Interview with "Netojin no Susume" Part 4: Screenwriters' Team Roundtable Discussion - Modern "Netoge Aru Aru" and Universal "Trendy Drama-like" Frustrations

The main character, Moriko Morioka, tired of her life as a company employee, finds solace in online games, and through her relationships there, she aims to return to "Neto-Matsu to Ria-Matsu" (from Neto-Matsu to Rear-Matsu), a story similar to a live-action TV drama. In this fourth installment of our interview series, we sat down with series director Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, screenwriters Yuka Yamada and Mio Inoue for a roundtable discussion. This work has become more dramatic by focusing more on the love story between Moriko and Sakurai from the original story. The scenario team all talked about how interesting the characters are. What do the creators pay attention to in creating the scenario? We also talked about some of the secrets of scenario creation that are not often revealed, such as the key points in creating the structure of the series.

The first step in creating a scenario is to empathize with the characters.

─ First of all, could you tell us about your impressions of the work when you first came into contact with it?

Kazuyuki Fudeyasu: The characters are very unique, and I felt that there are two sides to the story, the online game world and the real world, and that the human relationships are very interesting. I got the impression of a trendy drama in the way the relationships between "people" such as encounters and differences were portrayed.

Mio Inoue: I had originally read the original story, and since I was an online game player myself, I was able to read the story with a lot of empathy, nodding my head in agreement with the "typical online game" situations that appeared in the story. As the story progressed, I really liked the way the story moved into descriptions of romance and human relationships.

Yuka Yamada: Contrary to Ms. Inoue, I don't play online games, so I kept reading the story with a fresh feeling that this kind of world existed. Although it was a world far removed from mine, I felt sympathy for the characterization of Moriko, who portrayed a life-size image of being 30 years old, single, and NEET.

─ ─ From what you have just said, it seems that everyone paid attention to the characters, didn't they?

Fudeyasu: That's right. The drama comes alive only with the characters, so the first step in any work is the characters. In this film as well, the impact of Moriko clacking away on the keyboard at the beginning of the film was enough to make the audience accept her as a character. And the fact that she is a former office worker who has left the workforce to become an elite NEET makes me wonder what kind of life she has led.


Inoue You are right. Moriko is also a NEET, but she also works at Korokoro (an adhesive carpet cleaner) and seems to be living as a character. She is probably a meticulous and serious person who has been through a lot due to the stress of her life, and you can tell just from her description. I think it is because the characters are still alive from the original story that we are able to think about the backgrounds that led to these characters.

Yamada It is difficult to write a script unless you can empathize with or understand the character. In that respect, Moriko is a character that is easy to empathize with, and Sakurai is a good-looking guy, but there is a part of him that is a step backward. Even for someone like me, who is not familiar with the Netto game, the characters are fascinating, and I enjoyed writing them.


───How did you come to Fudeyasu-san as the series director?

Fudeyasu: I heard that Director Yanaginuma recommended me. Mr. Yanaginuma was the storyboard director for episode 13 of the second season of "Yamanosume" for which I had written the scenario. He was amused by that and asked me to work with him. I had also seen the director's previous short film, "Moonlit Evening," and thought it was great, so I was happy to participate.

─ Why did you invite Mr. Yamada and Ms. Inoue to join the scenario team?

Fudeyasu: I wanted to include a female perspective in the work. I had known for a long time that Inoue-san was an Internet gamer, and when I asked her to join the team, she had read the original story, so I had no hesitation in doing so. I knew that Mr. Yamada does not play games, so I thought it might be difficult, but the production studio, SIGNAL.MD, recommended us. MD, a production studio, recommended me for the project. He had previously worked on "Detective Team KZ: The Case Notebook," for which I had participated in each episode, so I decided to ask him to do the same for this project.

─ ─ The scenario writer of the series composition is in charge of assigning each episode, isn't he?

Fudeyasu: That's right. I set up the structure myself, and asked Inoue-san to write the episodes in which game descriptions would be the main focus, and asked Yamada-san to write the episodes in which human relationships would be described more frequently. It was very helpful that you were able to work on consecutive episodes because you could continue to depict the flow of the characters' emotions.


───How did you actually proceed from the second episode that Fudeyasu-san was in charge of to the third episode that Yamada-san was in charge of?

Fudeyasu: First of all, we would make a list of what kind of development would take place in that number of episodes. If the scenario is completed, we actually hand it over. If the scenario has not yet been completed, I give them a note saying, "This person and this person have not met yet," or "The original story is like this, but please don't use it in the anime because it is not at that stage. Then, we ask them to write the plot, and after making adjustments, we proceed to the actual scenario production.

─ Do you leave out certain parts of the original work or expand on them in the plotting stage?

Fudeyasu: We do this at the plotting stage and also at the scenario stage. It is a case-by-case basis, but when we are making the plot, we need to have a flow for the story, so there are times when the development changes from the original work. In manga, the story can be read naturally even if the dates in the manga are different from those in the original work, but if we depict the story as it is in the anime, it may not feel right. Therefore, we adjust the locations and the flow of emotions, and in the case of this work, we make it so that the end of each episode will be more exciting.

─ Fudeyasu-san, you mentioned earlier that you felt it was like a trendy drama when you first saw it, but how did you think about the structure and how did you put it into this form?

Fudeyasu: When I thought about the overall story of this anime, I thought the important thing was how to conclude the relationship between Moriko and Sakurai. I thought about what was necessary to bring the story to that point and worked on it. There are episodes that were depicted in the original work but could not be written in the anime, but the main axis of the story is Moriko and Sakurai. In the 10 episodes, I built up the description by thinking about the process of approaching each other and working backwards from their first encounter.


─ What were the important points in creating a sense of trendy drama?

Fudeyasu: The netgame is a completely artificial world, so I tried to portray the real world in a way that was grounded in reality. For example, in the first episode, when depicting the morning, I included descriptions of children going to school, and I tried to avoid using monologues as much as possible. For example, in the first episode, I tried not to use a monologue. In animation, it is common to use a monologue, but if you try to do it in live-action, the screen stops, and it becomes a gag. Although this work is an animation, I tried to follow the rules of live-action as much as possible. I asked Mr. Inoue to watch "Tokyo Love Story" as a reference.

Inoue: When I read the original work, I read it in the context of a shoujo manga, but I had never actually seen "Tokyo Love Story," although I knew about it in my knowledge.... When I borrowed it, I realized "I see, this is what trendy drama feels like," and I made use of it in my writing.

Fudeyasu: In the last part of episode 5, there was a misunderstanding. Moriko was waiting for Sakurai, but he rushed to her. When Sakurai rushes to the scene, he finds Moriko dressed up differently than usual, and that's when Sakurai's heart is truly stolen and "Love Story Suddenly" starts to play. The portrayal is a bit embarrassing, yet sparkling.

Inoue He said that when you shake it off, you should shake it off. I have just heard for the first time what you said earlier, that it is better to be grounded.

Fudeyasu: As it turns out, that is the case, so there was no problem. The same is true of the description of the room, and the corroboration. I think it is realistic when they buy stockings at a convenience store, or when they go to a hair salon, they think about how many times they can get a gacha.

Yamada In my episode, I was asked several times to add more descriptions of Korokoro (laughs). (Laughs) I was told that this was also a portrayal of her character. In terms of the trendy drama feel, I thought it was very "typical" that the end of each episode was designed to lead into the next episode.