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Thread
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Official Uchuu Sentai KyuRanger Rumor Thread
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12-06-2016, 04:37 PM
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115
Kamen Rider Lucha
Veteran Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 1,527
Oh boy, do I have a lot to say on this topic...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Aoi Kurenai
Ninninger's main writer, Kento Shimoyama, didn't actually have a series long story planned out. According to one of the entries on Toei's website for the show, he branched the story off into the direction it went based on production constraints. He had points A and Z in his head but literally didn't plot anything in between out in advance. (so basically he knew a family team would eventually beat a bad guy with one or all of them becoming The Last Ninja and that's about it)
I've heard this of Shimoyama before, and as a kids TV writer who aspires to have his own show, hearing it again makes my blood boil.
That's not to say I think Kento Shimoyama is a bad writer -- he's actually really, really great with characters and interpersonal conflicts. He wrote one of the best episodes of Zyuohger a few weeks back, and his work on Gokaiger and Goseiger was pretty stellar. There are even a dozen+ great episodes of Ninninger. And don't even get me started on the joy I feel when watching "Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Returns vs. Dobutsu Sentai Go-Busters."
But to know that he went into a head writing position without his series arc planned out is just... it's infuriating. He was given an opportunity that dozens of writers would kill for, and he went in half-cocked. It's enough to make me scream.
Not to get too insider baseball (I try to keep what I do professionally off of my posts), but the reason this upsets me is that I understand the impulse to do exactly what he did. I feel it every time I'm working on a pitch for a new show -- that sense of "why the hell do I have to plot out everything when they haven't even picked this up? And even if they do, I know production/commercial constraints will force me to change a lot."
But you know what that feeling is? LAZINESS mixed with ARROGANCE.
Laziness
because... when I feel that way, I know it's because I don't want to do the hard work, and I'm making excuses not to do it.
Arrogance
because... I think I'm so damn smart and clever that I'll be able to figure out all of the problems on the fly when they crop up (this is almost NEVER true).
Advanced plotting forces you to think a lot about what you want your show to be, and what you don't want it to be. Even if you end up being forced to change parts of your story, at least you've learned what it's about at its core, what it's supposed to
feel
like, how your characters interact, and generally what kinds of events need to happen and where those event need to fall. In a weird way, advanced plotting makes it
easier
to improvise later on when something doesn't work exactly like you thought it would, or if you get a brilliant new idea... because you still have a structure to provide boundaries for your creativity, which helps keep your story from getting derailed by new stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fish Sandwich
Huh. Was that really a problem though?
Yes, it was, and it contributes to a lot of the problems I've expressed to you in previous conversations we've had about Ninninger.
As you know, I deeply enjoyed the first 30-or-so episodes of Ninninger. But when I got to the last 12-15 episodes, it became glaringly obvious that Shimoyama had zero clue how he was going to wrap up the show. And that palpable uncertainty lead to one of the most unsatisfying, paint-by-numbers finale arcs in a Sentai since the 80s.
Here's what happens when you don't structure a longform story: you get to the end, and you find that you haven't laid out all of the beats necessary to make the audience feel the emotional crescendo of the finale. You also find yourself with all of these dangling plot threads you don't have the time or space to tie off. While you may have successfully spun plots on a granular level for majority of the show, the ending comes off as limp and unsatisfying because you weren't thinking about the big picture.
I call this Stephen King Syndrome because he's famous for writing by the seat of his pants, and it's the main reason so many of his endings are disappointing, Deus Ex Machina affairs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fish Sandwich
I'm actually more surprised here by the implication that most Sentai writers DO go into a show with a detailed plan, given how episodic they usually are.
My suspicion is that most sentai writers don't come up with a full, episode-by-episode structure before commencing the series (though I also suspect that some writers, like Toshiki Inoue and Gen Urobuchi, might).
If it's anything like American kids TV, at the start of pre-production the head writer gives the producers a 10-to-15 page outline that lays out the series' main story arcs. The head writer and the producers workshop that outline, and when everyone is satisfied, they apportion the main series arc beats into the episodes that fall toward the beginning and ending of each cour, and to the episodes that correspond to Bandai's next wave of the toy releases. These main story arc beats usually account for 10-30 episodes (more or less depending on the show).
Then, the rest of the episodes are likely divided up (possibly based on character focus) and assigned to the secondary writers, who pitch stand-alone stories to the producers and head writer.
As the series moves into production, all the writers then expand their overviews and pitches into outlines for each episode. They then move on to the script stage, and finally to shooting.
That's just a guess based on how American TV works, but I'm pretty confident it resembles how Sentai production works as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Aoi Kurenai
All that said, I think it's possible to have a detailed idea of your show, the story, and its characters, and still push out an episodic show due to Sentai running for a full year.
It's not only possible, it's essential. The breakneck speed of production means there's very little room for error. I wouldn't feel confident going into one of these shows without every detail planned out. Just thinking about the stress of making a plot up as you go along, at the grueling pace of weekly toku shows, gives me a panic attack.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fish Sandwich
I think you could even argue there's some merit to that style of writing, especially for shows like these that do have somewhat messy productions from time to time. You can just sort of naturally build on things without having to worry about fitting everything to whatever plot beats you've committed to or having the rug pulled out from under you.
There is absolutely some merit to the "make it up as you go" style of writing. But that style usually works best when you have the time to write something, finish it, and then go back and revise it until everything works. It works great for novels and plays, for example.
But weekly toku production doesn't have the time for revision like that. And because episodes are produced weekly, you don't have the luxury to go back and fix things -- when an episode is in the can, it's done. So if you want to maintain a certain level of quality and/or consistency, it's important to have a road map you can stick to when things get messy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fish Sandwich
There's a nice happy middle in-between these two extremes.
I'd agree with that, sure. I think the best shows are ones that start with a strong structure but are willing to improvise along the way. The key is providing yourself enough room to play within the complex lattice of the plot.
Last edited by Kamen Rider Lucha; 12-06-2016 at
04:49 PM
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