User blog comment:Crazylittlefreakgirl/Fairy Tail Official Pairings?/@comment-187.10.100.22-20120518221638/@comment-76.161.172.226-20120521161755

I don't have a wikia login, and don't feel particularly inclined to make one for a single discussion.

Most of this is just good sense, having a basic idea of how things work, and having some basic ability to read Japanese.

The majority of Mashima's time is taken up by doing the weekly chapters. He does not have the time to do all the writing for the anime. That's why the anime has scriptwriters credited for all the episodes. Their job is to do the grunt work of turning a couple chapters into a script that fills an episode in a thirty minute block, including any changing, cutting or adding of dialogue that's required. They also land the job of fleshing ideas for filler out into full episodes. That's why it's such a big deal that was plastered all over the place that Mashima did the scriptwriting and storyboarding for the third OVA. It's an unusual state of affairs to have the manga writer perform these tasks for the anime.

That's why claims that Mashima is writing the current filler are bunk, and claims that he wrote all the filler except the NatsuxLisanna portions is absolutely absurd. He can't be writing the current filler as he has no more time to do it than he normally would, and even if he somehow did, it would have been plastered all over the place before the arc began that he was doing the scriptwriting. And as said claiming he wrote all filler but the NaLi ones is absurd. Besides the fact that such a claim is essentially the same as saying "Mashima wrote all the filler except the parts supportive of a pairing I don't like.", given the way "filler" is sprinkled throughout, it also amounts to claiming that Mashima does all the scriptwriting for the anime, and they only keep scriptwriters on staff to throw in NaLi stuff after he's finished and his back is turned. Bottom line is that it fails the sanity check.

Now, that Mashima did reference the current filler in the manga means he did have some hand in it other than character design creation. Which, given the constraints on his time, would mean that he discussed things with things with the director and agreed upon a plan for the arc. Details like scenes, dialogue, fights, etc, are going to be left up to the writers and storyboarders for the anime.