Pokémon Story: Kubo's Proposal
Pokemon Story (2000), Chapter 2-4: Presentation
[Note: The main text of Pokemon Story is written by freelance author, Kenji Hatakeyama. Masakazu Kubo adds marginal notes at various points throughout the text. The translator has set aside Kubo's text with brackets.]
The Proposal
In the summer of 1996, as the Pokémon card game was preparing for its birth, another important project involving Pokémon began to take shape.
A Pokemon animation.
It was the editorial department of "CoroCoro Comic" led by Kubo that planned the project. After the editorial department decided on the policy, Kubo compiled a proposal titled "Pocket Monsters 1996~1998 Linkage Proposal." The proposal was prepared under the name of Shogakukan CoroCoro Comic and submitted to Nintendo on Thursday, September 26. The reason why the proposal was submitted to Nintendo is because, as mentioned before, Nintendo was acting as the point of contact for all Pokémon-related matters at that time.
A copy of the proposal submitted at this time is on file in the Character Planning Office of Shogakukan. When you look at it, the first thing that catches your eye is not the content but the format. You could call it unconventional. On the first page of the proposal, after turning the cover, Kubo writes:
"First of all, I would like to congratulate you on Pokemon reaching one million units. I would like to express my deepest respect to all those involved in Pokemon."
It begins like a letter. Following this, the contents of a four-page proposal consisting of four items, but the title of each item, like the opening paragraph, is also written in a colloquial style, as if it were a consistent question. Let us pick out the titles of the items.
1) What is the future of Pokemon...?
2) How can we ensure the success of "Pokemon"?!
3) Why don't we divert the same TV animation system as for the mini 4WD to the "Pokemon TV Animation"?
4) If the Pokemon TV animation is established, the show will be like this.
All four items are in the original text. Just by reading these items, it is clear at a glance what the purpose of this proposal is, i.e., what Kubo is trying to say. The same is true for the text of each item. For example, item (1), "What is the future of Pokemon...?" begins as follows.
"Pokémon has most of the elements that make it a fad for grade school students: customization, raising, strategy, and a chance to win even for beginners. But what will happen to Pokemon in the future?"
A nod in agreement. Whether it is an expectation or a concern, the simple question of what will happen to Pokémon in the future is the starting point for all promotional activities. But it is rare to find a proposal that expresses this so frankly. The soft, easy-going tone of the proposal leads the reader into Kubo's world. At the same time, being able to follow the unpretentious flow of the project proposer's thoughts leads to a sense of security and trust on the part of the reader. The fourth and final page concludes as follows.
"At the end note, I wish for the continued growth of your company. Kubo Masakazu, Editorial Department, Shogakukan CoroCoro Comic"
As you can see from the word "end note," this proposal was written exactly as a letter. A proposal written in the form of a letter. This is a very unusual style of proposal writing, but when it comes to conveying one's feelings to the other party, there may be no other format more appropriate than a letter. On the other hand, the more you want to convey something, the more your proposal will resemble a letter.
In reality, however, this is not common. Why is it not common? The reason is not known. Perhaps there is no reason. It may simply be that we are accustomed to seeing documents that avoid terminology and wording that give a sense of the individual proposer's thinking and personality as much as possible, and therefore feel that business documents that give a sense of the writer's individuality are not common.
So what does a typical proposal look like? We happen to have another proposal for the same Pokémon promotional development, although the timing is a little off.
This proposal was made by a large advertising agency. It is a very orthodox proposal. The cover page is titled "Strategic Planning for Pokemon Movement in FY99." Like Kubo's proposal, it is A4 size, with a cover page and three pages of text, but it has a lot of white space, so the actual text volume is probably not even half that of Kubo's proposal.
Flip the cover and open to the first page, and the enumeration of items begins immediately. There is, of course, no greeting. This is more normal for a proposal. Each page has a title for each item. Here are the item titles and their contents.
- Strategic Directions Associated with the "Pokémon Movement" in FY99
- Events related to Pokemon in 1998
- Strategic Direction of the Pokemon Movement in 1999
- Development Schedule for FY99
- Spring: Pokemon Spring Festival 99
- Summer: The 4th Pokemon League National Convention
- Pokemon Spring Festival 99 Development Schedule
That's it. The third and final page is a schedule. Of course, there are no concluding remarks.
The differences between the two proposals can be seen more clearly when we compare not only the format but also the text of the two proposals. For example, let's take out a sentence from the first page of the ad agency's proposal, which is the general remark, just like the sentence we took out from Kubo's proposal.
"The strategy associated with the Pokémon movement in 1999 should be to create a second phase of the Pokémon boom by promoting sets of software to be released, not as stand-alone products, to achieve synergy."
What do you think? You can see the difference. However, the purpose of comparing the two proposals here is not to make one superior or inferior to the other.
Kubo's proposal reveals the face of the drafter. If you were acquainted with the person, you could almost hear Kubo's voice just by reading the proposal. Even if you are not acquainted with the person, you can follow the flow of thoughts of the person who is drafting the proposal, where the idea came from, what he is thinking about, and what he wants to do.
Of course, that evaluation may differ depending on where the proposal is submitted. Some clients may not like proposals with a human touch like the one Kubo wrote. Therefore, it can be said that Kubo was lucky. This is because Nintendo, including Kawaguchi, Ishihara, and Tajiri accepted Kubo's way of doing things.
Rather, it may be that there was agreeable context. Nintendo employees often say, "We are a *** company." And if you look into the roots of this expression, you will find that it comes back to the company motto, "Nintendo is dedicated to being a home entertainment manufacturer," which Yamauchi established soon after he became president. However, both as a company and as individual employees, Nintendo is tolerant of other people's "character" and "style."
This is true for both Ishihara and Tajiri. They respected Kubo's "character" as much as they respected their own creativity. And as a matter of fact, Kubo wrote his own ideas in his own words, and thus this proposal, which was very human, was very easy for everyone to understand.
However, although this proposal, written in Kubo's style, was favorably received by the original creators as being easy to grasp, it was another matter to accept the content of the proposal. Kubo's plan to animate Pokémon was not so easily realized.
[Animation Proposal]
While the above text gives the proposal a humanistic evaluation, the purpose of adopting a letter-like style is a bit more elsewhere. From the writer's point of view, it is true that I wrote the proposal with a great deal of thought. However, I did not choose that style out of strategic thinking in order to seduce the other party.
This project will probably be rejected. I knew from the beginning that even if I got an OK, it would take time. This is because Nintendo had no previous experience in successfully adapting its own characters to film. The normal reaction at first is "no."
If there is a very high likelihood of being turned down, I usually think first about what happens after the rejection. If I get angry about the rejection and start fighting or get banned from the building, it is obvious that it will take more time before I get the OK in the end. Besides, there is even a possibility that someone other than me will take the project. I was and still am very attached to Pokemon. I wanted to avoid that.
That is why I decided to avoid the type of proposal that would forcefully persuade them by hitting them head-on during the conceiving phase. Nintendo is a company with a strong sense of duty, but it also has a stubborn side. If I push them into a corner with my just reasonings, I may not get the OK. On the contrary, I decided to aim for a proposal that would be as hard to turn down as possible, and that would draw them in.
The document that ended up being created was stylistically based on my honest feelings about Pokémon up to that point. You could say that it was oriented toward not being disliked regardless of whether or not this project was accepted or rejected. The purpose of this proposal was to make it so that if we ever made an animated adaptation in the future, they would say, "Well, since he said he wanted to do it so badly at the time, let's let Kubo do it."
So I was really confident about animating it, and I wanted to do it, but I did not think about doing it until Ishihara and Kawaguchi disliked me.