Hi guys, it’s Aki again! To outweigh the amount of suffering the last episode threw into our faces, I bring you the mini-interviews with seiyuus from the Official Hero Book. Warnings: massive seiyuu moe and Morita being a giant Barnaby fanboy tl;dr the usual.
Cut for a massive wall of text. (And you can read more translated interviews here.)
Disclaimer: not a professional translator, doing this for fun, etc. Standard fantranslation rules apply.
Hi guys! Sufferday tomorrow, so I have a translation for you to make the wait more bearable yeah right.
This time it’s an interview with Nishida Masafumi from the Official Hero Book. He makes a few interesting points about the show while trolling with some almost-spoilers.
Disclaimer: not a professional translator, doing this for fun, etc. Standard fantranslation rules apply.
Nishida: First the director, Satou Keiichi, looked over the productions I had been involved in and asked if I could create dialogue with a similar atmosphere for his anime. However, the truth is… At that time I was busy with other work so I refused once, but he talked me into meeting with the producer (laughs). I’m really grateful for that.
Hello, Sternbild citizens, it’s Aki again! This time I have for you an interview with Satou Keiichi, the kantoku-man director of T&B. You can find it in the august issue of Animage.
Disclaimer: not a professional translator, doing this for fun, etc. Standard fantranslation rules apply.
Q: We’re halfway through the show. Comments?
Satou Keiichi: At first, when we were planning everything – even though Tiger&Bunny is a hero show – we wanted to add dialogue that’d make the audience laugh. That’s because we wanted to create a comedy without gags that would bring the action down. For that purpose, we needed realistic characters with whom you can easily sympathize. There are different kinds of “real”, though, but what I wanted to do is present characters that have flawed personalities; when you see them, you think “people like that exist, too”. That’s also why I wanted to add elements that are normally not present in hero shows, like people eating bread or clipping their nails, simple scenes from our everyday lives.
Q: There really are many things the audience can sympathize with in the show.
Satou: Thank you very much. At first, through the advertisements for the sponsors, we showed the original concept of this show – that is, the drama with heroes in suits living in a harsh world. But then, the producer suggested we should add elements that working people, like salarymen or OLs, would enjoy – and so, the show took the form it has now. When I first got involved in the production, it was the time of the so-called “Lehman shock”, and then we have experienced the powerful earthquake. So, above all else, I wanted to introduce characters that would encourage the people who watch the show, give them that necessary push. Kotetsu is like a sports player who challenges the overseas, never giving up; the advertisements in the show remind us of hard technological competition between corporations… Images like that are crammed into the show. Of course, since this is a hero show, we needed some cool things as well, but instead of presenting them stylishly through action or design, we wanted to show them through the characters themselves. For example, Kotetsu’s smart, mature thinking makes him the center of human relationships in the show.
Q: Kotetsu’s personality comes out even more thanks to Barnaby’s presence, doesn’t it.
Satou: Thanks to the differences between them, their individual personalities are highlighted. Well, Barnaby, however you want to put it, is a kind of an oddball (laughs). He presents himself as a very stoic person. But in the modern society, there are situations when senpai says “let’s go out for a drink!”, and their kouhai turns them down coldly (laughs). Because we inserted lifelike situations like that, people can connect with the characters more easily, their actions become more clear to them.
Q:Time to wrap up this interview. Could you tell us what awaits us in the future?
Satou: There is a 10-month time skip between episodes 13 and 14. There are people riding on the wave of their popularity, as well as people you could describe as a bit depressed. I think it’s something the audience can sympathize with, too. Also, to generalize a bit, the first half of the show focused on this feeling of distance between people, on human relationships, how they become close and how they fall apart. In episode 13, for the first time ever, Barnaby called Kotetsu “Kotetsu-san”, so you could feel that their relationship got truly stronger. However, the thing with relationships is, you never know what might happen the next minute. How will their relationship change between the two parts of the show, and how will it evolve? Because this is a show that takes the distance between the characters very seriously, you should focus on that. I’ll be happy if you all enjoy it.
Hi, it’s Aki the member of Sternbild who was supposed to translate this ages ago!
Today we have for you an interview from the 5th issue of Cool Voice, with Tiger and Barnaby’s seiyuu, Hirata Hiroaki and Morita Masakazu. It’s a bit tl;dr, but I decided to translate the whole thing – they make some interesting points about the characters they play and I think it’s an interesting read in general.
If you happen to have some scans with interviews/comments/other stuff related to Tiger & Bunny you’d like to see translated, e-mail us at ThisIsSternbild[at]gmail.com – I might translate it if we find it interesting enough!
Scanned by vanishing-age, used with permission.
Disclaimer: not a professional translator, doing this for fun, etc. Standard fantranslation rules apply.
Hello and hello again! I’m the other part part of the “we” you’ve probably seen in Derpchan’s posts, in case you’re confused who I am.
Anyway. There was a sweet little interview in the July issue of Animage with Tamura Kazuhiko, Tiger & Bunny’s producer – and since he said a few interesting things, I decided to translate it.
Disclaimer: not a professional translator, doing this for fun, etc. Standard fantranslation rules apply.
Without further ado –
Q: How did you come up with the idea for a story featuring two characters from two different generations? It’s a pretty rare combination.
A: Well, in this day and age, you can easily notice there is a generation gap between youngsters and their elders. (laughs) We wanted to show that, we wanted to show how they begin to understand each other, how the bond between them grows strong.
Q: So basically, you based it on your personal experiences? (laughs)
A: Ah, yeah. This generation gap we experience daily – we wanted to show how the different generations mix. I thought it would allow the viewers to sympathize with the events more easily, which, in turn, would make the show more exciting. First we had this idea of a duo that always bickers, then we tried to add this difference in age to them. We have different character episodes, and during them, Tiger and Barnaby’s bond and mutural trust grow stronger. It’s one of the elements of the whole storytelling process. In the series’ ED, you can see them as if the strong bond was already in there, but you’ll watch the story and think, “When exactly they will reach this point?”. It makes me happy. (laugh)
Q: In the show, the story progresses through subtle hints, right.
A: Yes, while we reveal subtle hints, you slowly become aware of the progress, of how their trust grows stronger. Again, for example, the criminal behind the bomb incident appears again in the episode in which the convicts die, so even the characters considered criminals are not easily used and then thrown away by us. In the future, a character that is probably thought unlikely to reappear will do so, and here and there we’ll be planting small “traps”, so that even the events of the first episode are not going to get lost in the progress.
Q: Besides Kotetsu and Barnaby, other characters’ designs and abilities are also very unique.
A: The design was created for us by Katsura Masakazu-sensei, for which we are grateful. He created characters that attract attention with their charm, and accompanied us through the stage direction and scenario creating parts. We were inspired by his drawings, and adjusted the characters’ personalities and positions to them. The screenwriter, Nishida (Nishida Masafumi, the series’ creator) first asked every person on staff for ideas and then tweaked the charas a bit. [he proceeds to say something about Sky High’s airhead-ness, but the article scans I got are slightly cut so I can’t really read it]
Q: The series will now continue to feature serious battles, yes?
A: Episodes 10-13 are the climax of the first half, so the battles are also reaching it’s first peak. I think you can see them as a part that works as an extra edge for the series. Again, these eps are not only about Barnaby and Kotetsu, they also feature Origami Cyclone, Sky High and Rock Bison’s performances, so their fans should be satisfied, too. Again, in episode 10, Jake and Kriem and other new characters appeared, and they are connected to the Ouroboros Barnaby is pursuing. I think everything I mentioned will probably gather a lot of attention.
Q: What’s in next for Kotetsu and Barnaby?
A: Kotetsu will be doing well as Wild Tiger, and through all the incidents, their relationship will change. Barnaby… Well, not only some scenes, but rather, the whole story can be thought as a story of his growth. He had nothing but revenge, but since he met Tiger, the man started influencing him. Barnaby will make up for some things he lost, and will still be growing emotionally. He experiences Kotetsu’s sympathy, and communicates with him as a fellow human being, and will be learning from him what does it mean to “be a hero”. I’ll be happy if you will be there to watch it!
This is Sternbild 