Anime screenwriting — a comparison with Avatar: The Legend of Korra

April 3, 2016

When I first thought of doing this On Anime ‘Writing’ project, my initial inclination was to go digging for what other English-speakers had already written about it. A number of prominent bloggers and even industry personnel have, in fact, covered anime production in depth over the years. But as I watched SHIROBAKO and puzzled over some of the translator’s word choices, I realised that I’d neglected a major resource—Western TV animation. One year on, after reading some fantastic articles about how episodes of The Simpsons and Avatar: The Legend of Korra are/were made, let me endeavour to share what I’ve learned.

Key differences between the Western and the Japanese TV animation industries

As most anime fans probably know, one of the major differences is that the voice recording for Japanese anime takes place after the animation. That’s why this element is known in Japan as the ‘post-recording’ 「アフレコ」. In Western animation, voice recording is typically done beforehand, so that the voice actors (VAs) can focus on creating their characters.1 Another major difference is that Japanese VAs record together whenever possible—so they can play off each other and even ad lib—whilst Western ones record alone, with the director as their ‘sparring partner’ as they record their lines with a range of delivery patterns for flexibility further along the creative process. If other actors have recorded before them, then they may have their work to play off as well.2

Sket Dance post-recording (source) Wreck-It Ralph voice recording.

But there’s far more to it than this. In fact, the differences in voice recording arguably stem from how the shows are ‘run’. That is to say, from what the showrunner wants to achieve and the best way for them to achieve it given the resources they have to work with.

Hand-drawn animation is extremely labour-intensive.3 US creators realised years ago that outsourcing the bulk of animation work to lower-waged countries such as South Korea and the Philippines significantly reduced the cost, even if they had to employ translators to make sure their directions were accurately conveyed. Whilst Japanese animation has been increasingly outsourced over the last decade or two (as evidenced by the appearance of overseas companies and foreign names in anime credits), the most important aspects tend to remain in Japan, conducted or around at a central location belonging to the animation studio credited for “animation production” 「アニメーション製作」. Although most of the lower level production staff (e.g. Aoi in SHIROBAKO) work for particular studios, animators are typically freelance, which allows those in charge to secure the services of artists that they trust to pull off the look and feel that they want to achieve.4

And that brings me back to the ‘showrunner.’ This isn’t a term I’ve seen often in anime discussion, and it’s probably the key to the majority of misunderstandings about what screenwriters like Okada Mari and Urobuchi Gen do. In the Western TV industry, the showrunner “may be credited as the executive producer, creator, or writer-producer; in any case, his or her duty is to maintain the integrity of the overall canon of the series and keep the writing staff on task and on message.” Because of the way the US TV animation industry is structured, they’re often writer-producers who were involved in coming up with the original concept of the show in the first place (Simpsons; Avatar). But in the anime industry, the creative aspect of what the showrunner does is not the job of the writer or series composer 「脚本・シリーズ構成」—it’s the job of the director 「監督」. Furthermore, neither writer nor director are usually behind the concept of the show. In the case of ‘originals’, many interviews I’ve read suggest that the concept for a show typically comes from a high-level producer associated with one of the big funding companies, such as Aniplex. The director and series composer are people they approach and hire to help them realise that original vision.

How many of these 10 esteemed directors do you recognise? (source)

From planning to script writing

And that’s where the differences in ‘writing’ begin. Since the Avatar TV series format is most similar to that of the average anime—i.e. it’s planned for and ends in a certain, pre-determined, number of episodes—I’ll use that as my primary example. From showrunner Michael DiMartino’s incredibly informative series of posts on The Legend of Korra, the show’s writers go through four stages when penning an episode: breaking the story => premise => outline => script.

Breaking the story involves all the writers brainstorming and deciding the basic outline of the entire season (show)—the theme, the main character arcs. In other words, they start off by coming up with the ‘big picture’ items. The premise is the next step along: an in-depth summary of what happens in a particular episode, which one writer is assigned to write based on what the entire team has agreed the episode will cover. The Avatar team would then develop a more systematic outline (other shows might combine the premise/outline steps into one), before the writer was sent off off to write the first draft of the script. This would then be kneaded and polished to add and improve scenes and lines of dialogue, to produce a 26-28 page version know as the Record Draft. That’s the version of the script used by the voice actors for recording, and by the storyboard artists. To summarise, the process used to write Avatar seems to be quite thorough, because the showrunners have to make sure the script, storyboard and recording are as complete as possible before sending it off to the animation studio overseas, where they correspond with and rely on the studio’s directors make sure that the animation achieves the intended look.5

In Japan, fewer people seem to be heavily involved in the “breaking the story” stage. Typically, the core planning team consists of the development producer, the series director, the series composer and perhaps the assistant screenwriter. The development producer is often (but not always) attached to an animation studio. They are usually the one who secures funding and thus helps determine how many episodes they have to work with (for reference, this character in SHIROBAKO is the development producer). All of these people can thus have a big influence on the story and characters, but usually, the director will be the one with the final say, because they are the individual that is responsible for the project’s creative integrity.

With regards to the rest of the process, I’m still unsure as to whether there’s a separate premise/outline stage, with a specific document produced as with Avatar. However, it’s clear from SHIROBAKO and from the interviews I’ve read that the director, the series composer, the assigned scriptwriter (if different from the main one)—and possibly a few other individuals, such as another major scriptwriter, the line producer or even key production personnel—meet to discuss more specifics of what an episode contains before the scriptwriter goes off to draft the script.6 This also goes through several revisions before the director approves it for the storyboarding process. In contrast to Avatar, however, the person who storyboards an episode is usually the episode director, who’s responsible for making sure that the episode does what it is meant to do, as discussed beforehand with the series director. At this stage, dialogue and even scenes can still be changed, even though the writer’s role in the production process is effectively over. As noted above, the series director is the one who continues to oversee and approve all the work that is done, often through delegation to episode directors and the heads of the various production sections.7

One of the emergency ‘script meetings’ that we saw in SHIROBAKO. However, they don’t always involve this many people. For example, the Sound! Euphonium script meetings appear to have involved just three people: Ishihara (executive producer/’chief director’), Yamada (series director) and Hanada (series composer/scriptwriter).

In conclusion

Let me stop here for today, since the role of the series composer/scriptwriter in the production of an episode is effectively over at this point.8 I trust that this brief article shows why the director of an anime series is closer to the showrunner in the Western TV industry: even if the writer/series composer is one of the core team, ultimately, it’s usually the director who’s responsible for maintaining the vision and overall integrity of the show.

It should be noted, however, that this isn’t always true: in the case of Macross, Executive Producer (or ‘Chief Director’「総監督」) Kawamori Shōji should probably be considered the (main) showrunner; the same may apply for Urobuchi Gen with regards to Thunderbolt Fantasy, the upcoming Japanese/Taiwanese puppet drama series for which he is credited as scriptwriter and ‘Chief Supervisor’ 「総監修」. Furthermore, I doubt that the work of the show runner in the Western TV industry and the anime series director fully overlap. For example, the anime director isn’t responsible for hiring people to execute the project — that’s what the producers do (edit: although the director is important for who he can bring to the project, it’s the line producer who makes sure that important staff meet the satisfaction of the production committee, and who makes sure it’s all within-budget.).

Nevertheless, the ‘director is basically the show runner’ rule—for the creative side of the process, anyway—generally applies whether the show is an original or an adaptation, which means that it’s usually the director that viewers should be crediting (or blaming) when they discuss whether a show’s ‘writing’ works or not. More specifics about what we should actually be crediting the writer for will be the subject of another post, somewhere further down the line.

Disclaimer: As I noted yesterday, I am not involved in the anime industry in a professional capacity, but merely as a fan. I also do not watch all that many Western TV shows, much less follow what goes on behind-the-scenes in that industry. I can only hope that I have presented a faithful—if short—overview of what the creators on both sides do. If I haven’t, please let me know, and I’ll correct it as soon as possible. And of course, any other feedback or comments are welcome too. Two weeks from now, I should be posting another interview. Current plan is to do something involving Okada Mari, so please look forward to it! —karice

It probably won’t be Iron-Blooded Orphans, though that could be fun, too…

Edited on 2018-05-24 for clarity regarding the “development producer” and “series director.”