Daisuke Ishiwatari

Daisuke Ishiwatari or 石渡 太輔 is a Japanese game designer born in Africa. He designed Guilty Gear.

2002

 * 両性具有なんです. まぁもう人間を超越した存在になっちゃってますしね. 俺もだけど. They're androgynous. In fact, they've transcended human existence. Just like me.
 * 28 May 2002 interview regarding Testament from Guilty Gear, translated 20 March 2022

2004

 * The creation of Bridget as a boy happened at the very last second; during development I was drawing him as purely a girl. It’s just that when there is a need to give a worldly backbone (to the game), in order for me to try to not forget each character, and in order to revive the character, I give them my very heart. As a result, the creation of Bridget as actually a boy instead of a girl was because I thought he could become my alter ego. Well, if there was a need for it the reverse— a girl that looks like a boy— that would be okay too, but it doesn’t look pretty game-wise. It’s also somewhat calculated (laughs).
 * 2004 in the "Artworks of Guilty Gear X 2000 - 2004" by Daisuke Ishiwatari

2009

 * While I was creating the characters in Guilty Gear, I had a spot for a cute character. I thought it would be too boring if the character was just cute, so I thought it would be interesting to make the character a guy.
 * Anime Expo 2009

2015

 * I guess I couldn’t pin the inspiration for the character on any one thing. But when we are making new characters, we are always looking for some new element to add to the character to make it interesting and fun, and while we were making Bridget, that was the element.
 * 2 August 2015 interview on AnimeDiet with Jeremy Booth at Anime Expo 2015 (edited for clarity and concision by Dan Campisi) in response to Jeremy asking "In Guilty Gear, there is a character called Bridget. Bridget is considered one of the first transgender character in games. What was the process of creating Bridget, and what inspired you to make the character transgender?"

2021

 * Bridget is now a well known bounty hunter and has managed to greatly contribute to his home village and his parents, and is now at a stage where he's "trying to understand his true self"
 * 28 October 2021 in Famitsu interview

2022

 * Bridget: You’re not taking Roger away from me! Bridget: I’m... I’m a boy. These girl-clothes are... It’s a long story. Bridget: Thank you very much! It’s all thanks to you! I’ve got to toughen up! Y’know, since I’m a boy and all... Heh heh... Bridget: Hey! I-I’m not a “kid,” okay?!
 * 8 August 2022 dialogue written for Bridget in the release of the Bridget DLC for Guilty Gear Strive


 * ブリジットの性別について多くお問い合わせ頂いているのですが、アーケードモードのブリジットストーリーを経て、ブリジットは自分を女性と自認するようになりました. なので『彼』と『彼女』のどちらの代名詞が正しいかと聞かれたら、ブリジットは『彼女』にあてはまります. 前述のキャラクター説明にもあります通り、双子の弟として生まれたブリジットは、村の迷信から守るために両親が性別を隠して女の子として育てています. しかしブリジットの両親は、迷信から守るためとはいえブリジットに生き方を強制させていると感じ、心を痛めます. その事にブリジットは気づき、男として振る舞いつつ己の活躍で村を豊かにする、つまり迷信をくつがえすことで、彼女の両親が抱くブリジットに生き方を強いているという罪悪感から解放しようとしました. 結果として村から迷信は消え、両親も彼女も生き方に縛られる必要が無くなりました. その後、ブリジットは男として過ごそうとして違和感を感じます. アーケードモードのストーリーはここから始まります. ブリジットはゴールドルイスやカイとの交流を経たうえで、これまで敢えて目を背けてきた彼女自身と向き合い、彼女にとっての大きな決断をすることにしました. 彼女が勇気を出して、自分自身の気持ちに噓偽りなく選択したその道を、皆さんに見守っていただければ幸いです.
 * 14 September 2022 in 11th Japanese volume of Developer's Backyard regarding Bridget from Guilty Gear


 * After the events of Bridget's story in Arcade more, she self-identifies as a woman. So, as to whether “he” or “she” would be the correct pronoun for Bridget, the answer would be “she.” As mentioned in her character profile, Bridget was born as the younger twin son and then raised as a girl by her parents to protect her from a village superstition. Despite their intentions to protect Bridget, it pained her parents to do so as they felt they were forcing her to live a certain way. Bridget, realizing this, attempted to bring wealth to the village while behaving like a man, thus overturning the village superstition, as a way to free her parents from their guilt. As a result, the superstition faded, and nothing remained to restrict how both Bridget and her parents lived. After this, Bridget tries living as a man, but it doesn’t feel right. This is where the Arcade Mode story begins. After her exchanges with Goldlewis and Ky, Bridget faces parts of herself she has tried to ignore, and makes a big decision for herself. I hope that all of you will watch over her path after her courageous choice to stay true to her own feelings.
 * 14 September 2022 in 11th English volume of Developer's Backyard


 * Rather than wanting to send a message using Bridget, what I can say is that when creating characters and deciding who gets what, I put a little bit of my own sensibilities in each of the characters. They carry those responsibilities. For example, if everyone in the world became vegetarian, you can say there would be good things about that, but from the opposite viewpoint there would be problems and demerits to the situation. When I see a discussion like that, I think both sides are valid, and my stance is that I want to cheer on both sides when I can. From that standpoint, the root of what I want to do is I find all kinds of topics and think, people with this background, I want to give them a story that has a so-called ‘happy ending,’ that has a traditional course. Rather than using Bridget to say something, my hope is that I can continue to create, even abstractly, a vision of what happiness looks like for people in all different kinds of situations.
 * 26 October 2022 in part 1 (3 pages) and part 2 (also 3 pages) of interview with 中村建貴 (Kenji Nakamura) of TBS News dig (initially printed in Japanese)
 * 2 November 2022 an English translation was presented by Nergidans of BoundingIntoComics based on a dropbox PDF translation from PadraicRatigan tweeted on October 26th

2023

 * I guess from a design standpoint of transferring the character into Strive, yeah in Xrd there was Bedman who was on their bed, but since the character perished in that story it's just the bed remaining. And what I wanted to do was kind of take a little bit of inspiration from Annabelle and say the kind of fractured feeling of Bedman is still remaining inside the bed itself. So from a design standpoint, that's the basic backbone of the character.
 * 6 April 2023 interview with Mitchel Saltzman of IGN