A long interview with the writer, Doji Waita! (The 18th "Inside Man" of Anime and Games)

In this issue of "Inside the Anime and Game Industry," we bring you interviews with top creators who are active in the anime and game industry. In this 18th issue, we present writer Doji Waita. Without Ms. Waita, we cannot talk about today's anime scripts. She has worked on "Muteki Kyakumusume", "Lucky Star", "Tears to Tiara", "GA Art Department Art Design Class", "Wolf Hide and Seek", "Sengoku Otome: Peach Color Paradox", "THE IDOLM@STER", "Chaika the Coffin Princess", "The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato", etc. as series writer and script writer. and "SHOW BY ROCK! In 2017, he continued to write scripts for "Chain Chronicle: Hexatus no Sen", "Roku de nai Mahou Kyoukai to Kyoukai Kyoukai", "DIVE! and "The Sentor's Trouble. In this article, we sat down with him to talk about his influences, creative style, career, how he spends his spare time, and future challenges.

Growing up with comedies and classics

Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule for this interview. Could you begin by telling us about some of your influences?

Doji Waita (Doji Waita): I have loved theater since I was a child, and went to see Hideki Noda, Suzuki Matsuo, Koki Mitani, and many others on stage. I was influenced by the Gekidan Shinkansen, which is very popular now, and old TV dramas such as "Saiyuki" starring Masaaki Sakai, "Genta Ikenaka 80 Kilometers," "I Love Cats," and "The Guest at Table No. 3. I love comedic dramas.

I also like classics such as Shakespeare and Chekhov, and I have read all of Shakespeare's works.

Speaking of Shakespeare, I was shocked when I saw "Richard II" in the "Sainokuni Shakespeare Series" started by Yukio Ninagawa. To be honest, "Richard II" is one of my least interesting plays, but when I saw it on stage, I thought, "What? I didn't know it was that interesting! I was like, "I knew that play was amazing. ...... I was crazy about absurdist theater in high school and college, and I wrote my thesis on "Garcia Lorca.

I wrote my graduation thesis on "Garcia Lorca.

Waita: I watched "Mobile Suit Gundam" (1979-80) and other shows at least briefly, but I didn't watch them carefully. During the reading of an anime script, I was often compared to Gundam, so it wasn't until I became a scriptwriter that I really started to watch the series.

How many works do you watch per month?

Waita: I have to read the original works and materials related to the original works, so the amount of reading has decreased compared to the past. I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu for video works, and watch a whole season of a TV series on the weekend. I watch a lot of foreign dramas.

I don't have much time to go out, so I don't go to the movies as much as I used to. As for plays, kabuki, rakugo, etc., I make a lot of effort to go to the theater and see at least one or two plays a month. Many of them are only being performed during that period, so I prioritize them over movies.

I want to write more than I want to be.

Do you have a target person?

Waita: I don't have any. ...... When I first became an animation scriptwriter, there was a kind of master-disciple system, and I would get work from my mentor or be invited to write a script for a series.

Now, I have a desire to write this kind of work, but I no longer have the desire to become this kind of person. I feel that my goal has shifted from being a person to a work of art.

You have been able to survive in the severe animation industry with just one arm and one shin, haven't you?

Waita: No, no, no, no, it's not that good (laughs). They say, "A lone wolf cannot survive the winter.

My specialty is comedies that "make you laugh and make you feel relaxed.

Waitada: What is your favorite genre or story?

Waita: Basically, I like comedies, so I prefer "stories that make you laugh a little and make you feel relaxed," in the style of Yoshimoto Shinki Gekijo. I heard that rakugo and the performing arts originated from the idea of cheering up people who were tired from working in the fields by making them laugh. When I think about it in the context of my own work, I feel that people who come home late after working late at night can watch late-night anime to cheer themselves up and say, "Let's do our best again tomorrow! I think of it in the context of my own work.

I would also like to write "stories that make you want to root for the bad guys," in the style of "Pikaretsukuroman. I am not attracted to "stories with no redeeming qualities," but if there is some hope to be found in such a story, I would like to write about it at .......

I'd like to see a story where there is no redemption in any way, but if there is hope in such a story, I'd like to see it.

Waita: I think the tear switch in people's hearts is usually in the same place, but the laughter switch is in different places for everyone, and that's why I think it's hard to turn on the laughter switch. I think you have to be a little persistent to get people to understand.

I also did "SHOW BY ROCK! (2015-16) featured a unique antagonist named Dagger.

Waita: He appears as a villain, but I was hoping to make Dagger interesting and attractive as well. Especially the dialogue between Dagger and Ogasawara (......).

Logic for the structure, feeling for the dialogue

Could you tell us about your writing style for the screenplay?

Waita: It's not like right brain and left brain, but I try to separate the structure from the dialogue. I think of the structure of a series or a screenplay in terms of logic. I try to calculate where to build up the excitement, where to surprise the audience, where to show the characters' feelings in detail, where to place foreshadowing and where to collect it, and so on.

I am a sensual person, and I tend to make decisions based on my intuition. I trust my intuition, but if I go all out with it, I may not be able to convey the message to everyone, so I try to check what normal people would think if they saw the story by putting the structure in place once.

However, if I make a story entirely based on logic, it will not be very interesting. Once I have established the pillars and decided what to write, I pretty much write the lines by feel. Sometimes I don't get a chance to write the lines, and the director will point out to me, "Isn't this a bit too much of a leap? (smiles).

Do you have a specific work space?

Waita: My room at home. I need a quiet place to concentrate. If I go to a family restaurant, I can't help but be bothered by other people's conversations. I use a desktop computer, not a laptop.

Do you write early?

Waitada: It's always at the last minute, so I write and send it out immediately. I always think, "I'm sorry, .......

Do you have a fixed number of pages?

Waita: It depends on the work. If it's a quiet piece, I have to pause for emotion, so the number of pages is smaller. If it is a conversational drama, the number of pages will also be reduced.

I heard that you wrote nearly 200 pages for "GA Art Design Class" (2009).

Waita: It would have been impossible for me to do that for other works, but I was able to go with Hiroaki Sakurai's sense of tempo (laughs).

(laughs) How many drafts do you write?

Waita: It depends on the subject, so it's hard to say. Sometimes it's really quick and easy, and sometimes it takes many drafts if it's an original work.

Taking a break by making Japanese sweets and felt art

Waitada: Do you often participate from the planning stage?

Waita: Most of them are based on original stories. However, if there is only a character but no story, or if I feel that the story cannot be created as it is in the game, I come up with a story from scratch. Sengoku Otome: Peach Color Paradox" (2011) and "SHOW BY ROCK! (2011) and "SHOW BY ROCK!" had a kind of conversational drama between the characters, so we came up with the story while discussing it with everyone.

Will you participate in the postrecording?

Waita: I try to attend the postrecording of the first and last episodes because I have to greet the audience.

I heard that you like comedies, and you were the sound director of "SHOW BY ROCK! (#), who was the sound director for "SHOW BY ROCK!", is also a fan of drifting. (Ed. note: # )

Mr. Mima made it very interesting, and I sometimes got nervous when he asked me about the intention of the detailed lines (laugh), but I learned a lot from him.

(laugh) But I learned a lot.

Waita: One of my neighbors' wives runs a Japanese confectionery class. One day, I found a flyer and went to the class, which was very interesting. Since then, I have been going once a month. I can easily make things like mizu-manju, three-color o-hagi, domyoji sakura-mochi, and uguisumochi in about two hours.

I also attend a felt art class about once every six months. It is a great stress reliever for me to make shapes by stabbing the felt with a needle (laughs).

(laughs) - Do you bring Japanese sweets to the studio with you?

Waita: No, I eat them myself because they don't contain any preservatives. I don't think people know about it, so I think they would be surprised. I think they would say, "Isn't your character a bit blurred?" (laughs).