Quote:
Originally Posted by Xander
In spite of all the NoN praise and subsequent hype, let me play the devil's advocate since it's intellectually stimulating to do so, even if it's a very thankless job all the same...so with all due respect, isn't NoN just great fanfiction or great fanservice, in the most flexible meaning of the term, since ultimately it can be nothing more than a derivative work?
It has shufflied around the same cards but not even for playing the same game. This isn't just a different version of the story, it's a different story altogether where you have to change almost everything around in subtle and not so subtle ways, with just a similar coat of paint on top which would be the familiar (or so you would think) faces.
Reading all these summaries all the way to the end of NoN doesn't quite give me the impression that, while there are similar themes involved, the concepts and events involved would really play out that well in the show itself unless you just rewrote the entire story to suit its needs from the ground up. Which isn't even possible.
Because, you know...the elephant in the room is that it's also much easier to build a new building using a foundation that already exists, when you can pick and choose what construction elements you like and don't have to face the same kind of pressures or make the same compromises that the original arquitects did. It's like saying that there are Evangelion fanfics/doujinshi that are superior to the original work, or that the manga is better written than the TV series (and this is arguably quite true, actually).
I wonder if the writer of NoN could have done a better job than the anime writer if their positions had been reversed. Maybe, maybe not. We're talking about a manga here, after all, and the process involved in making it was surely very different from that of the TV series. This same NoN writer would still have had to make an unexpected set of changes from one season to the next and deal with the fact that the show was now on prime time, which created new demands. That doesn't really apply to an alternate manga adaptation nor to most anime series. The neat little outline that NoN seems to have followed, with the not insignificant benefit of being able to take "inspiration" from the anime, would not exist.
I'll buy the NoN volumes when they're released in English, since it does look like a cool story with very interesting ways to mix and match the original material, for which the author should be rightfully praised, but for me that is not going to replace the original series in any way, as flawed but also as charming as it is, nor do I think it's just a matter of pointing out how much better it supposedly is in a vacuum.
Now let the flaming and ostracism begin.  |
:P The problem is, I am not making any claims as to the potential ability of the writers, or even NoN ostensibly as a standalone narrative, in the first place. Although it might even be obvious that NoN's writing enjoys a substansive advantage over the original work by virtue of being a rear guard derivative product, nonetheless this does not take away from the fact that, at least to me (even just to me -- though obviously I would be gratified from some sympathetic expressions), NoN is to a great deal more enjoyable.
With regards to NoN being fanservice, I can't really disagree; at least, on the grounds that no small portion of my enjoyment of the manga derives from my investment in (I don't really mean anything financial by that) and familiarity with the source material. In fact, ultimately I might even have to disagree with that (claims that NoN is a better standalone work; though of course not having tried it, I couldn't really say) because admittedly even a large part of that aforementioned enjoyment comes from negative comparisons with the original anime; while a substansive and significant part of the anime left me with a bad taste in my mouth, by now NoN has me jumping at every new chapter, and given the spoilers, this can be expected to continue. But as you might be able to guess by now, that really doesn't have anything to do with what I intend to say: the purpose of my claim 'NoN >>>> CG' was merely to communicate that, for people like me, who were hooked by the potential or originality of the ideas and characters in Code Geass' first season, only to be subsequently disappointed with the poor execution of the second, Nightmare of Nunally might be a great read. For anybody who has already trudged through the whole of S1 and R2, NoN, which offers a tighter, more substansive, and occasionally even inspired treatment of many of those same ideas, should definately be worth the time.
In terms of flaming and/or ostracism, I suppose now we can move on to how R2 isn't actually so crap as I say it is. Unfortunately, though, you might not be so alone on that, and neither of us would be able to end up playing devil's advocate. (It would also be off-topic.) :P