Kia Asamiya is a rather secluded person. He does not allow photos of himself to be published and rarely makes public appearances. So, what do we know about him then? He has a wife and children and made his debute as a manga artist in 1986 with "Vagrants". In the many years he's been a manga artist he has dabbled in just about every genre there is. His manga include Silent Mobius, Steam Detectives, Vagrants, Nadesico, Dark Angel, Corrector Yui, Gunhead, Compiler and many others.

He holds an interest in the processes of his manga being brought into the English language and actively participates in answering questions and nosing into production. During his rare public appearances he enthusiatically answers any questions asked of him.

Asamiya never actively went out of his way to become a manga artist and when asked once whether becomming a manga artist was his primary job goal he said it happened by chance. A friend had asked him to draw for a dojinshi he was doing. The work was seen by a Kadokawa editor and Asamiya was on the road to success. ^_^ And aren't we all glad that such an occurence came into being =D

During Asamiya's second public appearance he was asked a number of questions about Steam Detectives. The questions and answers are written below:

Q: There's one character in STEAM DETECTIVES who looks like he was inspired by Inspector Gadget. Is this true?

A: I will deny nothing. You are very sharp. (Laughs) In Japan, INSPECTOR GADGET is not very well-known. But, I worked as an inbetweener on that show.

Q: What is your involvement with the STEAM DETECTIVES animated series?

A: Well, it starts airing on Japanese TV in October. The animation is being done by Xebec, who also did NADESICO. I am deeply involved in character design, mecha design, guest character designs—in all aspects of the show. I brought the "pilot" for it. It's literally just been finished. Not a single Japanese fan has seen this yet, so you are the first group of fans to see this in the entire world. It's only two minutes long, and there's no story. Plus, there's a lot of digital animation, so this is a "test run." In order to finish it in time for the convention, we didn't have time to go back and fix the mistakes, so please forgive that.

Q: Will STEAM DETECTIVES adapt the manga stories or will the stories be original?

A: About 1/3 of the show will adapt the manga storyline; the rest will be original stories.

Q: Were you inspired by TETSUJIN 28?

A: "Yes." STEAM DETECTIVES is packed full of things I saw in movies, anime, and manga when I grew up, not just TETSUJIN 28, but the basic setup is in the same vein as the old TETSUJIN 28 series. Narutaki has a giant robot; in the TV show, everyone will have robots.

To view the rest of the interview transcript go to EX.org. The interview was done before Steam Detectives had been released as an anime.