Otona Anime V20

Gen Interview

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-- For magical girls, why do their wishes usually turn into opposite of what they wanted?
Gen: To me, having a wish granted might not necessarily be a good thing.  Good thoughts only comes after reflecting on "what I wished for."  Once you settle on a target and head towards it, you'll inevitably lose many things that you couldn't help be losing.  It makes you doubt whether this is true happiness.

-- Why's that?
Gen:  Isn't the process of chasing a goal always tormenting?  You always end up feeling inadequate about this and that.  When you turn back and look, only then do you realize that you had lost sight of everything outside that goal.  But a mere zombie now.  Having a goal by itself might be a good thing, but sacrificing the present for it isn't.  When you compare your past with your present, what you have and what you have lost, it becomes an issue of asset management for happiness (laughs).  People should measure who they are with who they want to be, but also match that with what sacrifices are necessary to become that person.  Only then should they proceed.

-- Your first contact with "heroic tales?"
Gen:  Ignoring for a moment whether it's in the heroic genre or not, the show that had the most impact on my childhood was "Armored Trooper Votoms."   Chirico Cuvie, the character, is in some ways, the the most powerful man.  The strength of his resolve, to never stray from it, he always acts of his own accord.  Not only did he refuse companionship, he even deny god himself.  Such powerful was his conviction.  With it, even the appearance of simply drifting along doesn't phase him.  As a child, that was incredibly shocking to see.

--  Sometimes I get this mistaken impression, that Mr. Gen is simply using Kyubey to speak from the heart.
Gen:  That's a bit much (laughs).

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--  Apologies (laughs).  So Kyubey is really a symbol for realism, over how the ideal matches up with reality?
Gen:  Indeed, as long as you're alive, you'll always hear Kyubey calling, but you can never give in to it.

-- Was it ever on your mind, that you hope your work has the capacity to cause mental anguish?
Gen:  Yes.  What don't kill you makes you stronger.  As long as you remember how little it is compared to Chirico Cuvie, you can overcome anything.  That's why I always remind myself to insert various "poisons" into those animation cells, so it may match the "poisons" in this realty.  Entertainment is such useless things, but with a little infection it suddenly becomes so frightful.  In this peaceful and bountiful era, intaking a little "poison" through fictions can be quite effective.  Think of it as a form of vaccination.  Without the risk of broken limbs, you can still experience all sorts of nightmares (scenarios).  In this way, you gain a bit of immunity against when nightmares do appear in reality.

-- Ah, I see.
Gen:  A lot of people want to remove such "poisons" from Fiction.  That's why I pity the kids that grows up with those people.  Their future are quite tragic.  For them, a bit pain will feel like end of the world.  How will you train these people (laugh)?  But honestly though, I personally wasn't thinking that deeply.  I just feel like writing things that some people might find interesting.  After all, this isn't a textbook.  The contents are for kids to understand.   I just need to not lie to myself.

Retranslated from http://www.yamibo.com/thread-136959-1-1.html