From the Trigun Art Book (1998 Tokuma Shoten) pages 61-63.
Translated by sumire
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--WRITER YOUSUKE KURODA INTERVIEW--

First, please tell us how you came to be involved with Trigun.

I was out drinking with Producer [Shigeru] Kitayama of Nippon Victor. It was in Shinjuku, around two in the morning, and I happened to say, "I want to do a really cool anime." At the time, I didn't know that plans for Trigun were underway, but afterwards, I got a phone call saying, "We're leaving it to you," and I thought, "Wow, great!"

At that point, had it already been decided that you would be doing the scripts for the entire series?

First, when I was to do the series outline, I met with the main staff, and I asked, "What are you thinking of doing for a writer?"
--"Someone you like is fine. Call a writer friend of yours."
--"My only friend is ___ Kurata." (laughs)
We had a conversation like that, and things just went along without their ] hiring anyone else. (laughs)

But really, I did want to try doing it all by myself if only they'd let me. After writing ten episodes or so, I seriously made up my mind to do it all myself.

About your being a longtime fan of Trigun...

Of course. I'd had my eye on it since the days when it was in [Shounen] Captain.

What was it that attracted you?

The Brilliant Dynamites Neon chapter comes to mind most readily. Looking at that character, I fell in love with his interesting, cool, and kind of stupid style. It's not just ordinary coolness.

There are quite a few original episodes in the TV series. Did you prepare the framework for those?

In the first half of the series, I did create a lot. But in the second half, for the story beyond episode 20, I first had Nightow tell me what direction he was thinking of, and then we had discussion after discussion. You know, if we traced Nightow's plans as is, it would rob the fans of the pleasure of reading the comics, so little by little, I left his path and created new elements.

There are various points I'd like to ask you about from the beginning to the end of the series. First, what was the reasoning behind making the first three episodes original stories?

That was Director Nishimura's order. He wanted to draw this character called Vash the Stampede from an objective viewpoint. He wanted to start with a "Just who is this mysterious man?" scene, so we decided to have Meryl and Milly misunderstand him. Those episodes are drawn from Meryl's point of view. Who is he? He's an incredible gunman, he seems stupid, he sounds and acts _____. (laughs) I think this idea was exactly right. In episode five, you begin to see how strongly this funny man embraces his ideals.
In order to make the first story based on the comics more interesting, we took the liberty of putting episode four before it. Episode five is also the first time he fires a gun.

He hadn't fired a gun up until that point, had he.

I was the one who said I didn't want to let him fire a single shot before episode five.
You don't see him express so much as the will to load his gun until it's necessary. The moment when Vash the Stampede finally goes so far as to draw a lethal weapon in order to protect people.

After that, there's Neon's story, and after that, several original stories in a row. What were your impressions of that part?

I think the statute of limitations has already run out, so to be frank, I was intending to start the Gung-Ho-Guns arc around episode ten.