This last weekend has been an absolute riot for the OTAQUEST staff as we headed off to the Studio BONES offices to conduct our live AMA session with Eureka Seven director Tomoki Kyoda on /r/anime. The community came out in masses to celebrate the veteran creator’s works, as well as ask a number of hard-hitting questions involving his favorite pizza toppings. Over a hundred questions were asked, and we all worked our hardest to answer as many of them as possible — but of course, we’ve got a few favorites of our own. Let’s take a look back at some of those questions, as we continue to celebrate the incredible work of Tomoki Kyoda.
Comment from discussion My name is Tomoki Kyoda, the director of Eureka Seven and storyboard artist of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, AMA! [Live from Studio BONES].
When looking over Tomoki Kyoda’s favorites, it’s pretty easy to see that great work is inspired by equally great work. In particular, my eyes definitely lit up with the mention of Hayao Miyazaki’s original Lupin the Third anime series, something I personally hold in a very high place.
Of all the things that were said during the interview, however, this was absolutely the most insane. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the most full-circle thing that’s ever happened; Tomoki Kyoda getting into the anime industry because of a Watanabe Shinichiro interview about techno music in anime written by the very same Dai Sato that he would go on to create Eureka Seven alongside.
Comment from discussion My name is Tomoki Kyoda, the director of Eureka Seven and storyboard artist of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, AMA! [Live from Studio BONES].
While Eureka Seven is definitely one of the works that Tomoki Kyoda is most noted for, his incredible role in the creation of Evangelion 1.0 is often a point of discussion amongst fans. It was interesting to hear his take on working on the film, and equally interesting that if offered to do it in similar fashion again he’d turn it down.
One of my absolute favorite questions from the AMA, it was exciting to see the way that Tomoki Kyoda lit up while explaining the process. In particular, there was a distinct chuckle let out by everyone in the room as he explained the concept of how difficult re-runs of the show can be due to the existence of this scene and the complicated way in which it was originally aired.
This answer, in particular, was definitely one of the more expected ones, though it’s a really cool piece of trivia that Tomoki Kyoda had purchased a Roland TB-303 (the quintessential acid sound synthesizer) from Denki Groove for as low as $50 when they’re now easily worth $2,000 or more. The envy in my eyes might have been a little apparent at the moment he mentioned that detail. It’s a shame he had to stop collecting them though, it’s definitely a collection I’d love to see with my own eyes.
This answer, in particular, struck a few chords with everyone in the room. The idea of giving back to that which gives you so much is something that resonates a lot amongst our team, and it was definitely motivating in a whole lot of ways to hear those words uttered by Tomoki Kyoda in regards to the creation of Eureka Seven.
As a bit of trivia about this one, when we were initially talking about this there was the previous discussion of how most of his ideas for anime usually come from casual conversations. Following that Tomoki Kyoda went on to say that he’s been very into Chicago Soul music as of late. Then when he uttered that he’d love to create a Yakuza-themed series, we chimed in and mentioned infusing Chicago Soul with it, and the room was alight with ideas. It was definitely an exciting place to be.
While this is only a small sample of some of the incredible questions from the community, there’s definitely a whole lot of other information and details to explore throughout the thread. It was more than exciting to be in the Studio BONES offices, and we couldn’t be more happy with the outcome. If you’re interested in checking out the original posting, be sure to head over to the /r/anime thread, here.
You can expect to see a number of AMA sessions from us in the near future, as well as our exclusive interview which is set to come out soon. Be sure to look forward to all of that!