Anime Motion Comics: Are They Creatively Bankrupt?

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eaubuoy

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Most anime is based on manga. I don't mind that at all. A lot of great shows have been made based off manga that have been able to stand on their own virtues.

Slightly more annoying are shows that are essentially just fancy motion comics, trying to adapt a manga panel for panel. These shows can be entertaining enough, but only when they're either based off a manga that's already finished or limit themselves to a finished story arc.

Then there's my big pet peeve: shows which try to completely faithfully adapt a manga that's still running. The filler episodes that result from this poorly thought-out process and the extreme dedication to make it through such long series have turned me off pretty much all the big long-running shonen shows. Even One Piece, a show I was liking for the most part, didn't really seem worth the effort to make it through another three hundred episodes of varying quality and no conclusion in sight after giving my time to the first hundred or so.

Anime fandom often shares these complaints. And yet not only do they keep watching these extremely long half-time motion comics half-time meaningless series, they both demand more of these get made and complain about actually smart adaptations that happen to be something more than a fancy motion comic.

The original Fullmetal Alchemist anime was not a motion comic. It used ideas from another running-forever manga, developed them in its own way, and told a complete, concise, fast-moving story. I read the first six or seven volumes of the manga before getting tired of it, but I found the anime to be a major improvement in terms of character development, tone, and general storytelling. Take Hughes, for instance: he only appears in the manga so he can die. In the anime, he's a heroic and hilarious character. In the manga, his death is just another cog to introduce more plot twists. In the anime, you cry for him. This is just one example of how an adaptation can actually improve on its source material with just a few changes.

And yet this show didn't satisfy "purists", so a mere five years later when the manga still hasn't finished, the same people who made the first series are remaking it as, well, a fancy motion comic, likely to be complete with the strange pacing, awful fillers, and general aimlessness that entails.

Screw "purists." The manga is there if you want it. When I sit down to watch an anime, I want don't want a poorly conceived motion comic. I want an anime!

(NOTE: never being a Dragonball fan, I'm not even bothering to discuss Kai, which just looks like a half-assed apology for an ill-conceived motion comic by turning it into an even stiffer but slightly more knowing-what-its-doing one)
 
From the recent Dragonball Kai Talkback:



While the sentiment is misplaced, it does bring up valid points. Usually, when one speaks of anime adaptation of a manga it means that the story has been translated wholesale with few, if any, changes made, despite the radical differences between media. When said adaptations do venture into new material, it is usually because a) they've run out of material to adapt or b) as a measure to prevent a). In the latter case, such new material--"filler"--is frequently of dubious quality and usually sweeped under the rug as soon as its over. The reason why this occurs is clear: given that anime adaptations are usually produced concurrently with the manga, the producers have little latitude when it comes to changes, lest they contradict or overrun the source material. In the end, you get a product which can only strive to be the manga+voice acting+music+worse pacing. Compare this to American adaptations of comic books or anime like Berserk, Dinosaur King, or Read or Die, which adapt completed works or concepts--whatever their faults, it is hard to deny that they generally have a better sense of proper direction and pacing. Also note that adaptations that go the other way--from anime to manga--do tend to change stuff around.

All of which leaRAB to the question: is this the only way? Is a lack of originality a necessary evil of manga-anime adaptations, or can this be changed? Or is this lack of arabition actually desirable?
 
To be blunt, it can't be changed due to the policy of Japanese time-slot procedures. It's cheaper and more profitable to make filler rather than rebuy the time-slot, and that's a maybe, if its replaced by something really long (like another Shounen, etc.)

The only exceptions to these "bad fillers" while the material's still running are the ones with the original creator involved I.E. One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun.
 
It depenRAB on the quality of the filler. I actually quite liked a lot of the filler in DBZ (not all of it though), so I'll be sad if some of those stories are removed. I loved the Pikkon tournament for example, but if its gone, I can always watch the original.
 
Eh, it depenRAB on the material and the people doing the adapting. Good writers can come up with original material that blenRAB seamlessly with the source, or adRAB more impact to cannon content. Bad writers... well, we've all seen Bleach and Naruto fillers. >.
 
The thing is, as the original poster said, nobody likes filler unless its really, really good.

And also, filler often overstays its welcome. Nobody wants to see episodes that serve no purpose to the actual story.

THe approach is all wrong. Stand alone episodes as filler, as Naruto proved, are horrible in large doses.

Filler ARCS, such as what shippuden did and what Bleach did with the bounts, are a step above, but also can become tiring when they last too long and are used more than once.

There neeRAB to be a change. Either this horrible notion of "buying timeslots" dissapears, or how fillers are written is completely overhauled.


I`d like #1, but it;s too complicated for them to ever implement.

#2, however, could be a great thing. In that, the ORIGINAL CREATOR could come up with basic ideas that filler writers could expand upon. Something that, by his or her word, DID HAPPEN between two arcs, but wasn`t shown in the manga. Something that focuses perhaps on side charachters, or was perhaps only hinted at in the manga, completeing the total experience.

If this happened, fillers would not only be respected, but looked forward to.
 
It really depenRAB on the quality of the filler, if it's in decent quality and has decent writing, I'll stick with it, but if it's just bad filler all the way then I'm done, despite what most people say, I for the record enjoyed the Garlic Jr. saga from DRAGONBALL, and I even enjoyed some of the filler in Sailor Moon, although the filler episodes of Ranma 1/2 gave me nightmares, but really it just depenRAB on the material and who's writing the scripts and who's directing it
 
I would hardly call such anime "fancy motion comics," there's a lot more to it than that. I can rarely read the original manga of my favorite anime and find it equally as enjoyable. The fact is, music, animation, color and voice acting are all very effective tools to enhancing the mood and experience of a story. A lot of effort goes into the production of anime adaptations, which is why you cannot simply write them off as "motion comics." I think of it more like bringing a manga to life, not just making it move. You have to give the characters voices, you have to animate their movements and quirks, you have to find music that matches the theme of the story and so on. There are a lot of finer details and elements in anime that we could never appreciate if it was only in manga form. You can call them what you will, but I would argue that a good manga-to-anime adaptation is a very different experience from reading the original, even if they are exactly the same in terms of story. Especially with action and comedy. At least for me, action is always hard to follow in manga and is always better and more fluid in an animated form. Same with the jokes, I rarely find them funny unless there are actors delivering the lines and I'm not just reading the dialog. You make it sound as if adaptations that look at the manga panel by panel are stale and lifeless, but in fact they are the opposite. I would never call anime adaptations such as Monster, Nodame Cantabile, or Hikaru No Go, "poorly conceived."



This is a double edged sword, IMO. Often times, as you've said, it turns out bad with poor filler and slow pacing. But I've seen adaptations that have provided a decent pace and even some good filler. Plus there are some shows that have the ability to stop and give the manga some time to move on before making a new season. I would certainly say that it's possible to adapt a manga that's still running. Although I would prefer that an adaptation happens after a manga has finished its run, I understand that its important to capitalize on a manga's popularity while its still running or else there may never be an adaptation at all.



Only because Bones had a good idea of what to do with the story. However, this is a rare case. When an adaptation decides to deviate from the original it usually turns out poorly because the writers don't have the same grasp for the story and characters as the original manga-ka does. Even Bones has their failures, Soul Eater comes to mind.

Overall, I think this is a hard subject to come to a firm decision about. I appreciate both faithful adaptations as well as adaptations that deviate from the original. But when it comes down to it, if I like the manga then I want to see an adaptation that is faithful, even if I have to sit through bad filler and bad pacing. I watch anime because I like animation, and as much as I appreciate manga, I would much rather see the stories in anime-form. And if the story is good, then why fix what isn't broken? Regardless though, I don't think they deserve to be called "fancy motion comics," nor do I think every adaptation should be made with the intention of deviating from the original unless the writers have a set idea that retains the original theme and message of the manga's storyline.
 
Except your so-called motion comic (srsly?) isn't aimed specifically at manga readers or purists (which can never be pleased. ever). It's to broaden and expand the fanbase, and sometimes redirect it to the source.

You think Mr. Business Japan does this for the artsy feeling? Dohohohoh~ (sarcasm.....

....?)
 
Creatively, yes, it's bankrupt to just write a straight adaption, throw some random stuff no one cares about to pad the episode count, and call it a day. Financially, that usually works, however, and that's usually the only thing that matters to the companies.

Strictly following the source material is never a good idea. The basic idea, perhaps, but if there's room for improvement (and there is always room for improvement) then they should do as such. That's why I'll always hold a show like FMA higher than Naruto or One Piece by default, it went off and did it's own thing rather than just try to drag it out with pointless filler that means nothing just so they could follow along the comic again when it got further ahead. If you have to keep doing that, then maybe it's time to rethink your approach to making a television show.
 
I would sure hope everyone has a good idea on where the story will go before they decide to make a show. That should be the first thing they decide before anything else. Obviously it's not the case in reality considering how most shows quickly fall apart, but it definately should be.
 
Naruto is probably the best example of filler hell. I think its fair to say no one EVER wants to see this happen again.

I am of the opinion the logical progression should go:Manga / Writen Source Material to completion.Animated Series to completion.Any movies / specials to fill in gaps or start new stories to completion.Too often we see the Manga start, then an animated series once the Manga is popular enough then we see movies randomly floated around. Too often the stories drift too far apart. I cant recall any movies that actaully occur inside continuity when they are based on Manga / Anime. DBZ movies are great examples of this. Not a single movie takes place inside the continuity of DBZ.

It seems to me that its more wise to simply wait for the manga to run its course before starting an anime based on it. There are NUMEROUS reasons why this is a good idea.

Economically, you give the product a chance to completely perculate and then go through a rebirth phase when it transitions to the next media. It just keeps the franchise going for a whole lot longer. Sure, you might make more money in a shorter period of time if you throw a BUNCH of products all at once at an audiance but you'll often condem the series to being a fad.

From a story stand point, stories are always better the second time you tell it. The first time you might miss a detail here or there. You might find that you could have tackling a scene or a subplot better. You might find you could have introduced something better. You might find that the end results to a portion of the story really didn't make sense. The anime should be the time to correct that but more over, the writers should be able to focus on it COMPLETELY instead of having their energy divided.

Finally, with some luck, you'll mitigate complete burn out from the writers.

Bluntly, the only reason I can see to push products into the laps of consumers is short term greed.
 
Not necessarily: compare Hitchcock's Psycho to Van Sant's Psycho, or for that matter the initial release of the Star Wars trilogy to the special editions. Even if we're looking at adaptations that don't suck, such as, say, Watchmen, the original is often better.

EDIT: Ah, just remerabered the Hitchcock movie is already an adaptation. Ah well, I'm sure there's many other examples to illustrate my point.
 
I have found that some adaptations might actually try to be their own thing, and not necessarily a strict adaptation of the source material. Shugo Chara is monthly serialization. I'd say it's more difficult to adapt a monthly manga effectively without going into fillers than it is to adapt a weekly manga. Shugo Chara has a considerable amount of fillers, but they really aren't that bad (but as someone mentioned, this is the exception rather then the rule). Most of the time they're "troubled student of the week" stories, but there were cases earlier in the show when fillers had given some important plot points, such as:

Amu discovering that one of her teachers was working for the Easter company (AKA: the "bad guys") during a trip to a ski resort

...however, this did not occur in the manga (which as of this post currently has 8 volumes).

So referring to anime as glorified motion comics isn't exactly fair; it's far for complicated than that (as has already been discussed).
 
I never said all anime is like that; I gave FMA already as an example as a quality adaptation, and there's quite a few others. My issue is that it does seem that the style of anime which I'm referring to as "fancy motion comics" seems to be the type that gets the popularity and the attention, and with Brotherhood and Kai, it looks like it's a trend that's increasing both in hype and in just how stiffly adapted the series in question are.
 
I do agree that Naruto showcased the absolute worst of what filler had to offer. Whoever green lit that should be ashamed.

But I don't believe the current adaptations are wrong. Wait too long to make an anime and you risk the property losing a significant amount of popularity.
 
Well, if you need to make it right at the moment, there are options to do things properly:

-get in contact with the manga-ka and make sure he/she knows how and when the series is going to end so a schedule can be worked out, like what WB did with JK Rowling for Harry Potter
-use the story and characters but develop them as the animators see fit, like the original FMA
-in the case of manga that's divided into arcs, simply sticking to one particularly interesting completed arc might be a good course of action (probably not best to do this with shows that have a big overarching goal for the characters; otherwise you end up with a Fruits Basket lack-of-an-ending)

Of course, animation studios always have the option of getting more creative, looking at different mediums to adapt to animaton, or even better: writing their own stories with their own characters!
 
-Except JK Rowling isn't abided to make a chapter every week just to keep the story going. She gets infinitely more freedom and time than even Berserk's manga-ka.



-And people still complain. This is Japan, land of hitting nails onto railroad metaphor. What may be acceptable in America, is the opposite in asian town.



With what money? One anime alone requires at least 3 companies nowadays to even fund such a project, and they're sure not going on an original IP unless its either extremely well-respected company like Sunrise with Geass.

It all goes back to one thing: Money. That's the root of any "creative" deficiancy.
 
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