Interview with Makoto Ishiwata, Mechanical Designer of “Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet” [3/4]

What kind of person would make a good mecha designer?

Ishikawa: This is a sudden change of topic, but what kind of people do you want to or could do this mecha designing job together with?

Hirasawa: Say someone tells you, “I brought a newcomer along. Take care of him,” and a beginner designer comes. If such a thing happened, what kind of person would you prefer him to be?

Ishiwata: As a person?

Hirasawa: As a person or in terms of skills, whichever.

Ishiwata: As a person, I’d prefer him to have some “useless” things about him.

Ishikawa: Useless things? That was unexpected.

Ishiwata: In other words, a person with some interesting traits.

Hirasawa: An irregularity of some kind?

Ishiwata: Irregularity...that’s it. This might only be my subjective opinion, but an average person will most likely only come up with average ideas. I think people who have something unusual in them are more likely to reflect that trait in the works they create. And I tend to like such things.

Ishikawa: A person with strong individuality, or, looking from the point of view of society, a person who is little weird?

Ishiwata: That’s right.

A design rarely seen nowadays

Ishikawa: Now, about the highlights of Gargantia, since we have the chance to hear it from the mecha designer, I’d like you to tell us the highlights of mecha such as Chamber, the Yumboroids, and Striker.

Ishiwata: Well, to me, it’s Chamber’s growth.

Ishikawa: Chamber’s growth?

Ishiwata: Also, inside me, there are parts of Chamber’s design I played with, or rather, challenged myself with. Being responsible for mecha design in Urobuchi’s scenario is a pretty drastic thing.

Not only does Urobuchi write the scenario, he even brings it to the mecha maniac in a splendid condition. That included various things, but it’s readily building up toward the last episode, so it would be nice if you watched it.

Ishikawa: I see.

Hirasawa: Sorry for interfering, but can I ask something? Ishiwata, you said before that compared to those you designed until know, you tried taking some risks with Chamber. Could you elaborate on that?

Ishiwata: Well, first, the big head. I was very afraid of that part. In the old days, there were Votoms and Layzner, but I thought doing a big head now would be a bit scary.

Ishikawa: Because nowadays small heads are mainstream.

Ishiwata: But I wanted to adopt it both because of Chamber’s character and the story. There was also the problem of overall height, because you can’t neglect the fact that a person sits inside.

Ishikawa: I haven’t really seen examples of pilots sitting in the head part. To me, having the cockpit in the chest part was obvious, or more like a stereotype, so having it in the head was pretty surprising.

Hirasawa: The one who said the pilot should sit in the head was a member of the art development team that includes Urobuchi, and it came to Ishiwata as an order. They told him, “This time, the pilot will be sitting in the head,” and he was a bit struck, thinking, “I need to make the head a little bigger.”

Ishiwata: At first, I wanted to make the head small, but I thought making it bigger would be more interesting.

Ishikawa: How many drafts did it take until Chamber reached his present form?

Ishiwata: In terms of drafts, Chamber looks about the same as when I first showed him.

Ishikawa: Without changes?

Ishiwata: Yes.

Hirasawa: It came out like this in the first round, and everyone thought, “Wow, this is it.”

Ishikawa: So pretty much everything went well?

Hirasawa: That part went smoothly.

Gargantia x Tokyo Otaku Mode Special Site:
http://otakumode.com/sp/gargantia

Source:
http://gargantia.jp/#kaito_1 (Japanese)

© Oceanus / Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet Production Committee