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This Week in Anime - Anime Adaptations That Aren't As Good As They Should Be


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residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2613
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 9:20 am Reply with quote
The is nothing harder to draw than a horse, even before you have to add motion. DP has no reason to skip out on Steel Ball Run or phone it in but that production will kill people unless they don´t take sizable breaks.

Blade of the Immortal went from having a decent adaption to one of the most hacked-together adaptations of all time on basically all levels. A good candidate for an all-time disaster. 7 SEEDs S1 is of course as bad as Berserk S2 and even more incomplete. I wonder how many people know that its 2nd season is less of an abortion? It "adapts" less than half of what S1 went for and has fewer rewriting issues to solve the gaps. These 2 shows are modern legends. Show me a fan of those and I will show you a liar. Slideshow of Ragnarok wishes that there was as much to say about it as what went wrong with those 2 shows.
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Glordit



Joined: 11 Sep 2020
Posts: 685
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 9:56 am Reply with quote
Hoshi no Samidare will always be one of my favorites, it's just a pity that it's extremely hard to recommend the anime to anyone due to the production issues. At least we are getting a solid adaptation from White Fox for Sengoku Youko.

I have not read Majou to Yuujo but the anime has been really good, so I have no complaints over its quality.

There will always and forever be differences between the source and its anime adaptation. We would only ever get a 1:1 in a perfect world and that would be boring.
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Sekaro



Joined: 12 Nov 2018
Posts: 393
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 10:04 am Reply with quote
Record of Ragnarok had the potential to be a standout hit if it had god-like animated fights but instead we got mediocre stuff. A real shame as I really enjoyed it despite all that so imagine how much better it would've been if it did have good animation.

Tokyo Revengers is another victim of subpar anime adaptations. I dont think its as bad as the others shown here but it definitely doesn't hold a candle to the manga. Punches/kicks that should look impactful falls flat in the anime most of the time.

Kindgom even S3 afterwards is still considered subpar imo. The censorship & toning down of gore really holds it back. In the manga, huge horizontal swings visibly cleaves through the body exposing chunks of body parts flying through the air. In the anime, all i see are giant streaks of light trailing across the screen as the swings happen...At least the voice acting & music is superb i guess.
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uhuurt



Joined: 15 Mar 2024
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 10:29 am Reply with quote
Sekaro wrote:
The censorship & toning down of gore really holds it back. In the manga, huge horizontal swings visibly cleaves through the body exposing chunks of body parts flying through the air. In the anime, all i see are giant streaks of light trailing across the screen as the swings happen...At least the voice acting & music is superb i guess.

Nowadays even good adaptations heavily censor the gore, and it's really a shame. Violence is not nearly as impactful without showing the gruesome details, and it often ends up feeling like a clean, santized version of what should be horrific, which is a problem, especially in shows that aim to be somewhat realistic. It really takes me out of otherwise great experiences sometimes.
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YourNameIsMitsuha



Joined: 14 Mar 2023
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 11:02 am Reply with quote
I don't read much manga/manwa, so I don't have a lot to say about the adaptations in general. MHA and One Punch Man are both adapted very well imo. But I do feel the need to defend The Witch and the Beast a bit. Not counting Frieren and Apothacary Diaries since I haven't finished them, TWatB is easily my second favorite anime this season, and has been an absolute delight. Without knowing the source material, I can't say how good the adaptation is, but the animation itself never felt off-putting, and though I did see and off model shot or two, I was never distracted or taken out of the moment by it. This in contrast to Chainsaw Man, where weirdly modeled mouths, stiff person animation, and scenes where I could literally count animation frames were a constant distraction (no, I will never pass up a chance to bash Chainsaw Man).
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2412
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 11:06 am Reply with quote
The Biscuit Hammer anime is not mid by any stretch. Shinobi no Ittoki was mid. Biscuit Hammer's "anime" was a hate crime.

Anyways there's countless LN adaptations that deserved better.
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TheSleepyMonkey



Joined: 11 Jul 2022
Posts: 958
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 11:24 am Reply with quote
Quote:
This in contrast to Chainsaw Man, where weirdly modeled mouths, stiff person animation, and scenes where I could literally count animation frames were a constant distraction (no, I will never pass up a chance to bash Chainsaw Man).


The "stiff animation" in question:

https://sakugabooru.com/post/show/220741
https://sakugabooru.com/post/show/220744
https://sakugabooru.com/post/show/226939
https://sakugabooru.com/post/show/211475
https://sakugabooru.com/post/show/210920
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4660
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 12:10 pm Reply with quote
Normally, I'm pretty forgiving of when an anime doesn't look as detailed etc. as a manga since all that stuff would have to show up in multiple frames of animation, but can be in just an image or two of manga. Anime gets criticized all the time for reliance on still frames, so I'm not going to call an adaptation subpar if compromises have to be made.
That being said, there are limits. Berserk is probably something that won't ever get that perfect adaptation, and both takes on the Golden Age sort of picked their battles, but there isn't an excuse for the 2016/17 being what it is.


It's a bit surprising to find out that Spice and Wolf has the same director. I get that maybe they don't want to completely redo things the same way, but it seems like they forgot some of the tricks that worked.
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uhuurt



Joined: 15 Mar 2024
Posts: 26
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 12:32 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
It's a bit surprising to find out that Spice and Wolf has the same director. I get that maybe they don't want to completely redo things the same way, but it seems like they forgot some of the tricks that worked.

Looks like it's another column with plain wrong statements. The first Spice and Wolf adaptation director Takeo Takahashi is only chief director for the new one, which is little more than an oversight role. He did storyboard the first episode, but that's probably as far as his meaningful contributions will go.
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WANNFH



Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 1861
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 1:09 pm Reply with quote
residentgrigo wrote:
The is nothing harder to draw than a horse, even before you have to add motion.
Well, at least we're not gonna make a joke about how the OG Spice and Wolf "handled" the horse animation, because when they did it...

uhuurt wrote:
Greed1914 wrote:
It's a bit surprising to find out that Spice and Wolf has the same director. I get that maybe they don't want to completely redo things the same way, but it seems like they forgot some of the tricks that worked.

Looks like it's another column with plain wrong statements. The first Spice and Wolf adaptation director Takeo Takahashi is only chief director for the new one, which is little more than an oversight role. He did storyboard the first episode, but that's probably as far as his meaningful contributions will go.
Well, Takahashi is the managing director of the Passione, so his contribution can go far beyond just a direction...
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King Chicken



Joined: 13 Aug 2022
Posts: 140
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 1:32 pm Reply with quote
A random choice, but I've always been disappointed the Viewtiful Joe anime was plagued with so many production issues and an insanely low budget with very cheap animation given how stylish and cool the games were. The budget must have went all to the music because the OST is a certified banger. Still enjoyed it overall, but man.
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StarDango



Joined: 22 Sep 2021
Posts: 103
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Man- I remember watching 7SEEDS on Netflix. There was this one scene with two characters and they're just standing in the ocean and talking. And the way everything was animated made it seem like a bad Photoshop attempt. The characters didn't feel like they belonged in that water- like someone just dragged PNGs into the water and used the lasso tool to remove their bottom half and said "done." And the water was strangely "realistic" and I think CGI with too harsh lighting?

I don't know how else to explain it, it just felt jarring.

And that's not going into how "stiff" everyone looks. Some of the worse character design adaptations.

Adaptations are a tricky thing, especially if your adaptation does not have enough "time" to fit all the content. I personally think a good adaptation is one that can pick and expand on the "necessary" content.

Only adaptations that are lucky enough to have more than 2 seasons can afford to spend time on anything else. I'd actually appreciate it if long-running Shounen Jump anime used their length to their advantage and adapted more side material (like stories the mangaka couldn't fully address.) It's one of the reasons why I love how earlier My Hero Academia seasons handled adaptation. S3 and S4, especially, did a good job at both adapating the "necessary" and expanding on the "unrealized."

I'd argue this is why Persona 4's anime worked better than Persona 5's. Persona 4's anime adapted the major story beats, removed the dungeon exploration, condensed certain social links into their own (very entertaining) episodes, and expanded on a lot of content from the game (ie. Yukiko and Chie's first meeting, Rise's idol work, a lot about Nanako, etc.) Not to mention how they adapted Yu Narukami was *amazing.* The best adaptation of a silent JRPG protagonist that I've seen.

Persona 5 on the other hand...Was OK. I don't want to turn this into an even longer comment so I can't expand on that. But it was all just...Serviceable. It did have one episode that tried to expand on Akechi and Joker's friendship, and that was good. But otherwise- it was such a straightforward, almost uninspired adaptation that by the end it was all just...OK.

[quote="TheSleepyMonkey"]
Quote:


I will continue to be confused by certain criticisms against CSM's animation when it was some of the best work MAPPA's produced. The art style of the manga is already relatively strange by "traditional" manga standards. Fujimoto has a unique way of drawing movement and expressions. I thought the anime managed to preserve his quirks (like how he draws mouths) while also adapting the designs to be more suited for animation. That's the best way an anime can adapt a manga's art.
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yeehaw



Joined: 09 Sep 2018
Posts: 589
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 1:57 pm Reply with quote
To be fair I can't really think of an anime that does horses good at all.
I see their legs and how they bend being messed up often, bending in the wrong way, front legs bent when standing still. Makes my horse girl blood boil

YourNameIsMitsuha wrote:
I don't read much manga/manwa, so I don't have a lot to say about the adaptations in general. MHA and One Punch Man are both adapted very well imo. But I do feel the need to defend The Witch and the Beast a bit. Not counting Frieren and Apothacary Diaries since I haven't finished them, TWatB is easily my second favorite anime this season, and has been an absolute delight. Without knowing the source material, I can't say how good the adaptation is, but the animation itself never felt off-putting, and though I did see and off model shot or two, I was never distracted or taken out of the moment by it. This in contrast to Chainsaw Man, where weirdly modeled mouths, stiff person animation, and scenes where I could literally count animation frames were a constant distraction (no, I will never pass up a chance to bash Chainsaw Man).


I'd like to try seeing the world through your eyes if you think TWatB looks better than Chainsaw Man. I think I've seen one or two on-model shots
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residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2613
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 3:48 pm Reply with quote
S1 of Chainsawman is better than Vol 1-5 the manga and it only skipped half a chapter. The worst one. It´s one of the all time great adaptations. All issues with it come from the source material.

Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned 1980 is an adaptation of a famous Marvel comic, the one that gave us Blade. It might as well be the worst ever feature length anime adaptation. So bad it´s bad. Good luck topping this pick in the movie categories, well TV Special. Very special indeed.
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YourNameIsMitsuha



Joined: 14 Mar 2023
Posts: 66
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2024 4:14 pm Reply with quote
yeehaw wrote:
I'd like to try seeing the world through your eyes if you think TWatB looks better than Chainsaw Man. I think I've seen one or two on-model shots


You've mistaken me; I said Chainsaw Man is distracting, I never said TWatB looks better. But between the two, and considering only art and animation, I'd rather watch TWatB because it isn't distracting and annoying. That and I like the stylized art and the lighting choices and direction all appeal to me subjectively. Objectively Chainsaw Man looked better, but subjectively I didn't like looking at it. It was like watching something completely 3D animated. It made me want to watch Land of the Lustrous because that was 3D done well. The one thing they really did nail to me personally was the chainsaw puppy was cute af. And immediately killed off. Doggo could have carried the show for me if they just put him in every scene, I wouldn't have even noticed all the annoyances then Smile
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