Toddled off to see Animator Expo at the filmhouse today. Mostly a pretty rad time. Missed the Q&A session at the end but couple of nuggets from Ishikawa who directed Me!Me!Me!:
- It's uses the Japanese pronounciation of "Me" rather than the English
- When he was told to make some thing originally 4.5 minutes long, he wrote a draft that filled 10 minutes and was only the introduction so he took the main bits from that and made the film which explains why it feels a bit incoherent.
- Perhaps nerves but he never really seemed to want to go into explanation about what he intended it to be about.
Pretty sure I saw DiGiKerot so no doubt he can provide better notes than I.
I mostly stopped taking notes by the end of it - I was mostly just impressed about how enthusiastic Maeda seemed to be about talking about this stuff, which felt weirdly like the opposite of what I'd have perhaps expected from the impression I'd gotten from some of the things he'd made. The main thing which came out of the QA part that amused me is that the maximum budget per Animator Expo short was, apparently, "The cost of two Toei TV animation episodes".
Also, apparently the storyboards for Maeda's Kanon were originally 17minutes long, but Anno told him he was insane.
Errrr. What is with the pacing? It's like this ep was on fast forward in terms of story. I read the manga's first arc, which ended in this second ep but so much was skipped. Ep 1 was fine. This one though. Also, the cut from cemetery to night time in the city was so odd.
This is the new movie from the renowned Mamoru Hosoda of Wolf's Children and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time fame. While Wolf's Children was about mothers and their children, The Boy and the Beast is about fathers and sons.
I have some, er fairly strong feelings about Hosoda's recent films so just be aware when reading this review that I haven't really cared for his last couple of films. I also have some spoilers for a film that most of you won't be seeing for many months so, sorry about that.
Before I rip this movie to pieces let me point out its good features:
- The movie has really good character designs for the fantastic creatures that inhabit the world.
- The character animation in this movie is a real treat. As there are many beast-men the animators really get to have fun drawing lively expressions, magical effects and crazy poses and effects only possible due to the nature of these characters.
- There are a couple of brilliant, traditionally animated, action set pieces that are really exciting and well-choreographed. Even with all the problems I had with this movie I couldnt help but be swept along by the excitement of these scenes. Hosodas tendency to pull the camera back and keep all the action shot along a clean plane really makes these scenes easy to follow.
- The core relationship between Boy and Beat really works. As you might hope! Well, eventually it does. As I say below, I have some problems with how the movie opens but it does eventually develop into something that I could buy into.
- There are a number of great one-off scenes that, despite the movies problems, are still really fun to watch due to their creativity and ingenuity.
- The movie is extremely ambitious in terms of its scope. I respect that to a certain extent, even if I think Hosoda ultimately failed to make it all work.
Well, enough of my faint praise. What is this movie actually about?
Broadly speaking, this story is about a boy, Ren, who runs away from home because he's an asshole. Oh, sorry, I'm letting my bias slip into a factual synopsis. Let's start again.
This story about Ren, a little impudent boy who runs away from home because of ill explained reasons. While living on the streets of Shinjuku he happens to encounter Kumatetsu.
But who is Kumatetsu? Kumatetus is a 'beast' (see spirit or monster or animal-person) who lives in a spirit realm outside of human reality. Kumatetsu is an irresponsible bum who dreams of fighting another beast, Iozan, in a contest to see who is the strongest. The strongest beast will then become Lord of the spirit realm and earn the right to be reincarnated as a god. However, before he can fight Iozan Kumatetsu needs to recruit an apprentice As Kumatetsu is such a rambunctious, lazy, grumpy weirdo no one wants to be his apprentice.
So when he happens to run into Ren, our runaway protagonist, he decides to recruit him to be his apprentice. This means taking Ren from the real world into the world of spirits! Cue wacky hijinks, tender character moments, funny gags, excellent action set pieces and, of course, training montages. You'll laugh, you'll feel mildly emotional, you'll have a good time. For the most part. You can probably sense a 'but' coming, right? Well, here it is.
I think the fundamental structure of this film is a mess. I lay the fault of this squarely on the man who drafted the script which, on this occasion, was Hosoda himself. If this is the kind of work he comes up with on his own I really recommends that he hires an actual script writer. Here are some of my problems with the screenplay:
- The script feels like a second draft, knocked together before anyone has had the chance to work out the really big kinks in the story and polish up all issues. My biggest complaint has to be with the beginning of the movie. I feel there was not enough time and effort spent establishing the core characters, their lives, their nature, their daily life. You dont get a good feel for who they are separately.
You aren't given enough time with Ren to understand what's so bad with his situation that he has to run away from home. This is CRUCIAL because at the beginning of the movie Ren is a really clichéd whiny kid. You don't care for him or like him (even though he has a "Pet the dog" scene designed to make you like him in a really artificial way).
The same is true for Kumatetsu. You don't really like him You don't understand why he feels compelled to fight Iozan or what drives him at all. This is a HUGE problem because as an audience member you have to buy into both of these characters and their crazy fantasy world right away and you really can't.
All the characters seem to be annoying assholes. If you dont care or really understand either of these characters then you cant really care for their story. I certainly dont understand what compelled them to team up, it just felt like something that happened because the script told them what to do. It felt inorganic. As a result, even though you do eventually come to care for this core relationship by the middle of the film you cant escape the fact that it feels like it was created on a very flimsy foundation which undermines the whole the movie.
I truly believe we needed another 10 15 minutes are the start of the film establishing these two characters before they met up. This would have fleshed them out to the point where we cared for and understood both of them thus allowing their meeting and eventual team-up to have some resonance.
- The movie has a really large cast and as a result many supposedly core characters feel far too thin because time is wasted on unimportant things. For example, there's a Pig-man and Monkey-man who travel with Kumatetsu but I don't know why. Theyre really one dimensional characters with no origin and no growth who nevertheless get a bunch of screen time. They largely seem to serve as a Greek Chorus, narrating the action and telling the audience how to think and feel but I dont need them there because I can work that out on my own. You could completely cut them out of the script without changing the movie at all even though they have more lines than nearly any other character.
- This is a really big problem because the movie has far too much stuff in it which to waste time with those non-characters. There are numerous plot relevant characters who really almost no screentime but are vital to the story and the characters that we are supposed to care about. Characters that are core to our protagonists life, that influence huge portions of the movie but who nevertheless get less time on screen then Monkey-man and Pig-man.
- There's a girl in the movie, Kaede, who plays a core role in the story but who nevertheless feels short-changed by the script. She serves a purely mechanical role in aiding our protagonist, but outside of this task she performs she doesnt get to do anything. She doesnt get her own arc where she could lead the action in a way which providers pay off for her character. The script clearly wants you to feel like she has grown or changed but this cant happen because she doesnt personally overcome any issues or roadblocks her in life on her own. Were told about the problems she has but theres no time in the script for her to tackle them. Instead, she just tags along in numerous scenes because our hero needs a girlfriend of sorts.
If shes as important as the story as the script wants you to believe she is then the script needed to spend just a little more time developing her entire arc, outside of her relationship with the protagonist. Her entire arc could have been removed, or expanded upon, but as it appears in the movie it sits at an awkward half way point.
- Speaking of the numerous half-baked sub-plots which weight this movie down, theres one crucial plot which gets even less time than Kaedes story. I wont go into too much detail with regards to the story of this character but suffice to say that even though he gets maybe 5 or 6 lines during the course of the movie his arc nevertheless takes up a bunch of time at the end. If youre paying attention to the REALLY OBVIOUS signs the movie is laying down for you then youll be able to tell where the film is going, but Im still shocked it went there considering how little time it had spent building it up. The climax of this particular plot takes up a huge chunk of the movie and it affects dozens of characters but theres so little work done on the primary character at the centre of it that I just couldnt care. Not great. Again, the script needed a lot of work.
- The movie transitions between many locations, times and dimensions but the flow never feels right. Again, this is because the movie attempts to have dozens of characters in numerous locations and its really overstuffed. Its like we're just jumping around between difference scenes without really knowing how much time has passed or what's going and why. Its very jarring for the audience.
- The movie treats you like an idiot. It opens with a weird CG sequence accompanied by narration that bores you while espousing plot details that a) don't matter for ages and b) get explained plenty of times in the film anyway. A pointless and weak sequence accomplishing nothing. Pretty CG flames don't impress anyone.
- Speaking of the above, the movie has plenty of characters re-iterate the fairly basic plot details and even has people say things like "Explain this again to me like I'm an idiot." There's multiple flashbacks which we clearly don't need because we can remember what happened twenty minutes ago. Give your audience some god damn credit.
- The themes of the film are handled with the same tact and grace. Oh look, he's reading Moby Dick. Oh, look, WHALES. Oh, now a character is explaining the theme of Moby Dick. Then another character is literally explaining how that theme relates to him and his relationship with characters in the movie. WE GET IT. STOP IT. NO, NOT ANOTHER CG WHALE PLEASE.
- Leaving aside the above theme of WHALES we get plenty of characters just reading conveniently speaking their themes or their character struggles out loud with no suitably at all. Sometimes they sound like real people, while at other times they'll literally say something like "AM I A BEAST OR AM I HUMAN?". Please, no.
- The movie doesn't know where to end. We've seen this before with Hosoda but its really bad here to the point where everything you care about is resolved but the movie isnt NEARLY done yet!
- Did I mention melodrama? We don't have time for much character work but we do have time for melodrama that's deeply unsatisfying and revolves around the OBVIOUS SYMBOLISM I may have mentioned earlier. It's bad, please stop doing this Hosoda.
- There's a weird mascot character who serves no purpose until BIG SPOILER
right at the end he interrupts the protagonist to stop the protagonist doing a bad thing. This is really dumb because the protagonist should have been able to stop himself because he GREW AS A CHARACTER. So instead of exercising his free will the mascot character interrupts him just as he's about to pull the trigger, metaphorically speaking. This is cheap and pointless because the character could just have looked down at the bracelet his girl gave him and used that to make the right decision. At least it
it would have been his decision. Dumb. Felt like it was inserted for character goods/merchandise.
Ok, so thats most of my major complaints out the way. The other fairly substantial problem with the movie is its overuse of CG. Now, Im not a luddite and I understand that hey, you probably need to do CG cars (even if these particular cars are distractingly shiny and smooth) because you cant get someone to draw them in 2D. But Hosoda really goes above and beyond here. Heres a few examples:
- The entire opening scene is CG and I cant tell if thats just because Hosoda wanted to use really unusual camera techniques but its still pretty distracting.
- There are numerous CG crowd scenes and they certainly do not look good on a big screen. Again, I know this is for practical reasons and it allows Hosoda to do some cool camera stuff but its really distracting and it happens many times in the movie.
- One awkward ancillary to the CG crowds is that there are numerous scenes with CG crowds shot from the side layered against traditional 2D background art with the main characters we focus on in the foreground. The composition of these layers of characters, 3D crowds and then 2D backgrounds looks really flat the characters appearing to be standing in front of a projection of some kind because all these shots look really odd and lack any depth. Its as if the 2D characters are standing in front of really obvious Green Screen. Its hard to describe with words but youll know it when you see it and it does not look good to see such horribly flat layouts and compositions, especially when the movie is enrichened by so many great layouts in 2D.
- If youve seen Hosodas One Piece movie, Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, you may remember a bizarre CG 1st person sequence that looks awful. Well, he does it again here and it looks like something out of a PC adventure game from 1996.
- One particularly awkward sequence occurs when a character is sent flying into a bunch of CG objects, which react very awkwardly, and from there he lands against a bunch of 2D objects, which react as you would expect them to. Having both sets of objects in one scene really creates a contrast that you dont want to be making unless your CG is flawless.
- During a climactic event the characters run through a variety of normal backgrounds (2D) until eventually ending up in an area that was clearly all CG. It looked so noticeably different that I imagined there had to be a climactic CG fight sequence there and sure enough that happened. You can argue that Im just overly sensitive to things, which is true, but after having numerous awesome 2D action scenes this 3D one fell very flat by comparison.
Phew, I think Im done. Despite all that I have said, I really did enjoy my time watching the movie, its glaring faults just stood out to me as issues that should have been addressed at the script stage and they really detracted from my enjoyment of the film.
[The Boy and the Beast]
Phew, I think Im done. Despite all that I have said, I really did enjoy my time watching the movie, its glaring faults just stood out to me as issues that should have been addressed at the script stage and they really detracted from my enjoyment of the film.
Finally Shiro is back, accompanied by some great music. Interested in seeing how he influences the rest of the show, since I forgot he is now different from the Shiro in the first season.
Also, Green King is creepy.
Really good episode. Hazamas dillema was well-handled as was his reaction to those selfish idiots. They actually showed a bit of the surgery this time, but I'm already at the point where I wouldn't care if they didn't.
Next episode looks interesting, looking forward to it!
So when he happens to run into Ren, our runaway protagonist, he decides to recruit him to be his apprentice. This means taking Ren from the real world into the world of spirits! Cue wacky hijinks, tender character moments, funny gags, excellent action set pieces and, of course, training montages. You'll laugh, you'll feel mildly emotional, you'll have a good time.
That reads like your typical Disney film / film for kids and family. Which is the truth, I think the film is a straight "commercial" film done for the average moviegoer and families, given your description.
For the rest of the post, it includes the spunky kid as protagonist, the larger than life character as the other protagonist, a mascot, funny one-dimensional sidekicks which too much screen time, the female companion/pseudo-gf for the protagonist, all pretty formulaic.
- The movie treats you like an idiot.
- Speaking of the above, the movie has plenty of characters re-iterate the fairly basic plot details and even has people say things like "Explain this again to me like I'm an idiot."
- Then another character is literally explaining how that theme relates to him and his relationship with characters in the movie.
Yeah, that's too pretty typical of what I was talking about. Hosoda doesn't seem to be the next Satoshi Kon or Miyazaki or Otomo or whatever as some people believed he could be as Wolf Children was a bit more mature, he can be good but he does a movie for dumb kids, well, you can't expect miracles.
I think you're one of the few person I've seen prefer season 2 over 1 considering how nothing really happens in 2 while 1 at least has some progress. The only thing I can remember from 2 is the mom arc but other than that it was unremarkable.
I don't have a lot to say this episode aside from the fact they really captured the feel of an old Japanese mansion (i've been in one or two so far and had the privilege to join a family at one for lunch) and of a gloomy Japanese summer rainstorm. Again, I guess other girl is just a member now with no connective tissue there whatsoever; kinda weird for this series considering how much it's into tying things together.
Also, I guess this fits for Japanese High School students in terms of 'default mindset' (as much as I know anyway), but it's weirdly typical for the 'low-energy' MC to claim to be incredibly lethargic and then to still do an incredibly odd amount of work for this club thing at all, and still midway through it still be like 'But I'm low energy!' to himself. Like, going into paper archives for anything would have been considered too much effort even for an official assignment when I was in HS.
I think the fundamental structure of this film is a mess. I lay the fault of this squarely on the man who drafted the script which, on this occasion, was Hosoda himself. If this is the kind of work he comes up with on his own I really recommends that he hires an actual script writer.
Yeah, that's too pretty typical of what I was talking about. Hosoda doesn't seem to be the next Satoshi Kon or Miyazaki or Otomo or whatever as some people believed he could be as Wolf Children was a bit more mature, he can be good but he does a movie for dumb kids, well, you can't expect miracles.
Maybe not Miyazaki, but is Hosoda really not touching Kon yet? Subjective level aside, I believe Hosoda already more successful filmmaker than Kon at reaching audiences, No? CMIIW
Maybe not Miyazaki, but is Hosoda really not touching Kon yet? Subjective level aside, I believe Hosoda already more successful filmmaker than Kon at reaching audiences, No? CMIIW
Haven't been a fan of most of Hosada's works and this one I apparently needn't bother trying. That's not to say that the trailer looked like anything more than a relatively generic and save kids movie to begin with. Nice, bit more in-depth impressions btw.
Haven't been a fan of most of Hosada's works and this one I apparently needn't bother trying. That's not to say that the trailer looked like anything more than a relatively generic and save kids movie to begin with. Nice, bit more in-depth impressions btw.
Maybe not Miyazaki, but is Hosoda really not touching Kon yet? Subjective level aside, I believe Hosoda already more successful filmmaker than Kon at reaching audiences, No? CMIIW
Miyazaki and Hosoda himself have a fairly distinctive style as well. Anyway, Hosoda gets compared to prior prominent directors (Miyazaki most of all) because people are looking for the next big Japanese filmmaker who consistently puts out movies that gain wide attention from people in Japan and abroad, as Miyazaki and Kon's films did. Hosoda is the only director doing anything close to that right now.
What a weird ending. Wait no, I don't think it deserves to be called an ending. What a weird episode. Hilarious, as it butchers the cast yet again, silly, with its campy storyline and twists. But despite it all, it was frighteningly well executed with some great animation for the final set of fights and a one surprising and tender plot development. But then it literally shoots itself in the face at the end...
By not having an actual end.
I still wouldn't call this a good or even decent show as the monster of the week stuff dragged on for way too long and was supremely dull but the last quarter was fairly edible.
Also bonus points for being true to its name and having loads upon loads of blood. Among brains, spines and all the assortment of various entrails, you'd expect to accompany it all. This is what I came for so I can't say I'm disappointed.
+ additional points for a hawt main musical motiv.
I need to google this old Kyoto accent cause I just love the way Kagenui talks.
Araragi's life continues to be suffering. I suppose that's the price to pay for the effectiveness of his "beat the shit out of me and calm down" jutsus.
So that was Nisemonogatari. At the same time better than I remembered but also even more depraved than I could recall. Some of this Tsukihi and Hachikuji stuff ...
I need to google this old Kyoto accent cause I just love the way Kaganui talks.
Araragi's life continues to be suffering. I suppose that's the price to pay for the effectiveness of his "beat the shit out of me and calm down" jutsus.
So that was Nisemonogatari. At the same time better than I remembered but also even more depraved than I could recall. Some of this Tsukihi and Hachikuji stuff ...
Nisemonogatari is the weirdest out of them. Way too much fanservice and it's mostly about the sisters. Personally, I liked it a lot but there were many... strange scenes. At least some Karen stuff, Kaiki, the last fight etc. are more than enough to redeem it.
Blood-C 12
What a weird ending. Wait no, I don't think it deserves to be called an ending. What a weird episode. Hilarious, as it butchers the cast yet again, silly, with its campy storyline and twists. But despite it all, it was frighteningly well executed with some great animation for the final set of fights and a one surprising and tender plot development. But then it literally shoots itself in the face at the end...
By not having an actual end.
I still wouldn't call this a good or even decent show as the monster of the week stuff dragged on for way too long and was supremely dull but the last quarter was fairly edible.
Also bonus points for being true to its name and having loads upon loads of blood. Among brains, spines and all the assortment of entrails, you'd expect. This is what I came for so I can't say I'm disappointed.
+ additional points for a hawt main musical motiv.
What a weird ending. Wait no, I don't think it deserves to be called an ending. What a weird episode. Hilarious, as it butchers the cast yet again, silly, with its campy storyline and twists. But despite it all, it was frighteningly well executed with some great animation for the final set of fights and a one surprising and tender plot development. But then it literally shoots itself in the face at the end...
By not having an actual end.
I still wouldn't call this a good or even decent show as the monster of the week stuff dragged on for way too long and was supremely dull but the last quarter was fairly edible.
Also bonus points for being true to its name and having loads upon loads of blood. Among brains, spines and all the assortment of entrails, you'd expect. This is what I came for so I can't say I'm disappointed.
+ additional points for a hawt main musical motiv.
Once upon a time we would have told you to buckle up because the ride wasn't over yet since you still had Blood-C: The Last Dark to wrap it all up but it turns out that was apparently kinda bad so we stopped.
Once upon a time we would have told you to buckle up because the ride wasn't over yet since you still had Blood-C: The Last Dark to wrap it all up but it turns out that was apparently kinda bad so we stopped.
Well, it's not an either or dilemma. The only two choices aren't 1) Have Satoko Okudera do the writing and 2) Have Hosoda write it himself. There are plenty of other possible scenarios.
A movie can be both really frustrating and really fun at different points. There's a real charm to Hosoda's work which is in evidence in spades here,but there's also lots of problems too.
A fair point, and this movie does, ironically, remind me of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle. I feel like Howl's is Miyazaki's only failure and it's a failure because the script is all over the place and the movie lacks a coherent structure.
I can certainly see why people started to feel that this series was spinning its wheels around this point since we have been getting a lot of redundant information that while I understand not everybody in the story is privy to, it is still shit the audience knows. Outside of that we get some confirmation about somethings that have been pretty obvious for a good long while. For example we finally get the love confession that he has always harbored, well he calls it love I would call it infatuation since he really has been in love with the image of her. Also, they have about as on screen chemistry as a mound of dry sand. Still a better choice then Daedalus though. Anyway, the upshot of this episode is Re-i has joined the party and may end up killing Law for reasons.
Well, it's not an either or dilemma. The only two choices aren't 1) Have Satoko Okudera do the writing and 2) Have Hosoda write it himself. There are plenty of other possible scenarios.
Who would you suggest? Remember that, if the script here is as bad as you say, Hosoda is apparently incapable of judging writing quality.
A movie can be both really frustrating and really fun at different points. There's a real charm to Hosoda's work which is in evidence in spades here,but there's also lots of problems too.
Sure, but I find it amusing that you say you enjoyed it when you mainly talk about much you disliked it. Well, once the thrill of the initial viewing fades, you'll probably 100% hate it before too long.
A fair point, and this movie does, ironically, remind me of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle. I feel like Howl's is Miyazaki's only failure and it's a failure because the script is all over the place and the movie lacks a coherent structure.
See, Howl's Moving Castle is a movie I utterly loathed from the moment I saw it, so such comparisons don't help your claim to have enjoyed it!
But yeah, from my experiences with anime over its entire history, most anime directors, no matter how talented at directing they are, are not great writers and are not able to recognize great writing in others. Most professional screenwriters, whether they work primarily in anime or live-action, are not greet writers either. For whatever reason, it seems to be a quality lacking in Japan.
Once upon a time we would have told you to buckle up because the ride wasn't over yet since you still had Blood-C: The Last Dark to wrap it all up but it turns out that was apparently kinda bad so we stopped.
Yes so glad you gave this animated classic a try. I can never forget Angel Beats and its conclusion. One of the best and most emotional anime of the past 15 years, up there with Guilty Crown, Anohana, and more.
Although we still don't know where this is going I'm really intrigued now, I'm not going to keep any expectations though. I liked the creepy atmosphere this episode, something I had been craving in anime for a long time now. Characters are quite interesting as was the impression in the first episode.
I really like how weapon demon effects look. Animation was surprisingly not bad, while a lack of polish on character models in certain far away shots were noticeably throughout the episode. But that's a trade I'm more than willing to do.
The pyshological tests by the demons themselves was something I enjoyed before, so I'm glad they went at it again. I'm not sure if it was the same in season 1, but I like how it was evident through a more 'wear down' effect.
Also more vampire focus, which has been sort of lacking, Krul in particular. I admit I am a fan of the snappy noble, seeing him grind some gears and being an asshole is always giving me enjoyment.
Though we got a "let them fight" Shinoa, there wasn't enough smug to sate my hunger.
Must say I'm fairly happy with how this season has started.
Background Image Dump
So this is gonna be one of those shows where they are the only people in the world to ever figure out how to beat every super weapon through luck and common knowledge.
So this is gonna be one of those shows where they are the only people in the world to ever figure out how to beat every super weapon through luck and common knowledge.
Continues to be charming, I like that they went with the whole Yu-gi-oh/Pokémon approach where the game is just something that exists in the real world. The first few episodes led me to believe that only the Main character and a select few others could experience it.
The rival character with the glasses takes his mobage way too serious though.
...I am not satisfied with what I'm seeing here. Seimei is fine but she alone cannot carry this story.
In the original series I feel like I had a better understanding of the world they are currently in by this point whereas here I'm still completely in the dark on what kind of world we're dealing with here. The horrors aren't nearly as interesting at this point either. Also what the fuck is up with Raikou? Dude is lame as fuck in this episode. It is WAAAYY too early in the series to have a character have a moral crisis involving his past pop up now.
Who would you suggest? Remember that, if the script here is as bad as you say, Hosoda is apparently incapable of judging writing quality.
But yeah, from my experiences with anime over its entire history, most anime directors, no matter how talented at directing they are, are not great writers and are not able to recognize great writing in others. Most professional screenwriters, whether they work primarily in anime or live-action, are not greet writers either. For whatever reason, it seems to be a quality lacking in Japan.
I hope you don't mind me lumping these two points together because they're so closely linked.
Firstly, I don't want to say that Hosoda is unaware of the faults of his own script. For all I know he is aware of the problems with his work, just as the game developer who puts out a buggy game is aware of all the bugs. Due to production realities he may not have had to time to fix all the issues with the draft or perhaps he just made the movie on the fly and didn't realise these problems till later. Such things are fairly common in the realm of Hollywood movies, let alone animated fair. So, I don't want to say that Hosoda has no eye for judging the quality of a script.
I must admit that I struggle to find good alternative script writers, partly because this is just an area that I generally lack knowledge about and partly because there is a deficit of good screen writers because apparently no-one needs them. There are plenty of wildly successful anime movies with awful scripts so perhaps they are right.
