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Layzner OUT 1986 Article TL
Dec. 20th, 2023 07:20 pmSlowly but surely I'll get all the Layzner interviews and articles translated over the years, I promise it. :-) We're starting off with OUT Magazine's July 1986 interview with Ryosuke Takahashi on what makes Layzner special from his other works.
[ORIGINAL ARTICLE, i apologize for the poor photos but here it is. OUT volume 9, '86.]
[translation]
Takahashi Ryousuke - Why Layzner now?
Eiji is a near-miracle who was born the way he was meant to be born.
After finishing the TV series, Mr. Takahashi is busy working on the video version of Layzner.
"Episode 38 is considered by some to be a trailer for the video, but that is not true (laughs). For now, I want to complete the story that ended in a half-baked way here," says Takahashi, so we took time out of his work schedule to interview him again. Now the true nature of Layzner is revealed.
"Politics" portrayed as a reality from which we cannot escape
● First of all, I would like to ask you about the position of Layzner among the works you have made so far.
Takahashi: In the vein of Dougram, Votoms, and Galient, Layzner has not changed that much from my point of view.
The one thing that has changed is the planning. In the case of Dougram, the project had already been decided to some extent within Sunrise, and the design of the robot was also decided.
The fact that the robot was already decided was as important to me as the story itself, and it was as if about 50% of it was decided.
So, working on the stage that Sunrise had provided for me was the starting point for my robot work.
For Votoms, I started with the design of this kind of trend from Ookawara (Kunio) and the rest, and I created the story by myself, but for Dougram, I co-wrote the story with Hoshiyama (Hiroyuki).
So I was the director and author of the story, but Kanda (Takeyuki) became the director in the middle of the project, and Dougram was his first robot work as a director.
In a sense, Votoms was the crystallization of what we had developed in Dougram and what we had not been able to do. In the meantime, the sponsor's situation changed, and Sunrise's voluntary control over the robot design of Galient shifted a little.
Votoms was perfectly presented by us to the outside world, but with Galient, they asked us to do it this way, and to a certain extent, they set up restrictions.
Still, as for the planning, the company (Sunrise) and I worked together, but with Layzner, the planning and basic setting was done in the Sunrise planning office, and they asked me to make the content in this direction.
In contrast to Votoms, which had the fewest restrictions, Layzner was an original work and director work under these more restrictive conditions, and I did my own work or creation within that context.
● In terms of the semantic content of the works, what is the relationship from Dougram to Layzner to each other?
I think one of the characteristics of Takahashi works is the element of politics.
Takahashi: The idea of intertwining a situation of competing forces in the near future with the conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was part of Layzner's planning, so I just used it as a straightforward way of involving politics in the story. However, I do have personal concerns of politics.
In Layzner, I don't depict politics and the feelings of boys and girls as going hand in hand or, on the contrary, as hopeless, but I think I am more lenient in that area than in Votoms. Chirico lives a life that has nothing to do with politics, and if he has no expectations, it's like a storm or an earthquake: he just has to figure out how to get through it. It's a very cold relationship of "why should I care?"
In the case of Layzner, they are involved in politics, and the protagonists believe that to some extent they are creating their own environment, so they are not saying that they are not responsible for it.
And Dougram made it more assertive: if a 15-year-old boy feels the political situation, he has to be physically active, and Crinn Cashim moves, and he is complicit, and then worries about it again.
Votoms is more like a fantasy where you ignore that kind of thing, and Galient is taking that route to some extent. So with Layzner, I tried to bring it back because it is a reality that you can't escape from.
Whether it's the relationships around you or social situations, it's impossible not to relate to something as long as you live in it in real life.
Becoming an adult means that you are a child born into a society, and now you are going to create that society.
For David and his friends, they participated in the Mars Experience School, got involved in an incident, and three years later, they are now old enough to be directly involved in society. I think that having that kind of involvement that cannot be withdrawn is growth, and it is one step toward dirtiness, taking on more and more contradictions.
But I think that our life itself is an accumulation of creating such inextricable relationships.
Eiji's father's parents were German and Japanese
● Regarding Eiji, the character at the center of the story, where does the reason for his being the main character come from?
Takahashi: Eiji was set up in the planning from the beginning as a mixture of an Earthling and Gradosian.
At the end of World War II, German rocket engineers were taken to the U.S. and the Soviet Union, right?
Eiji's father Ken, who was of mixed Japanese and American descent, was abducted by Gradosians on the moon before the first Apollo mission, and his mixed Japanese-German father gave birth to a child of mixed Gradosian and Earthling descent this time. So, what kind of life would this protagonist lead? That was my way of participating. If someone else had done it, I think they could have created a character who was energetic and determined to protect the people of the earth, but in my case, I wondered why he was mixed-race and what position I should put him in.
I thought about the whole story and decided that Eiji was there as a practical allegory to connect Grados and the Earth.
Therefore, he strives to prevent the two from fighting. When they still fight, he takes the side of the weak so that they do not die out. And when the situation is reversed, he has to take the other's side even though they have been the strong one and the other has been the weak one. Being of mixed blood, he is always in the middle, in the midst of both sides, and in a position to consider both sides.
Such an existence is almost a miracle. But there are times when things act out in reality by something close to a great coincidence.
For example, the Wright brothers were born with the ability to make airplanes at a time when the technology to do so was available. In this sense, I am presenting Eiji as a man who was born by chance.
● In addition to this structural outline of Earthlings vs. Gradosians, I think that the outline of children vs. adults, which is also intertwined with what you mentioned earlier, was also strongly emphasized in Layzner.
Takahashi: At the end of part 1 with episode 24, the screen goes white and it's over, but even internally, I was told there was no suggestiveness (laughs). But for me, the message is dangerous there, so I kept it as quick as possible. Personally, I did not want to get too involved in that area.
I mean that when a nation or a group of nations make an event with a certain will, the biggest event is a war. Then, on the verge of losing control of the battle, they always turn to young people.
As a matter of fact, even in World War II, there was a suicide squad, and they would tell the members that their young, pure hearts could possibly be the driving force behind the final national salvation suicide torpedo. How could that be? Even those who go on suicide missions know that's pretty much what they're doing, but they can't say they don't want to go, and they can't run away from it. At the end of part 1, a situation that has been created by adults is destroyed in the same way. And when it breaks down, they ask a young person to help them. It is a desperate request, but the young people go.
It is extremely vain to say that it would be better to oppose them. This is after the important things have already been taken care of. That's why I didn't want to go too far into that area.
My original idea for Layzner was to have 52 episodes in which the children do not return to earth, and the story ends when they do, but the main writer and co-creator Itou (Tsunehisa) wanted them to return to Earth after about the fifth episode and fight to protect it. There was a big discrepancy there, so there was a battle between the creator and the creator (laughs). That's how it ended after 24 episodes.
That is why I thought that if the children returned to Earth and the adults' world remained the same, the children would have no more opportunities to participate in the story. I felt that it would be difficult to create the story after that.
That is why I thought that part 2 would not continue unless the Earth side of the system was destroyed in such a way (laughs).
● To say "appeal" would be an exaggeration, but what is it that you wanted people watching through Layzner to feel? As a final note (laughs).
Takahashi: I would like people not to underestimate the importance of human contact. Basically, we are trying to value human beings, but even if it is someone else's pain that you don't feel, you can use your imagination to compensate for it and make it your own. I want people to use their imagination in that good sense and make their relationships with others more intense. That is why Layzner's theme is communication.
(Recorded on July 2)
Special thanks to WindiiGitlord on twitter (and Niko) for this wouldn't have happened without the both of them. Check out Windii's profile for any JPN translation commission requests, I highly recommend her service.
[ORIGINAL ARTICLE, i apologize for the poor photos but here it is. OUT volume 9, '86.]
[translation]
Takahashi Ryousuke - Why Layzner now?
Eiji is a near-miracle who was born the way he was meant to be born.
After finishing the TV series, Mr. Takahashi is busy working on the video version of Layzner.
"Episode 38 is considered by some to be a trailer for the video, but that is not true (laughs). For now, I want to complete the story that ended in a half-baked way here," says Takahashi, so we took time out of his work schedule to interview him again. Now the true nature of Layzner is revealed.
"Politics" portrayed as a reality from which we cannot escape
● First of all, I would like to ask you about the position of Layzner among the works you have made so far.
Takahashi: In the vein of Dougram, Votoms, and Galient, Layzner has not changed that much from my point of view.
The one thing that has changed is the planning. In the case of Dougram, the project had already been decided to some extent within Sunrise, and the design of the robot was also decided.
The fact that the robot was already decided was as important to me as the story itself, and it was as if about 50% of it was decided.
So, working on the stage that Sunrise had provided for me was the starting point for my robot work.
For Votoms, I started with the design of this kind of trend from Ookawara (Kunio) and the rest, and I created the story by myself, but for Dougram, I co-wrote the story with Hoshiyama (Hiroyuki).
So I was the director and author of the story, but Kanda (Takeyuki) became the director in the middle of the project, and Dougram was his first robot work as a director.
In a sense, Votoms was the crystallization of what we had developed in Dougram and what we had not been able to do. In the meantime, the sponsor's situation changed, and Sunrise's voluntary control over the robot design of Galient shifted a little.
Votoms was perfectly presented by us to the outside world, but with Galient, they asked us to do it this way, and to a certain extent, they set up restrictions.
Still, as for the planning, the company (Sunrise) and I worked together, but with Layzner, the planning and basic setting was done in the Sunrise planning office, and they asked me to make the content in this direction.
In contrast to Votoms, which had the fewest restrictions, Layzner was an original work and director work under these more restrictive conditions, and I did my own work or creation within that context.
● In terms of the semantic content of the works, what is the relationship from Dougram to Layzner to each other?
I think one of the characteristics of Takahashi works is the element of politics.
Takahashi: The idea of intertwining a situation of competing forces in the near future with the conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was part of Layzner's planning, so I just used it as a straightforward way of involving politics in the story. However, I do have personal concerns of politics.
In Layzner, I don't depict politics and the feelings of boys and girls as going hand in hand or, on the contrary, as hopeless, but I think I am more lenient in that area than in Votoms. Chirico lives a life that has nothing to do with politics, and if he has no expectations, it's like a storm or an earthquake: he just has to figure out how to get through it. It's a very cold relationship of "why should I care?"
In the case of Layzner, they are involved in politics, and the protagonists believe that to some extent they are creating their own environment, so they are not saying that they are not responsible for it.
And Dougram made it more assertive: if a 15-year-old boy feels the political situation, he has to be physically active, and Crinn Cashim moves, and he is complicit, and then worries about it again.
Votoms is more like a fantasy where you ignore that kind of thing, and Galient is taking that route to some extent. So with Layzner, I tried to bring it back because it is a reality that you can't escape from.
Whether it's the relationships around you or social situations, it's impossible not to relate to something as long as you live in it in real life.
Becoming an adult means that you are a child born into a society, and now you are going to create that society.
For David and his friends, they participated in the Mars Experience School, got involved in an incident, and three years later, they are now old enough to be directly involved in society. I think that having that kind of involvement that cannot be withdrawn is growth, and it is one step toward dirtiness, taking on more and more contradictions.
But I think that our life itself is an accumulation of creating such inextricable relationships.
Eiji's father's parents were German and Japanese
● Regarding Eiji, the character at the center of the story, where does the reason for his being the main character come from?
Takahashi: Eiji was set up in the planning from the beginning as a mixture of an Earthling and Gradosian.
At the end of World War II, German rocket engineers were taken to the U.S. and the Soviet Union, right?
Eiji's father Ken, who was of mixed Japanese and American descent, was abducted by Gradosians on the moon before the first Apollo mission, and his mixed Japanese-German father gave birth to a child of mixed Gradosian and Earthling descent this time. So, what kind of life would this protagonist lead? That was my way of participating. If someone else had done it, I think they could have created a character who was energetic and determined to protect the people of the earth, but in my case, I wondered why he was mixed-race and what position I should put him in.
I thought about the whole story and decided that Eiji was there as a practical allegory to connect Grados and the Earth.
Therefore, he strives to prevent the two from fighting. When they still fight, he takes the side of the weak so that they do not die out. And when the situation is reversed, he has to take the other's side even though they have been the strong one and the other has been the weak one. Being of mixed blood, he is always in the middle, in the midst of both sides, and in a position to consider both sides.
Such an existence is almost a miracle. But there are times when things act out in reality by something close to a great coincidence.
For example, the Wright brothers were born with the ability to make airplanes at a time when the technology to do so was available. In this sense, I am presenting Eiji as a man who was born by chance.
● In addition to this structural outline of Earthlings vs. Gradosians, I think that the outline of children vs. adults, which is also intertwined with what you mentioned earlier, was also strongly emphasized in Layzner.
Takahashi: At the end of part 1 with episode 24, the screen goes white and it's over, but even internally, I was told there was no suggestiveness (laughs). But for me, the message is dangerous there, so I kept it as quick as possible. Personally, I did not want to get too involved in that area.
I mean that when a nation or a group of nations make an event with a certain will, the biggest event is a war. Then, on the verge of losing control of the battle, they always turn to young people.
As a matter of fact, even in World War II, there was a suicide squad, and they would tell the members that their young, pure hearts could possibly be the driving force behind the final national salvation suicide torpedo. How could that be? Even those who go on suicide missions know that's pretty much what they're doing, but they can't say they don't want to go, and they can't run away from it. At the end of part 1, a situation that has been created by adults is destroyed in the same way. And when it breaks down, they ask a young person to help them. It is a desperate request, but the young people go.
It is extremely vain to say that it would be better to oppose them. This is after the important things have already been taken care of. That's why I didn't want to go too far into that area.
My original idea for Layzner was to have 52 episodes in which the children do not return to earth, and the story ends when they do, but the main writer and co-creator Itou (Tsunehisa) wanted them to return to Earth after about the fifth episode and fight to protect it. There was a big discrepancy there, so there was a battle between the creator and the creator (laughs). That's how it ended after 24 episodes.
That is why I thought that if the children returned to Earth and the adults' world remained the same, the children would have no more opportunities to participate in the story. I felt that it would be difficult to create the story after that.
That is why I thought that part 2 would not continue unless the Earth side of the system was destroyed in such a way (laughs).
● To say "appeal" would be an exaggeration, but what is it that you wanted people watching through Layzner to feel? As a final note (laughs).
Takahashi: I would like people not to underestimate the importance of human contact. Basically, we are trying to value human beings, but even if it is someone else's pain that you don't feel, you can use your imagination to compensate for it and make it your own. I want people to use their imagination in that good sense and make their relationships with others more intense. That is why Layzner's theme is communication.
(Recorded on July 2)
Special thanks to WindiiGitlord on twitter (and Niko) for this wouldn't have happened without the both of them. Check out Windii's profile for any JPN translation commission requests, I highly recommend her service.
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