Screenwriter
Takao Koyama crafted dozens of episodes of Dragon Ball, in an era when
a few anime series ran for years on television. Then came the rise of
the short original video animation series, followed by the short
late-night series where 13 episodes are considered a large number.
Koyama doesn't like that change, and made it clear when he spoke to
fans at Sugoi Con. "These are glorified commercials that are meant only
to sell DVD's," Koyama stated. "There's no challenge - these are niche
products intended to appeal to 10,000-20,000 fans. I wish this sort of
product would go away completely." Another trend in the Japanese
animation industry is that it's become less "Japanese," with much of
the animation work done in China and Korea. Koyama feels that young
Japanese artists aren't becoming animators, and he mentioned the low
starting pay for animators as a factor. Korean names regularly appear
in anime credits, but Koyama feels animation production is headed
mostly to China in the future, with its huge population producing large
numbers of animators and customers for animated shows.
For years, Japanese fans could expect annual Dragon Ball movies, written by Koyama but approved by Akira Toriyama, creator of the Dragon Ball manga.
"This was difficult work but very fun and rewarding. I've written 13 of
these movies and they had varying degrees of success, but they were
very fun to work on." Koyama's Dragon Ball success led to more work
than he could handle. "In the industry, it's common that capable
talents tend to get all the work. It's not only true with animators but
with writers. There was one time when I had to write ten stories in a
month for three shows. When I had to do it for a second month, I fell
ill for three months and I was out of commission...but I felt it was
imperative to do that or the others wouldn't have been able to work."
Koyama's time as the Dragon Ball writer was spent in a delicate dance
between derivation and originality. His TV show scripts had to follow
the story lines from the popular manga, but the anime production had to
match pace with the manga. When the TV shows caught up to the manga,
Koyama got to write original Dragon Ball stories. "That is a challenge,
but it might be frustrating for the audience because the fights drag on
for so long. There was a big challenge when I was asked to take one
panel from the manga and turn that into a 30-minute episode."
Stretching stories isn't limited to Dragon Ball; Koyama recalled a
baseball anime he wrote where one pitch was made to last for three
minutes. Another writers' trick is to make an episode from flashbacks
to earlier shows, saving production time and cost.
Screenwriter
Takao Koyama crafted dozens of episodes of Dragon Ball, in an era when
a few anime series ran for years on television. Then came the rise of
the short original video animation series, followed by the short
late-night series where 13 episodes are considered a large number.
Koyama doesn't like that change, and made it clear when he spoke to
fans at Sugoi Con. "These are glorified commercials that are meant only
to sell DVD's," Koyama stated. "There's no challenge - these are niche
products intended to appeal to 10,000-20,000 fans. I wish this sort of
product would go away completely." Another trend in the Japanese
animation industry is that it's become less "Japanese," with much of
the animation work done in China and Korea. Koyama feels that young
Japanese artists aren't becoming animators, and he mentioned the low
starting pay for animators as a factor. Korean names regularly appear
in anime credits, but Koyama feels animation production is headed
mostly to China in the future, with its huge population producing large
numbers of animators and customers for animated shows.
For years, Japanese fans could expect annual Dragon Ball movies, written by Koyama but approved by Akira Toriyama, creator of the Dragon Ball manga.
"This was difficult work but very fun and rewarding. I've written 13 of
these movies and they had varying degrees of success, but they were
very fun to work on." Koyama's Dragon Ball success led to more work
than he could handle. "In the industry, it's common that capable
talents tend to get all the work. It's not only true with animators but
with writers. There was one time when I had to write ten stories in a
month for three shows. When I had to do it for a second month, I fell
ill for three months and I was out of commission...but I felt it was
imperative to do that or the others wouldn't have been able to work."
Koyama's time as the Dragon Ball writer was spent in a delicate dance
between derivation and originality. His TV show scripts had to follow
the story lines from the popular manga, but the anime production had to
match pace with the manga. When the TV shows caught up to the manga,
Koyama got to write original Dragon Ball stories. "That is a challenge,
but it might be frustrating for the audience because the fights drag on
for so long. There was a big challenge when I was asked to take one
panel from the manga and turn that into a 30-minute episode."
Stretching stories isn't limited to Dragon Ball; Koyama recalled a
baseball anime he wrote where one pitch was made to last for three
minutes. Another writers' trick is to make an episode from flashbacks
to earlier shows, saving production time and cost.
