Yoko Kanno Production IG Interview Part 3
(Warning: storyline spoilers in the post and in the interview)
The third and final installation to the English translation of Yoko Kanno’s Production IG interview has finally been published in the Production IG official English website. Read the first part here and the second part here.
While it is not clear from the interview if Kanno watched the whole Solid State Society movie or not, it seems clear that she watched some parts of it, particularly the final scene where Batou puts his arm around Motoko and she ponders about “the vast network”. She also based “Date of Rebirth” on this scene. In most interviews she relates that the music for animations that she does is usually done before the animation gets finished, and she bases her work on the story and the characters. I guess there are times when it’s not.
By the way, in the scene, Batou puts his arm around Motoko’s shoulder, not her hips. The image to the right is a screenshot of this scene.
One sentence that I find particularly controversial is “I sometimes wait for a coincidence to take place, use my body to create, or borrow someone else’s brain, and at times, my emotion goes out of control.” It’s not completely new to me that Kanno borrows themes from other artists, but reading these words straight from her makes me feel that she thinks it’s not that big an issue to do so.
She also mentions that the best music menu was the one for the scene with Togusa and his daughter. I would also have to say that it was also the peak of the movie for me. I even thought that Togusa did kill himself! Anyway, I have forgotten what specific song played on that scene, but the scene itself has been etched in my memory as one of the most dramatic in the series. Togusa probably is a staff favorite, and he’s my favorite character too. He’s the most human among them, literally and figuratively.
Kanno’s sense of humour as usual, is littered in the interview. Read how many (lol)s there are in the interview, and then try to imagine that little giggle she has. Cute as usual 
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July 17th, 2007 at 6:53 am
“I sometimes wait for a coincidence to take place, use my body to create, or borrow someone else’s brain, and at times, my emotion goes out of control.”
To me, this sentence has a lot of interpretations aside from the one you exemplified, mai ^^. “Borrowing someone else’s brain” could figuratively mean thinking in a way that’s not the usual for her, or viewing things from a different perspective. She could also be referring to the many musicians and staff she works with and how sometimes she trusts them to make their own input on her works (like when Steve Conte recorded “could you bite the hand?”).
I also find it hard she’d refer to existing musical pieces as people’s brains ^^;;; but your reasoning makes sense when she talks about coincidences.
July 17th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Probably because I would be the type to associate someone’s work of art with someone’s brain(child)
But of course, I’m open to the idea that I could have misinterpreted it, or that the translation of the interview makes it lose its original essence, or something else.