Mini-interview: michiru yamane/koji igarashi

September 04, 2006, 09:26 PM

by brandon, via desperate nerdiness -
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I was transcribing an old interview for a proper publication (maybe even the one I work for!?), and this part is just not interesting to anybody but me and maybe, well...five other people. So you get to read it instead. This discussion, which took place while tim, chaz, and myself were all interviewing Castlevania composer michiru yamane, actually turned toward CV director koji igarashi, who happened to walk in while we were talking. The discussion was about Mana, the only man I'd ever propose to, guitarist of Malice Mizer, and leader of his own current band Moi Dix Mois. Previously, there had been a poster released which had iga and mana sitting near a throne, which I at one time assumed to be indicative of a collaboration between the two, in which mana would provide music for Harmony of Dissonance. This view was shared in one of eric-jon's earlier works. However, it was quite wrong, as the interview (finally) reveals, conducted at TGS 2005. Note: Some people have gotten confused, so to clarify, both images here are of Mana.

tim: It seems like lately the Castlevania series is getting less and less popular in Japan. Have you considered hiring a Visual Kei band to do a tie-in with a future game, like with vocals and everything?

michiru yamane: I haven’t, but who do you think would be good?

brandon: Maybe Mana, who you did a tie-in with at one point.

michiru: For next time we do plan to integrate some music with vocals, but it won’t be rock, it’ll be more operatic. (koji igarashi walks in)

brandon: iga, you met Mana, right?

koji igarashi: Yes, I met him once.

brandon: Weren’t you having him do some music or something?

iga: No, it was just a promotional Q&A with him, as he’s always been a fan of the series.

brandon: Ah, so that’s what the poster was all about.

iga: Right.

brandon: Did you see him with or without makeup?

iga: He didn’t have his stage makeup on.

brandon: How did he look?

iga: He’s a very beautiful man, definitely.

brandon: I’ve never seen him like that.

iga: Most people haven’t heard his voice, either.

brandon: I heard it once, on an old radio show…he sounded very normal!

iga: Yeah, well he used to hide behind Gackt’s voice.

brandon: Have you heard Mana’s music?

michiru: No, actually…

brandon: I used to describe Mana’s old band Malice Mizer to my friends as ‘Castlevania music with guitars’.

michiru: Well, perhaps I'll look into it.

So there you have it, an embarrassingly nerdy discussion which illuminates some specific things for a small group of people. Hooray. Oh and incidentally Mana has a little game on his site, in which you guide a bat to hell by clicking its wingflaps.