Who is my favorite Anime Writer?

Short answer is, I don't know yet.

But since talking about Anime Writers has recently become a theme of this Blog I figured I should start putting some thought into it.

None of the writers who have already been the centerpieces of prior posts on my Writers tag are likely to be eligible.  They just happened to be involved with shows I consider good case studies for why Writers are sometimes more important then Directors.  They have written stuff I like (including both shows I've ever called my absolute Favorite Anime) specifically for their writing.  But they've either only done a couple things that interest me or simply weren't/aren't prolific enough.

You see while a Director can reach a point where they only do maybe one project a Decade, writing is different, to me a great writer is always writing a lot of stuff, even if little of it achieves greatness.  From Shakespeare to Alexandre Dumas and Paul Feval, to Stephen King to Digibro, and also Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone in the world of western Comics.  So I expect the same from a truly great Anime writer, I'm expecting what I'm already a fan of to be only the tip of the Iceburg of what they've written.

The same is true of most of the writers involved in the shows on my 3x3.  Though it's also the case that much of my 3x3 is stuff where the story isn't changed much from it's source material.  The Anime I'm looking at for finding great writers are original Anime and Manga adaptations that are far from direct adaptations, or at least expanded adaptations.  That said I might still note when one of those writers was also involved in a very well executed direct adaptation, because it still takes writing talent even to do that.

So the one writer with a show on my current 3x3 I consider eligible is Yousuke Kuroda the main writer of Pretty Sammy (both TV Anime and OVAs).  He's done a lot of other stuff I also like from other Tenchi material to Madlax to Gundam 00 to SAO Alternative.  But unlike the other two writers I'm going to nominate in this post he's also written a couple of things I already know I don't like very much, Hellsing Ultimate and Phantom Requiem for the Phantom.  However both of those were also projects that were explicitly more faithful to the source material this time re-adaptations, something I feel has a shaky track record in general.

The other two writers I'm considering strong candidates for being my favorite Anime Writer are ones I have mentioned or alluded to in previous posts but they weren't the main focus.

Reiko Yoshida, who first and foremost is the main writer of almsot everything directed by Naoko Yamada, which does now include two movies likely to make my top 10 Anime films.  But she's also written a lot of other material, starting with two of the later episodes of Dragonball Z and several episodes of Cutey Honey Flash.  She's also written both Girls Und Panzer and High School Fleet, and was also a major writer of the Maria-Sama Anime.  She also wrote Romeo x Juliet a show I think is sadly underrated even though I didn't like the ending, and a Ghibili film named The Cat Returns which has a fun Princess Bride quality to it.  Plus she's also been important to the Digimon franchise.

Mari Okada is also a strong contender.  Digibro made a video on her already, and I probably overall like more of her stuff then he does.  I agree with VraiKaiser that The Woman Called Fujiko Mine is one of the most important Anime of the 20tens.  I also really love Selector ____ Wixoss and Toradora.  Wandering Son is a show I haven't watched enough of yet but I know it's been important to the Trans Community.  Canaan was also an Anime I found to be very enjoyable.