{"id":56487,"date":"2026-02-05T18:34:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T09:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56487"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T09:34:37","slug":"you-have-to-deceive-your-company-danganronpa-and-hundred-line-creator-kazutaka-kodaka-shares-advice-for-getting-even-the-most-unhinged-projects-greenlit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/you-have-to-deceive-your-company-danganronpa-and-hundred-line-creator-kazutaka-kodaka-shares-advice-for-getting-even-the-most-unhinged-projects-greenlit\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou have to deceive your company.\u201d Danganronpa and Hundred Line creator Kazutaka Kodaka shares advice for getting even the most unhinged projects greenlit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Kazutaka Kodaka, creator of Danganronpa and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, recently decided to do an \u201cask me anything\u201d session on X, accepting any questions that aren\u2019t directly related to his games The inquiries have varied from genuine life advice to questions about his favorite anime and even his deepest, darkest secrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One user asked for advice on how to turn their most ambitious and craziest ideas into actual products, especially while working under a company where such \u201cincredibly unsafe\u201d projects with low prospects for selling usually end up getting turned down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As someone who initially went through a lot of struggles to bring his passion projects into fruition, Kodaka half-jokingly explains that the only way to achieve this is by \u201cdeceiving your company.\u201d According to him, getting an original work greenlit can never happen if you just blindly obey what the company tells you. Even if it means having to \u201cpretend to obey them,\u201d it\u2019s important to persevere in doing what you enjoy and what you actually want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u4f1a\u793e\u3092\u9a19\u3059\u3093\u3067\u3059\u3088\u3002<br>\u4f1a\u793e\u306e\u4e2d\u306b\u3044\u306a\u304c\u3089\u30af\u30ea\u30a8\u30a4\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u304c\u3084\u308a\u305f\u3044\u306a\u3089\u3001\u4f1a\u793e\u306e\u8a00\u3044\u306a\u308a\u306b\u306a\u3063\u3066\u305f\u3089\u7121\u7406\u3002\u8a00\u3044\u306a\u308a\u306b\u306a\u3063\u305f\u30d5\u30ea\u3092\u3057\u3066\u3067\u3082\u3084\u308a\u305f\u3044\u4e8b\u3092\u3084\u308b\u3002\u4f1a\u793e\u3092\u5229\u7528\u3059\u308b\u3002\u307e\u3001\u305d\u308c\u3067\u4f55\u304b\u3042\u3063\u3066\u3082\u96c7\u3063\u305f\u30e4\u30c4\u304c\u60aa\u3044w <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FFQEt4bchN\">https:\/\/t.co\/FFQEt4bchN<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Kazutaka kodaka\/\u5c0f\u9ad8\u548c\u525b (@kazkodaka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kazkodaka\/status\/2018894744349520322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-palette-color-5-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p>Post translation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>You\u2019ve got to deceive the company.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Pursuing creative work while in a company is impossible if you\u2019re someone who does whatever the company tells them. Even if it means that you have to pretend to obey, keep doing what you like. Use your company. And if something goes wrong, the one who hired you is to blame anyways lol.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Back when Kodaka was working under Spike, he actually had quite a difficult time trying to get the Danganronpa project kicked off. As he has revealed in an earlier YouTube interview, Danganronpa\u2019s themes and niche genre were a big turn off for the company\u2019s upper management, and the project faced rejection upon rejection.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"29\u6b73\u307e\u3067\u5b50\u4f9b\u90e8\u5c4b\u304a\u3058\u3055\u3093\/\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u300c\u30c0\u30f3\u30ac\u30f3\u30ed\u30f3\u30d1\u300d\u304c\u4e16\u754c\u7684\u30d2\u30c3\u30c8\u3057\u58f2\u4e0a\u63a8\u5b9a200\u5104\/\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u30af\u30ea\u30a8\u30a4\u30bf\u30fc\u5c0f\u9ad8\u548c\u525b\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J1zJH-dl-kw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAt the time, it was really hard to get the project greenlit. Since it was a game about making highschoolers kill each other, the upper management was like \u2013 <em>It\u2019s a game that promotes bullying<\/em> and <em>It\u2019s probably not going to sell because of tough market competition<\/em>. No matter how many times we tried pitching it at company meetings, it didn\u2019t get approved,\u201d Kodaka explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apparently, Kodaka\u2019s Danganronpa proposal was rejected multiple times, but a producer then advised him to go directly to the president of Spike and ask for permission. Kodaka says he was so sure that Danganronpa would turn into an interesting game, he was even ready to quit the company if the project didn\u2019t get greenlit. Luckily, the company president was very casual about it, and immediately approved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/danganronpa-creator-became-a-game-dev-because-of-an-argument-he-had-while-working-part-time-that-made-him-think-what-am-i-doing-with-my-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Danganronpa creator became a game dev because of an argument he had while working part-time that made him think \u201cWhat am I doing with my life\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kazutaka Kodaka talks about the mindset creators need to have if they want to get their most &#8220;out there&#8221; projects approved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":56491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-56487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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