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My copy of Pokemon Story finally came in. I've done a quick read-through of the chapters about the beginning of the anime (from Masakazu Kubo's proposal to Nintendo to make an anime, to the preview screening of the first episode). Although Kubo's name is on the book, it seems like the person who wrote the words is Kenji Hatakeyama. It's still largely from Kubo's POV though, and it's a pretty aggrandizing account whenever Kubo shows up in the interview portions. Anyway here are some of the highlights:
>Choji Yoshikawa, Kunihiko Yuyama and Shukichi Kanda were interviewed. Of the writers, Shudo, Yukiyoshi Ohashi, and Hideki Sonoda were the only three mentioned, and mostly in the margins.
>Shudo is mentioned three times: In his margin feature, in passing when discussing how Team Rocket was changed for the anime, and near the end in a quote by Ken Sugimori, who said he was a big fan of Yoichi Kotabe, Yuyama and Shudo, and got excited whenever he met them in production meetings. Not much is said about anything he did specifically.
>Choji Yoshikawa says that he came up with the Time Bokan idea for the TRio, although Shudo is also credited for writing out their setting. This seems to line up with what Shudo said about the TRio's gimmick being pitched before he got there, but with him saving them from the trash bin.
>The story of the Time Bokan idea being rejected is not brought up, although right before they talk about Yoshikawa's pitch, there is a quote from Kanda about the number of proposals they made being shot down being something he couldn't help but think about.
>The executive-level people that often came to production meetings included Tajiri, Takashi Kawaguchi (Nintendo), "and Kubo would of course show up and give his opinions."
It's worth noting that none of the production people (aside from maybe Yoshikawa) said anything nice about Kubo. Ordinarily it wouldn't be worth mentioning, but given how often Shudo throws shade at him, I couldn't help but notice.
