Adaptation woes.

[The Millenium Walken]

So, I recently rewatched... And reread... The Count of Monte Cristo, and while I love the anime version just as much as the original novel, there are still a lot of changes that I wished they hasn't made upon adaptation... And that got me thinking about adaptations in general, and how much always changes between anime and their source materials.

Was there ever an adapted anime that seriously bothered you, having prior knowledge of the source? Were there changes that you believed were for the better? Do you believe an adaptation should follow the source material to the letter, or do you believe that film and print are entirely different mediums that need to be treated as such?

I'd love to hear your take on this.

[So As I Pray]

The closer an adaptation can follow the source material, the better.

Right now I'm fairly worried about the upcoming Rance 01 adaptation. It'll be faithful in that it's still mostly porn at least. Rance hasn't had a voice since Sabaku no Guardian, so that's certainly something interesting. The one PV we've gotten has me hopeful.

Keeping up with the ufotable adaptation of Unlimited Blade Works, I'm pleasantly surprised with how faithful they're remaining to the visual novel. There have been a couple liberties taken that I have noticed (The brief bath scene where Ilya is talking with her maids about her motivations isn't present in the visual novel, Souichiru instead twisted Rider's head around like a loose screw instead of decapitating her) but they don't really detract from anything.

I will continue to denounce DEEN's adaptations though. They're garbage and the very example of what you should avoid when producing an adaptation. Studio DEEN can rot in hell.

[Enpuresu]

Well there's a few decent anime's they did i guess... ( ^ - ^) b

[Ghaleonx5z]

Arc the Lad

If there is anyone out there that liked it, I'd have to question if you'd actually played the first 2 games. It's a travesty what they did to that story, while acting like it was a faithful adaption. The only thing they did right was a few names and character designs.

[Princess of the Crows]

I'm not surprised Deen is on the table...

Anyways, to be fair, I don't find any of the type moon adaptations they did that terrible with the exception of the UBW movie. However, I expect making a movie out of that much material would be hard enough. The movie was terrible even without being an adaptation though.

Fate Zero -

I am going to get hate for this. My problem is simply the way the plot is written and how much the writer screwed a pre-made universe. Most of my problems can be linked to Urobochi in regards to it. The pacing is screwed up, character development is either good, okay, or in many cases... just not as well done as it could have been...

X movie -

Oh boy... This movie reminds me the UBW movie. Seriously, if even people who have read 18 volumes of X can't keep up.... Then it isn't very accessible to even tell the story. That and that big misunderstanding on Kotori and Fuuma...

[Quiet Aria]

Devil Survivor 2 - The Animation.

It... was not good. I'm not sure if this is a spoiler, but certain people(ahem) were killed off which really shouldn't have happened and the anime didn't actually follow any of the possible endings in the game. Also fairly extreme character interpretations that I didn't find particularly accurate.

[The Millenium Walken]

Enpuresu

Well there's a few decent anime's they did i guess... ( ^ - ^) b

That's true... As their VN adaptations go, I enjoyed Higurashi, Higurashi Kai, and Higurashi Breakout.

[Guro Malewife]

umineko
jesus christ i should have known better when it comes to deen i really should have
and yet i watched it anyway
at the very least it made me get the vn because i had no clue what was going on half the time

[WeebooWobble]

This is kind of a touchy subject for me. It's a dumb thing to get my feathers ruffled over, I know, but I tend to be really forgiving of adaptations, and the shitty reputation that they usually get really bugs me as a result. ESPECIALLY when they don't keep every last detail of the source material in tact. That's when adaptations REALLY get hammered with the hate train.

In all honesty, I hate adaptations that are too faithful to the source. They're so unimaginative. So often, the focus is more on how close they can stick to the original material than telling a good story. And what is the point of that, anyway? How boring! If I want to read the book/manga, or play the game, I'll do it. But I don't want to WATCH a book or a game. And THEN there's the fact that those things are different story telling mediums and that literal translations of the work very rarely work well when you just stick that on the screen and call it a day.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that adaptations should just go totally ******** all and do whatever they want. But I think the goal of a good adaptation should be to keep the SPIRIT of the source material while also telling a good story. And to tell a good story, things are going to have to be changed. But of course, there's your problem. Anime fans hate change. Petulant children.

I'd like to close by saying that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an uninspired manga clone, Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works are by miles better than the visual novel they came from, and that I could defend Devil Survivor 2 the Animation until the cows come home. (the game that Desu2 was adapted from is terribly written, sexist garbage. considering the anime was basically a commercial for the remake of the game, it's a miracle it turned out as well as it did)

[The Millenium Walken]

WeebooWobble

This is kind of a touchy subject for me. It's a dumb thing to get my feathers ruffled over, I know, but I tend to be really forgiving of adaptations, and the shitty reputation that they usually get really bugs me as a result. ESPECIALLY when they don't keep every last detail of the source material in tact. That's when adaptations REALLY get hammered with the hate train.

In all honesty, I hate adaptations that are too faithful to the source. They're so unimaginative. So often, the focus is more on how close they can stick to the original material than telling a good story. And what is the point of that, anyway? How boring! If I want to read the book/manga, or play the game, I'll do it. But I don't want to WATCH a book or a game. And THEN there's the fact that those things are different story telling mediums and that literal translations of the work very rarely work well when you just stick that on the screen and call it a day.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that adaptations should just go totally ******** all and do whatever they want. But I think the goal of a good adaptation should be to keep the SPIRIT of the source material while also telling a good story. And to tell a good story, things are going to have to be changed. But of course, there's your problem. Anime fans hate change. Petulant children.

I'd like to close by saying that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an uninspired manga clone, Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works are by miles better than the visual novel they came from, and that I could defend Devils Survivor 2 the Animation until the cows come home. (the game that Desu2 was adapted from is terribly written, sexist garbage. considering the anime was basically a commercial for the remake of the game, it's a miracle it turned out decent)

I prefer the original FMA as well, but I don't think Brotherhood was necessarily a bad series... If anything, it's a 7 compared to the original's 10. But yes, I agree with pretty much everything else you just said.

[WeebooWobble]

The Fullmetal Narcissist

WeebooWobble

This is kind of a touchy subject for me. It's a dumb thing to get my feathers ruffled over, I know, but I tend to be really forgiving of adaptations, and the shitty reputation that they usually get really bugs me as a result. ESPECIALLY when they don't keep every last detail of the source material in tact. That's when adaptations REALLY get hammered with the hate train.

In all honesty, I hate adaptations that are too faithful to the source. They're so unimaginative. So often, the focus is more on how close they can stick to the original material than telling a good story. And what is the point of that, anyway? How boring! If I want to read the book/manga, or play the game, I'll do it. But I don't want to WATCH a book or a game. And THEN there's the fact that those things are different story telling mediums and that literal translations of the work very rarely work well when you just stick that on the screen and call it a day.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that adaptations should just go totally ******** all and do whatever they want. But I think the goal of a good adaptation should be to keep the SPIRIT of the source material while also telling a good story. And to tell a good story, things are going to have to be changed. But of course, there's your problem. Anime fans hate change. Petulant children.

I'd like to close by saying that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an uninspired manga clone, Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works are by miles better than the visual novel they came from, and that I could defend Devil Survivor 2 the Animation until the cows come home. (the game that Desu2 was adapted from is terribly written, sexist garbage. considering the anime was basically a commercial for the remake of the game, it's a miracle it turned out decent)

I prefer the original FMA as well, but I don't think Brotherhood was necessarily a bad series... If anything, it's a 7 compared to the original's 10. But yes, I agree with pretty much everything else you just said.

Oh no, I agree with you. Brotherhood isn't bad, actually I'd say it's one of the better shounen series out there. But it just feels so soulless to me. Especially compared to the 03 version, which has resonated with me so strongly for close to ten years now. Brotherhood's a decent enough watch, but I don't see it having the same timelessness it's predecessor has.

[Creativerealms]

Adaptations are hard in any medium. You have to realize that a direct adaptation of a book to film, or to TV Show is hard for many reasons.

Time Frame often makes it hard to fully adapt a book into two hour movie things have to be removed. Tv shows tend to have the opposite effect. They move faster and often you run out of meterial from the source. The anime passes up the manga.

An adaption needs to be able to do it's own thing while being loyal to the original. Stay too far and why even be an adaption, keep things too close and it gets predictable and boring. Also often it seems that people use a video game license to make a poor anime that normally no one would watch. Attach a popular title to it and people will want to watch it. It's a cheap tactic but one that tends to pay off time and again.

I have seen my share of terrible adaptations, and great ones. There is a balance that needs to be made.

[Sakura Latte]

Shoujo Cosette was the worst adaptation of Les Miserables. I know they changed things around from the original story to make it kids-friendly since the show was aimed at kids, but I wish it hadn't been. SC!Javert was so incredibly OOC at the end. emotion_facepalm