Hideki Sonoda was a screenwriter for the Pokemon anime. He is most notable for writing the screenplays from Movie 3 to Movie 17. In this section from his blog, Screen Boss, Sonoda talks about the process for writing Movie 6.
I saw "Pocket Monsters the Movie: The Wishing Star of the Seven Nights – Jirachi" for the first time in 19 years in a movie theater.
I was with the youths who appeared in the musical "Angelic Lost & Found."
How lucky I am to be able to watch a movie I wrote in a theater again, after all these years.
The Note I wrote last time about "Guardian Spirits of the Capital of Water – Latias and Latios" received the most likes I have ever gotten.
Thank you very much.
This was also an unexpected pleasure.
This time I went to see Jirachi, but I mistakenly thought I was going to see "Celebi" until I got to the theater. (laughs)
Why did I make such a mistake?
Perhaps it was because I was focused only on the date and time given to me by my companion who made the reservation, and I was concentrating on the current deadline until the very last minute before I departed.
Back to my impressions of Jirachi.
As I wrote last time, my thoughts consist of just a few words,
"Wow, that was fun. It made me laugh and cry!"
This time, the main characters are Masato and Jirachi.
Satoshi treated Masato and Jirachi as if he were their big bro.
He has grown up so much, huh?
Masato's friendship with Jirachi, and Jirachi's bravery in response, was heartrending and made me cry.
Even Butler, the villain, showed his good side in the end and showed us that there are many sides to human beings.
Neo Groudon was also very impactful and exciting.
Oh, I am so disappointed that I can only write about the most obvious impressions. (laughs)
If I end it like this, it won't even reach the level of a grade school student's summer homework, so I'll try to write a little more about things only I can write.
Fans may think that since I wrote the script, I know the story and such best and have probably seen the film many times, so why should I be moved by it again?
But in fact, I am.
The reason why this is the case is because I rarely look back at the films I was actually involved in.
This was the third time in total, since I saw the film twice in previews and in theaters 19 years ago.
I had forgotten all about the details of the film, and I really enjoyed it as if I was watching it for the first time. (laughs)
It's not that I don't have an emotional attachment to the works I wrote.
Of course I have plenty of those.
If you know what kind of state I was in at the time, you might understand how I had to concentrate more on the work I was writing (the present) than on the work I had written (the past).
I was given the opportunity to work on a feature-length Pokémon film, and I was involved in both the short and feature for the third year's film, "Entei."
The following year I was assigned to a feature film, and that would continue for more than a decade.
(At that time, I had no idea it would come to that)
It took a really long time to create the scripts for the Pokémon movies, about 8 to 9 months from the idea to the final draft. (I don't know how others do this, so this is just my personal schedule)
In other words, by the time a film is screened each year, I was working on the script for the next year's film.
The more I concentrate on what is in front of me (the next film), the less time I have to think about the work I have already finished (last year's film).
It's not that I'm heartless about the films being screened, it's just that I had to move forward.
My intention was to write about my impressions of Jirachi, but it turned out to be a story about my circumstances at the time.
But this kind of inside story may be more interesting to those who read this Note.
I found a notebook that I had written at the time and was reviewing it, and it brought back some of my memories of that time.
(This notebook is the one I posted on Twitter. I have more than ten such notebooks.)
My handwriting is not very good, so it is not something I can show to others, and the contents are notes that only I can understand, but it is a chance for me to remember how the story was created at that time.
I am glad I did not dispose of them.
I can trace the development of my own creative thinking, and at the same time, I can see how many people were involved in the development of the script for this huge project, a Pokémon movie.
This is because it also includes notes on how opinions were exchanged at the meetings.
(All of them are only fragments, though)
Here's a little bit about the transition and growth of the scriptwriting process.
(Please note, however, that this is just a memory recall based on my notes, so I may be wrong in some instances)
Around June 2002, I had submitted my first idea to Director Yuyama and Producer Kanda, and they began to consider it.
I think it was a very busy time for us on the scene, as we were in the midst of the final stretch for "Latias and Latios."
The TV show was also starting a new series, so things must have been hectic.
Believe it or not, I wrote something like "detective story" in my first idea notebook.
Perhaps I was trying to find a different angle. I also jostled between "riddle," "mystery," "ghost," and so on.
Maybe that was rejected. (laughs)
On the next page, there is a note that says "Ganboh," the wish Pokémon.
Below that, it says "Distributing Ganboh in the summer (Game Fair)," so perhaps I was told that the main Pokémon in the movie was this wish Pokémon called Ganboh.
And I think the fact that it was given out in the summer led to the event of giving out Pokémon at movie theaters.
Then I wrote, "Groudon and Kyogre are complicated."
It seems that I was told that those legendary Pokémon could not appear.
Also on that page, I wrote, "I'll make it a story about Masato and Ganboh," and "Masato's wish comes true every night."
There was also "to make your dreams come true" and "make your wishes come true on your own."
I can't help but laugh at the fact that the wish Pokémon is called Ganboh (desire).
It eventually turned into Jirachi.
I was surprised, however, that this roughly first page contained what would become the general material of the movie.
As a result, I thought it went in the direction that was written on this page.
Incidentally, as I read through the notes, I found that at some point, Ganboh turned into Reques, and eventually into Jirachi.
The first general meeting was held at the end of July.
I note that there were 26 participants.
By this time, we had come up with a few ideas, which we would then use to get input from the producers attending this meeting.
So the screenwriter is going to be surrounded by such a large group of people and hear their opinions.
In all my years as a screenwriter, I have never had a meeting with such a large number of people face-to-face except for the Pokemon movies.
On the next page, I jotted down some ideas as they came to me.
Ganboh was replaced by Reques, and I wrote down various things I could think of about that Pokémon.
Most of the ideas are unusable, but among them are things like "making the relationship between Masato and the Pokémon the axis," "Satoshi doing something for Masato," "waking up only once in hundreds of years," and so on.
So those ideas have survived.
I would like to end this installment of Pokemon recollections here.
Thank you for reading to the end.
After reviewing my notes and the ideas and plots that remained on my computer, I found that I had written and rewritten the scenario 15 times for the idea and 3 times for the plot, a total of 18 times before I was able to start writing.
In the end, I did not start working on the screeenplay until the end of September.
Four months to write it out, OMG!
That should give you an idea of how much energy I put into it.
I did a quick reread of the evolution of the idea and plot.
It was an enormous amount of work.
If you are interested in screenwriting, this might be worth reading.
I have been contacted by someone who is writing a graduate school research thesis on the Pokémon movies, so I'm thinking of having them read it.
I am looking forward to seeing what kind of research thesis they will write.