[DISCUSSION] CREATING A TOKUSATSU SERIES: A Request

Possessor of the "Final Zero!"
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Oct 13, 2011
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Hey fellow RPers and Toku fans. I am interested in writing a Tokusatsu series that combines Super Sentai and Kamen Rider but changes the names and origin. The story will bear influences from Heroes, Metal Gear Solid, Karas, and Kamen Rider W.

Yet, my biggest problem is: How to write a Tokusatsu series?! Would anyone care to teach me and help me develop this series?
 
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Nov 18, 2007
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I want to start this off by saying that while I do a lot of writing on my own I am not a professional just yet, and so I am not really the person to go to for teaching anything. I just got to thinking, and figured I could reply and we would talk it out and maybe you would get somewhere. And maybe I'll get some insight that will help further my own current efforts.

Anyway, first and foremost, I would say, you need to think about your feel and your premise. Those will inform the rest of the project. Well, actually, first off I would say you should consider and maybe list all of the concepts that make you want to do this at all. What characters move you, what type of world do you want to explore, or what scenes do you just have to include somewhere? Thinking about those will help frame the rest of the story, as you will be putting together a world to let you use those ideas.

Back to tone and concept, though. Decide whether you want a humorous story, a dark one, high adventure, or whatever. And decide on themes. We already have part of the concept in that its a team of transforming superheroes, right? Well, what makes them transform: magic, science, biology, or something else? What kinds of things is the armor based on, and what about the monsters? This is important because it helps tie the setting together. Den-O had all that stuff with the trains, Kiva had those monsters, etc. You can expand out from there to ask what sort of world would contain these things, or come to them by deciding on the world.

As you may have guessed by now world building is where my brain tends to go first. It isn't that way for everyone, but how your world works is an important part of putting together what happens in it. If you know you have, say, technological armor with an angelic motif, then a hyper-advanced society or organization with a grand mission of either world cleansing or chaos and fire isn't that hard to figure out. Characters like, say, an oracle hooked up to a giant crystalline computer system or a flawlessly beautiful but arrogant and insane 'boss level' villain follow along easily enough.

Of course, you can always start with characters. What kinds of personalities would you like to give your heroes and villains, and what sorts of conflicts interest you? A broken, brooding man might not fit a bouncing bubbly magic-we-have-to-hide-from-mom setup as well as a grim corporate apocalypse run by elderich abominations in the guise of business and political leaders.

Then there are the plot and theme ideas. Do you want huge battles against planet destroyers from space, where the heroes are needed because no one else can fight this battle? Grim battles for the souls of the forgotten, fought in back alleys against creeping shadow things that feed on the lost? Whatever you want, you need to make sure you have characters who would end up in these situations and worlds where they make sense.

Really, what you should take from this is that every aspect should affect and alter the others. In the most successful of stories nothing is wasted - they all make the whole story better, fuller. Everything has to mesh well, and you will need to avoid cliche and retreading old ground. This brings us back to the original suggestion of listing what you want. Once you have that you can start putting together a world and a plot to contain all of the ideas. You have to do a lot of brainstorming before you can really get started. Once you have a feel for the world and what's going on in it you can work on an outline of the overall story of your series, then start developing and refining it so you can write your serial fiction or whatever.

I hope that helps get the conversation started, at least.
 
Possessor of the "Final Zero!"
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Oct 13, 2011
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Premise: The machinations of a mysterious organization leads to a Superhero war and heroes must put aside their differences and band together to uncover their true motives.

Tone: I'd say something akin to a Batman story and a concept similar to Kamen Rider W. To transform, I'd say it'd would combine Science and Magic, giving it an Arcanepunk element; the spirit and blood of an ancient beast is crystallized into stones that can be used to harness the beast's power through a device (either a belt or a wristwatch). The Monsters would be both superhuman mercenaries and corrupted spirits of devils, inspired by Gears from Guilty Gear.

Setting/World: The setting is a Metropolis in Japan called Mushiyori City. It's inspired by Metropolis from Superman and Fuuto City in Kamen Rider W.

Characters: Although we can develop this down the line but the main hero that I want to do is inspired by Sol-Badguy from Guilty Gear.

Plot and Theme Ideas: I like your idea of Grim battles for the souls of the forgotten, fought in back alleys against creeping shadow things that feed on the lost. This could tie into trying to control the spirits of the ancient beasts.
 
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You have a lot of interesting stuff, here. The next step, I would say, is to further develop and refine this world and the things in it. It's important to ask yourself all kinds of questions about how things work and why while trying to keep them coherent with each other. That is important for making the world feel whole, but it can also help lead to new ideas as you try to figure out how things fit together.

In no particular order, a few things come to mind for me, going from what you have here. The nature of the city, for example. You mention big, bright Metropolis rather than dark dirty Gotham. At the same time you want a Batman sort of tone, and you liked the idea about grim battles in the alleys. That suggests to me a place that looks great at first but there's a real underworld, and a lot of places aren't safe at night. Possibly people are kept from seeing how bad things are by the same forces that are causing a hero war.

As for the hero war, then, there are questions of how many heroes are fighting and who they are. Do the main characters represent a small number of heroes going after the truth during a larger hero war with dozens more? Are there just a lot of vigilantes, or does the city have some official approval for supers? Which leads to questions of what the police or military are doing about it, if they can do anything, or if this fictional version of Japan leaves security mainly to superheroes since there are a lot. An even bigger question is what the villains are after that they want a hero war. Do they need to get rid of the heroes to take over, or is it related to some larger plan to make the people hate supers or as a ritual in magic or something? Or is it just keeping them occupied while they further their goals?

Then there's the magic. How many people know about it? Do lots of people use it, do lots of heroes use it, and if so what makes it special in this case? Is it the combination with tech, or the nature of the beasts? Or is it not 'special' as heroes go and it's more a matter of clever use by a determined person? If magic is rare or unknown, then there's the question of where it was and why it's back now. Do people know of it historically but believe it's all gone, or do they think it's a myth? Was it truly gone and it's only now with modern technology it can be restored? Or was it hidden? If it was hidden then how and why, and who knew about it, and how are they related to the people moving the story now?

As you decide these things and more you can come up with concrete concepts to bring them into the story. A city with two faces could make for a happy and oblivious friend or the kind of clean, carefree business such a person would run showing up sometimes, while other times the heroes deal with tough street-smart people and hang out in questionable bars and clubs.

And of course there's developing the plot and characters. What the bag guys want and how they feel is the best way to get it will help define a lot of this, and specific villains with their own views on the best course of action or emotional reasons for taking a certain route and helping or hindering each other will add to it as well. Of course who the main characters are and how they deal with problems and each other will become important, as well as any side characters and what they throw into the mix.

Of course this is a lot to think about. To start, what are the villains really after, how do they intend to get it, and why is starting a hero war the best way to move this plan along?
 
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