Director Mitsuo Fukuda stated that initially the story of "Gundam SEED" was written from Kira's point of view. Kira's personality and thought process were derived from what Fukuda considered to be Japanese people's thoughts. He said that his story was about his forced wish to fight, in contrast to Shinn Asuka who was not reluctant to fight in "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny". In retrospective, Fukuda emphasized a contrast between both Kira's and Shinn's characters to the point both were the opposite of each other regarding their opinions; Kira's development was easier to script. Fukuda said that as both Kira's and Shinn's characters as were similar, they were easy to voice. An official guidebook to the series made an official count of the number of times Kira cried in "Gundam SEED" by the time the book was released. He was said to have cried over ten times, and thus a comical message of support was made towards him.