Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Reading Rainbow
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 855 Location: New York, NY |
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One adaptation that I certainly had never heard about - but that I guess is a pretty well-known thing in France and Germany - is the 1997 Elmer no Boken, adapting the 1948 children's novel My Father's Dragon.
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mdo7
 Posts: 7050 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Great to see classic novels/literary work to anime adaptation are getting discussed and thanks for including World Masterpiece Theater in this one.
Beside anime adaptation, I remember back when I became a new anime fan, I had access to OEL manga adaptation of Shakespeare (I'm happy to see the website is still there since 2009) like Romeo & Juliet, and Hamlet. Many years later, and now in my 19th year as an anime fan, I've just recently finished reading another OEL manga (not by Manga Shakespeare/Sweatdrop Studio but) by Udon Studio and Manga Classics, particularly Dracula and Romeo & Juliet (again, different adaptation from the Manga Shakespeare version I've read back in 2009). I do like the idea of adapting classic literature into graphic novels (whether it's a regular comic/graphic novels, or a manga, or OEL manga), because some of us are better at understanding classic story in a visual format then text (not that I have a problem with them, I read my fair share of novels). But thanks for doing this ANN and TWIA. |
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malvarez1
Posts: 2335 |
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I appreciate the Deltora Quest shout out, that’s a fantasy adventure hidden gem.
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RupanSansei
 Posts: 187 |
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I appreciate the Sasuraiger shout out as is my favorite Original Anime IP as most of the other ones i enjoy are based on manga excluding Voltes & Daimos (no i am not Filipino). also Anne of green gables joke was really funny as a Canadian.
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1313 |
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I always been fascinated by anime adaptations of classic Western literature, it's interesting to see those stories being re-interpreted by Japanese artists, though I'm more of a fan of the old-school takes that tried to be more faithful to the source material, some of the more liberal adaptaions like Gankutsuou, with all of its sci-fi elements, may seem to some like a parody to some, like those people that believe that an anime adaptation of a classic work of literature will include will need to include mecha, over the top fights and fanservice.
As I say, I also find it interesting that plenty of those anime adaptations like Treasure Island, The Adventures of Marco Polo (this one is weird, because it's a sort of documentary series with anime segments), King Arthur, The Wonderful Adventure of Nils, Tom Sawyer, White Fang, Sherlock Hound, Princess Sarah, The Three Musketeers, Peter Pan, My Daddy Long Legs, The Trapp Family (The Sound of Music), Little Women and Romeo's Blue Sky ranked among the favorite anime of their respective years in Animage magazine, the adaptatations were popular even with older anime fans. But it seems ever since the late '90s, anime adaptations of classic Western literature dwindled in popularity.
Maybe if you're from the U.S., but many of those adaptations like Heidi, girl from the Alps was hugely popular all across the world. Heck, when that Resident Evil 4 Remake parody/promotional video was released a Latin American company who made a fandub/game mod for the original RE4 game with professional VAs, managed to contact Heidi's grandfather dub VA to lend his voice in that spoof. There was also a reference to the Heidi anime in an episode of Pokémon, with Jessie and James disguised as Heidi and Peter and in the LatAm Spanish dub they added the joke, "Protecting world from Mrs. Rottenmeier", which I don't know if it was the same dialog in English. |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1267 |
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Some of those 70s kids shows are among the best anime I've ever seen. "3,000 Leagues in Search of Mother" is my gold standard for those adaptations. "Anne of Green Gables" is slow early on, but eventually finds its groove. I watched "Treasure Island" a couple years back because the director was Osamu Dezaki, and ended up really enjoying it.
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Dr Marc
Posts: 3 |
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Great to see you talking about World Masterpiece Theater and all the other shows based on classic books, but how could you not mention "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water" and its origin as a take-off of Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"?
And you mention that Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Heron" comes from one of his favorite books as a child, the Japanese novel "How Do You Live?". That is still the title of the film in Japanese ("The Boy and the Heron" was a new title they used for the western release) and the studio made a big fuss over the book when the movie's production was announced. But within the film itself, the only mention is this is the book that Mahito unpacks at his new home and it was a gift from his mother with her note on the inside cover. But there was another book that was a more direct source to the story: the English language novel "The Book of Lost Things" by the Irish writer John Connolly (2007). It tells the story of a 12 year-old boy named David in Britain during World War 2. His mother has died from cancer and his father has remarried and his step-mother has just had a new baby boy. David is still grieving for his mother and is not getting along with his new family. He takes refuge in books and is drawn into a fantastical alternative reality. Sound familiar? I only discovered this by accident when reading the credits for the English dub on the Bluray of "The Boy and the Heron" where they credit it. Checking with friends in Japan, the connection to this novel seems to be fairly well known over there, but I have only been able to find a couple of reviews / articles about the film in English that mention this book at all. Did the English-language PR folks want to hide any English-language influences to the movie so it would seem to be "pure Japanese"? |
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Southkaio
Posts: 411 |
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Anyone remember ''The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle''?
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Primus
 Posts: 2853 Location: Toronto |
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Anne isn't even this season's sole western literature adaptation.
I was always confused as to why the Magic Tree House movie never got an English-language release. I guess it's hard to sell anime movies to younger audiences without a big brand attached. The Imaginary (also based on a western novel) came and went with zero fanfare last year. Weirdest western literature adaptation, IMO, was Spider Riders. I have no real explanation as to why that exists. |
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tinyirnfist0
Posts: 65 |
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No mention of Around the World with Willy Fog or Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds. Those are anime adaptations of western novels.
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Great Rumbler
 Posts: 339 Location: Oklahoma |
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There's also the very loose adaptation of Moby Dick [as well as an earlier adaptation of Treasure Island by the same director, Osamu Dezaki], and the somewhat more faithful adaptation of Starship Troopers.
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 1129 Location: North America |
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Those north of the Cheddar Curtain (aka Wisconsin) may be disappointed that no mention is made of Araiguma Rasukaru/Rascal the Racoon, but then Sterling North (Rascal, A Memoir of a Better Era) is hardly known even in Wisconsin these days. Some guy named Hayao Miyazaki did key-frame animation for the first 25 episodes.
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RupanSansei
Posts: 187 |
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Gotta check out the magic tree house anime ass those were some of my favorite books in kindergarten that made me interested in history |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1889 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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Watched that on JET TV (Japanese Entertainment Television) back in the 1990s. IIRC they even dubbed it in English. |
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omiya
 Posts: 1875 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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I remember reading Rascal in primary school. The author's name was funny as there is a town in South Australia called Stirling North. |
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