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Interview: Gen Urobuchi

Don't you know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions? It could very well be that the apple the snake offers in the garden is what saves us from an oppressive master. Besides, there's no such thing as true altruism anyways since everyone who wants to consciously do something, always does it in exchange for something else (and I don't mean money). There's always a selfish motivation for any supposed altruistic act; the exchange is of perceived spiritual value, or to satiate your own desires to "do good". And often, that pursuit of what they think of as doing good is what forms their own vision of justice, which would surely conflict with someone's else vision as well.

I never liked how I heard he was basically overruled on what sounded like a way more sensible idea with the Madoka movie for a more shocking and twisting ending.

What was that exactly? Do you have a link for that? I'm really curious.

Akane the Catgirl wrote:

^ ... The point. You missed it. By a long shot. Yes, I know you're talking about Sayaka's arc in Madoka Magica.

Well you're wrong; I wasn't referring to Sayaka or her arc specifically. And you say I missed the point but in fact you missed my point.

Forget about this business of selfishness and selflessness; that's something you raised, and has nothing to do with what I'm talking about.

I never liked how I heard he was basically overruled on what sounded like a way more sensible idea with the Madoka movie for a more shocking and twisting ending.

Sometimes when I see someone who's a spirit of justice… I feel like I want to destroy them!

I've always found his contempt for altruism and justice to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard from a writer. It just feels very childish somehow and like he's trying to appeal to teens in their rebellious phase or something that feel they have to answer to nothing. I also have never really bought that he feels like putting good and evil on the same ground, it's more like he just refuses to have conclusive resolutions to the conflicts of good and evil entities.

I know it was probably a restricted question, but I would have loved it if the interviewer asked him why if he's such a superstar he refuses to actually commit to any anime project and finish what he's doing anymore. Anyway he strikes me as kind of a weird dude with mostly shock value and a few interesting recurring themes he likes to play around with so I have no idea why he's become such a superstar again considering he really doesn't contribute all that much to the industry these days. I guess anime really is just that badly in a rut when comes to personalities compared to say the video game industry so by comparison he stands out since he's willing to tackled some darker themes and typically doesn't completely shit the bed with them.

I would have also asked him if he ever feels like his name is put on something just to have it sell better and if he ever feels he's being treated as a commercial tool rather than a valued and key member of a writing team cause it sure looks that way these days. I never liked how I heard he was basically overruled on what sounded like a way more sensible idea with the Madoka movie for a more shocking and twisting ending. I get the sense he'd like to try some new ideas but isn't really being afforded the chance to because the powers that be want the easy money and will exploit his current brand popularity while it lasts to get it.

BillyMK wrote:

What was that exactly? Do you have a link for that? I'm really curious.

I believe ANN's reviewer of the film (was it Key?) also caught onto this misconception and it influenced his/her review quite a bit. It's pretty unfortunate, but now that the film has had time to settle, much of the misconceptions have been debunked and the film has been seen in a much more positive, respected light. Not as much as the original series, but enough to be a proper part of the series. At least, from what I've seen.