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Opinion needed: Anime stage plays / musicals.

Hello!

I'm doing a project on anime and stage plays. I wanted people's opinion on an anime being adapted into a stageplay. Most of them were only in Japanese. There are few that are english speaking such as "The Bleach Rock Musical" and in Maryland, USA they did "Anime Momotaro." The next one is in London, which is a true adaptation of "Princess Mononoke" done by Whole Hog Theatre.

Welcome to the forums.

As a common courtesy that we require from any thread-starter (new and old), I recommend answering your own questions first. By quickly giving us your own opinion, it can (and usually does) help in establishing some kind of rapport or empathy (however little there needs to be) from other users, which can then potentially open things up for further (maybe better) discussion.

So if you're really serious into wanting to tap into the ANN community for some help with a project, you'll probably wanna' do a little better in presenting your inquiry as fitful as you think will need be to get some actual comments.

Good luck.

I cannot help with series that went from anime to the staqe, but I can point you to one series that made the opposite transition. Oh! Edo Rocket began life as a stage play by Nakashima Kazuki (who is better known to anime fans as the creator of Gurren Lagann), then adapted for Studio Madhouse by Aikawa Shou and directed by Mizushima Seiji. The anime preserves many of the characteristics of the stage play like speaking directly to the audience ("breaking the fourth wall") and the use of stage lighting and effects (Torii's appearance in episode 17 is a good example). I once saw a couple of photos from the original stage play which took place on a nearly-empty set. The anime is pretty much the opposite of this stark approach with elaborately detailed backgrounds and lots of special effects.

The use of stage direction and mechanics appears in some other animes I've seen, most notably Bartender. It has an occasional "Greek chorus" and uses spotlighting to highlight certain characters. Some of the characters speak directly to the audience in this show as well.

For the project I have to write a research paper I'm planning on doing my own adaptation but I'm in the research phase then over the summer I'm going to be writing it.

I actually didn't think to put in my own opinion because I thought people would have big opinions on crossing media. But, since I love both anime and theater, I think it'd be amazing. I do believe it'd be difficult to cross the mediums because they are extremely different. I would like to stick to the roots of theater but I would like to keep the essentials of anime like the over-the-top characters.

What is your stance on an anime jumping to a medium of theater?

Do you believe there is a certain style?

Should one stick to a style of traditional Japanese or modern theater?

Is there too much of an artistic difference?

That's a good sign: starting research for a summer paper all the way in April. Your due diligence impresses me, and I will offer whatever help I can.

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What is your stance on an anime jumping to a medium of theater?

Depending on what anime story they were adapting, I could be very intrigued if it were something a little more down-to-earth like a slice-of-life drama or something (without a whole lot of props). But if you told me someone was putting Gundam or Akira on stage, I'd be very skeptical.

Quote:

Do you believe there is a certain style?

A certain style of adaptation? Uh.. not really. Although, I guess it would depend on what source material was being adapted in the first place. If you're talking about "a certain style [of stage play]," then I would say the traditional (non-singing) ones are the most common, which is not to say I don't enjoy musicals, though.

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Is there too much of an artistic difference?

I would think so, unless you just have really bad ass costumers, makeup people, and set designers. I've seen some news headlines about the Code Geass stage play they did, and the costumes I saw in the profile pics looked stupendous. Not sure how the actual performances turned out, but it looked like it had potential, at least from a visual perspective.

But, since I love both anime and theater, I think it'd be amazing. I do believe it'd be difficult to cross the mediums because they are extremely different.

Several post and nobody wrote two crucial words? Every Japanese asked about stage adaptations of anything will say them. Takarazuka Revue.

Several post and nobody wrote two crucial words? Every Japanese asked about stage adaptations of anything will say them.
Takarazuka Revue.

...I do tend to be skeptical when it comes to crossing mediums. Anime has a very distinct aesthetic, as described by Tony K.

Personally, I am not all too interested in real life adaptations of anime that I like, with the exception of things set in real life like Monster, for example, I could easily imagine this being re-imagined as a fantastic live action movie, but I really would not want to see things like Evangelion or Code Geass being turned into live action movies. It wouldn't be the same and it would not interest me, personally, all that much.

Musical theater, however, is a different thing, following different rules. Larger than life can easily reach a different scale without feeling forced, awkward, or silly (for me, anyways) than on the screen.

Like other commentators, I don't think many anime lend themselves to stage productions unless they constitute stories that do not rely heavily on the medium of animation itself.

Bartender, in particular, could make a nice stage show, and not just because it uses stagecraft in its anime design as I mentioned before. You would have the one main set, the bar Eden Hall, and then a series of other scenes where the characters' recollections mixed with the forays into the history of spirits take place. Scrims and lighting would work well for these scenes.

And I think I have read that someone made a Noh play based on material from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Myself, I am all in favor of having many adaptations, enough so that fact that one adaptation might have to present only certain aspects of an original work is no longer a problem, and that no adaptation is seen as definitive.

I'm having the hardest time choosing an anime as it is and focusing on a static set would be perfect with my limited funds.