KOS-MOSFIX is an artbook by CHOCO (Mugitani Koichi) made in celebration of 20 years of KOS-MOS (and 20 years of Xenosaga). Page 46-47 has an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi. Below the Japanese text CHOCO actually used a machine translation into English so that people who buy his book overseas can read it (or at least have a vague understanding of the interview), but it was quite bad, so Lugalbanda had a go at translating it.
ALSO SPRACH TETSUYA TAKAHASHI
CHOCO (C): Congratulations on the release of Xenoblade 3!
TETSUYA (T): Thank you!
T: Oh, are you hungry by any chance? Would you like some food?
C: I'll have to kindly decline that offer.
C: At the same time (as XB3), it's been 20 years since the release of Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht, the first ever game made at Monolith Soft.
T: It's been 20 years since Xenosaga released, but I've known you, CHOCO-san, since my days at Square, so around a quarter of a century in total. I have a strange feeling that it's been so long but also that it all happened in the blink of an eye.
C: Do you recall what kind of character you had in mind when you requested her character design? Tell us about the specific requests you had and how you ended up contracting me for it.
T: Before we asked you, CHOCO, we had tried doing it in-house, contracting character designers, but we had great difficulty in making any headway. There were a lot of potential ideas put forward, but none that satisfied me. I guess you could say they were all too straightforward? I wanted the silhouette and design details to all be meaningful and have a point, but I hadn't seen any of that. So I wanted someone who could consider those aspects; in other words, you, CHOCO san. I thought it would probably be hard on you to have you do both this and the mech designs, but we were running out of options (laughs).
C: I think you requested something like "robo girl in a bondage-type outfit", but was that really necessary for the plot? Director, isn't that just your personal fetish?
T: I did have my convictions, so to speak, but one day, I just decided that KOS-MOS should swing whichever way the wind was blowing (note: market-wise, as CHOCO's machine translation makes clear). So I just said screw it, and went as extreme as I could. And so I think I gave you pics of one of my favorite adult film actresses (laughs). Sometimes it's important to defy your personal wishes and just stick to what you think will work. If you get a character design that you like in spite of your personal convictions, the results shouldn't disappoint. I think that was an important lesson I learned from that.
C: Was the design I came up with what you had in mind? Or maybe it wasn't but you thought it was fine regardless? Truthfully, did you think to yourself "This wasn't what I had in mind"?
T: When the first rough design was sent to me, I felt all my worries fade away; I was confident that this was it. Really, I wanted to go more in the design direction of the Archetype, which I'll talk about later, but like I said, I wanted to go whichever way the wind was blowing, and I decided that this was what I wanted. Especially when I saw the abs on KOSMOS, I was truly amazed and felt a sense of defeat at your hands.
C: (I had no idea...)
C: Do you have a favorite KOS-MOS version?
T: Without a doubt Archetype. If I recall my request was a character design in the same vein as Hans Bellmer, and what I wanted was a robot girl in that Bellmer style. It's a very niche artistic choice, and some people might find it a little creepy, so we settled to take that direction only for the Archetype, but I really wanted all of the KOS-MOS versions to have that artistic direction.
 About Hans Bellmer Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) was a German artist and doll designer who was known for spherical, ball jointed dolls, as well as a generally gruesome art style. People who know about his work probably have a kink for that kind of thing. Not to be confused with the Dutch painter Vermeer. (Description by CHOCO) |
T: Ver 2.0 was all about a new challenge (more on that in a second). For Ver 3.0, we took the criticism of 2.0 and tried to make it milder, or more appealing to a wider audience rather, at least that's how I see it. I think it's the most stylish looking as a result. Ver 4.0 is probably most popular with the fans, but it is the farthest away from my conception of KOSMOS. The design reflected the entire development team consensus at the time, and I think that's great. There's some progressive (Note: advanced?) elements in there too. Basically, I'm talking about what's going on inside KOS-MOS' mind. As a vessel of Maria's soul, she's becoming too human-like, so to speak? A vessel is a vessel and shouldn't mean anything more than that, you shouldn't be fooled into thinking it's anything more than that. I don't think my thoughts on the matter have changed in that regard.
C: I think now that ample time has passed it's possible to ask about the Ver 2.0 evil goddess of Mokkos, so if there's anything you'd like to say on that subject I'd like to hear it.
T: I think the reaction that customers had to the finished product was the proper one. Back then, Monolith was designing things without a goal or a clear target audience, but I think Monolith didn't really understand my extremely obscure niches either, so everyone ended up in a situation where we were all asking ourselves "What brought them to end up with this character design!?" but we made the figure anyway, and I think that was really unfortunate.
T: In terms of Mokkos, or rather Ver 2.0, it's actually my second favorite after the Archetype. The basic concept was to have a clear gel-like substance that functioned like artificial muscles, and in terms of that tricky design concept request I think the result was perfect. I think the use of the clear sections throughout the body rather than in one area was also very ahead of it's time and good design balance. And now, twenty years have passed. Like with Telos:Re, I think we could make a Ver 2.0 now that customers would like and appreciate. The same goes for Mokkos. Back then the finished figurine industry was still in it's infancy. The idea of mass producing something like that for a limited edition was absurd. Now we have plenty of companies that can make high quality figures to sell, but there was no industry know-how at the time either, and it was all starting from scratch. But the decoration master (the sample created by a professional sculptor that the mass produced figures are based off of) was quite high quality. Even though it was made by hand, it was very detailed. So it wasn't the sculptors fault. It was basically already doomed to fail when the decision was made to mass produce, or rather the decision to make tens of thousands of them within a limited time frame. That was the biggest cause. We didn't have any time to talk about the factory's management structure, we just needed to keep making more. I think we could make a phenomenal Ver 2.0 now. I want it (laughs).
C: After making numerous cameo appearances, she got a makeover and appeared in Xenoblade 2. I personally think that the fusion of a weaponized robot girl in a lacey, girly outfit was new and original at the time. She would go on to become the template for the "Robot Girl" trope and a character that has been known and loved for a long time. As the progenitor, I feel like there's still room aside from KOS-MOS and T-elos for you to make robot girls, but what do you think?
T: The next time there's an opportunity, I'd like to go at it Strong Style (known as Shoot Wrestling in English, a kind of wrestling that is focused on more physical contact and unscripted events to hype up the crowd) with you, CHOCO san (laughs). These days my interactions with you have mostly been on-the-job, and in terms of creating an organizational structure and employee growth for Monolith Soft that's great, but personally I want to create something next-generation by "butting heads" together. I think the result of that is the kind of thing that really touches people's hearts.
C: Thank you so much!
END
(See the original source here.)
This is the kind of behind the scenes knowledge I love.
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