New Kinetic Novel "Project: Lunar" Writer and Director Interview Translated

Key Kinetic Novel Project <Project: Lunar> Interview with Writer Matsuyama Takeshi and Director Daichi Koneko

Source: http://fes2020.product.co.jp/visualstyle/interview02.html
TL note: Despite “kinetic novel” being a generalized phrase in the West, it is a copyrighted term owned by Visual Arts. This is why it’s written in uppercase form and often referred to as a brand.
Translation: Aozora Lookout

The second title of Key’s new Kinetic Novel projects is planned to release in the early summer of 2021 and is currently referred to as <Project: Lunar>. Writer Matsuyama Takeshi has published several light novels such as <Ame no Hi no Iris> and <Kimi Shi ni Tamou Ryuuseigun.> The director is Daichi Koneko who has worked as director and staff on a number of visual novels. We talked to them to learn about the story’s themes, what’s going on behind the scenes, and more.
photo = Toru Izumisawa
interview = Katsuyoshi Tanaka
Location = TOKYO VIDEO GAMERS

Page 01

--Before we get to <Project: Lunar>, I’d like to ask. This is the first time you two are contributing to a Key work, yes?

Daichi: Yes.

Matsuyama: Yes, this is my first time working with Key. I never would’ve imagined that they would contact me, so I was quite surprised at first.

--So can you explain how you two came to team up on this project?

Matsuyama: Mr. Daichi had read my light novel <Ame no Hi no Iris> which led to him contacting me. We hadn’t had any contact before that.

Daichi: Yes, to explain it in order, I started working at Visual Arts, then one day producer Okano Touya came in with the suggestion to make a project based on e-sports. After that I submitted a number of proposals that got rejected, haha. Alongside e-sports stories, there were also VR and AI stories, and one of them had a setting with an AI on the dark side of the Moon. Mr. Okano said the proposal itself was questionable, but an AI on the Moon felt like a good idea.

Matsuyama: Why the dark side of the Moon?

Daichi: I figured that the back of the Moon would be the farthest place that people can still picture in their mind, so it would be the ultimate long-distance relationship.

Matsuyma: I see. If you said something like “the edge of the galaxy,” readers would have vastly different images of that, but everyone can see the Moon. In that sense, the Moon may be the farthest place we can imagine.

Daichi: That’s when we combined the AI on the Moon with VR and the original e-sports concept... Well it wasn’t actually that easy to put them together, and it took a lot of twisting and turning, haha. But somehow, the proposal for <Project: Lunar> got made.

--How did you arrive at the conclusion that Mr. Matsuyama was the right choice?

Daichi: To make this project a reality, we needed a writer who can not only do Sci-Fi but also Key’s distinct “crying” at the same time. So I went and read a large number of Sci-Fi light novels renowned for making you cry. When I stumbled upon <Ame no Hi no Iris>, I thought it could work as a Kinetic Novel even just as is. Then I continued reading the ongoing <Kimi Shi ni Tamou Ryuuseigun> and felt it was very close to <Project: Lunar>.

Matsuyama: So you read <Ame no Hi no Iris> before <Kimi Shi ni Tamou Ryuuseigun>.

Daichi: In <Ame no Hi no Iris> there’s a robot girl, and <Kimi Shi ni Tamou Ryuuseigun> takes place in space. Not to mention that they’re both of high quality. I thought it was fate.

Matsuyama: I think it was around November last year that you contacted me? I was really surprised. Of course I knew about Key, but I never imagined I’d be offered to work for the company. Even though I’ve released over 20 light novels, I haven’t worked on a game scenario before, so I was really concerned if I’d be able to do it... I was so worried I asked several times in the beginning if it was alright that I’d never written for a game before.

--The fact that you accepted despite the anxiety must mean you were interested in the project.

Matsuyama: Yes. Just that they contacted me after reading <Ame no Hi no Iris> and <Kimi Shi ni Tamou Ryuuseigun> was an honor. I was moved that they appreciated my work, so I wanted to give it my all.

--Despite them both being writing jobs, there’s still quite a difference between working on novels and games, right? Narration especially works very differently. How did you overcome that?

Matsuyama: I talked it over with Mr. Daichi. I said it probably wouldn’t work right away for someone who’s only written novels to instantly switch to game-style writing, so in the beginning I got to write like I would write a novel. I would write freely, then Mr. Daichi would give pointers and edit the finished script. And it continued like that.

Daichi: In a Kinetic Novel, you’re not just working with the 20-30 words over 3 lines in the text window. You also have pictures, sound, and blocking to present to the reader.  I feel like having those come together and link with the emotions of the reader is the biggest difference from a novel. For example, a novel has to describe the heroine’s looks in detail as part of the narration. But in a Kinetic Novel, people will understand instantly by looking at the picture and hearing the voice. Because of that I think it’s more important to have fewer descriptions and prioritize the tempo. This goes for the blocking too. I think having a good tempo is a highlight of Kinetic Novels. We would have meetings pretty much every week, and I would give advice on doing this and that.

Matsuyama: When writing novels, you wouldn’t think of writing in 3 line chunks after all. I looked at other Key works for reference, and sure enough the text is 2-3 lines at a time. At the same time, you get the information that would be in narration instantly, so I thought a lot about how much information to put in the writing.

--How have you come into contact with Key’s works before, Mr. Matsumaya?

Matsuyama: The first one was the anime of <Kanon>. I would record it on VHS and watch it over and over. I especially love the opening, Last Regrets. When Mr. Daichi contacted me, my first thought was “It’s the company that made <Kanon>!”.

Daichi: Which heroines do you like?

Matsuyama: I like Tsukimiya Ayu and Sawatari Makoto. I would cry in front of the screen watching their episodes, haha. By now it’s normal for me to cry watching anime, but that wouldn’t happen so much at the time. It surprised me that you could have stories like that, and actually one of my works has a scene inspired by Makoto’s final scene.

--I’m sure fans will now find what scene you’re talking about. And what do you think about Key’s works, as they’re also a rival company, Mr. Daichi.

Daichi: Are we rivals...haha. I first played <Air> when I was still in school. A friend of mine very strongly told me to “just play it”. He first played me the opening, Tori no Uta. I was overwhelmed by the combined power of the art, music, and presentation. After I joined the industry, <Clannad> left a big impression. At the time, I watched in awe and envy at how it pushed through purely by being entertaining.

Matsuyama: Recently, I’m also studying Kinetic Novels, so I played <planetarian>. That one’s also amazing.

Daichi: The emotions that build up in the second half up to the end are intense. And that is the kind of work we have to measure up to in order to satisfy the customers, so <planetarian> also represents a quality requirement for <Project: Lunar>.

Page 02

--Now I’d like to get into the worldview of <Project: Lunar>. Cutting straight to the point, what type of story is it?

Matsuyama: I’ll start by introducing the protagonist and heroine. The protagonist is T-Bit, a genius gamer who’s earning a fortune in cryptocurrency by playing VR games, and his real name is Kamishiro Tabito(狼代旅人). The heroine is Lunar-Q, an AI that was accidentally born in a corner of the Moon surface development software Lunar World.

Daichi: The setting is the near future, roughly 20-30 years in the future. In this future, people have developed AI that are more emotionally affluent than humans. These AI reside in a virtual reality that’s almost indistinguishable from the real world, and people are really engaged with this virtual world. It’s also becoming popular and accepted to have an AI lover. There are many famous examples of stories that explore the idea of virtual reality, like <Ready Player One> directed by Stephen Spielberg, <Summer Wars> by Hosoda Mamoru, <Sword Art Online> etc. <Project: Lunar> was started to express these ideas in the special Key way.

Matsuyama: Other than VR, “a close, yet distant love story” is another key phrase. In the material I got when I first got the job, it said “a love story between a boy on Earth and an AI on the Moon'' which made the ‘close, yet distant love’ click for me.

Daichi: That sense of distance is what I wanted to evoke with <Project: Lunar>.

--I’ll just ask about the things you’ve said in order. First, why was Lunar-Q born on the Moon?

Daichi: There are solar panels set up on the Moon to solve the Earth’s energy problems. Lunar-Q is an AI that was supposed to be a mascot character for that endeavour.

Matsuyama: And solar panels on the Moon isn’t such an absurd idea. There are real theories on how to make it work, so it’s not strange to have in a near-future setting.

--And about the virtual reality, what do people do in that world?

Daichi: Bit dedicates his time to games, but there’s also online shopping and such. You can imagine it’s as if the Internet was a world in itself.

Matsuyama: Romance services have advanced, so you can date a beautiful AI woman.

Daichi: Would that be like dating a VTuber, maybe?

--So we have the protagonist T-Bit and the heroine Lunar-Q. Can you tell us more about them?

Matsuyama: While being a pro-gamer, T-Bit is also in high school, and he makes it a point to not be affiliated with any companies. In this world money=power, but he fights against all the sponsored gamers purely with his skill. I think that’s cool.

Daichi: His main battlefield is an anti-gravity racing game called Skyout. It’s like a <Wipeout> game where anything goes.

Matsuyama: While T-Bit immerses himself in VR, he isn’t very interested in the real world. In VR, every day is exciting, so real life feels boring in comparison. I think one thing to look forward to is how his attitude will change after meeting Q.

Daichi: Bit is the type of guy to not get down or stay negative for long, he’s a really cool protagonist. Mr. Matsuyama already mentioned how money is power--and in e-sports--having a team and sponsors is an unbelievable advantage. For example, you’ll get high-spec hardware, an information network, in races you can use really broken items, and you can form strategies for working together and winning as a group. Despite that, Bit doesn’t give in to authority and just combats it with his own driving techniques. It’s great how he can remain unfazed by it.

--What kind of heroine is Lunar-Q?

Daichi: She’s in a way the opposite of Bit. She’s deeply interested in the real world. She gets referred to as Luna-kyun in the story.

Matsuyama: She has a naive and innocent personality. She’s very open about what she feels and gets up close and personal even if she just met you. She follows e-sports, so she knows about the T-Bit’s achievements before they meet, and she’s a fan of his. Please look forward to seeing what kind of developments happen when these two are brought together. Personally, I enjoy naive girls, so Q was a fun heroine to write.

Daichi: One of her charming points is how she doesn’t know how familiar she should act with people. She also says incorrect phrases with complete confidence.

Matsuyama: She’s not used to communicating with people, so she’ll just say whatever pops up in her head. In one specific scene she says “wrack your ears” instead of “wrack your brains”(頭/耳を捻って搾り出す).

--I believe there are also more characters than those two. Can you describe them as much as you’re allowed?

Daichi: We can introduce two supporting characters. First there’s the protagonist’s childhood friend, Gaya. His name is Ichigaya(市ヶ谷), so the protagonist calls him Gaya as a nickname. He’s an otaku who knows a lot about the Internet. He admires Bit’s skills, so he arranges opportunities for Bit to play. In the virtual reality, he uses a beautiful female avatar which is fairly normal in this world. Furthermore, he dates girls with his female avatar and supports Bit’s romantic endeavors.

Matsuyama: There’s also a cat-like girl called Meow(ミャウ). She’s like a rival heroine to Q, and at the same time, she is T-Bit’s rival in the racing game. She plays on a monster machine that has a lot of money put into it, and she’ll just come charging in. So she’s using money to try to compete with the protagonist but is always thwarted. She’s like a puppy who wants attention, I guess. Normally she’s saying high-and-mighty things like “You will bow before me”, but then one day she sees Q by Bit’s side. You can expect some romance hijinks. From Meow’s perspective, she’s always chasing after Bit, then this other girl comes out of nowhere which she can’t stand.

Daich: You seemed to enjoy writing both Luna-kyun and Meow.

Matsuyama: It was great fun! When I showed Mr. Daichi scenes with Meow, he said they turned out pretty detailed. That’s how attached I became to her, so I’d love it if readers would enjoy Meow and Q equally.

Daichi: Please look forward to seeing the relationship between Bit, Luna-kyun, and Meow. And it’s Key, so it’s not a dark, messy relationship. It’s a proper comedic romance...probably, haha.

--So T-Bit and Meow are active pro gamers, are you two good at games?

Matsuyama: I like games but am pretty bad at them. We took the pictures for this interview in a game bar, so we really should’ve played to see who was better.

Daichi: We’re around the same age. Did you go to game centers a lot as a student, Mr. Matsuyama?

Matsuyama: I did, but I was more the type to watch better people play. Fighting games like <Street Fighter 2>, <Tekken>, <The King of Fighters> were popular at the time. I would always lose when an opponent joined.

Daichi: It was basically the same for me. I didn’t have the skills to play at the game center, so I would play more on home console. Thanks to that, I’m better now.

Matsuyama: What games do you play nowadays?

Daichi: I lose to my 7 year old son at 3D shooters like <Fortnite> and <Splatoon>. I still manage to clear 2D action games like <Cuphead> and <Celeste>.

--What you said about watching better people play is pretty similar to e-sport audiences now, right?

Matsuyama: That might be true, now that you say it. It’s fun watching people better than you, and in a way fighting games are like a master display of an artform. And people who go into that all have a lot of confidence in their skill. I felt like a trainer at a boxing match watching these warriors fight, haha. Having done that in the past, that’s how I see e-sports. It can feel a bit strange how that culture has grown, but I know the appeal of it has always been there.

--Thank you. That was a bit of a tangent, but next I’d like to hear about the meat of the story. What’s going to happen with T-Bit and Lunar-Q in the end?

Daichi: Well, we can’t really say that, haha.

Matsuyama: We can say that Bit and Q form a team and make waves at an e-sport tournament.

Daichi: We’ll leave you with that midway climax, haha. But that’s not the end of the story. After that, the “distance” between the two will stand in their way.

Matsuyama: The first half focuses on the four characters we mentioned--but at a point--they’re faced with a trial. I put a lot of thought into that turn and how the story accelerates from there. To compare it to a racing game, it’s like going around a curve then having a straight before the goal.

Daichi: Yes, I’ll also say it doesn’t let up.

--Can you say how the project is progressing at this point in time?

Daichi: We’re eagerly at work aiming for the 2021 release. I’m sure Mr. Ryuukishi07’s <Loopers> will kick off the new Kinetic Novel projects to a good start, and I think our release will be not too long after that.

--Since you mentioned <Loopers>, do you think a lot about or feel pressure from the other titles?

Matsuyama: I’ve felt a pressure since I got contacted by Key, haha. I have friends who are fans of Key, so I was anxious how they’d react to me working with the company. Looking at their previous works, Key is a brand with a prestigious history and has produced many famous works. The audience will expect something on that level, and I put my all into this to not betray those expectations. I just hope that the battle-hardened fans will enjoy it.

Daichi: Even just looking at the Kinetic Novel, there’s <planetarian> and <Harmonia> as the poster children, and <Loopers> is coming too. <Project: Lunar> is the follow-up to that, so I feel we can’t make something half-assed. And all the staff agree on that, not just Mr. Matsuyama and I. There is pressure, but mostly we just want <Project: Lunar> to become one of the new products that represents Key.

--Finally, can you give a message to the readers that are looking forward to the release.

Matsuyama: I’ve given it my all to break out of my comfort zone and make something that seasoned Key fans will accept. The Earth and the Moon, reality and VR, T-Bit and Lunar-Q, I had fun thinking about the various contrasts between these and poured my full power into the writing. I hope everyone will enjoy <Project: Lunar>.

Daichi: I was blessed with great staff and feel we can make a fantastic product. Mr. Okano and Mr. Kai gave us these ideas from the planning and plot stages, and I'm determined to use those to create a new poster child for Key.  Please have great hopes for <Project: Lunar>.