Template:Interview 3

'''Interview with Shimokura Vio (Nitroplus; original story idea, series composition, scriptwriter) and Kakihara Yuko (series composition, scriptwriter)


 * '――Shimokura-san, you handled the original story idea for "Buddy Daddies"; how did you establish the premise for the story and characters in the initial stage?


 * Shimokura: I came up with the preliminary outline. "If the setup is 'two contrasting male characters get stuck raising a child on the spur of the moment', the story will probably play out this way…" I wrote a provisional outline with that general vibe. Later on, Director Asai joined the production, and he had a very clear image of the characters right from the start, so the premise was solidified from there. The overall storyline is similar enough, I think. I first laid out a fairly orthodox flow of events, and then the director, Kakihara-san, and the producers gave their opinions, and we put it all together.


 * '――When the two of you were in charge of the series composition, what sort of discussions did you have in advance?


 * Shimokura: I don't think we had that many detailed discussions, did we?


 * Kakihara: There was something of a tacit agreement that Shimokura-san would do the work-related (assassination) episodes, and I would do the parenting-related episodes. After all, I do really have a child, so it's easier for me to come up with stories about children, while Shimokura-san is better at hard-boiled assassin stories - so I relied on Shimokura-san to deal with that, and when it came to the parenting stories, I boldly thought, "Now it's my time to shine!" (laughs) I guess Shimokura-san may have felt the same way.


 * Shimokura: That's right. Before I came on board this project, Producer Toba once asked me for advice, along the lines of, "I don't have kids myself, so I don't really know how to approach parenting." Back then, when I was still an outsider, I casually told him, "The crux of this project is people who don't understand parenting being confronted with it, so your perspective is vital as well, Toba-san!" But when I got involved myself, I realised what an outrageous thing I'd said. (laughs) Since it dealt so heavily with parenting, there were parts that I felt like I didn't truly understand. But Kakihara-san and Producer Tsuji have children of their own, and have many thoughts and practical experiences related to parenting; I counted on them to share the responsibilities as well.


 * '――And so you were able to enhance the realism of the parenting scenes.


 * Kakihara: I thought it would be fun to show cool men who usually have nothing to do with children being confronted with parenting, and finding themselves in dire straits, and all the challenges they go through. So when it came to those scenes, I deliberately made them as uncool as possible - there's nothing pretty about that portrayal. I hoped that this would make for an interesting "relatable parenting" story.


 * '――Amidst all of this work, was there anything each of you personally got hung up on?


 * Shimokura: Essentially, I was always concerned with the classic theme of "Can assassins burdened with sins find happiness?" and that was on my mind when developing the overall storyline. And something I personally enjoyed was the fact that a 4-year-old child's thought processes are totally incomprehensible. When setting characters in motion, there's usually some chain of cause and effect tying things together - "this character thinks this way, and so they act like this", and the question is how we direct that flow to develop plot points. But you really have no clue what a 4-year-old child will come up with. And on the contrary, that made things incredibly interesting. I also enjoyed hearing all the anecdotes about parenting 4-year-olds that came up during the planning sessions; everyone seemed to be in full doting-parent mode. (laughs)


 * Kakihara: As for me, thanks to the original outline that Shimokura-san created, my work went extremely smoothly. I was wondering, well then, what can I bring to the table? And then during a script reading, some members of the production staff very kindly said, "Now I've understood how hard it is to be a parent." When they've just brought Miri home, there's a big scene of chasing her all over the place, but that was actually written based on my own stressful experiences… (laughs) And how even her going to the toilet takes a whole lot of effort. The fact that people commented, "This must be so tough," and found it a little amusing - that brought me a new sense of joy. So, rather than approaching the parenting scenes with thoughts of "it would be cuter this way", I decided to deliberately run counter to that. I emphasised making things realistic, and that made it more fun for me as well.


 * '――When it comes to our duo of assassin protagonists, what do you find appealing and interesting about each of them?


 * Shimokura: (Suwa) Rei might seem like a certain archetype of a cool-headed character, but when you delve into him, he's full of the kind of passion Director Asai has. As scriptwriter, I was thinking in terms of "what would be more natural", but the director reflected his own thoughts and views on family, and that leaves an incredibly vivid impression. In that sense, he seems cool-headed, but has a surprisingly raw side to him, and that really fleshes him out and makes him a compelling character.


 * Kakihara: It took me some time to get a grasp on the relationship between the two protagonists, but the director had quite a solid image of it, and nailed down the details; thanks to that, I was able to bring things together. Rei is the kind of so-called minimalist character where you have no idea what he's thinking, but there's also a surprising level of variation between his seemingly similar expressions and lines of dialogue. Like the distinction between "blue" and "bluish purple" - that's the sort of subtle gradations he has as a character. And as a result, the impression each viewer has of him is going to differ slightly, depending on their perception; I think that's his charm.


 * '――Then what about (Kurusu) Kazuki?


 * Kakihara: The director made some significant revisions to the way Kazuki ends his lines - he ended up speaking more "coarsely" than I was thinking. I guess that's the mental image the director had. (laughs) When the director was revising the scripts, he changed all the hiragana "n" characters to katakana "n" instead. (laughs) And with such a clearly defined image, Kazuki's character really came alive. I felt like I was chasing after Kazuki, searching for my own image of him, but I think he ended up being a brighter and more fun character than my initial notion. I also rather like the good-for-nothing Kazuki we see when he goes out drinking; when he got lured in by those girls and frittered away all his money, I remember thinking "this is an interesting guy".


 * Shimokura: And when that scene was actually performed by the actors during the recording sessions, it became all the more interesting. I think as a result of Toyonaga (Toshiyuki)-san's incredible performance, Kazuki also became a more theatrical character. When we recorded the bonus drama CD for the blu-ray and DVD, during the break, Toyonaga-san and Uchiyama (Koki)-san were in the booth going over the script, and we could hear them faintly over the microphones. And the director and I reflexively exchanged a glance, and said, "This is just perfectly Kazuki and Rei, huh..." In this series, the characters' charm is often enhanced by the way the actors make them their own, but I think Kazuki was a real standout in this regard.


 * '――Are there any other characters you are fond of?


 * Shimokura: I'd say (Hanyu) Anna-sensei from the daycare. In a story about parenting, it's also nice to have a presence who brings a sense of security or, how should I put it, "mama mood" - but in between, she also provides a lot of comic relief, and it lightens things up. I think that's great. She's a broad-minded character, and that type of character hasn't shown up much in the scripts I've written; she brings me a real sense of security too.


 * Kakihara: I like Kyu-chan (Kugi Kyutaro). Like what I said earlier about Rei's subtle gradations - I think Kyu-chan is also a character who leaves the audience with room for individual interpretations. It's very easy to run wild with fantasies of "my imagined Kyu-chan", so in the staff meetings, everyone came up with their own ideas; it was a lot of fun having everyone put things out there.


 * Shimokura: At first, we couldn't quite settle on an image of Kyu-chan's character; he was a vague "cafe owner" presence. Depending how things played out, he could possibly have ended up being a brawny man with a shaven head, like Umibozu in "City Hunter". (laughs)


 * '――But in fact, he became a mysterious and cool character.


 * Kakihara: He became a character who it's worth watching interact with Miri.


 * Shimokura: I feel like we have to thank (character designer) Enami Katsumi-san for that. (laughs)


 * '――As for the episodes that have already aired, what did you find memorable during the production process?


 * Shimokura: When coming up the idea for episode 1, I remembered us discussing "should the finale be a Christmas episode?" during a planning session. And after all, the first episode is an episode where something special happens; when I was wondering how to properly bring out this feeling of specialness, it occurred to me that it should be set during Christmas - that alone would be enough to cast a sort of magic over the script. And it would strengthen the sense that something special was really happening here. I thought that would be great.


 * Kakihara: At first, we had lots of trouble developing episode 1, but as everyone threw in their ideas - "Christmas might be fun", "that means there'd be a cake…" and so on - we got very excited about it. And as we considered how (Unasaka) Miri would act amidst all that, we went from "I want her to act like this" to "since she's a kid, she'd end up doing this". Everything really came together - it was like watching a chemical reaction take place. It was a lot of fun. Making it a Christmas scenario added just the right touch of playfulness, and I really enjoyed building out the story from there.


 * '――Now, please tell us what you think are the selling points of this series "Buddy Daddies".


 * Shimokura: Single men with no children, and how they lead a haphazard life from day to day - personally, I wanted to write about that aspect. Rei and Kazuki are grown men sharing an apartment; they probably don't think about the future at all. They have a sense that their current daily life as assassins will go on forever. And then the two of them find themselves confronted with the child Miri, and they start to think about their future. That's a fascinating series of events, and I put a lot of care into portraying the details. For the first time, they're seriously facing one of the possibilities for their future. I think that's what this story is about. So I hope that people will pay attention to this aspect.


 * Kakihara: Looking back on the series as a whole, I hope that people will enjoy watching the drama of Kazuki, Rei, and Miri… I'd say. The story has quite a solidly crafted progression, and each of them shoulders their own painful burden, but ultimately, I think it's a lot of fun watching Kazuki and Rei's relationship, and the slapstick comedy introduced by Miri's addition to the mix. The characters are each cool in their own ways. I think the most important thing is to just have a fun, relaxing time watching.


 * '――Finally, please give a message to everyone who is anticipating this series.


 * Shimokura: From here on, the full-fledged parenting episodes will start coming out. Even if you have some awareness of the struggles of parenting, you can't understand those struggles unless you have actual experience raising children. And I'm guessing you haven't really imagined what it would be like to actually share space with a 4-year-old. By having this scenario suddenly flung at you in the form of an anime, you can be exposed to a world which is unknown to you, through this fictional story - I think that will be a good experience. At least, it was an excellent experience for me. I would be very happy if everyone has a similar experience through "Buddy Daddies".


 * Kakihara: If I may be so bold, I'll go with the exact opposite of what Shimokura-san said. It's a story about parenting, but there are some surprisingly hard-boiled developments waiting for you in the second half of the series. Even in the planning sessions, you could feel a difference in the level of tension - the previous week we were talking about parenting, and now this week we'd be discussing people’s attitudes towards life. But it also wouldn't be right to handle those serious elements so roughly - and how should we find the right balance in our portrayal of an assassin's job? We grappled seriously with these questions, and talked through all of them. So it's a fun story of parenting, but of course, some complications crop up in the second half of the series. I hope you will accompany us through the second half of the series, including all of that.