Mari Okada
Native name岡田 麿里
Birth dateApril 23, 1976 (age 50)[1]
Birth placeChichibu, Saitama, Japan
OccupationScreenwriter, director

Mari Okada (岡田 麿里, Okada Mari, born 23 April 1976) is a Japanese screenwriter, director, and manga artist. She is one of the most prolific writers currently working in the anime industry. She won the 16th Animation Kobe Award.[2]

Among her credits, Okada is best known for her writing and producing work on acclaimed anime series and films, including Toradora!, Anohana, Gosick, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, and her original manga series and its anime adaptation O Maidens in Your Savage Season.

Early life

Okada was born in Chichibu, Saitama. She has stated that she was often bullied at school and was thus truant to deal with social anxiety.[3] She would consequently spend most of her time alone at home writing stories. She has stated that her focus on art gradually helped her deal with her anxiety and resocializing. She added that no acquaintances in her life "had high hopes for her" and that she was repeatedly told that she "would not survive in the real world."[4]

She enrolled at the Tokyo Amusement Media School to study entertainment industry and game design.

Career

While studying, Okada developed a passion for screenwriting, but found it difficult to take it seriously as a profession due to her social anxiety. Her earliest jobs included creating scenarios for direct-to-video pornography and transcribing interviews for a magazine. It was through this latter job that she met Tetsurō Amino, who asked her to contribute some of her ideas for the plot of DT Eightron. She went on to write the script for five episodes, and the connection with Amino helped in kickstarting her career. Okada pitched an idea for her first original anime, based on her experience. The screenplay was unpublished, but several elements of it would be used in some of her works.

After several years, her reputation within the industry had grown considerably, with the screenplay for numerous successful series. Okada wrote the script for her directorial debut anime film Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms.[5] It was well received by critics and was awarded the prize for best animated film at the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival.[6]

Works

Manga

Television

Original video animation

Anime films

Live-action films

References

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  2. ^ "ANIME NEWS: Mari Okada wins Kobe Animation Award - AJW by the Asahi Shimbun". Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 2013-01-13. Retrieved 13 January 2013
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  5. ^ "Interview: Mari Okada on Maquia - When the Promised Flower Blooms". Anime News Network. August 10, 2018. Archived 26 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  6. ^ "Winners of the 21st SIFF Golden Goblet Awards". www.siff.com. Archived 19 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  7. ^ "Mari Okada, Forget Me Not's Emoto Launch New Manga". Anime News Network. November 9, 2016. Archived 14 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  8. ^ Pineda, Rafael Antonio (September 4, 2024). "Anime Creator Mari Okada, Insomniacs After School's Makoto Ojiro Launch New Manga". Anime News Network. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
  9. ^ "ja:星野リリィ原作『おとめ妖怪 ざくろ』がTVアニメ化決定！ 監督には今千秋!!" (in Japanese). Animate Times. May 7, 2010. Archived 2 June 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  10. ^ "ja:桜庭一樹さんの『GOSICK』がTVアニメに！ ヴィクトリカ役は悠木碧さん!!" (in Japanese). Dengeki. December 30, 2010. Archived 5 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
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  35. ^ "ポニーキャニオンが「佐賀県を巡るアニメーション」を制作。監督に西村純二、脚本協力として岡田麿里も参加 - 記事詳細｜Anime Recorder｜アニメレコーダー". 24 December 2015. Archived 10 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
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