Forum - View topicWestern stories reset into Japanese setting in anime?
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Amethyst Alchemist
Former ANN Editor
 Posts: 312 Location: where it's always a good morning |
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EDIT: I wish I'd made it more clear in the title this thread is not about "western stories" as in "cowboy," but . . . .
Does anyone know of any anime that's a story from Western literature/movies/etc. redone into a Japanese setting? For example, The Lion King is largely a redo of Hamlet in the setting of an African lion pride. And we all know of the many Japanese horror films remade in an American setting. What I'm looking for specifically is anime rewritten from Western literature (or maybe movies, etc.) into a Japanese environment, while telling the same story. I'm trying to look into how the West and Western literature are represented in anime, and this is a piece of the puzzle I can't seem to find. Thanks to anyone who can help! Last edited by Amethyst Alchemist on Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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EireformContinent
 Posts: 977 Location: Łódź/Poland (The Promised Land) |
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Most of the Western stories adapted into anime are trying to keep "historical context" (eg. Daddy Long Legs- it seems to be "realistic" but people interested in history will notice that it's a mix of elements from European XIX century and '20-'30) or are put into completely fantastic background (Count Monte Christo). IMHO loosely "European setting" must be for them as exotic and fascinating as samurai and geisha for us:)
The only thing that came to me is Basilisk as rewritten Romeo and Juliet, but I'm not sure if it was really inspirited by it. Some motives are alive in many cultures and evolve in similar ways independently (eg. Gods and heroes suffering for their people, "the chosen ones" born in strange ways to save the world, lovers divided by families, honour, revenage etc.) |
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einhorn303
 Posts: 1180 |
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When you say "redone into a Japanese setting," do you mean specifically in Japan with Japanese characters? Because that would probably exclude stuff like The Count of Monte Cristo, Romeo x Juliet, Space Legend Ulysses 31, and Toward The Terra (which was largely based on A.E. van Vogts science fiction novel "Slan").
Off the top of my head the only example of a Western story being retold specifically in Japan with Japanese characters is the OVA of Lucky Star, which had a retelling of Cinderella. |
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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The best example I can think of off the top of my head is Tokyo Godfathers which was a creative re-imagining of the classic movie and book The 3 Godfathers. Basically took the general plot of the original story and changed bank robbers to homeless people. I actually prefer Tokyo Godfathers over the classic film. Although I'm a big time film buff I have to say that Satoshi Kon pulled it off better.
Another one is Ergo Proxy, though it's not in a Japanese setting. If you look closely at the side stories you'll notice that Pino's story greatly resembles that of Pinocchio. And it's no leap of the imagination to conclude that "Pino" is just a shortened version of "Pinocchio". I'm wanting to say that an episode of Cowboy Bebop was like that too but I can't remember exactly right now. But I'm sure with a little investigating you can find allot of other anime titles with this same theme of taking older western films and stories and turning them into anime. |
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PaulJ
 Posts: 4 Location: London |
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Wasn't Elfin Lied based on a German story (poem), or is that stretching things?
Was Gungrave a re-write of Once Upon A Time in America or Django ? |
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Amethyst Alchemist
Former ANN Editor
Posts: 312 Location: where it's always a good morning |
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Well, yeah, that's what I intended. I'm basically thinking of cases where it would have the same story but be rewritten into a Japanese setting with Japanese characters, which would essentially disguise the original story. I do appreciate related examples, though! I'd thought of The Count of Monte Cristo and Romeo x Juliet, but couldn't really think of other instances of "re-setting" into a different world. I think these sorts of stories are also interesting to see what little twists get put in and what is emphasized from the origianal. Monte Cristo, for example, focuses a lot on Albert compared to the original and paints the count in a somewhat different light. I do love the retelling, though. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Wow. I hope not. I mean they talk about Hollywood adaptations 'ruining' anime but damn. I think anime just took the cake. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15523 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Possibly Pandora Hearts which has inspiration of Alice and Wonderland. Also apparently there is a yuri themed anime called Miyuki-chan In Wonderland which is like Alice in wonderland.
Others I might mention is that Zero no Tsukaima has simular settings to the Harry Potter, there is even a secret pasage in the girls bathroom in one of the seasons. Well I dare to watch first ep and not think Harry Potter. |
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OldCharlieStoletheHandle
 Posts: 1288 Location: Mastic Beach, NY |
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Demonbane tosses a lot of H. P. Lovecraft names and story titles around willy-nilly, but one episode actually uses the plot of the story it's titled after. In Lovecraft's story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" a traveler trying to find out what's up in a strange seaside town in New England discovers that the town is controlled by an evil cult who worship a fish-god named Dagon. In Demonbane the episode of the same name starts out as a typical "let's go to the beach so we can put the girls in bikinis" fan-service episode, but then the girls start to disappear one by one, spoiler[kidnapped by cultists who plan to sacrifice them to their fish-god, Dagon.] It's set in, I believe, a Japanese seaside town.
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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I've seen that one, it's not really what we're after here. Miyuki still goes to Wonderland, but this time the rabbit, the caterpillar, etc. are all half dressed women. I wish I could be of more help, but like everyone else, I can only think of anime were the Western setting has been stylized instead of imported. I feel like I've seen an epsiode of Urusei Yatsura were Mendo's sister attempts a more traditionally Japanese Romeo & Juliet... but the only scene that sticks in my head is Mendo getting kicked by a horse, so I could be mistaken. |
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EireformContinent
Posts: 977 Location: Łódź/Poland (The Promised Land) |
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But as I wrote before some archetypes appear in every culture- lovers divided by families are one of them, so we can't say if specified book was an inspiration, unless creator confirms so.
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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Agree, although I would hardly consider The 3 Godfathers a "classic" film. This John Ford work is Minor Ford through and through, and he would have bigger and better moments in his career. |
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Amethyst Alchemist
Former ANN Editor
Posts: 312 Location: where it's always a good morning |
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All those sound interesting, but it seems like there's not too much of exactly what I'm looking for, which could be telling in and of itself. Not to overgeneralize, but since we can't seem to think of much, it's pointing me towards something I've thought before.
We as Americans seem more willing to directly copy a story from another culture and put it into our own, rather than leaving the setting and characters alone and just stylizing, as in the Monte Cristo anime, for example. It seems like if Japanese creators want to use foreign sources they tend to leave their "foreign-ness" more so than Americans (and the Western world as a whole?) tend to. Another example of just telling a Western lit. story in it's original setting and characters seems to be Kafka's A Country Doctor the anime. Again, it tells a Western story, but from what I can tell, it doesn't try to transform it into Japan somehow. I'm tending to think we as Americans/Westerners are more likely to do things like change The Seven Samurai into The Magnificent Seven where Japanese seem more willing to take the original for what it is, in anime representations at least. |
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EireformContinent
Posts: 977 Location: Łódź/Poland (The Promised Land) |
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Powerpuff Girls Z!
Seriously: you mentioned movies "transformed" te Western setting, so look not for anime, but movies- for example Kurosawa adaptated Shakespeare dramas into samurai tales |
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Amethyst Alchemist
Former ANN Editor
Posts: 312 Location: where it's always a good morning |
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That's a good example! That's something I didn't even consider: American animation made into anime. Very interesting. Thanks! I'm not sure if they tell exactly the same stories as in Powerpuff Girls, but this is a Western story shifted into a Japanese setting with Japanese characters. I wondered if there were other cases of this, so I tried to find some. The closest I could think of or find was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants. It's not exactly the same story, though. It seems to be more of a sequel, maybe. The circumstances/characters are somewhat different, and I can't tell if they actually moved the story into Japan. So it's probably not as good of an example as Powerpuff Girls Z, but still interesting. |
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