Chiaki J. Konaka
Chiaki Konaka is the sole scenario writer and series composer for the Serial Experiments Lain anime and game. For the anime, he also did digital effects processing of film clips used in Layer 07 and Layer 09. According to Visual Experiments Lain, he was originally going to school to become a film director, but after using a word processor for the first time he changed fields to script writing, specializing in horror and fantasy. He is known for his dark storylines and for using cyberpunk themes in his work, and often shows Lovecraftian and (especially) Carrollian influences. Examples of these include Ghost Hound, Texhnolyze, and Malice@Doll. Besides anime, he has also written for live-action television and tokusatsu.
List of Work
Anime
Air Gear: Series composition, script
Armitage III: Screenplay
Astro Boy (2003): Script
The Big O: Screenplay, script
Birdy the Mighty: Screenplay
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040: Screenplay
Catnapped!: Screenplay
Despera: Script
Devil Lady: Script (episodes 1–5, 8, 12, 18, 25–26), series composition
Digimon Adventure 02: Scenario (episode 13)
Digimon Tamers: Series composition, script (episodes 1–3, 7, 13–14, 23–24, 34–35, 41, 44–45, 49–51)
Futari Ecchi: Script
Gasaraki: Script
GeGeGe no Kitarō (1996): Script (Episode 89 only)
Ghost Hound: Series composition, screenplay
GR: Giant Robo: Series composition
Hellsing: Series composition, script (episodes 1–6, 8–9, 11–13)
Magic User's Club: Script (eps 2–6), novelization (1,2,5,6)
Malice@Doll: Script, original story
Parasite Dolls: Script
Princess Tutu: Script (4, 9, 22, 23)
RahXephon: Screenplay (episodes 11–12, 17–18, 24–25)
RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio: Screenplay
Serial Experiments Lain: Miniseries composition, script
Shadow Star: Series composition, script (eps 1–3, 12–13)
Texhnolyze: Series composition, script, scenario (episodes 1–4, 6, 12, 20–22)
Vampire Princess Miyu: Script (ep 20)
Television dramas
Ultraman Tiga
Ultraman Gaia
Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy
Ultraman Max
Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu's Strange Record
Insumasu wo Oou Kage (a Japanese television adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth)
"Terror Rate", a short story included in Volume 2 of the Lairs of the Hidden Gods anthology (Kurodahan Press: ISBN 4-902075-12-1)
Novel
Marebito (also screenplay of 2004 feature film)
Trivia
- He himself the middle initial "J", evoking the Christian name "John", due to him being born to parents who were members of the Anglican Church, but he does not identify as Christian. He began using the middle initial at the age of 12, when he began making 8 mm films; he patterned the style after Western names such as Charles M. Schulz.
- He has a hobby of designing dolls. He made dolls for Lain and other works he was involved in, such as The Big O and Malice@doll.
- His younger brother, Kazuya Konaka (小中和哉), is a film and TV director. They have collaborated on a few projects, including Alice 6 and the 1992 drama Kuma-chan.
- He makes digital music, which can be heard on his web site.
- Prior to doing SEL, he wrote the 1995 television drama Alice 6.
- He also wrote the scenario of Alice in Cyberland, a 1996 PlayStation game, as well as an OVA animation of the same name. The game is described on ja.wikipedia as a combination gal game and adventure game. Its main characters are called Alice, Juri, and Rena.