Today I realized just how much bad writing can hurt an animation. When a script is late, or poor in quality, or both, as in the case of SEED Destiny, it seems to impact the entire production. There’s this disheartening feeling that no matter how much it’s worked on afterwards, no matter how much wax is applied, its fundamental flaws will still be there. And sure, greatness might be achievable, but to start off on the wrong foot like that just makes things all the more difficult.
I wouldn’t say that writing is more important than art in animation, but it’s a simple fact that it’s easier to animate based on a script than to write a script based on an animation.
Also keep in mind that when I say poor writing, I don’t mean using too many cliches or bad use of vocabulary, though those can hurt. The kind of poor writing I’m talking about is more along the lines of not understanding the very characters you’re writing. Again, like Seed DESTINY.

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November 17, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Kairu Ishimaru
So this blog entry is for SEED Destiny eh? Oh wow.
November 17, 2008 at 9:56 pm
sdshamshel
It’s not specifically for SEED Destiny.
SEED Destiny is just a convenient example.
November 18, 2008 at 12:16 am
BrendantheJedi
Gundam Seed Destiny: A crush course in how NOT to make an anime.
November 18, 2008 at 1:44 am
animekritik
I haven’t seen Gundam Seed Destiny so I can’t comment on that specifically, but for me the Story and the Character Design are the two key elements, and they’re equally important. If the story is good and the characters look solid I can cope even if the animation is not very fluid or looks cheap somehow.
November 18, 2008 at 11:00 am
usagijen
Well said. To quote Mike from Anime Diet: “develop your characters well first. Interesting people create interesting stories all by themselves.”
characters are the pillar of the story, if they end up being out of character or a total mess, everything’s gonna fall out of place and result in a screwed up story… like GSeed.
November 18, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Kabitzin
On the other hand, I still remember a lot about the characters of GSD, but I can’t really remember too much of the plot…
November 25, 2008 at 8:49 pm
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