Japanese screenwriter Mari Okada has become famous in the anime industry as a cult figure. She created scripts for computer games, audio dramas and anime films. Her work, Ano Hana, received a special prize from the Animation Kobe Festival.
The famous author's directorial debut was the project "Decorate the Farewell Morning with the Flowers of Promise". For two decades, Marie has been creating dramatic stories for anime. Okada has become one of the industry's most famous and successful authors.
The road to vocation
The biography of the future celebrity began in 1976. The girl was born in the city of Chichibu. At school, the child's relationship with peers was not easy. Marie was very worried, trying to find her image, but all her attempts did not help to establish contact.
The girl's only salvation was her literary ability. One of the schoolgirl's works won a newspaper competition. Marie decided that she would get a writing education. Until the end of the school course, the girl was told that in real life it would be difficult for her.
As a result, she decided to leave her hometown. After moving to Tokyo, he began studying at the School of Media Entertainment, specializing in "Videogame screenwriter". At the same time, Okada became interested in creating stories for anime. In 1996 she started creating Direct-to-video scripts. Then there was the job of the interview transcript. This activity helped the girl get her first order for anime. She was offered participation in the science fiction project DT Eightron in 1998.
The director Tetsuro Amino drew attention to the employee who was interpreting the ready-made scripts. He invited her to make her own changes in the course of the film. Okada composed the plots of several episodes. After the end of the cooperation, anime became the main activity of the aspiring writer.
In 1999, Amino Mari proposed the idea of the autobiographical film The World Outside, a story about a reclusive girl. Although the project never came to fruition, it was an important milestone in revealing its own story through anime.
Success
Marie has written scripts for Black Butler, Toradora !, Children's Time, and Vampire Knight. Even the work on the original series was completely controlled by the producers. While working on "Real Tears" and "Simon," the girl got more freedom. This allowed her to reflect her own feelings in the script.
The result of this innovative approach was the 2011 ABC of Flowers project. The source for the creation of the project was the previously unrealized “World from within”. The author took into account all the previously expressed comments. The audience enthusiastically received the series. The success helped Okada let go of the past. In her opinion, the advantage of anime is that it reflects only part of reality.
Marie started working on her autobiographical project These Flowers. She embodied her childish image in the main character Dzintana. However, the writer never resigned herself to the decision of her colleagues to make her hometown and home the background for the development of the plot. Okada tried to convince the team for a long time, but in the end she agreed with their decision. Director Tatsuyuki Nagai did not hide that this project became personal for the scriptwriter, it is completely saturated with her ideas.
The premiere was successful. After the show of the series, Marie received many letters from fans. Among them were messages from Chichibu. Although painful, the contribution to anime of a particle of his own life was justified.
It was decided to make Chichiba again the basis of the new setting. Okada didn't mind now. But she didn’t want to worry again, as she did in the process of working on “These Flowers”. The writer decided to make the project less personal. The result was the full-length "Hymn of the Heart". It was shown in 2015.
New works
In the course of the work, I had to abandon some of Marie's ideas. However, she was moved to tears by the scene of the characters expressing their feelings. The author saw her emotions in it. She admitted that the project made her very worried, but in the end it became a salvation.
When creating "Mobile Armor Gundam: Orphans of Iron Blood" the main ideas were put forward by the director, the scriptwriter was not allowed to think over the plot independently. Okada joined the work only a few years after the start of the series.
In the course of joint activities, the already successful filmmaker became famous as a specialist who brings other people's ideas to the ideal. When working on Haven for the Lost, since 2012, there were too many sketches of plot development. The director had to rewrite them as he worked. If not for the arrival of Marie, the telenovela would hardly have received such a successful implementation. Okada had been working on Bound from the start, but the traditional action anime script was also changed by Hiroshi Kobayashi.
New role
The creator of the P. A. Works admitted that he dreams of seeing the work entirely created by Marie. Hearing his wish, Okada realized that the only opportunity for her dreams to come true was to transform into a director. She received support from Kenji Horikawa in this.
This is how the process of creating "Decorate Farewell Morning with Flowers of Promise" began. According to the plot, the main character Makia possesses the secret of eternal youth. She is hiding from her pursuers. She meets a baby Erial who has lost his parents and begins to take care of him. As the boy grows up, feelings flare up between him and the heroine. But he is an ordinary bang, and Makiya is immortal. The directorial debut was a huge success.
In April 2017, Okada's autobiography was released. The book was called “How I went from a school truant to a screenwriter for“These Flowers”and“Hymn of the Heart”. In it, the writer talked about her school childhood, her first successes in her chosen profession, the creation of popular works, the impact of life on the work.
Marie does not let anyone outside her personal life. Even the most devoted fans do not know if she has a husband, a child.
