FRUiTS magazine interview with Yasuyuki Ueda
One of the earliest interviews, given to a youth fashion magazine rather than an anime one while the show was still airing. Ueda explains that he worked in Pioneer LDC's original-projects section and that, after several years of what he calls ordinary titles, he wanted to make something closer to his own sensibility. He picked staff himself instead of going through a studio: he found ABe, then an art student in Japanese painting, through ABe's homepage and met him at Nakamurabashi station, and he asked Konaka, whom he already admired, to write the scripts. 'production 2nd' in the credits is simply Ueda, named after his department and chosen to suggest a label outside the mainstream. He says his first draft began with Lain's mother and the question of why Lain was born, and that the writers and the director turned it into a warmer drama than he would have made alone. He describes the Layer 01 suicide as something he had to negotiate with TV Tokyo, arguing it was essential to how the thirteen episodes talk about the value of life. He credits Konaka with Accela and the nanotech ideas. On design, he says Lain's single long left lock was his own request, meant to break symmetry and to act as a charm that keeps voices out of her left ear, while the bear pajamas came from Nakamura and Kishida as her armor when facing her family.
- Ueda found ABe through his personal homepage and recruited him before his professional debut
- 'production 2nd' is Ueda himself, named after his Pioneer LDC section
- The original plan opened with Lain's mother and why Lain was born
- The Layer 01 suicide needed advance approval from TV Tokyo
- Accela and the nanotech ideas were Konaka's
- The asymmetric left forelock was Ueda's request; the bear suit came from Nakamura and Kishida
- Ueda had worked on the Noel game about two years earlier with Junji Nakahara
Sources: lawmune.net