Interview with Takaaki Kidani (Bushiroad), Planner of “Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet” [1/4]

Gargantia, most suitable for a card game

Ishikawa: I’d like to move to the questions right away. How exactly is Bushiroad involved with Gargantia?

Kidani: Our company makes card games, so first, we intend to revive Gargantia through a card game. Besides that, we’d like to start producing card-related supply articles in the near future.

Ishikawa: The planning of Gargantia started about two years ago, when was your participation decided?

Kidani: Last year...I think it was pretty early...

Hirasawa: In May of last year, we were holding auditions for the voice actors.

Kidani: Sometime before that. When I proposed to do this, I was invited by Bandai Visual. When they showed me the business proposal, I thought, “Oh, very interesting,” so I decided to participate.

Ishikawa: You said that Bushiroad was a company making card games, will you have one for Gargantia as well?

Kidani: Yes. We intend to unfold it in our series called Weiß Schwarz. Actually, you can’t make a card game if there are not enough characters, mecha, and famous scenes. In that aspect, after watching the episodes that aired until now, I was able to confirm that Gargantia will be relatively easy to make into a card game.

Ishikawa: I see. So you watched the anime as a prerequisite to making the card game?

Kidani: Yes. Also, if you think about marketing, those with more cute girls in them sell better.

Ishikawa: I think I can understand the demands on that.

Kidani: Titles that only have guys in them are a bit tight, because it’s mostly males that buy them.

Ishikawa: They would certainly be hard to introduce to the market (laughs). Do you also watch other anime to see if they would make a good card game?

Kidani: Yes. Even in other anime, the number of characters is the most important. That’s because if there are few characters, you can’t make an expansion (a set of cards the customer needs in order to play a card game) to begin with. There were works that gave us a hard time for that reason. If the characters are few, we have to make many cards with the same character, which means the player will have to draw multiple cards with the same character on it, and that is weird. So, unless there are a lot of characters, it’s extremely hard to make a card game. Since Gargantia has a lot of charming characters and mecha on top of that, it will be very easy to make.

Ishikawa: I’m happy to hear such words.

Kidani: Actually, it’s strange, but games that are easy to make sell well.

Ishikawa: Do you think there is some kind of relation?

Kidani: The customers think it’s easy to use.

Card games were a chance of winning

Ishikawa: May I ask what led you to this job of making card games and how you reached it?

Kidani: Before, I was leading the company I established for 13 years. After I quit, I decided to once more build a company, but if card games hadn’t existed then, I might not be in this world. Card games were the only thing with a chance of success. It had a wide market, and although the customers had needs, too, it wasn’t fully matured yet. In my opinion, the three things that make up a company are skill, know-how, and brand. At that time, card games were not an established genre. If I put it in an exaggerated way, I thought card games had the potential to become the number one in the world. Since there were no companies specializing in them, I think it was a good thing to start mine up as ‘Japan’s first company specializing in card games.’”
Ishikawa: What about the circumstances of card games at that time. What was it like?

Kidani: Well, that was about five years ago. At that time, the market was about ⅖ the size it is now.

Ishikawa: Was it that small?

Kidani: Two years after foundation, we released Weiß Schwarz, and Cardfight!! Vanguard about two years ago. But after Weiß, there was a complete change in the nature of character card games. About five years ago, the market scale was about 35 to 40 billion, now it has grown into a size nearing 100 billion. I think we made quite a contribution there.

Gargantia x Tokyo Otaku Mode Special Site

Source: Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet Official Site

© Oceanus / Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet Production Committee