Interview with Takaki Kosaka (Nitroplus), Producer of “Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet” [1/4]

What is a producer?

Ishikawa: From Nitroplus, I already interviewed Urobuchi and Ishiwata. What kind of work do you do, Kosaka?

Kosaka: I participate as a producer.

Ishikawa: Actually, I don’t really know what the job of a producer covers. Do you produce things?

Kosaka: In Japan, it might be an occupation that is hard to notice, but in every business or project, there is the category of producer. The anime and other contents we do are all connected to business, and the producer has the role of establishing business.

Ishikawa: By having a producer, you can establish a business.

Kosaka: Yes. The producer is the ultimate person in charge. However, there are a lot of producers in anime, so as to who holds the greatest responsibility, well, I think the person who provides the most money...but I’ve never talked about this with my fellow producers, so honestly, I’m not so sure either (laughs).

Ishikawa: I see. When I heard the word “producer,” producing idols is what came into my mind (laughs).

Kosaka: Well, there’s that kind of thing, too (laughs). It is also a job to make the idol into a business through gathering fans.

Ishikawa: It seems producing covers a wide field.

Kosaka: I don’t really know the definition of producer. It is generally recognized as very ambiguous. In America, it is an established field of study, and lately it seems there are schools teaching producing in Japan, too.

Hirasawa: If we make an example in your daily activities, Kaito, its closest to a chief secretary of an extracurricular circle.

Ishikawa: I see. You mean, collecting money and making reservations?

Kosaka: Yes, and if something happens, we get the complaints (laughs) and we have to handle them.

Hirasawa: If the scale of the people gathered exceeds a certain amount, it becomes necessary to collect money and people and to decide on their direction. For example, in a circle, you might argue about whether you should go to the sea or to the mountains, but you will have to decide in the end.

Ishikawa: That’s true. Because if someone won’t make a decision, we can’t go forward.

Hirasawa: And at such a time, deciding whether you go to the sea or the mountains, the ultimate decision falls on the person we refer to as a producer. On the production side, it is the anime director.

Kosaka: It really is a series of decisions. The first step is to decide whether we do or do not do the anime, that’s where it starts

Ishikawa: In that case, at what point is the board committee made?

Kosaka: It’s a while later that it is named a board. First, at the point of deciding if the project is viable or not, sometimes it starts from one producer, but there are also cases where multiple producers gather to talk it over. In the case of Gargantia, it started with the discussion of four producers, including me and Hirasawa, that consisted of us saying, “So, we want to make a robot anime.”

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

Source:
http://gargantia.jp/#kaito_4 (Japanese)

© Oceanus / Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet Production Committee