Golden Warrior Iczer-1

• Q: How did the plan for this manga first get started ?
  TH: It started when I brought the idea to Mr. Kubo. About the time the video (Fight! Iczer One) was being made, we started talking about doing a manga after the video was finished.
  At first, it wasn't going to be about Iczer, but when the anime ended up the way it did, I often wound up saying at conventions and interviews, "There's no room left to explore Iczer's future, but plenty to explore her past." I was pretty much determined that any such project would have to be done in manga form. As it happened, we also came up with the idea for the audio library story (Adventure! Iczer Three), so we started planning them both together.

• Q: What lead you to do the project jointly with Mr. Moriki ?
  TH: Taking the current schedule and my own work into account, I realized there was no way I'd be able to serialize it on my own. I mean, it took up almost all my energy just to do the story, the rough layout, and the linework for the lead characters. I had to bring in a collaborator to help draw the stuff.

• Q: So you come up with the basic story, and Mr. Moriki ultimately ends up completing it ?
  TH: Well, I do all the names and panel borders and ink in all the characters... Mr. Moriki does all teh backgrounds, mecha, and monsters. He's got it pretty tough.

  YM: You can say that again!

• Q: And you also handle all the designing for those things, Mr. Moriki ?
  YM: Yeah, I pretty much did all the design work for the planet the story's set on, the clothes the characters wear, the vehicles they ride in, and so on.

• Q: Have you done any manga before this ?
  YM: No, this is my first.

• Q: So what sort of work were you doing before this ?
  YM: My first job was doing work with toys and plastic model kits. After that I got into the anime industry. I did work on Studio Pierrot's Bismark and Tobikage, and after working on the video Lily Cat, I went on to Steel Demon, where met up with Mr. Hirano, who was directing it.

• Q: And the two of you have been working together since then ?
  TH: I recognized his name from his Tobikage days and wanted to meet him. We first officially met when Mr. Ohata introduced us while we were working on Steel Demon. I had a plan for some kind of ninja anime about that time, but after I had Mr. Moriki do some drawings for me, that plan evolved into the two separate works of Miyu and Zeorymer.

• Q: What was your reason for selecting Mr. Moriki as your partner for this current project ?
  TH: I love his design lines. I thought they'd be perfect for the world of Iczer. His lines are flexible, so his own style can shine through even while he keeps the feel of that world. This should also hold true for his work on Iczer Three. As long as I can continue doing Iczer, I'm going to continue to have him design for me.
  Iczer's designer has changed several times. Each time I'd discover a good man for the job, but almost nobody could do the whole thing. That's why I turn to Mr. Moriki whenever it comes to making up a setting, monsters, or mecha. Those are his fortés.

• Q: How was it when you ended Part One ?
  YM: From here on I just want to do all I can to keep Mr. Hirano happy, through I'm not sure I'm up to the job. (laughs)

  TH: It's been so long since I've drawn manga, I'm all worn out and my hands hurt. (laughs) What comes afterward will be definitely different from the anime. Everything I want to say will all come out as we draw it. These days in the industry, with so many people working on ny given project, you never know if everything that you've personally worked on will show up or if parts of it will be edited out... our animation production company, AIC, is no different. For those doing gruop projects and working in sales, that's the painful part of video animation.

• Q: How about you, Mr. Moriki ?
  YM : Right now the questions are : Is this all I can draw ? How far can I go from here ? Basically, I'm just an assistant. I haven't the strength to hold any higher ambitions than that.

• Q: What's Part Two going to be like ?
  TH: I'd like to do Part Two in sections of about twenty pages at a time. You can't really get into the story in only sixteen pages. To tell the truth, I think twenty-four-page sections would be just right. Yeah, 20-24 page sections. Anyway, the layouts are the tough part. If I put a bunch of large panels together for a highlight scene, I won't get into the story this time. Oooh, I'm in pain already. (laughs)
  At first it was great just drawing highlight scenes. I kept thinking, "Boy, if I'm lucky, this is all I'll have to do!" and then wound up never getting into the story. (laughs) Things will get really rough when we get to the end of the story. It's not possible to use small panels for doing action scenes. However, if we keep publishing in this format --20-page monthly installments-- then I won't be able to break up my panels the way I want. I've got to delve more into the story, and I can't keep using all huge panels for the action scenes, or else it will change the entire appeal of the manga. It's because of this that all along the way we've been thinking more about what it would do to a collected volume than to the serialized installments.

• Q: Because you intend for the readers to see it all at once ?
  TH: Yeah, it'll be really short and they'll be able to read it -boom!- like that. With that in mind, I wonder if we're doing Iczer right. I consider the basic attitude for Iczer's story to be that we have to use action scenes to move the story along.

• Q: The plot of Part One takes place before the video, correct ?
  TH: Yeah, but there still seem to be a lot of people who mistake this story for a sequel to the "Earth Chapter".

  YM: Really ?

• Q: There certainly do. It may also be because the characters in your art are rapidly coming to look more and more mature.
  TH: They are ? (laughs) Well, it's not like I particularly set out to do that. My artistic style is changing a bit, I guess. However, you'd think the readers could figure out it's a prequel from the fact that Iczer plummets naked onto the planet at the begining of the story, that she isn't able to speak much, and that she has none of her essential weapons. (laughs)

  Aura and Raura

• Q: So you've actually not given any thought at all to a sequel, is that it ?
  TH: As far as I'm concerned, the story ends at the end of the video. Iczer Three is an audio story only [This was obviously before Iczer Three videos came out - Editor], and I consider it more a parody than a sequel. I'm sure they made it because the fans would enjoy it, but there's been an unexpectedly large response... if anyone starts taking it seriously, then we'll have some real problems. Even if we drew the designs and art seriously, there's no way there could be a legitimate sequel in the world of Iczer.

• Q: But the manga is a legitimate prequel ?
  TH: That's right. There's no hope for Iczer Three, but we're always telling the company president to read the manga, saying he can go ahead and get it animated any time. (laughs) Of course, even if it is turned into a video, the plot will probably be done on a slightly grander, more cinematic scale. However, I still feel a little like I'm drawing this manga to be the plot for that video.

• Q: Does the manga's storyline take place right before the video's ?
  TH: No, not right before it. If feels a little odd putting it in terms of years, but I'd say it takes place about 10 years before the video.

• Q: That would be right about the time Iczer One was born, wouldn't it ?
  TH: Exactly. There's a scene of her escaping right after her deliberate awakening in that special chapter. This story is what happens right after that. That's why she comes crashing down naked in the beginning. It's also why we find the planet already under the control of the Kthulhu.

• Q: So Sir Violet's definitely around somewhere ?
  TH: Violet will be showing up in Part Two. She's supposed to be riding in that gigantic spaceship of hers, wandering around somewhere in outer space.

• Q: Then the video's story would sort of be the last hurrah for the Kthulhu ?
  TH: Pretty much, since the story's progression was based on the premise that Iczer had been going from planet to planet, freeing those worlds as she went by destroying the Kthulhu controlling them.

• Q: In other words, in the current story, you'll be following the course of this newly-born Iczer One awakening to her abilities ?
  TH: Right. Also, as I've said in previous interviews, this story will become the origin of Iczer Robo.

• Q: Ah, so Iczer Robo will be showing up in this story ?
  TH: Yes. Somewhere in one of the future chapters.

• Q: Is there also some secret about the Seven Generals who show up in Part One ?
  TH: One of them hasn't shown up yet.

• Q: Oh, that's right. They can hardly be called the Seven Generals if that last one doesn't show, can they ? Is the last General going to be one of the bad guys ?
  TH: No, the seventh one had just sort of dropped out. Anyway, since Iczer hasn't awakened to her full abilities at this point in the story, she won't be able to win so easily, so at this stage the Kthulhu are a good deal stronger. Part Two may turn out to be just a string of losses for her.

• Q: She still can't display her true power ?
  TH: She still doesn't know how to fight. Right now, in Part One, she's only just managed to get hold of her beam sword.

• Q: About this point, is some connection made to her synchronizing with Nagisa ?
  TH: Iczer becomes stronger when she synchronizes with a human heart, so I think that power will show up only at the very last possible moment. In short, the basic set-up of this story is how Iczer's weapons and abilities blossom little by little through her contact with the Princesses and the Seven Generals. It will be a drama of Iczer's maturation.

• Q: Are the Seven Generals ESPers or something like that ?
  TH: "ESPer" might be a bit much. They're more like half-ESPer, half-weapons expert.

• Q: And I imagine that the protective armor the Generals wear...
  TH: ...was designed by Mr. Moriki, right.

  YM: But Mr. Hirano reworks them some, too.

  TH: I only do it to make them easier to draw. (laughs) There's so much linework involved in that armor, drawing it is a real pain.

• Q: In the future -in Part Two, that is- are there going to be any enemy types standing in Iczer's way ?
  TH: Yes there are. The Kthulhu in this story are even better fighters than the group that comes to Earth. They must have a different commmander. (laughs)

  YM: They must. (laughs)

  TH: The monsters have all been powered up, too.

• Q: So you could say the Kthulhu were still pretty powerful at this point in the story.
  TH: Yeah, you could say that. (laughs)

  YM: Well, they're divided up into all these separate armies, and with each one just trying to develop itself, they'd naturally have people making those kinds of monsters, wouldn't they ?The enlarging parasite beast kind, I mean. Of course, they've had a whole variety of monsters for a while.

  TH: Thank you for that much-needed follow-through. (laughs)

• Q: Which means they've been rapidly degenerating as the war's gone on ?
  TH: It may be that they've just had fewer and fewer staff available. Poor things...

• Q: True. As we noted at the beginning, they've been sending in all their heavy hitters. Maybe they no longer have the time to mature their fighters properly ?
  TH: Thanks for considering all of the above explanations... (laughs)

• Q: And monsters will be the core of the enemy forces ?
  TH: No, from now on we'll be using space bodyguards. (bursts out laughing)

• Q: What about giant robots ?
  TH: Well, naturally, some kind of enemy giant robot will show up to counter Iczer Robo.

  Golden Warrior Iczer-1

• Q: Sounds like one of the Kthulhu's invasion patterns.
  TH: Too true. One side invades with monsters, the other with a giant robot.

• Q: Will there be any character like Iczer Two showing up ?
  TH: I guess there are a lot of people looking forward to that, but... yeah, they'll show up. (laughs) The Iczer-type androids will be appearing in the second half of the story.

• Q: Will they be there to "counter" Iczer ?
  TH: Not so much to counter her. We're moving from the idea that there were two others developed at the same time, but neither one is Iczer Two. Instead they'll be called Iczer One-a and Iczer One-b or some such.

• Q: I see... so there wasn't just one Iczer One ?
  TH: Right. (laughs)

• Q: Finally, do you have any sort of particular hopes or ambitions for Part Two ? For example, do you want to write the story in Part Two for a change, Mr. Moriki ?
  TH: Moriki's got more than enough design sketches he has to draw before Part Two even begins !

  YM : And I also want to get any incidental accompanying ideas down on paper quickly.

  TH: I think Part Two's story will pick up right where the General that appears at the end of Chapter 6 is making his challenge. He's incredibly powerful.

• Q: He certainly looks macho enough. Is he the strongest of the Seven ?
  TH: I would say he's the most skilled of the Seven.

• Q: What about the story content of Part Two ?
  TH: Well, basically the content of Part Two will be about the enemy's attacks gradually getting fiercer and fiercer.

• Q: Does that mean there'll be a greater number of enemies ?
  TH: There'll be a greater number of stronger enemies. They'll actually be forced by their overall inferiority strength to send those ones out. Iczer will rapidly be cornered, wounded, and taken down. You know, this really is starting to sound a lot like the plot of the video. (laughs)

• Q: Right now, you're bringing out a collected volume of Part One and going on to start the eagerly-awaited Part Two. The questions are piling up: just how will Iczer Robo appear ? How will it come to fight together with Iczer One ? And how Iczer One awaken to her powers ?
  TH: We'll do the best we can to answer those. Keep your eyes open !

• Q: Thank you very much for this interview. And best luck with Part Two !
  

Copyright ©1997 Yann Stettler and CohProg Sarl. All rights reserved. Pictures are copyright Hirano Toshihiro and AIC

---