Gen Urobuchi Interview at AFA Singapore 2013

Conducted by anonymous during Anime Fest Asia Singapore 2013 and posted on 4chan on Nov 10th, 2013.

Greetings, /a/. I'm back from AFA and I've managed to ask some of your questions to Urobuchi.
Me: What inspired you to create Sibyl and the Dominators?
Urobuchi: We had a 3 hour discussion with the producers and director to develop it. It was largely inspired by the sci fi works of Philip K Dick and Gattaca.
Me: The whole surveillance scenario in PP is somewhat similar to what NSA is doing in the US. What do you think about that?
Urobuchi: I never thought about that, actually. When we found out about that, I was very surprised and it's quite scary to realize what NSA is capable of
Me: You included some quotes from western literature like 1984 and Utilitarianism. Did you enjoy it all and what other western literature did you enjoy?
Urobuchi: Oh, that was actually Makoto Fukami's (PP scriptwriter) idea. I actually liked some of those, but if it's too complicated, I probably won't bother to read them. (t/n: Urobuchi mentions that he loves George Orwell, but other western authors can get too complicated, so he doesn't try to understand it if it's too hard.)
>So is he onboard for Psycho Pass Season 2?
I asked him this question (is he writing for S2 and movie) and right at the very moment, Shiotani (PP director) walked in and told Urobuchi to shut up. Apparently, that info is classified for now.
We were short on time (each party was only allowed 10 minutes with him), so I moved on to Madoka
Me: Congratulations on the Academy Award Nomination. Were you expecting MadoMagi to be that succesful overseas?
Urobuchi: Someone else asked me this just now. I don't really understand the Academy Awards. Is it about the number of sales? Because then that doesn't really matter and I don't see any reason to make a fuss about it.
>someone then explained to him what the Oscars was all about and other films that were nominated
Urobuchi: Oh? OHHH? REALLY? WOW. Okay. I'm so embarrassed. Okay, wow. I'm absolutely thrilled and honored! I had to come to Singapore to know this. (laughs)
Me: let's talk about SHAFT and Akiyuki Shinbo. What do you think of the visual styles he used in the animation?
Urobuchi: I loved it! I thought it was very very fascinating. I don't understand why he did it, but it was really creepy at some points and I think that helped to create a lot of impact.
At that point, we were running out of time, so I decided to end it with some questions about FZ
Me: How did you and Nasu Kinoko come together to create FZ? In another interview you mentioned about how writing FZ took you out of a writer's block, so can you tell us about that?
Urobuchi: I first me Nasu more than 10 years ago, when he was working on the Kara no Kyoukai drama CD. That's when we first met and we've been very close friends since then. When I was with Nitroplus, yes, I came to a slump and I couldn't come up with any original stories for new visual novels so I went to Nasu to talk about it. In one of our discussions, we thought maybe if it was just about getting me to write, maybe I can work on someone else's pre-established work. That way I don't have to spend time thinking up of original ideas, but play around with someone else's concept and characters. That worked very well because it got me into writing again and working with other writers gave me new ideas for creating my own stories.
Me: In another interview, you mentioned that in FSN, Saber doesn't feel like the true heroine, and that Rin feels like the real heroine in that world. Why is that?
Urobuchi: Well, that's just my opinion but I'm sure a lot of Saber fans would disagree. I think it's all about their interactions with Shirou. Saber and Shirou's relationship feels like war comrades. Their interactions are more inclined towards respect, and it transcends a man-to-woman relatioship. So Saber feels like a 'main character' rather than a 'heroine'. On the other hand, Rin and Shirou stand as equals. Their relationship has an interesting romantic tension and the romance is more vivid compared to that with Saber. Rin feels like 'heroine' because of her pursuits and romance.

See Also

• Original thread
• Chinese translation