Recent Gundam Wing interview (translation?)

[LightningCount]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this or not, but there was a new retrospective interview done with the creative staff of Gundam Wing for the release of the remastered DVDs in Japan. It seems to cover a lot of interesting information (like those G-Gundam interviews a handful of years back), but of course, it's all in Japanese. Google translation can only get one so far. Does anyone have a better translation? Thanks in advance. EDIT: See AmuroNT1's translation farther below in thread!)

The interview is here: http://www.gundam-w.jp/special/taidan.html

The Google "translation" is here: http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... N&ie=UTF-8

[Amadi Akintunde]

MS Shenrongandamu pilot had earlier decided that the initial planning and NT (¼ Æ ° À ² Ìß) Africans were capable of. ＮＴ能力で良いヤツと悪いヤツがわかるから、悪人にあったら「オマエ、ワルイヤツ」とか言って、問答無用で槍で突き刺すなんてアイデアがありましたねぇ（笑）。 NT to find a good guy and bad guy in the ability, If you a bad person "Omae, Waruiyatsu" including me, had some ideas Nante pierce with a spear Hey no question asked (laughs). でも「Ｇガンダム」のドラゴンガンダムに中国人の子（サイ・サイシー）が乗っていたので、同じ中国人に変更しました。 But "G Gundam" child of the Chinese Doragongandamu (Saishi Cy), so there were, we changed to the same Chinese. そういう部分では、「ガンダムＷ」にも世界各国の人種を登場させることになっていましたね。 Is it in the "Gundam W" I was supposed to make the race appear to the world.

What the hell? Wu Fei was originally going to be African?

)':

Such a WASTED OPPORTUNITY

[LightningCount]

Yeah, it seems to say Wu Fei was going to be African, but something about the portrayal of G-Gundam's Sai Saichi affected the decision to make Wu Fei Chinese.

It also says that Noin started out as a man, to be a Garma to Zech's Char. There's something about Lady Une and Treize's development, as well.

As expected, Ronin Warriors/Samurai Troopers is noted, which isn't surprising. I always felt that series had an influence on Gundam Wing. The idea of five Gundams from G was, unsurprisingly, what inspired five Gundams for Wing.

There's something about the reasoning behind Heero's self-detonation scene. It sounds like there was controversy with Sunrise in this series when Wing Gundam was sunk in episode one. The execs wanted to know why anyone would buy a model kit of a Gundam that got sunk in one episode.

...The more I gather from this roughly translated interview, the more interesting it gets. I'd love to have a more exact translation, though.

[Thundermuffin]

Heero IS pretty rough on Wing. Seems like he wants to destroy or ditch it every chance he gets.

[Black Knight]

Well, to be honest, it's not just Wing that Heero is rough on; he ditches or destroys through use just about every MS he pilots. Sometimes, like Wing, more than once. He abandons the Wing three times (not even bothering to try recovering it, ever), and attempts to blow it up twice. He ditches Zero once, then goes back to it when he's fed up with Epyon. And then destroys Zero Custom through over-use. Most of the Leos he steals at various times end up in pieces, I think the only one he doesn't destroy in combat is the one he steals aboard a ship with Quatre.

But this is well within Heero's personality; he doesn't get attached to things, and has a hard time even getting attached to people, though he's not as directly callus as Trowa begins the TV series (Trowa being the only person with bigger attachment issues than Heero, though they're both balanced by the three overly-attached other G-Boys, who care too much about their machines).

[ShadowCell]

What would it have changed if Wufei had been African instead of Chinese?

"Hey everybody, look at us, we've got a black guy in our anime show! Of course, he's an unlikeable misogynistic douchebag, but black guy! We're racially sensitive! SEEEEEEEEEEE?!"

[Amadi Akintunde]

What would it have changed if Wufei had been African instead of Chinese?

"Hey everybody, look at us, we've got a black guy in our anime show! Of course, he's an unlikeable misogynistic douchebag, but black guy! We're racially sensitive! SEEEEEEEEEEE?!"

There's an underpopulation of important/semi-important ones in Gundam? Is that a justifiable reason for you?

I mean, sure, they wanted to 'correct' the portrayal of the Chinese kid from G Gundam, but they did it rather terribly, in my opinion; a useless rehash. No matter what race he was I'm sure the character may have well stayed the same; it would have been interesting to see though. In my opinion anyways. Jeeze. :/

[ShadowCell]

Well...then it's just "hey, look, we have a black guy!" Which would have been just tokenism either way.

[Amadi Akintunde]

Well...then it's just "hey, look, we have a black guy!" Which would have been just tokenism either way.

I'm sure they would have come up with something more interesting besides Wu Fei's uninteresting conflict.

Not sure what though. but whatever.

[Seraphic]

What would it have changed if Wufei had been African instead of Chinese?

"Hey everybody, look at us, we've got a black guy in our anime show! Of course, he's an unlikeable misogynistic douchebag, but black guy! We're racially sensitive! SEEEEEEEEEEE?!"

Well, Wufei still attacked the Victoria base in Africa, anyway. There were other events in GW taking place in Africa, but maybe that's a leftover artifact. (I went to look for a screenshot of a "black Wufei" but no luck, and I didn't bother to dig too hard for it....)

I'm guessing Sally Po might have had to follow suit, since she's supposed to be a guerilla fighter in Wufei's home country. And, well, as for Wufei himself, he wouldn't know kung fu, and his duel with Treize probably wouldn't have taken place. He wouldn't be as stuck on justice and honor, I don't think. (Please don't try to take that the wrong way.) No Dragon Clan. And lastly, no Shenlong Gundam with its dragon fang. Maybe we'd have a Lion Fang instead--that'd be cool.

"FIST OF THE BEAST KING!!"

...And most importantly, the whole Nataku mythology would not stick. =/ I personally really liked Wufei's episode zero, but it doesn't quite change his presentation in the show. I know he's a douche, but I can't help but appreciate him for fighting with his morales. Another character that seems to get skewered similarly is Suzaku from Code Geass, and hell, I like him a lot, too. Wufei seems to work best the way he is, to me, anyway.

Thanks for finding this, Zechs, (!!! >=o !!) but I don't think I can get enough from it the way it's translated now.

[Crusader]

Man Wufei gets no love, but really when you think about it, all of the Wing pilots had issues. While Wing is my favorite, the characters in that show were all crazy to some extent. Stalkers, gold diggers, Emos, etc etc etc.

Wufei being black may not be too different than some of you may think.

[Amadi Akintunde]

Man Wufei gets no love, but really when you think about it, all of the Wing pilots had issues. While Wing is my favorite, the characters in that show were all crazy to some extent. Stalkers, gold diggers, Emos, etc etc etc.

Wufei being black may not be too different than some of you may think.

Can you please not use the word 'emo'? The Gundam Pilots in Wing were anything but. They were just competently dedicated to their cause, doing some extreme things along the way that wouldn't be considered too humane.

[Kyuzo Aoi]

Man, political correctness gone mad again...

Well, I don't care. Most Japanese in real life would prefer a Chinese Gundam pilot to an African one anyway. They could relate better. Besides, the "had no black Gundam pilot" is apparently solved at a later Gundam series in 2002, and an ONA in 2006. You should have known what I mean.

[Imperial]

I can't see it as having made much difference. It would have been a Sheva Gambit before Capcom even came up with it.

"Look at how cool and edgy we are, using a black guy! We're so global and ethnically hip!"

Wufie's "Chinese-ness" amounted to very little so I doubt the "African-ness" would have either. There are any number of traditional societies and various forms of martial art. Mix and match as necessary until you find a suitably ethnic character.

[Amadi Akintunde]

Man, political correctness gone mad again...

Well, I don't care. Most Japanese in real life would prefer a Chinese Gundam pilot to an African one anyway. They could relate better. Besides, the "had no black Gundam pilot" is apparently solved at a later Gundam series in 2002, and an ONA in 2006. You should have known what I mean.

I can only believe you mean SEED and Astray.

Though the discussion about race is hardly central to the interview; just something I wanted to point out about their decision for Wu Fei.

[AmuroNT1]

This has been up for two years and I missed it? Man, I feel like a fool...

Anyhow, here's what I get from the interview using Babelfish to translate and common sense to correct. Of course, my translation may be off in places; I eagerly anticipate corrections.

Interviewees: Producer Hideyuki Tomioka from Sunrise, Head Writer Katsuyuki Sumizawa

Setting: The group of five concept was decided primarily because of G. Shenlong and Heavyarms were the first designs cemented, and Wing wasn't made the leader until late in the process. At one point they considered the name "Meteor Gundam" in reference to Operation Meteor. It was Bandai that suggested "A Gundam that transforms and flies through the skies". Apparently the writers sat down and, in one week, belted out the concepts for the main cast, MS, and the first 40 episodes, causing Director Masashi Ikeda to comment "It's like you're doing First, Zeta, and G all at once!"

Characters: Ikeda had a hand in the characters' designs, since he can draw. Basically, he made rough sketches of how he pictured the characters, then handed them off to Character Designer Shuko Murase to finish. Murase was specifically chosen by Ikeda because they worked together on Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors) and Ikeda wanted designs that would appeal to female fans. In the early phases, the characters' iconic costumes were set, such as Heero's tank top and shorts. Heero was modeled on Japanese actress Yuki Uchida. At one point Wu Fei was going to be African and a Newtype with the power to tell whether people were good or evil, but he was changed to Chinese in light of G's Sai Saici. The keywords for Duo and Quatre's designs were "Shinigami" and "Arab King", respectively. Trowa's name is derived from Tim Burton, because Ikeda is a fan of his work and directorial style.

Heero: The interviewer comments that at the time, Heero was quite unique as a "cool genius protagonist", an archetype that's become more common since. They comment that it seemed unusual simply because most Gundam protagonists are the immature type who grow over time, and say that Duo more closely matches the "traditional" Gundam hero mold. Initially it looked like Heero would be the "supporting actor", but he was made the star, and Duo subsequently became extremely popular. They muse that normally a supporting character with cruel eyes isn't too popular, but as the protagonist it ended up working out in Heero's favor. They consider it Ikeda's mark to be able to handle five well-done protagonists, but comment that Quatre wasn't too popular, with female viewers calling him "Space Heart Jerk" (Uchuu no Kokoro Yarou). Consequently, Sandrock models didn't sell too well. At the time Ikeda said "Sandrock's shotels are useless if they don't cut things in a cross!"

OZ Characters: Originally Une was going to be a clumsy country girl who was nice to Treize. The idea was cut, but elements remained, such as Treize encouraging her to act a bit more elegantly (seen in episode 10, conveyed to Une by Noin), which was brought up again in the scene where Treize is bathing (Sumizawa admits he isn't sure why they chose to do the scene in the bath). Ikeda commented that the idea of a jacuzzi was funny, and suggested the rose essence, which meant Une had to be there. After that, there were bigger changes. Noin was originally going to be a man and play a Garma role to Zechs' Char, but they decided to make her female and a love interest.

Zechs and Noin: The bit where they get together again and Noin taps their swords was done by Ikeda, and Sumizawa comments that in retrospect it was kind of cool. They made jokes when Ikeda pitched the scene, but admit that the filmed version ended up being cool.

Lines and Scenes: At the stage where Sumizawa was writing the series bible, he was already working out lines (catchphrases?) for the cast. Sumizawa comments that a really good line can portray a character's personality extremely well. However, not all the lines he put into the bible were written in at first, they ended up being used later in the series. He comments that hearing Midorikawa deliver Heero's "Life comes cheap, especially mine" line in a game recently after so long impressed him, and he comments about them redoing the lines for games every so often. He discusses Treize and Wu Fei's exchange in episode 48 ("Just how many people have died for you?!" "As of yesterday, ninety-eight thousand, eight hundred and twenty-two."), commenting that a regular character would have responded "That's no concern of mine" and says that Treize's response shows how cool he is.
Tomioka (after teasing Sumizawa for remembering that stuff twelve years after the series), mentions lines from the first coul that seemed funny but had real impact, like Relena's "Heero, come back and kill me!" or Heero's "Mission accepted". Sumizawa comments that normally killing the protagonist in the 10th episode is impossible, but when he pitched the idea, Ikeda's response was "Interesting!" so they ran with it. Even though they had started on 11's script, Ikeda said "Self-destructing...interesting. Do it!" When Sumizawa wrote it, he thought to himself "Heero's dead for real this time, isn't he?" and wasn't convinced by the animation - it actually worried him.

Composition: Sumizawa comments that when it comes to series composition, one big difference is that writers hand off duties like a relay, as opposed to a novel where one person writes the whole thing. Because there were five mains, things were done differently, but the setting allowed the writing for the boys to flow rather easily. The differences and similarities between the boys changed the dialog; Heero talking to Duo or Quatre would be vastly different from him talking to Trowa. As they fought individually things got worse until they finally united. Because they were five complete people, when put together, they'd act selfishly, but the self-destruct changed that. Katsuhiko Chiba wrote that scene all himself, and in retrospect it isn't surprising. A regular producer would have said "Hold on, let's reconsider", but Tomioka gave it the go-ahead. He says that he thought the self-destruct was an interesting concept, and Sumizawa says that getting a producer to say things like that is a victory.

Casting: Tomioka and Ikeda handled the voice casting. Tomioka says that because the atmosphere was so different and conflicting with "normal" Gundam, it took extra work to achieve a satisfactory result. He mentions that Gundam seems to hit its big moments every ten years or so, saying that Zeta came almost ten years after First, and Wing ten years after that. His attitude was validated ten years after Wing when Seed came around. When the first episode was shown to Sunrise, they weren't surprised by the action in the first half, but were thrown off by the calmer school aspects in the second. When Wing sank, they probably thought things like "You can't sell toys of something at the bottom of the sea!" and "How's he going to use it?" They were convinced that it was good work, and didn't mind the OP, which Sumizawa thought they would. Tomioka thought the OP would be worse received, because it didn't feel like the intro to that kind of show. They had to tell singer Minami Takayama to "make it feel more like an intro", and afterwards Ikeda and a couple of others said "I guess we can make it work as an OP."

Endless Waltz: The show was popular and they were asked to do a continuation, but neither Tomioka nor Ikeda intended to make one following the TV series' end. Sumizawa was the opposite, feeling bothered a month after the finale. He felt like it cut off rather abruptly. At that time, Tomioka came to ask if he'd write a continuation, and he enthusiastically agreed.
The format was decided as three episodes, and they intended to give Wing a definite ending. Fortunately, the show's popularity hung on following the series thanks to games and manga, so the production didn't feel pointless; they were also getting requests to do a sequel. Tomioka said that they should sit down and write the ending definitively - except that the title was "Endless Waltz", sounding almost like a satire of their goal.
The idea to throw the Gundams into the sun was devised by Ikeda at the end of the series; there was no more war, so there was no more need for the Gundams. That was the point where they started the story. They muse that Wing had low mechanical focus, replacing MS details with drama, which probably accounts for the show's higher popularity with girls than boys. EW had well-done mecha scenes, which probably made it sell better to boys.
Katoki was the one who wanted to give Wing literal wings; the animators weren't happy with the tougher design. Sumizawa comments that the animators had Disney's animation staff come in and observed them to get an idea of how to handle the wings. The response was apparently "The Japanese draw feathers that dance and swirl by hand! Crazy!" They remark that the digital remaster restores part of the image cut off originally, and say that a digital TV seems to clear up all the problems.

Whew, that took a while. Personal thoughts:
-Frankly, I don't know anybody who would say Heero has cruel eyes. Except maybe those who don't like him, but I suppose it'd be hard to get an objective opinion out of such people anyway.
-Quatre as "Space Heart Jerk"...dammit, now I can't stop imagining a Wing/Den-O crossover, with Momotaros using that as Quatre's nickname.
-The interview also confirms a couple of long-standing rumors about the series, like the idea that Heero was modeled on Yuki Uchida, and that Tim Burton inspired Trowa's name.

[Amadi Akintunde]

This has been up for two years and I missed it? Man, I feel like a fool...

Anyhow, here's what I get from the interview using Babelfish to translate and common sense to correct. Of course, my translation may be off in places; I eagerly anticipate corrections.

Interviewees: Producer Hideyuki Tomioka from Sunrise, Head Writer Katsuyuki Sumizawa

Setting: The group of five concept was decided primarily because of G. Shenlong and Heavyarms were the first designs cemented, and Wing wasn't made the leader until late in the process. At one point they considered the name "Meteor Gundam" in reference to Operation Meteor. It was Bandai that suggested "A Gundam that transforms and flies through the skies". Apparently the writers sat down and, in one week, belted out the concepts for the main cast, MS, and the first 40 episodes, causing Director Masashi Ikeda to comment "It's like you're doing First, Zeta, and G all at once!"

Characters: Ikeda had a hand in the characters' designs, since he can draw. Basically, he made rough sketches of how he pictured the characters, then handed them off to Character Designer Shuko Murase to finish. Murase was specifically chosen by Ikeda because they worked together on Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors) and Ikeda wanted designs that would appeal to female fans. In the early phases, the characters' iconic costumes were set, such as Heero's tank top and shorts. Heero was modeled on Japanese actress Yuki Uchida. At one point Wu Fei was going to be African and a Newtype with the power to tell whether people were good or evil, but he was changed to Chinese in light of G's Sai Saici. The keywords for Duo and Quatre's designs were "Shinigami" and "Arab King", respectively. Trowa's name is derived from Tim Burton, because Ikeda is a fan of his work and directorial style.

Heero: The interviewer comments that at the time, Heero was quite unique as a "cool genius protagonist", an archetype that's become more common since. They comment that it seemed unusual simply because most Gundam protagonists are the immature type who grow over time, and say that Duo more closely matches the "traditional" Gundam hero mold. Initially it looked like Heero would be the "supporting actor", but he was made the star, and Duo subsequently became extremely popular. They muse that normally a supporting character with cruel eyes isn't too popular, but as the protagonist it ended up working out in Heero's favor. They consider it Ikeda's mark to be able to handle five well-done protagonists, but comment that Quatre wasn't too popular, with female viewers calling him "Space Heart Jerk" (Uchuu no Kokoro Yarou). Consequently, Sandrock models didn't sell too well. At the time Ikeda said "Sandrock's shotels are useless if they don't cut things in a cross!"

OZ Characters: Originally Une was going to be a clumsy country girl who was nice to Treize. The idea was cut, but elements remained, such as Treize encouraging her to act a bit more elegantly (seen in episode 10, conveyed to Une by Noin), which was brought up again in the scene where Treize is bathing (Sumizawa admits he isn't sure why they chose to do the scene in the bath). Ikeda commented that the idea of a jacuzzi was funny, and suggested the rose essence, which meant Une had to be there. After that, there were bigger changes. Noin was originally going to be a man and play a Garma role to Zechs' Char, but they decided to make her female and a love interest.

Zechs and Noin: The bit where they get together again and Noin taps their swords was done by Ikeda, and Sumizawa comments that in retrospect it was kind of cool. They made jokes when Ikeda pitched the scene, but admit that the filmed version ended up being cool.

Lines and Scenes: At the stage where Sumizawa was writing the series bible, he was already working out lines (catchphrases?) for the cast. Sumizawa comments that a really good line can portray a character's personality extremely well. However, not all the lines he put into the bible were written in at first, they ended up being used later in the series. He comments that hearing Midorikawa deliver Heero's "Life comes cheap, especially mine" line in a game recently after so long impressed him, and he comments about them redoing the lines for games every so often. He discusses Treize and Wu Fei's exchange in episode 48 ("Just how many people have died for you?!" "As of yesterday, ninety-eight thousand, eight hundred and twenty-two."), commenting that a regular character would have responded "That's no concern of mine" and says that Treize's response shows how cool he is.
Tomioka (after teasing Sumizawa for remembering that stuff twelve years after the series), mentions lines from the first coul that seemed funny but had real impact, like Relena's "Heero, come back and kill me!" or Heero's "Mission accepted". Sumizawa comments that normally killing the protagonist in the 10th episode is impossible, but when he pitched the idea, Ikeda's response was "Interesting!" so they ran with it. Even though they had started on 11's script, Ikeda said "Self-destructing...interesting. Do it!" When Sumizawa wrote it, he thought to himself "Heero's dead for real this time, isn't he?" and wasn't convinced by the animation - it actually worried him.

Composition: Sumizawa comments that when it comes to series composition, one big difference is that writers hand off duties like a relay, as opposed to a novel where one person writes the whole thing. Because there were five mains, things were done differently, but the setting allowed the writing for the boys to flow rather easily. The differences and similarities between the boys changed the dialog; Heero talking to Duo or Quatre would be vastly different from him talking to Trowa. As they fought individually things got worse until they finally united. Because they were five complete people, when put together, they'd act selfishly, but the self-destruct changed that. Katsuhiko Chiba wrote that scene all himself, and in retrospect it isn't surprising. A regular producer would have said "Hold on, let's reconsider", but Tomioka gave it the go-ahead. He says that he thought the self-destruct was an interesting concept, and Sumizawa says that getting a producer to say things like that is a victory.

Casting: Tomioka and Ikeda handled the voice casting. Tomioka says that because the atmosphere was so different and conflicting with "normal" Gundam, it took extra work to achieve a satisfactory result. He mentions that Gundam seems to hit its big moments every ten years or so, saying that Zeta came almost ten years after First, and Wing ten years after that. His attitude was validated ten years after Wing when Seed came around. When the first episode was shown to Sunrise, they weren't surprised by the action in the first half, but were thrown off by the calmer school aspects in the second. When Wing sank, they probably thought things like "You can't sell toys of something at the bottom of the sea!" and "How's he going to use it?" They were convinced that it was good work, and didn't mind the OP, which Sumizawa thought they would. Tomioka thought the OP would be worse received, because it didn't feel like the intro to that kind of show. They had to tell singer Minami Takayama to "make it feel more like an intro", and afterwards Ikeda and a couple of others said "I guess we can make it work as an OP."

Endless Waltz: The show was popular and they were asked to do a continuation, but neither Tomioka nor Ikeda intended to make one following the TV series' end. Sumizawa was the opposite, feeling bothered a month after the finale. He felt like it cut off rather abruptly. At that time, Tomioka came to ask if he'd write a continuation, and he enthusiastically agreed.
The format was decided as three episodes, and they intended to give Wing a definite ending. Fortunately, the show's popularity hung on following the series thanks to games and manga, so the production didn't feel pointless; they were also getting requests to do a sequel. Tomioka said that they should sit down and write the ending definitively - except that the title was "Endless Waltz", sounding almost like a satire of their goal.
The idea to throw the Gundams into the sun was devised by Ikeda at the end of the series; there was no more war, so there was no more need for the Gundams. That was the point where they started the story. They muse that Wing had low mechanical focus, replacing MS details with drama, which probably accounts for the show's higher popularity with girls than boys. EW had well-done mecha scenes, which probably made it sell better to boys.
Katoki was the one who wanted to give Wing literal wings; the animators weren't happy with the tougher design. Sumizawa comments that the animators had Disney's animation staff come in and observed them to get an idea of how to handle the wings. The response was apparently "The Japanese draw feathers that dance and swirl by hand! Crazy!" They remark that the digital remaster restores part of the image cut off originally, and say that a digital TV seems to clear up all the problems.

Whew, that took a while. Personal thoughts:
-Frankly, I don't know anybody who would say Heero has cruel eyes. Except maybe those who don't like him, but I suppose it'd be hard to get an objective opinion out of such people anyway.
-Quatre as "Space Heart Jerk"...dammit, now I can't stop imagining a Wing/Den-O crossover, with Momotaros using that as Quatre's nickname.
-The interview also confirms a couple of long-standing rumors about the series, like the idea that Heero was modeled on Yuki Uchida, and that Tim Burton inspired Trowa's name.

That helps alot. I was surprised when I read there that they had Disney come in to observe them. Then their comment made me laugh.

After reading what Wu Fei was supposed to be, I must say that could have worked well, or not well at all. xP

[LightningCount]

This has been up for two years and I missed it? Man, I feel like a fool...

Anyhow, here's what I get from the interview using Babelfish to translate and common sense to correct. Of course, my translation may be off in places; I eagerly anticipate corrections...

THANKS YOU VERY MUCH!!! Great to have the cleaner translation.

(I bet there's an interview like this related to the Gundam X remastered box from 2005, which has a booklet, but it's not on the X website so that series' many mysteries will have to remain closed for now...)

Anyway, fav Wing interview lines:

-"It's like you're doing First, Zeta, and G all at once!" (This really was a bold series with a lot of ideas. They were basically re-establishing & re-inventing the political/military realm of Gundam after G-Gundam was more supernatural and personal. And, in the end, I think they mixed the personal in pretty well also.).

-"When the first episode was shown to Sunrise, they weren't surprised by the action in the first half, but were thrown off by the calmer school aspects in the second." (This was something that made Wing really down-to-earth and unique. I think this aspect helped its popularity on Toonami too, with the school and basketball, etc. It had the duality of secret lives that I think 00 was going for with its code name characters, but kind of just did lip service to).

At the time Ikeda said "Sandrock's shotels are useless if they don't cut things in a cross!" (hahah, that was one of Sandrock's cooler MOs).

-"Zechs and Noin: The bit where they get together again and Noin taps their swords was done by Ikeda, and Sumizawa comments that in retrospect it was kind of cool. They made jokes when Ikeda pitched the scene, but admit that the filmed version ended up being cool." (Like the rose-bath scene, this also seemed an iconic, memorable personal character scene; you don't see a lot of touches like this in Gundam).

-Disney: "The Japanese draw feathers that dance and swirl by hand! Crazy!" (wow lol).

-"They consider it Ikeda's mark to be able to handle five well-done protagonists..." (I know it's not too popular around here, but I thought that Samurai Troopers/Ronin Warriors also had five memorable characters. I do think that spirit carried over here and even was improved upon).

-"Because they were five complete people, when put together, they'd act selfishly, but the self-destruct changed that." (It sounds like Heero's self-destruct gave them a way to figure out how to mold the character's relationships. Interesting).

-"every ten years..." I'm not sure this is quite right, since First and Zeta weren't ten years apart, and neither were Wing and SEED, but OK. I get the idea he's trying to say.

[AmuroNT1]

Yeah, I went into work today with only a couple of hours of sleep because I was translating this thing for you jerks, so I hope you're happy. J/k of course.

Regarding the mecha, I'd like to add a couple of insights from Okawara's Design Works that might shed a little light on the process. According to him, originally Deathscythe and Heavyarms had their "nationalities" swapped, the former being the European Gundam and the latter being the American. Despite Duo and Trowa swapping their ethnicities, you can still see traces of the original concepts in their Gundams, particularly Deathscythe's gothic elements (toned down from things like a batwing blade antenna and griffon-headed scythe), and Heavyarms being explicitly designed with "American military" as its key theme (replacing "clowns" - no, seriously).

Ikeda's comment about the writing was a little hard to translate exactly; what they said was "First mo Zeta mo G mo zenbu yaru" (ファーストもＺもＧも全部やる), which I believe means something like "You did all of First and Zeta and G". Again, I welcome corrections.

As for the ten years comment, it'd probably be more accurate to render the line as "decade" rather than "ten years" because obviously there isn't an exact ten-year gap between the shows. A better overall translation would be "Gundam hits a milestone every decade: First in the 70s, Zeta in the 80s, Wing in the 90s, and Seed in the 00s."

Regarding the self-destruct, you can see what they were talking about if you rewatch the show. Up until Episode 10, the guys were pretty well loners and hesitated (or even actively resisted) working as a team. The self-destruct probably hit them with the idea that working alone was suicide (well, most of them, anyhow - I'm looking at you, Mr. NubiaType).

On a random tangent, ages ago I ran a Gundam Wing RP where one player asked permission to play a black Quatre. At the time, I never realized how close we'd come to hitting on an original series concept. XD

[Dark Duel]

Heavyarms being explicitly designed with "American military" as its key theme (replacing "clowns" - no, seriously)

Somehow, I like the idea of making Trowa a clown instead of his Gundam better...'cuz that just looks WEIRD. But I suppose the idea of the clown design was in a way carried over...