

From left to right: Eiji Nakada, Yuriko Chiba, Gorou Taniguchi, Koujirou Taniguchi

Koujirou Taniguchi

Gorou Taniguchi

Koujirou Taniguchi

Gorou Taniguchi

Yuriko Chiba

Eiji Nakada

Koujirou Taniguchi

Gorou Taniguchi

Koujirou Taniguchi

Gorou Taniguchi

Gorou Taniguchi

Koujirou Taniguchi

Gorou Taniguchi

Koujirou Taniguchi

Gorou Taniguchi

Eiji Nakada

Gorou Taniguchi

Eiji Nakada

Gorou Taniguchi

Eiji Nakada

Gorou Taniguchi

Gorou Taniguchi

Yuriko Chiba

Eiji Nakada



The interviewees send their regards to MyAnimeList

Koujirou Taniguchi

After its first episode aired in October 2006, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion went on to capture the hearts and minds of millions of fans around the world. Even now, over ten years after they finished airing, the two seasons of's original saga rank as the 11th and 25th most popular anime on MyAnimeList, respectively.In late 2016, Sunrise announced thatwould be getting four new movies , including one with a completely original story, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Resurrection . The movie premiered in Japan on February 9 and will be showing in the U.S. on the 5th, 7th, and 8th of May.Four members of's production team were at this year's Sakura-con in Seattle to present a special early screening of. During this convention, MyAnimeList had the great honor of interviewing director Gorou Taniguchi , lead animators Yuriko Chiba and Eiji Nakada , and producer Koujirou Taniguchi.: When the TV series ends, we don't know for sure whether the protagonist, Lelouch, is alive or dead. In Japan, the fans more or less came to the conclusion that Lelouch was surely dead... And so now, ten years later, we're "resurrecting" Lelouch.: To add, we wanted to make it unclear in the TV series whether Lelouch was alive or dead, to have it be a point of intrigue for our audience. We tried to leave it very vague, but people eventually decided that Lelouch was definitely dead. That wasn't our intention, so we had to come back and clarify.: We all hope thatwill continue. How many more episodes remain in the story will be up to the fans.: The images and vision of the characters held by fans – and even the original staff – have developed a lot in the ten years since the original work, growing and diverging in many different directions. We had to bring all of those together and unify them again.: The fans had been taking Lelouch in more of a "manga-like" direction, so I wanted to show Lelouch in a more realistic way without destroying their image or dream of Lelouch.: For the TV series, I drew all of the mecha by hand. However, it was decided for this movie that we would mix 3D computer-generated animation and hand-drawn animation. And so, when we had these two styles appearing in the same scene or even the same frame, we had to work hard to make it look right, to make it look good. We wanted to ensure that having them coexist in the same frame didn't look odd. That was the hardest thing.: In the Japanese anime industry, there are currently about 100 episodes produced per week. Because of that large amount of content, what's popular is constantly changing. As a result, continuing to maintain's popularity over a period of ten years is really a challenge. Marketing this new episode of thelegacy was a real challenge, in everything from promotion, advertising, etc. What made this even harder was the fact that the protagonist was "dead," so… we couldn't even use the most popular character, the protagonist, in early promotional material.: In the ten years since the original series, anime fans in Japan have changed in the sense that they no longer watch this kind of work in the same way. We concluded that a TV series would not have been the right way to approach those fans. Of course, there are many anime fans around the world that do like that kind of work, that kind of format. So if we were going to take a TV series approach, then maybe a format like Netflix would have been a possibility. But this time, we wanted to make sure that Japanese anime fans would see it, so we chose a movie format.: That's still a secret.: We judged that the remaining motivation (Euphemia's fate, for example) was sufficient for this set of movies. And with the character Shirley, specifically... the more we portray Shirley, the more it becomes the story of Lelouch and Shirley. And that's more the direction that we wanted to take it now with this story. We created this film with the vision that Shirley represents peace and normality.: Yes, that actually is the case. The TV anime series is the TV anime series, and the movies are the movies. They are best thought of as different works. We actually did the same thing with the Gundam movies. The anime had already existed, and when we made the movies, we also changed bits of the story in it. It's kind of a similar philosophy here.: No, not really. (Laughs.): However, we've actually done a stage version ofin the past. So if we were to get asked about whether or not we'd be up for making a live-action movie, we might be able to think about it.: Yes, exactly like with Gundam – if we got an offer from, say, Legendary, we would go ahead and say "Yeah, let's do it.": In the end, we chose the people who we believed would do the best work for the given content. Obviously, we know each other very well, and I know I can trust them. That's why we end up working on a lot of projects together. From my standpoint, forthis time, I kind of took the staff I had worked with in Gun x Sword, as well as the staff I worked with in Eureka Seven, and combined them to work together on this project.Actually... I have a question for anyone who has seen Junketsu no Maria. We tried our best to depict cool and realistic-looking medieval combat. Did we succeed at all?: Thank you!: I'm very happy to hear that. And yes, Nakada-san was the one in charge of that aspect.: I actually studied Western swordplay during the process.: If it's Chiba-san and Nakada-san, working together on a Kung-fu anime… What would probably happen is that Nakada-san would literally go to a Kung-fu dojo and start learning, while Chiba-san would draw as she watched.: Yes, and even in– when there are scenes where some of the characters are fighting or tussling with each other, I actually go and play both parts, of the person who's doing the fighting and the person who's getting hit. That way, I can get a feel for what it might actually look like. And of course, Chiba-san is drawing and taking notes all the while.: The title for the last episode of the R2 series had a subtitle – it was RE and a semicolon. What we wanted to go for was to create the feeling that this movie is building off of that in a way, where the character, world, and story are going to continue. That's the message we tried to include in there. Of course, this movie isn't a strict continuation of R2, but it's a story within the same world.: It was about 50% "Oh, great!" and 50% "Oh wow, this is going to be really tough." Specifically, "tough" is referring to the fact that this story has existed for a long time. It's been over ten years since it was first presented. Fans of the originalhave a lot of really strong feelings about how things are or how things should go, so we needed to do our best to try and understand that and give people the sort of experience that they can enjoy after being fans for so long.: When I was told that we were making a movie, and was asked to "Please work on this movie with us," I thought it was a great honor. I was very happy to be asked to do that, so it was a joyful feeling for me.: I had a similar feeling as Taniguchi-san. I thought "Oh, this is going to be a hard project." Especially in my position, where I would have to come up with new designs that the existing fans would enjoy. I'm also a fan of. I'm making it, but I also really enjoy the world, the story. So I have to kind of struggle with how I personally want to do things and the fact that I have to do things in such a way that the fans would appreciate. I have to think of things that I would personally like to see in theworld, but that the fans would also enjoy – things that would get the best response. That was really tough for me, but it was also really awesome to hear that I would get to work onagain, after the end of the TV series. So it was tough – but it was also a great and fun experience.is coming out in America on the 5th, 7th, and 8th of May. We hope that everyone will enjoy the film, and perhaps take this as an opportunity to re-experience the original TV series. Please also think about what you would like to see in theworld from here on out!