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Otakon |
| Ichiro Okouchi
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| 2004 |
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 Ichiro
Okouchi didn't plan to be an anime screenwriter, but he's developed
into one of the best in the business in a short amount of time. And in
2004, he was the only person to be a guest of honor at both Otakon and
Anime Expo. He grew
up watching the original Mobile Suit Gundam series on Japanese
television. Two decades later, Okouchi was writing Overman King Gainer
scripts for Yoshiyuki Tomino, Gundam's creator. "Writers are chosen
because they're felt to be good on a specific topic, and some are hired
by certain companies," Okouchi said at a Saturday Otakon panel. Much of
Okouchi's screenwriting work has been on sci-fi shows such as Stellvia
of The Universe, Planetes and RahXephon, but he's also done lighter
fare such as Battle Doll Angelic Layer and Azumanga Daioh. On Stellvia,
"When the director was placing an order for a scriptwriter, he wanted a
person who could write well, who was married and could produce an adult
story," said Okouchi. "There are some stories that are very serious,
there are shows that are nothing but fan service. It all depends on the
kind of show the director is aiming at."
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 Storytelling
is the art of understanding people - how they act and talk, how they
react to surprises and life, what moves them. Okouchi has shown a
special empathy with his characters. "In general, I'm writing my
dialogue as that character. One character is very shy and polite,
another character can be very bold. I also think about what in a
character's life makes her that way. Once I understand the reason that
a character is the way they are, then it's not hard to write about that
character." Many writers take dialogue inspiration from real people
like relatives, and while Okouchi doesn't do that, he will chat with
women to get women's dialogue right (since there's a different female
speaking style in Japan). Also, "There are a lot of shows where I'm
writing dialogue for robots and aliens and such, so I come up with that
myself." Part of the anime screenwriter's job is rewriting
stories based on popular manga or novels. That might seem simple, but
Okouchi said it's fun only if the original story was decent. "If it's
not a good story it's difficult to write."
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