Screenwriter Gen Urobuchi Looks Back on How He Joined Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the Anime Scene at the Time [Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising- Interview]

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-, the franchise's first entirely new installment in 13 years, is now playing in theaters. Serving as scriptwriter on the film's core staff, alongside chief director Akiyuki Shinbo and original character designer Ume Aoki, is Gen Urobuchi of Nitroplus.

Since making his debut with the PC game Phantom PHANTOM OF INFERNO, Urobuchi has gone on to work on game scenarios as well as novels and anime scripts, but his involvement in the TV anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which aired in 2011, was itself a major talking point among anime fans at the time.

We interviewed Urobuchi ahead of the release of Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-, asking him about how he came to join Puella Magi Madoka Magica, what he felt during production at the time, and how those feelings have changed since.

—When Puella Magi Madoka Magica first aired, it was already a talking point that Urobuchi, known for hard-edged works, was taking on a magical girl story. Could you tell us again how you came to be involved?

Gen Urobuchi (hereafter, Urobuchi): It started when Atsuhiro Iwakami of Aniplex took notice of Fate/Zero (the original novel of which I wrote myself). From there, I received an offer along the lines of, "We're planning a magical girl project with Shinbo and Aoki this time — would you write the script?"

That said, I had no idea how to write a magical girl story, so I was shown Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Le Portrait de Petite Cossette.

—Both of those are Director Shinbo's works.

Urobuchi: I proposed my own interpretation for the first project proposal — that we should aim for something with a direction somewhere between those two works — and once that got the green light, production began.

—Knowing both Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Le Portrait de Petite Cossette, that makes sense, but at the time it was a surprising choice for anime fans, wasn't it?

Urobuchi: I was surprised myself (laughs). Back then it was a period when I was eagerly taking on all kinds of work, so I suppose I had an adventurous streak — thinking a magical girl story might be interesting too. I was happy to be given the chance to try something I'd never done before, so I guess I was young enough to feel that being a little bewildered was part of the deal.