As we know, a significant amount of anime is based on other sources, from manga and novels to games. An adaptation can go a lot of different ways: it can change a story completely around into something else or follow its source very closely, and there’s a lot of possibilities between these two extremes. So I was thinking about some criteria or guidelines that might be helpful when evaluating an adaptation. I’m thinking mainly of manga (or books) because I’m not so familiar with games, but some of the same stuff applies to any kind of adaptation. Anyway, here are some of my ideas….

Length of the Story & Pacing: Manga often go on for a long time. If an anime like Naruto is going to be long as well, then the lengths and level of detail of the original story can be duplicated. On the other hand, if a long series is condensed into a short OAV or movie, then things are likely to be squeezed together. An interesting example of this is the Clamp series X. This manga was adapted twice, as a movie, then a longer series. If we set aside the fact that in both cases I think there was no ending to the manga, forcing the animators to come up with one, it is interesting to note how much has to be compressed in a movie, often with a detrimental effect on the pacing of a story. The other side of the coin is to expand (or perhaps pad) an anime series beyond its original manga length–this is often called making “fillers.” Naruto is a prime example of this, with large blocks of “major” filler, or original animated stories, keeping the series going. But even beyond that, there are what could be considered “minor” filler as well: short scenes and dialogue that are inserted in the middle of an episode that otherwise is faithfully following its manga source. So even if you avoid watching complete filler eps, you are still getting small doses along the way. You may be able to build up a tolerance to some poisons that way, but it doesn’t work with filler, as the “major filler” is usually rubbish.

The thing the critic or reviewer has to consider is whether or not these plot changes are of advantage to the story or not. Do they add or take away from the effect of the original source. It is also concievable that something new can result that is neither better nor worse, but just a different take on the same story. In my experience I think that movies that try to condense usually turn out badly, while episodic presentations mirror the installment pattern and pacing of most manga much better, as long as filler, particularly major filler, is avoided. Sometimes, expansion of the material can be a good thing, as it can flesh out the characters, their intentions and background, in a helpful way.

Character Designs and Animation Quality: The obvious fact, so obvious that it’s not usually mentioned, is that animated character designs are inevitably simplified from their original. This is usually accepted because it’s inevitable due to budget and the loss of detail is clearly compensated by having the characters be in color all the time, move and speak. Of course, consistency of animation quality is always an issue for any thing, whether adapted or not. But these kinds of evaluations are usually to be separated from reviewing an anime as an adaptation, so long as the basic character designs are acceptable. Going from manga to game adaptations for a moment, the most glaring example of difficulties in this area ever is probably Kanon. Two TV series adapted this story, but while neither exactly resembled the original character designs, no one would argue that the monstrosities of the first series helped to sink it in anyone’s estimation before any other factors could be taken into account.

Things Anime Has that Manga Doesn’t, Like Voices and Music: Obviously, anime adds a lot to its source. Black and white manga are suddenly in color, the characters speak and there’s background music. Sounds crate a very different experience from reading the original manga. When evaluating the selection of voice actors, there are many factors to consider. Do the characters sound like you imagined they would? If they don’t, does this fact disrupt the story or can you adapt to it? If a famous seiyuu is in the anime, are you reminded of that actor’s other roles and does this enhance or detract from your experience? I know that for some people, invoking the name Hirano Aya can be like throwing a grenade into a room; but her casting in Lucky Star is an interesting example of how someone who’s known for another role (Haruhi) can do something completely different (Konata), and yet at the same time take advantage of that link (as in that famous episode where she goes back and forth from her Haruhi to Konata voices). Voices are sooo important, because iconic characters like Lufy or Naruto really get associated with their voice actors.

Music is another biggie. I see in lot of reviews that some bloggers are very interested in evaluating the appropriateness of the BGM and the OP and ED songs. Having great themes is important and the use of blah music or random classical music excerpts can really detract. They can also add to an anime, as anyone knows who recalls the famous scene from Rurouni Kenshin, where Kenshin must leave Kaoru and depart for Kyoto. The use of music from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana really enhances the sequence. I also love the use of Mahler in the Yamadas movie, ’cause the Japanese love Mahler.

I recall a post by jpmeyer, on his now defunct older blog (the second one, not the first lol), about Nodame Cantabile. This anime/manga involves characters who play classical music. Reading the manga you know there’s music, but in anime you hear it, which completely changes the experience. In this case, one could ask how the manga could ever compare, even if you have a classical music background yourself. I was in Kinokuniya some years ago (before the NC anime came out) and there was a music CD for the manga. Manga can sometimes have “image albums,” but with NC the need to hear the music was obviously huge.

Similar points can be made about the very important OP and ED songs. Game, as opposed to manga, adaptations get even more complicated in this regard. I see that some reviewers are upset that the new show White Album does not some game music. It’s a cute thing, though, that Clannad was able to take Nagisa’s theme and turn it into Dango Daikazoku (Dango reference ftw).

Tone, Mood and Context: The tone or mood of a story can be greatly altered during an adaptation. If you value the original, you will inevitable be put off if the adaptation changes things in the basic “feel” of the work. I don’t think this is usually too much of a problem, and the addition of color, movement and sound usually just adds to the spirit of the original world that’s created. Think of Soul Eater, which has a fast-paced and quirky visual style to match the strange world the manga-ka created. But beyond mood, there’s also other content, or inserted intellectual context, which can alter a work in a fundamental way. Think of Ghost in the Shell. The first movie by Mamoru Oshii followed the original story in many ways, but completely altered the tone, to make it much heavier, and included a lot of philosophical musings that were Oshii’s primary concern. The later TV series were perhaps less faithful, in that they were original stories, but where were perhaps more faithful to manga author Masamune Shirow‘s original concept. Which is better is a complex matter of opinion which the reviewer must carefully consider. I’ll mention one other example here: the first Kenshin OAV, which very impressive in many ways, followed the plot of the manga flashback sequence, but eliminated every bit of lightness and, yes, even some comic relief, that appeared in the original. It was an interesting approach, but in the second OAV they went totally off the deep end, creating a tragic ending in direct contradiction to the manga’s original happy ending.

I’m sure there are other factors to consider, but these are the main one’s I’ve come up with for now…

I don’t know what your otaku fetish is, but if you like nekomimi,
there’s one in Yozakura Quartet!

Yozakura Quartet 01 – I want my 24:29 worth of time back. bad on a level hitherto unknown. makes Rental Magica look good. do not bother.
~Owen S on Twitter

I have the first two volumes of the Yozakura Quartet manga lying around (part of MyMaBa, meaning “My Massive Backlog“), so I read the first chapter and then looked at the first anime episode. These kinds of comparisons can be instructive. Generally an anime adaptation tends to make things a whole lot clearer than the manga. The drawing style of a lot of manga is actually pretty confusing, with a lot of cuts from one thing to another and bits of action condensed into one panel. This is particularly true at the start of a series, when you don’t know any of the characters or their abilities. You are also probably not used to the artist’s style yet, so some of the characters can tend to look the same until you get used to them! Actually, this is not the case with all manga, but these thoughts occurred to me in reading Yozakura Quartet, so let’s just say the art is average, hehe.

Turning to the anime was a vast improvement. While following the basic outline of the first manga chapter’s plot, the animators have greatly expanded it. Most notably, there’s a lot more basic background information, so viewers get more of an understanding of what this world and these characters are all about. This includes revealing, or at least hinting at, some character relationships and powers which will only be touched on in the manga in later chapters. The most notable change is the attention the anime gives to the character Rin, who enters the town as a new resident and is held hostage by the gun-toting villain. In the manga, she is already settled down and is just in the background. By making her a newly arrived character and including details about her back-story up-front, the animators create more of an immediate link with the viewers and point out, right from the beginning, that tension between humans and yokai will an important aspect of the series.

Sometimes, changes can be a little strange, though. For instance: the scene where cat-eared girl screams “Satellite” and sparks fly. In the anime, she’s looking for the bad guy, but in the manga, she’s looking for a place where there aren’t civilians, so no innocent bystanders will get injured.

To say that the Yozakura Quartet anime represents a more sophisticated introduction than the manga does not answer the fundamental question: is it any good. To call it “bad on a level hitherto unknown” seems a bit extreme. The habit among anime bloggers experiencing a new series is to react explosively, and sometimes negatively, in a very theatrical way. The truth is that you really can’t form too much of an opinion about what an anime will be like based on one, or even several, episodes. First episodes seek to grab the audience with a heightened level of excitement, often risking an overload of action or humor which can turn off more jaded fans. I found the first episode of YQ entertaining. Unsurprisingly, it has similarities to other shows in the same genre, but I see some potential. Perhaps things like Soul Eater have raised the bar for fans expecting their action to have a funky style, wild pace, extreme humor and oddball characters, but the more straightforward YQ can be enjoyable in its own way. And let’s face it, most shows start with these weekly villains; the question is, how good will the larger plot be? It takes time for that to develop, and I’m willing to give Yozakura Quartet a chance.

As we all know, there’s a lot of manga out there (as well as light novels, games, etc) that gets turned into anime. Sometimes there’s a great manga we’ve read and we want to see how it’ll turn out as an anime; other times we like the anime and want to get the manga it’s based on, often to get more of the story beyond where the anime version stops. Haters of fillers, of course, see the manga as canon, or “the real story,” although original anime productions often have manga spin-offs as well.

But something I’ve noticed about myself, is that I often tend to stick to just one version of a story and generally put off, or never get around to reading or watching the other. Maybe because I already know what will happen or just want to move on to something new. For example, having read manga like xxxholic, Tsubasa, Death Note, and HunterXHunter, I have never gotten around to the the anime. I also did not get very far with stuff like Hayate and Shugo Chara in anime form either, maybe because I expect too much filler. With anime like Naruto, Bleach, and numerous others of that kind, I was never inspired to read the same material again as a manga, even if it’s supposed to be better. I would only bother with titles like that if, like Claymore, the anime and manga really start to diverge after a certain point and go beyond where the anime ends. I saw the Honey and Clover manga in a store the other day, but I didn’t really feel like reading it because the anime is what’s fixed in my mind now.

But there are exceptions. I happily watched the Peach girl anime even after reading all the manga and I’m interested in Genshiken both manga and anime (but then, the added jokes in the anime Genshiken are very entertaining!) In general, though, I have such a backlog anyway that there have to be some very compelling reasons to revist the same story, even if its in a different media presentation. Do you feel the same way?

Summary: Amu is shocked to discover that Nikaidou-sensei, who has stolen her eggs, as well as the purr-plexing Ikuto, work for the mysterious “Easter.” She is powerless (in pink) to prevent the theft! A worried Amu is cheered up by her friends, the School Guardians, who are going to help her because they are nice like that (yay!). While trying to come up with a plan to rescue Amu’s eggs, the other Guardian Eggs sense a presence nearby…

Meanwhile, Utau Hoshina is appearing nearby at a location shoot for the TV program hosted by Nobuko Saeki (whose having a breakdown backstage). The School Guardians go to get her help (she can see the Guardian eggs, yay!); menwhile, Amu waits nearby but ends up face-to-face with Utau. The ensuing tension could be cut with an egg spoon! Seems like Utau’s really into Ikuto! So their showdown ends with some of that “I won’t lose” stuff from both sides (yawn). OK, so next, Nobuko-sensei drives them all to where the fake teacher has the eggs. Before they can make a move, Utau’s manager lady threatens to do something to Ikuto if Utau doesn’t attack Amu & friends, so Utau transforms!!!!

And she’s pretty sexy, in a bat wing kind of way! And then Ikuto appears too — What a big showdown-mashup whatever this is!?!! And Ikuto helps Amu out by kicking the suitcase where Amu’s eggs are so they tumble out–except bad-sensei still has poor Su (and she’s so cute too, darn it!!). Nikaidou tells Amu to come to his place the next day after school if she wants Su back (oh no Amu-chan, he could be a lolicon or paedo! Please be careful!!!) She goes, and is even helped again by Ikuto (don’t be dense Amu, this means he likes you! Why else is he always touching you!!)

So, Nikaidou plans to do some horrible thing or other to Su (who can’t help but make coffee for him and dust his place too) in order to make an embryo (the embryo is what all the Easter baddies are after… maybe they never took sex ed?). And yep, you guessed it, he has a sad story from his past to explain his evil ways (his egg got broken). So, with the help of her friends (who were warned by Ikuto that Amu was going to face Nikaidou alone), she forces her way through his robot army and smashes his evil machine!! Then she transforms with Su and saves all the X eggs he’s collected (Wow!) And Nikaido’s not so bad after all, he can go back to his dream of making robots (too bad its not giant robots!!)

But there’s more!! Nikaido’s teaching again at the school! And a wounded Ikuto uses Amu for a pillow (doki doki) and takes her to an amusement park that’s going to be demolished (he knows how to please the girls!!).

Commentary: This volume had a good balance of material. There was a complete story, with some action and humor, then a little romance time for people who like that kind of stuff! It was cool to have a big showdown with a lot of the major characters so far turning up, even if it didn’t amount to much in the end. And the art is as cute as ever… this series has some of the best artwork around, especially the cuteness factor and the characters’ expressions. Anyway, go Amu-chan!!

I am going to restart my manga reviews and I thought the best place to begin was with Hinano’s Haruhi doujinshi, called DereDere. First, a word about my rating system. I’ve decided to use dangos rather than stars, so this doujinshi gets 3 1/2 dangos. The image above, featuring the cover, is usually the only type of image I will use in reviews. Also, I should point out that this manga, being self-published by Hinano, is sold out and therefore out-of-print. I’m still going to go ahead and review it, because Hinano is interested in feedback and maybe this review will generate such a tremendous demand that she will have to reprint it (lol). Also, an earlier Hinano doujinshi is still available, so perhaps I’ll review that too! Now on with review!

The cover of this work features a very manly Kyon, who holds a meido-style Haruhi firmly in his grasp. He looks almost detached, gazing out at the reader as he firmly holds a startled and blushing Haruhi. To be honest, he looks less like Kyon than the illustrations of him within the work itself do — perhaps Hinano has let her romantic inclinations get the upper hand here? Or perhaps this is how Haruhi, in dere-mode, sees him? Going by the cover, readers of this work are clearly in for something of a role reversal from the usual tsuntsun Haruhi. How does this all work out?

Like many doujinshi, this is a new work based on a preexisting series. Hinano clearly understands the essence of these characters: Kyon’s deadpan reactions, Mikuru’s skittishness and Haruhi’s overbearing attitude (well understood by a tsundere like Hinano) come across very convincingly. The basic plot is quite simple: Haruhi is jealous of Kyon’s attraction to the deredere Mikuru, and insists on switching roles with her. There’s a lot of humorous fun as Mikuru struggles with her unaccustomed tsuntsun role. Fans of a Kyon-Haruhi romantic pairing will be well satisfied with the scenes of these two alone together in the later pages. Hinano has chosen to rely on some standard cliches here, which may disappoint those longing for some real fireworks, but her caution allows this doujinshi to easily and believably fit within the established Suzumiya Haruhi continuity.

The artwork is good, with the embarrassed Mikuru and the final panel of Haruhi :P-ing, being particular highlights. The only not-entirely convincing image is the depiction of Nagato Yuki, who appears in only two panels (!). The balance between humor and romance is excellent, but the work, though well proportioned for what it is, does leave one longing for more. Perhaps Hinano would consider a longer work next time, maybe with some action thrown it to accompany the gags and *doki*doki* moments? But, in conclusion, I must say this work is a cute Haruhi doujinshi and an improvement on Hinano’s last work, Love Mates. Oh, but Love Mates is good work too and you should all go and buy it now!!

“A forced egg can only become an X Egg or an Embryo!”– Hiseki

Super Condensed Description: Amu has undergone a “character transformation” but lacks the confidence to remain in her transformed state. It appears that she fears change, the poor loli! But looking at the sky in a planetarium is all she needs to regain her genki spirit! (I’ll have to remember that the next time I lose confidence; where’s the nearest planetarium?) So they go to a concert and then they go to the beach. (Turns out the Prince is love with Amu in her transformed state!) There’s dodgeball too. And some sexual innuendo with cat boy about a “key” and a “lock” (Amu thinks he’s reaching for her boobs, and yet it’s already been established that she’s flat chested, lol). And Amu’s eggs are in peril!

Underdeveloped Analysis: Wow, I reviewed vol. 1 of this way back in June! I’m finally getting around to vol. 2, and now the anime is out and there’s clearly a lot of changes in the plot from how things went in the manga. And we all know that change makes poor Amu nervous, lol. Anyway, you can check out other blogs to learn about those plot differences. Here, I just want to say that, while the anime art is not as bad as I originally thought it could be, it still has nothing on the manga. Amu’s cuteness (and loli-ness) in the manga is a force to be reckoned with :) Which makes me wonder who the audience for this is. I thought Rozen Maiden was aimed at male otaku, but with all the romance, this must be intended for a female audience. I’m confused. @_@

Twenty-two volumes are behind us and this ultimate shoujo soap opera manga is still doing what it does best: veering from one crisis to the next in a constant stream of incidents that string this story out to 36 volumes.

In this volume, the weak plotline of Tsukushi running away to the fishing village where her parents have been living is wrapped up and (surprise surprise) a whole new one is started. It involves a Tsukasa lookalike who claims to be his cousin and seems potentially dangerous. It’s typical in this type of shoujo manga that when the main characters’ relationship reaches a standstill a new character is introduced to create tension and a start off a whole new set of incidents. With Hana Yori Dango, this pattern is endlessly repeated. I suppose it prevents the reader from giving up in frustration with the two main characters. I had hoped, with Tsukasa going all the way to that village to find her they might work things out, just a little bit, but no, it’s the same as before. I don’t understand why she can’t just explain things to him a little better. At least they are talking now some, if you can call it that! But the story seems to be heading in a more dangerous direction, especially with the presence of this new character, who really terrifies Tsukushi in a dark alley. I hope she doesn’t turn from one difficult guy to another who’s potentially worse.

There are some lighter moments too. It was good to see the female characters getting together and enjoying themselves (something Tsukushi doesn’t seem to do much), although their group dating method seems potentially hazardous. This volume was also good for featuring Tsukushi’s family in a more serious way. Earlier in the series they seemed to just be there to set up the plot and for comic relief, but here both the parents and the brother get to have some serious dialog with Tsukasa, and the stuff with them getting used to living in a fancy place helped to make them more like real human characters. If you’ve been keeping up with this title, like me, for over 20 volumes, you’ve probably been sucked in to it enough to keep going, no matter how frustrating Tsukushi and Tsukasa’s failure to communicate has become. Certainly this title seems to be a textbook example of how to draw out a soap opera for as long as possible. I just miss some of the funny over-the-top plots that were used in earlier volumes.

“I want to feel cute and be who I really am.”–Hinamori Amu

Super Condensed Description: Amu, a seemingly tough loli with a Goth fashion sense, is quite intimidating to her fellow (elementary school!) students but is still admired for her coolness factor. Deep inside she wants to be a cute and girly shoujo, and finally gets the chance when her heartfelt wish causes her three Guardian Characters to be born out of three magical eggs (!). They can grant her powers (“change her character”) at crucial moments, allowing her to perform such amazing feats as flying, transforming into a mahou shoujo, and blurting out a love confession in front of the entire school. She also gains new friends among the school’s elite students (who all have eggs too, albeit only one each, not three!) and new enemies, including a sexual-tension-inducing cat-eared boy (but I’d rather have a nekomimi).

Underdeveloped Analysis: The plot of this manga is solid, but the art really makes it irresistible. Hinamori Amu is so incredibly cute I can’t quite put it into words. Shibuko Ebara-sensei of Peach-Pit has drawn Amu with a great complexity of expression and bishoujo power which delights on page after page. I tried reading the Rozen Maiden manga, but it was one of those times where I’d seen the anime first, and when that happens I sometimes find it hard to get into the manga. The RM manga seemed a little choppy and rushed to me after the anime, but with SC the story flowed quite well. Also, I think the art is better than in the first two RM volumes that I’ve looked at. There’s an anime version of SC coming soon, but the character designs for it don’t seem to even remotely capture the style of the original art. Just compare the anime Amu with the one on the manga cover. There’s absolutely no comparison there! X_X

I remember when I saw Satou, …um, taking something before his hallucinatory episode in vol. 1 (not in the anime, iirc), I thought that the manga would be a bit different (better probably) than the anime, but here they’re adding something, and with the usual rule of anime filler (i.e. it’s bad). I wonder why they did it the way they did–to fill more episodes? Or did they feel the original story was somehow not clear enough in dealing with what is, after all, a major problem in Japan? Anyway, checking out the manga makes me want to finish watching this show.