Kazuki Nakashima Talks Fourze at Anime Expo 2014 Press Conference

Head writer for Kamen Rider Fourze, Kazuki Nakashima (pictured above in the center), answers questions concerning his writing style and character development during the Kill la Kill press conference at Anime Expo 2014.

A press conference was held for the main production staff of the popular anime series Kill la Kill on Thursday, July 3rd at Anime Expo 2014. Along with main writer, Nakashima, was the anime’s main character designer and animation director, SUSHIO, and producer Toba.

The Tokusatsu Network posed the question of the difference to Nakashima between writing for a tokusatsu versus writing for an anime.

One of the major difference is that, specifically comparing Kamen Rider Fourze and Kill la Kill, is that Kamen Rider is a children’s show, so it comes with a different rating; and so, there are certain depictions of violence and cruelty that you can’t include. We may have a high school age characters in Fourze, but they couldn’t engage in fist fights. Whereas in Kill la Kill, it’s not rated for children so I was completely free to have heads flying off and the such.

The Kill la Kill production team also went on to talk about the affects of social media and how they are well-aware of fans’ reactions both domestically in Japan as well as fans abroad. While fan reaction may not necessary play a role in changing the overall story, it does play a role in how shows are promoted. This is further touched upon when the Tokusatsu Network asked Nakashima, whereas Kamen Rider Fourze is around 50 episodes and Kill la Kill is around 20, did he feel he had more room to change where a story is headed based on an audience’s reaction after a show is aired.

When Kill la Kill went into broadcast, all of the screenplay was already written up. There wasn’t much changing of the story. There may have been mentioning of certain details I may have overlooked in writing that may have been brought to notice, but those are small things that were modified in the recording studio. On the other hand, a show like Kamen Rider is a very big title and it has a lot of big suits and brass involved in production, so they have a lot of say. So, TV stations and sponsors bring in a lot of input and so there’s actually a lot of changes and modifications that need to be made in shows like Kamen Rider during the middle of production. Kill la Kill is something that I can pretty much write all alone; I really much enjoyed the independence and freedom that I had.

For further coverage of the Kill la Kill Press Conference, Plastic Ronins provided a full audio clip of the press conference.