Interview with Mamoru Hamatsu

Yoroiden Samurai Troopers Story 2 - Interview with Mamoru Hamatsu (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers, 30th Anniversary Book, Tatsumi Publication. Translation provided by The URWWS.)

## Interview

The number of episodes I directed in the first half of the series accounts for over 70% of the creative elements in Samurai Troopers.

**What was your initial involvement in the production of the show?**

Hamatsu: I was involved in the pilot film for the original project. The storyboard for the pilot film, which was commissioned by Kinhiro Nozaki of Shindo-sha, showed the five heroes in undergear, without armor, battling the accelerated main characters.

It seemed that Mr. Seikai Numamoto and Mr. Ryosuke Takahashi were involved in the project because "the toy manufacturer was Takara. When Sunrise gave me the proposal again, it turned out to be a Yoroiden odd period drama.

Dororo, which was produced in the later stage of Mushi-Pro, was not completed, but I was a fan of the show, so I felt that its world view and settings were similar to mine. In his novel "Dororo," Juzo Shimakai, who was a member of the Mushi-pro Literature Department, wrote a magnificent story about how Jukai, the parent of Hyakkimaru, became a doctor and trained in China and India.

Before entering Sunrise Studio 2, where "Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ" was being produced, the second floor of the bicycle shop where the finishing department was located was vacant, so the director and production staff gathered there to design the main scenes using settings and storyboards.

This is where we came up with the policy of having the characters undergo unrealistic transformations, wearing "mental armor" on a stage where antiquities like kabuki are flying around, which is different from the realistic robot stories that Sunrise had been doing.

**What are your thoughts on the setting?**

Hamatsu: As I recite waka poems, the causal link between the armor and the main characters is revealed one by one. And since the story takes place in places related to the heroes who were scattered all over Japan, I researched photographic materials and historical information about the places in the stories I was in charge of directing, and felt the depth of the geography as a biographical story. However, it was a pity that this information was not effectively used in every corner of the story, and I had the impression that the series was reinforced by storyboards.

I also wondered how much I could delve into the mental aspects of the characters created by Norio Shioyama. So, when I was directing episode 8, where Mr. Shioyama was the animation director, I drew notes and rough sketches for each cut as I was drawing the nuances of the samurai troopers as seen from the perspective of Shin Mizutatoro.

I've been working with him since the first part of the series, and he's been involved in the direction of the second half. What was it like for Hamatsu, who was involved in the production from the first part and directed the second half of the film until its conclusion?

I got it.

I was told by Shioyama-san. Since it was the beginning of the series, I raised a question about the actions and reactions that were not well thought out. Since Mr. Shioyama is not just a drawing director, I wanted to ask him to confirm and propagate important characters for the whole show from the standpoint of a father figure.

**-What about the armor mimic's setting?**

Hamazu: Hideo Okamoto's armor mimic was uniquely sculpted, and the design of the armor symbol was impressive. The design of the armor mark was also impressive. I was struck by the fact that this was a setting that could be imagined as a showcase for the unrealistic world of the stage. The armor's special moves and warding scenes can inspire a variety of production plans.

As a staff member, I knew before the show started that there would be a "special reaction" that would be different from previous Sunrise works.

**Did the stable drawing and well-defined character modeling in the latter half of your work as a director have any influence on your work?**

Hamatsu: I was attracted to the fact that Sunrise, which had always used realistic animation, took an anti-realistic direction. That's why we started the program without a production system in place, and the number of episodes handled by subcontractors did not go far enough in terms of stylistic beauty, but I think that was gradually resolved in the second half.

Since Mr. Shioyama had other work to do, Shukou Murase's work as the animation director was a great help. There was a great deal of work done by Shukoh Murase as the animation director.

**Please tell us about your efforts in creating the screens for elements that were somewhat different from your previous worldview, such as "Noxious Kyo" and "Karyura", and what you kept in mind.**

Hamatsu: The program had a lot of sharp-edged action sequences with armor mimics, so I wanted to incorporate softer elements such as the ancient "capital" and "harmony" into the world, and portray Noxious Kyo as a bewitching and beautiful stage.

In Sunrise's works, historical twelve-layered robes are a rarity, and while the second half of the story takes a hard turn, we decided to go against the grain and incorporate stylistic beauty.

In the first half of the film, Kazuki Akane, who was in charge of the production, was familiar with the framework of historical dramas, and he was able to compose the architectural style and function of the golden Arago Castle from the storyboards.

The bewitching world became a concept to be dressed up with buckwheat noodles.

When "Kayura" appeared, Kunihisa Sugishima's elegant style added a touch of elegance to what could have been a very stiff scene. I was very much impressed by his ability to create such a dramatic flow in his works. By the time I got involved as a director in the latter half of the film, about 80% of the script had already been ordered, and more than half of the storyboards had been completed. So I concentrated on developing the drama so that it would converge to the final stage.

In episodes such as the "Lake Mitama" episode where we learn the secrets of the Kaosu clan, there seems to be a subtle sense of romance between Nasutei and Shuten.

Hamatsu: It may have been a desire of Yuki Onishi of Houkoubou, who was in charge of the script, but the in-house production staff thought differently. There were many elements that could have been explored more deeply, such as the emotional side of the Kaosu clan and their anguish over being possessed. It happened in the midst of a flurry of activity due to the change of director.

**Did the fact that more and more attention was being paid to the voice actors have an effect on the direction and direction of the work?**

Hamazu: We were almost at the end of TV production. Sound Studio

However, the direction of the production remained unchanged, and the voice actors who were in charge of the voices may have been feeling the heat from the fans as they performed.

We were working on the final stages of the TV series and the OVA project at the same time, and we were working sleeplessly.

**After the main story was finished, you produced a work for OVA. What were your thoughts on this? In particular, you chose Tanzania as the setting, which is a bit of a core location. What were your intentions?**

Hamazu: Generally speaking, OVAs are designed for anime fans of a slightly older age group. From the time of "White Armor Runaway," there were some issues that could not be resolved in the TV series, so we thought there was a possibility of developing an OVA for an older audience.

That's when Sunrise made a sudden suggestion, and CBS Sony was able to sympathize with the "Samurai Troopers" project, which was not a children's show.

As for the art world, I was concerned about the fact that the world of demons and evil tended to be colored with dark clouds and stagnation. I wanted to bring the "runaway armor" to an actual resolution in the vast outdoors, not in an indoor play, as Noh and Kyogen plays used to be performed under the blue sky.

I thought back to the point in "Mobile Suit Gundam" where the stage was turned back to Earth from the Space Colony, and the natural scenery changed to a vivid zone (Jaburo).

At that time, I had a book in my studio by Leni Riefenstahl, a former dancer, photographer, and film director, called The Last of the Nuba, a collection of photographs of the Nuba people of Afriqa. I thought of the possibility of a dynamism of chemical reaction, consciously exiting the artificial space of image production to the earth.

Thinking about the geography handed down by shamanism, I was seeking to create a suitable stage for the vastness of mountains and rivers. I asked the artist to avoid narrow artificial spaces and anti-natural layouts that would make us aware of perspective, and to work on a primitive and vivid depiction of nature, which resulted in that art.

In "Mobile Suit Gundam," I thought, "Why Jaburo? In Mobile Suit Gundam, I thought "Why Jaburo?", but now that the film is set in Tanzania, I understand the feelings that Tomino had at the time.

**I was surprised at the nudity of the Samurai Troopers in the last episode of the film. Some people take this as a respect for the lyrics of the opening song, but please tell us the true meaning behind it.**

Hamatsu: I was working on the production while listening to the music, but I also wanted to graduate from the armor world as a warrior. In addition to this, it may have been their unspoken cry to fight back in the flesh if they were to come back bewitched. Towards the end of the show, the characters became possessed by the show on their own.

This corresponds to the ending of the OVA series, where the five characters walk down their separate paths in their casual clothes. Of course, you can take it as a respect for the opening lyrics.

**Are there any scenes or episodes that you would like to share with us?**

Hamatsu: The episodes I directed in the first half of the series account for more than 70% of the creative elements in Samurai Troopers. Episode 7, "The Legend of the Revealed Armor," in which Director Ikeda handed me a handwritten storyboard that showed me the overall image of the series, left a deep impression on me. I was impressed with the episode 7, "The Legend of the Revealed Armor," in which Director Ikeda gave me a handwritten letterboard, saying, "The letterboard was quite figurative, and you could hear the voices of the main actors. I should have kept the letterboards as a record.

In the OVA "The Legend of the Bright Emperor", the third episode "The Armor That Began to Run" was a relaxed depiction of Shin's emotions in Shidatoro, and I felt like I had finally gotten back on track and done all I could with "Samurai Troopers".

In the final chapter, "MESSAGE," the mystery of the legend of the armor, which started with a waka poem, was concluded with a stage performance and a waka poem.

1. ↑ A production company for animation contents. At the time, it was home to the editors of anime mooks, as well as related designers and writers.
2. ↑ Born in Mushi-Pro, he worked on "Space Battleship Yamato" and other Sunrise works as a setting-related production designer before founding Shindosha. Deceased.
3. ↑ One of the founders of Sunrise, who joined the company as a section chief of the drawing section of the former Mushi Productions. Shortly after the founding, he moved to Takara Industries and contributed greatly to the planning of Sunrise from the toy side.
4. ↑ A manga written by Osamu Tezuka. A rather bizarre historical drama in which Hyakkimaru, who was left destitute after his father handed over the body parts of his child to a demon god out of selfishness, tries to regain his own body with his own hands.
5. ↑ The second floor of the bicycle shop where the finishing department was located is officially one of the places Sunrise used to use as a production site, which was taken over and used by a finishing company derived from Sunrise.
6. ↑ Sunrise, which does not have its own drawing and finishing staff, orders the actual animation work, including scriptwriting, to a specialized company, which is commonly called "outsourcing".
7. ↑ A group for training professional screenwriters established by screenwriter Genzo Toriumi in 1933. New screenwriters such as Yuki Onishi, who had studied here, participated in this film.
8. ↑ A space colony is an artificial island that appears in space development projects. In this case, it refers to the tube-shaped artificial facility that appeared in "Mobile Suit Gundam".
9. ↑ A character storyboard is a storyboard in which the flow of the story and dialogues are written in text only, without drawing the screen directions. It is also called "character storyboard.
10. ↑ A rough sketch drawn to convey the world view of a work.