Visionary Nexus Network

Anime Expo 2009 wasn’t exactly the greatest rendition due to a lackluster guest list, but if there was a bright spot to be had during that convention, I’d definitely have to peg the Daisuke Ishiwatari/Toshimichi Mori Panel as being one of the higher points.

For those who don’t know, Daisuke Ishiwatari and Toshimichi Mori worked together on BlazBlue (which we seem to have a lot of in-depth coverage on here at VN-Net) with Mori being in charge of the design and Ishiwatari being the composer. Ishiwatari also designed and composed to the music to the Guilty Gear series and voiced Sol Badguy.

As for the panel itself, there was an eclectic group and whether it was filled with curious onlookers or general fans, it’s hard to tell. The panel also had at least a 2:1 male to female ratio, which was kind of surprising to me. I’d chalk them up to being girlfriends or something if it weren’t for a girl cosplaying as Sol Badguy (Syke note: Damn you rule 63!). I laughed, but wasn’t able to get pictures of her though. In any event, the panel mostly consisted of a Q&A session that turned out to be pretty informative. Both offered their insights into the games themselves as well as some thoughts about game design in general. So here’s what I found to be of interest:

One of the first questions that provoked a laugh from the audience was when one guy asked what Ishiwatari was thinking when he designed the lovable trap Bridget and whether he realized at the time that Bridget would become extremely popular. Ishiwatari explained that he felt Guilty Gear lacked the existence of a cute character, but he didn’t want to go for a conventional character, so together, the team brainstormed and decided to go against the flow by making him male. As it turned out, Bridget became extremely popular and even though fans found out he was male, the male factor was hardly important. An example where nothing except for cute mattered. And while we’re on the subject of characters, someone asked Mori about Justice and that question revealed just how much Mori and Ishiwatari were influenced by anime. You can see it in the artwork, obviously, but the character design of Justice was inspired by the anime series Tekkaman Blade.

That question led to a flurry of others revolving around the possibility of transitioning the Guilty Gear series to an anime format, especially in light of Guilty Gear XX’s anime opening. As to that, Ishiwatari replied that it was a work in progress and that while several studios have approached him with offers to make it happen, there hasn’t been any definite plans though you could tell from the way Ishiwatari talked that he was extremely enthusiastic about the idea. As for me, I’m not absolutely sure about how well that would work out given that the fighting game genre has been sorely lacking in terms of quality anime titles. Add to that Guilty Gear’s unconventional characters and setting up the story becomes even more difficult. So while it’s not an impossibility, I do see it as being rather hard to pull off.

Finally, the last topic that kept me interested was the design process. I learned that, to my surprise, budgets are usually the primary constraint behind the number of characters and the designers are forced to work around that constraint. Once the number of characters are set, the next step goes into figuring out what kinds of attacks the characters should have and how to execute that attack. One example that Ishiwatari used was a character who had a long reaching attack. Once they figured out that the character should have that long reach, the next step goes into deciding whether that character will get that reach as a result of his hands (ala Dhalsim) or whether that reach will be accomplished by using some sort of weapon (like Ivy from Soul Calibur).

While the character design process was interesting in of itself, one of the most probing questions asked during that panel was when one guy asked why Western fighting games usually never have quite the success that their Japanese counterparts do. Ishiwatari seemed puzzled at first since he noted that Mortal Kombat was pretty successful, except the person asking the question replied that the franchise is pretty dead (which it is) and once Ishiwatari understood that, he put forth the thought that Western fighting games focus a bit too much on realism. One needs a sense of the fantastic at times in order to create a fun gaming environment and that the tunnel vision that Western developers have with regards to realism was sucking out all of the fun. While my experience with Western fighting games have been limited, those were some good thoughts seeing how one can apply it to other games outside the fighting game genre, with the abstract Katamari Damacy serving as an excellent example where the fantastic contributes to the enjoyable experience.

Anyways, a few other notes that people might find interesting:

• Ishiwatari usually looks at the character before coming up with the music. Also, BlazBlue was his attempt to go in a different musical style by using jazz and classical elements. One of his favorite pieces that he has written for BlazBlue was “Catus Carnival.”
• Ishiwatari got asked which character he thought would be most appealing to women. He guessed Bang Shishigami, but the person asking the question (who was female) replied that it was Jin Kisaragi that got her to try out that game. Furthermore, she noted that he was a big factor in bringing more girl gamers to try out BlazBlue.
• The best part though was when someone asked Ishiwatari whether he could say a Sol Badguy line in his Sol Badguy voice. Ishiwatari looked pretty embarrassed at this request and said that he can only do Sol’s voice after having copious amounts of alcohol, but that he’d make an exception this time around. Needless to say, people had a fangasm when he yelled out Sol’s “GGGUUUUUURAAAANNNNDDD VIPUHHH!!!” (At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what he said.)

So yeah, definitely a fun panel and I got a lot out of it. The questions they answered were insightful and it was blatantly obvious that they were extremely enthusiastic and passionate about their work and sharing it with Western fans.

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