Anime Expo 2024: The Guilty Gear Team Talks With Anime Herald

Note: Due to the time-sensitive nature of our coverage, this will debut on the main Anime Herald site on August 14. We apologize for the inconvenience.

• Author: Seth Burn

• Editor: Samantha Ferreira

Anime Herald: When you first think of Guilty Gear, what emotions do you think of? Is it the competition, or is it entertainment?

Ken Miyauchi: I grew up with Guilty Gear and other Arc System Works fighting games before I joined the company. I view it more from an entertainment aspect. It gave me a new tool to communicate with people. For me, Arc System Works fighting games impacted my life. It gave me another way of communicating with people. Fighting games are one-versus-one. Even if you don’t share a language, you can communicate via the game and make a friend. That sort of experience is something I grew up with. When I think of Guilty Gear, the feeling that comes to mind is something that excites me. I think it has more ability to expand on that.

Norimitsu Kaiho: When I think of Guilty Gear, the two words that come to mind are speed and adrenaline. Guilty Gear might not be the fastest fighting game out there, but as you may know, in Guilty Gear there is a mechanic called “instant kill.” This is something where you can end the match within three seconds. That sort of speed is… when I first heard out about the instant kill mechanic, I thought, “What’s going on?” The more I learned about and got into it, I found it to be an adrenaline-pumping experience.

Seiji Mizushima: From my point of view, I wasn’t very familiar with the Guilty Gear series. When I was first introduced to it, the words “Guilty Gear” made me think of a dramatic story. The word “Guilty” made me think there was something interesting there. When I learned it was a fighting game, I expected a lot of violence and a clash of powerful characters. I thought it would be different than the other games I’ve seen before. From being involved in the anime production, I’m starting to learn about the uniqueness of the Guilty Gear world.

Anime Herald: Given that I-No is a musician, were you able to have any fun working on her music for the anime?

Ken Miyauchi: All of the music and character design, story, and lore for Guilty Gear is handled by Daisuke Ishiwatari. He’s the core of what makes Guilty Gear. I-No first appeared in the Guilty Gear X series. She has a deep background story. Daisuke Ishiwatari spent a lot of time working on her character. I would have to ask Daisuke Ishiwatari specifically about her musical themes. The themes are usually connected to the character’s background.

Anime Herald: Recently, Jack-O' Valentine went viral for the Jack-O’ pose. Suddenly you had characters from a lot of different IPs doing Jack-O’s pose. What was that like for you?

Ken Miyauchi: I thought it was very unexpected. You can never predict what will become a social meme. It’s interesting how people were attracted to characters doing that pose. Personally, I enjoy what’s going on with social media. Actually, I have a question for Seiji. What did you think of the Jack-O’ challenge?

Seiji Mizushima: This was before I joined the company. I saw a lot of cosplayers doing the pose. It wasn’t until later that I learned it was a character from Guilty Gear. I think it’s a great thing that the pose went viral and appealed to the masses. That creates buzz for the game. It’s catchy. I learned about her, and her mask and animations. I think it’s wonderful that something like a pose can gather so much attention. I think it’s fun and entertaining.

Anime Herald: You said something interesting. You said you can’t predict what goes viral. Usually that’s true, but sometimes you can. This brings me to the character Bridget, who has a unique backstory. What was the discussion in-house about Bridget’s story and its direction?

Ken Miyauchi: Bridget first appeared in Guilty Gear XX. At that time I wasn’t involved with the Guilty Gear development team, so I can’t comment on Bridget’s original character design. When Daisuke Ishiwatari first designed her, there wasn’t any mention about her male body. Later, Daisuke let the development team know about her having a male body. Heading into the Guilty Gear Strive story, Daisuke Ishiwatari already had Bridget’s storyline and character development planned. When we started discussing Bridget’s Guilty Gear Strive storyline, Daisuke Ishiwatari laid it all out for us. All of the Guilty Gear character storylines are in Daisuke’s brain. We then bring it out for the public.

Anime Herald: Do you have any stories you’d like to share from behind the scenes from working on Guilty Gear?

Guilty Gear: We have a story about the development of the anime. It took quite a while to get to this point. The discussion about making an anime started in 2019. It’s been five years, oh my God.

Ken Miyauchi: We discussed this a bit in the panel. We were thinking about how to approach the 25th anniversary for Guilty Gear in 2023. A former Arc System Works producer (Mori Toshimichi) is a friend of Seiji Mizushima. He said we should promote Guilty Gear by doing an anime to celebrate the 25th anniversary. That’s how this project started. Seiji Mizushima helped us see how the video game industry and anime industry could collaborate. There was a list of things we needed to care about when adapting Guilty Gear into an anime. We had long discussions about how we should manage this together. While we were doing this, Mori left the company. There was a lot of internal drama, but somehow we’ve made it to this point, so we are very happy.

Norimitsu Kaiho: From the conception of the anime adaptation, we had to appeal, not just fans of Guilty Gear, but new audiences as well. We took a lot of time. It was very difficult to decide what direction we would take the story and nail down the scripts. Once we solidified the direction, it became a fun and exciting process.

Anime Herald: Do you have any questions for us?

Norimitsu Kaiho: I’ve come into contact with so many Guilty Gear fans here at Anime Expo. For you at Anime Herald, what do you think the most popular Guilty Gear characters?

Anime Herald: I-No has the most fan art in the Artists' Alley. And the Jack-O’ Valentine went viral. She is very popular. Bridget, of course, is now very well known. And Sol Badguy. He’s iconic. He’s a lot of fun.

Ken Miyauchi: He asked the question I wanted to ask.

Anime Herald: Well then, thank you very much.

Guilty Gear: Thank you.