Archipel Caravan, which specializes in creating and publishing documentaries about various Japanese creatives, released their first video recently. They sat down withDanganronpacreator, game director, and writer Kazutaka Kodaka in a video interview as he spoke on his brainstorming and developing process:
According to their official description: “We spent time with game director and writer Kazutaka Kodaka, creator of the Danganronpa series, celebrating this year its 10th anniversary. During this interview, we look at his game scenario writing approach and his views on the ‘death game’ genre. This content opens Archipel Caravan, our new series of weekly content centered around creators of the Japanese game industry.”
During said interview, Kodaka reveals some of his inspirations including David Lynch, animation director Kunihiko Ikuhara, and the works of Battle Royale, among others. He also details his strategy for when stuck in his creative process, which involves him restudying his favorite works, his approach to character designs, and more. It’s humbling to see someone so talented who has created such a unique and iconic franchise have difficulties formulating new ideas as well. And his method for overcoming creative blocks is practical yet effective, something that can be easily emulated.
The rest of the interview is quite fascinating and absolutely worth watching. And if you enjoyed this video, Archipel Caravan has an entire lineup planned, which they posted on theirofficial Twitter account:
They also tweeted how the general format of each video will work and how you can support their work. And if you’re interested enough, you can support them financially through Patreonhere.
Kodaka mentioned his wish to celebrateDanganronpa’s birthday with everyone around the world, and noted that nowadays it’s mainly people outside Japan who support his games. Kazutaka Kodaka teased at the end of his message more projects related to theDanganronpa10th anniversary are coming,other than the mobile ports.
In other majorDanganronpanews, developer Spike Chunsoft istaking over publishing rights for the franchise moving forward. Alongside that news, eachDanganronpatitlehas been removedfrom either the PS4 or PS Vita, with the last one leaving the store on September 25th.
