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Urasawa Naoki has got to be one of my favourite manga artists. I can’t say that I’ve read all of his works or even a large portion of them (he’s just that prolific, okay…😰) but there aren’t many works that I think are the equal of 20th Century Boys (and 21st Century Boys). Perhaps if you eventually play my game Head In The Stars, you’ll see the influence of a certain Friend.
But this post isn’t about a specific comic of Urasawa-sensei’s. Rather, it’s about a video he made for his YouTube channel:
In this first example, Urasawa-sensei illustrates how by placing one character to the right, and one to the left, he’s able to more easily position their dialogue and to give the feel that the character to the right is the one leading the conversation. No crossing speech bubble tails.
He also mentions how the opening shot (establishing shot) is helpful as it quickly cues the reader into the fact that there are two characters talking while not diverting too much attention away from the one complaining.
I think this technique is pretty standard in film and TV. Sort of like:
The second technique however…
In A, Urasawa-sensei drew the second character’s face as though it were angled toward the camera when in reality, if he were really looking at the first character, his head should be turned away like it is in B.
The reason for this, and why A is better than B, is because we’re able to get the reaction of the second character and not have to dedicate (read: waste) a whole other panel to showing it, then cutting back to the first character. This has a few effects: saving room on the page, increasing the pace, and also focusing the tension onto a single point (the first character) instead of ping-ponging between the two which would dissipate that tension and draw the focus away from the first character.
I’m not seriously pursuing comics now, but back when I was, this was something I really struggled with, and if you take a look my more recent comics I think you’ll see that I still struggle with it.
The reason why those comics drag on and on isn’t because the story is especially long or intricate, but because I need that much space to show everything that I need to show.
If instead I worked more on using the technique Urasawa-sensei is talking about, I would be able to compress so much more of the story into a smaller space which would also then give more breathing room for the more dramatic scenes.
Put another way, I focus too much on just trying to convey the scene accurately to reality rather than massaging the image to best convey the scene. It’s a seemingly minor thing, but it really does make all the difference.
As for how this would apply to games…
I think in 3D games, it’s harder to put this technique into practice, being as it’s a ‘real’ physical space, but with 2D games, like visual novels, I think it works quite well.
Or perhaps I should say, it’s already being put into use in visual novels.
I think visual novels by nature of how they’re made with constantly reused assets of mostly static characters on static backgrounds, already do a good job in straddling the line between true realism and storytelling. It’s not exactly true to life to have people take turns talking face-on toward a camera while all standing around in the same place from the exact same angle as though that’s all that exists in the world.
Which brings me to my game.
As I’ve often waxed lyrical, the biggest inspiration (visually) for Head In The Stars is PARANORMASIGHT and its intriguing use of space. Not only does it have a wide array of lively, smartly executed character sprites that are positioned realistically in space, it also has back sprites that further the illusion. 
Since I played it, I’ve been gunning for a similar type of execution and I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to use my chosen engine and plugins to achieve such an effect. Just recently I proclaimed that I’d done it (at least, in my tests) and… now I have to rethink my whole approach.
I’m very aware of my tendency to fixate on trying to imitate reality when it comes to my art (or at least, using reality as my benchmark or North Star) but as Urasawa rightly says sometimes it’s better to ‘tell a lie’.
Will using PARANORMASIGHT’s method hamper my game?
I know for certain that it greatly reduces the reusability of each piece of artwork as you can only push perspective so far before it becomes unrealistic, which means either a reduced storytelling capacity or far more art assets. Or, if I’m being honest, both.
Another thing I noticed when playing PARANORMASIGHT but didn’t think much of until now, was how it felt far more noticeable to me when the developers reused custom assets in different scenes. It’s like, because of the heightened realism, my expectations were also raised, making it far more obvious when common visual novel techniques are used.
I guess it’s like the uncanny valley of visual novels.
In PARANORMASIGHT I think the reason they can get away with it is that the story is actually quite small. Not in terms of playtime, but in terms of the size of the world, the number of locations, the types of things the characters are doing in each location. Even in the scenes where characters are talking are lean and focused around the core mystery.
And these are all things that my game will not be doing. I haven’t had the courage to count the number of characters and side characters I’ve already written into my story, or the number of locations, but I know there are a lot. Far more than PARANORMASIGHT.
So perhaps I need to be honest to myself about my project. I’m a one-person band with limited time, resources, and sanity. This is also my first project and so needs to be out the door as soon as it makes sense for it to be. I know from my past experience working on large personal projects that its better for me and the project to shorten the turnaround as much as possible.
I love the idea of more realistic compositions in a visual novel that make it look like an anime that you’ve just hit pause on, but perhaps that’s best left for another project, a project with a smaller scale, a project that’s not my first game.
