Book Review: Otaku Narikin --An interview with AKAHORI Satoru--[****]

Today, I'd like to introduce a book by AKAHORI Satoru(あかほりさとる)(*1). AKAHORI is a multi-talented personality from the anime industry.
He is a noted script writer, concept designer, and even a light-novelist. If you are familiar with the Japanese anime scene in the 90's, you may also know that AKAHORI was the otaku's public enemy No.1 during those days(*2).

This book:Otaku Narikin(*3) is a non-fiction book, of AKAHORI's reflection of his career in the anime industry. "Otaku Narikin" is an interview book with AKAHORI Satoru, who talked about the glory and fall during his career. He also shared about the prospects and secret formula for making career in anime industry.

Here's my review.

[Overall rating:****  (full marks: *****)]
I did not have much expectations for this book before reading it. However, this book turned out to be surprisingly excellent for those who like to know about how the anime script writers and concept designers work. Most of the time, these professionals are hardly talk about their work so candidly. This book is a rare exception.

[Content summary]
The content is structured in four chapters:

Chapter-1: His job/career experience from his young days as novice to the top talent.

Chapter-2: His triumphs and falls, and the comeback.

Chapter-3: How to make a career in script writer/(light) novelist.

Chapter-4: His thoughts about today's anime (related) industries, and prospects in near future.

In Chapter-1, he confessed that he encountered very strong and talentedrivals in a writers' school and couldn't beat them (*4). Upon graduation, he started his career as a concept designer rather than a script writer because he wasn't the top talent in his cohort. After that, he took on other jobs:

*Started to write several light novel to get in touch with anime industries.
*Started to write novel-adaption(A.K.A novelisation) of published animes to promote himself.
*Create a Media-mix scheme(*5)
*Finally become an original story writer after making three megahit works.(*6)

The chapter-2 has the following descriptions.

*Become a successful man, and get rich(*7)
*Hitting the slumps (because many viewers are fed up with his works)
*Break new grounds, and make a successful revival (*8)

In the chapter-3, AKAHORI stresses the following essentials.

*To make a good story,
   **(attractive) Characters first, story (background) design is just a pinch of salt.
   **Never be a setting otaku.
   **A strong passion to the work is a must-have for all story writers.

*Writer's job is a kind of service to the industry, never an art.
*To become skillful in a short time, it's a good to enroll in writers' schools.

The chapter-4 has the following descriptions.

*Quite pessimistic about his views for anime, and light novel industries.
*Otaku market will be scaled down gradually if we stand still, and take no action.
*To get revive the industries, we must bring light-otakus (or pure non-otakus) into our way/market.

[Readability for non-Japanese natives]
Moderate. There is no visual aid. Please note that this is an interview book, and is written in Japanese colloquial style.

[My impression/thoughts for Chapter-1/2]
AKAHORI is one of the most successful script/story writers in anime industry. These chapters captures his rich experience.

But every creator has a slump period. Generally speaking, a self-autobiography tends to avoid telling his/her failure stories. To my surprise, AKAHORI spoke of his hard days openly, and coolly analyzed the reasons. These self-reflecting efforts made him (the 2nd) successful after a long slump, I think.

[My impression/thoughts for Chapter-3]
Very interesting stories on how to make a career in anime industry. If you like to be a script/story writer, this chapter is very informative.

[My impression/thoughts for Chapter-4]
The only chapter of the book that is (slightly) disappointing. His opinions are quite ordinary, and nothing special. Many key-persons of otaku industry had already pointed out that "The Otaku market is shrinking. To bring light or non otakus to our market is essential".

[After-reading thoughts/overall impressions]
Unexpectedly, this is a very good book for me. Before reading this book. I thought that AKAHORI is a typical Narikin in otaku/anime industry. But now I can appreciate what that the real AKAHORI went through during his ups and downs, and him being a man of efforts. To survive among a highly-talented pool of creatives is a critical matter for professionals in this industry.
It needs always strong tactics.(*9) If you are a would-be script/story writer, this is a thought-provoking book.
I have another reason to recommend this book. This is a very cheap "Shinsho"（新書） format book. It costs only JPY800 around, and content-rich for the price.

[About the author/Mr. AKAHORI Satoru（あかほりさとる）]
Chapter-1/2 is a summary of, AKAHORI's credentials. The condensed version is available on Wikipedia-JP(*1).

[About the author/Ms. AMANO Yuki]
Unfortunately I don't know about her until getting this book. She is a freelance writer, and a purely non-otaku.

[Note]
*1) I can't recommend Wikipedia-EN for "AKAHORI Satoru" entity. Wikipedia-EN has only limited info for him.

*2) AKAHORI did celeb-like activities in the 90's. He sometimes did a presentation jobs with popular Seiyus. This kind of his job makes certain amount of otakus angry as he is too out-standing (or an eyesore). He apparently avoids this kind of activity now. So we can't see a severe criticism to him nowadays.

*3) The term "Narikin" is translated into "Nouveau riche" in many dictionaries.
I'm afraid if "Nouveau riche" is a kind of praise in US, "Narikin" has quite derogatory meaning in Japan.  A "Narikin" person is definitely shunned in Japan. But I think that his intension to use "Narikin" doesn't encourage youth to get quick rich. He seems to use the term:Narikin as "a sustainable and successful person".

*4) His rivals in the same class are ARAKAWA Naruhisa（荒川 稔久）、KAWASAKI Hiroyuki（川崎 ヒロユキ）、SUMISAWA Katsuyuki（隅沢 克之）. AKAHORI highly praises their talents, and calls them "genius" without hesitation in this book.

*5) "Media-Mix(uture)" is maybe a Wasei-Eigo[Japanglish]. It means that different kind of companies co-work systematically, and create their skillful products for a specific (manga/anime) work. This scheme was called Media-Mix in the 90's. But this scheme is very common now. The term: Media-Mix is less using today.

*6) These three titles are Maze the Megaburst Space (MAZE 爆熱時空,1997）, Sorcerer Hunters (爆れつハンター, 1995）,  Combustible Campus Guardress (爆炎CAMPUSガードレス, 1993）. These titles are Akahori's best known works, and commonly(and unofficially) called three Baku（三爆） series(*) since all these original titles begin with "Baku-（爆）".

*7) AKAHORI was sometimes called "(the equivalent of) KOMURO (Tetsuya) of anime industries" in the 90's. AKAHORI got rich quickly, but he doesn't know how to spend it wisely like most nouveau riches. AKAHORI often goes to Kyabakura, and pours his earned money into Kyabakura-girls(Bar girls or KTV girls[in ASEAN countries]).  Long later, an otaku essayist: HONDA Toru（本田 透） ridiculously names it "AKAHORI system" in his book: Denpa Otoko（電波男）[2005]. AKAHORI clearly recognized it, and masochistically mentioned "AKAHORI system" in the introduction of this book.

*8) As he stated in this book. Raimuiro Senkitan[2003], and Kashimashi:Girl Meets Girl [2006] are typical his new grounds, I can agree.

*9) Setting this book aside, TAKAHASHI Ryosuke, a veteran anime director, confessed similar stories in an interview. TAKAHASHI said "I had to go through hardships to survive in anime industry. Because my rivals in the same generation are TOMINO Yoshiyuki, and MIYAZAKI Hayao." Please see the original interviews for detail (sorry, it's all written in Japanese.)

[My past book reviews]
*"Understanding Anime Business" by MASUDA Hiromichi
*"The origin of Otaku" by YOSHIMOTO Taimatsu
*"PuchiKuri" by OKADA Toshio
*"Otaku is Already Dead" by Okada Toshio

[BOOK DATA]

Title  : Otaku Narikin（オタク成金）
Author : AKAHORI Satoru, and AMANO Yuki
ISBN-10: 4063647684
ISBN-13: 978-4-0636-4768-6
Price  : JPY860-
Pages  : 205p
Publish: 2009
Company: Kodansha
Status : Available/On sale
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