Mari Okada Interview

This a translation was done by certain kind-anonymous about Mari Okada's interview related to her work in Selector Infected WIXOSS. All credit goes to that anon. The material source for this is: http://imgur.com/a/YVdGL#0

Q: What's the story behind you becoming the scriptwriter?
A: In the beginning I was requested to by Matsukura Yuuji of JC Staff. At that time the contents of the game haven't been decided upon yet and it's supposed to move along with the anime. What convinced me was when he said that "we based a card game around the stories that you wrote". There were some initial composition ideas but they said that I'm free to write it as I liked to.

Q: Were there some demands for the script?
A: To separate this from card battles aimed at kids, I was requested to not pursue the battles in detail but to advance the through the story. Another was to include a lot of girls and with that I was in charge of the content but I was also requested to have a dark style.

Q: Since this was your first anime based on a card game, how did you feel about it?
A: I actually wanted to do a card game anime and I also like card games. When I was around 20 years old, pokemon cards just came out and I was really addicted to it. I even played against the elementary schoolers in the nearby supermarket.

Q: What did you think about the combination of the story of the girls with the card game?
A: After pokemon I dabbled in magic the gathering and at that time there were some girls who were into it too. Some were captivated by the designs and some wanted to collect them, I think that they were too far away from a girl's interests. That's why I thought that in that world it would go quite well to have girls as the main characters.

Q: Despite the fact that LRIGs, girls that exist inside cards, are characteristic of wixoss, what kind of work did you want to create?
A: Although I was free to write as I wished, I still wanted to stick to the original proposal's ideas. Since the idea that "wishes will be granted if you win" was in the proposal I decided to use that as it is. However, this idea is used in many other works and so I'd like it implemented in something that uses card games as a stage instead. Besides, isn't it scary to have the girls themselves turn into cards?
Although it seems that the girls are dragged into it, I want to show that ultimately the power to choose is in the girls' hands. I want to portray the dark style through things like strong malice and the horror of a splatter (movie) but I wanted them to be cornered by the feeling that "the sins and mistakes are my own fault". Above the feeling of being cornered by circumstance, I think that the moments of regret where one says "I shouldn't have done that back then" are the darkest and most painful. I don't remember clearly but in a fairy tails/folklore there is a story where an old man that's spinning thread around a spool and says "I'm getting tired so please takeover for me" and if you do takeover he'll disappear. Until the next person comes it's said that you have to keep going and I found that very scary. I thought it'd be good if I can show the pain of the chain of failed choices.

Q: Are you saying that the greatest fear is the inability to escape from the failure you encounter on the path that you chose?
A: Yes. In addition there's also the unpleasant relay of entrusting the sin that you've escaped from on someone else. On one hand I thought it'd be better if selectors made smaller wishes. With this there can be a setup where so and so wish will get so and so punishment and it's what I based the script around. It's not on the level of "Shimura, ushiro ushiro!" (some maymay that you use with regards to characters that don't realize the danger approaching from behind http://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E5%BF%97%E6%9D%91%E5%BE%8C%E3%82%8D! ) (lol) but before they realize it they become dragged into something huge.

Q: How did you want to portray the protagonist Ruuko’s LRIG?
A: I wanted to make Tama easy to understand. Just like her name, Tama’s personality is like that of a cat. I also have a cat and although they are cute and courageous they also have teeth and sharp claws. They like following their own desires and such character won’t be cling to Ruuko too closely and so I thought of pairing them up.

Q: Does the female image of the LRIG stem from Tama?
A: No, Tama is in a special position. I wanted to show that the other LRIGs have their own way of thinking. For example, I’ve created the image that Hanayo-san matches up with Yuzuki. Hanayo (I think that's what she's referring to) has wishes fitting of a girl but she has no choice but to continue the negative cycle. Hanayo-san has told Yuzuki that “it’s fine to throw me away” because she wants to stop the cycle if it were possible but she herself has no power to. By including such weakness, she gives a more mature impression than selectors (?).

Q: Although we’d like to know about how Ruuko deals with Tama, this work also shows that Ruuko’s has close relationships with her grandma and older brother doesn’t it?
A: It was director Satou Takuya’s idea to show Ruuko’s grandma. Since family tends to be missing in this anime, I also agree that they should be portrayed accurately. However, there is also the opinion that if I show the family then the writing would lose its edge. But by giving Ruuko a warm place of belonging, don’t you think it can bring out urgency and grief in each one of her decisions during card battles?

Q: It seems that grandma, who plays Wixoss with Ruuko, is a sophisticated character. Even in episode 1 she used tower buildings to make a puzzle game.
A: The grandmas of our age give the impression they dry out plums at home (lol) but don’t the grandmas of now seem quite young? One of my relative’s granddad plays the online game Dragon Quest and even said things like “I couldn’t meet my party members for a whole month because of moving around” (lol). And so it was proposed that it wasn’t weird for grandmas to be into games. I also thought that it’d be great if the puzzle game brought a feeling of instability to the story. A lot of the time in (anime) originals there is a tendency to avoid putting in things unrelated to the main thread of the story but if there are “things that shake out the appearance of the world and story” and “things that exist for symbolism” the story’s atmosphere can expand and the director is also a person who cares for such things.

Q: Has the director given any memorable instructions?
A: More so than the details, the director has said things like “I want to make a story that has such themes” which are focused on the general framework. This is significant consultation or should I say, it gives the feeling that you’ll want to watch it. And it’s not just the director, the people doing the production too said things like “let’s make it ‘peaky’ (I have no idea what they mean by that though)”, discussed about it generally with me which actually made it easier to write the anime. Since we can comfortably confine to agreed-upon contents, it was easy to summarize the requests. When I present director Satou has said things like “here you can also depict themes like this” and “it can be done using drawings like this”, which taught me what kind of drawings were in his head. I was delighted by that.

Q: After writing the script, were there any things that surprised you when it was getting animated?
A: The director was worried about the appearance of the batoru zone. However, after viewing the actual images he thought it looked cool. Since the first episode is leading into the story there was the order to give it a warm feeling and this is also taken into consideration in the script but with that I thought the theme of restlessness isn’t quite there. However, the director said that “once it becomes animated there will be that feeling of restlessness” and when I saw the actual images it surprised me how the shading sufficiently created that restlessness.

Q: It seems that the game’s details were decided as it goes side by side with the anime, but did you incorporate any ideas that pertained to the actual cards such as the characteristics of decks and colours?
A: I felt blessed by the fact that the game’s contents closely followed the anime’s script. Advertisement anime gives the impression that “since we need to show this at this time, please do it like this” but here the script’s batoru contents are seen first and then the appropriate decks for the characters are chosen. And when it was said that “I want such technique(s) too”, the techniques (card effects should I say) were also implemented in the real card game. Akira’s LRIG, Piruluk’s skill “peeping analyze” is also one of our requests. Akira fights unfairly by interfering with her opponent and I was really grateful when they followed up on the details that I wasn’t sure about.

Q: Is the ease of writing related to the fact that the game system wasn’t created yet during the writing stage?
A: Yes. The decisions of the game’s rules were done only shortly after the scenario was decided upon. The Yamaguchi Tomo of Takara Tomy who’s experienced in card games enjoyed the production of the anime. Even at the script meeting he gave passionate feedback like “I think it’d be really good if such things can reveal the character’s emotions”. Such refreshing reactions were somewhat lacking as of late and I was really happy because of that.

Q: It seems that Mari Okada-san yourself are getting into Wixoss.
A: Yes. I decide upon a certain number of games every day (lol). The cards are selling out in a lot of places and so many people aren’t able to get many cards which limits the number of opponents (lol). Actually I was so into the game that I passionately explained that “I want to use this particular card’s effects in the final battle” but was stopped by being told that “more than showing the details of the battle, please properly depict the drama aspects” (lol).

Q: And now that the story has come to a stop after episode 12, it seems that the true charm is the changing relationship between Ruuko and Tama due to the card batoru’s rules. With regards to the first cours’ ending what were you trying to achieve?
A: There was the order to end it on a turbulent note. While I was thinking about how to do this I thought that the main focus still has to be Ruuko and Tama’s relationship. Due to Tama being a card, I think that the two have a way of closing the distance of only having a different filter when they faced hard times together. As the connection grows stronger, I thought there should on the other hand also be a danger that is given birth. I wanted to make the final like that of a shounen manga , the foundation has the suffocating feeling of a girl’s world and since it’s a card game, I’m stressing the certain feeling of a promise of shall I say “bam!” kind of change. By using this change as a leverage I thought that I can bring their relationship to a climax. I thought it’d be good to close up at the thought “what would happen if middle school girls were caught up in a card game that can grant wishes”.

Q: What do you think of the development from here onwards?
A: At the end of the first cours it’s thrown into despair where nothing seems to be possible anymore and there’s no choice but to fight but I think the next cours will be approaching the mystery. Since it’s a hopeless situation it’s a search for any kind of way out. It may be something like “it’s not the cards but the situation that’s turning around” and finding the directions. After that, I think that the girls’ feelings and relationships will steadily appear. However, I’m aiming for something simple along the lines of “while being left in an abnormal situation, how will the human relationships be settled” at the very end.