specific copies of the artbook.
Host and Moteki tried to convince him, but no go.
Will there be more Genshiken merch?
It’s not up to him.
A lot of questions about how Kio decided who Madarame would be with, actually.
Are there any characters who acted in ways you didn’t intend?
All of them.
During the nose hair chapter (with Saki and Madarame), Kio planned to have a story about that, but went at it by thinking “What would the characters do in this situation?”
Before a manuscript, he’ll draw freely. For Genshiken, it’s like the ideas would just readily come. When drawing the characters, he would think about how they would behave. He compares figuring character’s lines to taking a dust cloth and wringing it tightly until the exact words drip out.
Moteki: In terms of characters moving on their own, Ogiue is a well-known example, right?
Kio had considered sticking her with Kuchiki as a kind of “mutually cringe couple.”
Kio is unsure of what he needs to do in serializations. With one-shots, in contrast, it’s harder to play around. He’s still not sure what to do.
At first, Kio didn’t use any assistants. But that’s when he was young. Now he’s 50 and he can’t do the same anymore.
Weekly serialization is the “territory of monsters.” Knowing what weeklies are like, he understands the need for assistants there. But if someone came to him asking if he could do one, he’d consider it and try to figure out a way it could work.
Kio worked as Takano Fumiko-sensei’s assistant, but for only one day.
What otaku works or genres have you been into recently?
He watched some of Usada Pekora playing Elden Ring. He’d have her on as background noise while working on manga.
He also listens to music while thinking up ideas and working on manga. When he’s doing tasks with not a lot of information, he uses ambient noise. When doing the initial drawings, he listens to stuff like J-Pop. After that, more editorial/critical Youtube channels.
What have you enjoyed recently?
Kio has a hard time thinking of anything, but he did travel to Gunma recently. He went to Ninja Gakkai, a ninja education camp.
Among your works, are there any scenes that stick out most in your memory?
The first thing that came to mind is the nose hair story, particularly when Madarame leaves the clubroom and is looking back at it from the outside across the courtyard, and you can see the light in the clubroom still on.
Moteki: Which character is your type?
Ohno, in terms of sexiness. The scene when she first appears in a mask is an example of her heroine appeal. Though Kio’s been told that the shifting heroine focus for Genshiken is unusual: from Saki to Ohno to Ogiue.
Ever since the original Mobile Suit Gundam, works in the Gundam franchisehave tended to end in space. Whether it’s a sequel or an alternate universe, they typically leave the confines of Earth for a big battle among the stars. But Gundam: Reconguista in G is different: It starts on Earth, has its characters venture into space, and then returns home for the final battle. This is where we find the characters in the fifth and final movie, Crossing the Line Between Life and Death, and I think the decision to conclude the series there ends up emphasizing all the messages laid through G-Reco from the beginning. Whether those messages are clearly conveyed is another matter.
Bellri Zenam and the rest of the main cast have been to the far-off Venus Globe, the collection of space colonies near Venus. They saw a society far removed from the ravages of Earth, where people are taught that war is barbaric, but who sometimes fail to see the latent barbarism in themselves. Having gone back through Towasanga on the far side of the moon, they now are in Earth’s orbit where, once again, the different terrestrial supernations are all vying for control of resources. At this point, characters and groups have switched sides so many times that it can be difficult to keep track of who’s fighting for what, but that’s less important than the simple reality that factionalism still persists. Bellri, Aida, and the others aim to head their own direction and fight their own way, neither entirely separate nor fully entrenched in any one side.
There’s one scene in particular that I think encapsulates the final film and the series as a whole: As the various forces battle in Earth’s orbit, they’re forced to undergo atmospheric entry. It’s a return to one of the more iconic scenes from the original Gundam, where rival character Char Aznable has to give the unfortunate news to one of his troops that the poor guy and his ill-equipped mecha have gotten too close to the planet and their death is inevitable. We see history repeat itself as various characters have to decide what to prioritize (attempting a safe landing, trying to get an upper hand in battle, retreating, etc.), and it feels like the folly and hope of humanity both never die.
Speaking of death, there is no shortage of lives lost. Some are more fascinating to me, like a certain character who might have actually been a Newtype. The important thing is that this person is also a dumbass, as if to say that we shouldn’t worship Newtypes or anyone who’s supposedly the next evolution of humanity and its savior. The biggest death is also so unceremonious and kind of random that it feels very fitting—a warmonger hoisted by his own petard.
One major change from the TV series is the actual epilogue, which has been expanded greatly. The new scenes emphasize the fact that changes come only in bits and pieces. Human beings, whether born on Earth or in space, seem to adapt to their circumstances, and beliefs don’t just change overnight. On top of that, many of the characters are young, so while they may have fought in many life-or-death battles, that doesn’t have to fully define who they are or will be. The ultimate message might be that people, but especially those still possessing youth, can break through all the entrenched barriers that previous generations have erected.
In looking at the Gundam: Reconguista in G movies in total, it’s safe to say that they should be the definitive way to experience the series. It clarifies and expands on the TV anime, is better paced, and just conveys more of the world and its complexities. G-Reco is able to show itself in the best light, and for those who dismissed it the first time, I think this is a great opportunity to experience one of the most unique entries in Gundam.
This past month was a real rollercoaster, not least of which was due to hololive talent Amelia Watson announcing that she will be stepping back from actively being a part of the company, and then following that with a marathon of streams. The 4th anniversary of Myth and the 3D debut of ReGLOSS were eventful enough, and now we had this. I even drew on my tablet for the first time in years. If I thought my brain was pretty filled with VTubers last month…
Amid my turbulent emotions, a new anime season is here! The amount of interesting-looking shows is actually overwhelming: Mecha-Ude, Trillion Game, A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School!, Thunderbolt Fantasy Season 4, Love Live! Superstar!! Season 3, etc. On and on and on. I’m worried I won’t have time for it all.
And I’m still trying to watch through some old anime, like Blue Comet SPT Layzner.
I hope my supporters on Patreon are okay with how I’m doing. Thank you as always.
Having seen the anime movie The Colors Within, Kio points out how the images look euphoric and characteristic of director Yamada Naoko. There are also very few long shots, making the movie feel very personal and character-focused.
Kio describes being happy to discover that manga artist Nakano Deichi is able to make a work like h na h to A-ko no Noroi, which has a different feel from his previous works.
Fantasista mascot Sis-tan really likes Hashikko Ensemble, and shetells Kio why she likes the character Hachida Shinji so much (she also likes Orihara). Essentially, Hachida can’t seem to leave others alone, like when they’re going through hard times (e.g. Orihara, Masshy).
Kio replies that he pictures Hachida having an older sister who’s actually a yankii, and that he actually has a lot of experience with tough guys. Also, Masshy has light footwork, and knows how to interact with those who take singing very seriously.
Kio loves the Turn A Gundam novels so much, he’s read them countless times. He was originally shocked at where Tomino concluded the anime, so he was glad the novels show what happened after that. The fact that the series is all about the consequences of the foolishness of humanity is very “Tomino.” He has felt that this is the kind of thing he could not pull off as a manga artist. He also praises Turn A mecha designer (and legend) Syd Mead.
Kio did not tweet his own reaction to the death of voice actor Shinohara EMi, but he did retweet these drawings from Togashi Yoshihiro, author of Hunter x Hunter and husband of Sailor Moon creator Takeuchi Naoko.
He also had to gather a lot of old material for the talk, including work he finds embarrassing. He wonders if this is going to turn into a cringe session for him.
With summer ending and some work concluded, Kio is feeling that he should start something new. In the meantime, he declares that he will finish his doujinshi.
Kio read Volume 2 of The Kinks, a manga by Enomoto Shunji. While reading the serialized version Kio, always finds himself going “Well, that’s a first!”
The talk at Umeda Lateral also had a raffle for special signboards with art by Kio. The person who won Saki’s also happens to be an artist. Here’s Kio thanking him for some Saki fanart.
Creating a story with a good antihero lead can be a challenge. It’s all too easy to end up with a character who’s more of a shallow reactionary and whose only redeeming value is that they do bad stuff to worse people. Other times, they come across as a simple conduit for revenge fantasies against grievances. But Go! Go! Loser Ranger succeeds by establishing its antihero firmly and then having him discover a personal sense of conviction that even he isn’t fully aware of.
The backstory of Go! Go! Loser Ranger starts off like a typical sentai series: Years ago, a group of heroes called the Dragon Keepers defeated an evil organization that tried to conquer the surface world. The only remnants were the basic goons that typically attack the heroes in large numbers and get their asses handed to them before the real villains show up. Now, they’re forced into a pro wrestling–esque kayfabe where they pretend to fight every week in front of a stadium audience, not unlike the shows that take place on mall rooftops in Japan. But one mook, Fighter D, refuses to let his monster pride fade away. Despite the odds, he wants to fight back for real against the Dragon Keepers, and maybe even get revenge for all the humiliation they’ve inflicted.
In Power Rangers terms, this is basically “What if a Putty was the protagonist? And it ends up working really well, not only because it’s an interesting premise but because it’s not content to just flip the roles and leave it at “bad is good and good is bad.” Sure, the Dragon Keepers feel like they’d fit in with the highly dubious capes of Alan Moore’s Watchmen, and the generic Fighters are portrayed with lots of personality. There are a lot of gray characters in this series, and not in a boring or predictable way.
What I think holds it all together is that Fighter D is a perpetual underdog whose only skills are that he’s hard to kill and he can engage in a degree of subterfuge by changing shape. He’s not the ultra-powerful badass but someone who has to win through wits and creativity. He has to use his head, and this thoughtfulness (albeit colored by the huge chip on his shoulder) is one of the key factors for what makes Fighter D a compelling protagonist.
One key aspect of Fighter D is that his core beliefs aren’t quite what he thinks they are. He assumes that his sense of worth comes from being a loyal foot soldier who carries on the legacy of his evil masters. But as the events of the series unfold, it becomes clear that what drives Fighter D is a desire for him and his fellow goons to be treated with respect and value. He simply conflated one with the other, and this confusion leads to some great developments.
Go! Go! Loser Ranger ends up being a series that defies expectations, and it all centers around a weakling challenging the strong, albeit for less than noble causes. But while Fighter D is not a paragon of virtue, he is at least a sentient being looking to carve his place in the world. I’m curious to see what heights (and depths) he reaches next.
OGIUE MANIAX 