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Zwei, SciADV producer Tatsuya Matsubara Q&A stream recap: a peek into Robotics;Notes’ development and more

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On Friday, March 26, Japanese duo band Zwei (Robotics;Notes’ Augumented Place, Steins;Gate 0’s LAST GAME, etc.) hosted an hour-long livestream in which they interviewed SciADV series producer Tatsuya Matsubara. In the stream, they discussed Robotics;Notes, Matsubara’s role in the company, and of course, music.

An apt summary of the stream was created by Twitter user @IkitaMato over the course of multiple Tweets. Having verified the veracity of the information provided, we will be using these Tweets as a basis for this article.

The stream began with a performance of Robotics;Notes DaSH’s Avant Story by Zwei themselves. After the performance, the Q&A session between Zwei and Matsubara began.

On Robotics;Notes

  • One of the first few questions asked was, “Why was Robotics;Notes set on Tanegashima?”
  • Matsubara began by saying the team wanted to use a setting that was different from the cities they had been using in prior entries, which were Shibuya and Akihabara for Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate respectively.
    • They wanted to use a location with a scientific background, and they eventually came upon Tanegashima, which houses the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (also known as “JAXA”).
  • When asked if they had any other location ideas, Matsubara answered that they considered Nakano (due to its unique subculture), and Shinjuku (due to its relevance to Shibuya).
  • In the beginning, the team had about ten people go out for location scouting. After that, they held a planning meeting at the banquet hall at the end of the first day, as the rest of the staff knew about the game at that point.
    • It was at that meeting that they decided on the synopsis for the game—they were just searching for a location for it to take place in.
    • Aspects of the game that were already decided on included the protagonist, Yashio Kaito, the broad strokes of the plot, and the fact that the cast would be building a robot—after all, the game’s title, “Robotics;Notes,” had also already been determined.
  • Since they hadn’t made an appointment prior, the team basically dove headfirst into their interview-esque meeting with JAXA in Tanegashima. There was no dinner prepared due to a blunder that occurred, so they went without food for the night. There was no breakfast either, so they all had to go to a local convenience store the next morning.
    • “We were there for around four to five nights… or perhaps a full week. It was summer at the time,” said Matsubara.

About Matsubara and Zwei

  • Zwei asked what Matsubara’s favorite song from them was.
    • “Augmented Place is very dear to my heart,” he responded. He said he listens to it quite often, such as when he’s creating opening movies for various MAGES. properties.
  • Zwei shared a photo of themselves enjoying the local cuisine during their visit to the Tanegashima Gun Festival in 2018.
  • They talked about going to Chikura-no-Iwaya, as well as the Firearms Museum, both of which are featured in the Robotics;Notes titles.
  • They also shared a photo of themselves performing Augmented Place (the Robotics;Notes Elite opening song) during the Gun Festival, where they were both wearing yukata. They said it had been raining only a short while before the performance, so they got very lucky.
  • Zwei asked Matsubara what he does at MAGES., to which he responded that he “does anything, really.”
    • Matsubara elaborated by explaining that his job as a producer is to think about how to incorporate representative director Chiyomaru Shikura’s ideas into a game, present the proposal he comes up with to the rest of the company, and then obtain the budget needed to produce it.
    • “If sales exceed the budget, you win; if not, you lose.”
    • Matsubara also said that it’s his job to tell the composer how to divide up the music and the musicians. He said to think of it like, “I want to employ this kind of person with this selection of the budget,” or something similar.
  • Zwei was chosen by Shikura to work at MAGES.

The stream ended with Matsubara making an announcement: the Steins;Gate Revue Starlight collaboration would be running until the end of the month. At the time of this article’s publication, the collaboration is indeed nearing its completion.

This concludes our summary of Zwei’s livestream. Special thanks to @IkitaMato for their Japanese summary. As always, we will keep you updated as more information arises.

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