Home Conventions & Cosplay Connichi 2010: GAINAX / Dantalian no Shoka Panel

Connichi 2010: GAINAX / Dantalian no Shoka Panel

by TMSIDR

Diesen Eintrag habe ich nur auf englisch verfasst, da JimmPantsu be sich ja das gleiche in grün bei sich auf dt. hat^^;.

JimmPantsu wrote a German post about the panel and I now deliver the English „version“. Both our articles are based on the recording I did with my mobile so the contents are quite similar. I also took the stuff he wrote as reference and some parts are even 1:1 translations^^. However I added some stuff and wrote sometimes my own interpretation.  I will use his photos because my camera isn’t supposed to be used in rooms with „bad“ lightening^^;.

Participants: Hiroyuki Yamada (Producer, acting president,director at GAINAX), Gakuto Mikumo (Original creator of Dantalian no Shoka, Asura Cryin‘), Yutaka Uemura (director of Dantalian no Shoka, also worked on Gurren Lagann), Noir (works at GAINAX for market research) and Kumiko Uehara (fashion designer at „BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT“, designs costumes for Dantalian no Shoka).

The panel started with a Panty & Stocking Trailer. It’s the one that was released on the web a couple of days earlier. The translator mentioned immediately that the guests of this panel don’t know much about this series.

Hiroyuki Yamada confirmed this and mentioned that it wasn’t possible to bring over the team behind P&S because they are busy with the production. However he was very pleased that he could bring over the author of the Light Novels of the other project that GAINAX is working on.

Dantalian no Shoka will be shown next summer (Summer 2011) so that the responsible people still had enough time for a short trip to Germany.

Gakuto Mikumo then did a short introduction into the world of the Dantalian no Shoka anime. He showed us some designs of the characters and mentions as genre “horror fantasy”.

Here are the main characters Hugh Anthony Disward and Dalian. The name of the series comes from the demon Dantalian who rules knowledge and literature and his library which contains forbidden writings filled with demonic energy. His books have to be controlled, but it it is possible to get one of these, but each of them has a return date. By the way, the demon won’t appear itself in the series and is more like the central theme.

Hugh’s grandfather knew the location of the library and handed its key to him after his death. When Hugh entered the mansion of his late grandfather, he found Dalian who carries a lock around her neck. This lock is like a gate to another world and when it opened the library can be reached – figuratively speaking the library is in her body. In every episode is book is taken from the library which leads to bad things happening in the world or a book is returned to prevent this. Dalian is some kind of “gate” to another world library and as the key holder he is now responsible for the girl’s safety. The overall setting is England in the 1920s.

Yutaka Uemura then told the audience that he was asked by Yamaga-san to direct the anime. When he read the light novels he thought that this is a horror fantasy that also includes sad and lonely moments. Especially the reasons of the people who read these books to gain something and the their dark sides interested him and he wants to express these backgrounds in the anime series which is not common for this form of entertainment.

Unfortunately, my mobile stopped recording for short time when he mentioned the manga series that is also based on the light novels.

They wanted to do something special for the designs of the clothes so they asked Kumiko Uehera to design them in reality.

This is an early design for the dress of Dalian. At the beginning she wasn’t sure how to do designs for an anime but she was told that she can do it like when she’s working on something for her label. She only had to contain herself from adding too many details like quillings and patterns to make it still possible to animate it without too high costs while maintaining the style of her brand. The director also gave some instructions.

Uehara-san wears the finished dress of Dalian that will appear in the anime. Dalian is also called the “Black Reading princess” so that the costume is very black.

She also shows sketches of clothes for the other characters and mentions another still secret character (I don’t know if she appears in the light novels) and Noir wears her dress:

This girl is also related to the library and is more or less the opposite of Dalian and to emphasize this she wears a white dress. The director really wanted a large bow but these are really hard to produce. He also asked for the wing-like bow on the back and the „flower-hat“. The whole flower motif was important.

In contrast to other animes where existing lolita fashions are often copied, for this anime they wanted to created something new.

Kimuko Uehara also mentioned that she wanted to create something that can be purchased and worn in normal life and wishes that people will wear variants that are maybe more practical or shorter.

The Q&A session then started:

Question: Why does Panty & Stocking look like Power Puff Girls?

Answer (Hiroyuki Yamaga): He isn’t part of the production team but it was intended that it goes in the direction of an Ecchi Power Puff Girls. In the currect state of the anime it probably can’t be broadcasted without beeps and black bars(/mosaics) on Japanese TV [while laughing^^].

Q: How accurately match the character visuals of the anime with the initial intent of the author?

A (Gakuto Mikumo): He was surprised in a positive way. Two manga series were already adapted from the light novel and the illustrations in the light novel are also drawn by another person and all these different versions influenced the anime designs

Q: What does Kumiko Uehara think about the way her brand “BABY, THE STARS SHINES BRIGHT” was shown in the movie „Kamikaze Girls“? Is she surprised about seeing here people wearing the clothes of her label?

A (Kumiko Uehara): Thanks to the movie the brand got initial positive results. She likes the movie very much and she knows that the the label got world wide known beause of the movie. She’s happy that she’s now even able to come to Germany and can now see people here wearing the clothes of her brand.

Q: Hanamaru Kindergarten, Panty&Stocking and Dantalian no Shoka all don’t really look like classical GAINAX shows. Is some kind of new GAINAX in the works in contrast and is this intended?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): Even if GAINAX made in the past some robot shows, in his point view GAINAX was never a mecha studio. They made different series. Perhaps Hanamaru Kindergarten was slightly more different but Dentalian no Shoka is for him very fitting show for GAINAX. The overlaying continuity of all GAINAX shows is to tell stories in the border area between reality and fantasy.

Q in English: There were rumors that the rights of Evangelion went from GAINAX to Hideaki Anno’s studio khara. Furthermore, it is said that this lead to some bad mood between both companies. Can Yamaga-san comment this?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): That’s not true. The rights for the movies are at khara but nothing else changed. They are not fighting each other. A lot of people from GAINAX are working at khara and vice versa.

Q in English: A question about a project Takami Akai mentioned last year at Japan Expo.

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): The project is still in progress, but he can’t say anything about at the moment.

Q: How did GAINAX discover Dantalian no Shoka?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): There were talks between Kadokawa and GAINAX to do an anime project together. Three Kadowaka „franchises“ were put into the shortlist and Danatalian no Shoka was the one that was green-lit for production.

Q: [My Question, first I mentioned that I really liked Hanamaru Kindergarten and that I thought that it was GAINAX-like, I also mentioned that I wish that Dantalian no Shoka will be run as Simulcast in Germany, then I asked my question^^] The „Asura Cryin’“ anime has another ending than in the light novel. How involved was Gakuto Mikumo or did the anime team created it themselves?

A (Gakuto Mikumo): (Laughing) He has access to all scripts of the anime and even the endings are different, he is is ok with it.

Q [JimmPantsu’s Question]: There are some „brutal scenes“ in the light novels. How will they be illustrated in the anime?

A (Yutaka Uemura): There isn’t much brutality allowed in Japanese television but the light novels don’t have many explicit scenes so that it shouldn’t be a problem. They want to emphasize the dramatic scenes.

Q [JimmPantsu’s Question]: In addition to his own light novel creations like Dantalian no Shoka and Asura Cryin’ he also worked on a light novel based on the manga Zettai Karen Children. How did it feel to do a light novel based on a manga?

A (Gakuto Mikumo): He likes its mangaka Takashi Shiina very much. His former editor changed to the publisher of ZTC. Using this „connection“ he was able to do the light novel based and he was very happy tabout this.

Q: There’s a trend in the anime industry to create all-femalse cast and what does he (GAINAX) think as one of the first who did this, eg. in Gunbuster, about this?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): In Dantalian no Shoka the male character Hugh stand in the foreground, so this does not really apply to this series. Furthermore, GAINAX should also be known for its male characters. Normally GAINAX wants to do something different from the things that are established at the moment.

Q (in English): 2009 announced at Fanimecon 3 projects (e.g., an Abenobashi special). Any news?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): Tadashi Hiramatsu is working at khara on the Evangelion movies. There are no resoruces at the moment.

Q: Her labes opened shops in Los Angeles and Paris. Are there any plans for Germany?

A (Kumiko Uehara): There are no plans so far, but she will talk to her boss about this.

Q: How many episodes are planned for Panty & Stocking and Dantalian no Shoka?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): Both 13 episodes. If Dantalian no Shoka is successful, a second second may be possible because there’s enough material in the light novels.

Q: How does he think about the second part of of Evangelion 2.0 because it’s really similar to the mecha battles in Gurren Lagann?

A (Yutaka Uemura): The influence of director Imaishi-san on the design in the Gurren Lagann TV series was quite big but the the mecha designer Yoshinari-san was told to really go wild for the second movie. [Something got lost in the translation or in my transcript].

Q: Why doesn’t he appear in kimono like in the years before?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): It was very hot in Japan, so he didn’t expected that it was „cold“ enough in Germany for a kimono.

That’s all. Unfoertuantely, there was only one panel with GAINAX this year, but three signing sessions….

Participants: Hiroyuki Yamada (Producer, acting president,director at GAINAX), Gakuto Mikumo (Original creator of Dantalian no Shoka, Asura Cryin‘), Yutaka Uemura (director of Dantalian no Shoka, also worked on Gurren Lagann), Noir (works at GAINAX for market research) and Kumiko Uehara (fashion designer at „BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT“, designs costumes for Dantalian no Shoka).

The panel started with a Panty & Stocking Trailer. It’s the one that was released on the web a couple of days earlier. The translator mentioned immediately that the guests of this panel don’t know much about this series.

Hiroyuki Yamada confirmed this and mentioned that it wasn’t possible to bring over the team behind P&S because they are busy with the production. However he was very pleased that he could bring over the author of the Light Novels of the other project that GAINAX is working on.

Dantalian no Shoka will be shown next summer (Summer 2011) so that the responsible people still had enough time for a short trip to Germany.

Gakuto Mikumo then did a short introduction into the world of the Dantalian no Shoka anime. He showed us some designs of the characters and mentions as genre “horror fantasy”.

Here are the main characters Hugh Anthony Disward and Dalian. The name of the series comes from the demon Dantalian who rules knowledge and literature and his library which contains forbidden writings filled with demonic energy. His books have to be controlled, but it it is possible to get one of these, but each of them has a return date. By the way, the demon won’t appear itself in the series and is more like the central theme.

Hugh’s grandfather knew the location of the library and handed its key to him after his death. When Hugh entered the mansion of his late grandfather, he found Dalian who carries a lock around her neck. This lock is like a gate to another world and when it opened the library can be reached – figuratively speaking the library is in her body. In every episode is book is taken from the library which leads to bad things happening in the world or a book is returned to prevent this. Dalian is some kind of “gate” to another world library and as the key holder he is now responsible for the girl’s safety. The overall setting is England in the 1920s.

Yutaka Uemura then told the audience that he was asked by Yamaga-san to direct the anime. When he read the light novels he thought that this is a horror fantasy that also includes sad and lonely moments. Especially the reasons of the people who read these books to gain something and the their dark sides interested him and he wants to express these backgrounds in the anime series which is not common for this form of entertainment.

Unfortunately, my mobile stopped recording for short time when he mentioned the manga series that is also based on the light novels.

They wanted to do something special for the designs of the clothes so they asked Kumiko Uehera to design them in reality.

This is an early design for the dress of Dalian. At the beginning she wasn’t sure how to do designs for an anime but she was told that she can do it like when she’s working on something for her label. She only had to contain herself from adding too many details like quillings and patterns to make it still possible to animate it without too high costs while maintaining the style of her brand. The director also gave some instructions.

Uehara-san wears the finished dress of Dalian that will appear in the anime. Dalian is also called the “Black Reading princess” so that the costume is very black.

She also shows sketches of clothes for the other characters and mentions another still secret character (I don’t know if she appears in the light novels) and Noir wears her dress:

This girl is also related to the library and is more or less the opposite of Dalian and to emphasize this she wears a white dress. The director really wanted a large bow but these are really hard to produce. He also asked for the wing-like bow on the back and the „flower-hat“. The whole flower motif was important.

In contrast to other animes where existing lolita fashions are often copied, for this anime they wanted to created something new.

Kimuko Uehara also mentioned that she wanted to create something that can be purchased and worn in normal life and wishes that people will wear variants that are maybe more practical or shorter.

The Q&A session then started:

Question: Why does Panty & Stocking look like Power Puff Girls?

Answer (Hiroyuki Yamaga): He isn’t part of the production team but it was intended that it goes in the direction of an Ecchi Power Puff Girls. In the currect state of the anime it probably can’t be broadcasted without beeps and black bars(/mosaics) on Japanese TV [while laughing^^].

Q: How accurately match the character visuals of the anime with the initial intent of the author?

A (Gakuto Mikumo): He was surprised in a positive way. Two manga series were already adapted from the light novel and the illustrations in the light novel are also drawn by another person and all these different versions influenced the anime designs

Q: What does Kumiko Uehara think about the way her brand “BABY, THE STARS SHINES BRIGHT” was shown in the movie „Kamikaze Girls“? Is she surprised about seeing here people wearing the clothes of her label?

A (Kumiko Uehara): Thanks to the movie the brand got initial positive results. She likes the movie very much and she knows that the the label got world wide known beause of the movie. She’s happy that she’s now even able to come to Germany and can now see people here wearing the clothes of her brand.

Q: Hanamaru Kindergarten, Panty&Stocking and Dantalian no Shoka all don’t really look like classical GAINAX shows. Is some kind of new GAINAX in the works in contrast and is this intended?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): Even if GAINAX made in the past some robot shows, in his point view GAINAX was never a mecha studio. They made different series. Perhaps Hanamaru Kindergarten was slightly more different but Dentalian no Shoka is for him very fitting show for GAINAX. The overlaying continuity of all GAINAX shows is to tell stories in the border area between reality and fantasy.

Q in English: There were rumors that the rights of Evangelion went from GAINAX to Hideaki Anno’s studio khara. Furthermore, it is said that this lead to some bad mood between both companies. Can Yamaga-san comment this?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): That’s not true. The rights for the movies are at khara but nothing else changed. They are not fighting each other. A lot of people from GAINAX are working at khara and vice versa.

Q in English: A question about a project Takami Akai mentioned last year at Japan Expo.

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): The project is still in progress, but he can’t say anything about at the moment.

Q: How did GAINAX discover Dantalian no Shoka?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): There were talks between Kadokawa and GAINAX to do an anime project together. Three Kadowaka „franchises“ were put into the shortlist and Danatalian no Shoka was the one that was green-lit for production.

Q: [My Question, first I mentioned that I really liked Hanamaru Kindergarten and that I thought that it was GAINAX-like, I also mentioned that I wish that Dantalian no Shoka will be run as Simulcast in Germany, then I asked my question^^] The „Asura Cryin’“ anime has another ending than in the light novel. How involved was Gakuto Mikumo or did the anime team created it themselves?

A (Gakuto Mikumo): (Laughing) He has access to all scripts of the anime and even the endings are different, he is is ok with it.

Q [JimmPantsu’s Question]: There are some „brutal scenes“ in the light novels. How will they be illustrated in the anime?

A (Yutaka Uemura): There isn’t much brutality allowed in Japanese television but the light novels don’t have many explicit scenes so that it shouldn’t be a problem. They want to emphasize the dramatic scenes.

Q [JimmPantsu’s Question]: In addition to his own light novel creations like Dantalian no Shoka and Asura Cryin’ he also worked on a light novel based on the manga Zettai Karen Children. How did it feel to do a light novel based on a manga?

A (Gakuto Mikumo): He likes its mangaka Takashi Shiina very much. His former editor changed to the publisher of ZTC. Using this „connection“ he was able to do the light novel based and he was very happy tabout this.

Q: There’s a trend in the anime industry to create all-femalse cast and what does he (GAINAX) think as one of the first who did this, eg. in Gunbuster, about this?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): In Dantalian no Shoka the male character Hugh stand in the foreground, so this does not really apply to this series. Furthermore, GAINAX should also be known for its male characters. Normally GAINAX wants to do something different from the things that are established at the moment.

Q (in English): 2009 announced at Fanimecon 3 projects (e.g., an Abenobashi special). Any news?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): Tadashi Hiramatsu is working at khara on the Evangelion movies. There are no resoruces at the moment.

Q: Her labes opened shops in Los Angeles and Paris. Are there any plans for Germany?

A (Kumiko Uehara): There are no plans so far, but she will talk to her boss about this.

Q: How many episodes are planned for Panty & Stocking and Dantalian no Shoka?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): Both 13 episodes. If Dantalian no Shoka is successful, a second second may be possible because there’s enough material in the light novels.

Q: How does he think about the second part of of Evangelion 2.0 because it’s really similar to the mecha battles in Gurren Lagann?

A (Yutaka Uemura): The influence of director Imaishi-san on the design in the Gurren Lagann TV series was quite big but the the mecha designer Yoshinari-san was told to really go wild for the second movie. [Something got lost in the translation or in my transcript].

Q: Why doesn’t he appear in kimono like in the years before?

A (Hiroyuki Yamaga): It was very hot in Japan, so he didn’t expected that it was „cold“ enough in Germany for a kimono.

That’s all. Unfoertuantely, there was only one panel with GAINAX this year, but three signing sessions….

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4 comments

muhootsaver 20. September 2010 - 07:34

Wow, it has been awhile since I saw you post in English on this blog. ^^ Thanks for the detail report on this. It was very interesting.

I’m guessing Dantalian will air upcoming January. So will GOSICK. Both series are based on European setting and both series seem to have cute gothic style heroines, so it will be fun to compare and contrast two shows.

About Eva 2.0, I was thinking more of Gunbuster 2, but it seems like many thought of Gurren Lagann?

Reply
TMSIDR 21. September 2010 - 01:29

I only blog here in English if I have to say something that’s interesting for the English speaking world^^. The German blog scene is much smaller so it’s easier to reach here readers. Furthermore, writing in English takes much longer for me and it’s sometimes hard to express certain things so I really prefer German for more complicated stuff.^^

However if somebody needs translations for certain articles that contain actual information I can always translate them^^.

They said two times at the panel that it will run next summer, so I hope they knew what they were talking about. I forgot to ask them if they actually visited England for some location scouting.

I worried too much about Asuka to be able to think about other animes in the second half of the movie^^.

Reply
muhootsaver 21. September 2010 - 13:26

Oh, shoot. I did no see that part(the summer part). My bad. So next July… -_-;; that’s so far from now

Reply
Connichi 2010 Retroperspektive « Akatoras Blog 22. September 2010 - 20:21

[…] folgte die GAINAX Fragestunde, wo ich wiederrum auf JimmPantsu und TSMDIR (English Post) stieß. Es folgen einige Bilder zum Panel, wer genaueres zu den Fragen wissen […]

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