Relationship between Anime Writers and Games

[Alola]

Okay, so could someone kindly explain how familiar the writers of the anime, and by extent TCpi, are with the games? For example, do they play each each game and then base the episodes off of that? Do they collaborate with people such as Satoshi Tajiri when making the episodes? About how much license do they have over the episodes?

I've always wondered about this, especially given the latest episode, XY episode 36, where two Pokemon participated in Sky Battles despite not being able to in the games (I know Ash only had them to utilize, but still).

 

[JacobYBM]

Chief [Series] Director Yuyama Kunihiko, [Series] Director Yajima Tetsuo (as of XY), and Series Organizer (Head Writer) Tomioka Atsuhiro are told what to do and promote from the games by Game Freak. Masuda Jun'ichi is currently the most hands-on producer with the games, right? They all probably meet every once in a while to decide how and when elements of the games are going to be promoted. Then the other members of the production committee have their own say, given those member companies are paying the bills to keep the cartoon going. Afterwards Yuyama, Yajima, and Tomioka decide together how they are going to accomplish both what they want to do and what the production committee wants them to promote. Yuyama probably isn't quite as hands on as Yajima is, though, given that Yuyama is busy working on the films or using the film budget to travel the world for free. :lol: As such, Yajima and Tomioka break the general overarching story of the series from major marketing push to major marketing push. Afterwards Tomioka assigns scripts to freelance writers he is familiar with and asks them to doozy up the plot elements decided by himself and his superiors. If Tomioka has the time or willingness, he will write a script himself. Normally one can handle about two scripts per month, from initial draft to final. You will notice that for Diamond & Pearl Mr. Tomioka wrote many consecutive episodes himself, likely thanks to smart planning and a passion for the story he was telling. Afterward Tomioka barely wrote for Best Wishes, the series that lacked the focus and intensity of its predecessor.

Tomioka's episodes have always enjoyed indulging in game mechanics or competitive-level tactics. Before taking on the Series Organization role beginning with Diamond & Pearl Tomioka wrote episodes like Pocket Monster Episode #56, Episode #140 (where a purple haired trainer named Shingo uses his laptop to decide how to battle his foes) and numerous contest episodes of Advanced Generation. Once Tomioka took over the role of head writer for Diamond & Pearl even battles written by the other freelancers took a jump in quality. Of course, despite having the same series director and head writer of the preceding series Best Wishes still wound up making its characters look blatantly inadequate as trainers.


So, there is definitely a level of familiarity with the video games. Whether or not the decision is made to follow the games well is another matter.

 

[Alola]

Chief [Series] Director Yuyama Kunihiko, [Series] Director Yajima Tetsuo (as of XY), and Series Organizer (Head Writer) Tomioka Atsuhiro are told what to do and promote from the games by Game Freak. Masuda Jun'ichi is currently the most hands-on producer with the games, right? They all probably meet every once in a while to decide how and when elements of the games are going to be promoted. Then the other members of the production committee have their own say, given those member companies are paying the bills to keep the cartoon going. Afterwards Yuyama, Yajima, and Tomioka decide together how they are going to accomplish both what they want to do and what the production committee wants them to promote. Yuyama probably isn't quite as hands on as Yajima is, though, given that Yuyama is busy working on the films or using the film budget to travel the world for free. :lol: As such, Yajima and Tomioka break the general overarching story of the series from major marketing push to major marketing push. Afterwards Tomioka assigns scripts to freelance writers he is familiar with and asks them to doozy up the plot elements decided by himself and his superiors. If Tomioka has the time or willingness, he will write a script himself. Normally one can handle about two scripts per month, from initial draft to final. You will notice that for Diamond & Pearl Mr. Tomioka wrote many consecutive episodes himself, likely thanks to smart planning and a passion for the story he was telling. Afterward Tomioka barely wrote for Best Wishes, the series that lacked the focus and intensity of its predecessor.

Tomioka's episodes have always enjoyed indulging in game mechanics or competitive-level tactics. Before taking on the Series Organization role beginning with Diamond & Pearl Tomioka wrote episodes like Pocket Monster Episode #56, Episode #140 (where a purple haired trainer named Shingo uses his laptop to decide how to battle his foes) and numerous contest episodes of Advanced Generation. Once Tomioka took over the role of head writer for Diamond & Pearl even battles written by the other freelancers took a jump in quality. Of course, despite having the same series director and head writer of the preceding series Best Wishes still wound up making its characters look blatantly inadequate as trainers.


So, there is definitely a level of familiarity with the video games. Whether or not the decision is made to follow the games well is another matter.

Thank you, I appreciate the time and effort that went into this detailed response.

 

[Master Cyrus]

So if I'm getting this straight, yajima is to blame for why this show puts toy sales above game promotion or a halfway decent plot and consequently why BW was so terible

 

[JacobYBM]

So if I'm getting this straight, yajima is to blame for why this show puts toy sales above game promotion or a halfway decent plot and consequently why BW was so terible

Yajima Tetsuo was not the series director of Best Wishes, he took the role for XY. Sutou Norihiko was the series director of Diamond & Pearl and Best Wishes. I also never mentioned 'toy sales' in my post. Commercial cartoon franchises exist on the assumption that they will serve as a reminder to audiences to buy the associated merchandise. For whatever reason the mandate came down for Best Wishes to take us back to the manner in which the story was written in the Kantou episodes of the first TV series. Now we are back to something closer to Diamond & Pearl, where Satoshi was not an novice, could use strategies, and was allowed to have strong Pokemon.

 

[Dogasu]

If you follow Masuda Junichi on Twitter you'll see him make posts about having meetings with the staff at OLM from time to time.

 

[JacobYBM]

If you follow Masuda Junichi on Twitter you'll see him make posts about having meetings with the staff at OLM from time to time.

Yup, thanks for the confirmation. Given that the cartoon exists to keep their games in the spotlight it's no surprise he would be involved.