What a fantastically readable translation and enjoyable interview! Thanks so much for your work just_kitten, and to Kodo for bringing this to the community.
There have been huge debates over how good a follow-up Cross is to Trigger, but the more these interviews get exposed, the more I appreciate how much the whole team was aware of fans' expectations. That's got to be a huge burden for an artist to struggle with, so their risk-taking-ness becomes that much more respectable in my mind.