Ikuhara: In the beginning, the Shadow Girls scenes stuck out like a sore thumb, but at this point, it's like the other scenes are the surreal ones.
Saito: It's true, the Shadow Girls scenes seem almost heart-warming somehow. It's shocking what we humans can get used to... The pointing fingers towards the end of the second section of the show [episode 20] were interesting, too.
Ikuhara: Weren't they just?
Saito: Was there some meaning to them?
Ikuhara: Oh yes. We're using an epoch-making technique there. (laughs) Ordinarily, viewers sense for themselves what about the show is interesting and why, but with those fingers, the production team is also supplementing their understanding, "This is the interesting part!"
Saito: So that's the deal... (laughs) I thought maybe there was some really profound significance to them, like they were clues to unraveling a mystery, or something.
Ikuhara: They have intrinsic significance too, naturally.
Saito: Really? Okay, then why were there more cats outside the window?
Ikuhara: Well, you see, that first cat met a pretty young thing and fell in love. And then, time went by, and children came.
Saito: So those things are indicating the passage of time, then?
Ikuhara: You're as sharp as ever. (laughs) All of them have something to do with the passage of time, yes.
Saito: Was "time" the theme of the Black Rose arc then?
Ikuhara: Hmmm... It wasn't a theme exactly, but "time" is quite central to this show as a whole. "Memory" and "time".
Saito: All right, then, what's the theme of this final third?
Ikuhara: Cars. (laughs)
Saito: Really? Cars are seriously the theme? (laughs)
Ikuhara: But of course. The sports car Akio Ohtori drives is the theme. Isn't that why we're doing this interview while we go on a drive?
Saito: What are you symbolizing with the sports car? Men? Authority?
Ikuhara: You see, when I was a child, there was something called the "supercar boom". Which might explain why even now, to me, cars like that gratify childlike desires in the adult world. That's the kind of thing they look like to me. When you grow up, there are fewer and fewer "toys". During childhood you want plastic model robots and stuff, but once you grow up, there are fewer and fewer objects of desire like that, right? Sure, maybe you think "I want a house" or something, but that's not quite the same thing as wanting a toy. The image I personally have of cars is that they're more or less exactly "adults' toys".
Saito: Huh. And what does it mean for Ohtori to drive one?
Ikuhara: That's about status. In the end, toys are things you can buy because you've got the breathing room to do so. People who own high-status brands of cars exemplify the symbol of the "adult with breathing room". That's one aspect of it.
Saito: Adult fun, adult toys.
Ikuhara: Right. It makes you think "he's really living large".