Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Origonal Anime vs Adabtations

I'm not as interested as some people in complaining about a perceived lack of original TV Anime.  The way I see it we still get at least a couple every season and that's enough for me.

I love a lot of Anime that are adaptions, especially huge universes that have the potential to rival the convoluted lore of a Western Comic Book universe, from Sailor Moon to Pokemon to Raildex, I often like these shows for the filler not in the original source.  But a lot of Manga and Light Novel adaptations only give us one season and so no matter how much I love it that I know I'm only getting the opening act of a saga kind of dampens things.

The pool of shows I consider potential top 10 material does have a decent domination from shows that do provide a satisfying beginning, middle and end.  Which is often Original Anime, Noir and it's sister shows, Witch Hunter Robin, Code Geass and Gundam 00, Serial Experiments Lain, Madoka and Yuki Yuna, (and I also technically count Nanoha), Utena and the Ikuhara shows of this decade, RahXephon and then if I'm feeling generous Evangelion,  And for some more recent memorable examples Princess Principal, Katana Maidens, and Darling in The FranXX.

Of course an original Anime can become just as seemingly perpetually ongoing, like Symphogear which gets a new season every 2 years it seems and will soon be on it's fifth.

What's often forgotten is that not all Manga and Light Novels are perpetually ongoing, some had a serialized but still limited story with an end planned from the beginning, so they become Anime that don't necessarily seem like they're obviously an adaptation, like Death Note, Future Diary and Akuma No Riddle.  Death Note has stuff left out of the Anime that Manga fans sometimes mention, but watching the Anime on it's own you never feel like something has been cut.  And for Light Novel adaptations that position goes to Kara No Kyoukai and Fate/Zero.

What I find interesting however is that the potential source material for Anime most capable of producing shows that can feel indistinguishable from an Original Anime are Visual Novels.  They aren't serialized in the same way so there is almost always an ending available to the adapters from the start.  Visual Novel fanatics are constantly complaining about all the things they say you're missing if you only watch the Anime, but every time I go "I got that from the Anime just fine".  So from Steins:Gate to Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works to Clannad to Higurashi, VNs have produced some Anime I consider possibly the best of whatever genre they are.

And I'm fascinated by some of the madness that exists in the Visual Novel medium that Anime hasn't touched yet.  School Days is still the only Overflow Universe game to get an Anime, but if you look at the Family Tree chart of that universe it will blow your mind, I wanna see that all get Animated.

Update November 30th 2019:  As an Update of sorts to this post.  More Original Anime I can add to the list are SSSS.Gridman and some Magical Girl shows I talked about in June.  And for Visual Novel Adaptations I highly recommend the 2019 YU-NO Anime.

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