Stage Play Informal Table Read

This past Sunday we held an informal table read for Joel Suzuki and the Wavemakers, the musical stage play!

As I mentioned in last week's post, it was just friends and family members filling in for the actual cast (who I haven't started looking for yet). Also, there was no live singing; I just played a recorded mix of the songs that I pulled off my band's albums and edited (poorly) into the sections that will be in the play.

Still, it was a lot of fun! And I got a sense of the runtime, which I think will come out to be around 1.5 to 2 hours (we finished the read in one hour and ten minutes, but that's not counting the intermission and a lot of stage movement). Everyone did a great job, despite the fact that I failed to provide some of them with the latest version of the script.

Also, I was able to talk my son into reading for the character of Joel, which was a real treat, especially since Joel was kind of based on him in the first place (if you're reading this, thanks again for doing it! Much appreciated). 

Next, I will be working on finding more crew members as well as polishing up the script (my son gave it a 7 or 8 out of 10, which I think is a great starting point). Stay tuned for more updates!

Stage Play Status Update: Bullet Point Edition

Here's the latest status update on Joel Suzuki and the Wavemakers, the musical stage play adaptation of Volume One.

- A friend had recommended a book called Writing Musical Theater, but it was out of my budget - $106 (!) for the hardcover version and $71 (!!) for the e-book. But then, to my surprise, she sent me her copy! So I've been reading it and learning a lot. Super grateful for her generosity.

- I believe we have our first crew members! One is the makeup artist who worked on Hold My Beer, and the other is a fellow musician with venue production experience who will be running sound and/or lighting (to be determined). I met the latter last year after they found my business card on the ground outside their apartment (not kidding). If you folks are reading this, hi! And thank you for your interest in the project!

- I've been watching more musical stage plays and making-of-musical-stage-plays for educational and inspirational purposes, including Hamilton, Frozen, Diana, and Broadway Idiot (the making of Green Day's American Idiot play, since the play itself isn't available). They were all highly impressive productions; you could tell a TON of work, talent and passion went into each of them. Obviously, we will have a mere fraction of their budgets, but I hope to come at least somewhere close to the amount of joy they were able to generate.

- This coming Sunday, we will have an informal table read of the script! Not with anyone who will be in the actual cast, but just friends and family filling in so I can get a sense of what the script sounds like out loud as well as the total run time. Pictures to follow in a future status update post. Stay tuned!

Stage Play Status Update

Here's the latest status update on the stage play now known as Joel Suzuki and the Wavemakers!

As you may recall, the play will be a musical featuring songs from my band Second Player Score's existing catalog. This is mostly because I am too lazy to write all-new songs most of our albums are concept albums, so a lot of the songs already fit the story beats quite nicely. 

The actors won't be performing the songs in their entirety (except for the big closing number), so I've been assembling a one-track mix of the parts that we will be using, mainly for reference and rehearsal purposes. For example, during our upcoming informal table read that will have friends and family standing in for the actual cast, no one will actually be singing. But I still want to hear what the songs sound like in the context of the script as well as get a feel for the total run time, so that what this mix will be for.

Overall, on the thousand-mile journey, we are still maybe on step fifty or so. But as long as we keep making a little progress every day, I'm confident we will eventually get there. After all, this isn't my first rodeo (Hold My Beer, the film, was originally written in 2019, didn't seriously go into production until August 2022, and was finally released in January 2025).

Stay tuned for more updates!

Stage Play Status Update: Haiku Edition

Two weeks ago, I announced that the script for the stage play adaptation of Joel Suzuki, Volume One was done. And now this week, I give you another status update... in haiku form.

The final title

Just might be Joel Suzuki

and the Wavemakers

I have continued

To make small tweaks to the script

And I'm not done yet

We have a venue

For a practice table read

It is Stephen's Place

We also have friends

Who will be reading for parts

To be cast later

No director yet*

Or any crew besides us

But hopefully soon

* Last-minute update

After doing more research

Now it will be me

Stage Play Status Update

As I promised last week, here is a status update on Joel Suzuki, The Musical!

If you recall, a month ago I told Joel and Felicity that I would be producing a stage play adaptation of the first book in the Joel Suzuki series. Originally, it was going to be called Wavemaker: A Rock Opera, but then I changed my mind, as I am prone to do (I still may change it back). But regardless of what the title ends up being, a month later, I'm happy to announce that -- drum roll -- the script is done!

A first draft of it, anyway. Or maybe you could call it a 1.3 or 1.4 draft, as I've gone through it a few times and made some revisions. And I'm sure there will be many more revisions to come. I've heard that the writer of the Stranger Things stage play wrote hundreds(!) of drafts of her script, so the bar is set pretty high. Not sure I'll be writing as many, but hey, if that's what it takes to make something that people will really enjoy, then that's what I'll do.

Of course, I'll also be asking other folks to review it and give notes, including whoever ends up being the director. That's right, even though I directed the Hold My Beer short film, I have no intention of directing this. Not only because I want someone with actual live theatre experience to do it, but also because I will be busy as part of the pit band! As I told Joel and Felicity, the play will be a musical that incorporates songs from my band Second Player Score's catalog, so we will be playing the music while the actors do the singing.

So that's where we're at. Stay tuned for more updates!

Stuff I Did This Past Weekend

I've been so busy solving puzzles and fighting boss battles in Life, The Video Game that I forgot to mention the stuff I had going on this past weekend.

On Friday, my sometimes-a-band Second Player Score was actually a band, playing Day Two of the inaugural PDX Pop Punk Fest at the Wyrd Hut in Portland. It was all-ages and a good crowd turned up, so that was cool. Big thanks to Lexi and Chris of Crisis Averted Booking for having us, and to bill-mates First-Class Martians, The Disorderlies, Ninjas With Syringes, and The Sh*tfits (this blog is now officially PG-13) for sharing the stage with us and rocking out.

Then on Saturday I taught a workshop on Independent Writing and Publishing for Autism Empowerment's Neurodivergent Creators Collective. It was an encore presentation of a workshop I did last July, and it was a lot of fun. If you missed it, you can watch a replay here.

Coming up next week: a status report on what was called Wavemaker: A Rock Opera but is now called Joel Suzuki: The Musical (don't tell Joel and Felicity)!

Wavemaker: A Rock Opera??

(Continued from last week's post, "Hold My Beer: The Musical??")

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY

Two people are here, sitting on a couch and watching "Spider-Noir" on Amazon Prime. They are FELICITY, late teens to early 20s, and JOEL, same age range. The show cuts to a commercial.

Felicity: You know, this is actually pretty fun.

Joel: I agree.

Felicity: To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect. But I'm glad we started watching it.

Joel: Me too.

Felicity: They should make a Spider-Gwen solo show.

Joel: I've heard they're making an animated Spider-Gwen movie.

Felicity: Oh, cool. Still, though, I want a live-action version.

Joel: That would be good.

Felicity: Hey, switch the show to black and white before the commercial ends.

Joel: Okay.

A middle-aged man bursts into the room. This is BRIAN.

Brian: Hey, you guys!

Felicity (sighs, to Joel): Pause the show.

Joel: Okay.

Felicity (to Brian): What is it now?

Brian: Remember last week, when I said I wanted to produce a stage play version of Hold My Beer?

Joel: Yes.

Felicity: I wish I could forget.

Brian: Well, I've changed my mind.

Felicity: Big surprise.

Brian: Instead, it's going to be a stage play version of the first book in the Joel Suzuki series.

Joel and Felicity exchange glances.

Brian (cont'd): I started working on the Hold My Beer adaptation, but then I realized it might be a little too mellow for live theatre. A play needs to be visual and dramatic. So then I thought, hey, Joel Suzuki would be a great fit for the format.

Felicity: Hold on a sec -

Brian: And instead of having to write a bunch of new tunes, we could just use songs from Second Player Score's catalog. I know a few that would go really well with the story.

Felicity: Wait. Back up. I -

Brian: We could call it "Wavemaker: A Rock Opera." I mean, I know rock operas are usually sung-through, and this would have dialogue like a standard musical, but the songs would all be rock songs pulled from what were originally concept albums. And there'll be costumes and props and sets. I mean, nothing too fancy or expensive, just enough to get the idea across. Also, we - 

Felicity: Dude. Stop.

Brian stops.

Felicity (cont'd): What do you mean by "the Joel Suzuki series"?

Joel: Um...I was kind of wondering that myself.

Felicity: Are you saying that there's a book series about Joel?

Brian pauses and looks around.

Brian: Oh. Yeah. Right. Never mind. Forget I said anything.

Brian hastily exits the room.

Felicity: He is so weird sometimes.

Joel: I agree.

Felicity: Anyway, let's get back to the show.

Joel: Okay.

To be continued...?

Volumes Eight And Nine Status Update

This is still bonkers to me every time I think or talk about it: I continue to make steady progress on Volumes Eight and Nine of the Joel Suzuki series.

As I mentioned in this post, I actually finished a first draft of Volume Eight a few weeks ago. I was originally going to put it aside for a while, but instead, after a three-day cooling-off period, I dove right back in and started doing first-pass edits. Mind you, these are just to check for minor issues like missing words, punctuation, and such (I'm saving the heavy-lifting story revisions for later), but still, it's something. So as of right now, I've reviewed up through Chapter 15, which leaves 14 more chapters to go. And as for Volume Nine, I am now up to 17,500 words, or about 70 pages.

Will this continue? We shall see!

Momtistic

Recently, I was fortunate enough to receive an advance reader copy of Momtistic, a forthcoming memoir by my friend and fellow author, Laura Donovan.

It's her story about becoming a mother, having two sons on the autism spectrum, and discovering as an adult that she might be neurodivergent herself. And I have to say, I absolutely loved it. Here's a review I wrote for Goodreads:

"This was the first "unputdownable" book I've read in a while. It was funny, touching, and I could relate to it in so many ways. The tone reminded me of Jenny Lawson while the style and voice were uniquely the author's own. Highly recommended for parents, anyone with a connection to the autism community, and/or fans of memoirs (or just good books) in general."

I was introduced to Laura by Shamim Dana aka The Autograph King, who you might remember from this post from last year. Both Laura's book and a documentary film featuring Shamim are scheduled to come out this September, and I'll be interviewing Laura for the Fall issue of Spectrum Life Magazine (I previously interviewed Shamim last summer).

In the meantime, you can pre-order Momtistic from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Walmart, Target, or the publisher, Cynren Press. All the links are here. Do it now, you know you want to!

Volume Eight Status Update

Loyal blog readers (and those just passing through), I have an exciting announcement: I have FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT OF JOEL SUZUKI, VOLUME EIGHT!

If you recall the last Volume Eight Status Update post from March 5, at that time I was at 25,000 words. Since then, I've added another 50,000 words, reaching my target of 75,000 total, roughly equivalent to 300 pages. This means that I've completed a full draft in three months, which breaks my previous record of four months that I set with Volume One. I also set a single-day word count record of 2,500, breaking the previous record of 2,000.

As I mentioned in the last update post, a lot of the credit goes to a certain social media platform that shall remain unnamed, which gave me an incentive to write every day (including weekends, which I had never done before) and to write more each day than I thought I would (or that I was in the mood for). Also, I pantsed (i.e., wrote from the top of my head without using an outline) my way through the entire thing, which was also new for me.

So, now what? Well, I will probably take a break (or possibly move on to writing something else since I've been enjoying writing every day) and let the draft cool off for a bit, and then return to it later. I already know that large parts of it need tons of revising, editing, and rewriting, which is always the next step in the process. In other words, we're a long way off from launching a new installment of the Joel Suzuki series into the world, but who knows? Maybe the process, like the writing of the first draft, will take less time than usual.

Stay tuned!

Wavemaker Lineup Photo

Loyal blog readers, I can't believe I haven't shared this with you yet! I apologize for the oversight.

This is another artistic rendition (or possible concept art for an animated adaptation, if you want to be optimistic) of the main characters from Joel Suzuki, Volume One: Secret of the Songshell. From left to right: Sammy the silvertail, Felicity Smith, Joel Suzuki, Marshall Byle, and Fireflower. It comes courtesy of artist extraordinaire Kaiyou, who has worked on many other SPS-Verse projects including 4-D and Hold My Beer.

Speaking of Hold My Beer, I know I haven't written about it much for some time now, but I assure you I have not given up trying to develop it into a series. Even my computer will not let me forget about it, as every time I boot it up or unlock it, the Hold My Beer file folder will have opened itself for some mysterious, universe-related reason. There's nothing imminent, but there are some things in the works that could bear fruit given time. I'll keep you posted!

Volume Eight Status Update

All right, you guys, this is really happening. I am (gasp) officially knee-deep in Volume Eight!

In the last status update from January, I reported that I was at 2,400 words. Which, you know, could have easily been the end of it. After all, I did write 9,000 words for Volume Nine back in the summer of 2023 and then stopped.

But this time around, I've kept going, and at a pace I don't think I've matched since the first draft of Volume One way back when. There have been multiple 2,000-word days (which matches but does not exceed my daily word count record, because my brain shuts down after that) and I've even been writing regularly on weekends. As a result, I am now up to 25,000 words, which is roughly equivalent to 100 pages, or (more gasps) about one-third of the way through the whole thing.

As far as where all this diligence has come from, I have to give a lot of credit to a certain social media platform that shall remain unnamed. Allow me to explain: since late last August, I've been posting daily to said platform, partly as an experiment and partly just for fun. For the first few months, my posts were mostly about the real-life history of the Joel Suzuki series, after which they moved into topics like worldbuilding and character profiles.

Then, once I started working on Volume Eight, I began to post status updates on the book's progress, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. So I kept doing it, and it eventually turned into almost a virtual book coach-type of relationship, where even if it was a Sunday and/or I didn't feel like writing and/or I would hit my daily goal of 500 words and think "that's good enough," I would push myself to crank out more words so that I would have something cool to report the next day.

Will it continue? Who knows! But for now, I'm having a blast writing on a regular basis again, and on top of that, this time I'm actually pantsing it, instead of working from an outline like I normally do. I'm also following my own advice and not stopping to edit much along the way, so I know a lot of what I'm writing is probably garbage, but that's what first drafts are for.

Anyway, stay tuned for the next status update!

Anime Roundup

It's time for another Anime Roundup! (Warning: mild spoilers)

Mob Psycho 100

Not sure why, but I avoided this one for the longest time until Netflix told me that it was "leaving soon." So I figured, eh, why not, I need a new anime to watch, I'll check it out, and if I don't like it, then it can leave Netflix quietly and I won't have to feel guilty about having an incomplete show in my queue (yes, I know you can manually remove them, but that feels like cheating). ANYWAY, I started on it, and after I got used to the art style, lo and behold - I loved it! From the creator of One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100 is about a middle school boy (nicknamed "Mob") who has incredibly strong psychic powers but doesn't like to use them, preferring instead to just lead a simple life (and maybe get a date with the girl he has a crush on). Of course, you can guess how that all works out. Great story, great characters, some cool twists, and lots of overpowered action, which I always love. My only quibble is that Netflix only had the first and second seasons - admittedly, the second season ended pretty perfectly, but I've heard there is a third season that is also excellent. I guess I'll just have to sign up for more streaming services (sigh).

Dr. Stone

Not sure why, but I avoided this one for the longest time until I finished watching Mob Psycho and figured, hey, since I ended up loving something I had avoided, maybe the same thing will happen here? And sure enough, it did! The show starts with an interesting premise: 3700 years after a mysterious green light turns every human (and some birds) into stone, a genius high school scientist is revived and embarks on a quest to cure the rest of humanity via the power of science. The story has excellent pacing, not taking things too slow or too fast, and its depictions and explanations of scientific phenomena are apparently pretty accurate (there were many occasions when I said out loud to my TV, "is that really true?") Also, I loved all the catch phrases (especially Ryusui's "ha-HA!"). My only quibble is that Netflix only had up through the third season (as we approached the end of it, I said out loud to my TV, "there is no way this is going to wrap up any time soon"). The fourth and final season came out in January 2025 and is scheduled to finish in April, so maybe Netflix will get it later? Please? Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to sign up for more streaming services (sigh).

Love Through a Prism

I did not avoid this one; as soon as I saw that it was a rom-com/dram involving artists, I was in. It's also a period piece, taking place in early 1900s London, where a young woman from Japan enrolls in a prestigious art school. Great story, great characters, and while it starts off kind of light and fluffy, it eventually takes a somewhat dark turn (spoiler: think about what happened in the world in the early 1900s) before time-jumping its way to a satisfying conclusion. My only quibble is that I wished there was a version where the characters were speaking the languages they were supposed to be speaking, like alternating between Japanese and English (I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles, and there were literally parts where someone would say something in Japanese and someone else would respond with the equivalent of "hey, your English is getting better").

Cosmic Princess Kaguya!

This is a feature-length film (and when they say "feature-length," they really mean it - it's a Marvel-sized two hours and twenty-two minutes long) about Iroha, a teenage girl with life-balance issues, and Kaguya, who starts out as a baby found by Iroha in a utility pole but quickly grows into a teenager herself and is actually a princess from the Moon (hence, "Cosmic Princess"). At first, Iroha is mostly annoyed by Kaguya, but she eventually warms up to her as they team up to compete in various virtual reality competitions. The story, based on an old Japanese folktale (which also features a "Princess Kaguya" and is meta-referenced in this film), includes themes of family and friendship, sci-fi elements like VR and time travel, and lots of music. And colors. And a fun little third act break. Good times!

My Oni Girl

This is a feature-length film (at a more reasonable one hour and forty-four minutes) about Hiiragi, a young teen boy with people-pleasing issues, and Tsumugi, an oni ("demon") girl who doesn't care what others think. Together they go on a quest to find Tsumugi's mother, who disappeared when Tsumugi was little. It's obviously Ghibli-inspired, and despite the logline calling it "bittersweet," it's (spoiler alert) mostly just sweet. Bonus: watching it actually gave me some ideas for Joel Suzuki, Volume Eight.

Coming up in the next Roundup (probably): Shiboyugi: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table, Magia Record, Orb: On the Movements of the Earth, Kamisama Kiss, and There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover, Unless... (yes, that is the actual title).

Until then, mata ne!

Volume Eight Status Update

Great limbs of Gorlan (a favorite saying of Kxxl-Klyxxn, one of my characters from Volumes Six and Seven), I've actually started work on Volume Eight!

Three years ago, I said in this post that "I've been considering taking a break - maybe even a really, really, long one" before I started work on any more books in the Joel Suzuki series. And aside from some brainstorming of ideas and some forays into Volumes Nine, Ten, and Eleven, I hadn't really done much with Volume Eight and was beginning to think that the aforementioned break could and would last many more years.

But then, possibly inspired by the writing and publishing workshop I taught recently, I started coming up with some ideas for Volume Eight that were really intriguing. So last Friday, I sat down and said to myself, "let's just start writing and see where it goes." And lo and behold, I ended up with 1000 words that day, which is double my usual daily word count goal! And then I even wrote 300 more words on Saturday, even though (confession time) I don't normally write on weekends.

So now, as of today, I'm up to 2400 words, which is a totally unexpected but welcome development. Where will it go from here? Stay tuned for more updates!

Event Recap

The author event that I mentioned in last week's post was a great success!

The turnout was larger than I expected, and hopefully I was able to impart some helpful knowledge to those who attended. One of the highlights was an 84-year-old gentleman who had been working on his book project almost his entire life and was full of energy and enthusiasm. I swear, if he had told me he was 64, or even 54, I would have believed him. I hope I'm as energetic when I'm 84...

Big thanks to branch manager Rachael Ries and the Cascade Park Community Library for having me!

Author Event

Hey, look - I'm doing an in-person author event! My first one since April 2024.

Titled "Introduction to Independent Writing & Publishing," I'll be talking about what goes into writing and publishing a novel on your own while making sure the quality of your work is on par with books from larger, traditional publishers.

It will be this Saturday, January 17 from 1pm-2pm at the Cascade Park Community Library in beautiful Vancouver, WA. Additional details are in this link.

If you're in the area (or you're not but you want to travel a long distance to see me, I will be most flattered), I hope to see you there!

Thanksgiving Gratitude Post, Book Recommendation Edition

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! In this post, I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite books about gratitude.

The Last Law of Attraction Book You'll Ever Need to Read, by Andrew Kap

Even if you don't believe in all of that "law of attraction" stuff, this book contains a lot of great exercises to help you practice gratitude. One of my favorites is what author Andrew Kap calls "The Discount Trigger Method,"* where you choose a positive response to what you might normally consider a negative event. For example, whenever my cat Boots meows incessantly at 2am, instead of getting upset at him, I think, "I'm just happy that he's here in the house, safe, and feels healthy and active enough to be meowing so much." I swear, it makes a big and positive difference. Seriously, I'm not kidding! My life has changed for the better ever since I read this book, and I go back and reread it every so often whenever I need a refresher.

* As for why it's called "The Discount Trigger Method," you'll just have to read the book.

Feeling Grateful: How to Add More Goodness to your Gladness by Kobi Yamada and Charles Santoso

A picture book about a bear cub out on a day of adventure, it's tailored to young kids but contains great messages for all ages.

Joel Suzuki, Volume One: Secret of the Songshell by Brian Tashima

Shameless self-promotion, I know, but appreciation and gratitude are the main themes of this book (as well as a sub-theme of Volume Seven: Vision of the Virtuoso).

Anyway, hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Special Request

I'm proud to announce that for the first time since Hold My Beer (or Try Again Tomorrow, if you're only counting feature-length scripts), I've completed the first draft of a screenplay!

It's called Special Request, and it's actually an expansion of a 5-minute short I wrote back in 2020 as an exercise for a screenwriting workshop conducted by Jonathan Stark and Tracy Newman, creators of According to Jim.

The short was a fictionalized account of the time when my son Torin asked me to write him a book (which was the genesis of the Joel Suzuki series). The funny thing is, I had previously submitted the original version of Hold My Beer for Jonathan and Tracy and the rest of the writers in the workshop to review, but after we did this exercise (which was meant to get us to write a new script from scratch), they actually liked it better than Hold My Beer.

Despite that, I never did anything with Special Request until just recently when I decided to expand it into a feature-length script, mostly just as a way to keep up my writing chops. As it turned out, since it's semi-autobiographical, it was fun and easy (and somewhat cathartic) to write, and in a couple of weeks, I had a 100-page draft. It's still fiction, but it's based on real-life people and events, telling the story of what led up to Torin asking me to write him a book and what happened after.

Will it be turned into a film one day? Who knows. But if it is, the big question will be: who will play "me"? Let me know your suggestions!

(I've always thought it funny that Brad Pitt played Billy Beane in Moneyball. It's like, "Hey Billy, we're making a movie out of this. Who do you want to play you?" and he says, "Brad Pitt, of course!" and everyone has a good laugh but then it actually happens.)

I Am Now On TikTok (Gasp!)

Nearly three weeks ago, I took the bold step of finally setting up a TikTok account!

Some backstory: Andrew York, the star of Hold My Beer, had recommended that I get on TikTok because of a trend known as "BookTok," where authors post videos talking about their books and their personal writing journeys. Apparently, this trend had - and is helping - some authors gain new readers, which is something that the Joel Suzuki series could sure use. 

But while I appreciated his suggestion, I didn't do it at first, for two main reasons: (1) I had an iPhone 6, which, because of its inability to update its operating system, had a hard time running apps and was only good for texts and phone calls and (2) I was terrified of TikTok.

I had never used TikTok before, even just to watch stuff for fun, and the thought of creating an account and posting videos of myself was very intimidating. But then I remembered that I'd actually been doing similar things using other platforms like Facebook and YouTube for years. I also took the momentous step of getting a new phone. At that point, I had no excuse.

So I set up an account and lurked for a while, watching videos from other authors as well as from different kinds of creators, and then, once I got my courage worked up, I took the plunge. And honestly, it's been going pretty well so far! I've been trying to do at least one post a day, and I've been focused on telling the story of how the Joel Suzuki series got started, how it evolved, and where it stands today.

If you'd like to follow along, you can find me at: www.tiktok.com/@brian.tashima.author

Moral of the story: face your fears!

Story Structure Breakdown: KPop Demon Hunters

Yes, I am a fan of the recent hit movie KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix's most-watched movie of all time). Partly because it encompasses multiple elements that I support, including Asian representation, musical magic (or is it magical music?), and the fact that it is a new, original work of IP (intellectual property).

But also because I am 15 years old at heart.

So, after watching it once, I decided to watch it again - yes, I know, I'm waaaay behind those of you who are on your 500th viewing - but this time, I wanted to break down and analyze its story structure to see why it's so effective.

(Note: the folks at Save the Cat beat me to this by one week. Check out their analysis here.)

As I've mentioned in this previous post, I mainly used the books Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell and Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder (highly recommended for aspiring authors and screenwriters) as my story structure reference guides for the Joel Suzuki series. So, applying their formulae to KPop Demon Hunters, this is what I came up with, after the jump (warning: spoilers):