Title: #005: Gyakuten Saiban – Takumi Shū Special vol. 2 / #005:「「逆転裁判」 巧舟スペシャル vol.2」/
Source: Capcom Sound Sphere (down)
This article is a full transcript of the podcast. The podcast is not available here.
Gyakuten Saiban – Takumi Shū Special vol. 2
Sandō: I also worked with you as a member of the team. And speaking of team members, I have to say I was rather amused by Mr. Endō, our director…
Takumi: Yes. This was the first time, you know. Up until Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 – Trials & Tribulabations), I worked alone on the planning of each entry and writing the scenarios for this series.
Sandō: You did all of that alone?
Takumi: Yes. Doing all of that alone, well, that does mean a lot of work for me of course. But on the other hand, it means I can keep a close eye on everything, so in a way, it’s also convenient. But this time, I was joined by three new comrades on the planning side, no, I guess it was four in the end. So I was there, and Endō came as the new director of the team.
Sandō: A rather unique person.
Takumi: Yes, he is. And then there was Yamazaki, with whom I also worked with on Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney 1 DS)
Sandō: A youngster, right?
Takumi: Yep, he’s one of our young men. And then there’s Yamakawa, our new problem child.
Sandō: Aha, the one who spends too much money.
Takumi: Yes, our promising rookie who has a lot of particular habits and quirks.
Sandō: He’s a rather large bloke too.
Takumi: Yes, if we get started talking about this planner, I’m afraid we can fill this whole podcast, he’s rather a treasure full of stories…
Sandō: If you could introduce each of them a little?
Takumi: Alright. So until 3, Naruhodō Ryūichi (Phoenix Wright) was the protagonist of this series, but now the series was going to start anew with a new protagonist Odoroki Hōsuke (Apollo Justice), so it was also decided we should also get some new people on the team, to have them grow and develop themselves as developers. So Endō, our man Mitsuru, was chosen to head this mission. He was rather unlucky to be selected for a project like this, but he himself was very happy. Endō was one year my junior, I think he joined Capcom in 95. So twelve years ago, Hanako-san ga Kita!! (“Hanako is here!!”) was released, the first game I worked on
Sandō: Oh, that brings back memories!
Takumi: Endō and I worked together then. And he really likes mystery. And I really like mystery fiction too. I even made a mystery game called Gyakuten Saiban. With mystery, I mean mystery fiction. Detective novels, you know them?
Sandō: I know.
Takumi: Some people don’t. Anyway, Endō really loves mystery fiction, so twelve years ago, the two of us made a promise: we would make a mystery video game together.
Sandō: Twelve years? That’s a whole cycle in the Chinese zodiac!
Takumi: Yes, on that fateful day in the year of the Pig… I am totally making this up by the way. But afterwards, we went our own ways after that team was disbanded. So we didn’t get to work together again. I heard rumors that Endō worked on many masterpieces in the meantime… I am totally making this up by the way...
***
Takumi: So when it was decided Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 – Apollo Justice) would be produced, I was asked whether I knew somebody for the team. And Endō’s face popped up in my mind.
Yamamoto: Because of your twelve-year old promise.
Takumi: He has a unique face, so I had to think of him immediately. I knew I needed him. So we asked him to come to our team.
Sandō: So you personally asked for him?
Takumi: Yes. I wanted to know how those twelve years had changed him. But he always looked a bit older than he was, so he had barely changed.
Sandō: Oh, youwanted to know how those twelve years had changed him…. on the outside?
Takumi: Endō is a different type than me, with different things we’re good at or not. Like you mentioned earlier, I am the type that focuses on one single thing once I get started on it. Forcing you to throw a guitar on the floor for thirty, sixty minutes. Endō is the exact, neat type. Like he would say: “Mr. Takumi, scheduled time is up, let’s stop throwing that guitar around.”
Sandō: Now you mention it, I see what you mean.
Takumi: You wouldn’t know without me telling you?
Sandō: His hair is tidy like that too. It’s all combed back. Like Hakuryū (actor).
Takumi: But he has a little bang of hair hanging in front of his forehead. It looks sexy.
Sandō: But you know how everyone’s all tired at the end of a development cycle? By then, Endō’s hair was a bit more messy. Just like Odoroki, that bang would hang down lifelessly…
Takumi: We hadn’t worked together in such a long time, so I was surprised by how he managed everything. In a period we had to work a lot overtime with Yamazaki, designer Nuri and Endō, we were talking about how we should go out and have dinner together, just to get the spirit going, and Endō would come immediately saying: “Let’s plan that in for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, alright?”
Yamamoto: Eh? Every other day?
Takumi: And then he’d say we should gather at 18:15.
Sandō: He’s really exact and punctual.
Takumi: And he likes games, board games too. Like poker. Poker is featured in the game too. So he’d go: “I also like poker. Let’s have a tournament today. Let’s gather at 18:05.” But why the five minutes? Why not just at six exactly? But I guess he probably needed those five minutes as a buffer. For our schedules. So I guess those five minutes were a form of kindness. Anyway, he really makes an impression on you. A lot of people like the memorable characters in Gyakuten Saiban it seems. But
Endō, he’s exactly like one.
Sandō: He sure is a character.
Takumi: I think that Endō can be found in the game in many forms.
***
Takumi: And then there’s Yamazaki. He’s been with me since the previous game, Yomigaeru Gyakuten. He’s still young, I think it’s his fourth year at Capcom now. He’s been at my side since he joined Capcom. I really get along with him, and he’s knowledgeable about mystery fiction too, always ready to discuss mystery with me, so I find him really pleasant to work with. But he doesn’t have that explosive uniqueness Endō has.
Sandō: I get what you mean, he appears to be a normal guy.
Takumi: A fine young man.
Sandō: A fine young man.
Takumi: But he’s rather loud. Whenever he laughs, you can hear his HAHAHAHAHA everywhere in the office, with people in the busier teams glaring at him.
Sandō: But laughter is a good thing. So please, everyone, don’t think bad of him.
***
Takumi: So there were the three of us, Endō, Yamazaki and myself, and then another person joined us: Yamakawa, a rookie who started working at Capcom that very year. I mentioned him earlier. But does he really spend so much?
Sandō: He.. you know… we receive salary, right? I heard he spends it all on games.
Takumi: Not all of it. He also buys manga.
Sandō: Like, I’d read news of a limited edition DVD box being released, and then I’d already find the set sitting on his desk! He buys everything.
Takumi: Aha. But I suppose he mostly buys games. Yes, he buys a lot of games. He’s a strange kid. He buys manga, he buys games, but always looks so nonchalantly. Eating cup ramen during lunch.
Sandō: So he saves money there.
Takumi: But still, he’s strange. He always wears rather casual clothes, but I always thought he came from a rather well-to-do family. But one time he said this month was going to be rough money-wise. The first time he ever sounded worried. But that was on our pay day! So nobody understood what he meant. But apparently, he has a demon’s card
Sandō: A demon’s card?
Takumi: A credit card. So his salary for the month was all taken. On his pay day. So that’s how he made a rather big impression on us. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is Yamakawa.
***
Takumi: And then there’s… I’m not sure whether I should say this on a podcast that’s going to be broadcast…
Sandō: I’m sure it’ll just boost his image!
Takumi: So a while back, the team, I mean, the people with their desks nearby, they were reading Famitsu together. I was sitting nearby, when Yamazaki suddenly cried out loud and called out for me. “Mr. Takumi, come here, you have to come immediately!” So they were reading a magazine together, I think it was the Famitsu, and Yamakawa had been looking at an advertisement there, and had remarked that the person in the advertisement looked like you.
Sandō: Me?
Takumi: Yes. Well, that sounded interesting, so I thought, let’s have a look then. But I was really surprised when I saw the person in the ad. It was a really, really famous person. So we asked him, don’t you know him? But he didn’t.
Sandō: Was it somebody everybody would know?
Takumi: Everyone in Japan would know him. It was utterly unimaginable Yamakawa didn’t recognize him. That man had just starred in a very big movie.
Sandō: Oh, that movie?
Takumi: So we asked him, do you know Son Gokū? And he says, sure, from Dragon Ball. And we of course say no, not that Son Gokū.
Sandō: You mean, the star in the film Saiyūki, right?
Takumi: Yes. So he was in that ad with some other people, and their names were printed on it too. So we asked Yamakawa, can you pick out his name? So he said: “He’s… not Steven Spielberg, right…?”
Sandō: So he pointed at the actor starring in Saiyūki and the first thing he said was he’s not Steven Spielberg? Hahaha.
Takumi: Yes. So he first ruled out him being a foreigner. And then he ruled out the names of women. Lee Byung-hun was out too. And finally, he arrived at Katori Shingo.
Sandō: Wow. He arrived at it by elimination!
Yamamoto: That is rather unusual for someone born and raised in Japan…
Sandō: It is pretty difficult to grow up in Japan and not ever have seen Katori Shingo…
Takumi: So he looked at a picture of Katori Shingo and said he looked like you. Who would ever think of that? In a way, he’s still a pure young boy.
Sandō: Pure.
Takumi: Pure.
***
Takumi: Yamakawa’s quite unique in other ways too. He knows a lot about game music and music from television anime. So I asked him, do you know Southern All Stars.
Sandō: THE Southern All Stars? Kuwata Keisuke’s band? Where he’s vocalist?
Takumi: Exactly. So he says, he knows them. So we asked him, could you sing one of their songs for us? Oh, just to make clear, we weren’t bullying him. It just came up. But then he backed out, saying he didn’t know them that well.
Sandō: Not that well?
Takumi: So he had heard about them. He knew the name. But he didn’t know any of their songs. So then we asked him if he knew Matsutoya Yumi. Sorry, these are all older artists. I just chose a name I thought everyone would know.
Yamamoto: I know her.
Takumi: Then we asked, have you heard of Yuming (Matsutoya Yumi’s nickname)? So he said yes. So we asked him if he knew her songs. But he didn’t know her that well, he said again. So that continued for a while. “Do you know Dreams Come True?”
Sandō: Oh, but that would be music from his generation, right?
Takumi: That’s why we asked him. But again, he didn’t really know them that well. So then we thought, this one you must know. Utada Hikaru. So he was all: “Of course I know her. She’s the one from Kingdom Hearts!”
Sandō: Haha, so he knows them if there’s a connection to games!
Takumi: Then we asked about Hamasaki Ayumi. Of course, he connected her to Onimusha.
Yamamoto: Aha, Shin Onimusha (Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams).
Sandō: That’s a great story.
Takumi: So he knew Nishikawa-kun, T.M.Revolution, very well of course.
Sandō: Everyone in the music industry! You see how effective it can be to use anime and games to promote your music!? See the data we have here!
Takumi: Very, very unique data.
Yamamoto: Data representative for this part of Osaka.
Takumi: The 7th floor of Capcom.
Sandō & Yamamoto: Hahaha.
Takumi: This all makes it sound like Yamakawa’s a bad worker perhaps, but you’d be wrong. He’s really passionate about his work and really dives deep into his tasks. Digging deeper and deeper. And he even plays the violin.
Sandō: Violin?
Takumi: He’s been playing since he was 3.
Sandō: Eh!? You really couldn’t tell.
Takumi: And he’s been drawing too. He showed me some of his work, it’s quite good. He also made a website with Flash. He has a lot of hidden skills.
Sandō: The next time I see him, I really need to have a nice talk with him.
Yamamoto: I don’t know him, so listening to Mr. Takumi talking about him I really thought he was a hopeless case, but with that last part, I too feel like I want to have a talk with him.
Takumi: A while back we went out together for karaoke. So he sang a song from an anime. In Russian.
Sandō: Russian?
Takumi: Russian. He can sing in Russian.
Sandō: Was he singing things like piroshki?
Takumi: No, not exactly like that. He apparently just listened to the song a lot of times, wrote it down and memorized it.
Sandō: He’s a learner!
Takumi: He’s somebody you’d better keep in the team, I thought. Well, I wasn’t thinking about it so seriously.
Sandō: He does sound like the creative type.
Takumi: Capcom’s really a treasure cove of unique characters. When writing Gyakuten Saiban, whenever I’m stuck with a character, I’ll just look around me. “Let’s feature him in the game…” That happens a lot. Some characters were made like that. Their appearances are of course different, but their inside… the parts I see, I take those elements, rearrange them a bit and create characters with them… I don’t think they themselves notice what I’m doing.
Sandō: They don’t know.
Takumi: Like here’s a person A. I took parts of their personality and put them in character B in Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All). So I handed A a copy of Gyakuten Saiban 2, told them they were in it and asked them to look for themselves. But A couldn’t find themselves. Perhaps my view of them is just skewed…
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