Mari Okada discussion

[Triple_R]

I honestly kind of like Okada's personal backstory as a writer. It shows that her mind is just percolating with creativity!

It's fair to say she's a bit crazy/eccentric, but then most of the great writers are.

[Archon_Wing]

Lol, that's amazing

I liked to stay indoors, so I was reading books and playing games all the time. I liked anime too.

Well, at least we have something in common.

Okada - I wrote and dreamed stories like that, and I cried every day. As I was imagining, I was touched.

-- You were touched by your stories?

I'm not sure what to think about this. Either it's "I am a very emotional person who comes up with emotional thoughts" or "My stories are so damned good they want to make me cry too!" Wonder if she laughs at her own jokes a lot too. But... at least it's sincere.

Say, you wouldn't like to go to school if you have a boy that you don't like in your class. I imagined dating with each classmate in Japanese alphabetical order. I fantasized dating with a classmate I really hated, what would happen then, and what I could do to come to like him. I had given myself such an awful training.

-- Is that a training (Laughs)?

Okada - I sure hated him. However I tried to like him in one way or another, made a story and dated with that character within my brain. No, that's himself, not a character. I did it with girls. I developed friendship with them in Japanese alphabetical order.

-- You modelled characters using your classmates.

What a hater. That's pretty petty but hilarious-- wonder if she still does that. *Cough* Jinomaru

It's certainly a very interesting revelation about True Tears. Suddenly half the fans are vindicated.

That's right. I wanted to write people like him. I consider my nature is a supporting cast, I often cast myself as a supporting cast in what I wrote as a kid. Because of that, I'm attracted to supporting casts or "those who are not chosen". Ohana didn't start a journey in order to make her dream come true, but she is "the one who left to gain something". Typically in anime and what not, a protagonist is chosen by something and starts journey, but what about those who were not chosen? Is the place which the protagonist left unattractive? I'm very curious about those things. I wanted to write it.

The voice of the voiceless it seems. Well, it does explain why her anime seems to go around exploring so many things. about the people around, and effectively avoiding main character syndrome.

Okada - P.A.Works is a special company for me. Producer Horikawa[8] says, "I wish you would lose your other work soon."

-- Because if you lost your other work, he could ask you to do more work for him?

Aha, it seems this sentiment is shared by a few.

But I can't say the truth about jobs yet because even we are worried about jobs. I didn't want to say, "This must be my job." You can create events and sparkle no matter where you are and what your job is. Be it Tokyo or Kanazawa. And I had her say, "You can sparkle no matter what your job is, but I want do this."

Well, a commonly stated theme of Hana Saku Iroha was to love your work, even with the difficulties of it. It seems like from the interview that she had to move around a bit without stability, and in times like these messages like that become especially important.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I want to see Okada's original script for True Tears animated.

To be fair, it doesn't necessarily mean that the original script didn't end the same way the current one does, but it means that during the scriptwriting/revising process they experimented with different possible endings. For all we know they may have changed it multiple times in various drafts (and adjusted the rest of the script accordingly).

Actually, I think the story does make sense in light of the other quote that Archon_Wing highlighted:

"I consider my nature is a supporting cast, I often cast myself as a supporting cast in what I wrote as a kid. Because of that, I'm attracted to supporting casts or "those who are not chosen". [...] Typically in anime and what not, a protagonist is chosen by something and starts journey, but what about those who were not chosen? Is the place which the protagonist left unattractive?"

I think this is actually a very key revelation in light of that show. The place where the person who was not chosen was left was not at all unattractive, and that was a key point of the narrative. If you see the whole story in that light, it makes a lot of sense, and now we see why the author wanted to write about that.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

To be fair, it doesn't necessarily mean that the original script didn't end the same way the current one does,

Um, the interview does very clearly indicate that True Tears was originally planned to have a different girl end up with the main protagonist. Unless you think this meant that Totoum's unsung heroine was to pull off one hell of a shocking ending, I think we know who that different girl is.

Look, nobody is criticizing True Tears here. True Tears is amongst my all-time favorite anime, even as is. And I get why True Tears was given the ending it eventually ended up receiving (yes, True Tears was a case of focusing primarily on the loser in a love triangle, and that does help make True Tears a bit more distinctive in the wider anime world).

That being said, many of us have favorite romantic pairings that never happened, and there's obviously a wish-fulfillment appeal to imagining those pairings being animated (heck, this is much of the idea behind omnibus format for VN adaptations; giving every shipper something to cheer about).

Are you saying that it's wrong for fans to find that idea appealing, especially when the girl you wanted to "win" was originally planned to "win" anyway?


Here's the key excerpt from the interview, pertaining to the True Tears ending:

Okada - That's right. I would think I don't want to spoil their characteristics. I figured out how to manage to make the most of their characteristics and ordered them to do this, but they wrote something completely different again. It's sort of like "what was that trouble of mine?" So TT was considerably changed from the series composition at the beginning. There were stories I wanted to write, but I resolved to change the composition so they could do their best. So the ending was changed too. It's sort of like they wrote these, which could mean only one thing.

-- In an extreme case, was the person the protagonist goes out with at the end changed?

Okada - That is what happened.


It seems clear to me that the original plan for True Tears was to have a different romantic ending than what we did in fact get. Okada was directly asked about that, and she answers with a very unambiguous "That is what happened."

[Westlo]

Primarily focusing? Wtf the show was fairly even in nature between the two girls...

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Primarily focusing? Wtf the show was fairly even in nature between the two girls...

I just meant in the last episode. The last episode focused more on the romantic loser than on the end pairing, imo.

Throughout the anime as a whole, the two main girls did indeed share fairly even focus.

[totoum]

This is more Trivial but I figure I'd share it anyway,this is from an interview of Sayo Yamamoto,director of the recent Lupin III tv anime :

Can you tell us about the experience and the casting of Ms. Okada?

Yamamoto: I had several different opportunities to possibly work with Okada in past years, but for some reason or another, the staff around me always stopped it from happening. They said we were “two birds of a feather”, or “north pole plus north pole is not going to work out well, working together”. TMS entertainment is most famous for children’s series such as Anpanman, Hamtaro, and Detective Conan (Case Closed). I bet they didn’t know too much about myself or Miss Okada when they realized they were going to choose us! So surprisingly, when I decided to give the offer to Miss Okada nobody stopped me this time. It just went through.

Sato: So even though she’s so extremely busy with so many projects, was it really so easy to send a request and she said “I’ll do it”?

Yamamoto: Well…yeah.

Sato: When you worked with her, did you feel your dreams or wishes had come true having to work with her?

Yamamoto: Yes, she’s a very interesting person. It’s not always the case that an interesting scriptwriter can write interesting scripts. But I was really pleased with how amazing the script ended up being, which far exceeded how interesting Ms. Okada is, the script was even more so. She has an amazing reputation for memorable punch lines and memorable quotes that characters say. We felt that we needed to be able to execute good punchy lines, which is critical to a Lupin piece. And I think that we’ve been able to add so many of those punch lines inside the show is really just thanks to Miss Okada.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Um, the interview does very clearly indicate that True Tears was originally planned to have a different girl end up with the main protagonist. Unless you think this meant that Totoum's unsung heroine was to pull off one hell of a shocking ending, I think we know who that different girl is.

I'm mean the script, not the outline/plan. To be more clear, is that it's not like the anime script was written and they just changed the ending (it's not like there was an "Episode 13a" and "Episode 13b" and they randomly picked one). The anime's entire story composition matches the ending shown. The original story concept -- before it was ever a fleshed-out script -- may have had a different romantic pairing, but it may have been quite a different story altogether. (I think part of the reason people are attached to the characters shown is because of what they went through in the story; if the story fundamentally changes, who knows how people would feel about the characters.)

My main objection is not that fans might hope for an ending with the character they like, but I think it cheapens the story significantly if people imagine that it was possible to swap endings at the drop of a hat, and that's what I'm afraid people will misinterpret that comment to mean outside of the rest of the context of the statement. This ties to the all-critical importance of the story planner.

[Triple_R]

Well, yeah, to be fair I don't think that the ending was the only thing that was changed from the original series composition. The impression I took is that a lot of things were changed (this may tie into the visual changes that True Tears underwent pre-production - I recall Pocari Sweat showing me how originally Noe had long hair and Hiromi had short hair, and that ended up switched).

Actually, part of the reason I'd be curious to see the original series composition be animation is to know just how much was different.

But ah well, it's probably too late for that. It can be nice to dream though.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I'm mean the script, not the outline/plan. To be more clear, is that it's not like the anime script was written and they just changed the ending (it's not like there was an "Episode 13a" and "Episode 13b" and they randomly picked one). The anime's entire story composition matches the ending shown. The original story concept -- before it was ever a fleshed-out script -- may have had a different romantic pairing, but it may have been quite a different story altogether.

I get that you're worried about people simplifying the situation but I don't think anyone here was insinuating there was an episode 13a or 13b.

Nevertheless I do agree that the show was likely drastically different back then,just as Triple R mentioned the girls looked different early in production.

Images

Initial Hiromi

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Images

Initial Noe

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[winhlp32]

That was a very nice read (and reality check). Plenty of people (myself included) have taken shots at her, making her out to be this giant trolling machine, but having the chance to read an interview like this really humanized her in my eyes. I'm not especially partial to the anime she works on, but I find it reassuring to know she is someone who puts thought into her scripts, despite the hiccups here and there.

[Archon_Wing]

Upon rereading that quote I mentioned earlier in the thread

That's right. I wanted to write people like him. I consider my nature is a supporting cast, I often cast myself as a supporting cast in what I wrote as a kid. Because of that, I'm attracted to supporting casts or "those who are not chosen". Ohana didn't start a journey in order to make her dream come true, but she is "the one who left to gain something". Typically in anime and what not, a protagonist is chosen by something and starts journey, but what about those who were not chosen? Is the place which the protagonist left unattractive? I'm very curious about those things. I wanted to write it.

There really seems to be a underdog theme that pops up in a lot of her work. If you combine it with the interview details of her not viewing highly of herself, it does make sense.

It's definitely a pretty interesting thing to notice. It seems to take into account that certain character types are going to be the starts of the show and receive all the development but here we have the people outside of the chosen ones getting the viewer's attention and sympathy. A lot of her characters don't receive much respect in their respective series (most notably Hanairo/Anohana) but the narrative would suggest otherwise, because perhaps the writer cares about them... maybe. Even Aiko. People are defined by how they are perceived by another point.

Stories shouldn't always be about the talented, the lucky, and the fortunate. From this I can gather the appeal of some of her work.

[Kanon]

It's a pretty interesting interview. I feel I understand her a little better now. That humanized her quite a bit, I won't be able to hate as wholeheartedly anymore. That bit about her dating boys she hated in her mind made me laugh so hard. That woman is batshit

It turns out the reason True Tears was so different from her other works (i.e; good ) was that it was heavily altered by her co-workers. It sounds like she wanted Noe to win... that makes me think better of her.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Kanon

It turns out the reason True Tears was so different from her other works (i.e; good ) was that it was heavily altered by her co-workers. It sounds like she wanted Noe to win... that makes me think better of her.

That makes me even more convinced she's nuts!

[Archon_Wing]

Spoiler for True Tears:

The interview finally convinced me Noe is the main character of True Tears.

Honestly, I prefer baller chick mainly because I prefer that sort of personality for characters. But I'll just leave it at that. But Noe's storyline and development carries the emotional and thematic weight by far. This goes beyond who I actually like more.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

Spoiler for True Tears:

The interview finally convinced me Noe is the main character of True Tears.

Honestly, I prefer baller chick mainly because I prefer that sort of personality for characters. But I'll just leave it at that. But Noe's storyline and development carries the emotional and thematic weight by far. This goes beyond who I actually like more.

For me, Noe's story was the sizzle but Hiromi's was the steak - it carried much more emotional weight. No point in rehashing this old ground though, as it's been discussed to death already.

[Pocari_Sweat]

So I don't have to credit Hiromi and True Tears to Okada right? Right?

Awesome, now I am free to hate her! Jk.

But honestly, I have to admit this. She's using her "perv" to good use in Sakurasou so far. Yes, it's fanservice and it's perv (and I get mighty pissed off at hers in particular 90% of the time), but for whatever reason, I'm laughing at it for at least half the time. Must be because it's an adaptation. Yep.

[Lenneth4]

Oh wow
all the hate for this woman but yeah i enjoyed gosick and some part was just fucked up , but still a good scenario globally
Nothing that bad

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

...Noe's storyline and development carries the emotional and thematic weight by far. This goes beyond who I actually like more.

This seems true, to me, whichever girl one preferred. I can just imagine the self-discipline and graciousness (if not sense of inferiority) it took for Okada to let the episode writers have their way -- if that is what happened.

Spoiler for True Tears:

Of course, unlike so many people, I preferred Noe absolutely. I basically identified with her, the outsider, as maybe Okada did, too. I can only intellectually recognize why others thought Hiromi more interesting. I didn't feel it at all.

I thought the MC's dawning feelings for Noe would naturally lead in her direction. They also seemed to me more understandable and genuine than his feelings for Hiromi, which seemed to me just a habit. If they had intended Hiromi from the start, we should have seen more of how he came to like her, especially earlier in the series, as opposed to it just beginning as an accepted fact.

In fact, however, I'm not much into the interesting detailed criticisms that have gone on in this thread. I just watch anime for the enjoyment, rather than spending much time on analysis. But if I have anything to complain about in Okada anime, it is that they don't seem all that focused and consistent. Perhaps she has been giving in to her co-creators too much, lol.

However, the strongest praise reported here seems to be for her lines, as opposed to her story construction. So perhaps story construction is in fact her weak point (and a very important point to be weak).

Great, great interview. Sounds to me like sanity, as opposed to the insanity of conventional behaviour. That idea of imagining dating each person in turn is a classic. Now that is a writer. And a friendless introvert.

I probably should add that I really don't have any strong opinion one way or the other about her writing. I loved true tears and adored Simoun, but she was just an episode writer on Simoun. I liked both Hanasaku Iroha and AnoHana, but had problems with both of them. I liked Zakuro, Hourou Musuko, and Gosick, but not to praise them to the skies. I might praise Lupin III that high, though, lol. I dropped Kodomo no Jikan and BRS, but probably more for the type of shows they were than for anything particular about them. So just looking at the list on ANN, I think her presence gives a show a chance to be good, but she doesn't write my top favorites. If I defend her, it's just to oppose opinions that strike me as extreme (whether they really are or not). However, for her to say she wants to traumatize the audience makes me think she is someone whose work I should watch.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Spoiler for True Tears:

Of course, unlike so many people, I preferred Noe absolutely. I basically identified with her, the outsider, as maybe Okada did, too. I can only intellectually recognize why others thought Hiromi more interesting. I didn't feel it at all.

I thought the MC's dawning feelings for Noe would naturally lead in her direction. They also seemed to me more understandable and genuine than his feelings for Hiromi, which seemed to me just a habit. If they had intended Hiromi from the start, we should have seen more of how he came to like her, especially earlier in the series, as opposed to it just beginning as an accepted fact.

Spoiler for True Tears:

I don't want to go too far into this tangent in this thread either (as others have said), but I think the theme explored here is a very delicate and difficult one, and pulling it off well depends a great deal on the care put into the story and the direction. Fundamentally, it's a story about romance, but it isn't a love story. It's a story about making heartbreak a source of strength... and that's pretty heavy. Every show I know that has dealt with this theme has been wildly controversial among the audience, but generally loved by at least me. Although I do think both heroines were portrayed as sympathetic characters, I think the way you read the characters isn't wrong either. If someone didn't find Noe to be at all worthy, how could they appreciate the significance of the show's poetic and bittersweet ending? She got a raw deal in a number of ways, but through it she found the strength to move on. And that's why, in my view anyway, the story is way more poignant this way. Of course, that isn't necessarily much consolation to people who wanted to see the character they liked/identified with most get their well-deserved happy ending.