Original interview from Gundam Info published on June 25th 2021, titled: “Exclusive long interview!『Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash』director Shuko Murase on the ‘broken’ Hathaway and the ‘indecipherable’ Gigi“, original interviewer: Ryota Fujitsu; genga from the official Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash Twitter account.

— I believe that adapting the 3-volume novel written by Director Yoshiyuki Tomino into a movie trilogy calls for a lot of ingenuity and intuition. In the case of “Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash” Part 1, the opening features the sound of a ticking clock, and the film ends with a scene where the clock left behind by the protagonist, Hathaway, is in Gigi’s hands, creating the impression that “the time that had stopped started to move again”. 

Actually, the sound of the ticking clock at the beginning was an idea of (Koji) Kasamatsu-san _{[the movie’s sound director]}. To begin with, the clock that Hathaway buys was introduced as a prop to remind Gigi of him as the two eventually drift apart. After learning about this idea, Kasamatsu-san decided to add the ticking clock sound in the opening. When I asked him if that _{[“creating the impression that the time that had stopped started to move again” t.n.]} was his intention with the addition, he confirmed it. Kasamatsu-san wondered if he might have gone a bit overboard with it, but since it was such a great idea, I decided to use it as it was.

— So the cohesive feel of the addition was the result of that kind of exchange. By the way, had you already read the novel, Director Murase?

I read it for the first time after taking on the role of director. Short after the novel was released, I started working on Mobile Suit Gundam F91 _{[March 1991, Murase worked on the movie as an animation director and key animator]} so I was aware of its existence, but I did’t read it at the time.

— What were your thoughts after reading the novel from the director’s perspective? 

(Reading through the novel) I could clearly picture the scenes. It felt as if it was written like a storyboard. Though, of course, the characters’ emotions and thoughts were much more detailed. There were parts where I actually felt that Director Tomino himself had written it with the same mindset he had when writing TV series. For example, early on, characters with names are introduced, but then they never appear again. I think that was probably the result of trying out many different characters and keeping only the ones that seemed interesting or had potential. I intend to follow along with that result in the movies, without changing the story too much. I want to make it clear that characters like Mihessia and Hundley Yeoksam were deliberately shown on camera in the first part,  but their relevance doesn’t go much beyond that. 

— Talking about the movie, the Davao air raid sequence around the midpoint, spanning from midnight to dawn, was truly impressive in many ways. For instance, in terms of the mecha direction, I was impressed by how many shots featured interactions between mobile suits and humans.

For the consecutive battle scenes about halfway through the movie, I explained to the mecha animators that I didn’t want them to depict the mobile suits, but rather to portray the phenomenon of their presence. The mobile suits themselves weren’t the focus of the sequence; instead, the real focus was on the people in the foreground and the reactions happening around them. The presence of mobile suits, which are far bigger in size than humans, involves things like trees being eradicated and falling to the ground, strong wind passing through… That was the kind of phenomenon I wanted to depict. I feel like we were able to somehow bring that out on screen.

― Did you place the emphasis there because you thought that you needed to go that far in order to make a mobile suit battle scene interesting?

No, it was because that’s how it’s written in the novel itself. The scene of the Gustav Karl landing on the rooftop of a building and then sliding off from there was also staged and arranged just as it was in the novel, and even the fireworks-like sparks flying around when mobile suits clash into one another and beam particles scattering around and damaging the surroundings are all portrayed exactly according to the novel. The previous works up until now hadn’t been able to bring all that to life, so I thought that if we adapted the novel faithfully, it would surely be interesting. After writing Hathaway’s Flash, Director Tomino went on to direct F91, and a similar scene was featured there as well. Coincidentally, I was the one responsible for the animation in that scene. I tried to achieve the same result in F91 but it didn’t work out, so I wanted to make sure to get it right this time. 

— Watching the movie, the way mobile suits like the Gustav Karl or the Messer were staged really gave them a “giant” feel, but personally, I thought the Penelope went beyond that and was portrayed almost like a “kaiju”.

That’s right. I wanted the Penelope to feel monstrous, something completely different from the other mobile suits. The way light flows and moves across the Minovsky Craft Unit of the machine was also influenced by the parts of kaiju that used to have a similar glowing effect when they moved. The novel also mentions the unique flying sound, but I thought it would be better if it left a lingering sensation after it flew away, as if it were moving by some mysterious force, so I opted for that chirping-like sound effect. For the Penelope, I intentionally created shots with poses that emphasized a bird-like image, such as the flight form, rather than the more conventional standing pose.

— On the topic of mobile suits’ advancement, the Gundam universe has a lot of setting constraints, what are your thoughts on that?

That is indeed a crucial point. The Gundam universe is so vast that even if you ask people who could be considered Gundam experts, each one of them would have a different individual tolerance for what is considered acceptable (laughs). That being said, if we don’t decide on some sort of foundation, those things will always be an inconclusive mess. Therefore, this time we decided to be very strict in regard to those aspects. For instance, the fact that communication isn’t possible under Minovsky particle dispersion is something we’ve strictly adhered to. The novel also includes a scene where Kenneth and Lane are unable to communicate, and we’ve made sure to follow that thoroughly. Fortunately, even with such strict adherence to the setting and constraints, there was no need to alter the story, so that was a relief.

— On the drama side, there’s a depiction of Hathaway, who, despite having to reunite with his comrades, finds himself unable to leave Gigi’s side. This development too follows the novel, but bringing it to the screen with a stronger emphasis really drives home the feeling that Hathaway is a character torn between “emotions” and “ideals”.

The sequence where Hathaway embraces Gigi while catching a glimpse of his comrade, Emerelda, is a bit chaotic in the novel. By condensing and rearranging it slightly, I believe the meaning of the scene comes across more clearly.

— In terms of adapting this work into a movie, how did you approach Hathaway’s characterization?

Why did Hathaway become Mafty? The novel does provide a reason, but I still find it somewhat unconvincing. Under the name of Mafty, Hathaway carries on Char’s ideal, but why would he embrace the ideology of an opponent he once fought against? The novel just skips over that part, doesn’t it? But I’m sure there must have been another layer to it. I believe that’s the key point of this work. That is the core of Hathaway’s character in the movie. 

— You mean, there must have been a turning point that led Hathaway to become Mafty.

Exactly. On the surface, we’re staying faithful to the novel, but I’m aiming to clarify the meaning and motivations behind Hathaway’s actions, presenting them as part of a coherent guiding principle for his character. As for what exactly happened, we’re going to concretely portray it in the future; the first movie doesn’t touch on it, and even at the recording sessions I didn’t offer any explanations. The only thing I explained was that Hathaway is a “broken person”, someone who “thinks of himself as integral but is, in reality, broken”.

— On the other hand, what about the heroine, Gigi?

Gigi’s a character with a dual natureーshe has an incredibly pure side and yet is also able to perfectly adapt to the adult world. But because there are hardly any people like that, the novel was my only reference, which made it extremely challenging. On the other hand, there was also the difficulty that if I portrayed her exactly as she was in the novel, she would come across as an unpleasant woman. Gigi is a character archetype that often appears in Tomino’s works, but if I portrayed her exactly as she is, I felt like it would make people wonder “why is everyone so drawn to this girl?”. So, I made sure not to have her come across just as an unpleasant woman. I believe she’s probably the kind of person who can get away with saying something unpleasant, not just because she’s beautiful, but because she has a certain charm to her too. In that regard, her design helped out a lot. 

— So Gigi was an even harder character than Hathaway.

That’s right. Director Tomino depicts these type of characters all the time, so it’s probably something he’s fond of. But for me, that’s not the case. However, I chose to portray her including all the sides of her character that I didn’t fully understand, and I believe that’s how the current balance was achieved. If I had made her into something I could fully understand, Gigi wouldn’t have been the person she is (laughs). Adding Ueda Reina-san’s acting to all that, I believe Gigi’s character came together with a great balance. 

— Personally, I found the orange accents in Gigi’s eyes very impactful. 

That was the work of (the character designer) Pablo Uchida-kun. It’s not something you’d typically think of, adding orange highlights like that. He said that it wouldn’t be really noticeable from a distance, but it definitely works well as an accent. It was very effective.

— In the movie, you used the scene where Kenneth rides a horse as a trigger to show the relationship between Quess and Hathaway as depicted in Char’s Counterattack. That scene was placed at the end of the Davao airstrike episode.

When I rewatched Char’s Counterattack in preparation for Hathaway’s Flash, I realized clearly that the moment when Quess rushes toward Char is the true starting point of Hathaway’s Flash. Perhaps one could say that a more concrete starting point would be when Hathaway killed a person on the battlefield, but that scene slightly differs between the movie and the novel versions _{[Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack — Beltorchika’s Children, 1988]}, and besides, I believe that was more of a “consequence” than a starting point. I believe that, after all, not being able to stop Quess there was the spark that started it all. For those who haven’t seen Char’s Counterattack, this scene might be confusing, but I felt it was a good addition, even just visually. 

— This is mainly related to the visual aspect, but when Hathaway is recalling his memory of Quess, his face becomes a silhouette and you can’t see his expression. Watching your past works, it seems like you, Director Murase, have a sort of fixation on dark visuals. Could you share the intention behind that?

Perhaps it’s because many of my works tackle that kind of themes. And using dark images is relatively easier. Also, I personally like staging scenes with silhouettes. 

— In this move too there are a few cuts where the ground crew is portrayed as silhouettes. 

There are indeed. When thinking about the balance between the backgrounds and the characters drawings, usually, you would make the characters brighter and keep the backgrounds from standing out too much, but personally I like to make the characters almost fade in and the backgrounds look cleaner. And by staging the scenes with silhouettes, it allows the imagination to expand, so to speak…

— Using dark backgrounds allows for a more effective use of light too, right?

By using light, you can create a sense of depth, or make the viewer feel the space. If you light up everything, the sense of scale disappears. If you depict giant things like mobile suits as silhouettes and light up just one part of them, it properly conveys their dimension. Even a flat surface gains a sense of distance when light is cast only on certain areas. I made sure to pay close attention to those aspects in my direction. But I also understand the animators’ dissatisfaction when the screen is so dark that you can’t see their drawings and line-arts. In order to draw a clean silhouette, you need to make sure the interior is properly defined as well. The inner lines are still absolutely necessary. So, at first glance, they might look like silhouettes, but if you look closely, you can just barely make out the lines inside—I believe that’s the best balance. In that regard, there wasn’t much room for me to provide precise and detailed guidance this time, but I believe it turned out pretty good in the end. 

— For the production of this movie, I’ve heard you created color keys _{[colored illustrations of important cuts from the storyboard to convey the director’s ideas to the various members of the staff]} for some of the scenes. What was the purpose behind them?

In anime, even though there’s a general plan and vision, it’s common to create the materials separately—the backgrounds are handled by one team, and the animation by another—and in the end, it’s up to the photography team to pull everything together. As a result, each section can easily become frustrated if the final use of their work doesn’t align with what they envisioned during the process. I figured that if I gave a general sense of direction by providing exact instructions like “I want this scene to look like this, so put a shadow there”, I could solve this problem altogether. 

— Earlier, you mentioned that there wasn’t enough time for you to provide guidance for the final visuals. How do you typically give guidance when you have the chance? Do you write notes, or do you use something like (Adobe) Photoshop to actually compose the screen?

I used to use Photoshop, but while working on Genocidal Organ _{[虐殺器官 (Gyakusatsu Kikan), 2017]} I switched to (Adobe) After Effects. I usually show how I want things like perspectives, incident light, and subtle lighting effects to be handled.

— Do you end up handling the photography _{[combining materials such as background art, cels, and CG elements into a single piece of footage, while also adding elements like camera work and lighting effects; also referred to as “compositing”]} yourself?

The final compositing is completely different. By adjusting the separately crafted materials during the photography phase, the level of completion of the images changes a lot. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that this time, but I did manage it in key moments, such as the teaser with Hathaway sitting on the beach, the sequence we were talking about earlier where he recalls Quess, and the final shots of Hathaway walking on the ship’s deck. In previous projects, I even joked about working on them just for the fun on the final compositing (laughs). So, it’s actually a very important process that I want to focus on, but since it’s the last step, we often find ourselves racing against the schedule.

— When did you first realize how enjoyable and fun the photography process is?

I guess it was after I became a director… When I was working on Witch Hunter ROBIN _[2002], it was a TV production so I didn’t have much leeway to make major adjustments, but when I directed the final episode, I managed to do some compositing arrangements (compiling materials together). From that time on, whenever I direct episodes, I often handle the compositing arrangement work as well. There were also times when I handled it for all the cuts. 

— In this movie, there are many three-dimensional camera movements; did you find it difficult to convey certain ideas through traditional, hand-drawn 2D storyboards?

I did. We used video-storyboards (v-boards) this time, but v-boards themselves are 2D as well. I believe there are many scenes that might make viewers think they’re in 3D, but they’re actually 2D. Many things can be made to appear three-dimensional through camera work and the sliding of 2D materials. One good thing about v-boards in that I can convey the speed and timing of the camerawork myself, but tn the actual production process, we had no choice but to create paper storyboards at some point, and I thought there were various challenges in coordinating and connecting the two.

— Did you create the v-boards using some storyboarding software?

No, I used After Effects. I tried using specialized software too, but personally, I’m more familiar with After Effects so I prefer sticking with that.

— Looking back at Part 1, what do you think went especially well, Director Murase?

I’d say the overall balance. At first, I was concerned that it might drag on a bit. Even though I tried to cut and tighten it as much as possible, the first half still feels a little sluggish. However, when I look at the total picture, it didn’t feel that long, and with the battles scenes added in there was a good sense of pacing, so I was relieved. A big part of that is thanks to the sound team’s direction. Also, when it comes to “pauses” in the dialogues, I think the influence of Tomino-lines in the novel played a big role (laughs). Up until now, in dialogue scenes I would carefully structure the timing so that the characters make sure to listen to the others’ words before responding. But Tomino-san’s style is more like a rapid-fire back-and-forth (laughs). Keeping that in mind, I didn’t focus on my usual timing this time. There are very few pauses this way, but that might have helped making the dialogues feel more connected. Though, I’m sure it must have been somewhat uncomfortable for Director Tomino to have his own lines directed by someone else (laughs).

— The second part seems like it will have even more intense battle scenes compared to the first part…

When depicting battle scenes on a brighter screen, things that we could previously conceal in the darkness can no longer be hidden. The challenge lies in how to elevate those elements. As for Part 1, it may have ultimately been a technical blessing that the battles were set at night.

Original interview from Febri, published in two parts, Part 1 on June 18th 2021 and Part 2 on June 21ts 2021, original interviewer: Itsuki Mori; genga by Shuko Murase.

Part ①

The director of “Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash”, who also worked on the anime movie adaptation of “Genocidal Organ” _{[虐殺器官 “Gyakusatsu Kikan”, 2017]} and participated in “Mobile Suit Gundam Wing” _[1995] and “Mobile Suit Gundam UC” _[2010], is Shuko Murase. What was his approach in adapting Yoshiyuki Tomino’s novel into a movie? This interview will be presented in two parts. 

~ Tomino-san told me not to ask him anything about the contents. ~

— Please, tell me the details of how you were appointed as the director.

It was a request from Sunrise animation producer Naohiro Ogata. 

— “Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash” (hereafter, “Hathaway’s Flash”), is a novel written by Yoshiyuki Tomino. What were your impressions when you heard this novel was going to be adapted into a movie?

Tomino-san wrote the Hathaway’s Flash novel without the intent of it being adapted into a movie by Sunrise. Then, times changed, and I think Sunrise spontaneously took the initiative to turn it into a movie. 

— What was the concept behind this movie adaptation?

First, I went to greet Tomino-san since I was appointed as the director of the movie adaptation. At that time, he told me not to ask him anything about the contents (laughs), and from that moment on, I haven’t really asked him a single thing. However, when I met with him, he showed me two movies, saying “I want it to be like these”. They were live-action movies produced in Asia; the first one had two male and only one female leads, just like Hathaway’s Flash. At first, I earnestly tried to adjust the movie around that same nuance and style, but the setting and genre were so different it really didn’t fit well. So, I discussed with screenwriter (Yasuyuki) Muto-san and together we decided to change it back and make it align better with the contents of the novel. 

~ The characters are reinterpreted in a Gundam-like style. ~

— This time, in addition to the design work by Pablo Uchida, color keys depicting important scenes from the storyboard were created. It’s a methodology that was never used in Gundam works before.

Regarding the color keys, I think Sunrise just didn’t actively make them. Even if we were to put together the ideas each section envisioned separately, the overall spatial lightning wouldn’t be unified, so we needed a single consolidated vision. Moreover, this time we had a genius designer by the name of Uchida-kun working with us, so we couldn’t not make use of his visual sense. However, there were still some difficulties in implementing this method on set, so I realized from now on we need to put in place a proper structure to accommodate for it. 

— Uchida-san, Naoyuki Onda-san and Shigeki Kuhara-san were involved in the character design, and like Kenneth for example, the characters were substantially redesigned. 

As for the characters, there’s a certain design style that’s typical of Gundam works, isn’t there? Haruhiko Mikimoto-san too, who designed the characters for the novel, had changed the taste between the novel and the game, so to some extent we reinterpreted the characters in a Gundam-like style. Hathaway’s about the same, whereas Kenneth was redesigned to fit the new visuals, and for Gigi, she’s in her teens in the novel but I found it difficult to portray her like that, so I raised her age a bit. I had Uchida-kun drawing the actual redesigns, I told him “you can bring out your own colors”. Including Onda-san’s animation design, I believe we’ve created well-balanced and realistic characters. 

~ The base for the mechs is in CG, and only the necessary parts are hand-drawn. ~

— The mechs are made using CG, right?

We decided to use GC because of some physics-related issues. I’m an animator too, so I understood that, compared to the Unicorn Gundam, it would have been impossible to freely move around the Ξ (Xi) Gundam and the Penelope, both of which have over than double the amount of lines. Thus we decide to use CG as the base. We then proceeded by touching up solely where strictly necessary, and only hand-drawing over the parts we really wanted to. Towards the end of the production, there were also storyboards that were developed using CG, so in that sense it was a new way of making anime. 

— It must have taken time to figure out how to make the CG models move.

Some of the designs for the CG models were delayed until almost the very last minute, so I regret that there wasn’t enough time to thoroughly finish the animations. 

— That being said, the production was handled by Studio 1, the same one that worked on “Mobile Suit Gundam UC” and “Mobile Suit Gundam NT”, including first rate mechanical designers and animators by the likes of Hajime Katoki-san, Seiichi Nakatani-san and Nobuhiko Genma-san.

That’s right. But on the contrary, because so many people were involved, it took quite some time to adjust the boundaries of what ‘shouldn’t be done when it comes to the Gundam’ _{[Murase is likely talking about the Gundams’ design, which apparently raised some discussions among the staff]}. There was a proposal to change the design from the novel, but Katoki-san put forward the idea to create a design that combined the one from the novel and the one from the games, so we decided to proceed in that direction.

— The three main cast members performed the recordings together, and I’ve heard they were given a thorough explanation of the story beforehand.

Until now, I had never done such things as explaining the story before the recordings. When working on adaptations, I usually just make slight adjustments to the image _{[of the character]} the voice actors have already envisioned themselves. However, in the case of Hathaway’s Flash, its prequel “Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack” has different, parallel storylines between the movie and the novel versions, so when making this movie adaptation we had to make several choices and rearrangements. Therefore, I told Kensho Ono-san how I imagined Hathaway’s character to be in the movie. Initially, we were supposed to talk for just about 5 to 10 minutes, but before we knew it we had been talking for about an hour and a half (laughs). Gigi is also a character that’s hard to grasp, so I explained to Ueda Reina-san the direction I wanted for her character to take in the movie, and I did the same with Suwabe Junichi-san, who plays the role of Kenneth. I explained to each one of them the plan of action of their characters by going backwards, starting from future developments. 

~ The contents can be enjoyed even by someone who’s watching Gundam for the first time. ~

— Having overcome such complex adjustments, you were able to complete the first episode of Hathaway’s Flash. What are your thought now that it’s finished?

Including the CG part and the hand-drawn part, there were delays in digitalizing the drawings, and there were many difficulties and problems on set. The compositing and editing processes have transitioned to digital, so I think it would all flow more smoothly if the environment could be unified a little more. As for the story, the first episode is nothing but the beginning of it all, so it’s still unknown how the relationships between the characters and the story will develop. Also, the most difficult part of adapting a novel into a movie is that I was constantly thinking about how the people who haven’t read the novel will perceive it. I wondered how to make it enjoyable also to the people who have never watched Gundam, or more importantly Char’s Counterattack, before. The original request was for the content to “appeal to both Gundam fans and those who have never experienced Gundam before”, so we aimed to appeal to both audiences. 

— So, to make it enjoyable to those who have never watched any Gundam work before. 

Therefore, I structured Hathaway’s Flash in way that those who first met Hathaway Noa in this movie would still be able to follow the story. Now I’m really interested to see how people like that will perceive this work. 

Part ②

“Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash” has finally been released _{[the movie was first released in Japanese theaters on June 11th 2021]}. Differing from the previous iterations, this new Gundam is characterized by a more true-to-life look. In this second part of the interview with director Shuko Murase, we delve into the use of lighting and 3D for the visuals, as well as the support for Dolby Atmos for the audio and music. 

~ Adapting the carefully detailed depictions that only novels can provide. ~

— What really impressed me upon watching the movie was the true-to-life and realistic use of light. The direction really emphasizes the ‘darkness’. 

Rather than consciously deploying it for Gundam, many of the works I’ve been involved in before make use of dark scene compositions, so it’s more of a continuation of that. However, this time I thought it might have been bad to emphasize it too much, but following the opinion of mechanical designer (Nobuhiko) Genma-san, we made it darker. I was worried it was a bit too dark, but when I checked it out at the theater, contrary to what I thought I didn’t find it that hard to see, so I was relieved. This may have in part been due to the fact that it was produced to Dolby Cinema™ standards. 

— And it also looked clearer in some scenes. 

The darker parts are a bit brighter, or rather the range is wider. But I think we could still have improved the accuracy a bit.

— The three-dimensional visual direction of the battle scenes is a benefit of using 3DCG? 

Although CG was used, the actual visible elements in the footage were made with analog methods. I believe the parts that look three-dimensional largely look so due to the camerawork that we tried to keep as dynamic as possible, as opposed to fixed and static angles. This doesn’t mean the camera is just rotating around in CG though. We did of course make use of CG models in the process, and we used 3D guides for the background, so I believe there is definitely some synergy in terms of the sense of speed and the perception of depth. 

— The characters are also staged in a very subtle and careful way. Perhaps this is also part of the typical pace of “adapting a novel into a movie” you talked about earlier. 

For me, it’s easier this way. I had in mind the very different pace at which TV shows are produced; the speed at with Tomino-san usually creates animation is so fast that it just flies by.

— It really is quick.

Instead, we adapted the carefully detailed depictions that only novels can provide.

~ This version of Gigi was created by Ueda-san’s performance. ~

— The very expressive Gigi Andalucia performance by Ueda Reina-san was also one of a kind.

Gigi is a girl that’s quite hard to understand even when reading the novel. Anyways, I really didn’t want to depict her as an unpleasant one. I wanted her to be that kind of girl that says unpleasant things but since she’s cute you end up forgiving her (laughs). So, if her design too wasn’t incredibly beautiful, it wouldn’t have worked. I’m really glad Pablo Uchida-kun was the one working on that. He’s also designed many costumes for her, and I believe that’s something beyond the scope of what a usual animator could create with just their own sense and intuition.

— I see. 

Still, if I’m being honest, there were parts _{[of Gigi’s character]} that I didn’t figure out until I heard Ueda-san’s voice. Actually, the type of voice I had in mind for Gigi was completely different to begin with. 

— Is that so?

I thought her voice would sound slightly more cool, but during the auditions, Ueda-san’s acting was different from everyone else’s, and something inside me clicked. That’s when the image for Gigi’s character came into view. Her _{[= Ueda’s]} sense of rhythm when acting created a version of Gigi that’s in some ways different from the novel’s.

~ The visuals are retro, but the sound was made in quite a modern way. ~

— With the introduction of Dolby Atmos audio, the sound department has also been renewed this time. The sound director is (Koji) Kasamatsu-san, right?

Kasamatsu-san was in charge of the sound effects for “∀ Gundam” and also had connection with this movie’s producer (Naohiro) Ogata, so he was appointed as the sound director.

— Including the sound of the beams, several changes were made this time.

I discussed with Kasamatsu-san on how there wasn’t really a necessity to remake every single sound effect. There already is a sound that’s typical of Gundam, and swapping it out for something completely different would be wrong. As a result, he was able to create new sounds while still respecting the identity of the past Gundam series, which I’m truly grateful for.

— How was it decided to implement the support for Dolby Atmos audio?

It was decided during production, and Kasamatsu-san too definitely wanted to do it if possible. Up until now I’ve been making things with support for standards like 5.1 surround, so I too am particular about the spatiality of sounds, the sense of ambience and things like that. Kasamatsu-san handled that aspect perfectly this time. In theaters that support Dolby Atmos audio, the sound can also come directly from above, so after watching the premiere, I had a talk with Watanabe Shinichiro-san, who helped with the storyboard, about how we’d like to use this effect again when directing for future productions. 

— The soundtrack is composed by Sawano Hiroyuki-san. Was there anything you particularly asked for in regard to the soundtrack? 

Sawano-san’s melodies are quite impactful, aren’t they? However, for this work my request was to slightly hold back in that regard. I consulted with Kasamatsu-san about how and where in the story to use the soundtrack that was submitted. There were actually more tracks with vocals other than the two that were used in the final product, but considering the overall balance, we asked for some adjustments such as removing the vocals. 

— What are your impressions of Sawano-san’s soundtrack?

Watching through the movie, it’s noticeable how some common phrases are cleverly used throughout multiple tracks, and I think the overall balance is really good. 

— I heard that Sawano-san himself wanted to create a soundtrack in line with the current trends.

That’s right. The things we did for the visuals of Hathaway’s Flash are retro, or rather, analog, but the sound, including sound effects and the soundtrack, was made in quite a modern way.

— Having now completed Episode 1, do you have a clear direction for Episodes 2 and 3?

I believe there still are some improvements in terms of production organization that we must address. Apparently, producer Ogata-san has also something to say, and it seems that Tomino-san got to know about it too. 

— I see.

I’ve heard several different reactions (laughs)… but I think the overall structure as it stands now will be fine.