SUNRISE INTERNATIONAL Information

In our current special feature section, we hear from Naotake Furusato.

The Story Behind the Birth of Crush Gear

We started planning this project in March of 2001 with the aim of having it on the air by October 2001.

I was presented with a prototype of a toy car that ran on two AA batteries and a motor, had a tall shape, and was so small that it could fit in the palm of your hand.The thing didn’t run in straight lines, but spun round and round in circles, and you would take two of these cars and smash them against each other. It was a totally new kind of game.

“Gear Fights” in the Animation

In the animation, the basic thing was that we had to describe exactly what a “Gear” was and what a “Gear Fight” was. The reason for this is that nobody knew what this new machine called “a Gear” actually was.

So we carefully explained the rules and everything about customization right as the story opened. Then we presented Gear Fighting as a kind of sport, and next we incorporated such elements as the trust between the characters, their friendships, and their emotional conflicts.

In terms of the rules of Gear Fighting, the fact is that we referred to sumo as a source and tried to make Gear Fighting as similar to it as possible in order make it very easy to understand. Two sumo wrestlers (meaning two Gears) fight in the sumo ring (or field), and you lose if you are forced out of the ring, overturned, or lose any parts.

Points to Watch in Crush Gear Turbo

“Dealing with 3D Graphics...”

Well, 3D computer-generated images account for one-third of the main show. This is the first Sunrise production to genuinely adopt the use of 3D graphics.

When it came to rendering the 3D images, I turned to [3D Production Chief] Mitsuo Fukuda, the director of “Future GPX Cyber Formula” (Later directed “Mobile Suit GUNDAM SEED) told him that because there are certain things we can do only in 3D, we should try to use it to full effect. As a result, the presentation of the Gear battle scenes is a little bit unique.

I think you can get it right away when you see it, but when the camera follows after a Gear (“tracking”) it doesn’t stop moving until the Gear stops moving. In the world of Crush Gear, if a Gear is stopped, it brings the match to an end. But, thanks to the 3D graphics rendering that follows the Gears, we were able to brilliantly express the stage presence of the Gear Fights.

In addition, we were able to incorporate special effects for things you don’t get with real [toy] Gears like fireworks and smoke.

This was all brought to life thanks to the knowledge of Mr. Fukuda who worked as a director on the race anime series Cyber Formula, and who was able to create such splendid devices and special effects which are only possible in anime.

Also, I think the ideas of including particular attributes for each Gear (wind, fire, mirage, typhoon, or ice, etc.) and an image (bird, dragon, tiger, etc.), and customization, came about thanks to Sunrise’s already well-established know-how.

In addition to that were Director Shuji Iuchi’s experience on the Majin Hero Wataru series, and my own experience on Gear Fighter Dendoh.

“The Story...”

I really wanted the creators to make this is work which would encourage children to think and place on value on things like friendship and trust in others. There are several episodes in which friendships deepen, and occasionally people fight, and then they make up, and then those friendships become even deeper.

It’s not just about extravagant Gear Fighting scenes. We would like people to pay special attention to the human events surrounding Kouya and the people around him. A Gear is not simply an instrument of war. A Gear is literally a gear that is depicted as something which links people’s hearts together, and in this work we wanted to accurately portray the coming-of-age story of the young boys and girls who drive the Gears. That kind of thing especially - those were the elements that we wanted the kids who love Gears to really get a sense of.