Devilrobots Interview

[Vinyl Pulse is stoked to bring you Tristan Eaton’s interview with Shin and Koto of Devilrobots about their upcoming exhibition at the Showroom NYC which opens on Saturday, May 19th].

Hi Shin and Koto. Please tell the world who you are and what you do!

I am Shin, one of the founder of the DEVILROBOTS and I am an art
director, as you know, I create all of the characters.  Some people
call me the TO-FU GOD. Hi everyone, I am Koto Nishiyama one of the DEVILROBOTS, I handle all of the oversea business and oversee the schedule, contracts, and most of the business talking. 

Where did the name DEVILROBOTS come from?

Shin: We grew up watching super robot animations, and we wanted to give our name a strong impact. We are not Angels, so we named our self DEVIL and we love ROBOTS, so these two words combined and became DEVILROBOTS.

So, you are coming to New York! Is it your first time?

Koto: We held an exhibition at ZAKKA in March 2001.  It was the first oversea exhibition we had, and we exhibited very first sample of TO-FU KUBRICK at the show.  Personally, it is my first visit to NY, so I am very excited.

New York is so different from Tokyo (Dirty, violent, loud etc.), so I’m curious: What are you looking forward to or not looking forward to?!? And of course, what will you miss in Tokyo?

Koto: Japanese think New York is cool place, and I always see and hear many things about NY.  It will be my first visit to NY, so I am looking forward to see it with my own two eyes. It is a long flight to NY from Japan, so the flight is the only thing I am not looking forward to. I will miss crazy phone calls from our clients while I am in NY, which is good.

You are also doing an exhibition at The Showroom NYC. Can you tell us a little bit about the show? What to expect etc.

Koto: It has been over 5 years since our last exhibition, so we are thinking of this exhibition as first time again.  We want to show our main character TO-FU collaborating with NY, and hope to have fun together with NY.  Apple TO-FU is just a kick off, there are more TO-FU coming up!

One of the highlight is our crossover partner BANDAI.

Koto: We are working on a Chogokin (die cast metal) project, and we are going to exhibit the prototypes at the Showroom.  This is first time to be shown to public, so NY fans can see it before any one in Japan will see it!

Many people in the states are big fans, but to those who don’t know you yet…what are you hoping they learn about DR from seeing this show? And what is Devilrobots all about anyway?

Koto: We have been visiting Hong Kong and Taiwan lately, but we really haven’t been to US. We hope to hear the real voice of the fans in US by this visit, and hope they can feel close to us.  We are just a bunch of fun loving crazy guys, and our artwork translates our crazy mind.

DEVILROBOTS has 5 members total, we are a design company, making website, characters, ads, posters, flyers, pamphlets, flash animations etc…

Devilrobots are as famous for your hairstyles as you are for character design. Tell me, do you have any special hairstyles or colors planned for the trip?

Koto: I was not aware of our hairstyles being so famous… We will look like our logo, very pointy for sure. Please come to The Showroom on May 19th, and see us in real person.  You can see our hairstyles…