Armor Den

# Armor Den Samurai Trooper - The Untold Story

Production - Planning

Koichi Inoue (ex-Sunrise Planning and Development Office, "Armor Den: Samurai Trooper" literary setting) Yoshie Kawahara (ex-Sunrise Planning and Development Office, "Armor Den: Samurai Trooper" novelization author)

The main target of this work is elementary school students.

**-The main target of this work is still elementary school students. "Armor Den: Samurai Trooper" (hereinafter referred to as "Samurai Trooper") became explosively popular during its broadcast.**

The passion of the female fans in particular was unbelievable.

Inoue: Yes, that's right. However, some people who don't know much about the situation at the time or the work misunderstood that "Samurai Trooper" was made for women from the beginning. But in reality, it wasn't at all.

**--The project was aimed at boys. And while the popularity among female fans was explosive, there were also many male fans as well, right?**

Inoue Of course, the main target of the work was elementary school students. That's why the project is designed to touch their heartstrings first and foremost. Even the illustrations were designed with the idea of being published in Kodansha's monthly children's manga magazine Comic Bonbon. There was no wavering in this regard.

**-What was the original impetus for the project?**

Inoue: Back in 1987, Takara (at the time) wanted to develop figures of battlesuits in light of the fact that their competitor Bandai had a big hit with the Saint Seiya Saint Cloth series. Sunrise responded, and the planning process began.

It was in early January of 1988 that I was asked by then President Eiji Yamaura to put together a proposal. I had just gotten my other Takara project, "Majin Eiyuuden Wataru," off the ground. He wanted me to take care of the Takara connection (laughs).

(laughs) Mr. Koichi Inoue was in charge of the planning and development office of Sunrise, which was in charge of the planning of "Armor Den Samurai Trooper", and was in charge of the planning and literary settings of the work. We interviewed Mr. Inoue, who knows how "Samurai Trooper" was born. Also present was Yoshie Kawahara, a colleague of Mr. Inoue's in the Planning and Development Office at the time, who was involved in the creation of the proposal and later became the author of the "Samurai Trooper" novelization.

**--It started airing in late April of that year, so there wasn't much time left, was there?**

Inoue: That's right (laughs). (laughs) In fact, until about January 1987, we had not yet decided on the broadcasting station, the slot, or the start date, but another team was working on the project. It was not until January 1987 that a different team was working on the project. At that time, however, our proposal had not even been submitted by Takara.

**--At that time, Nagoya TV and TV Asahi's Saturday 7:30 slot was known to anime fans as a robot animation slot that had been running since "Invincible Superhero Zambot 2" (this work was on Fridays at 6:00 p.m.) in the first year of the series, and "Mobile Suit Gundam" was also in this slot.**

The fact that Takara, a rival company, became the main sponsor was greeted with surprise. What was the reason why Takara's "0" did not appear in the series?

Inoue: Takara's design for the battlesuit was exactly what you would expect from Japanese armor. However, in the original plan, we were too conscious of our rival, the Holy Garments, and the design image was more like Western armor and helmet. This was the primary reason why Takara was reluctant to release the 0飞. The first thing we did was

This was the main reason why Takara did not release 0飞. As I mentioned in the Armor Trilogy (page 101), we decided to target elementary school students.

The blanked-out plan was introduced as the original project.

The original plan was introduced in the book.

There is no direct connection with the proposal that took shape, Inoue.

For example, the name "Sengoku Genpei" is sometimes introduced as the name of the Sanada Ryo project, but in fact it was never used in the Sunrise project. In fact, I never used it in any of the Sunrise proposals. It was just a temporary name that I used in the planning memo stage before the proposal.

Kawahara: When Inoue asked me to write a proposal, I never saw the proposal.

Inoue's original plan was a kind of memorandum of the world view that President Yamaura had asked the scriptwriter, Enzo Toriumi, to write. I did not inherit it, but rewrote it from a blank sheet of paper.

I was told, "We're going to give a presentation to Takara in a week, so you have until then to make a proposal" (laughs).

**--I was told, "We have a presentation to Takara in a week, so make a proposal by then.**

When I was summoned by Inoue and President Yamaura, they said, "We have a presentation to Takara in two weeks, so you have until then to make a proposal.

(laughs) From then on, it was a blur.

(laughs) From that point on, things progressed at a furious pace. Even though I was Inoue, I had a plan. The first thing was the Yoroi design, and it was no exaggeration to say that there was no other animator than Norio Shioyama who had a good understanding of real armor and could draw the Yoroi design as an anime picture. So naturally, I asked Mr. Shioyama to do it. In addition, since Takara was also looking for "flamboyant and flashy designs," we asked Akihiro Kanayama, who can draw such pictures, to join us. The decision of the staff was made in a rational process, as if it was the only way to make a short film.

**--Is that the reason why you asked Ryosuke Takahashi, who is already well known as a director, to be the series composer?**

Inoue: Having Shigeru Ikeda as the director and Ryosuke Takahashi as the story composer is part of the production system that Sunrise Japan has developed over the years. Takahashi: The director had gained the trust of Yukara through "Solar Fang Dagram" and "Armored Trooper Votoms".

**-So, we used the proposal that we had created and presented it at Takara's day, and started production in earnest. Did you start making Figurative Toys for Takara from there?**

Inoue: No, we had a prototype of the figure toy for Takara by the fall of the previous year, and preparations were already underway.

The prototype was made by Max Factory.

In our proposal for Yoroigear, we had to decipher the designs of the toy products that Takara had developed, and put them together into an animated work.

**-Did the idea of five boys as the main characters come from Takara's toy project?**

There were five battle suits. In this regard, people often cite the Super Sentai series of special effects, but in fact, the series didn't have much influence on us.

Rather, the design of the armor is based on the designs of Sunrise robots such as "Zambot 3" and "Gundam". Kawahara: When you were naming the armor, did you use kanji characters?

Kawahara: When I was naming the characters, I had a dictionary in hand and was conscious of the character's characteristics and the sound of the original name.

At the time, Japanese word processors were in full swing, not computers, and I remember having a hard time converting the names.

**--The images of the three demon generals, such as Naaza, Anubisu, and Rajura, had a rich international flavor.**

KawaharaInoue told us that the main characters would fight in battlesuits with a motif of Japanese armor, and that the enemies would be from all over the world, so we decided to make something that was not Japanese.

Inoue: At the time of the proposal, the only character whose name was not listed was Kayura. This name was chosen because she is playing between Kaos and Arago.

As for other characters, for example, Naaza is Naga, the snake god in Indian mythology, and Arago is King Asura. These are taken from the naming of the characters by Genzo Toriumi. In addition, since I'm trying to pick up names from each continent, I'm naming Rajura after the poisonous spider Ranthula (another name for the family of the giant spider) from the New Continent, and Anubisu after the ancient Egyptian god Anubis.

**-Was it at that point that the names of the five main characters were decided?**

We had already decided on the names of the main characters, such as Rekka, Tenku, and Kongo, but we didn't have their personal names yet. So we started adding names like Sanada Ryo.

I told them to wait until the summer comic market, because I was sure they would become popular.

**--With that proposal, Takara gave you the green light, and you went into full-scale production of the anime.**

Inoue: Things progressed week by week.

Kawahara: We were working until midnight every day (laughs).

**(laughs) -That was at the beginning of February?**

Inoue: From the end of January to the beginning of February. During that time, the scripts for the first few episodes were written under Mr. Toriumi with the help of his students. At first, Mr. Toriumi was worried about the structure. He thought that it would be difficult to create subsequent episodes if all five samurai troopers were introduced at the beginning, but he also thought that introducing them one by one and having them all appear over several episodes would not be well received.

Ryosuke Takahashi suggested that we should have them all come together, but then they would be scattered, and that was the idea that was adopted.

**--It was an effective way to portray the individuality of each character. But even so, it was too late to put the advertisement for the new program in the anime magazines released in late March or early April, wasn't it?**

Inoue: That's right. That's why "Samurai Trooper" went on air without much advance publicity.

**--Since it was aired on Saturdays at 5:00 p.m. on Nagoya TV and TV Asahi, there were many fans who were hoping for a continuation of robot animation, and their confusion also affected the reputation of "Samurai Trooper" at the beginning. It was a very quiet start compared to the big breakthroughs that came later, and I think that was the reason why it became a big hit.**

In fact, at first, the anti-fans' voices appeared in anime magazines. In fact, at first, the voices of anti-fans were published in anime magazines.

Inoue: We had expected that there would be a time lag in the excitement of the fans due to the lack of advance publicity. So, even before the start of the broadcast, we had been trying to reach out to the fans by asking coterie artists who we knew from Comic Market to draw a manga featuring "Samurai Trooper". When we did that, they were very receptive.

I was prepared for the low popularity at first, but at the same time, I told the people around me to wait for the summer comic market because it would definitely ignite the popularity.

**-In fact, the response from fans started to increase explosively before the summer.**

In fact, the fan response started to increase explosively around the summer. Many fan comments started to appear in magazines that were full of reader contributions, such as "Monthly Kuchi UT" by Inoue Minori Shobo and "Fan Road" by Rapport. Animedia is read by a wide range of readers, from elementary school students to adults, with little difference in the gender of the readers, and this increased the awareness of Samurite Looper. In addition, the magazine was ranked second in a survey of readers of Comic Bonbon, a magazine for boys, which was the main target audience at that time.

The popularity of "Samurai Trooper" among elementary school boys also skyrocketed.

In this way, "Samurai Trooper" gained multiple fan bases and became very popular. In the midst of this, Kadokawa Shoten's "Newtype" and Tokuma Shoten's "Animage", which are now aimed at high target audiences, did not catch on. This may be due to the difference in readership.

**-There was an image at the time that the reason why these boy fans were not noticeable was because "toy sales were not increasing.**

But in fact, as I already mentioned to Mr. Inoue earlier (see the Armor Trilogy on page 7 of this book), considering the state of toy development at the time, it is clear that there was some discrepancy between the resulting works and the main toy product planning.

The gimmick of the Inoue "Super Bullet" series and other figures was based on the request to use the weapons in the anime as well, and although we incorporated some decisive techniques, there may have been a mismatch.

There were also a number of popular products, such as the arm-mounted "Furious Fist" toy, which allowed people to play as themselves.

From the beginning to the end, the Tso series was created as an action work for boys.

**--The T-So series was produced from start to finish as an action work for boys.**

I was impressed by how well the whole process from planning to production came together in such a short period of time.

Inoue: One thing that helped us was the fact that we kept the story in the present day (at that time). In other words, we didn't have to create a lot of new mechanics, art, and other settings.

In particular, the starting point of the story was Shinjuku, which is a place that people living in the Tokyo area can easily understand without explanation, such as the plaza in front of Alta and the Kinokuniya bookstore and department stores along Meiji-dori. In addition, Sunrise was producing "City Hunter," which was set in Shinjuku at the time, so we were able to use the photos of Shinjuku that the production team had taken. Therefore, we were able to proceed quickly with the art work.

For example, the bicycle used in the film was actually the one that Umemaro Kakinokoji rode in "Invincible Robotrider G7", and the Pajero sport that Nasty rides was a hardtop type that appeared in "City Hunter", but was redrawn as a hooded suit.

**-In "City Hunter", the hardtop type Pajero sport that Nasty rides is repainted as a Horo type. There were fans who went to Amanohashidate and Onaruto Bridge to make a pilgrimage to the holy places.**

In addition to the materials that were already available at Sunrise, we also did some new research.

The first floor of the building where the planning office was located at the time was a bookstore. So I had to go there.

I found a book in a bookstore in Tokyo that had a tour of famous places in Japan, and I bought several copies to choose from.

**--In the first episode, the armed scene of the fierce fire had a strong impact.**

The armed scene of Rekka in the first episode had a strong impact, because suddenly the kimono flew off.

(laughs).

(laughs). Ryo's kimono flew and the cherry blossoms danced.

(laughs).

**--It was a beautiful and cool transformation scene that incorporated Japanese taste beautifully.**

Inoue: It was almost like kabuki. Ikeda-san, the director, storyboarded and directed that scene. It was created while the script was being written. At first, it was difficult to decide on the call to arms, but then Tsukada (Nobushiki, now a Sunrise producer), a planning brain, suggested that since we were going to be armed, the call should be "armed" as well. Mr. Tsukada (Nobushiki, now a Sunrise producer) suggested it, and it was decided.

In the latter half of the movie, the characters and dialogues of the super bullets were added, and I was able to give additional instructions on how to cut them in.

**-What about the armed scenes such as the armor of the Emperor?**

Inoue: Director Ikeda.

**--There was a lot of speculation that Ikeda was replaced by Hamatsu in the latter half of the series.**

But that's not true. But that's not true. From the beginning to the end, both director Ikeda and Sunrise Japan produced the TV series as an action work for boys. There was no change in that stance.

Kawahara: In the second half of the series, there were some artists with beautiful designs, which may have led to the misunderstanding that the second half was intended for women.

Kazuya Inoue Kise, Koji Osaka, and Shukoh Murase each drew unique and beautiful pictures in their own way. I think there was a certain amount of consideration in the latter half of the series, but it wasn't like we were aiming for that from the beginning.

**--In the second half, I think there was a certain amount of consideration, but it was not intended to be a "target" from the beginning. The fact that there was a big misunderstanding among fans and fans of anime that "the route was changed for female fans" may be due to the fact that this work was an exceptional hit.**

It is fine for Inoue fans to have fun with their own hypotheses on a personal level, but it is troubling and not recommended to spread them as if they were official.

When you interpret a setting and spread it, it is troubling if it goes beyond the "personal opinion or wish that it should be this way. This is fine for personal enjoyment in doujinshi, etc., but for official Sunrise, it means that "this is not how it should be.

**--For example, there are five Samurai Troopers. For example, the five samurai Troopers are warlords....**

They are related to Kawahara.

Inoue: Some people might think they are descendants, but they are descendants of the warlord. In fact, in the case of the Sanada and Date clans, their blood relations are well known through family trees.

It would be easy to find out that they are descended from the same family, and it would also cause trouble for the family members and the people involved, as they would have to deny or refute each and every false theory that comes out.

I think it's important for us to know where the five Samurai Troopers are from, but we don't have a specific town or city.

Inoue: It's just "around the places they are related to".

Kawahara For example, it says that Seiji was from Miyagi Prefecture, but we had the feeling that it was somewhere in the wider Tohoku region, in the area where Date had his domain. Later, there were some fanzines that referred to him as Sendai, but he was never referred to as Sendai in the work. I was conscious of the fact that I wanted to keep it general so that children from all over Japan would be able to say, "Oh.

I was happy to receive many fan letters from children from their hometowns.

I was happy to receive many fan letters from children in their hometowns saying, "Now I love my region.

**-There is a novel version of the official setting that goes deeper.**

Kawahara: In the novel, for example, why is it called "Samurai Trooper" when it has been handed down since the Warring States period? In the Kawahara novels, for example, the name "Samurai Troopers" was chosen because it has been handed down since the Warring States period. And I put that in the last line.

When I was writing the novel, I was thinking about the aesthetics that the creators and fans of Samurai Trooper enjoy. So I asked myself, "What is the aesthetics of "Samurai Trooper"? So I asked myself, "What is the aesthetic of Samurai Trooper?

**--The aesthetics of the characters' way of life, the appearance of the armed**

There is also the aesthetics of the way the characters live, and the aesthetics of the appearance of the armed scenes and the decisive poses.

Kawahara: There are many things. I thought that if you remove the aesthetics from that world, it is no longer "Samurai Trooper". I thought that was not true.

**-In the U.S., Samurai is a trademark.**

Inoue: In the U.S., Samurai is a trademark and cannot be used, so the title is "Ronin Warriors".

I was also thinking about how the other four would don Kikoutei as well as Rekka.

**--I felt that the enthusiasm of the fans was so great that it was covered not only in anime magazines but also in general newspapers and TV programs.**

Inoue: It was featured in a documentary program that was very popular among women. There was also a double broadcast accident (on September 3, 1988, episode 18 was scheduled to be aired, but due to a mistake by the broadcasting station, episode 17, which had already been aired the previous week, was aired again). This was the beginning of the national attention. The accident happened at a time when the popularity of the show was about to increase, but in terms of getting people to know "Sam Light Looper," there were people who saw the news of the accident and tried watching the show and became fans.

Also, due to the illness and death of Emperor Showa that year, we had to shorten the number of episodes. Therefore, we had to shorten the number of episodes.

**-I am wondering how the story would have developed if there had been more episodes.**

Inoue: It didn't actually happen.

I'm only talking about "I".

I was thinking about the possibility that not only Rekka but also the other four would gaining Kikoutei armor.

The resurrected Arago is going to do even more crazy things, and all of them are going to fight against him, as if they are all going to gain a Kikoutei armor, with the power of the Jewel of Life...

**--That could have been a spectacular battle scene. I think it's common knowledge among fans that the world "Samurai Trooper" is set in is very deep. It will be fun to learn more about Arago, the evil world, the emperor, and the armor.**

After the TV series aired, the OVA series was produced.

Although I was not involved in the planning of the 0VA, it seems that Starchild was conscious of the female fans because they thought that female fans would be the main buyers. As for the direction of the game, it could have been developed further along the lines of the original action story for boys.

**---Personally, I would have liked to have seen the flashy action battles of the five armors in the 0VA. I think the fans are dreaming of a new version.**

Inoue: That's just the story of "if" (laughs). I hope you can imagine all kinds of things and enjoy "Samurai Trooper" anew.

**--Thank you very much for your time.**

1. ↑ Yoroiden Samurai Troopers, 30th Anniversary Book, Tatsumi Publication. Fan translation by The URWWS.