22. No Desperation, No Sympathy

Now, here’s some classic Miyamoto-san. When we’re at conventions like E3⁷ we have to present something on stage, right? At the very last minute, Miyamoto-san... ⁷E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo): A video game trade show usually held once a year in Los Angeles.

I fix it.

Oh. (laughs)

I know it’s rude, but I ask the event director to change things a certain way.

The other day you even talked to the orchestra. (laughs) I heard it from Aonuma-san.

I did. (laughs) There was a concert⁸ where the orchestra performed music from The Legend of Zelda. ⁸Concert: The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony Concert . An orchestral concert held at Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo on October 10, 2011. The music was performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mr. Taizo Takemoto. In the UK the concert was held at London’s HMV Apollo on the 25th October.

Right.

I was watching the rehearsal from the seats, and there was something that I didn’t think worked very well, in terms of the performance.

There was this part where there was a back and forth with the audience.

It was a bit that fed into the orchestra’s performance. When they finished rehearsing that part and the music stopped, I ran up to the stage and told the conductor and the music director, “I think you should do it this way...” And they told me, “Well, we were going to do that after it was finished.” I understood that because they did need time to rehearse. But if they were going to change something, they needed to make sure the whole orchestra knew about it, so I said, “This is my only chance to say this, so please let me explain.”

Whoa...

Some of our staff was there with me at the time, but none of them said anything.

Oh.

I felt that it was very noticeable if you were in the audience, and something needed to be done about it.

I see where you’re coming from, but I don’t think most people would have been able to do that.

(laughs)

(laughs)

Well, I can see that maybe it’s something you can only do if you’ve got a very thick skin. Clomping your way up to the stage during that tension-filled rehearsal and saying, “Hold on a moment!”

Yeah. (laughs)

But I think that you could do it if you were desperate.

If you were desperate.

That’s right. And they ended up making some small adjustments on the spot.

You know, I always say that what you do is “sympathetic creation,” but to be more precise, you’re desperate about sympathetic creation.

Oh, that’s very true.

Actually, I’d say that it’s the sympathy that’s the key. If you’re not desperate, you won’t gain any sympathy.

Oh. “You won’t get any sympathy if you’re not working desperately.”

I think that’s true.