Mitigations, Postulations, and Recomendations on the Tip of my Tongue
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Warning: This Post Meanders all over the place. It ends with three manga recommendations (because the animes were blarg [Guess how I got on the topic of horrible adaptations of mangas XP])
Upon Review: Everything in this post is pretty general so I don’t think I spoiled anything if you haven’t seen/read this stuff yet.
This is my third time trying to write a post. The first and second times ended up being so long and ranty even I couldn’t stand it. So to sum up what the other two posts said: I’m displeased with Sora no Woto and Dance in the Vampire Bund. As to the why, well… oh almost did it again… phew.
In summary I’m not going to write about Sora no Woto this week or Dance in the Vampire Bund because I know that would be no fun to read and you would either feel very defensive about me insulting the shows at incredible length or you would agree with me and slowly we would convince ourselves that the entirety of both are utter crap.
So what is this post about? I don’t know… quite frankly I just kind of want to write something since it’s been awhile. I guess more than anything I’m just going to write a bunch of stuff buy amoxil without prescription and see where it goes… so for starters
Let’s talk about Ikaros!
Writers love the Icarus myth, but I’m sure at least some of you are unfamiliar with it (though I’m sure not all because it’s probably been explained at length in some piece of writing you’ve read at some point). Basically Daedalus, the guy who built the maze to cage the Minotaur, had a son named Icarus. When Theseus showed up in Crete hoping to free his countrymen from the duty of being a sacrifice to the barbaric Minotaur Daedalus informed the princess, Ariadne, of the secret of the Labyrinth. She in turn told Theseus and gave him a spool of thread so he could find his way out (she did it because she was made to fall in love with him [by those crazy gods, online drugstore because that’s what they do][This did not end well for her]). After killing the Minotaur Minos was pretty pissed at Daedalus so he threw him and his son into the Labyrinth as punishment. Daedalus built wings for his son and himself (being the great inventor that he was) so they could escape the Labyrinth. Alas, even though Deadalus warned his son not to fly too low (so his wings wouldn’t get wet) or too high (so his wings wouldn’t melt in the sun) Icarus flew high and burned himself. All that is to say that the moral of the Icarus myth is “Listen to your parents” and “If you soar too high too quickly you’re going to get burned and plunge to an untimely death”. I guess it could also be “Don’t let your kids drink Red Bulls”.
I can see why the name appealed to Sora no Otoshimono. The story was based off of the angeloids or the winged people in the sky and the story obviously had a thing for Greek myth: order cheap pharm Nymph, Aegis, Apollon, Hephestus, Artemis (who is awesome), and so many more.
Did anyone else watch “Melody of Oblivion”? It had some interesting Greek shout outs. For instance, I really liked the Labyrinth and the Minotaur in that. They made it almost sentient and much more terrifying than the original depiction of a bunch of hedges. What was really cool though was how it comprised of a few moments repeated over and over again. Thus no one who enters ever really escapes. A part of you will constantly be repeating that part of your life forever. For instance one of the main characters friends was stuck on a bus getting eaten by the Minotaur over and over again. The first person we meet who’s a warrior for the Melody is stuck in an eternal battle with the Minotaur: Doomed to never stop fighting (as the island fades into the background)… That was a weird show, but it had its moments. This was perhaps one of Gainax’s most ridiculous works… Don’t believe me they made these poses when they “powered up their arrows”.
Something Completely Different: sob… they killed Dance in the Vampire Bund
Top Yami-chan, bottom Eve.
Somewhat Related: This may not surprise you, but I am/was a big fan of the To Love-Ru Manga. I can’t believe that they totally destroyed it with the anime. That was another case of taking decent (actually funny) source material and hacking at it with a machete until it screams for mercy and to stop showing all the girls completely n8ked (They didn’t completely miss what the manga was trying to do, but there was more to it than that. They certainly took the plot and did whatever they wanted). There wasn’t a lot of depth in To Love-Ru, but every once in awhile the Manga just had those chapters that were so heartwarming and for lack of a better description “Awwwww, that’s so sweet”, I couldn’t help but develop a deep affection for all of them. Are you into panty shots, humor, over the top situations, and ridiculousness? You might just enjoy To Love-Ru. Not to mention almost all of the characters from Black Cat show up as different characters somewhere along the way (though they aren’t playing themselves, [their character designs and personalities are almost a perfect match though]). Yami-chan is Eve and that is definitely ok with me.
Another great Manga that the anime didn’t do justice: Mahou Sensei Negima! I read all of the chapters in a little under 3 days. It was perhaps the most epic (most eye killing) experience ever. There is something amazing about the amount of work the author put into it. Negima had all of the characters planned out from the beginning, A FULL CLASS OF PEOPLE. How can they have that many developed characters and somehow Sora no Woto can’t even effectively develop five… crap I thought I was over that. Anyways: Negima = Win. Plus I’m a pretty big fan of the art and Evangeline is awesome (Woah! Evangeline is also a loli blonde vampire done right. Anime must have something against this character type). Negima is my favorite Shonen series of all time. [ZOMG I just realized that both Evangeline and Mina have transformations that make them look like Hawt, grown up women... Wow, I'm starting to think one might have copied the other.]
(Evangeline… Look kind of familiar?)
Ahh what the heck, while we’re on the topic of murdered mangas I might as well throw out another of my favorites: Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro. The plot wasn’t particularly amazing, but the characters were incredible. Neuro himself was hilarious, devious, mysterious, and developed all at the same time. How is that even possible? His interactions with Yako made the series, but also the way the characters grow. They don’t just level up all of the sudden, you watch them develop and change. I laughed and cried while reading this manga, both of which do not happen very often. It starts out weird, but becomes something amazing. I can’t ruin this particular series for you if you do intend to read it; I love the diet pills it too much.
So wow, after all that I guess all this post did was recommend three very, VERY, different manga. To Love-Ru = Comedy, Ecchi. Mahou Sensei Negima! = Shonen, and kind of everything. Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro I would loosely call a mystery manga, but it breaks out of that stereotype fairly quickly. It’s almost Shonenish and actiony, but that doesn’t really fit either. It’s brilliant! I hope that’s a genre…
I know it’s common for people to say the manga was better, but please don’t interpret these recomendations as me saying that. Not all of the adaptations were horrible, but these mangas were so great the animes could really only be a ghost of the original and should therefore be experienced in their full corporeal glory. They are all ready to be consumed at One Manga.
If you do decide to read any of these let me know (and if you liked them) I hate recommending stuff that people don’t like.
I think I can conclude this post now :).
A Confession: Next post will be my 100th so you can probably understand my anxiousness to blog something :).
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10 Comments
I loved Negima. It sucks though that the Anime didn’t turn out quite as well. I guess its that sickness that Akamatsu-sensei has when his works gets translated into Anime. This kind of thing also happened when Love Hina came out. The Manga was superb but the Anime so meh-ish. Then again, isn’t this common on many Manga to Anime adaptations? ^^
Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s the case for all. I think that Haruhi season 1 was better than the original source material. It was one of the few times that I saw the animators stick to the story but also add just a few things of their own that made the anime great. It really complimented the tone. I loved their zany visuals for Nagato, or the high energy fast moving shots they used for Haruhi. Season 2 gets a lot of flack, but the last video making arc was really pretty great. They ever so slightly turned up the tension between Haruhi and Kyon and made me look at this particular confrontation in a whole new light. I was hoping for something like that from some of these adaptations. I didn’t want them to sell out and only animate the super popular stuff. I wanted them to read the story, see what it meant to them, then add their own unique way of showing us what they got from the story (within the bounds of the story). There’s so much you can do with animation, it’s a shame it doesn’t get used to its potential (all the time).
I’m sure there are a lot of series that started as mangas that I really liked the anime of without complaints, but these ones were pretty special :).
I only ever watched Negima and even then I enjoyed it, but if the manga is as good as you say it is I will have to pick it up immediately.
As horrible as it sounds, I need something ‘safe for work’ to put on my iPod that I can read out on the road. My life is a waste.
As for hearing you say that you liked To Love-Ru, I am disappoint. But since you properly defended yourself there – I won’t say anything about it.
I still need to watch Sora no Otoshimono. I’ll get to it! I will! (eventually)
sigh… It figures. You let one of your guilty pleasures out and everyone loses all their respect for you. That was of course assuming I had any to begin with.
Sora no Otoshimono was ok, but not as good as those three mangas.
I love books on tapes. I always took long car trips as a kid traveling between my divorced parents and books on tape turned the trips from utter boredom into exciting journeys. One could say I even looked forward to getting back into the car for the stories continuation.
I’ve been an old fan of the Negima manga series but I thought the Anime adaptations sucked (my sincere apologies to fans who liked it, no offense meant). Xebec’s take on it was mediocre on the story but ugly on the animation, and SHAFT’s version was even worse. For the latter, I tend to be a purist sometimes and I despise alternate re-telling if it failed to do the original justice. However, what made it really bad for me was Shinbo incorporating his directing style and humor into it, which didn’t work for me. Thank goodness Akamatsu Ken was in charge of supervising the newer OVAs. Now those were EXCELLENT adaptations by SHAFT.
Speaking of Shinbo, I decided to take a joyride with Vampire Bund’s radio series and heh, guess what, the manga artist himself is responsible for the original spin on the Anime version. Actually Shinbo and Yoshino Hiroyuki (the TV series’ script writer) wanted to do a faithful adaptation of the manga but Tamaki Nozomu proposed (or rather challenged) that they do an original story whilst keeping its main feel and retaining the more important plot events. Even Tamaki himself had participated in the supervision and scriptwriting. Well, I guess we can’t rat on the Anime staff like we used to after that disclosure but I still don’t like Shinbo’s odd directing style for this story. That became more obvious in Episode 3. :/
As for the other manga you recommended, I’ve begun reading Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro and I have to say, it is quite captivating. I too, don’t find the premise particularly gripping but I agree with you it’s the characters who make the experience fun and worthwhile. I haven’t watched the Anime yet but I have a feeling that I shouldn’t. Thanks for introducing this!
As for To Love-Ru, well… I’m not really fond of comedy + ecchi as the only genres of a series (Funny coming from someone who enjoys comedies and fanservice-filled series like Seikon no Qwaser huh? :p). If a story has to implement fanservice, I prefer those which has an adventure type plot progression like Negima. School/Day-to-day life + fanservice is a bit too unexciting for me. Sorry. ^_^;
@Keiri
Lol, I don’t know what it is about To Love-Ru honestly. I guess I always loved the character Eve from Black Cat and getting to see her again in this was really funny. My interest level jumped like a million times when she entered the story.
Neuro and Yako are two of my favorite characters of all time. They just brought this strange chemistry to the median that made it hard to resist. I loved the first time Neuro goes “I can’t come?” With this sad look on his face and the other characters start thinking he’s going to kill them. I’ve seen this used since, but not before. He might have been one of the original manga anti-heroes. I’m not sure when Death Note came out, but I think Neuro might have predated it making him a very unique almost evil good guy. I think you’ll enjoy it the more into it you get. It’s just great.
I haven’t seen the newer OVAs but perhaps I should.
The Manga Artist did what!?!!!! That makes me a little sad, but speaking of Dance in the Vampire Bund episode 3 didn’t make me throw up. It almost merged back onto the original plot line and that makes me feel like we’re getting the pre-Bund situation. Like in a couple of episodes (or next episode) the anime is really going to start (seeing as we’ve had no Bund visits yet). I hope I’m not wrong, but so far the only things they’ve ruined are the first meetings. I just want the politics of the different factions to get back on track. The two new chapters of Vampire Bund were hilarious (though you probably don’t need to wait for them to be scanalated :P).
*fidgets* FWIW I really liked To Love Ru too (the manga, the anime was crap except for Haruka Tomatsu Lala). And I don’t think To Love-Ru is really about comedy – outwardly that’s the genre but I don’t personally find it very funny. The thing I like most about To Love Ru is the characters – they were all very likeable, and I really like how they interact. I came close to writing a post on To Love Ru once – and I wanted to say that the mangaka has a talent for creating completely ridiculous settings and situations that don’t destroy his characters, but brings them out and enhances them. It’s very common to be floundering about a bunch of senseless, fanservice-filled events to find yourself suddenly caught in a radiant moment of true kindness or deep friend-to-friend appreciation. And the ridiculous backdrop often serves only to accentuate the value of that one moment of sincerity.
It got me thinking for awhile actually – it’s such a bizarre mix! How can something be so pervertedly, insufferably filled with panty shots, nudity, extremely revealing garbs and sexual allusions, and yet still be consciously and consistently trying to bring out messages on kindness, on believing in the best of others, and on treasuring your friendships – messages that I don’t even see in half the other things I see in the media? It fascinated me and made me like the characters even more, and each subsequent chapter just kept up the incredible trend of screwup fanservice fanservice POWERFUL MOMENT fanservice funnies cute-characters POWERFUL MOMENT until when it was finally over I was honestly sorry there wasn’t more.
Eh oops, guess I rattled on a little too much there. Anyway yeah, just thought I’d let you know I’m with you on To Love Ru.
*hopes my respect points didn’t suffer*
@Jason
Well Said! You’re right that it seemed to accomplish all of that despite all the fanservice. I couldn’t help but get pulled in even when I was going back to find a couple of pages as reference (I ended up rereading whole chapters). It’s just the kind of group you would want to be involved with… caring, thoughtful, so full of angsty love you can’t help but facepalm every five seconds. Not to mention the friendships that formed between them all. Despite the sexual tension it eventually just turned into a large group of really close friends and that to me is the best kind of slice of life story ever.
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro was another series that the anime didn’t do justice. :)
Just saying in case you didn’t watch the anime…
I read the entire manga before discovering that there was an anime series. I watched the first five minutes of the first episode and was so disgusted by what they were doing that I got the hell out of Dodge. I’m planning on keeping it that way and thanks for the warning :).