Okada was born in
Chichibu,
Saitama Prefecture in central
Japan. She has stated that she was often bullied at school and was thus truant to deal with
social anxiety.[3] Consequently, she would spend most of her time by herself at home writing stories; she believes that writing gradually helped with her anxiety and resocializing. She has also stated that no one in her life "had high hopes for her" and that, as a
senior, she was repeatedly told that she “would not survive in the real world.”[4] She went on to enroll at the Tokyo Amusement Media School to study
entertainment industry and
game design.
Career
Through her studies, 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-videopornography 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 never published, 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]
^『さよ朝』で初監督に挑戦の岡田麿里。自身の脚本に思わず「あー、ムカつく!」 [Mari Okada makes her directorial debut with "Sayoasa". She can't help but say to her own script, "Oh, this is so annoying!]. Shueisha News (in Japanese).
Shueisha. 3 March 2018.
Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
Okada was born in
Chichibu,
Saitama Prefecture in central
Japan. She has stated that she was often bullied at school and was thus truant to deal with
social anxiety.[3] Consequently, she would spend most of her time by herself at home writing stories; she believes that writing gradually helped with her anxiety and resocializing. She has also stated that no one in her life "had high hopes for her" and that, as a
senior, she was repeatedly told that she “would not survive in the real world.”[4] She went on to enroll at the Tokyo Amusement Media School to study
entertainment industry and
game design.
Career
Through her studies, 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-videopornography 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 never published, 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]
^『さよ朝』で初監督に挑戦の岡田麿里。自身の脚本に思わず「あー、ムカつく!」 [Mari Okada makes her directorial debut with "Sayoasa". She can't help but say to her own script, "Oh, this is so annoying!]. Shueisha News (in Japanese).
Shueisha. 3 March 2018.
Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2021.