Jetman vs Abaranger = Inoue vs Arakawa

[live jetabare]

In a previous thread (in fact, my first post in HJU), I've pointed out the similarities between Jetman and Abaranger (this one http://forums.henshinjustice.net/showthread.php?t=60709) (I know that similarities can be found between every sentai series, but Jet and Aba REALLY share a lot)
That said, they are also very different, and I feel that those differences really reflect the different writing styles of Inoue and Arakawa, even when they handle similar concepts
-Inoue loves drama, melodrama, and drama ending in a tragic way (and it shows in his Rider series, and in Cutie Honey); in Jetman he introduces plenty of episodes and arcs with tragic outcomes; the Radiguet amnesia, with the sick girl who's finally killed, the whole JetGaruda intro arc, with three characters introduced in one ep, and killed in the following one; and it can be seen in some fillers as well; comedy in Jetman is handled by different writers (notably Arakawa) ; and that affinity for tragedy is shown in Maria/Rie's death, and he couldn't resist having a hero killed after the end of the Vyram fight (the famous Gai Yuuki's death); likewise, he tries to have Jetman go beyond the sentai concept and sometimes, it tries to be a drama; in a sense, Inoues affinity for writing Rider series is linked to the fact he is able to write his drama stuff more easily, since he hasn't the constraints of the sentai formula, and can write more edgy stuff. Series penned by Inoue have a tendency to take themselves very seriously
- Arakawa, and the other hand wants sentai to be mostly fun, and not to take itself too seriously; Abaranger is light hearted ( the talking dinos, the heartwarming Dino restaurant, and the importance of comedy (it's telling that Carranger's main writer is a secondary writer of Aba; his job in Aba reminds me of Arakawa's job in Jetman; writing over the top comedy episodes); drama is important in Aba, and sometimes, its even darker than in Jetman; but unlike Inoue, Arakawa see drama as hardship the heroes have to overcome, but can overcome to earn their happy ending (hence, the happy ending for Asuka and Mahoro); Arakawa uses mostly drama for the main storylines, and highlights comedy and heartwarming moments in filler stories; it's interesting to notice that except Kuuga, Arakawa has not written a lot of Rider stuff, and mostly writes for sentai; that way of writing is also seen in his other sentai series (Dekaranger, Gokaiger and Akibaranger)
Your thoughts?

 

[Eldar]

Arakawa is more critically acclaimed. Both Kuuga and Deka won Seiun Awards.

 

[MattComix]

Of the two shows I prefer Jetman but not because of "dark" or because I think Inoue's some kind of a genius. I think in Jetman for the most part the melodrama worked on this sort of classic Marvel comics level. But at other times his approach is cloying, pretentious, unintentionally hilarious, and just plain awful.

Inoue's turned in a lot of crap in recent years but we go from something like Faiz, First and Next, or the OOO's movie he did which were all textbook Inoue to the point of absurdity, but then he turns in this great script for the Jetman episode of GoKaiger which almost acts as the epilogue to the Jetman epilogue.

Maybe it's a thing where he turns in better work when the higher-ups are more willing to say "no" to him. Like he needs to be reigned in a little otherwise he'll just drive off the interstate and take the first exit to emoville.

 

[Lynxara]

Arakawa is more critically acclaimed. Both Kuuga and Deka won Seiun Awards.

That's not too surprising. Arakawa is clearly what I call a "process" writer. His ideas are rigorously constructed from the bottom-up with an eye toward asking his audience a certain question, or prompting specific emotional responses. Because he clearly begins crafting his stories at a very basic, narrative level, even his bad scripts tend to be very tightly and logically written, with few (if any) wasted scenes. When he's in pursuit of a big idea or organizing a series, then he can assemble all the moving parts of a story in an extremely effective way. He knows how everything in a story works, and as such, can make sure even the most seemingly insignificant decisions are deliberate and well-considered.

Inoue is more what I'd call a "big idea" writer. He's far more interested in expressing his core themes or evoking a particular mood than in assembling the nuts and bolts of his narrative. As a result, Inoue is often quite willing to take sloppy shortcuts or use blatant gimmicks in order to contrive the situations he's interested in writing about. He has a strong preference for natural-sounding dialogue that counterbalances his contrived plotting in his best works, but in his worst, his stories frequently come off as soap opera schlock of the highest caliber. Inoue has never quite seemed to grasp that a theme explored as part of a contrived situation or through contrived character actions is going to feel absolutely fake and inconsequential.

That's not to say Inoue is a bad writer. He's a good writer who often makes hasty, lazy decisioins. Arakawa is a good writer who makes decisions very carefully, though, and as a result I feel like his body of work is going to have far more lasting impact than Inoue's ever will.

 

[live jetabare]

That's not too surprising. Arakawa is clearly what I call a "process" writer. His ideas are rigorously constructed from the bottom-up with an eye toward asking his audience a certain question, or prompting specific emotional responses. Because he clearly begins crafting his stories at a very basic, narrative level, even his bad scripts tend to be very tightly and logically written, with few (if any) wasted scenes. When he's in pursuit of a big idea or organizing a series, then he can assemble all the moving parts of a story in an extremely effective way. He knows how everything in a story works, and as such, can make sure even the most seemingly insignificant decisions are deliberate and well-considered.

How do you feel he's done that in the toku series he's written?

That's not to say Inoue is a bad writer. He's a good writer who often makes hasty, lazy decisioins. Arakawa is a good writer who makes decisions very carefully, though, and as a result I feel like his body of work is going to have far more lasting impact than Inoue's ever will.

Dunno; Jetman is one of the sentai series which has had one of the most lasting impact; the only one Arakawa was head writer which had a comparable impact was Deka.
Besides, isn't Agito (written by Inoue) as much acclaimed as Kuuga (not to mention, Inoue was Kuuga's secondary writer)?

 

[RicardoCerdeira]

That's not too surprising. Arakawa is clearly what I call a "process" writer. His ideas are rigorously constructed from the bottom-up with an eye toward asking his audience a certain question, or prompting specific emotional responses. Because he clearly begins crafting his stories at a very basic, narrative level, even his bad scripts tend to be very tightly and logically written, with few (if any) wasted scenes. When he's in pursuit of a big idea or organizing a series, then he can assemble all the moving parts of a story in an extremely effective way. He knows how everything in a story works, and as such, can make sure even the most seemingly insignificant decisions are deliberate and well-considered.

Good analysis. I´m always saw Arakawa like Shozo Uehara´s successor, principally in Dekaranger and Gokaiger.

 

[Fantasy Leader]

Good analysis. I´m always saw Arakawa like Shozo Uehara´s successor, principally in Dekaranger and Gokaiger.

Huh, that's an interesting comparison. Will you be willing to go into more detail about why?

 

[Lynxara]

How do you feel he's done that in the toku series he's written?

What comes to mind off the top of my head is one of his story arcs in Daimajin Kanon, the 10-11 story arc. The arc is one of the few in Kanon where a "guest character" plays a significant role. The arc turns on a character named Moriya, who is attempting to commit suicide when we meet him. Moriya was a university professor who lost his job because, well, the department head just didn't like him. He has two children and a wife pregnant with a third, and he needs money badly.

Kanon's cheerful male lead, Taihei, tries to convince Moriya to find hope through his love of music. The two dress up in funny costumes and sing a song about layoffs on street corners, and take tips. A video of their performance goes viral online. Suddenly, the university where Moriya once worked is offering him his job back-- provided he stops performing the "layoff" song in public. Moriya is all too happy to stop singing and get his old job back. Taihei is devastated and feels betrayed, but Moriya tells him that happiness won't feed his growing family.

On a structural level, these episodes are written with incredible tightness. On top of the arc story about Moriya, the arc advances several runners that develop throughout the series. It doesn't focus on the show's titular protagonist, Kanon, but is careful to give her something relevant to do (she uploads the video that goes viral). Not a single scene in these two episodes is, as a result, wasted. Everything we see matters. On top of that, the episodes still manage to ask a meaningful question: was Moriya right to take his job back? Was Taihei right to expect anything else? The question is left totally open, and the show refuses to pass judgement on either character.

Dunno; Jetman is one of the sentai series which has had one of the most lasting impact; the only one Arakawa was head writer which had a comparable impact was Deka.

I would argue that Dekaranger's had a lot more impact than Jetman, in terms of influencing successors. Jetman was basically closing the book on what Sentai was like in the 80s, and the 90s was dominated by the approach of creators like Noboru Sugimura and Shigenori Takatera.

Jetman's a lot of fun to watch and has aged fairly gracefully, but Sentai's never really done anything else like it. Dekaranger has been more consistently imitated, in particular its approach toward building characters around elaborate gimmicks, yet developing them such that they still feel human.

That said, I also think you can't underestimate Abaranger's influence, either. I feel shows like Go-onger and to some extent Go-Busters were really trying to recapture the way Abaranger blended comedy and action, and the way it managed to innovate while still feeling like Sentai.

Besides, isn't Agito (written by Inoue) as much acclaimed as Kuuga (not to mention, Inoue was Kuuga's secondary writer)?

Agito wasn't as acclaimed. I can't think of any awards it won offhand. Fans tend to find Agito's soap opera pulp preferable to Kuuga's soul-searching, though. Kuuga is generally considered the better-written and more artistic series, but Agito's just more fun (if that makes any sense).

 

[Fantasy Leader]

That's not too surprising. Arakawa is clearly what I call a "process" writer. His ideas are rigorously constructed from the bottom-up with an eye toward asking his audience a certain question, or prompting specific emotional responses. Because he clearly begins crafting his stories at a very basic, narrative level, even his bad scripts tend to be very tightly and logically written, with few (if any) wasted scenes. When he's in pursuit of a big idea or organizing a series, then he can assemble all the moving parts of a story in an extremely effective way. He knows how everything in a story works, and as such, can make sure even the most seemingly insignificant decisions are deliberate and well-considered.

Inoue is more what I'd call a "big idea" writer. He's far more interested in expressing his core themes or evoking a particular mood than in assembling the nuts and bolts of his narrative. As a result, Inoue is often quite willing to take sloppy shortcuts or use blatant gimmicks in order to contrive the situations he's interested in writing about. He has a strong preference for natural-sounding dialogue that counterbalances his contrived plotting in his best works, but in his worst, his stories frequently come off as soap opera schlock of the highest caliber. Inoue has never quite seemed to grasp that a theme explored as part of a contrived situation or through contrived character actions is going to feel absolutely fake and inconsequential.

That's not to say Inoue is a bad writer. He's a good writer who often makes hasty, lazy decisioins. Arakawa is a good writer who makes decisions very carefully, though, and as a result I feel like his body of work is going to have far more lasting impact than Inoue's ever will.

This is indeed a very interesting analysis Lynx.

What about Hirohisa Soda though. Do you think his style is anything similar to those two. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't Toshiki Inoue and Kunio Fujii like Soda's apprentices or something?

 

[Shougo B'Stard]

I like Arakawa, of course, but even in my favorite shows of his, there will be patches of the show that I have problems with. Yeah, yeah, we know Inoue went downhill after Agito, but I think Jetman, Changerion and Agito are all around more solid shows than anything Arakawa's done. (Arakawa bungled even a short series like Akibaranger.) One big weakness of Arakawa's works, IMO, is that he's crap at writing villains, or just not interested in writing for them, because they're a weak link throughout all of his shows. (And this is why I was the only Gokaiger viewer not surprised that the Zangyaku sucked.)

What about Hirohisa Soda though. Do you think his style is anything similar to those two. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't Toshiki Inoue and Kunio Fujii like Soda's apprentices or something?

Inoue and Fujii just worked under Soda for certain shows; they both had writing careers before even working with him, so I don't think they were his apprentices.