Season 1, Episode 6 - The Tree Plot XIX - "The Great American Japanimation"
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Sitting in that office, Isaac, Reed, and Tatsuhiro all kept quiet for a moment, letting the passages Tatsuhiro mention sink in. Finally, Tatsuhiro stacked the papers together and looked up at the two. “...Nazis?”
Isaac and Reed glanced at each other. They rehearsed any possible objections to their story during their marathon yesterday so their counterarguments had already been prepared.
“It’s a twist,” Isaac explained. “We started off in a fantasy medieval world, but as the characters go to the Academy, it transforms into an industrial era world. Dieselpunk. And the greatest industrial era evil of all? Nazis.”
Reed nodded. “And it’s metaphoric too.” She motioned with her hand toward herself and Isaac. “We didn’t want to write just a story. We wanted to write something with themes and lessons and all that deep stuff. Arthouse. We tried to incorporate some arthouse-style thinking into our story. Because Nazis were the, you know, culmination of human hatred and whatnot. It’s not a demon army that’s threatening the world this time - it’s a Nazi army. The real enemy, all along, was our fellow man.”
Tatsuhiro said nothing. Reed spoke up again when she noticed his look.
“We understand the usage of Nazis may cause some controversy. So, as a duo, we both agreed that we would be willing to lower the villain to the level of an colonial administrator within the Estado Novo.”
Tatsuhiro took some notes on that. He then rubbed his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts. “Look. I’m not saying this is a bad story. You do have a lot of potential here. But I feel like…you clearly did this with no editor. So, there are some points along the way where your story gets pretty out there. There are times when it needs to be reeled in.”
Isaac nodded along. His stake in this seemed far less personal than Reed’s, who was currently listening intently to every word spoken by Tatsuhiro.
“The pacing, for one,” Tatsuhiro continued. “It starts off solid, but banter and meaningless conversation eventually take over the work. I mean, the first two arcs are good, then banter creeps in during the third arc, and after that, you got whole scenes devoted to nothing. I mean, in arc 4, Eric and Minvera spend three pages arguing about…”
Tatsuhiro squinted at the page. “Neon Genesis Evangelion.”
“It’s an insight into their psyche,” Reed explained. “You see, Minerva prefers Rei because, as a goddess, she is used to people bending over backwards for her. She thinks Rei would be a perfect servant for her, similar to how she treats people once she arrives in the world with Eric. Her realizations that people can have their own goals, want to live their own lives, that’s reflected by Rei.”
“And Eric, he prefers Asuka because, even though he tries not to show it, he’s worried about failing everyone,” Isaac said. “So he attaches all this importance to his powers, just like Asuka attaches too much importance to piloting her Evangelion. His arc is realizing that his powers aren’t everything, and people will still like him for him, whether he succeeds every time or not. Of course, he’s wrong for liking Asuka over Rei, but we agreed to present their argument as neutrally as possible...”
“What?” Reed interrupted. “He’s not wrong.”
Isaac looked at her. “You seriously like Asuka more than Rei? We had an entire conversation about why Rei’s better.”
“No, you spent about ten minutes spewing nonsense out of your mouth,” Reed said, passion growing in her voice. “Tell me, why is the doll better?”
“She’s not a doll!” Isaac countered. “Her entire arc is her realizing the value of her own life! And...she’s nice!”
“Oh yeah? Asuka’s arc is about realizing she needs to love herself first and worry less about what others think of her. What’ll actually be nice will be my foot up your-”
Isaac and Reed remembered that they were in a professional setting. He removed his hands from her shoulders and she removed her hands from his ears.
“Anyway...” Reed told Tatsuhiro. “It’s all very metaphoric.”
“Uh-huh,” Tatsuhiro mumbled. He read through his notes. “Anyways, another area where you went too far is the number of characters. You started off with a strong cast, but over time, you just keep adding more and more characters that ultimately don’t do too much and have little personality of their own. And in a market that favors single POV stories, you’ll give just about anybody a POV…POV means point of view.”
Reed put her hand down.
“And the dialogue, it’s good. But, similar to the Evangelion-”
“Evangelion,” Reed corrected. “Soft g. Like…Joe, except it starts with a soft G. Goe. But it sounds like Joe.”
“...right. What I’m saying is that people don’t talk like that. The dialogue, at times, tends to sound too tropey. Too Japanimation-esque. I mean, you have one character who calls her older sister ‘Sis’ in a reference to the Japanimation ‘onee’. People don’t use titles like that in English.”
Isaac and Reed looked at each other. “Our friend’s younger sister calls her ‘Sis’,” Isaac explained.
Tatsuhiro stared blankly at them. “She does? And she’s not being sarcastic? Or loves Japanimations too much?”
“She’s only seen the two we’ve shown her,” Isaac answered.
“...and neither of you thought that was weird?”
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Reed just shrugged. “Well, she’s our friend.”
Tatsuhiro let out a long sigh and slumped in his seat. “Right. Fair enough. I guess what I’m really trying to say is…overall, there is a good story here. But it’s trapped in this directionless, gargantuan thing that just tries to do too much. I don’t know the point of this story. I don’t know where it’s going. What’s the endgame of it? What’s the purpose of it?”
Isaac went to answer, but Reed spoke first. To be fair, Isaac wasn’t sure who was more qualified to speak on their story. Reed did all the brainstorming for ideas, while Isaac did the actual writing. However, when he saw the look in her eyes, he realized he was about to witness a performance of a lifetime.
“This story originally started just a way to blow off steam in a trying time,” Reed began, her voice low and inviting as she set the scene. “But it soon took on a life of its own. It’s a story I have an actual interest in telling. It’s a story of the things I love, the experiences I’ve had, my thoughts and ruminations, both good and bad. It’s a testament to both my current life and the state of society in the early 2220s.”
She stood up; Isaac imagined trumpets playing behind her. “I want to tell the story on multiple levels. The story of myself, the story of my current social situation, and the story of the nation and world as a whole. This isn’t just any ordinary novel - it’s an epic. Epic in size, epic in scope, epic in scale.”
Reed rested a foot on Tatsuhiro’s desk and crossed her arms; she looked off into the distance, perhaps toward an American flag somewhere in some time. “I’m not just writing an individual’s story. Or the story of multiple individuals. It’s a story of everything. I’m telling a story about a time period and all the thoughts and feelings it provokes in each and everyone of us. So, in short-”
She slipped her flat off his desk and slammed her hands onto it. “I’m not just writing a novel. I’m writing the next Great American Novel.”
Tatsuhiro tried to process all of that. He looked for help from Isaac, but he just crossed his arms and nodded in sage approval for his friend.
“...right. Well, the thing is, how many novels have you actually read?”
Reed blinked. “I’ve read some for school like you do. There’s that one where all the farm animals are Stalinists and, you know, that other one…you know the one I’m talking about, Isaac? We gotta do it for Johnny, man!”
“Gotta beat them Soc’s!” Isaac called out.
Reed looked back at Tatsuhiro. “So, yeah, I’ve read novels.”
Tatsuhiro eyed the Six-Chambered Palm. “But you write your story like a Japanimation. That’s one of its flaws.”
Reed raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
“Let me guess - you’ve spent far more time watching Japanimations, movies, and television shows than reading books, right?” Tatsuhiro asked.
Isaac and Reed nodded.
“It’s evident in your story,” he continued. “You wrote this using the genres, styles, and tropes of something you’d see on television, not something you’d find in a novel. It reads like you wrote out a Japanimation.”
Reed thought about it. “Well, sure. We originally wanted to make a Japanimation but we can’t draw, let alone animate. So, writing it was.”
She rested her flat on his desk again. “Therefore, our novel is even better than a Great American Novel. Our story is really a cultural cross-fusion of styles and genres from both sides of the Pacific Ocean. The Six-Chambered Palm is not a Great American Novel.”
Reed slipped her foot off and slammed her palms again into the desk with enough force to make Tatsuhiro flinch. “The Six-Chambered Palm is THE Great American Japanimation! To be remembered for all time.”
Reed’s confident mask cracked when she saw Tatsuhiro’s disapproval. “In its current state, we can’t publish your story,” he began. “But…it has potential. If we rebuild it from the ground up, I think it could be a success.”
Reed’s eyes widened and collapsed back into her chair with a huge grin. She glanced over at Isaac, but he seemed less enthusiastic. “What kind of changes?” he asked.
Tatsuhiro tapped his pen against the stack of papers. “First, we’ll need to redo the entire power system to better reflect the styles of other newspaper serials. Then, we’ll need to cut out the other viewpoints and focus just on Eric. That means cutting out several of the other plotlines, too. And, in the magazine we would publish your serial in, we've never had a successful dieselpunk story. There’s a chance we might have to change the setting depending on how beta readers react to the first round of changes."
“Hot damn - darn, I mean, hot darn, let’s go,” Reed exhaled, her hands balled into excited little fists in a rare show of emotion. She wanted to celebrate with Isaac, but he looked like he was about to say something that came from a troubled mind.
“I’m out,” he simply said.
“Out?” Reed questioned. She suddenly stood up from her chair. “That’s not allowed, get back in right now.”
Isaac sighed; he knew this would be a tough decision, but it had to be made. “When we first started this story, it was just a way to have fun with each other,” he reminded her. “You’re the one who wanted to get it published; for me, it was just a nice hobby. But I wanted to help you during a tough time and sure, the thought of actually seeing our story in a magazine or something would be cool.”
He ignored the growing frown on her face. “But I only agreed to publish this story with you if it was a story I’d be interested in. This is a big commitment. I hope you realize that. We actually need to put time and effort in. It’s not simply a hobby anymore. And I don’t want to commit something like that unless I’m 100% invested. And…sorry, but with all the changes and everything, I’m not that invested in it. A modified story isn't really one I want to tell.”
Reed tilted her head; Isaac saw her scratching at her arm for a moment before crossing them. “Think about it, Isaac. We could get famous from this - together. We would make so many good memories - together. We would have something we could have pride in. We’d have something we could look back on and think ‘we accomplished that’. And people will like us for it. And all you have to do is swallow your pride and agree to cut out the useless viewpoints and everything else so we can get this in the magazine.”
“But then it’s not a story I want to tell,” Isaac countered. “Look, maybe I’m not exactly in the right here, but maybe I am. The direction this story is going in, I don’t have an interest in making such a big commitment to it.” He looked at Tatsuhiro. “Can we at least negotiate keeping in the viewpoints and storylines?”
Tatsuhiro shook his head.
Reed gestured at him. “See? You heard the man.”
Isaac went to say something, then stopped. He had to process what he just saw.
Reed noticed the pause. “What?”
“You actually agreed with an authority figure,” Isaac realized, his eyes just a little wide. “You’ve changed, too. Not that that’s a bad thing, but the Reed I knew never would agree with an authority figure. Not without a snarky comment and a fight.”
He stood up and Reed took an involuntary step back. “I don’t mean it in a bad way,” Isaac said, though maybe, deep down, his thoughts were more conflicted. “It’s just that you must really want this story published. I’ll help you from the sidelines, of course. But I really think you’ll have to follow this road to the end yourself now.”
Reed kept the usual dull look on her face, but Isaac could tell from her eyes that she was growing increasingly unhappy. “Hey, there are silver linings to this," he offered. "You get to keep all the profits and fame now to yourself now-”
“It’s not about the fame, you effing idiot!”
And she didn’t say effing.