A roundtable conference to celebrate the completion of all 26 episodes of Pani Poni Dash!. The director and other members of the staff talked about the first 13 episodes, mainly focusing on the scriptwriting aspect. |
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Various elements included by different generations |
Up until this point, how have you felt about all the responses and reactions? |
Hikawa | Even though there’s plenty of old gags and other stuff, I think young people are surprisingly well-versed on them. From my standing point, all I can say is that “Do your best, staff members” (laughs). |
Kanemaki | I think there’s quite a lot of jokes young people won’t really understand. But on the other hand, there may be some people who think that “this is pretty funny”. Researching it will have you find the original reference. |
What do you mean by “grasping”? |
Hikawa | I hope people will enjoy it and consider it funny even without understanding it. Also, Pani Poni Dash! is pretty lewd (laughs). The characters are pretty voluptuous. |
Kanemaki | As expected, there seems to be a lot of people who prefer big boobs over small breasts (laughs). |
Shinbo | In terms of the art, my intention has just been extracting things from the manga. But furthermore, there’s all that various stuff the staff adds, so it delicately changes form (laughs). |
What kind of an atmosphere do you have at the studio where you carry out your duties? |
Shinbo | A troublesome feel (laughs). But still, everyone is having fun. |
Hikawa | That tension is in the film itself. |
Shinbo | If you watch Episode 1 now, there’s so few written words on the blackboard that you’d think “Huh? Was there this little”, giving a lonely feel. As the series progressed, their density steadily increases. |
Kanemaki | We’re only halfway to the series, but saying something like that from this point on would get you into trouble (laughs). |
Hikawa | In Episode 1, the opening scene with Charlton He*ton was amazing. |
Kanemaki | The starting point was during the meetings, when King Records’ producer Ootsuki (Toshimichi)-san said “For instance, the opening starting from a seashore like in The Pla*** of Apes” would be cool, and from there we decided to have it identical to the style of the original movie. |
Takayama | If that parody was okay, then other parodies should be too (laughs). |
Kanemaki | Series Director Oonuma (Shin)-san, who was responsible for the storyboard of pool Episode 7 and directing Behoimi’s Episode 8, has a spectacular spirit for creating adventures. Oonuma-san is from the generation of flourishing gaming, so he knows a lot of references to games and has a great taste on how putting them in, but even if he explained the references to us, we wouldn’t understand a single bit (laughs). |
Shinbo | This isn’t about game references, but at first, I couldn’t understand why Oonuma-san implemented a drawing from J*J*’s Bizarre Adventure in Episode 8. When asked, he told it’s because the screen freezes immediately when the narration starts and this J*J* character has fittingly the ability to stop time. (laughs) I didn’t know about that. As for other references, I wish people from different generations to make them, because I want a wider range of people to be able to pick the show up and enjoy it. |
Kanemaki | As in, ”Please ignore any parts you don’t understand” (laughs). |
Shinbo | Good example would be that parents being able to ask from their children and children being able to ask from their parents. If they can have this kind of a conversation, wouldn’t the work become more enjoyable and have a fun feel to it? |
Everybody really does love a parody? |
Are there references targeted at older generations that the Director added in? |
Hikawa | Ya**ji Tanioka and such (laughs). |
Shinbo | When it comes to the bird shouting “Morning!”, it's pretty old school. |
Hikawa | I too believe it’s pretty old school. And Behoimi changes into people like Getter **bo, Tiger Ma*k, Tekka**n and such. |
Kanemaki | It seems there were a lot of young people who didn’t know about T*ger Mask (laughs). |
Hikawa | Behoimi sure did make her jump delicately similarly with her legs as bowlegs (laughs). |
Shinbo | And since everyone seemingly love references to Gla** Mask, there’s a lot of them added in. |
Hikawa | There’s also the adlib from the voice actors. |
Shinbo | In Episode 6’s audition scene, the voice for the chairman of the jury was done by Sakurai (Takahiro)-san, and he imitated Director O**dera from the live action version of Gla** Mask, which he did really well (laughs). |
Hikawa | The performance was done all by Sakurai-san’s own adlib. Just like that. As for drawings, there’s a person in the background dancing with a rose in their mouth, which is apparently similar to the Gla** Mask’s anime opening that aired in the past. |
Kanemaki | What about Nanjou’s ”You’re awful!” in Episode 7? |
Shinbo | That’s Hitomi Nabatame-san’s adlib. Probably because Gla** Mask has been going on so long, it has become a transgenerational manga that everyone has read. It’s an amazing work too. |
Kanemaki | I believe voice actors and people working in the world of arts like it especially. |
Shinbo | I, for example, considered Gla** Mask as the foundation for stage play production. I read it and learned about acting by thinking “So this is what performing arts are like!” (laughs) |
Kanemaki | That’s definitely wrong (laughs). That’s like thinking “So this is how baseball is played!” when watching **** of the Giants (laughs). |
Shinbo | Eeh, perhaps you aren’t wrong here (laughs). |
Ichijou, who has taken original work’s direction even further |
If you have a favourite character, could you tell us about them? |
Shinbo | It seems that everyone has their favourite. Takayama-san, what do you think about the character Ichijou-san? |
Kanemaki | Takayama-kun’s Ichijou-san is a pretty mysterious character. |
Takayama | Eh, is that so? Every time I bring Ichijou up she steals the show, so I try to restrain her as much as I can (laughs). |
Hikawa | During Episode 4’s collectible figure discussion, Ichijou gets called as a “Maniac”, which is something only Takayama-san would bring up (laughs). Even just by appearing, Ichijou always shows a great amount of characteristic. |
Kanemaki | There’s always something like that inserted in Takayama-kun’s episodes. The ends of Episode 4 and Episode 10, both of them being maniacal and unashamedly intense, not holding anything back (laughs). |
Hikawa | It had bombs, The Golden Pavillion and a Kawanishi H8K (laughs). Even though the same bomb joke was there, the story flow wasn’t as soft as in the original work. |
Takayama | It’s a joke about how ”in a gag anime, it’s fitting for them to talk about somewhat real things” (laughs). |
Shinbo | It’s not a gag anime, it’s like a graffiti from our youth (laughs). TL's note: Shinbo seems to be referring to the radio program Ano Koro Seishun Graffiti, where people can request songs that remind them of their youth. |
Kanemaki-san, who is your favourite character from them all? |
Kanemaki | I love Ichijou, and though I think I’ll get people angry for demanding all this absurd stuff, I’ve come this far and can’t hit on the breaks anymore (laughs). I’ve heard people often say “Ichijou has become more brilliant compared to the original work”, but all I’ve done has been expanding the direction of the original work. At the time I saw Ichijou in the original work, I thought to myself “This is gonna be a hit” (roars in laughter). |
Takayama | And so in Episode 5, Ichijou flew to the skies (laughs). |
Kanemaki | But my very favourite is Becky. She’s cute, and when Himeko is with her, it’s really cute. |
Shinbo | I like those ”It’s okay since Becky’s happy” and “It’s okay since Himeko’s happy” lines, which are often said. |
Kanemaki | Like with mammoth meat in Episode 9. When someone has a happy look on their face, everyone can be happy. I feel like that phrase represents the whole team. |
Even after writing scripts for 26 episodes, do you feel like you’ve written enough? |
Kanemaki-san and Takayama-san, do you feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders now that work on the script is finished? |
Kanemaki | It’s quite sad. There are still so many things I want to write about and I strongly feel in some places that “I couldn’t do that one well, I couldn’t do this one well”. 26 episodes are just simply not enough. |
Takayama | I’ve run out of jokes (laughs). |
Kanemaki | I’m always saying this, but this guy does the work with pleasure when I leave it to him (laughs). |
Takayama | I’m putting my all into it (laughs). Writing a script from Pani Poni is extremely different from the usual because of how its packed full with jokes. At the beginning, I intended help out a little and then make my run for it (laughs). |
Hikawa | That’s so cold (laughs). But we have talked many times about the lack of episodes. Now that we understand what we can do at the workplace and how it can be done, I believe that if there’s a next time, we can think how “We want to do it like this”, and do more things in a better cooperation. |
Shinbo | Yeah. There’s still a lot of work to do at our workplace, but we’ll continue working hard. Since it's a work that involves everyone's efforts, it's fun not knowing how each part is going to turn out until the end. |
While the Director and his team say that their work is still going on, are you, Kanemaki-san and others expecting to see Season 2? |
Kanemaki | I really want to make Season 2. Even now I look forward to the broadcasts and when watching them on TV, there are several times I think “Did that actually happen?” |
Hikawa | It surprises me how you can’t predict from the script what will be on the film. |
Takayama | When I watch the episodes, they’ve always devolved into a huge mess, although them going all according to the script. It's not often that you get to experience something like this. The steadily increasing workplace energy is pretty incredible. |
Kanemaki | The energy and the love are here, you can really feel the everyone loves the characters. |
Thank you very much for today. |
