Superman Anime

It's interesting that there has been, at least officially sectioned by DC/WB, only attempts at doing Batman as an Anime, not Superman as of yet.  Because in my opinion Superman suits Anime far better.

Part of it is of course WB increasingly only having faith in Batman in any context.  But there is also how many Normies still associate Anime first and foremost with Edgy 90s OVAs, so that association has people thinking Batman would be more suited to Anime. But the thing is that type of Anime is too edgy even for Batman, they were Japan's manifestation of the same Zeitgeist that resulted in the "90s Anti-Hero" and the Attitude Era of Pro Wrestling.  I don't think Anime has ever been asked to handle a Dark Vigilante who doesn't Kill, outside of the two Batman cartoons that are supposed to count as Anime but were still written mainly by normal American Superhero writers.

For Superman however, it seems to be Japanese Superhero writers who don't see the problem with making someone like Superman relatable, from Kamen Rider Fourze to multiple Magical Girls and Isekai protagonists.  Anime is filled with Heroes who are more Superman then Superman.

And that comes in part from Anime being influenced by Superman.  The Fleischer Superman shorts were among the inspirations on the Godfather himself Osamu Tezuka, Project Ako was basically a Superman fan film, it's not a coincidence that Tetsuou wears a Red Cape in Akira or that Prince Ashitaka has the exact same color scheme in Princess Mononoke, and I detect some specifically Donner Film influence on Sailor Moon R.

I also think you'd be surprised how easy it would be to actually set a take on Superman in Japan.  There is a Japanese surname very close to Kent, Kenta, and then whatever equivalent Japanese name you give to Smallville place it in Kansai rather then Kansas.

But I'd want it to be truly the Japanese doing it, not like War of the Rohirrim which has a celebrated Anime director but the writers are still standard WB Fantasy Writers.  

Ya know what, I nominate Katsuyuki Sumisawa to write the Screenplay, he was my favorite 90s Sailor Moon writer and amazingly he's the only one still working, he also wrote for Macross 7, Gundam Wing Gundam The Origin, Dragonball Z and Cutey Honey Flash, each of those works brings valuable and relevant experience to the Superman table, but Macross 7 is perhaps the most important, the Main Character of that show is basically Superman with a Guitar.

So yeah this post is in part a follow up to my last post about how I'm into Anime for the writing more so then the Artstyle. But Artstyle is important, and I do also have some thoughts on how a Superman Anime should look.

One of the Things that helped define Richard Donner's Superman film was how he made it almost like three separate films in one, using very different styles for Krypton, Smallville and Metropolis.  And well Anime can do that even more explicitly.  I'm thinking maybe even actually have three different directors with only the Screenwriter unifying all three portions.

The Krypton portion should have an Artstyle reminiscent of a classic Leiji Matsumoto based Anime, or Osamu Dezaki's adaptation of Space Adventure Cobra.

For Smallville I was first thinking Makoto Shinkai, but the rural small town themes in his movies are usually about someone wanting to leave, Clark leaves to become Superman not because he feels stifled.  I'm actually not all that intimately familiar with Anime set in Japanese rural small towns.  So I'm gonna need help with what to recommend here.  

And then Metropolis should look like a Raildex or SciADV based Anime, those shows are good at turning Tokyo into a bright almsot futuristic Metropolis, (while Kara no Kyoukai and Boogiepop turn Tokyo into a Gotham).

In the Raildex franchise, Touma Kamijou is another example of an Anime hero who's core is basically Superman if Japanese.  Meanwhile Mikoto Misaka is the closest thing Anime has to a Batman [I forgot to consider Detecive Conan here], she is a bit more retribution focused when she sets her sights on a villain, but still isn't a killer.

I know some people actually think the SciADV games and their Anime are very dark, but I don't see it.  Red Bard calls Robotics;Notes "SciADV at it's happiest", but the number of named important present narrative characters who die and stay dead is equal to Chaos;Child, one, and greater then Steins'Gate or Chaos;Head.  Now that death in Chaos;Child is contextually much darker and the only thing in a SciADV show I'd never want to see in a Superman Anime, but that's it, it only gets that dark once.  SciADV at it's darkest is still no where near Zack Snyder and Snyder is no where near Fate/Zero.

And there are plenty of Superman stories that have dark stuff in them that are liked by the same people who hate on Zach Snyder's Superman, they just don't want Superman himself to be dark.