THE INTERVIEW (no homo)

>Quick summary of the series (Ordinary hero -> Working with five other heroes -> American Comic Book hero)
>The only other heroes that have gone to the moon and back and survived are without the ability to fly is Fire Man (?) and Silver Mask Giant, who could shapeshift (probably some toku references I don't know)
>Series then goes into dark hero territory with the appearance of Haiji
>Somehow, the guy we found in the alley naked at the beginning of the series is now stripping of his own will by the end; he started a pervert, and ended a pervert, but Masayoshi's life continues!

>Title: I never thought I'd hear Kurata talk about love
>How do you feel now that you've completed the series?
>Director feels tired, script writer is just happy he didn't have to write all 26 episodes and it was bad enough writing as many as he did, as there wasn't even a summary episode, and he kind of regrets not getting to put in a swimsuit episode
>It sure was twist after twist, huh?
>Director worried about everyone getting bored of all the twists, maybe thinks they should have shifted in to top gear straight from the beginning
>...And then we end up back with normal everyday life episodes in the end.
>Director says everyone must have been surprised by that
>Script writer wanted to detail what happened to Masayoshi on a personal level, and to see just how far he could take Mayayoshi and Goto's relationship, and to show that everything was back to normal on earth
>Director says that Kurata just couldn't stop anymore, didn't have enough leeway to really fine tune everything. Wanted to get everything that they had written in the script in to the anime, only changed a few things from the script

>Script writer says that the director actually said that Masayoshi should propose to Goto, Kurata thought he was crazy
>Director is pretty sure that it was the script writer who brought it up when they were all working together on it first, but it kind of just rose from the situation
>Script writer says they were doing it the day that Kamen Rider Wizard started, and he was watching Wizard alone while everyone else was resting up and he was trying to figure out how to manage it around to that point
>And before it aired, the director said it wasn't a gay anime, didn't he? (laugh)
>Director says that they didn't have Masayoshi say they should get married because he was gay, but just because he's the kind of character who can say crazy stuff like that
>And they're together even after that, aren't they?
>Script writer says it's really just like they were before - Goto hasn't really gotten over his heartbreak either, and they aren't really gay for each other or anything


>I'm surprised that you had a happy ending despite Goto still being pretty messed up.
>Script writer says that that was the director's idea, that Masayoshi wants to accept that about Goto as well
>...While keeping "love" as his trump card?
>Script writer says that he doesn't understand love, so that's how Masayoshi ended up as well
>Director says that they were always confused about how to end it, and they suddenly came up with love one day - "I never thought I'd hear Kurata talk about love". Thought it was interesting, decided to see where it went, but it was clear that Kurata didn't really know what to do with it, so they went with the not understanding love angle
>Script writer says that in the first draft, Masayoshi started talking about how great love was and Goto started crying, but it didn't really seem like something Masayoshi would say
>Did any of the three at the scene really understand love?
>Script writer says that now that he thinks about it, none of them really had any experience in love, that's a weird similarity they share, it's useless to try and undertake things you dont understand
>Director says that Masayoshi was only thinking of somehow using love, and the only thing he could think of was marriage, so thats what he said
>Script writer says that after that, Masayoshi exclaims "This is love!" and Goto replies "As if!" - this is the return of the regular Goto


>Director wondered for a moment if the viewers could take the "This is love!" seriously, seeing as it was just Masayoshi jumping the gun, and he hopes that got across; thinks the fact that Masayoshi was the only one who could have pulled that off in that situation
>Script writer says Masayoshi managed to pull off the "pervert, idiot and hero" mentioned in the first episode. After he thought of pulling out the marriage card, he had to figure out the best way for Masayoshi to propose, and decided on doing it just like it was in the first episode, as you usually return to the beginning in the last episode anyways. Says the director also worried a bit about whether it was fine for Masayoshi to take his underwear off, as they'd have to come up with things to hide it with
>Director says that since Masayoshi's room got bombed, there wasn't really anything left, so it was a bit tough
>Script writer says that it was best for him to take the underwear off, as come on, even Joker would be pretty surprised if Batman were to show up with no underwear
>Director says Masayoshi really became the type of character to be able to pull that kind of thing off, after episode 22, says there probably isnt any other hero who'd think proposing was an act of heroism, says he's pretty proud of having to pulled that off

Random side text: "I wanted Nakamura Tadashi to play the Tesseract"

>The joke about Masayoshi's exploits ending up in the intergalatic rental store was pretty great.
>Kurata says that he was worried how it'd go over, worried about exactly how to represent the universe; after watching 2001 a space odyssey, decided that the whole transcendental thing had already been done, so he did a rental shop instead
>And having our world being a show they're watching.
>Kurata says that while the idea was made popular by the matrix, there's really no way of knowing if our world isn't really just a TV show someone's watching; he's thought this since he was a kid, and that's how he ended up with the rental shop idea
>Omori says that Philip K Dick also writes from that kind of perspective a lot. When he went to Kurata's house, it was covered in books, and so it suddenly made sense where all this stuff was coming from
>I was really surprised when Nakamura Tadashi was voicing the Tesseract.
>Omine wanted that kind of last boss-ish role to be done by Nakamura; offered him a role in lots of his other works, never managed to work together, grew up listening to his voice
>Kurata never thought he'd get to hear Nakamura talk about eromanga. In the original script, after Masayoshi beat Alien Flamenco, he encounters 4th dimensional people and dark matter people, showing that there's even more to space


>And then for Goto's girlfriend to come up again...
>Kurata says that Omine really wanted to do the whole "Goto's girlfriend never existed" bit
>Omine says at first it was something like "The God of Colombo" （コロンボのかみさん - probably some pop culture reference?)
>Kurata says that he wanted to see how Masayoshi would deal with this as well, if he'd be able to accept him in the end even when his girlfriend doesn't exist
>How did Haiji manage to target all the Flamengers in the end?
>Kurata says that Haiji had his parents help with that
>Omine says it's a funny story - when they were drawing storyboards, someone asked who should be driving the truck, and he said that it should be Haiji's father, but somehow it ended up being King Torture driving the truck in the rough drafts
>Kurata says that they wanted everyone to wonder if Haiji actually existed, wanted Masayoshi to wonder about it, to wonder if Haiji's voice actor would actually have such an empty schedule
>Omine says that Haiji's voice actor was surprised at just how different the show had become from when it started when he came in for recording
>Did evil really disappear in that world?
>Kurata says that the world is going back to the way it was very slowly, that maybe the Tesseract had picked Haiji as the next villain for the world

Note:
(I think I've got this one, thanks to some lucky Googling -- it's "Columbo's wife" (like "uchi no kamisan") rather than "Columbo's god," and references the police/mystery series "Columbo." Columbo mentioned his wife frequently but she was never seen onscreen, and he was always making excuses for why she wasn't there. Audiences joked about whether or not she even existed, a la us and Goto's girlfriend. (And apparently when they attempted a spinoff called "Mrs. Columbo," Lieutenant Columbo's presence was hinted at but HE never appeared.))

>Omine says that when they were writing the Haiji arc, Kurata said that this was where there stopped being villains, and was instead true evil. Everything before had been set up by the Tesseract, and this was evil coming to light on its own
>Kurata says that while he intended the first truly evil villain to be cool, he was really just a parasite on re-reading, and so went with that direction, despite planning on having it be a much more straightforward type of story at first
>If there was a sequel, is there anything you would like to see done?
>Omine wonders if they could pull it off in a different way, if they put their heads together.
>Kurata says he would want to write more about Beyond Flamenco, who lost in his parallel world because he doubted his own justice
>Any last words to the fans?
>Omine says thanks for watching, happy people enjoyed it
>Kurata says he's glad they made it to the end, thought more people would be mad at the ending, but it seemed to go over pretty well, maybe thanks to the magic of marriage
>The title "Samurai Flamenco - Naked!!" was telling us he was going to strip, wasn't it?
>Omine says that you usually wouldn't expect that, even with that title
>Kurata says with how the first episode's title was "Samurai Flamenco - Debut!" and the last title being "Samurai Flamenco - Naked!", it almost sounds like he's an idol who's fallen and has nothing left but to strip, even though he was such a handsome model in the first episode...


>This seems like the kind of series that'd be different to watch again.
>Omine says that if you follow Masayoshi's foosteps, you'll see that he didn't really change all that much, but it was more about him did things that only he was capable of
>Kurata says while he doesn't change, the world around him did, which was maybe something a bit different. Haiji says the first time that he sees Samurai Flamenco that he's an idiot, and says it again in the last episode, but the nuance is a bit different. Like how in Batman when someone seems him and laughs he ends up becoming the Joker. "I'd just like to end by saying that people are always connected somehow, or something like that."