2013-05-14, 22:37 | Link #1 |
Last Engage
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Florida
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In the Medium Best Suited to Telling It
The thing about anime is that it draws on several different mediums (manga, light novel/regular novel, visual novel, video game, other kind of video game, etc.) and unites it under a mostly common banner, but when one branches out into the other mediums, I've noticed that certain kinds of stories are prevalent in other mediums more than others, which makes me think of the phrase of "telling a story in the medium best suited to telling it."
Manga (4-koma in particular) are home to series like Yuyushiki and A Channel that can carry a few characters and their comedic interactions in a serialized format, with its own set of comedic timing. In a visual novel, this rarely works. I noticed that because there was a VN (Bokura wa Piachere) that, though I haven't played it yet, cribs heavily from K-ON!'s visual style (note: this makes me want to play it more)... but the similarities stop there. Reading the plot and the character profiles reveal that to fit the visual novel medium, several changes had to be made. The presence of a viewpoint character. More dramatic tension. Romantic subplots. I'm not saying this is a good or bad thing, but it changes the texture to a very noticeable degree. It goes in the other direction too. The number of times I've encountered a temporal loop in a visual novel is manyfold. I don't mind it (it works with the game mechanics), but in sci-fi/fantasy based stories told in this medium, the odds are likely that it will be introduced as an element. Even when there aren't multiple routes, like Higurashi. This element has been in original anime (Madoka) and works just as well there, but it holds a certain power brought about by hours of gameplay in a visual novel setting. Speaking of Madoka, that's one that I'd argue works as well as it does because it's an anime. The Witches can be freaky in manga form still, but by losing color and their jerky/too fluid sense of movement, courtesy of Gekidan Inu Curry, they're an imitation of what they have the potential to be. I remember reading similar comments about Girls und Panzer's manga - that it doesn't work as well as the anime does because of the unique elements that anime brings to it. And then we get to light novels. Now, a lot of manga have inner monologues for their characters, but by nature of being text based, they're at least 50% inner monologue. A character like Hachiman or Kyon works best in that format, and I'd imagine that as far as Nyarko goes, a lot of her jokes had to be altered to fit the format of an animated medium instead of a text medium. Even detail is something that has to be shown rather than told between the two, so certain kinds of stories work best here, and their manga adaptations have to take some liberties. And video game based anime often play up the collectathon aspect or the combat aspect, because whether it's an arcade game or a video game - the interactive aspect is lost when it comes to anime, but what it does is mostly provide additional context, be that cards (Gyrozetter, Aikatsu!) or other things. Each of these stories has their own strengths, and their own weaknesses, but what I'm getting at is that while anime may be a unifier, it's also another filter. As much as companies aim for media mixes, some things can't be media mixed that easily. I'm not sure how to close this post. But it's worth considering when an anime adaptation is announced. There are a lot of universal aspects of many stories. You can find, say, a romance or action in any of the above. But how it's expressed may vary wildly. |
2013-05-14, 22:51 | Link #3 | |
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After all, you have plenty of light novels that try to be visual novels (like Date a Live and its choices, among others) and visual novels that try to be anime (with openings, endings, title cards, next episode previews and everything.) I find this blending of mediums to be an interesting attempt at intertextuality, breaking the boundaries of fiction. Anime's not just one thing, and I want to look deeper into how those many things influence each other, since they all exist in such close proximity. |
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2013-05-14, 23:04 | Link #4 | |
reading #hikaributts
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Also many eroge's endings are nothing like anime endings, because almost every of these kind of endings are just a theme song and the game credits with a slideshow of most of the CG's of the finished route. Title cards are not that common and i have only seen not many games that have a "next episode preview" |
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2013-05-14, 23:07 | Link #5 |
Last Engage
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Even if not all of them do, those that attempt it are what I'm trying to focus on here. There's clearly some aspect of anime they're trying to capture in a form that's experienced completely differently, beyond a design aesthetic. I've been playing them for long enough that I know their openings and endings aren't the same as an anime, but depending on how they're placed (and if the producers have enough of a budget to get some actual animation in there), they can come very close.
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2013-05-14, 23:11 | Link #6 | |
reading #hikaributts
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2013-05-14, 23:14 | Link #7 |
Last Engage
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Ah, now I see what you're getting at. That is part of why I'm into the VN scene as much as I am. It's as close as I can get to anime without actually being so. Though it also has elements of the video game and light novel parts of things, too. Truly, a unique experience.
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2013-05-14, 23:35 | Link #10 | |
reading #hikaributts
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I think date a life still feels like a typical LN harem serie and the socalled VN elements are not strongly present (and the possible "choices" are nothing like the ones in VN's)
Going back to your first post, because i skipped most of it Quote:
So i don't think Bokura wa Piachere is a good example If you were looking for a true slice of life , then a VN is probably the wrong kind of medium. I don't think the "reader" is looking for slice of life's in VN's (not saying that there are any and some VN's have a very good "daily life moments" in it ) Most of them (not including nukiges) are either romance, sci-fi or fantasy (and in the latter 2 cases, you can still find romance in it). edit: i think it's the same with the medium movies. I haven't seen that many movies that are a pure "slice of life" Last edited by hyl; 2013-05-14 at 23:46. |
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2013-05-14, 23:45 | Link #11 |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: East Asia
Age: 31
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Which reminds me of : Yotsuba
This manga is FREAKING good, yet up until now never get any chance to get animated at all. Reason : the folks on Japan there said that this manga wouldn't be suitable in animated medium. How come? |
2013-05-14, 23:46 | Link #12 | |
Last Engage
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Florida
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In the case of ad:lib's games (again, I've never played them, but I desire to, either because I have very esoteric standards or something else), I find their attempts at cashing in to be more something of interest. Like the anime version of Transmorphers or Snakes on a Train. It has to make itself different enough to not draw lawyers, but hold onto what it thinks is important to what it's copying that it becomes another interesting look at adaptation, just not in a direct sense. To go to another example, there's things that are the same, but not. Milky Holmes is fine in either of its mediums, but I don't know if the anime's bonkers sense of comedy could translate to a VN. I'm sure a lot of it could, but when given free reign, what made the directors decide on that direction? Because it certainly worked, but what about anime specifically makes this the best fit for the story? I have a general idea for this particular series, but then comes the extrapolating. |
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2013-05-14, 23:52 | Link #13 | |
reading #hikaributts
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As for Milky holmes, it had 2 VN's on the psp but it had a more serious story and it doesn't resemble the anime at all , aside from having the same main heroines and villains (and even then, they had a more serious personality in the VN) |
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2013-05-14, 23:58 | Link #14 | |
Last Engage
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Florida
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I'm not trying to turn this into a suggestions thread, as much as it looks like one. Even non 4-koma manga still need to have a certain timing to their jokes that it seems text can't fully replicate, thus why those kinds of stories are more common there. Both are perfectly valid interpretations of the characters, though. |
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2013-05-15, 00:05 | Link #15 |
reading #hikaributts
Join Date: Feb 2009
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I have read comedy/parody VN's such as Renai 0 km, Osananajimi wa Daitouryou, Onigokko and Naka no hito nado inai, but even those VN's don't blatanly try to insert as much comedy as possible in their stories and most jokes there had a good timing (eventhough some were a hit or miss, depending on how easily you get amused). Most 4koma's in mangas or magazines that i have read, are not very subtle when it comes to jokes.
As for Nyaruko, i haven't read it nor i have seen the anime. So i can't comment on that. I don't consider those 2 the same, it only has the characters in name and looks (well not even looks for some of them) only. I see those 2 more as completely different stories because of the tone and different settings. Last edited by hyl; 2013-05-15 at 00:17. |
2013-05-15, 00:11 | Link #16 | |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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The author doesn't want it to be an anime like his other popular manga, Azumanga Daioh.
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2013-05-15, 00:35 | Link #17 | |
Homo Ludens
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Canada
Age: 34
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I'm not really sure stories can transcend mediums without losing something in the process, since stories are inherently shaped by the medium in which they're originally created, like you said... but I would argue that there certainly are stories that would work much better if they were made in another format and were therefore completely different. Oreimo being remade into a galge comes to mind... |
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