Hello!
Welcome to the behind the scenes page for “Kojima & The Real Metal Gear Solid”. This video has been my dream Metal Gear Solid project for a long time so it’s exciting to finally put it together.

I’ll be recording a full director’s commentary of my own and will be available for patrons over on Second Wind. https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup

V IS FOR VOID

Final thumbnail

THE IDEA

During my journeys scouring through obscure Metal Gear media, I came across this interview where Kojima talks about killing his father.

This was a pretty eye-opening piece of interview. It’s very dark. But to me, the most interesting part was how transparent Hideo was being about his own trauma.

Allowing this spark of interest to lead me, I began to piece together a timeline of Hideo’s work and spent weeks hunting for more Japanese Metal Gear documentation. After a few months of researching and writing, I had a full script examining this “father’s complex” Hideo mentioned and how Kojima has been killing the father in every story.

THE VISUALS

At this point in 2024, the Metal Gear Solid series has been covered by essayists in billions of different ways, so one question on my mind was “how can I make this feel fresh?”
Subtracting colour away from the content might sound counter-productive to this at first glance, but I’ve found that reducing palettes down to only one or two strong colours actually tends to help create a more memorable experience.

Since this video builds its temple on the foundation of death, going for a strong bloody red against black and white footage felt like the right way to go. Having all the Metal Gear footage achromatic at the start gave the later moment when the characters escape the cage, feel more impactful when colour suddenly floods the screen.

REFERENCES

(In order of appearance)

METAL GEAR SOLID NAKED (2004): A standalone book from the Snake Eater era containing some interviews and artworks and more.

EDGE MAGAZINE (MAY 2004 ISSUE): Full interview here: https://web.archive.org/web/20180715193232/http://www.metalgearsolid.net/features/hideo-kojima-versus-the-big-robots

THE SHEDDING (2004): This document came with the MGS3 Extreme DVD Box Set.
Full translation found here: https://archive.org/details/the-shedding

METAL GEAR SOLID CLASSIFIED (1998): This document came with the MGS1 Premium Package. This interview was translated in-house but will hopefully find its way into the public sphere soon.

KOJIMA ON NOT HAVING PARENTS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvXE17Zsg60&ab_channel=ACMICollection

METAL GEAR SOLID CHRONICLE (2001): This document came with the MGS2 Premium Package. This interview was also translated in-house but will hopefully find its way into the public sphere soon.

METAL GEAR SAGA VOL 1 + 2 DVD: These two documentaries released a few years apart but cover some great behind the scenes content. A full breakdown here: https://metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Gear_Saga
And the ripped videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR9cGkt5FK8&t=327s

THE CREATIVE GENE by Hideo Kojima (2021): A book containing various short essays from Kojima himself on movies / life.

METAL GEAR SOLID R (2004): This book came with the MGS3 Premium Package as well. This contains a transcribed version of Hideo Kojima’s commentary from the Extreme DVD Box set. This hasn’t been fully translated yet.

MGS3 THE EXTREME BOX (2004) (Hideo Kojima Snake Eater Commentary): This is the official DVD Strategy Guide for playing MGS3. The last disc contains Hideo Kojima’s director’s commentary on the game. While the full thing hasn’t been translated yet, TenTenPro has been doing a wonderful job at translating it themselves and currently has a 56% completed version: https://www.tentenpro.com/muni_shinobu/mgs3/

NINTENDO DREAM #84 / The Boktai Interview: A full interview translation here: https://shmuplations.com/boktai/

METAL GEAR SOLID: THE PHANTOM PAIN NOVELISATION: A fascinating novel recounting the events of The Phantom Pain. A full translation has been performed on this novel: https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/v1o106/a_full_rough_translation_of_the_mgsv_novel/
And here is the translation of Kojima’s foreword: https://www.reddit.com/r/NeverBeGameOver/comments/3q4ghm/kojimas_thoughts_about_the_novelization_and_the/

You’ll notice that the very last line is

KOJIMA’S V TWEET: https://x.com/Kojima_Hideo/status/643969048607223808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E643969048607223808%7Ctwgr%5E882ed3e4cfc20b96031bf7bb2fa0a1026a3b0244%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.famitsu.com%2Fnews%2F201602%2F26099526.html



ADDITIONAL SOURCES

STORY OF KOJIMA’S DAD PUSHING HIM OUT OF A BOAT: https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/hideo-kojima-death-stranding.html

KOJIMA “After Metal Gear Solid, I learned that I had the power to save people”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQoZV13m4yc&ab_channel=Bridgestone

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Premium Disc DVD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Y5TS6_NxQ&ab_channel=SolidSnake11


A bit of time was spent scouring Japanese online stores in search of Hideo Kojima interviews. I managed to find some and even grab some screenshots of inside the books. I only had small sections translated but currently working on getting these fully brought into english.