OUAN603 - Graphic Novel Progress

This was an opportunity to vary the genres across the different assets and blur the lines even further between the reality of the stories and the implications of magical realism dotted around them.

The graphic novel is an asset to the project that provides good insight into the relationship and lives of the two detectives in the story: detective Hirota and detective Kobi. This story detaches more or less completely from the magical realism feeling of the main story arc and turns instead into a police/crime story entirely. This was an opportunity to vary the genres across the different assets and blur the lines even further between the reality of the stories and the implications of magical realism dotted around them.

The intention with this entry into the story world is to give some context to who the characters really are outside of the investigation that takes place within the main story. Specifically, to detail a previous case that they two detectives worked on together and show their relationship. This provides back story on two main characters that otherwise wouldn't have been shown. Furthermore, I think that this attempt at creating more context for the characters is an opportunity to show more of their personal lives, which isn't really feasible given the format of the main story [shown mostly from the perspective of the protagonist]. The importance of the graphic novel amongst the other assets is that it works alone but is a strong supplementary piece to the overall story world and the different platforms that provide entry points into it.

The motivations behind creating a graphic novel based around these characters is that in my opinion, successful transmedia projects branch out and explore varying storylines within the world. Originally, I considered that the story contained within the graphic novel could expand on the adventures and experiences the four main protagonists or friends [Takahiro, Goro, Kazuya and Akari] could have together. But on reflection, this wasn't pushing the possibilities of the characters and the content as far as it could go, so alternatively I the possibility of developing the detective characters and in turn creating a much different story to the main arc, whilst retaining the connection to the world through det. Hirota and Kobi seemed like a better prospect for the project as a whole.