Today marks the 18th anniversary of the first Rockman EXE game! We’re proud to present an English translation of the 2014 MyCapcom interview with the Concept Artists of the EXE series. The complete interview can be found in the jump.
This interview was done to celebrate the release of the Wii U Virtual Console version of Rockman EXE (1); Published on July 2014.
To keep in-line with the nature of the original interview, Japanese terms will be kept as-is, without influence from their English localizations. Names however, will be written as (Given name, Family name). Honorifics are also kept.
Translator and editor comments will be added at the bottom of the page addressing the differences that were made in the English localization, as well as miscellaneous little notes.
Chapter Nine: A Parallel Rockman EXE World!
Now then everyone, Rockman EXE was recently released on the Virtual Console. Have you downloaded it? This big hit from the Rockman series came out simultaneously with the Game Boy Advance and was made into a TV anime, even an animated film shown in theaters! Everyone, please take this chance to download the game and give it a try.
That’s right. This time, the topic of the segment that introduces you to Capcom’s history, Capcom Legend, is Rockman EXE!
Now speaking of Rockman, it came out in 1987 as an action game that represented Capcom. From there, as the Classic Rockman, Rockman X, and Rockman DASH series continued, they evolved in various ways. However, Rockman EXE evolved in a different way.
To understand a part of that evolution, this time we’ve spoken to two people who were involved in the development back then. The character designer and art director, Kaji-san, and the character designer, Ishihara-san! Please throughly enjoy this super-valuable interview!
Hayato Kaji: Joined in 1990.
Participated in development starting from Rockman 4. Was involved in development and design of Rockman 5, Rockman 7-9, the Rockman X series, Onimusha 2, and Lost Planet. The image he drew to represent himself is… Dekao!?
Yuji Ishihara: Joined Capcom in 1991.
In charge of designs for the Rockman DASH, Rockman EXE, Ryuusei no Rockman, and Gaist Crusher series.
Reconstructing Rockman’s World
-About Rockman EXE, what was the starting plan to renew Rockman’s design like?
The familiar Metool from the Rockman series joins in the battle, too.
Ishihara: To start with, the title was different. It was changed to Rockman EXE. I think Inafking-san [1] planned on being able to accomplish something by combining Rockman with the Game Boy.
-If I recall, Rockman EXE was released alongside the Game Boy Advance itself, wasn’t it?
Ishihara: That’s right.
-So what were the early plans for Rockman EXE like?
Kaji: At first, the designs were mostly being done by someone else, but partway through I joined in to work on character designs. But during it, I became involved with the production of Onimusha 2. So I made the basic designs then had to pass the baton over to Ishihara-san for the spritework.
Ishihara: Kaji-san joined because we wanted the designs to be friendlier and easier to understand than the first designs we had. And right before he could do Rockman’s, I joined in.
-So he did the fundamental art direction, then things were passed along to you, Ishihara-san.
Ishihara: That’s right. The rough designs of Navis, characters, and so on were created by Kaji-san, then I took over.
Kaji: I did Navis and characters at the same time and drew a bunch of rough sketches. I did sprites as well. I did the basic sprites for things like Netto-kun and the player characters, then left them to be animated. Starting from Rockman EXE 4, the size of the characters changed, so my sprites were used until then.
Ishihara: The faces shown when characters spoke their lines were done by Kaji-san, too. His pixel art is really good (laughs).
Netto’s mugshot icon (pixel art). Even with such a small sprite, his features are shown well!
-Ishihara-san, what was your role in Rockman EXE?
Ishihara: I joined right after the development of Rockman Dash 2 was finished. I supervised object parts (characters, effects, UI, etc.), while doing design work focused on Navis at the same time. Regarding human characters, I worked on them starting from around Higure-san and Madoi Iroaya. I suppose the scenario was already finished? Designs were created in accordance with that.
Higure’s design was created with the concept of a likable otaku.
[Text in image: Navi mark on the necktie pin]
-The Rockman series was primarily created by Inafking-san, but what kind of direction did you have for Rockman EXE? I get a strong contemporary impression from EXE.
Kaji: I think we were relatively free to do what we wanted with Rockman EXE. EXE is part of the Rockman series, but it wasn’t really involved with it at all (laughs).
-This is changing the topic a little, but when Rockman EXE released in 2001, PC communications and the internet weren’t really as popular as they are now. Was the series’ involvement with the net decided from the beginning?
Kaji: That’s right. It was already decided to make the internet into the theme. The PET was there from the start, too.
-Were there any difficulties or anything regarding that?
Kaji: Ishihara-san, you’re rather fond of new things, right?
Ishihara: Back then, I did things like take time off work to order an AIBO [2]. (laughs) I don’t think the internet was that widespread back then, but being at a company, you’d come into contact with cutting-edge things like mail and the web. So you’d get this feeling of “this is going to be the next big thing”. And just like expected, it became reality.
Kaji: These days kids are using LINE and the like. But back then, the net kind of felt a bit more distant.
Ishihara: But even still, watching my dad use the net and hearing about computer viruses on TV, I managed to learn about it a bit and wanted to try experiencing it. EXE takes that and uses its characters to make it fun and easy to understand, bringing it together with a battle system that even children can grasp. I think it felt just like it was the future.
Rockman EXE was made with “networks” as the theme. Back then (13 years ago, 2001), the internet was just becoming known.
-So, regarding reforming Rockman into Rockman EXE by modernizing it; Were there any complications with design discussions or with the concept of Navis?
Kaji: So about Rockman’s color, we planned on making big changes to it. Back then, we were wondering “can we show that this is Rockman without using blue?” and such.
-Oh!
Ishihara: The idea of a non-blue Rockman is actually one that had been tried several times, not just in relation to EXE. But in the end, when you think of Rockman, you think “blue hero”, and since that’s been his standard image, I think it’s important to respect that.
Kaji: The result has blue in it, but I think the blue aspects have been minimized considerably.
The pixel art of Classic Rockman made with blue as a central color, and the EXE Rockman that was reformed for the 21st century. EXE’s Rockman shares the blue, but also boldly uses yellow.
-How were the human characters handled in Rockman EXE? Did you think about them and their Navis as a set?
Kaji: We thought of characters and Navis as contrasting sets. With Navis, there were already character images for them from the old games, so their colors are frequently made to be the same as theirs. But we’ve got a little more freedom with the colors we can use for human characters. We took one part of them and made it share their Navi’s color.
Rockman and Netto-kun. In reality, Netto-kun has a lot of red, but his bandana shares Rockman’s blue color and mark, conveying their image as a pair.
Ishihara: With Count Elec being a gaudy-faced old man and Elecman being a cool-looking Navi, they have the sense of “how do these two normally interact with each other”. Still, their colors match.
Kaji: For Meiru and Roll, we made Meiru’s skirt pink so it would share Roll’s color.
Roll and Meiru-chan. In reality, Meiru was originally intended to be a tsundere [3] character? (The concept was later realized with Ryuusei no Rockman’s class president?)
-Ishihara-san, do you have anything to say on design?
Ishihara: For a while, I thought about nothing but Navis. To the point that I could draw all of them from memory. (laugh)
-That’s amazing! Come to think of it, you said you liked Windman before, right, Ishihara-san?
Ishihara: Windman’s certainly nice. (laugh) I like his balance of contrary and cool-looking. When designing Navis, there are three different methods to refining the old Rockman designs.
- Don’t change the original much at all
- Add some cyber-like details
- Rethink it over from the concept
Starting by rethinking the motif of the character concept is something in common with all characters. But in the end, there were cases where as long as a Navi didn’t seem out of place in EXE when compared to other Navis, it didn’t really get changed much. Snakeman is one example of method 3, rethinking a character over from the concept. We took the snake motif and expanded on it, putting him into a jar – things like that.
A comparison of Windman and Snakeman’s Classic and EXE designs. Windman’s original bowl-head design was developed into a cool, Mongolian-esque design.
-Was there anything you kept in mind or paid special attention to when working to refine the Classic Rockman designs?
Ishihara: We aimed for both “something that will make the Classic Rockman fans happy”, as well as “something that’ll make new fans happy”.
Also, back in Classic Rockman’s time, due to limitations on what the Famicom could do, all of the characters had to have pretty much the same body shapes. We had to make them distinguishable from each other within those limitations.
With Rockman EXE, although the Game Boy Advance was a portable gaming console; Its restrictions weren’t as tight as the Famicom’s. So we were able use a character’s entire body to relay their characteristics.
With Chargeman, he represents a steam train, and doesn’t even have a humanoid body. With Metalman, we made his whole body macho and advanced his design further than his Classic one.
A comparison of Chargeman and Metalman’s Classic and EXE designs. EXE’s designs have quite a bit more of a tempered (?) feeling.
-How about the human characters? For example, I think Enzan is a unique character with a bold design.
Kaji: With human characters, the thing we kept in mind was definitely recognition. For Enzan, we took care to make sure that his characteristics were easy to grasp with a quick glance, and that he was easy to reproduce in pixel form.
A character illustration of Enzan. He has a contrasting black and white hairstyle, and clothes with colors that complement each other without getting messy. He’s a character with easily recognized features.
Ishihara: The amazing part about Kaji-san’s design method is that designs were done in a tiny sketchbook. On top of that, each character didn’t even take up 10 centimeters. He drew them small, made the features and individual details strong, then submitted it as final just like that.
Kaji: How do you know about that? (laugh)
Ishihara: I saw you do it. I think your method is closer to what’s done for pixel art.
Kaji: Well, I’m not confident in drawing things large, anyway. (laughs) I start by drawing black and white lineart in my sketchbook while thinking about what colors to use. Then I overlay the colors digitally. After doing that, of course, certain parts start looking different than I imagined (laughs). So while changing things, I’ll hash things out with the planners and fill in the colors gradually. Coming from working on the Classic Rockman as software for the Famicom, my creating methods became like that.
I think that my designs use quite a lot of primary colors, but Ishihara-san’s are more modern. With characters like Numberman, and his intermediate colors like cream, beige, and ivory, everything is brought together with a contemporary feeling.
An illustration of Numberman. Green and beige are used as the basis, with some red points bringing everything together well.
Ishihara: With Numberman, we expanded on the idea of a studyholic and adopted a “bean sprout” color scheme.
Kaji: Old manga had those sort of ciphers, the ones made by studyholics and leader of kid groups. I loved ciphers like Fujiko Fujio-sensei’s[4] (laughs).
-Characters like Serenade give off the same feeling as Rockman DASH, any thoughts?
Ishihara: I wonder. Maybe that’s because their tanned skin color and divine appearance looks like someone who appears in DASH. But I didn’t particularly have that in mind. At the time, they were meant to be the other half of a strong characters pair with Forte. When I weaved something together with the divinity and maximum strength I was thinking about at the time, this is how things turned out. Simple and smart, with an archaic smile. Ah, I suppose the solid, curved hair and the mysterious wings might have been DASH-like, too.
Serenade’s design art. It certainly gives off quite the unique coolness and elegance!
[Text in image:
The ears should be about this thick. They’re thin.
Cross section
Front]
-In terms of human designs, do you have any favorites?
Ishihara: I like Teruo Jomon. I’m fond of his colors, too. He has kind of a twisted, stylish look, and I remember saying that I wanted his shirt back then (laugh).
Teruo Jomon’s character sheet. He kind of gives off the feeling that he looks at the world from a different angle.
[Text in image: Screwdrivers and other tools are inside]
-How about you, Kaji-san?
Kaji: I like Enzan. He was a character that I wanted people to remember, so I kept a strong impact in mind when designing him.
Ishihara: Where’d the hairstyle come from?
Kaji: I want my designs to have an impact that will get people to remember then, so I just kind of ended up making something impact-focused. The planners told me “that hairstyle would be tough to imitate” (laughs). I wanted him to give off the image of a rival-type character. Blues was made by Ishihara-san, so I think his mark was made to synchronize with Enzan’s image.
The mark on Blues’s chest and Enzan’s hairstyle are synchronized well. These are incredibly well-developed designs!
-I’d think giving everyone a Navi mark must be quite a bit of work, is that right?
Ishihara: It actually just kind of works out (laugh). I design them all at once with the character’s image and the Navi’s colors in mind. So when the Navi is complete, the mark just ends up somehow being complete, too. The simpler it is, the cleaner it fits in. It’s not that difficult at all, it’s fun, actually.
Kaji: Because emblems exist, you can relate to characters through them. Children are especially happy to have that sort of thing.
Ishihara: However, it’s always been unclear whether they’re supposed to be something like a family crest, an individual’s mark, or a Navi’s unique mark (laughs). Hinoken has the same mark for all of his Navis, but Meijin has a different one every time, for example.
Kaji: Rockman alone has the “H” from “Hikari Labs” in his design. At first, it was just a normal cross, but a different designer put in one more line and made it cooler.
This is the original shelved design. Rockman’s mark is actually designed to be a tilted H.
-How was it working with (Tokiko) Nakashima-san?
Ishihara: She joined starting from Rockman EXE 4 and took over pretty much all human characters from that point on, like Ran Igarashi and Jasmine. I mainly worked on the cyberworld side of things.
Kaji: I’m bad at expressions, but she drew really good ones.
Ishihara: It seems like Nakashima-san drew her facial expressions to give herself a better grip on them and to help her like them more. They’re all so lively and fun, and help to improve the presence of her characters. They were good references for those in charge of the scenario, too. Because of how things went, she got to be in charge of Ryuusei no Rockman’s characters, too.
Super lively facial expressions are drawn on Jasmine’s character sheet.
[Top left text: Jasmine
There are places where the eyebrows aren’t filled in, please ink them solidly.
Center right text: Her eyebrows aren’t like characters like Netto and Meiru, but are instead inked in solidly with highlights.
- Labels left to right:
Normal, Happy, Normal
Angry, Happy, Sad, Sad]
EXE As Part of the Rockman Series
-Kaji-san, you’ve been involved in the Rockman series since Classic, and Ishihara-san, you’ve been involved since DASH; How do you feel about the Rockman style of games?
Kaji: Actually, at the start, I don’t think I was all that fond of games aimed toward children. But as I continued to make them, I began to pay more attention. Now, my children are playing Rockman X2 on the Virtual Console, and Irregular Hunter X on the PSP.
These titles have a lot of events, and seeing how happy the young fans are, I think Rockman is pretty amazing. I think it’s a great series and I want it to have a long life.
Ishihara: The charm of the Rockman series is the enjoyability of the character motifs and the quality of the games. I’m sure these things make children happy. Still, even though sometimes this gets mistaken, Rockman isn’t a “cute” series, but a “cool” one. It’s fine for adults to look at it and feel that it’s cute, but I think it’s important that there’s an intimacy where you want to be friends with the characters while still having them be cool. DASH’s case is a bit different, I think its charm works hard from the shadows, or something (laughs).
Kaji: Also, it seems like children are fond of ____man as a name (laugh). Also, it seems that giving each character an element and a weakness is a key point.
-Speaking of the Rockman series, at the same time, the Rockman Zero series was running, was keeping EXE different something you kept in mind?
Ishihara: The world of the Rockman Zero series is a really serious and cool one. Ours is made up of bright, hot, and sleek aspects, so I think it became something different by itself.
Kaji: Regarding Zero, the director is Kawano-san from the DASH series. I heard from him that he wanted to make it sharp at its core. As far as planning goes, we came before Zero, so we didn’t particularly worry about making them different. In the end, Zero’s world was created with Toru Nakayama’s illustration’s at its core. In contrast, ours had flat tone shading. So they ended up being constructed differently, I’d say.
Rockman EXE’s World and Rockman’s World
-This is regarding things that aren’t directly stated in the games, but the world of Rockman Zero is set up in the “Rockman > Rockman X > Rockman Zero > Rockman DASH>” timeline of humanity gradually dying out. In regards to Rockman EXE’s world, what kind of relation does it have to Rockman’s?
Ishihara: It’s a parallel world. In the Rockman world, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily make robots. But in EXE’s world, they researched the internet instead. They’re not linked directly, but they’re linked by fate.
-Ishihara-san, because of EXE and Ryuusei, you’re currently part of the Gaist Crusher series. Are there any aspects of that where you distinguished it from them?
Ishihara: During Rockman, I was doing nothing but weird mecha enemies, Navis, cyber-people (laughs), and so on. Gaist Crusher was the my first experience making genuine human beings, so I was frantic trying to learn how to do that. Furthermore, Gaist Crusher is centered around up-close, hand-to-hand combat, so I made faces a little longer and strengthened outlines. In other words, I kept “making things manlier” in mind. But right now, with the anime having started and with development being begun on Gaist Crusher God, things will change even more with direction from the producers.
Also, when doing EXE and Ryuusei, I decreased the number of lines to make it so kids could tell characters apart at a glance and draw them easier. It’s the same for Gaist Crusher’s characters, but regarding the Gaist Gear (armor), it was designed knowing that it would be displayed with polygons, and includes complex details so you won’t get bored even if the screen is zoomed in on it.
However, I didn’t think that they would be taken as-is and animated by hand, so I bow my head to the animators who’ve done so.
What are “Capcom-ish” designs!?
-People say that Capcom’s designs are made so that silhouettes are easily recognizable when they’re inked in. As well as that the designs make you want them as toys. What do you think about that?
Kaji: As far as designing for games goes, making it so that something is recognizable at a glance is ingrained in my body (laughs).
Ishihara: Right (laughs).
Kaji: It’s so obvious to me that I can’t even remember who I heard it from (laughs). Also, when doing 2D, “how would this work in 3D?” would be something I’d somewhat keep in mind. However, since I only “somewhat” kept it in mind, there were frequent occurrences where when something was actually made into 3D, I’d get complaints of “how does this work?” (laughs).
A Rockman EXE Transmission illustration. Fun and coolness are both at play here!
Ishihara: Regarding Gaist Crusher’s protagonist, Rekka, I’ve thought about the basics of how he’d be in 3D. At the same time, I wanted to do lively, manga-esque illustrations. So consistency isn’t very strict there.
Kaji: If you worry too much about 3D, you’ll end up with a stiff design, after all.
Ishihara: However, it seems like Treasure’s modelers had a hard time with things after all – they consulted us countless times. Sorry about that.
…But regardless, they reproduced them really well in the end, so I’m grateful.
Regarding silhouettes, just like Kaji-san’s design method for EXE, I emphasized their characteristics so they would stand clearly out even in small character sprites.
Kaji: “Design emphasis” might also be one of Capcom’s specialities. We make things as big as they can go, then adjust them from there. (laughs)
-Then, to end with, a word to all fans of Rockman EXE, the Rockman series, and Gaist Crusher, if you would, please.
Kaji: I always work to create something that you’ll play as a kid, but remember even after you become an adult.
Just because something is aimed towards kids doesn’t mean it should deceive them.
I want to make something I can look back on and think, “that was good”.
I think those feelings get across well to kids, so I hope to continue making unforgettable things.
Ishihara: Just because something is well-made doesn’t mean it’ll sell, but I think the fact that they were well-made is the reason so many people were able to play Rockman EXE and Ryuusei no Rockman for so long. So I worked wholeheartedly on Gaist Crusher, too.
I hope that EXE and Ryuusei players from back then, new fans, and fans that came after watching the anime will feel that “games are fun”.
A long time ago, Inafking-san told me that he wanted to make the first Capcom title all children touched a Rockman game.
I think I want to carry that on and make the first title children touch a Capcom game like Rockman or Gaist Crusher, and hope I can continue to create things from here on out.
Kaji: And with that, we’ll make more “elite gamers” (laughs).
-(laughs) Thanks for the interview during such busy times!
Now then, the interview ended up running super long, but what did you think?
More Rockman titles, including more EXE titles, are planned to come to the Virtual Console. So keep an eye out!
And the title that Ishihara-san is working on, “Gaist Crusher God” will be sale from August 4th. Look forward to that as well!
The soul is being carried down. (Illustration: MyCapcom Editing Department)
Alright, the next Capcom Legend is planned to come on July 31st! Look forward to it!
Translated by Jumi.
Edited by Midnite.
Japanese to English names:
Rockman EXE (the series name) = Mega Man Battle Network
Rockman DASH = Mega Man Legends
Ryuusei no Rockman = Mega Man Star Force
Dekao = Dex
Metool = Mettaur
Netto Hikari = Lan Hikari
Higure = Higsby
Madoi Iroaya = Ms. Madd
Count Elec = Count Zap
Meiru = Mayl
Famicom = NES
Enzan = Chaud
Teruo Jomon = Terry Jomon
Blues = ProtoMan
Hinoken = Mr. Match
Meijin = Mr. Famous
Ran Igarashi = Lilly
[1] Translator’s note: Inafking is a nickname for Keiji Inafune, there’s an explanation on it here: http://www.rockman-corner.com/2013/09/keiji-inafune-on-origin-inafking-and.html
[2] A series of robotic pets by Sony.
[3] Japanese term for a character archetype that comes off as cold, but occasionally shows a warmer, friendly side. As described, an example is Luna Platz.
[4] Translator’s note: Fujiko Fujio is the name that the two-person team that made Doraemon and many other works used for quite a long time.