In this column, Shudo outlines his methods for writing unique episode scripts for Pokemon, using his position as series composer to insert his unique sensibilites into the show.
The other day, while sorting through the data on my old and now unused computer, I came across an early "Pokemon" series construction plan.
From what I remember, I had not done anything in "Pokemon" like I had done in the previous shows I had constructed. In other words, in terms of series construction, I felt like I could have been around or not, but it seems that in the meantime, I had written a series construction document to be submitted to the script meeting for consideration by the director and the producers of the production company and broadcasters who were directly involved in the animation production.
However, it was a very simple memo, and only stated things like, "episode X will be an episode about meeting Y."
For example, for episode 5, it said, "Satoshi goes to the Pokemon Gym in Nibi City, meets Takeshi, and Takeshi travels with Satoshi. The Pokémon he meets is Iwark."
That's about all it says.
I doubt very much if this can be called a series construction plan, but the scriptwriters created the plots for each episode from something so simple, converted them into scripts with the input of the director and producers, and then wrote the second and third drafts with further detail revisions to make them final drafts.
By the way, episode 5 left a lasting impression as the episode featuring an old man named Munoh whose hobby is collecting rocks.
The name of this old man is a reference to the movie "The Man Without Talent," which was based on a story by Tsuge Yoshiharu and directed by Takenaka Naoto in his directorial debut and was highly acclaimed, and this was not my idea, but was written by the screenwriter from the first draft of the script.
When there is a parody of this kind in a series that I have constructed, I am often told that it is as if I came up with the idea, but I would never willingly make additions for this kind of parody in a script written by someone else, although I would ask them to stop it from time to time.
I think it's fine to have inside jokes that are only known to those in the know, but I don't want that to be the only goal, i.e., I think scenes and dialogues that don't make sense to those who don't understand the original material being parodied are superfluous.
For those who do not know the original, the scene or dialogue must be enjoyable and necessary to the work itself, otherwise there's no point.
It is only an extra bit of enjoyment for the work.
A recent example would be the Disney movie "Enchanted."
It is full of self-deprecating parodies of Disney movies, but I think it is an interesting enough movie even if people who do not know Disney animation or Disneyland watch it.
I feel that it might be more interesting if you know the usual Disney films.
It is just an extra treat of enjoyment.
However, in many cases, the famous scenes and quotes from movies that go down in history remain shining in their own right, even if you don't know the original film.
Such scenes and quotes are often humorous when used in situations different from the original film.
Even things that are considered common knowledge can be transformed to amusing effects.
If such things add more fun and humor to the work I am involved with, I am willing to add them to the script.
This is mostly an aside, but there was a scene in a recent robot anime series that I have constructed, in which the main character shouts a stock phrase when activating the robot, and when he was embarrassed or something, the mechanic told him that he could change it to "Combine, go!" or "Pipiruma-pipiruma," and the main character became dejected.
Those stock phrases are the clichés of "GoShogun" and "Minky Momo," two other series I constructed. But "Pipiruma-pipiruma" is half-baked, and "Pipiruma-pipiruma-puririnpa" will drive it home. This scene must have been included by the director or storyboard artist because I was the series organizer of that show and the production company was the same, but I did not write such a scene in the script, nor did I know it existed.
If I had known, I would have objected.
I do not think that "GoShogun" and "Minky Momo" are so widespread that they have become common knowledge among today's viewers, or even anime fans. In other words, the scene is really an inside joke scene aimed at a small and limited number of people.
I have heard that a TV quiz show once asked a very difficult question of, "What is the stock phrase (transformation spell) of 'Minky Momo'?" but it is because it is not well known to the general public that it is a very difficult question.
A scene aimed only at an inside joke is superfluous.
Even if it is a scene that was added in the storyboard to express the personality of the main character who does not want to say stock phrases, the original setting does not make the main character such a personality.
Therefore, such a scene would only obscure the character.
Inside jokes that can be understood only by those in the know can end up in the author's complacency and make the work itself nonsensical.
However, in the case of that series, the schedule was tight and there was nothing I could do about the scenes that had been created.
Still, "Pipiruma-pipiruma" was meaningless, so I had it changed to "Pipiruma-pipiruma-puririnpa" during dubbing.
It doesn't make much sense to do such a thing, but it is better than a disaster that won't even make for an inside joke.
I digressed for too long.
Now I'll talk about "Pokemon."
In the case of the fifth "Pokemon" episode, this old man named Munoh was a necessary part of that episode.
If it were not necessary, "Pokemon" has four script meetings a month, assuming one each week, for one script, even without my saying so. The director and producers would naturally point this out.
But I don't know if the name "Munoh" added any icing to the fun of the fifth episode.
It's not as if a film as kind of geeky as "The Man Without Talent" is well known to people who watch the animated "Pokemon."
Nevertheless, that does not make it a reason to dismiss the material.
Since the theme of the addition of Takeshi to Satoshi's traveling companions, which is essential to the fifth episode, is adequately portrayed.
It is the scriptwriter and his unique personality that brings out a character named Munoh in episode 5.
The scriptwriters' unique personalities in "Pokémon" as a whole, while still within the pattern of "Pokémon" as an anime, also allow "Pokémon" to show us a variety of different faces.
However, as is my habit, before the scriptwriter had finished his plot, I had my own fifth episode, with the same main plot but slightly different progression, in which the character of Munoh does not appear.
I wrote that episode in the second part of the novel "Pocket Monsters."
So, when I think back to episode 5 of the anime version now, for some reason, the appearance of the character Munoh left a stronger impression on me than Takeshi joining the traveling party.
And it is not the face of the character who appeared in the anime, but the face of Mr. Takenaka Naoto that comes to mind at the same time.
It's not like Takenaka Naoto played the voice of Munoh.
He once played a character who was practically the protagonist of my script in a live-action comedy-drama, and the strong impression I had of him at that time, when he made the role of the script interesting with a peculiar but impressive performance that blew my mind, may be connected to Takenaka Naoto = "The Man Without Talent" = Munoh in "Pokemon."
Later, Mr. Takenaka would appear in the movie version of "Pokemon," "Emperor of the Crystal Tower," and I still remember being somewhat nervous when the director told me about it.
I was like, "You mean that Takenaka? Whoa?!"
I was neither troubled nor worried about how to write the dialogue that would bring the voice of this fascinating actor to life, but the closest I could come to describing it was that I was truly intimidated.
Sorry to jump around so much, but in short, I wrote brief notes for each episode of the early animated version of "Pokemon" as the series organizer, and gave some brief impressions.
Throughout the whole process, there was also only one time later that I corrected a "Pokémon" script that someone else had done.
It was also the episode with a policeman, and one scene was written with a male cop - for the setting, I made the policemen in the "Pokemon" world, in every town, all women with the same name, Junsar - so I just changed his name to Junsar and altered the lines to be more feminine.
The amount was only about one sheet of manuscript paper, which I wrote over the phone with the scriptwriter's approval because it was too much trouble to bother asking the scriptwriter for rewrites.
It was a far cry from the previous series I had structured, where I had to make a lot of phone calls and rewrite many drafts of the scripts, many of which I had modified afterwards, other than the scriptwriters who were left to their own devices and told to "write whatever they wanted."
So, soon after, the "Pokemon" script writing team members had come full circle and it was my turn to write.
It was episode 9 of "Pokemon."
The memo-like construction plan states only that it is "an original episode that Satoshi and his friends meet people that are not in the 'Pokémon' games."
The Pokémon that would appear in that episode was decided at the script meeting so that it would not be repeated in the Pokémon episodes written by the other script writers.
It was a Pokémon called Karakara, which looks like it is covered with an animal skeleton, and in the games it was classified as a type of lonely Pokémon.
The basic pattern of the animated version of "Pokémon" was already beginning to solidify, so how could I change it and make it an unorthodox "Pokémon" script...?
Although I kept it a secret at the time, I actually prepared three plots.
Then, among them, I submitted to the script meeting the plot whose overall structure was similar to the previous scripts, but whose content was the most outlandish.
It was the "Pokemon Victory Manual" episode.
Now, this story will continue in the next issue, but one of the scriptwriters who read this column commented that the term "script meeting" did not ring a bell.
In the industry, they're usually not called "script meetings" but "scenario readings."
Perhaps that is true, but for me, "scenario reading" means reading the script with the director and screenwriters in a corner of a coffee shop or, in my younger days, in a bar, and well, we do read the script, but in fact, I imagine a casual discussion, half about the script and half small talk.
The conversation goes back and forth between the script and small talk.
And sometimes, an idea will pop into my head.
Such meetings are what "scenario reading" means to me, but "scenario readings" for "Pokemon" were not like that.
Producers, directors, and scriptwriters gathered in a conference room, and the topic was solely about the "Pokémon" script, with little room for jokes or small talk that had nothing to do with "Pokémon."
Anyway, everyone was serious about the script.
My idea of "scenario reading" and the like may be seen as playing around, and you might be offended.
So, no matter what, only the frivolous me would be tempted to call the Pokémon "scenario reading" a "script meeting."
To be continued
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● The Me of Yesterday (not so much a status report, but how anyone can be a screenwriter)
Here, I'll continue talking about originality.
The origin behind this story came from the idea of writing a script with originality that could not be changed by the director's feelings or storyboards.
Everyone has their own originality.
However, there are two types of people: those who want to express (call attention to) their originality to others, and those who do not.
Most people who are involved in creative activities are the type who want to express themselves.
They are people with a strong craving for the limelight.
However, there is almost no creative work that can be expressed only by one person.
Some people may say that there are things that can be expressed by a single person, such as paintings or writings, but unless there is someone to see or read them, they have not expressed themselves.
However, if we start talking about this, the conversation is likely to expand to the question of what the act of expression is, and we will lose our grip on the issue.
For now, since this column is on an anime-related website, I will limit my discussion to anime.
The term "anime" can mean a variety of things, but to simplify the story, we will consider an ordinary story anime that is aired on TV.
Even if I narrow it down to that, the ratings, sponsors, secondary use, related goods, and whether or not the production of the anime will make a profit or loss will determine the fate of the anime, but that also complicates the story, so I will simplify it even further.
This also excludes creators who seem to think of animation only as an object of profit-making.
In this way, at last, I think it goes without saying that animation is a collaborative creation of people who want to express themselves.
The producer is also a member of the group of expressive people.
The producer finds the material and talent he likes and collects the production budget necessary to create the animation, because the work he produces itself is an expression of himself.
The recognition that the animated work would not have been created without that producer satisfies that producer's desire to express something about himself in the limelight.
Animation is the culmination of the desire of the people in each production aspect to express themselves.
Producers and directors who create excellent works attract excellent people, respectively.
This is not a matter of money (but in fact, it is a huge matter...), but of being able to fully demonstrate what they want to express—their abilities, in their respective production spheres.
Excellent producers and directors know the importance of each part of the production process.
Now, this column is about screenwriters.
Let's look at it from the screenwriter's point of view.
The script is the gateway to animation production. Here, we will not consider the presence or absence of an original work.
In fact, there is a big mountain of planning before the script, but from the perspective of the actual production of the animation, the script is the gateway.
It is a long way from the entrance to the exit, the completion of the work.
In fact, it is difficult for a scriptwriter to remain with their originality that they want to express in an animated work until the animation is completed.
This is because the script goes through the director, storyboards, animators and the like and others, voice actors, sound director, and others more - all of whom have something they want to express in their respective fields.
They all have their own originality.
It is only natural that the ideal finished product that the scriptwriter had in their head is shattered.
In the case of animation, after the script has become a final draft, it is the storyboard that immediately brings awareness to that.
Even if the storyboards were drawn according to the script, they would certainly be different from what the scriptwriter had in mind.
This is because, in addition to the director's interpretation of the script, the storyboard artist's expression will also be added.
The most obvious example is the dialogue.
The storyboard determines the number of seconds in which the lines are spoken.
For example, the storyboard determines whether the line "I love you" is said in 2 seconds or 4 seconds.
Well, I guess no one would take 10 seconds to say it...
Anyway, the same line can have different nuances.
Naturally, storyboarding doubles as filming in live-action, so it also determines what will be on the screen and how it will be cut (switching of the images).
How the montage, which is the basis of images, is used depends on the storyboard.
Even if it is said that the storyboards are based on the script, this is the truth.
The producer and director exchange opinions with the scriptwriter, revise the script, and finally make a final draft, but the work is not completed as they had hoped.
In such an anime, it is meaningless to talk about the originality of the scriptwriter, don't you think?
Even so, I believe that a scriptwriter's originality is the most important thing.
Why is that...?
To be continued