A recent post by Marth brings up the idea of how our perception of an anime adaptation can be greatly influenced by our prior knowledge of the anime’s original source material. This can apply to all forms of media really, such as book-to-movie adaptations or movie retellings of TV series. In anime fandom, there’s strong opinions among those who intensely care about faithfulness to the source material and those who don’t know or care…
Some say that we should judge an anime in “its own right;” that its interpretation of the original source material deserves the chance to be viewed with an open-mind and not a mind dead-set on seeing an exact replica of the source material. Actually, that’s the principle I follow most of the time when I watch anime…but that’s mainly because I pretty much only watch anime. I rarely read manga or light novels and play little if any visual novels or video games besides Pokemon. So I almost never have this prior knowledge of an anime’s source material that many fans have.
But despite being more or less an “anime-only” fan, there are a handful of series where I had read the original series before watching the equivalent anime episodes. They’re not the most poignant examples but Inuyasha, Cardcaptor Sakura, Haruhi, and Chobits are such examples for me. In these cases, did my usual attitude of judging the anime independently of the source material hold up? I would say it did, but I was obviously aware of what was changed in the anime with these titles. However, I didn’t make it a rule in my mind that change is automatically bad. I tried to put my feelings for the source material aside and look at how the story is treated in the anime. For example, I believe that the anime version of Cardcaptor Sakura is at least as good as the manga or even better. With 70 episodes and two movies adapting a 12 volume manga, the anime version showed how Sakura captured many Clow Cards that weren’t even seen in the manga, and with that, more opportunities for character development and having a more complete story. For Cardcaptor Sakura, the anime is like an extended version of the manga story, which I feel makes it better despite the fact that there are some lesser things in the anime that I wouldn’t have wanted changed from the manga.
But Cardcaptor Sakura is an unusual case, as most anime adaptations change or leave out things from the source material rather than extend the story. While Haruhi has one of the most faithful anime adaptations I’ve seen, the 2-part “Remote Island Syndrome” story had some noticeable changes from the light novel, most prominently the fact that Kyon’s sister goes with the group to the island (she doesn’t go in the light novel) and a scene not shown in the anime where the SOS Brigade partake in some wine at dinner and get hilariously plastered. Despite the fact that there were reasons in this case for why these things were changed (KyoAni wanting to sell Kyon’s sister merchandise and the taboo in Japan of underage drinking, respectively), freaking out about changes like this is rather nitpicky in my opinion. They’re not changing the story or depictions of the characters in any significant way so I don’t have a major problem with it.
But what if they do change the characters and story significantly in the anime version? Does that necessarily mean it’s inferior to the original source material? I think in cases like this where the the anime and source material end up telling two different stories that the idea of judging the anime independently is most applicable. At the halfway point of the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime, the creators decided to take the story in a totally different direction than the then-incomplete manga. In spite of this, many thought highly of the anime version even after Brotherhood aired. In the case of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime, it would be wrong to judge it solely by how it followed the manga because it clearly wasn’t trying to follow it. But if Brotherhood had never been made, I can certainly understand fans of the FMA manga being upset and holding a grudge against the anime version. After all, I would want to see a faithful anime adaptation of a manga I love and would be disappointed even if the changed anime version is good.
Then there are the cases where the anime is trying to follow the source material but doesn’t do the best job of it. More than others, these are the times I feel it’s right for fans of the source material to get perturbed. The first episode of Inuyasha The Final Act rushed through nearly ten chapters of manga material, with the rest of the episodes rushing through just as much and leaving out many good manga stories. The Chobits anime only had 8 volumes of manga to adapt into 26 episodes, and unfortunately the anime creators didn’t pace it well – anime-only material was placed sporadically and wasn’t meshed well with the canon stories. While I don’t think this kind of poor pacing automatically makes the anime version totally worthless, I can understand the gripes about it because, unlike the original FMA anime where it obviously wasn’t even trying to tell the same story as the manga, these anime are trying to follow the source material and are changing it for the worse rather than better. I don’t care if the anime wants to take a few liberties with the source material, but if they’re obviously trying to follow it and wind up doing a half-assed job, that’s not good. Then there are the cases with seasons of filler episode in shonen manga to allow the manga creators to churn out more material. But most of the time the anime creators aren’t even trying to make these filler episodes fit into the chronology, so if you’re like me and prefer watching anime over manga, you can easily just skip filler episodes and get otherwise good anime adaptations of Naruto and One Piece.
I think there’s some merit to the fact that not being familiar with the source material makes you more open-minded with an anime because you have fewer expectations and have little invested in how an anime is versus how it should have been. Even for the few series I watch with prior knowledge of the source material, I still try to follow my idea of judging the anime independently as much as I can. I’d like a faithful adaptation of a story I love, but I don’t mind if a few things are changed – it might even be refreshing to see a different “side” of the story and characters. However, I do have a problem when the anime version is obviously attempting to follow the source material but doesn’t follow through with the quality.
I can see the benefits and negatives of being familiar with the source material before watching an anime adaptation. You’re already familiar with the characters and story, so anything added is more appreciated. But you’re already familiar with the story, thus you don’t go on the ups and downs as easily.
What’s interesting to me is the changes that tend to be made in design and storyline. If you look at the original character designs and see changes, it helps make the story feel fresh in a sense. Take Morestsu Space Pirates, the character designs and ship designs are new to the anime and help distinguish it from the original light novels. The storyline is similar, but it helps bring the “new” feeling.
Alterations such as visual novels help bring a new feeling by establishing a lead choice in comparison to others. The adaptation of Clannad did a wonderful job using Nagisa and Kotomi in newer situations where they weren’t originally present in the VN. Again, this helps things feel new.
Unfortunately, the bad side of knowing the story prior is that you know how things go and thus very few things surprise you. It tends to take something like Endless Eight to cause a reaction. The anime may not live up to your expectations and thus you stop supporting that work (and may or may not support the original one).
I like being spoiled and seeing new reactions to things, but I’m my own person. Others like to be surprised. Neither side is wrong or doesn’t enjoy it as much. We just hope that the anime turns out to be the best show it can be.
I didn’t think of how anime adaptations can not only change the original story but also the original visuals, like you described for Moretsu Pirates. I suppose it’s not something I think about because 90% of the time I prefer the anime designs over the manga/game/novel designs out of personal taste.
And like you mentioned with Clannad, I like when the anime version adds more to the original story (as long as it’s not too filler-ish) or shows us another possible side of the story, like the Clannad OVAs do.
The more I know about an anime, the more I focus on its execution. And the more I watch anime in general, the more that applies to ALL anime I watch. I’ve grown to care mostly about how skilfully-executed an anime is, rather than it’s shock entertainment value. But stock harem #1523 is going to have to try hard compared to FLCL, because there’s so much my mind is instinctively comparing it to.
I don’t care about how closely an anime follows its source material. It seems silly to me to expect it to be the same, when I really want it to be better. As you say, the trouble is when it tries and fails, not when it tries to be different. I feel anime should focus on how the animated format can improve the original, even if the story remains the same.
On the other hand, adaptations have to remember to overshadow the story entirely. It’s an animated story, not a tech demo for your animators. And if you’re going to change the tone, perhaps to make it “more anime” then you’ll have to change more than adding a few cheesy jokes or panty shots. Some studios really struggle with that, when the source material isn’t a perfect fit for their style.
Good point about how an anime adaptation should try and use the medium of animation to improve the original version, even if that means not sticking to it exactly. While anime that have a high shock value may be memorable because of their shocks, the ones that are better executed tend to be the ones I’ll hold most dear.
And yes, like you said in your last paragraph, if a studio is going to change an anime from the source material, they should see it through and not just add “a few cheesy jokes or panty shots.”
I was a fan of the FMA manga first, so the first anime only got a 6 from me. If I wasn’t a manga fan, I probably would’ve given it at least an 8. Overall I did like it, but was very unsatisfied with the way it ended. (Didn’t even bother watching Conquerer of Shamballa.)
Another good example right now is Akira. I saw the movie first and thought it was fantastic. Now I’ve just completed the penultimate volume, and there’s a vast amount of material it didn’t cover. Same case for Nausicaa. If I’d read either manga first, I would’ve given the movies lower scores.
To prevent this from happening, I sometimes try to read the manga and watch the anime simultaneously, which I did for Mirai Nikki and Bokurano. The Bokurano veered heavily away from the manga, and did a few things that I preferred over the original. But ultimately, the manga was superior and had much more depth to it. The Mirai Nikki anime ended up being very faithful to its source material and only changed/left out a few details (and the epilogue).
“– it might even be refreshing to see a different “side” of the story and characters.”
Slightly off topic here, but this is why I love alternate retelling films; like the Macross Frontier movies, which I thought were much better than the TV series. I also liked Do You Remember Love? more than SDF Macross.
It sounds like you’re someone who’s influenced by knowledge of the source material when viewing anime – your examples with FMA, Akira, and Nausicaa are understandable since you’d want to see the material you love conveyed in full in an anime version.
I’ve never read the source material of a series while simultaneously watching the anime. In the cases where I have read the source material, I’m usually ahead of the anime or finish it before watching it. As for alternate retellings, the ones I’ve seen have only been in movie form, and while not necessarily bad, they can’t convey as much as a 20-ish episode TV series. But I may have to give the Macross F movies a try someday since you think highly of them =)
This may be wishful thinking, but for me it’s less about ‘enjoying a show’ and more about ‘appreciating a series’. I believe that the ‘correct’ way to experience a franchise is to experience each instalment in order – or at least the original before the anime – whatever the medium. (Although if I decided to read Evangelion before watching it because the manga started coming out first… Manga made to promote anime are exceptions, I think.)
At the same time, this isn’t always viable or simply doesn’t end up happening. There is content unaccessible to Western fans – such as about two thirds of the YuruYuri manga or various light novel or visual novel translations – where one is forced to see the anime first simply because it’s the most popular. This isn’t wrong so much as it is incomplete. If I’m a fan of an anime that’s an adaptation of something, I go back and experience whatever it was adapted from. If the Accel World visual novels are ever translated, I’ll certainly read them.
I think of Haruhi on terms of the light novels, even though I watched the anime first and have seen the series three times while I’ve only read it twice. I recently played Shuffle! the visual novel… basically for the hell of it, and decided to rewatch two episodes of the anime. Combined with how much replaying is present in visual novels and how long ago I had first seen the anime, I have a sense of the series now with the anime being an adaptation of the visual novel.
In conclusion, I think that for dedicated fans of a series it is worth their while to experience a franchise in its created order, as that is the way a fan ‘from the beginning’ would see it. Or, if you hear of a cool-sounding anime, giving the manga a read.
Interesting thoughts…keep them in mind because they’ll also be relevant to a post I plan to write later on ;)
But yeah, that’s certainly a good way of relating to anime – appreciating the series as a whole and wanting to experience the source material first and then each subsequent installment (if they’re accessible of course). But for someone like me who prefers anime over reading manga and playing visual novels, and doesn’t have the time to check out every installment of every series I’m interested in, just watching the anime adaptations works for me. Only if I get really into the anime will I usually get the motivation to check out the source material.
I’m mostly just watching anime myself, but I still can’t help but feel offended whenever people entirely forget an anime’s source material, and treat it like it came to existence on it’s own. For example in this season, with how everyone keeps blabbering about Hyouka as if it was written by KyoAni, and about how it’s basic premise rips off Clannad, Haruhi, and K-on at the same time (even though it was written before either of these).
I’m not even a fan of Hyouka, especially no of the LN, but it just sounds so… disrespectful, to entirely ignore the guy who already wrote the meat of the story 11 years ago. Praise the studio for the visual quality, or blame them for the pacing, but either blaming or praising them for the story itself, is just wrong.
Another recent example is Thermae Romae, that was praised for it’s setup and it’s humor, while people are treating the fact that everything about it’s animation execution was lousy about it, as an excusable minor fault: If that’s the case, why not call it a good manga, that happened to get a lousy anime version, instead of a good but faulty anime?
I agree that even if you only watch the anime you shouldn’t make ignorant statements about it that ignore the original source material. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing the anime version of something, but like your example with Hyouka, don’t put the blame solely on the anime studio that didn’t create the story in the first place.
The problem when an anime doesn’t follow the story is you get blatant fillers. *Looks pointedly at Naruto* Hence, even though I don’t read manga or light novels, I still prefer the anime to try to follow the original source as closely as possible without losing the anime flair. Unless of course the production studio is awesome and can come up with good content, but that tends to be rare.
Filler bothers me about simultaneously-running shonen shows far less than the ludicrous, painful drawn-out nature of everything that happens in them. Dragon Ball Z Kai is roughly half the length of the original, slightly more if you count the omitted filler episodes, and I find that drawn-out and interminably dull. I’m a fan of the Naruto manga and I genuinely find the anime unwatchable. I just cannot force myself to sit through hour upon redundant hour of slow pans, closeups and recaps of what happened eight seconds earlier.
I’d far rather an anime go off the rails and have an unsatisfying ending than be stuck with an unwatchable mess of a series that deserved better.
Done right: FMA, Soul Eater, Blue Exorcist
Done wrong: Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Bleach
Heh, I actually love the Naruto anime, and like I also replied to Frootytooty, I just skip fillers in Naruto, One Piece, etc,. I can understand your gripe about how the Naruto anime drags on in many scenes and has more flashbacks then it needs. Because of this it’s definitely not a show I could marathon. But one episode a week is fine with me =)
The reason for filler episodes in Naruto and similar shows is to give the manga time to churn out more material because the anime is getting close to catching up. I typically don’t have a problem with fillers because I don’t even watch them in the first place – whenever Naruto gets into fillers, I just don’t watch it until it resumes canon material. But I do have a problem when they mix filler stories in with canon material, as has happened in some episodes of Naruto Shippuden XP Thank goodness for sites like Naruto Forums that tell you exactly what parts of episodes are filler and which are canon.
Yeah, I do that too. Sometimes I can skip entire seasons because of it… but having an idea of the Naruto manga plot helps me spot conspicuously new characters who I’ve never heard of before, lol. And yes, the anime needs time to catch up to the manga, but considering how much they drag things out you’d think they wouldn’t exactly be pressed for plot. >_>;;
That one is pretty tricky. because there is no way to be completely objective. If you read a book/manga, and loved the story, and the characters, and you already built an image of them on your head (more so with books), then watching another persons interpretation of the same characters may not even come close to what you had imagined, and would be automatically disappointed. That happened to me with the Harry Potter books vs. movies. I personally liked Harry Potter in the books, but disliked the interpretation done by the actor in the movies, so it does affect my perception and in a negative way. In the end, I liked the movies over all, and thought they were good, but they never come close to the image I had on my head. So that automatically makes the books “better” than the movies for me.
I think something will be much more enjoyable if you stick to one version of the story. Be it books, or manga, or anime. The image and perception built in your head will never be threatened by a different image or perception. That would probably be the “best” thing to do, but we like watching anime/movies, and seeing our favorite characters and stories come to life in fully animated glory. So it’s something we have to live with.
We will always compare, there is no way not to compare one version against another. Even if we tell ourselves we will try not to compare it, we will still compare it. And of the 2 versions, one will always come up on top. So the book/manga will be better, or the movie/anime will be better, and one will lose. There can be only one :S
There are exceptions, and that is when they try to make an exact adaptation. Haruhi is a great example. I read the books, and watched the anime/movies, and they are extremely close. Sure, there are few changes, but as you mentioned, they are minor and do not affect the characters or main story.
So I guess in the end it’s up to the producers and animators. Do they want to make it as close as possible to the original work? or do they want to risk it with their own adaptation/interpretation? I would prefer they all tried to make an exact adaptation. As it has been discussed on some of your other posts, there is no exact formula for success. So changing a formula is risky business…
Sorry, got a bit sidetracked :S As to the original question, I agree that knowing the story before hand will make it less dramatic. Especially suspense/mistery series like deathnote where the story build up to the final conclusion would not be there if you know if light beats L before hand, and when… That impact from the story will only be there the first time.
Yeah, it’s true that you can’t help but build a perception of how a source material should be treated in an anime or movie adaptation when you’ve grown attached to that source material. Like you suggested, one can avoid this by simply sticking to one version of the series and not watch adaptations in other mediums. But of course, if we love that series so much, we have a desire to see how it’s interpreted in another medium.
It’s true that knowing the source material will diminish the shock and suspense value if you then watch the anime, like with Death Note. But you already got the shocks from the manga version – unless the anime makes some drastic changes, the shocks will only come once unfortunately =P
I pretty much subscribe to the “If it’s good, it’s good.” Whether I know about it’s prior adaptation or not, if the anime’s executed correctly, then I won’t have many qualms. Of course, this theory’s been challenged for me since two of the shows airing this spring (Dusk Maiden and Zetman) have…not lived up (especially Zetman) to how I had hoped it would since I have been reading both series.
But then I think back to Gintama, and I’ve read both the manga and anime, and I love both to death. So it probably depends on what material is being adapted, and then how the studios work with said material.
Yeah, my feelings about the original series could have some bearing on how I judge the anime, but basically if the anime is done well, there’s nothing to complain about. If I’m familiar with the story I would like to see the anime stay faithful but I wouldn’t mind if it changed a few things for the sake of novelty. It’s when it does a half-assed job of an adaptation that I have a problem.
I’ve never been able to enjoy an anime as much when I read the manga first. When you learn to love the manga, its hard to love the adaptation, which never has the same feel to it as the author originally made it. Not to mention, I hate knowing what’s going to happen next. That just bores me!
I agree that it’s best to try and just judge the anime for what’s it doing, and not to compare it, but that’s an extremely hard thing to do! At least for me. With that said (unlike most people), I prefer when the anime is not too faithful to its source material and instead shows us some things that are completely new.
In the end, much like you, I’m more of just an anime girl. There were a few cases where I had read the manga before watching the anime and I never managed to really enjoy the anime as much because I couldn’t remove myself from just comparing it to the source material. My system is that if I like an anime and want to know the more complete version of the story (or just the continuation) then I will then check out the manga.
For me, it’s not so much that I’m familiar with the manga or whatever before seeing the anime, it’s how much I love the original source material. If I thought the original manga was only “okay” I won’t care so much if the anime is different and I’ll be able to better detach myself from it and judge the anime on its own. But if I happen to be familiar with the source material and love it, then I can’t help but want the anime version to live up to it and I judge it more harshly.
I treat both as separate and enjoy them as companion pieces. That’s also why I’m rarely bothered by bad film adaptations of books. It’s not as though the original went anywhere, and while yes, sometimes you can be sad at missed opportunities or by knowing that many will never go back to discover the source when the adaptation is so bad, but that doesn’t stop me being able to keep them apart.
There are a lot of anime I watch that are based on manga I read ahead on, and usually there’s enough of a gap I enjoy being reminded of what I read quite some time before. I’ll usually enjoy them trying something new, though even if they don’t I still watch and enjoy.
I also like remakes – at the moment I’m still really enjoying the HunterXHunter adaptation, even if it’s not as good as either the first version or the manga.
I too try to keep an anime or film adaptation separate from the original source – though it does irk me if a book or other series I like gets a poor movie or anime adaptation, that doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of the original (but it is sad that the people who only watch the bad anime/movie adaptation won’t know how good the story can be).
I would prefer either reading the original material first and then view the anime later down the line, or vise versa. Following the two together might not be the best thing to do since you’re then more likely to compare them since they’ll both be equally fresh in your mind. Like you said, if you view the anime later on you’re more likely to be nostalgic about it than critical.
I recently started reading manga so I can’t say I have raged over bad anime adaptations, but after watching Bleach for so long, I got tired of waiting every week and started reading the manga. And after going back to the episodes, I found them very boring because I already knew what came next. Now, I know better than to read a manga with an anime adaptation and simply read its manga if I wish to know the continuation of the story. I think it does affect our perception of an anime in one way or another and it is probably best to judge an anime as a stand alone project. I don’t mind filler episodes every once in a while :P
I can totally understand reading the manga and not caring about the anime for long running shonen series like Bleach. Both versions are telling the same story but the manga has the advantage of not delving into filler episodes. But if you like filler episodes, then you can watch those when you want while continuing to follow the manga. I just prefer anime because I like voice acting, color, and a better sense of movement. Plus it’s easy enough to find out which episodes are filler and skip them =P
Baka Test is a notable example for this: the anime is an assembly of different parts of the original story, with heavy modifications. As for “knowing the story beforehand”, none would beat its author; but Kenji Inoue himself had to admit that the anime had its own flavor, with some parts he didn’t even think of. As for me, I had finished the 1st season of Baka Test before touching the novel, and my comments would be:
Anime – “10/10”
Novel – “too epic, maybe 9000+/10”
Anime (after reading the novel) – “…I’m confused, but still 10/10”