In this column, Shudo talks about Misty's role in the Lugia movie. This column provides the background for one of the most controversial (and misquoted and misunderstood) Pokemon quotes that Shudo ever produced.
I felt I was ready, but just to be as sure as sure can be, I went back and reviewed the characters again.
As a result, I realized that I had not portrayed an important character well enough, and I was a bit flustered.
It was Kasumi, the main character traveling with Satoshi.
Why is Kasumi traveling with the main character Satoshi? As I have written before, Kasumi's answer to this question is in her dialogue, "Satoshi just happens to be where I want to go." The guest of "Revelation Lugia," Fleura provocatively asks, "Are you Satoshi's girlfriend? You have bad taste"—this is also a provocation to the presence of Kasumi in "Revelation Lugia"—a verbal tit for tat, so to speak.
Some people feel that behind the line "Satoshi just happens to be where I want to go," there is a hidden romantic interest in Satoshi that Kasumi herself is unaware of, but this is a fake (trick) scene that I prepared to make Kasumi's presence stand out.
Kasumi has no romantic feelings for Satoshi. If Kasumi's romantic feelings for Satoshi were to become one of the themes of "Pokemon," the entire structure of the "Pokemon" series would be destroyed.
The theme of "Pokemon" is the relationship between the fictional creatures called Pokemon and humans, and the growth of a boy named Satoshi (which means the childhood of all humans) into an adult, for better or worse. At least, that was the theme I intuitively decided on when I took on the task of series organization for "Pokemon."
I have already mentioned in this column that an important theme of "Pokemon" is to make a so-called "Stand by Me."
It is an extremely universal human theme that we all grow old and become adults, even if we don't want to, and I myself have discussed this theme many times in episodes of "Magical Princess Minky Momo."
In "Pokémon," the most important theme is added to that theme: the relationship with the fictional creatures Pokémon.
As a child, Satoshi has a rock-solid partner in Pikachu.
Even if Kasumi develops romantic feelings for Satoshi, she cannot interfere with the relationship between Satoshi and Pikachu.
Even if a childish love affair with Satoshi were to develop in Kasumi, if it were depicted, "Pokemon" would have another built-in theme, and the basic theme would not only be complicated but also diluted.
In "Pokemon," even if Kasumi has romantic feelings, they are only as significant as the condiments in a dish, and the condiments that complicate the flavor of the theme of "Pokemon" are clearly an obstacle.
To begin with, the character of Kasumi does not have any romantic feelings for Satoshi.
Kasumi may indeed be old enough to fall in love, but "Pokemon" is neither a girls' manga nor a cellphone novel.
In the "Pokemon" anime series, Kasumi was the least significant of the main characters.
Originally, when the "Pokémon" anime was first planned, the character was added as Satoshi's traveling companion because a world with only boys and Pokémon would be too dreary to attract a female audience.
It is like parsley in cooking. You can have it with or without, but it looks better with it.
Sometimes, there are people who like parsley that comes with their food, but they are a select few.
In addition, the writers of the early "Pokemon" series, of which I was the series organizer, were all men, so the character of Kasumi was not portrayed in a unique way.
It would be nice if the subtleties of a girl's transitory and delicate nature could be portrayed, but the Kasumi who appears in reality is nothing more than a stereotypical tomboy.
It's not the same as the Team Rocket trio, who are aware that they are the real stars of the "Pokemon" theme (I told the voice actors that myself, and they already understood, and from the time the Team Rocket trio first appeared on the scene, they had memorized their "If you ask us about 'this' or 'that'..." speech—I'm ashamed to say that even I, who wrote the speech, had not memorized it—and were determined to make this speech popular, as I think I wrote in this column before), even though they don't appear as much.
Right from the start, the Team Rocket trio was far more prominent in the "Pokemon" anime than Kasumi, who was the star of the show.
In fact, my original plan for the "Pokemon" anime was to have the Team Rocket trio overtake the adult Satoshi and become the eternal stars of the "Pokemon World."
Let me return to Kasumi.
From the very beginning of the "Pokemon" anime, I myself was concerned about Kasumi's lack of presence.
So, in the scripts I wrote, I paid a lot of attention to Kasumi's presence, even though it may have been perfunctory.
I also tried to give the dialogue an emotion unique to Kasumi.
To begin with, I am largely responsible for the initial traits of the "Pokemon" anime.
It is human nature to try to enhance the presence of Kasumi.
"Pokemon" was an anime in which Takeshi was replaced as the main character because foreign countries would not accept the narrow eyes of an oriental face. In the end, Takeshi was found to be well received in foreign countries, and as you know, he returned to the anime.
When a show runs for a long time and the ratings begin to decline, the lead and antagonist roles are replaced in the name of strengthening the show.
When it came to replacing the main characters, the most at risk was Kasumi, who had little presence.
I did not want to replace Kasumi. To that end, she had to have an appealing personality and presence.
I tried my best, but for me, the presence of the Team Rocket trio was more important.
The Team Rocket trio had the voice actors' ability, they had enough presence and did not allow themselves to be replaced.
Even though it has been almost ten years since I stopped writing scripts for "Pokemon," the Team Rocket trio is still firmly existent.
Sometimes there are episodes in which I am not sure why they appear, but I have reached the point where I can say that "Pokemon" without the Team Rocket trio is not "Pokemon" at all. They are like a landmark of "Pokemon."
The Team Rocket trio is not intimidated by the appearance of another antagonist. The Team Rocket trio cannot be replaced.
I was sorry for Kasumi because I considered the Team Rocket trio to be of the utmost importance, and although this may be just my own biased opinion, most of the upper class and script writers of the Pokémon anime production were men.
Men in this industry tend to be attracted to a variety of women, but they are not very good at bringing out the charms of women (this is my own prejudice). In fact, according to my limited experience, many people in this industry are appallingly bad at seducing women. My pet theory is that the key to seducing a woman is to bring out her charms and compliment her on them.
As an aside, if you are trying to seduce a woman, it is more efficient to call out "you are pretty" or "you are beautiful" a hundred times than to try to get her attention with some strange reasoning you have.
Of course, it would be out of the question unless you know what parts of a woman are beautiful and what parts you want to become beautiful... thereupon, at my own judgment, the woman actually becomes more beautiful.
But if it is said that both the man who says the woman is beautiful and the woman who is being told that are under the influence of self-suggestion, there is nothing I can say in return...
This is also the trick to portraying an attractive woman in a script.
And, as a side note, recent movies, TV dramas and cartoons made by male writers and directors are surprisingly unattractive to women.
Even though the actress seems to have charm, it relies on her appearance, acting ability and presence.
Occasionally, when I come across a film that depicts attractive women, the director or screenwriter is a woman.
In other words, women understand the attractiveness of fellow women and are better at bringing out that attractiveness.
Then again, male directors and screenwriters are not so good at portraying attractive men.
They tend to portray men who are somewhat crooked and whom one would not want to be friends with.
In the past, there were male directors and screenwriters who were good at drawing out women's attractiveness, but what has happened to them nowadays?
I digress too much, but it was basically my fault as series organizer that I could not depict Kasumi from Pokemon in an attractive way.
In "Mewtwo Strikes Back," I tried to do something about it, and in response to Satoshi's question "Why are we here?", I also let her speak about the theme of this film, meaning "We exist because we exist, and that's all that matters," but Kasumi's presence was blown away by the Team Rocket trio's "What a great feeling!" line in the last scene.
In "Revelation Lugia," I prepared a scene in which she rescued Satoshi from drowning in the sea.
She revives Satoshi with artificial respiration, but in fact, in this scene, Kasumi in the script repeatedly punches Satoshi's chest, who is not breathing.
If Satoshi dies here, what is my place in "Pokemon"? My intention was not to express her love for Satoshi to live, but her anger at the fact that her existence would become more diluted if Satoshi died.
The punching was removed because the upper management thought that this scene could be misinterpreted as a violent scene in other countries.
That scene, in which Kasumi's anger is not visible, could have been seen as an expression of affection by Kasumi, who is desperate to save Satoshi's life. But then, she is just a very ordinary stereotypical girl.
In "Revelation Lugia," which I tried to fill with unique characters, Kasumi became a very ordinary girl.
Later, "Pokemon" entered a new series, and Kasumi was replaced by another girl.
However, whether the girls who took her place are more attractive than Kasumi is beyond me.
One of the things I regret about the "Pokemon" series that I was involved in as series organizer was that I could not bring out the charm of Kasumi.
I felt sorry for the voice actor, but Kasumi in "Pokemon" was quite a painful presence for me as well, as I had been told by others that "Shudou, the screenwriter, is good at writing girls."
Oh, I was remembering Kasumi, and I couldn't finish talking about "Revelation Lugia" this time.
"Write whatever you want. We're the last performers of the day anyway..." I hear the voice of the Team Rocket trio.
I am sorry to say that the editor of Anime Style also told me to "hurry up and go ahead with talking about 'Revelation Lugia.'"
Please forgive me, because next time I will write about the position of the Team Rocket trio in "Revelation Lugia" and their awareness.
To be continued
For the past week, I have been mostly holed up at work organizing materials.
However, this does not mean that I have not been out and about.
On my way to the nearby teaching hospital, I took a cab to Shibuya and watched a movie as usual.
Then, I went to the rental store TSUTAYA and rented a DVD that has not yet been shown in theaters but is being talked about.
It is usually within walking distance, but the use of a cab is quite shameful.
So, I watched the film, somewhat tired, and I was stunned.
It was a film adaptation of a cellphone novel, "Angel's Love."
Since this is a typical cellphone novel, there is schoolgirl prostitution, bullying, life expectancy of a few years, rape, pregnancy, homosexuality, suicide, pure love between different ages, the popular female history buff, and everything in between.
To think that young girls are reading this on their cell phones makes me realize that Japan is finished.
Since this is a film adaptation, the script is almost nonexistent. If you read only the script, it will go in the trash immediately.
However, this sick man was quite smitten with the film.
The main character, a girl, was so cute or beautiful that he was willing to forgive her no matter how terrible the story was.
The acting is so bad that it cannot be called acting.
However, if this were a good performance, it might be revolting on the other hand.
The direction of the film is also amazing; it is directed by a woman in her 20s, but it is a graceful girls' manga production from about 100 years ago.
She is showing her girlish taste with aplomb, to the point that it's embarrassing to be embarrassed.
The main character seems to be 100% what she appears to be, and the direction makes you want to say "keeyute" without thinking.
I was just captivated by the film and it was over before I knew it.
In the same building, "Villon's Wife" was being screened.
It is based on Dazai Osamu's novel.
It is a story about the end of the war, but the content is like a cellphone novel.
However, this is a movie that won an award in a foreign country.
The script by a veteran screenwriter seems solidly written. The direction is also solid. Matsu Takako and the other actors all gave excellent performances. Compared to the leading girl in "Angel's Love," even Ms. Hirosue, who is like a flower in a field of radish, looks like a great actress.
However.
After seeing "Angel's Love," all the actors' performances in this film seem theatrical. The acting is so good that it is contrived.
The nonsense that was forgivable in "Angel's Love" is quite bothersome in "Villon's Wife."
Matsu Takako is treated badly by her husband, but for some reason, she is popular with other men.
The way she is so irresistible, even the main character in "Angel's Love" is pale in comparison.
It seems impossible.
Ms. Matsu goes to the scene of her husband's attempted double suicide and tries to take the sleeping pills left behind for suicide.
Why were the sleeping pills left behind? Didn't the police examine the scene...?
In other words, the lack of explanation in the screenplay is a concern.
I'm all smiles about the nonsense in the script for "Angel's Love" and balk at the script for "Villon's Wife."
Whether it is Dazai or a cellphone novel, it is a messed up story about someone with a personality disorder.
If I had to choose which is more interesting, I would take "Angel's Love."
As for these two films, the superiority of the screenplay is not a function of the work.
What is a screenplay? I was somewhat pondering this.
In any case, I didn't want these two movies to be the last ones I see in the theater.
To be continued