How far in advance to the writer's work ahead?

[Legacy]

Okay, maybe a little hard to understand in the title but, my question is how do you think the writers work on the anime...do they plan out what they are going to do with certain story arcs or do they just kind of touch and feel as they go?

For example, I was reading in another thread about Aipom coming with Ash to sinnoh...

So did the writers know when they had Ash capture Aipom that it would someday be Dawn's by trade? Or did they only decide to give it to Dawn once they saw how Aipom and Ash were together?

Do the writers already have the entire Pokemon plot all the way to the end planned? Or do they invent as they go?

 

[Aestivate]

They predetermine by a year, I think
I remember a thread saying something about that before

 

[Legacy]

oh alright. cool thanks, i figured.

 

[Piplup]

Since AG they showed us Aipom is intereted at Contests (and they sure knew at that time May will leave since almost immediately after GF we heard Drew-tachi go to Johto)
So they planned Aipom going to Dawn before Dawn even appeared... about a year before it happened
Since Dawn got Buizel they emphasized its love to battles and how it doesn't really like the Contest syle (it was confused by it in its first appearance, and next ep Lucian told Dawn she should understand Buizel style and not the other way)
There's also Chimchar who got build up for a whole year until it eventually "given" to Ash

So they probably plan about a year ahead
I also think maybe May's Squirtle was their try to make a Contests loving Pokémon before they do the "real thing" with Aipom

 

[Cybersai]

I think they plan at least 8-12 months ahead because the groups Pokemon in the next movie is always correct as to what happens in the anime, like the new captures or evo's.

It's also fairly obvious they know when GameFreak is going to release the next game, hence why Battle Frontier was rushed toward the end to get done with all the last few Brains/Contests before DP came out.

 

[Dogasu]

Calm the eff down.


While we'll never know for sure the amount of time between an event being planned and it actually playing out, we can guess that things like the Aipom trade and Hikozaru going to Satoshi were all planned well in advance. I suspect that the producers of Pocket Monsters, like any other show out there, get together and try to brainstorm ideas for the entire year, figuring out what they want to accomplish story-wise and how long it'll take to get there.

I also get the feeling, from Advanced Generation onwards, that the writers knew exactly which pokemon each trainer was going to get. Captures are more spaced out (none of this Kanto "capture four pokemon in the space of five episodes" nonsense) and it really seems like each pokemon is given a role in their trainer's team instead of just being *there*.

 

[Shift]

I have to assume there's some level of advance planning concerning what'll generally happen, like the Pokemon captured and all that. But considering that we can go from half a year with only one gym and the next half with two or three, or evolutions in the same situation, I wonder how much overshooting or underestimating of the time schedule goes on.

Calm the eff down.

Things seemed pretty calm to me. :-/

 

[Mooites]

Things seemed pretty calm to me. :-/

My post wasnt ^^; So I deleted it.

But I think the writers have the big picture planned out, just not the details. But hey, they're the professionals. They know what their doing, and its just annoying how some people ignore that fact

whatever.

 

[PKMN_Veteran]

I think that they plan major events like new captures/releases and gym matches well in advance and fillers are made in a shorter duration of time. It isn't really obvious at times when plots seem rushed and whatnot but there are times where you can make assumptions on how long the writers spent on an episode according to the quality of its plot.

 

[Cybersai]

I actually wonder if the writers already are writing the final Galactic episodes.

Out of a 122 episode arc so far, Team Galactic have only ever been in 6 episodes. And...we're at Snowpoint, which means they don't have much time left.

I also wonder if they plan out appearances for characters like Gary (only 2 eps so far), the rivals and other stuff.

 

[PDL]

I also wonder if they plan out appearances for characters like Gary (only 2 eps so far), the rivals and other stuff.

Do you think that character appearences happen by accident or something?

 

[TTEchidna]

Hidaka mentioned in WPM's interview that there's a six-month gap for an episode from planning to airing. That's 26 episodes. Sounds about right.

As for the story arcs? I'd imagine that they start writing them at least a year or so before they begin.

 

[Musashi]

The show was only supposed to run for about a year and a half right? That means they must have a general idea of how everything will wrap up. You can tell the writers throw in episodes every now and then to keep certain plot points alive until they're ready to resolve them.

It's no accident Rocket-Dan episodes have been around 20 episodes apart either. They definitely planned for some Rocket-Dan focus this series.

 

[Legacy]

so you think they already have the ending planned out? do you think the long run the show has gone on will change it at all?

i bet youre right. (I hope it involves Ho-oh :cheers I heard the writers created tracey because they wanted to make sure they had a backup character for the americans just incase brock's design offended people...but then they found out brock didn't so they kept him around eventually.

this was the kind of stuff i meant when I posted the OP. Do you think the writers are constantly checking the pulse and opinions of the fanbase for stuff or do they have a pretty good idea of what they are gonna do.

Although, I'm sure they do a bit of both.

 

[Musashi]

so you think they already have the ending planned out? do you think the long run the show has gone on will change it at all?

Only in a general "Satoshi will become a Pokemon Master" and "Musashi, Kojiro, and Nyasu will quit the Rocket-Dan" idea. Obviously details will change over time.

this was the kind of stuff i meant when I posted the OP. Do you think the writers are constantly checking the pulse and opinions of the fanbase for stuff or do they have a pretty good idea of what they are gonna do.

Although, I'm sure they do a bit of both.

I think they listen to the fans a little. We've all talked before about all the things Diamond and Pearl has done that show the writers are improving. (Yes, there's the whole Eteboth situation at the moment, but let's see how that plays out first) To me, it feels like they're genuinely making an effort to keep things interesting for older fans.

 

[J J M]

I assume they plan out the important events first and space them out suitably. Then throw in some episodes in between to fill up the gap with some semi-important event happening in some of them.

 

[Neko Godot]

Sheesh, if the writers do plan, they should actually use recurring characters and plots like Hunter J, Galactic, Gary, or actually developing Dawn's rivals, instead of wasting time with fillers.

 

[ii kanji]

Sheesh, if the writers do plan, they should actually use recurring characters and plots like Hunter J, Galactic, Gary, or actually developing Dawn's rivals, instead of wasting time with fillers.

What, every episode? The writers can't finish up a region/series/whatever-you-call-it until they've got a new generation of games to move the plot onto. You can't have a major plot point every episode, once a week for 4 years. If we didn't have filler, we'd only get an episode every fortnight or something at best.

And plus, some of the best and most enjoyable eps IMO have technically been fillers and vice versa.

 

[Cybersai]

The problem is DP has more recurring characters than any previous arc.

Kanto just had Gary, there was really no one else besides Giovanni's appearances.

Orange didn't have any recurring characters, Gary was only in the last two eps at Pallet Town.

Johto had Gary and Casey, but both characters only got 3 eps each.

Hoenn had Drew, Harley and Team Magma/Aqua.

Battle Frontier just had Drew and Harley.


However DP has:

Paul, Jun, Zoey, Kenny, Nando, Team Galactic, Pokehunter J, Angie, Conway, Gary, Cynthia, Rhonda, etc.


DP has far more recurring characters than previous arcs, so the writers need to divide up screentime better.

 

[Shinx3000]

Sheesh, if the writers do plan, they should actually use recurring characters and plots like Hunter J, Galactic, Gary, or actually developing Dawn's rivals, instead of wasting time with fillers.

Honestly, I think you need some fillers to get off the storyline once in a while, just for something different. Granted the episode with Ash starley evolving was pretty bad and so where a few other fillers in past, but some have been quite good.