Forum - View topicNEWS: New Spice & Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Anime Streams 2nd Promo Video
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Top Gun
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I can't speak for the source novels either way, as I haven't read them and have no plans to at this time, but I do know that I get extremely wary every time I see someone talking about an adaptation saying, "They changed X and Y from the original, I really hope it gets remade so that it can stay true to the source." Adaptations from any one medium to another have almost never been a straight 1:1 copy, and in my opinion they should almost never try to be. What works well in one medium may seem awkward in another--for instance, constantly hearing a character's inner monologues works fine in prose but is often tiring on-screen--but even more importantly, a different set of creative eyes on a project can choose to focus on particular aspects or themes of the original, sometimes those that weren't explored a lot in it. True, there have been times these changes have turned into a disaster, but there are many others where they've broken even, and even some where the adaptation winds up more interesting and fulfilling than the original work. (I say this as someone who unapologetically prefers the 2003 FMA adaptation.) And the best part is that the adaptation is never going to replace the original, so when there are changes, you have two different takes on the same story to enjoy and/or debate. I'm not saying that you yourself are like this, but far too often I've seen the sentiment expressed that an adaptation should only be judged by how slavishly it follows the source material, and that's never going to fly with me. In the case of this series in particular, it's been the better part of a decade since I watched it, so I don't remember some of the finer details. But I do remember that I never saw Lawrence as being incompetent. Sure, he made some mistakes, but more often than not he seemed like a victim of circumstance, and if that isn't a realistic analogy for the business world I don't know what is. In the end my lasting impression of him was that of a shrewd, knowledgeable merchant. Far more importantly, what stuck with me the most was the incredible chemistry and banter between Lawrence and Holo. I'm not really the shipping type, but from the get-go I jumped straight to "These two need to be together." They're one of the best on-screen couples I've ever seen, and I think any new adaptation has its work cut out for it to recapture that magic.
That's true, but those cases usually involve rights issues between different studios, or else the same studio trying again with the characters after a previous attempt flopped. I'm not familiar with Netflix's Daredevil, but I'd imagine that Disney is rebooting the show but retaining the same cast to both retain full rights to everything and ham-handedly jam it into its almighty MCU. In earlier cases we've had rebooted Spider-Man attempts after the last actor petered out, and then Disney tried to have its cake and eat it too by getting cute with No Way Home. I can't really think of a comparable situation when it comes to newer anime adaptations, because the same rights holders are usually involved. |
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Fluwm
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To the question of "Why does this happen with anime fans?" I suspect it may have something to do with the similar attitudes found among people who play video games, as there's a large amount of overlap between the two demographics. Game consumers have been long-accustomed to this notion that old properties need to be updated for a re-release -- sometimes that's just marketing fluff, to encourage them to buy the new versions of something they already own, and just as often it's because changes in technology have rendered the original games unplayable, or only playable at a standard now considered sub-par.
Likewise, it's not like the TV/film fandoms are entirely immune to this kind of progression, either. Plenty of classic films have been restored, rereleased, and remade -- sometimes multiple times. Sometimes (very rarely) those remakes wind up being better than the originals. Often their worse. But in all cases, in all mediums -- and this is the crucial part -- the impetus for this perpetual reproduction is the same: to sell more products.
I suspect I know what you're talking about but I'd never heard that Fuyumi Ono had any direct involvement with it, or the anime in general. I'd be curious if you're familiar with an interview or anything similar that goes into details, because I've often sited Twelve Kingdoms as an example of how an adaptation can take liberties with the original story in order to (vastly) improve on it. |
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