Creators Interview “GX” Scriptwriter Roundtable

Takegami-san was a way cool boss.

Creators Interview “GX” Scriptwriter Roundtable
We interviewed the screenwriters who played key roles in “GX” about their memories of the production.

MEMBERS PROFILE

吉田 伸 Yoshida, Shin
Series Composition (Episodes 157 to 180)
Has served the role of Series Composition for 5 of the “Yu-Gi-Oh!” anime. Presently he is writing for “Official Card Game Stories” with V Jump.

鈴木 やすゆき Suzuki, Yasuyuki
Episodic Screenwriter
Chiefly a screenwriter for Anime, Tokusatsu and Video Games. Served as a screenwriter from “Duel Monsters” to “ZEXAL”.

彦久保 雅博 Masahiro, Hikokubo
Duel Composition & Episodic Screenwriter
Wrote and composed the Duels for every “Yu-GI-Oh!” anime. Proposed GX’s main gimmick should be Fusion Summoning. This series was also the one where he made a debut as a screenwriter.

I think “GX” was the series that led to the continuation of the anime side of the franchise. Please tell me how the series came about and what happened once it started airing, if you remember.

Hikokubo: When I was shown the plans for “GX”, it was already well underway, and the names of the cast members and the setting details for Duel Academia were already finalized.

Yoshida: I think the fact it was a school centric story was in no small part due to “Harry Potter”, which was quite popular at the time.

Hikokubo: I recall the surname “Yuki (遊城)” was based on the 遊 from Yugi and the 城 from Jonouchi. And his first name, Judai (十代), was something Takahashi Kazuki-sensei pitched, that stays with me: “When teenagers are in trouble, everyone shouts out: “Do your best, teen.” which can be seen as a way of supporting teenagers.”.

Ark Note: 十代 means literally teenage(r).

“GX” was different from “Duel Monsters”, as it was a completely original story not based on a manga. Please tell us about the hardships you faced, the key points you focused on, and the biggest differences during production.

Yoshida: For me there was nothing much (ahaha). For the most part, Suzuki-san and I write anime stories with no original source material, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to blindly copy the entire series even if there is a source material.

Suzuki: Takegami Junki-san, who was in charge of Series Composition, wrote some hints into the overall structure he created. He would tell us who would be in charge of what and assigned us our responsibilities. But he otherwise tell us we were free to do what we wanted. From there, I would sketch out the plot (i.e. the basis of the script)… … ish.

Hikokubo: “GX” is a completely original story, meaning it was different from “Duel Monsters” as there were zero source material to base the Duels on, and at first I wasn’t confident I’d be able to create a Duel in time for each weekly broadcast. I talked to Takegami-san and the Producer(s) and said “Okay, I’ll see what I can do”.

Yoshida: On that hand, it was probably way harder on Hikokubo-san.

Hikokubo: Typically, I work on the Duel Composition after receiving the plot from the screenwriter, though the other day, when I checked my email from back then, it turns out in early days, the Duel Chart came before the Duel. I don’t know how long this method lasted, but it seems early on they’d build the plots based on the Duel Chart I provided them.

Suzuki: When I worked on “Duel Monsters”, Yoshida-san was in charge of Series Composition, and he wrote the plot outline for the screenplay and Hikokubo would reflect that in the Duel Chart. So the Duel was also linked to the screenplay. I was told it would be better to discuss such matters in close consultation, so I followed suit. However, in the early days of “GX”, the feeling we all had was “The old way would take too much time, let’s write the story based on Hikokubo-san’s Duel”… … I quickly went back to the old way of doing things, but we did it at first, probably as a scheduling issue.

Yoshida: Assembling scripts for “Yu-Gi-Oh!” are like incorporating a mathematical formula into a sentence. If I had an idea for a Duel, I’d put forward an idea and ask for a Duel that would match that idea, but not all the script writers were familiar with Duels, and some of them said they couldn’t write without Hikokubo-san’s Duel Chart (ahaha). While Mr. Hikokubo has the ability to follow the scriptwriter’s request, he was also able to make his own suggestions about Duels in order to help make them more dense and enjoyable.

While the original comic and “Duel Monsters”, which had a dark atmosphere to them, the first half of “GX” was fairly light and comedic. Can you please explain why you chose this style?

Hikokubo: I’m not talking about the “Ganbare Judai” (Do your best, Teen!) story I mentioned earlier, but Takahashi Kazuki-sensei’s was “Hrm, I like this kind of atmosphere. So let’s make it a school-centric story”. Takegami-san was responsible for the overall feel and atmosphere.

Yoshida: Judai, the show’s protagonist, wasn’t a hard-edged character, so when trying to make an original story, we naturally fell into a more carefree story. Also, Yugi from “Duel Monsters” was the popular main character of a Jump manga being serialized, so there were a lot of restrictions on how he could be used in the show.

Suzuki: It was bright and shiny at first, but a lot of things changed. Around the Different Dimension Arc.

Hikokubo: After all, there has to be a story that serves as the through line of the series… … I guess there’s why the series got more and more serious in the second and third years…. …

With regards to characters like Kaiba Seto, the Labyrinth Brothers, Sugoroku and Pegasus, etc., there were various characters from “Duel Monsters” that showed up in the new show. Were some things you were careful about importing from “Duel Monsters”?

Hikokubo: It goes without saying we couldn’t disrupt the established world building, but since this story was a direct sequel, we had to carefully let the underlying tone and nuance of the world still resonate and hint at what happened after “Duel Monsters”, even if we couldn’t depict it directly. It would be strange if I made the cards completely different, too. One should add new cards to what was already there to make things even more powerful. I think that was what we essentially did.

Since the story is set at an academy for Dueling, there are even more characters using a wide variety of Decks than in “Duel Monsters”. How did you decide on the Decks used by the cast, both in terms of the main cast and guest characters?

Suzuki: Since the characters dueling are determined at the beginning, I think Hikokubo-san and Takegami-san came up with the Decks for those characters together. I was in charge of TURN-4, but I don’t think I had anything to do with any of that.

Hikokubo: I made suggestions about the main cast outlined in the proposal document, including Judai’s “Elemental HERO” Deck. Apart from that, with regards to the Duels in each episode, the screenwriter for that episode would come up with a lot of ideas even before the plot was finalized. I remember having discussions based around those ideas, and adopting the ideas we found most interesting as we moved forward.

Suzuki: Come to think of it, I was asked to come up with some ideas. While worrying about which would be the right answer (ahaha).

Hikokubo: During meetings, we’d flip through V Jump’s “The Valuable Books” while discussing things.

Suzuki: I remember pointing at cards and saying “I like this one.”.

We were told that Manjome’s “Ojama Yellow” from TURN-24 “Reborn! Manjome Thunder” was Yoshida-san’s idea.

Yoshida: There were all sorts of stories about that episode, and to be honest, I was actually planning to leave “GX” after that episode. Takegami-san told me, “Since this is your last episode, just write whatever you want”, so I did just that… … but I ended up giving my all on that script. Maybe that’s why it was well-received, because the Producer begged me “Please stick around” (ahaha). I knew since I viewed Manjome as sort of my character, I figured he should fight against Judai, you know? Since the protagonists of Yu-Gi-Oh! have “Kuribohs” as their mascot monster, I figured Manjome should have his own, kinda. When I saw “Ojama Yellow”, I said this has to be Manjome’s spirit, and the director was completely surprised and said “Are you serious? Are you really going to do this?” (ahaha)

Hikokubo: Yoshida-san came up with the idea during TURN-24. It’s different from the Deck I originally envisioned for Manjome (ahaha). That’s why things kept changing for him.

Yoshida: This is where “Yu-Gi-Oh!” gets really tricky… basically a “strong character” can’t afford to lose a Duel. Because Manjome lost so much early on, it make it difficult to really establish his character’s role. After that, I struggled to figure out how to show he was strong.

Please explain why Fusion Summon became the main gimmick in “GX”.

Hikokubo: Even before “GX” started, people were saying “Fusion Summon is honestly really weird”, but when you look at it in terms of a card game, there are almost no games with a mechanic like this. I thought it was an absolutely brilliant mechanic, so it would such a waste if it never saw the light of day.

Yoshida: I remember something like “Are you really sure about this?” to Hikokubo-san when he started using Fusion Summon as the main mechanic in “GX” (ahahaha). Back then, Fusion Summon was always (too little too late/a step behind)? Because you needed to assemble three specific cards.

Suzuki: But in anime, isn’t it exciting to see what the result is when things combine? Yoshida-san, you handled Duels, so does that mean you were thinking like a Duelist?

Yoshida: Fusion Summoning was quite costly in terms of game balance back then, though I don’t think it is now. I was worried it would be too restrictive due to how many cards in the hand were being used up, but it turned out okay (ahaha).

Hikokubo: I really did feel that, as a series, it needed some sort of key element. In addition, since the materials were monsters used regularly, we figured we could create various Fusion Monsters that mixed and matched depending on how they were combined, and since there would be some sort of initial framework, that that would reduce the amount of work required to design them for the Anime production staff. I also figured by doing so, I could solve the problem Yoshida-san just mentioned, which was the difficulty of assembling the cards you needed in the “Official Card Game”. Also at first, I didn’t expect “GX” would last that long, so partway through, I had to get creative, such as increasing the number of “Fusion” and “Polymerization” cards.

Yoshida: I have to admit, making more “Fusion” and “Polymerization” cards made a ton of sense to me (ahaha). Also, back then, there wasn’t really any thought of adding additional Summoning Methods such as Synchro Summon in “5D’s”.

How did you develop the protagonist, Judai?

Hikokubo: We discussed how it would be nice to have a catchphrase for the conclusion of episodes, and the producer at the time suggested “Gotcha!!”.

Yoshida: “I got you!”. It means “I did it” or “I obtained it” in English.

Hikokubo: At the time, Takegami-san was also doing double duty, serving as Series Composition for the “One Piece” anime, so he often talked about Luffy, the hero of that show, during meetings. Even when he didn’t have many scenes, he steals the show with his signature lines at just the right moment. I often find myself thinking how wonderful that series is — It has a way of really emphasizing Luffy’s personality, and getting to the heart of the matter without too much navel gazing.

Suzuki: I guess I was slightly aware of that.

Hikokubo: Judai usually seems like a goofball, but I think he wanted Judai to be able to cut to the heart of the matter when it really counted.

It seemed like there were many cases where the people around Judai changed as a result of seeing what he did, rather than him directly telling them what to do.

Yoshida: That’s true — It’s not really something you can explain in words, I think.

Suzuki: I suppose that was intentional. It shows how your actions can change the world around you. But that’s why became the Supreme King during the second half of the show and what not… … (ahaha).

Many of the Main Characters in “GX” have siblings, and there are plenty of episodes that explore sibling relationships. Was this also depicted in the original work and included to reflect the bond between siblings?

Hikokubo: I would say it’s less of something specific to “Yu-Gi-Oh!” and more a hallmark of how Takegami-san creates characters. Since Takegami-san has done so many school-based stories, I suspect he probably figured if he had the siblings be in different grades, it would make it easier for the cast to interact with characters in different grades.

Yoshida: I feel the initial story layout was very Takegami-san-like. I think he set it up so we could play with things however we liked. That’s what makes Takegamei-san so talented, I think.

Yubel, who appeared during the third year, was a very unique character, but how were they created?

Yoshida: I think it was Takegami-san who came up with the ‘Soulmates’ concept. They’re sort of like Yami Yugi to Yugi in the original comic, but they weren’t a good person to Judai.

Suzuki: Takegami-san was very very fond of “Devilman“, so I think that was a likely influence.

Hikokubo: I get the feeling that there’s more to that story though… …

Yoshida: It’s not so much “fated to catastrophe”, Judai ended up being dragged into the darkness and became the Supreme King, instead of using the power of his other self. Yami Yugi never desired something like that, but Yubel very much did… … Also the part where Yubel was launched into space on a Space Rocket to correct their behavior really shows how much of a fan of Science Fiction Takegami-san is. The series suddenly started feeling an awful lot like “Ultraman”… (ahaha).

Suzuki:Also, back then, Takegami-san was really into “Superstring theory” and used to hand out books and DVDs about it, I think. And asked us to brush up on it.

Yoshida: I think things like quantum physics were all the rage back then.

How did you come up with the key card of the third year: “Super Polymerization”?

Hikokubo: “Polymerization” evolved step by step, no? It was honestly something of a linear progression… … I think it was a card specifically designed for Supreme King Judai, rather than just a slapdash card I randomly made up. Since that was the case, I figured ‘in for a penny in for a pound’ and go all in. I thought “What if we do this!?”, but at the time, people on the internet were saying “Fusion is still hard to use, isn’t it” with regards to the physical Card Game. From there, I figured I should broaden the materials used… … Was what I was thinking about. I think I recall Yoshida-san telling me it was pretty strong.

One of the defining features of “GX” is that many of the cast members change from the beginning of the story, including Judai after his Supreme King personality awoke. How were these plot developments decided?

Suzuki: I was in charge of Hell Kaiser’s story line, but in Takegami-san’s original outline, Ryo went pro, so the whole “Respect Duel” concept no longer worked… … But it felt like he should gain something more and become stronger. He was about to fall into the abyss, but he’ll crawl his way back up… … I was thinking of that at first, but while working on TURN-65, he became Hell Kaiser and Takegami-san looked at the script and said “This works. Let’s go with this characterization.” (ahaha). We kept trying to have him go back to how he used to be, but we ended up sticking with Hell Kaiser for the entire show (ahaha). I guess in Takegami-san’s mind, as long as it was entertaining, it was okay?

Hikokubo: Well, I guess that just goes to show how distinctive the character was? But there were a lot of things like that, right? It seemed to me that whatever Takegami-san thought was interesting was simply thrown in.

Yoshida: Takegami-san was very flexible with how he handled Series Composition, wasn’t he?

Suzuki: Yes. That’s why when I was in charge of TURN-47, when Fubuki regains his memories, Takegami-san said if that didn’t pan out, we’d have to figure out what to do next with Fubuki… … In fact, I felt a lot of pressure because there were times where the amount of scripts I could write would be reduced if the characters weren’t well defined and didn’t stand out. So I’d end up doing something ridiculous like the father from “Tensai Bakabon” (ahaha)… … I had a lot of regrets later. Even Yoshida-san who was writing the Duel against Kagemaru next, asked me “Are you doing *that* right before these episodes?”. But Takegami-san said “Well, I guess this is fine” and we proceeded with a sense of spontaneity.

Starting with TURN-157, which follows the “Different Dimension Arc”, Yoshida-san took over for series composition, depicting the future paths of Judai and his friends as they approach graduation, as well as his final battle. In particular, TURN-167 “A Duel of Gratitude! Chronos VS The O.G. Drop Out Boy” was an extremely popular episode, taking first place for the “20th Duel Selection” held in 2016. At what point did you start considering this?

Suzuki: I wonder if Yoshida-san came up with that idea when he took over Series Composition? I mean, of course, Yoshida-san can tell us the facts of the matter, right?

Yoshida: I wanted to show how much Judai had grown. I know I set the bar really high for Hikokubo-san though (ahaha). I guess I thought it would be interesting to show how much he had grown over the last three years in a Duel.

Suzuki: Chronos’ voice actor, Shimizu Hiroshi-san, was incredible at ad-libbing.

Hikokubo: Like his iconic “Nanoone” (ナノーネ) (ahaha). When I reread the early scripts for Chronos, I noticed that “-suruno” (するーノ) appeared quite a bit. In Italian, don’t they tend to elongate the sound of the last letter?

There were many characters with distinctive speech patterns and ways of ending their sentences, starting with Professor Chronos.

Hikokubo: Kenzan’s “da don!” and “saurus” speech tic I think was decided by Takegami-san, as I kept writing, ‘I should use “da don!” here, not “saurus” here”, although there’s no real rhyme or reason, you just kinda get ‘it’, don’t you? (ahaha). It was really strange, wasn’t it? We held a script reading (script meeting) that was like that.

Yoshida: I think “Saurus” is the most absurd speech tic we had in the show’s world, but when we tried dubbing it, I was surprised to see how well it worked out (ahaha).

The Finale was Judai VS Yugi. Please tell us if there was anything you kept in mind while coming up with this battle.

Yoshida: I was careful to not make the timeline too obvious and I was very clear about making sure it wasn’t a story set after “Duel Monsters”. Also, we made sure to not show how the Duel ended.

Hikokubo: Earlier, Yoshida-san mentioned that losing in “Yu-Gi-Oh!” lowers your status and credibility. But wasn’t “GX” a school-themed show? Since the series consistently show the cast’s growth– showing how they confront new Duels after suffering defeats– and continued to showcase that, I think the structure of Yugi and Judai’s Duel is wonderful because it shows that no matter who wins or loses in this Duel, both of them will continue to grow. I never really thought about it at the time, but I realize now that “GX” was a series where characters were actually allowed to lose. That even if you lose, you can still grow and eventually make it to graduation. That was something unique to “GX”.

Yoshida: Well, I guess so? Even in the series I worked on, both Judai in “GX” and Yuma in “ZEXAL” found meaning in their losses. But the others couldn’t really afford to lose.

Now that the story has ended, what kind of life do you Judai leads after having graduated from Academia?

Hikokubo: I didn’t think about it much when the show ended, but “Bonds Beyond Time” does make it clear Judai is doing things after the TV show.

Yoshida: I think it’s probably just “traveling around the world” or something. I imagine Judai becoming the sort of person who travels the world, solving all sorts of events, mysteries, incidents and conspiracies via Duels.

In TURN-35, written by Yoshida-san, Manjome says “下には下がいるということを！” (there’s a bottom to the bottom!) and in TURN-150, written by Suzuki-san, Johan (Yubel) says “死者は別だ。死人に口アリさ” (The dead are different–even the dead can talk!), you all have come up with so many memorable lines… so how do you go about coming up with them?

Yoshida: I don’t really think about it.

Hikokubo: Yoshida is a bibliophile and cineophile, so he a lot of references to draw from. Basically, even if you don’t realize it, you’re probably making use of and referencing lines that really stuck out to you, no?

Suzuki: I remember writing the Hell Johan VS Amon Duel… … Since it was a Duel with back-and-forth dialogue, I feel like I wrote it without any real grief. When I submitted it, it was approved as the final draft without any notes… … Sometime later, I heard people say it was interesting, and when I reread it myself, I found it was pretty interesting too. “Even if someone says it’s interesting or good during the planning meeting… …” was what I was thinking (ahaha). But like, it’s kind of… when you’re in The Zone, the lines just come out without you even having to think about them.

Yoshida: Even though we can say we all have a variety of knowledge and experiences to draw upon, the approach can actually vary a lot at times. Suzuki-san starts with feeling out the dialogue while I focus on story and structure first. I think I save dialogue for last.

Suzuki: Also, back then, there were times where I’d write the day right before deadline, fueled by the last minute burst of energy. I think that interesting dialogue were a result of me being backed into a corner and I was desperate.

Hikokubo-san, you’ve written scripts since “GX”… Could you please explain to us how that happened?

Hikokubo: Originally during “Duel Monsters”, to explain to the scriptwriters how to incorporate the Duel into the normal script, I would write sample dialogue on my Duel Chart… … Takegami-san saw those and would always say “If you can write dialogue like this, you can write a script too.”. Back during “Duel Monsters”, people were saying it was impossible to manage Duel Composition, but things got harder during “GX”. Around the second year, once things started got settled we agreed “It’s time you wrote a script.”. Thankfully, Takegami-san had been recommending I do it for quite some time.

Suzuki: Hikokubo-san’s Duel Chart dialogue samples were “pretty good” from what I recall, and sometimes I’d used them as is and other times I’d adjust them to better fit the flow of the script.

Please tell us about a story that holds special meaning for you, even if you didn’t work on it, and explain why it remains important to you.

Hikokubo: For me it was my debut episode: TURN-91 “The Grim Reaper’s One-Turn Kill”. Since I was still very inexperienced back then and not much of a bookworm, Mr. Takegami and the director stayed after the meeting to go over the dialogue line by line, providing direct one-on-one feedback. It took about half a year to finalize the script. It took about three months to hammer out a plot and the story itself went through about 10 drafts. Even the dialogue I thought were “good” were ultimately just a jumble of words repeating the same thing… … They would tel me, “this is the kind of story you want to write, right?” and helped me cut out the fat. It’s something special to me because it finally became something I could see on TV. However, since the Duel composition was finalized long ago, the card designs for the episode were developed ahead of time, so they might have ended up feeling a bit off from the intended atmosphere of the drama that was created later.

Yoshida: What’s stuck in my mind is the debut of “Plasma” in TURN-98 “Finally Activated! The Ultimate D Card”. In that episode, Edo and DD clash, a splendid performance between Edo (voiced by Ishida Akira-san) and DD (voiced by Inoue Kazuhiko-san) fighting one another, I honestly wish I had gone to the voice recording sessions (ahaha). I really like Ishida-san’s voice.

Suzuki: I’d say TURN-149 & 150, i.e. Hell Johan vs Amon. The back-and-forth dialogue still feels so good. There’s also a sense of drama to it, but it’s all conveyed through dialogue which was a ton of fun to writer.

Since it’s been 20 years since “GX” first aired, could you please tell us what this series meant to you personally?

Yoshida: For me, I guess it was the fact this series paved the way for what came after.

Hikokubo: Yoshida-san constantly longed for “Let me do the show’s Series Composition from the beginning…” with Yu-Gi-Oh!

Yoshida: I was finally able to do that from the beginning with “ZEXAL”, but at the time, I had a lot of work on my plate, so I was a little torn and conflicted (ahaha).

Suzuki: I was in charge of various episodes, but since Takegami-san, who was in charge of Series Composition, never gave many any specific instructions and let me do basically whatever I wanted to do, I had a lot of fun.

Hikokubo: I really liked going to the planning meetings during “GX”. I usually went to them right after pulling an all-nighter, but they were always so fun to attend.

Suzuki: It was a lot of fun to explain to Hikokubo-san what kind of story I had in mind and then ask him to compose a Duel to fit it.

Hikokubo: And the back-and-forth we’d have was a delight.

Suzuki: Since I liked Mahjong, I asked him “Can’t we do that in a Duel somehow?”. In Martin’s Duel in TURN-127, he used “Exodia” to simulate the feeling of achieving Tenhou in Mahjong. I remember thinking “I can actually work with this”. I liked “Exodia” because it was fun to play it like Mahjong, where you win if you complete the set.

Finally, what would message you like to relay to fans of “GX”?

Hikokubo: Looking back on it, I realize it was a show with a fantastic tempo. If anyone feels a bit burned out by all the complicated shows out there, I’d love it if you could check GX out and my heart would swell if you say “That was a ton of fun!”

Suzuki: I really like how cheerful and carefree Judai is… The show has many twists and turns, but Judai never lets you down. So, I hope people feel better after watching Judai.

Yoshida: I’d say part of the charm of “GX” is its diverse cast of characters. It remains captivating to watch and continues to delight those who watch it. Please continue to support “GX”.

Source: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Animation Complete Guide Academia Duel Log