Bima Satria Garuda – Fun Facts

Episode 19, 20, and 21 delayed. Well…

Somebody interviewed the creator of Bima Satria Garuda, Reino Barack, and I just thought that this might be an interesting read. I’ll just summarize you the details.

• Reino once offered TOEI the concept of Kamen Rider Bima, but TOEI didn’t give him the licensing permissions because they don’t trust it.
• After the deal with Ishimori Pro, Bima Satria Garuda took 2 years for preparations before it started shooting.
• During that time, Reino did some research, including all of the local tokusatsu projects (J-Toku, Spheres), but it’s not that kind of toku that he wanted to make. He commented, “It’s not like it’s going to be a flop, but it’s hard to explain their concepts to the market.”
• Reino also took a look on local costume making companies, because he wanted to support creative industries in Indonesia. “But I’m sorry, the quality here is still too poor.” he said.
• Reino once bought a costume from Jogjakarta (a province in Indonesia) and let them came up with their own design, but it broke before it was ever used.
• He then tried from different vendors for the Lizarion Monster in episode 3 (the only costume made by locals). From 7 costume makers, only one of them finished according to schedule, and the result is far subpar. The costume was heavy and the parts are loose.
• Because of some other reasons (continuity being messed up, bad acting, etc.), Lizarion which was supposed to appear for two episodes was cut to just one.
• Until now, Reino is not quite satisfied with Bima’s results, especially for the characters. But he promised it will be better for episode 15 and the rest.
• There are only four JKT48 members which will appear in this season, those are Stella, Frieska, Ghaida, and Haruka.
• Bima toys already sold more than Ultraman and Kamen Rider toys in Indonesia. (Those two weren’t very popular here anyway)
• Even though Reino came up with the concept, the design and story was made in Japan. After that, Reino will decide according to the viewers’ taste.
• It was said that episode 1 went through most changes from the initial concept. For example, there is a meteor/falling star scene, and there was supposed to be some kid wishing for a falling star, but it was cut because it doesn’t really fit here. There was also a few changes in the dialogue, expressions, etc.
• For Bima’s design, Reino said that there are around seven to eight revisions. Ishimori became quite frustrated, because TOEI usually approve the first design they get.
• About the fighting, they refer to Kamen Rider. They didn’t use any real martial arts, because they afraid the kids will mimic it. But it is not impossible for the next series to adopt local fighting styles, such as silat.
• The fighting scenes are quite difficult. Currently, there are two Japanese fighting directors. They plan to add two more, so there will be four people who will specially direct Bima Satria Garuda’s fighting scenes.
• Reino realizes all the flaws in Bima. Fan expectations are high. They want something on par with Japanese tokusatsu which has been going for decades, and Bima is the first attempt ever.
• International response it quite good. Even Japan hopes Bima can air there. Bandai supports this the most.
• Bima’s viewers in Indonesia are mostly females from 9-14 of age.
• Reino also took part on deciding all of Bima Satria Garuda’s main cast.
• There are more than three Bima costumes. There is only one costume for each monsters.
• Why didn’t Bima use real explosions like japanese toku? Because it is hard to make. In Japan, 3-4 litres of gas will provide a good result. While here, using 10 litres, the result was like as if we’re using only two litres. And they also have to work on the permissions, shoot outside the city, and pay for the security.
• There are plans for off air shows and live shows but they lack people to produce it.
• Reino admitted that the production team is still inexperienced and there are too many crews.
• Languange differences is also a hinder in the production, because good translators are expensive.
• A budget for one Bima episode = One cheap film
• The shooting for season 1 (26 episodes) will continue for the next two months.
• Production of one episode takes around ten days.
• There are plans for the second season, but whether they are going to reuse the old cast or not, is unknown.
• The name “Satria” was chosen not because Suzuki is one of the sponsor, it was already decided before Suzuki came in. (The bike Ray used in the series is Suzuki Satria FU150)

Source:
http://ekonomi.kompasiana.com/bisnis/2013/09/27/reino-r-barack-sukses-diplomasi-anak-muda-593439.html
http://hiburan.kompasiana.com/televisi/2013/09/29/lagi-tentang-bima-satria-garuda-594194.html