Shōtarō Suga

Shōtarō Suga (菅 正太郎, Suga Shōtarō) (December 31, 1972–March 19, 2015)^[1] was a Japanese screenwriter. He was famous for writing multiple anime series, most notably Darker than Black.

Shōtarō Suga 菅 正太郎
Born	(1972-12-31)December 31, 1972 Tokyo, Japan
Died	March 19, 2015(2015-03-19) (aged 42)
Occupation	Screenplay writer
Years active	1999–2015^[a]

Biography

Suga was born in Tokyo, Japan. He worked in multiple series from Production I.G, including Blood+ and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Suga recalls having problems with the latter's characters, most notably Motoko Kusanagi in regards to how their personalities work. Director Kenji Kamiyama often relied on Suga's work when working for such series. Despite the series' futuristic setting, Suga claimed that he aimed to give the audience modern themes to see in the anime.^[1]

Suga, the most important writer in the 2007 Darker than Black series, handles high concept and main plot related arc, with Hei on the spotlight. With Suga's control of the last few arcs, with the Doll selling as example, the stories starts to converge, and the ending is designed by Suga.^[2] For the 2010 original video animations Darker than Black: Gaiden Tensai Okamura gave Suga complete freedom and all he asked was that a scene with rain be put in. The scene plays in the third episode when Xin-Qi forces the Contractors to attack Hei.^[2]

Other works include Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne,^[3][4]My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected (seasons 1–2),^[5][6] One Week Friends,^[7] The Seven Deadly Sins (season 1),^[8] and Dimension W.^[9] The Fandom Post considers Dimension W as a response to criticism aimed towards Darker than Black.^[10]

Suga also wrote the video games based movies from the Resident Evil games including Degeneration and Damnation. For the latter, Suga went to Eastern Europe and created East Slavic Republic, a fictional post-Soviet country formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.^[11] In retrospect, Suga claims that Damnation surpassed Degeneration.^[12]

Death

Suga died on March 19, 2015. The cause of his death was not disclosed.

Upon his death, Kenji Kamiyama wrote that he was glad he met Suga as he often helped him in his works and had a kind personality.^[13]

Notes

1. Suga's series composition and scriptwriting work on Dimension W was posthumously released in 2016.

Screenwriting

• series head writer denoted in bold

Television

• Wild Arms: Twilight Venom (1999-2000)
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002)
• L/R: Licensed by Royalty (2003)
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig (2004)
• Eureka Seven (2005-2006)
• Blood+ (2005-2006)
• Le Chevalier D'Eon (2006-2007)
• Darker than Black (2007)
• Devil May Cry (2007)
• Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (2007)
• Persona: Trinity Soul (2008)
• Eden of the East (2009)
• Battle Spirits: Shonen Gekiha Dan (2009)
• Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor (2009)
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009-2010)
• Mai no Mahō to Katei no Hi (2011)
• Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne (2012)
• My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (2013)
• The Eccentric Family (2013)
• World Conquest Zvezda Plot (2014)
• One Week Friends (2014)
• Argevollen (2014)
• The Seven Deadly Sins (2014-2015)
• My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Too! (2015)
• Dimension W (2016): eps 1-5

Films

• Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)
• Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)

OVAs

• Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne (2012)
  • Kamogawa Days
• My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (2013)
• World Conquest Zvezda Plot (2014)
  • New Zvezda Operation
• The Seven Deadly Sins (2015)
  • Bandit Ban
  • Heroes Fun Time -Extra Stories Compilation-

Live action TV

• Yonigeya Honbo (1999)
• Shin Yonigeya Honbo (2003)

Live action film

• Casshern (2004)

References

1. "攻殻機動隊STAND ALONE COMPLEX Solid State Society". Production I.G. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
2. DARKER THAN BLACK-流星の双子-　OFFICIAL FANBOOK　三鷹文書分析報告 (in Japanese). Square Enix. 2010. ISBN 9784757529854.
3. "輪廻の ラグランジェ Flower declaration of your heart". Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
4. "輪廻の ラグランジェ Flower declaration of your heart season2". Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
5. "やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている。". Eiga. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
6. "Staff and Cast". TBS. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
7. "Staff and Cast". One Week Friends. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
8. "Cast". Taizai. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
9. "Yuuki Kaji Joins Dimension W Anime Cast". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
10. "Ten Years Later: Darker than Black Anime Series". The Fandom Post. from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
11. . March 26, 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-03-26.
12. "Leon Has More B.O.W.s To Blast In CG Flick Resident Evil: Damnation". Siliconera. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
13. "Kenji Kamiyama". Facebook. Retrieved September 15, 2021.

External links

• Shōtarō Suga at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Shōtarō Suga at IMDb