Re:CREATORS Guidebook pg. 140-143, Hiroe Rei interview

Hiroe Rei interview



Hiroe Rei, who authored the original work behind the original TV animation, and drafted the characters.

Takasaki Toru, who participated in the writing of the screenplay, and an old friend, interviews about the difficulties faced and the situation during the initial days of the project.

–After finishing the project, how are you feeling now?

Hiroe Rei-san (hereafter referred to as Hiroe): The feeling of being relieved of a huge load, that’s the biggest feeling. I was really relieved. Although I did all I could, I feel that it might have been a bit more interesting if it had been linked to the outcome more.

–When working on the animation, among all the changes made, which part is your favourite?

Hiroe: In episode #10, the excitement of Selesia’s revival in episode, the flashy action when the characters gathered, those were not in the original work. Adding the ending in episode #22 was great. Both were the work of director Aoki, I think that the TV anime series would have failed without those, and the ending would not have been clean. If I think about it now, if I had had time to negotiate with the director earlier, discussed things more, or even come up with something like a better third choice, I wonder if it might have been better. Or maybe there was nothing more we could do.

–When making the anime, things like ‘this definitely can’t be changed’, 'if this changed it’ll become a completely different work’, do you think there were any?

Hiroe: For example, I wanted Sota-kun’s character design to be a normal boy, if things like this were changed then the fundamental concept would change, I didn’t want to change this even if it was risky. However, director Aoki took my opinions into account, so I’m very grateful. Other than Sota, the viewpoints of the creators that I had drawn, there were many ways in which it would have been painful for them to be changed, but this did not happen at all.

–How many years did it take to complete the original text, were there places that had to be changed a lot from the first draft to the final text, please tell us.

Hiroe: There were no major changes to the concept. There wasn’t anything that was too far removed from what I had imagined either. Some trivial episodes were cut, but the final conclusion between Setsuna and Altair was planned from the start.

–Characters like Meteora and Selesia seem to have been planned since the beginning, but how were the other characters designed?

Hiroe: For example, Magane and Hikayu were not requirements of the story, but characters that came out of feelings like 'if you put in these strange characters into this scenario, won’t the story be more interesting?’. They were not made from the assumption that we wanted the story to go somewhere. On the other hand, Kanoya was made from a template. Like 'if this character has a giant robot, he’ll give off this feel’. The delinquent Mirokuji, the knight Alicetaria, the magical girl Mamika too. Like 'if we have these genres of works, they have to have these kinds of characters’.

–Which character was easiest to draw, which one was most natural to draw?

Hiroe: Magane was the easiest to draw, really. She somehow rambles on, I don’t mean that she talks in a rough way, but that she talks on her own wavelength.

–On the contrary, which character was most difficult?

Hiroe: Meteora talks using difficult words, so we needed some ingenuity, there were many times when we had to stop writing. Because her way of speaking is unique, the designation wasn’t stable, and this was pointed out by the direction during the script reading. Alicetaria and Mirokuji were difficult too. There are places where they have been overwhelmed by the development of the story rather than their actual characters, I thought that it was rather sad. There were places that they were inserted just to move the plot forwards. Speaking of when Alicetaria was still in Altair’s camp, for example, if she had a job, the character would be more interesting and people would like her more. It made the scene with Mamika and curry more impactful. I digress, but compared to Meteora’s camp which had many scenes of eating together enthusiastically, Altair’s side had lots of lonely meals. I wanted to put in an extra scene where everyone went to a pub. But that was a problem of scale. If it had had 3 courses, it might have been put in. (laughs)

–(laughs) So for Mamika, I thought that it was part of the story’s natural flow for her to die, but if you were to explore a way for her to survive, what would it be like?

Hiroe: Thinking about it simply, it started from her becoming an ally of the Meteora faction. But when that happened, the extent to which things like Altair’s feelings in episode 08 were expressed, and Mamika’s death, made the most visible impact in changing the feelings of the Created. So if Mamika fell asleep, it may be more acceptable for the people watching, but I think it will dilute something about the scene. The shocking factor of the death of she who had finally changed, I think it was the right thing to do for the story.

–Mamika’s death has meaning because she preached peace, is it something like that?

Hiroe: With regard to Mamika’s story, it’s easy to say that peace is important, but it’s useless to just say it, and while defending the peace is the right thing to do, before demonstrating the correctness of it, it’s impossible to demonstrate the tremendous risks and beliefs and preparedness needed.

–About the flow of the story, I felt that there was not much development when Meteora and Selesia were living in Sota’s room, did it become a form to live in Marine’s house from the reality line? (TL’s note: I’m not sure what this question was supposed to mean, but the answer makes more sense.)

Hiroe: That’s right. That was completely a question of the reality line. If they stayed there, there would be the question of what to tell his parents. In that case it would have been better to use the pattern of his parents going overseas on a business trip from the very start. In that case, I think that the story [Re:CREATORS] would take a somewhat different direction. Then I would have to rewrite with the concept of a different place to stay.

–The main character is Sota, who do you think is the heroine, if not Altair?

Hiroe: My conclusion is that, it seems to be Meteora. After all, from beginning to end, while all the characters were led around, Meteora was always beside the main character. I think that Meteora is pretty bubbly. Furthermore, Meteora always seems to be comforting Sota (laughs). If Meteora were not around, I think Sota would not be able to do anything. Whether it was good or bad for Sota’s capabilities, I think Meteora was the one leading him. In that sense, Meteora is the heroine. Though it’s misleading that Selesia was brought in at the beginning of the story.

–There was a rumour that even among the staff, Sota was a character that was hard to deal with. At the end of the work [Re:CREATORS], Sota had done almost nothing. Hiroe-san answered 'such things’ in other interviews, is this something like a view of life?

Hiroe: Instead of a view of life, somehow, Sota was designed to be a normal boy, so he had to be the same as any person in reality, to me, I wanted viewers to see themselves in Sota. Like the viewers, Sota can’t do anything, but perhaps, it’s just the current him that can’t do anything. I wanted to show a picture of Sota taking something like the first step towards achieving something. That’s why, we stuck to keeping Sota ordinary.

–Previously, you mentioned that you wanted to make a story that would leave a lasting wound on the reader’s heart, did Selesia’s death extend from that?

Hiroe: It’s true that I had such a wish. However, Selesia’s death was a requirement for the plot. Either way, the relationship between Sota and Setsuna, I wanted to give that to the viewers. That was what I was paying most attention to.

–I heard that when customers are not sure whether a development is one that they like or one that they hate, there are many cases where they choose the latter, was this a concern in [Re:CREATORS]?

Hiroe: I tried not to do that as much as possible, but I feel like I ended up saying that a lot (laughs). Since I chose a medium that many people can view, I thought I would make it such that more people would like the developments, but anyway something had to happen between Sota and Setsuna, so I thought I’d make a story that people would not hate. If there weren’t things like Setsuna’s death, I think the story would have been more light-hearted. In that case, it would really just end with participating in the making of the anime, and it would be meaningless to have it remain in anyone’s heart.

–Different types of robots like Vogel Chevalier and Gigas Machina appeared, but are you particular about the robot types?

Hiroe: I didn’t really pay particular attention to the robots (laughs bitterly). The robots were left to the director. Sorry for delegating it all to you (laughs). I-IV also did his best to make cool designs so even now I think it would be nice to make figurines of those. If there are makers anywhere, please do!

–(laughs). To become a figurine, Gigas Machina might have to play a larger role?

Hiroe: That’s the thing. Maybe if there were such a scene I could have made Gigas Machina a bit more flashy. If we wanted Gigas Machina to play a larger role, maybe the robot could have materialized on the side of Altair’s faction earlier? Though I still don’t have a solution, the narrative of [Re:CREATORS] is dragged down by the big premise that people cannot find out (about the big robots). Because of this, we can’t have big fights involving the robots. For example, if there was a fight with the US military, it could be a big fight, but this time when everyone recognizes the robots, it’s hard to maintain the setting that 'the world will collapse’. This is actually a setting that is really hard to balance.

–Because the original work became an anime, is there anything that has to be changed in the manga adaptation?

If another anime were made, a lot of things would have to be changed, but I do not think the manga would be changed significantly. I’m not writing a new manga, though. After [Re:CREATORS], when I draw another manga or what will happen, I don’t know until I actually do it.

–Working with Director Aoki, did it have any influence on you?

Hiroe: The director did his job perfectly. From the composition of the story to the management of the schedule. It was wonderful. It was really good from the creation of the work to the production, maybe it was the way he led every time. I want to learn many things from him (laughs).

–You said that you won’t be drawing the main manga adaptation, do you think you’d like to make something like a spin-off?

Hiroe: If I did, it wouldn’t be about any particular character, but I would like to do an intermission for [Re:CREATORS]. Like Aliceteria’s part time job that we talked about earlier, it’s not really a gag, but between this episode and the next, I want to draw a story that was not captured on camera. Like conversations between characters who didn’t have much contact, such as Mirokuji and Selesia. When writing the original work, I was concentrating just on drama, so I didn’t have room for such things. It was not that I didn’t want to put them in. For example, when writing the original, if you had told me to increase the skin tone more, I would probably have increased it normally (laughs). (TL’s note: skin tone… wha??)

– Do you want to draw the sequel?

Hiroe: What should I do for the sequel? It finished pretty nicely. If there were a sequel, I think I would have to have Altair come out again. Maybe Altair would come out as an ally this time? Maybe there would be another Creator with another work, something like that. If I were to do the next one, it might also be good to research different occupations. Occupations that I didn’t include this time. After all, this is the story of a creator, so it can’t do without the theme of 'creation’.

–If you had another opportunity to work on an anime original work in the future, would you do it again?

Hiroe: I’d do it. Personally, I think there are ways to do it better. Instead of thinking 'I did a good job’, my personality is the type to think 'why couldn’t I do it better’ and regret it. That’s tough (laughs).



TL’s commentary: it took a while, but I finally finished the translation… ^w^ Hiroe Rei is amazing, both in terms of his achievements as a mangaka and his attitude. Here’s to hoping for more anime from him! - Hyaka