Gen Urobuchi at the Nitro+ Panel at Anime Expo 2014

Gen Urobuchi speaks about his writing style and writing for Kamen Rider Gaim during the nitro+ Fan Panel at Anime Expo 2014.

The nitro+ fan panel was held on Thursday, July 3rd at 7:00pm and upon introduction, the crowd cheekily welcomed Urobuchi on stage with a chant of “Butcher! Butcher!”, a clear joke to Urobuchi’s tendencies to kill off beloved characters, to which Urobuchi laughed and replied with a simple English, “thank you.”

A video reel highlighted the various titles nitro+, a visual novel computer software company, created and collaborated on, including Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Fate/zero. Their presentation slides specifically noted Urobuchi’s work on Kamen Rider Gaim, much to the cheers of tokusatsu fans in the crowd that evening.

Urobuchi noted that Gaim was the longest series he has worked on and revealed that he finished writing two episodes on the plane en route to Los Angeles and will finish writing the finale on his way back to Japan.

During the Q&A portion of the panel, a question was posed concerning a rumor about the original theme of Gaim being birds and how Urobuchi would’ve utilized Lockseeds if this was the case. This was in regards to a pre-production development regarding Gaim being part-bird as noted in an interview with Naomi Takebe in the October 2013 issue of Hyber Hobby, published before Gaim aired. However, Urobuchi clearly stated that the theme was always fruit-based as everything had already been decided once he had joined the staff.

Hyper Hobby, October 2013

The Tokusatsu Network posed the question between writing for a bigger franchise title such as Kamen Rider Gaim to working on anime titles, like Madoka, which he would essentially have more creative control, how would he note the differences in his writing style.

Urobuchi replied that every title is different so each writing style is a challenge for him, particularly with Kamen Rider, because it was style of writing he had never done before and found he really enjoyed.

Other questions concerning Urobuchi’s writing style also revealed his approach to characters. Urobuchi noted that for the most part there is no deep message he tries to convey; he simply enjoys writing. A lot of the characters that he likes try really hard and that struggle in itself becomes the message. However, he doesn’t delve that much into it in the beginning, so therefore it naturally develops that way.

For further coverage of the fan panel, My Geek Review and Anime Diet posted live tweets from the event.

EDIT 7/11/2014: For a full fan recording of the event, visit the Plastic Ronins website.