Other Stories: Novelization

# Other Stories - Witnesses - Main Project - Novelization Author

From here on, I'll be asking people who were active in the "Samurai Trooper" area at the time to write about what they were doing back then. First up is Yoshie Kawahara, who also wrote the interview section of this book and appeared on the previous page.

She was a member of Sunrise Japan at the time, and was not only involved in the planning of "Samurai Trooper", but later became the author of the novelization. Let's have her reminisce about those days.

**The "Samurai Trooper" Project Began with "Impossible" Planning in Two Weeks**

It was 1988, the first night of the new year at the office. On the first night of the new year, there was just me and one other person in the Sunrise Planning Office (at the time), and we were scrambling to come up with a solution to a ridiculously difficult problem that the planning director had left us.

"I have a presentation in two weeks. Do something about it."

The corporate picture for the TV series to be aired in the spring, which was being worked on in a different part of the planning office, was not coming together well. The director's words were to the effect that the time limit had come, and he wanted me to work on the project here.

This kind of work may happen from time to time, but in a very short period of time, only three months before the start of broadcasting and two weeks before the presentation, it was basically impossible. Three months before the start of the broadcast, we should have already started drawing, and in the first place, the plan should have been decided six months before and handed over to the production site.

However, the only things that have been decided for this project are the sponsor, the TV station, and the start of the broadcast.

Anyway, there was no time to complain, no time to dwell. I had to start working on the specifics as soon as possible, even if it was just for a day or an hour.

I had to make the most of what I could in the draft, decide what needed to be changed and what needed to be newly created, and immediately begin the two weeks of rage to create the necessary pictures and text... ....

This is how my history with "Armor Den: Samurai Trooper" (hereinafter referred to as "Samurai Trooper") began.

I have introduced this history whenever I had the chance.

As a result, "Samurai Trooper" was a show that went "beyond expectations," or "unexpected," to use a recent expression.

However, that was 30 years ago, and it is now a legend.

So, what I am going to write here may be the armor legend of those who spent the same time with "Samurai Trooper".

If you read this article with the voice of Koichi Chiba, the late sound director and narrator of the armor legend, you will surely feel the legend more.

The first thing you need to know is that this is a story of coincidence, inevitability and the unexpected. It was the last show of the Showa era and the first show of the Heisei era. Of course, none of the staff who were working so hard on the animation could have imagined that the Emperor Showa would pass away in the middle of the production.

The popularity of the voice actors, the later boom in "Rekijo" (women who have lived through history), and the fact that they played a part in sparking the "pilgrimage to sacred places" were also unexpected. In addition, I was the one who spent many nights going back and forth between the house of the character designer, Norio Shioyama, and his annex, writing proposals on the word processor that had just been installed in my work desk, looking for "bad kanji" that looked like the graffiti of a motorcycle gang. It was nothing but a bolt from the blue.

If I had known that, I would never have chosen such a name with so many strokes that it was extremely troublesome to write.

Also, it is no more than a coincidence that the Heisei era is set to last 30 years. This means that the 30th anniversary of the broadcast of "Samurai Trooper" will be the last year of the Heisei era and the first year of the new era. The change in the year of the Heisei era will be a great help to the Japanese people, as it will make it easier for them to remember "Samurai Trooper".

The first year of the Heisei era, 30 years ago, was marked by the death of Osamu Tezuka, the god of manga.

Misora Hibari, the songstress of the Showa era, also passed away.

Former Prime Minister Keizo Kosuke, who lifted up a plaque saying, "The new era is Heisei," has already passed away.

The first consumption tax was introduced in Japan on April 1, April Fool's Day. Unfortunately, it was not a joke, but looking back on it now, it was a cute one. As mentioned in this magazine, it is true that the majority of viewers at the time of the broadcast were elementary school boys, but towards the end of the first half of the series, information began to reach my ears that "Samurai Trooper" was becoming popular among female fans, mainly those in the coterie magazine industry. In short, many "Samurai Trooper" doujinshi appeared at the summer "Comic Market" like Stardust.

Since the planning work was already done, it was supposed to be just one of the works that were out of our hands. However, a variety of projects came to the Planning Office Annex, including a power-up for a toy that can be worn on the arm to make sounds, a white flame figure product that reused a certain toy that had been sold in the past, and a commercialization of five popular plastic models by a plastic model maker that specializes in Japanese castles and is not our main sponsor. A variety of product projects came to the Planning Office Annex.

By the way, there was a time when I worked with the planning and development brains of the time to come up with the wording for a New Year's product called "Samurai Trooper Karuta". What did we have trouble with was the word "ru". And what we came up with was, "RUNRUNRUN" is fast, Jun's skateboard.

The famous "two weeks in a row incident" happened, the voice actors formed the unit of five and got their big break, fans fainted at the concert, and thanks to the fact that the words "popular TV anime, Samurai Trooper" (even though the ratings aren't what you'd call "popular") appeared in the national newspaper twice, even people who don't watch anime became aware of its existence.

Coincidence, inevitability, and the unexpected. These three words are well suited to Samurai Trooper.

In "Samurai Trooper," there was also a counter-question: "Stuffed Shyo...

The most memorable was the "Samurai Trooper Show".

One day, I was called by a sales representative to a room in the building that housed the company's head office at the time, where I found a group of so-called "stuntman production people" wearing costumes of Rekihi, Shuten, and Yojibei.

On top of the stretchy undergarments, which were mostly made of polyurethane foam and cloth, they wore armor in several pieces, and finally a plastic helmet to complete the look. Wearing this, they performed on the rooftops of department stores and amusement parks.

As you know, Sunrise at that time was mostly producing giant robots, and I was not familiar with so-called "stuffed shirt shows". I was also given a helmet to wear. It was a real perk.

Incidentally, this "Samurai Trooper Show" was so popular that it was in demand everywhere, and some of our readers may have seen it.

The following year, in 1989, one of the brains behind the planning and development got married. He was a slender and stylish groom, so he appeared at the wedding party wearing a fierce fire costume and said, "Cha-chan-chan, cha-chan!" and appeared at the wedding party. He fought a demon soldier on the spot and won, then took off his helmet and said, "It's the groom! This was a surprise."

A few months later, at my own wedding, a group of actors who had just finished a show on the rooftop of the department store across the street rushed into the wedding hall dressed as they were and said, "We demons have taken this wedding hall!"

"Where's the president?" He shook hands with the audience.

The audience laughed as they shook hands. After that, Retsu appeared and put on a spectacular action show in the middle of the venue.

Since it was an in-house marriage, the party was originally a kind of "Sunrise year-end party"(?). But I never imagined that my wedding reception would be the venue for "Shake hands with you at your wedding! "

**Memories of the voice actors...**

There are two directions you can take when following a character in an anime that is not a real person.

The first is a photograph or a recording of a person, a "live photograph" or a "person in person", which at the time were celluloid images used in the actual anime. The other is the voice actor who brings the character to life. These are real people, so you can meet them and shake their hands. So the five main actors who voiced Looper formed an idol group called "N.G.FIVE". They released their original CDs and held concerts, creating a new business model of sound content by anime voice actors.

I personally wrote several scripts for "drama CDs" released by King Records after the broadcast of the anime, and I have met some of the voice actors directly when I was present at their recording sessions.

One of them, Nasutei (Kaori Kusakabe), was a surprise to me.

In the TV series, she gave a strong impression of being a natural in terms of acting, but in the CD drama, I was surprised at how well she acted. I heard that she was originally a stage actor, and when she had to match her performance to the picture, she was struggling to match her timing with the gesture of the picture, such as the beginning of "Samurai Trooper".

However, in CD dramas, there are no pictures to match. In CD dramas, on the other hand, there are no pictures to match, and you can act out the lines from the script at your own pace, which allows you to show your true potential as an actor. If you have the CD in your possession, please listen to Nasty's performance again to see how it has changed.

Also, the voice of the demon "Tsuba" in the drama included in the character album "Suikouden" was the same voice actor that I had imagined in my head, even though I didn't request it.

What made you decide to write a novelization?

I'm embarrassed to be writing this again, and I'm afraid I'm only talking about myself, but the novelization of "Samurai Trooper", "Armor Shoden Samurai Trooper" (Seibunsha), is my signature book.

To put it simply, the reason why I, as an employee of the Sunrise Planning Office branch office, was put in charge of the novelization was because "there was no one else who could write it in the time ordered.

Towards the end of the story, I received a letter from the anime magazine "Monthly OUT" (Minori Shobo).

(Minori Shobo), an anime magazine, asked me to write a novel featuring the characters of "Samurai Trooper". Normally, I would have contacted the scriptwriters of "Samurai Trooper", but they were all very busy. I considered another scriptwriter, but if he was not involved with "Samurai Trooper," I would have to explain everything from the beginning, including the setting, and let him understand the story.

However, the schedule required for this was too tight.

So I decided to go with you, who had scriptwriting experience, knew the setting and story, and didn't have to explain anything since you had written the proposal in the first place.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the serialization of the story in the monthly magazine "OUT" was well-received, and as I was asked to write one story after another, it was turned into a novelization, and before I knew it, writing became my job.

In spite of the fact that it was my first publication, the first and second volumes of the novelization went through several editions, and the momentum continued with the release of the new book editions of "Kouton Hen," the original "Kishio Teiken Hen," "Chogamehen," the "Kakausu Hen," and "Gaiden," which included all the character short stories that had appeared in the "Monthly OUT" and "Rapport" mooks that had inspired it.

It was a time when I could not believe the amount of work I was doing. And so it was.

Incidentally, the novel version of "Armor Shoden: Samurai Trooper" and other volumes have been reprinted as e-books (CM).

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