Akadot - Article - Chatting with Ishikawa: The "I" of Production IG spends a few minutes with Akadot page 3


Akadot Retail - Pop Japan Mercantile

by Luis Reyes

What's the name of the project?

MI: That's a secret. But we have four current projects in various stages of development and all of them involve a US company somehow.

So going back to the video games, do you want to release "Blood" in the states?

MI: Yeah I hope so. It would be great if we could release it on our own in the US, but I feel that the new game we're developing would appeal to the US far more than "Blood" would. The "Blood" game features a lot of text, and you have to choose what to do or what you want to do based on what you read. But this new game is very visual; you decide what to do based on what you see. It's all written with the camera angle, as if the player himself was the director of the story.

Allow me to shift gears and delve into the narrative of "Blood," specifically the closing image of American planes departing from a base in Japan on their way to Vietnam. What statement about the American presence in Asia does director Hiroyuki Kitakubo make with this image? How does that, in turn, reflect the Japanese sentiment at the time, and now?

MI: The ending theme highlights the nature of Vampires in light of human nature. Vampires kill out of necessity. To live. Humans are far more violent because they're violent for political reasons; they're violent when they don't need to be violent, to make a point. So the question that Hiroyuki poses is, "Are humans more violent than vampires?"

Then is the image of Saya holding her dripping wounds over the vampire's mouth -- impressing upon her the thought that she has killed her own -- directly correlative to the image of the humans packed into planes, flying to Vietnam to kill their own?

MI: The original script was totally different than the movie. Saya has lived for hundreds of years and has adopted several identities over that span of time. Basically, it was her relationship with a human that created these demonic vampires that kill humans. These are not just her kind -- they are her children. She needs to kill her own daughters and sons before they kill humans. That's what the title "Blood" refers to, they are her blood, they are her family, and she must now exterminate her bloodline.

Is that back-story going to be revealed in a future "Blood" project?

MI: We didn't want Saya to be telling the story, revealing everything about the past. We kept the back-story very much in the background, opening up the film to the audience's interpretations. And on a business level we left room for a sequel. The video game is somewhat of a sequel. But there's going to be some kind of sequel somewhere down the line that reveals Saya's past.

One more question, I spoke to Takayuki Goto (the G of Production I.G) a while back and he talked primarily about the process of animation, whereas you speak primarily about the direction of the company. What is dynamic between the two of you within the company?

MI: Goto was an animator to begin with. He likes to animate, he wants to work on projects that he can draw. I don't really want him to think about the business end, nor is he interested in the business end. His job is really to develop animators that can work with Production I.G for a long time without getting burned out. My job is to decide what projects to tackle and then raise the money for them. The theatrical releases, such as "Blood" and "Ghost in the Shell," do not involve Goto at all. Just because he's the Vice-President, doesn't mean that he's working on the project, that's his decision. If I feel that it's something not suitable for him, or something that he won't want to work on, I won't bother him about it. As the producer, I'll bring people into the project.

And to close, Saya looks so awkward in a schoolgirl uniform. Is that intentional?

MI: That was for the otaku. Otaku like sailor suits and they like girls that are naīve about sex. They're the people that are going to buy the DVD.

Artistic and pragmatic, Ishikawa bounds confidently to another interview, but not before shaking my hand with both of his and thanking me for speaking with him. Gracious without being supplicant, bold without being offensive, successful without being seduced, Ishikawa might very well stand his ground as increasingly larger companies vie for Production I.G titles. And he might very well get what he wants and still make money.