>>53406239Q: Satoshi and Pikachu have developed a friendship that transcends species. What do you find most important when depicting their relationship?
Yuyama: The fact that they don't rely on words. Ever since the beginning of the anime, I've wanted to get across the sense that they communicate using nothing but gestures and noises as much as I could. At first we actually toyed with the idea of having Pikachu talk just like the Rocket Gang Nyarth does (laughs). However, we talked about how it would be both more realistic and more interesting if they had to communicate non-verbally, so that's the way it ended up. I think it'd be really difficult to find a pair of humans that can understand each other as near perfectly as Satoshi and Pikachu can, but I hope we managed to depict a duo everyone can look up to.
Q: The Rocket Gang, the group that acts as the villains on Satoshi and Pikachu's journey, are quite colorful characters as well, aren't they?
Yuyama: Back when we were initially planning the series, scriptwriter Takeshi Shudo-san suggested that the format should have villains in it, and we got Musashi and Kojiro. Shudo-san was the one that gave them their names too, but not even I know why he picked the ones he did (laughs). I believe we decided to include Nyarth "because it looks cat-like and approachable". This meant the show ended up having a cat-and-mouse type relation between the cat and the mouse, something we didn't actually realize at the time. It was a complete coincidence (laughs).
I like the fact that the Rocket Gang have a childish side to them despite being adult characters. They're adults that take things seriously despite approaching them the way children would, and I think that's what makes them so appealing.
