In January of 2004, the first animation script I ever wrote professionally aired. I’m still waiting to see it, and the other ones I’ve done. Many new writers eagerly await their first airdate in their home country, searching the schedules to make sure they’re not pre-empted, because very few are lucky to get advance tapes of their episodes. My case, however, is quite different. I found out my first episode aired in a language I can barely manage to read. You see, in my case the episodes I wrote translated from English to Japanese, produced in Japan with Japanese dialogue, and currently air only in Asia.
My writing partner for two of these episodes and I have made a habit of watching the show website for MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL (http://www.midnighthorrorschool.net), the latest series from Naomi Iwata who also created PECOLA. While PECOLA was co-produced with the Canadian company Nelvana and has seen international distribution, MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL appears to be the first series that Milky Cartoon Ltd. of Japan has done on their own. The premise revolves around the idea of items forgotten or lost at school come alive at night to become what we humans know as the unexplainable, mysterious “wonders of the world.”
Using the capabilities of my co-writer’s Macintosh, we translate the Kanji and Hiragana characters to figure out episode titles. Imagine our thrill when, one Sunday afternoon, the title translation came up “Whispers on Wind”; one of our scripts is entitled “Wind Whispers,” which is story number 32 in episode 16 (there are two eleven-minute story scripts in each episode, with a total of fifty-two 11-minute stories in the series). “Wind Whispers” chronicles the story of Onpoo, who has studied the history of successful graduate Banshee and wants to make her own magical chant to motivate her fellow students to do better, because then they’ll study even better. It’s important to know that a major facet of the premise is that if they don’t become full “wonders of the world,” they’ll completely be forgotten and disappear forever. Onpoo tries so hard to make this magic encouragement happen that the sound comes out wrong and encourages the students not to study, running the risk that they will all disappear forever. Personally, this script was the most emotional for my writing partner and I to craft, and I still want to cry reading parts of it. I look forward to eventually seeing the final product, even if I don’t fully understand the Japanese the dialogue gets translated into. I’m trying to see if this can come about.
Story 33, which kicks off Episode 17, is one I wrote myself. It’s called “Teacher’s Day,” where the shyest kid in school (Inky, the lost ink bottle) wants to honor his teacher by trying to assist him for the special day. As a studious but not exactly major-popular kid in school myself growing up, I hope I crafted a story that all could relate to. It was a lot of fun. The way I can tell for sure from the website that this is the episode — even without getting any translation help — is the “Teacher’s Day” banner in the back of the cafeteria where they’ re having a school assembly.
I don’t know anything about ratings or market share, and not even sure all the times where it airs, but I hope that it does well for the property, the creator and for the company as a whole. Sometimes I imagine a group of Japanese kids, gathered around a television set, cheering for Inky to succeed or worried that Onpoo can’t fix her mistake in time. The idea that children can enjoy my story premises, turned into scripts and then animated by others, and ultimately aired half a world away is awe-inspiring. It makes you realize the true global nature of today’s animation industry, that it is not all just talk.
This also serves as an incredible way of giving back for me. As a little girl (between the ages of four and seven), I lived in Japan when my father served in the United States Navy. Through people we met when my father also spent time teaching Conversational English, I became familiar with the Japanese culture and have an enduring affinity for it and its animation. Now, I am giving back to the country that gave so much to me, and that I hope to be able to revisit now that I am an adult. May the Japanese children enjoy the stories I have helped to make as much as I enjoyed being a child in their home country.
(originally appeared on Digital Media FX)