Forum - View topicHow Anime Helped Save Superman
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13242 |
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Had the Snyderverse continued I have no doubt we'd see a more idealistic Superman. The Snyder movies worked on the premise that if a super powered alien suddenly showed up, they'd be met with fear and paranoia. Which is 100% true. It wasn't until after he 'died' that the people realized he was the real deal and began to idolize him. So after being revived he has less reason to be cynical.
My Adventures with Superman does go a similar route with the public turning on him and the government believing the worst about him. But Clark is a lot younger here and Jimmy and Lois enter his life before he commits to superheroing so he has a support group to help him. Anyways, glad this article actually gets Superman. I'd half expect an anime fan to equate him to OP isekai protagonists a lot of people hate. |
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OpenYourEels4TheNextFeels
Posts: 141 |
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Diana Huh (director of episodes 2, 5 & 8, and storyboard revisionist on the series) also revealed that Clark's transformation sequence was directly inspired by PreCure (Cure Mermaid from "Go! Princess Pretty Cure" in particular)
https://twitter.com/Dihuh/status/1677462568364052480 https://twitter.com/Dihuh/status/1677517775898832897 |
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Turtleboy76
Posts: 165 |
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This article definitely comes from someone who doesnt know a lot about superman.
Hell, even going off the animated verse, the new 52 era of animated movies and the Tomorrowverse, had Superman show more than enough kindness and great character developments. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2316 Location: Online Terminal |
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I still have faith in this site to vet freelancers. I didn't go back to confirm but there is basically at least one reference to anime (or previous Studio Mir work) per episode so there's definitely an Easter Egg hunt to be found. I appreciate their hypertargeting of their core demo of older teens, but the level of flexing got a tad ridiculous to this old man. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the show (and I think it might've understood Superman better than the DCAU version shhhh) and am glad that it's getting its flowers. Re: pulling from shoujo manga, my reading has been that Lois is the main POV character (and arguably the title character). If so, it could be her lens that adds a lot of the shoujo manga filtering. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1603 |
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Yeah, but all those projects combined are less well-known than the (terrible) Snyderverse movies. It makes sense to address the most famous recent interpretation of the character because that's the one that will influence the culture the most. Thankfully, My Adventures With Superman has been very popular so that's helping to reverse the boring, grimdark interpretations of Superman that were trendy for a while. |
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Doubleclouder
 Posts: 81 |
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I never cared for the live-action films but I liked some of the old comics I've read and the DCAU take on him. It's a shame it seems like you can't make anything like the DCAU anymore. I'm not a fan of this modern cartoon. It looks and feels way too much like She-Ra.
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rudhy
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I don't think so. Nearly all the DC superhero movies since Tim Burton's Batman way back in 1989 have served up darker, more violent and cynical versions of the characters than comics and other media usually portray them. Also, Superman's idealism came from his parents. Gods and Monsters depicted a version of Superman, Hernan Guerra, who was raised by parents who - while good people - were in completely different economic and social circumstances than the Kents and as a result ... wasn't such a nice guy. It is as if Snyder used Guerra's parents as the model for Jonathan and Martha Kent - even though unlike Guerra's parents they had no reason to be that way - and Snyder's Superman was a Hernan Guerra-Clark Kent hybrid. Snyder's idea that previous versions of Superman were only so nice and good because the world accepted him as a hero so he was going to have an edgier, flawed Superman because the world feared and was suspicious of him never made sense. Truly good people retain their character no matter how they are treated by others. (People may sincerely disagree, but that was certainly the point of view of Shuster and Siegel, the creators of Superman, and keep in mind Shuster and Siegel were Jews living in the United States in the 1920s. Siegel's family in particular came to America as refugees from anti-Semitism, and Siegel himself resorted to using pseudonyms to hide his heritage in order to find work because of American anti-Semitism.) Also, Spider-Man/Peter Parker was still a good guy despite experiencing a ton of awfulness and having J. Jonah Jameson turn half the city against him. Most of the X-Men were virtuous people despite how society treated them also, with Wolverine and maybe Gambit as outliers. It would have been a much more compelling and creative decision for Snyder to have Superman and the Kents retain their good qualities from the traditional comics despite the world treating them horribly, but I guess Snyder doesn't have the creative ability to pull it off. Makes him inferior to the writer of My Hero Academia, whose Deku is virtuous despite being marginalized and bullied all his life for being quirkless. What would be even more compelling would be if a movie director and screenwriter were to give us a version of Batman that isn't influenced by The Dark Knight - which was supposed to be an elseworlds interpretation of the character - but that is another story for another day. |
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Nipasu
 Posts: 131 |
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The scene with Superman's cape was inspired by Cure Mermaid's hair flip. Cool it helped inspire the transformation sequence. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6485 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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First of all, I want to say thank you ANN for allowing this Op-Ed even though I can tell this person doesn't have enough experience with Superman beyond the animated TV series/films, and live-action films to give more definite experience. I had many experience with Superman growing up being exposed and falling in love with superhero genre (DC had a lot of mainstream exposure to me as a kid growing up in the 90's). Superman, Batman, and other DC Comics superheroes (don't worry, I had my exposure to Marvel during that same experience) impacted the way I looked at anime and manga including shonen.
I'm not sure if I could say that anime helped Superman, but I'll say this: I always thought Superman looks good even in anime (& manga) form. Even though My Adventures with Superman is not anime by technicality, but my first impression of the design is "wow, anime could work for Superman" (FYI and disclaimer: I haven't got chance to watch the show, so I can't give a full analysis for that show, but my first impression from clips is that I was surprised they would give Superman a anime-look design for the show) I want to also add that Superman and American superheroes (I'm going to include Japanese ones like Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Moonlight Mask, or Ogon/Golden Bat) whether it's Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, etc... have played influence on the Shonen and magical girl genre for anime and manga, so I think it's fair those genre of anime/manga do in turned influence our DC and Marvel superheroes and that can include Superman too. Seeing DC Comics (and to some extent, Marvel too) is getting knee-deep into the anime/manga rabbit hole, it does make me wonder if DC may re-opened their CMX labels given that DC had re-activated their Wildstorm imprint back in 2017, that and CBR had an article last month about DC, Marvel, and other western comic publishers may look into joining the licensing, and publishing manga in the near future. So I can't ruled out the possibility that DC could revive their CMX imprint since they're that knee-deep into the rabbit-hole that is anime and manga. Since we're now at a cross-road where American superheroes, Shonen genre, and magical girl/shojo genre can be interwined, I hope it can lead to DC and Marvel to maybe look into doing some creative collaboration with anime studio. I find the upcoming Suicide Squad Isekai to look very promising, and Catwoman: Hunted (with OLM studio doing the animation) looks very attractive to me, and I got chance to read Batman and the Justice League, and Batman: Justice Buster manga, it does look promising, here's my dream idea that DC and Marvel can do: DC could do this: -A Superman anime TV show with character design by Akira Toriyama (yes, I'm going there, the Goku vs Superman debate must stop and maybe a Superman anime TV series with Toriyama doing the character designs would end this war. Also, Superman even looks good with Toriyama style design. Even half of the Dragonball characters he design could be transferred over to Superman's supporting characters, and Superman's rogue galleries/villains). If they can get Toei Animation to work on this given that Toei's work involvement in the 1988 Ruby Spear's Superman cartoon (yes, Toei was involved in this Superman cartoon one year before they did DBZ). -A Batman TV anime series with Sunrise being the animation studio for it given their experience they worked on Batman: TAS (yes, Sunrise was one of the few Japanese studios that worked on the show). Don't forget the Big O (which has already been compared to Batman a lot back in the day), and are no stranger to superhero genre given that they worked on Tiger & Bunny. -A few weeks ago, I was looking at a CBR article about DC Comics being re-imagined or given anime/manga re-design by fanart, and I wouldn't mind seeing a elseworlds manga based on that idea, I mean this art, I would read a elseworld manga if they have an attractable storyline based on this fanart I linked. So yeah, plenty of opportunity to give DC superheroes a Elseworlds manga would be nice for me. -Also given that DC Comics has created Japan-based teams like Super Young Team, and Big Science Action (both teams are based in Japan in Grant Morrison's 2008 Final Crisis Sketchbook), these 2 have been forgotten amongst fans. So given that they're Japanese, why not give them a manga makeover (as in let's find a mangaka that is willing to work with DC to revive these guys in this age of manga's mainstream popularity in the west). Maybe that could help give these 2 teams an appeal to both US and Japanese audiences if it was done by a well-known mangaka. I don't know which mangaka could help design them and find a way to make them look cooler and appealing to a wider audiences. -Maybe DC could team up with Toei, Toho, or Tsuburaya and a J-drama production to do a live-action J-drama/tokusatsu hybrid adaptation of Katana/Tatsu Yamashiro (think of it like Toei's Spiderman but minus the mecha and campy-ness, and make it serious). If they can get Rina Takada to play Katana for that J-drama/toku hybrid adaptation, that would be something I'm willing to watch. Lastly (and this is for Marvel): For Marvel Comics, you know how Peter Parker get a lot of ladies (ie: Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane, Felicia Hardy, etc...) that would put him on par with the lead male in a harem anime. Why hasn't there been a Spider-man harem anime? I mean Gwen Stacey is a tsundere in the early days of her Silver age incarnation (let's bring that tsundere part back for the anime adaptation and fitting for a harem anime), and Felicia Hardy has a ridiculously big bust that is on par with any female anime characters with big breasts. I don't understand why Marvel hasn't thought of this given the Spider-man's popularity in Japan and the trope is there for Peter/Spider-man, put him with some of the girls in a dorm and lots of funny antics will come out of it and at the same there still be his adventures as Spider-man alongside the harem storyline/tropes. |
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Turtleboy76
Posts: 165 |
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No, not every show. Korra didn't, Voltron didn't to a certain degree, hell, lets get obscure with stuff like Chozen or Clarence. No all shows obviously, but that one did and it was NOT subtle. |
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Oggers
 Posts: 378 Location: Ontario, Canada |
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I really enjoyed My Adventures with Superman (which is probably obvious from my userpic, lol), and I'm still not over the fact that it gave Clark an honest-to-god magical girl transformation when he gets the iconic Superman costume for the first time. But considering how magical girls are a very specific kind of superhero (at least since Sailor Moon redefined the concept by adding sentai elements), I guess that's just the cycle of influences coming full circle.
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MFrontier
Posts: 14216 |
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If there's any area where I feel like it's lacking it's probably the action because it's usually over so quickly and generally isn't as involved as you would expect from an anime action sequence (or even from another DC action cartoon), though granted the show is more relationship/character based.
(Also Superman gets his butt whooped maybe a liiiiitttle too much). |
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psh_fun
 Posts: 102 |
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The duality of man  But I get it, Superman's one of those characters who people have their own idea of who he is and even comic books don't get right.and are all over the place with. Well you could probably say that about any comic book character given how many different writers there are for these characters so you'll get a lot of back and forth on what a character should be. I liked the old Bruce Timm Superman cartoon myself. Just looking at this current one and I can tell it's not really something I'd like and seems more geared towards younger audiences and not my cup of tea.
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Snomaster1
 SubscriberPosts: 2936 |
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I don't really mind this show. This mixes the superhero show with a bit of romance is something I really don't have a problem with. In this version,they gave Lois some Korean ancestry as probably a shout-out to the Koreans doing this show and I have no trouble with that. What shocked me was this version of Mr. Mxyzptlk. I thought it was going to be like an anime version of some of the previous depictions of this character. You know,the yellow jumpsuit,blue-green derby. He basically looked like a futuristic version of an imp.
In this version,he looks like came off the set of "Inuyasha" or "Dragon Ball." Why do that? I had no problem with the earlier versions of the character. Why change him from an annoying,interdimensional imp to looking like an unused "Inuyasha" character? That seemed a little drastic to me. Beyond that,I don't mind the anime references here. I think they help the show. I also wish they made it for more general audiences,and that includes kids. Other than that,this doesn't look like too bad of a show. I wonder what the Japanese are going to think of it when it comes there? Last edited by Snomaster1 on Sun May 12, 2024 3:59 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4631 Location: New York |
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I felt the opposite way about this series, namely "We don't know what to do with Superman, we're going to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks" with the directive being more than anything "Don't do what Zack Snyder did." Say what you will about Snyder, and I presume most of it is negative, especially after Rebel Moon but he essentially cemented how people look at Superman, this callous, distant figure whose moments of humanity and openness almost seem satirical in the face of his actions and the general mood of his films. So they go in the completely opposite direction with MAWS with a Clark/Superman who does all the little things like saving people from car crashes and getting cats out of trees Kevin Costner and Snyder's fans would decry as outdated and pointless. Which is all fine and dandy, but the series is almost guided by the need to not by the Snyderverse rather than having its own identity, and the end result is poor fight scenes, awkward characterizations, and a reluctance to really engage with ideas to make things seem grander and more impressive. That's apparently by design, the writers were adamant that Superman not fight magic-using villains.
I think we're getting this shoujo-flavored Superman (well, this and next season, I don't see James Gunn letting it stick around once Superman Legacy hits the big screen) because it's such a diametric opposite to Snyder, who by his own admission, is a fan of anime (he based the climax of Man of Steel off of Birdy The Mighty Decode and has said he would be down for directing a Dragonball movie because he enjoyed watching it with his family) but not of the type of anime that MAWS takes influence from. But that goes back to my first problem, you're just focusing on not being Snyder, and that's not enough to create something compelling. The Bruce Timm Superman cartoon is and remains the best attempt to adapt Clark for modern media. He's powerful but not obscenely so, he values his humanity and ordinary routine ("The Late Mr. Kent" has him outright say he'd go nuts if he had to be Superman all the time, while the Snyder Superman seems to take the Clark identity out of a begrudging tolerance for societal norms). He uses his brains just as often as brawn in dealing with villains. But there's no apologizing for who he is, and what he does. Also the action is way better. I think DC hired James Gunn to make the next film for a reason, because they need something big to have a clean break from a decade of Snyder and Snyder-adjacent products. |
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