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Oddly enough, none of our writers get colds…
Happy April Fool’s to all our readers out there. You’ll have to forgive the lack of preamble this week, but I’m traveling (Kagoshima and Yakushima – look for writeups on LiA sometime late this week) so it’s down and dirty this time. Our final Top 5 of the season (about halfway, anyway) – yes, Dororo wins the season – and an “Ask the Writers” question suggested by Zaiden.
Here are this week’s results:
Weekly Staff Poll
Dororo (2018) – 19 points, 3 first place votes
Mob Psycho 100 II – 11, 1
Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. – 4
Yakusoku no Neverland – 4
Fukigen no Mononokean – 4
Ask The Writers
“If (insert name of billionaire of choice here) offered to fully bankroll one anime series of your choice at any studio, what series and what studio would it be?”
- Choya: If I were to have the liberty of creating an anime, it’d be a toughie. Would I want a story that has never been adapted? Or a video game or story that exists outside of anime? Or a sequel that I’ve been meaning to see closure for? Most importantly, should I be a humanitarian and faithfully adapt a beloved, unfinished anime, or should I go for a troll option and adapt it in gaudy CGI? But I think I have just the right idea. I would want to help get Ufotable together (Enzo’s note: assuming they aren’t shut down for tax evasion) to finally create the behemoth that is the Tsukihime anime. Dedicating a cour or two on the Near Side routes (going with a full-on Ciel anime would be my preference, but ideally, it’d be dedicated to only one of the Near Side routes rather than mashing them together). If possible, dedicating three films or OVAs to the Far Side routes would be great too (a Hisui arc movie would be particularly awesome and intense). But it would give plenty of us closure for a Type-Moon property that hasn’t had too much time in the spotlight.
- Pancakes: Out of ever possible option the one I want to see most is a remake/reboot of Seikai no Monshou. If Legend of the Galactic Heroes can manage it in this day and age, then goddammit so can pointy eared imperialistic space elves and all the moral greys which go with them. Throw it to Production I.G (since they handled LotGH so well), lavish some serious coin on the animation, and darling we have ourselves a space opera. Oh and give it 24 episodes too because more time spent with Lafiel being embarrassed in a summer dress and straw hat can never go wrong.
- Passerby: If the magic of money can make anything possible then I would haul Miyazaki out of retirement (Enzo’s Note: he is, and he is making another feature) and revive Studio Ghibli to make one last film. And I would write it myself. Would it suck? Likely. Would it be because I’m not fluent in Japanese? Partially. Would it upset my billionaire investor? Absolutely. But the chance to make a film with Miyazaki is once in a hundred lifetimes and I’m not passing this up. Plus, I’ll have my name on the very last Miyazaki film! I’ll be immortalised in the anime world forever! Probably by being burnt in effigy biannually at Comiket, but I’ll take what I can get.
- Stilts-wan: The Firesign series, from any studio that will take me. Madhouse, Ufotable, Bones, Sunrise, J.C.Staff—hell, I’d take A-1 Pictures in a pinch. I’m taking the egotistical route by greenlighting an anime based on my own IP, so whatever flies. And once again, obvious answer.
- Enzo: There was a time, no doubt, when I would have said Production I.G. and a sequel to Seirei no Moribito. But, well – we’ve gotten a very good live-action drama so I know how it ends, and the only season was the best TV anime ever, so let’s not be greedy. In fact, tempting as sequels are, my gut is telling me to pick something I dearly love that’s never been adapted at all. A proper Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou series? Tempting. At long last Spirit Circle? Couldn’t go wrong there. But I’m going bold and picking Otoyomegatari, because even though I know it could be a huge letdown, if it clicked it could be among the best anime ever made. As for a studio I’m going with Kinema Citrus, because Made in Abyss convinced me that they’re capable of the kind of ungodly production values Mori Kaoru’s vision needs, and their visual aesthetic is the closest a proper TV anime studio gets to Ghibli (which I think fits this material better than any other). Make it happen, Davos!
Berserk. Madhouse.
Malazan Book of the Fallen with Madhouse. Will probably need to finance several seasons to cover a good chunk of the material and do it justice. One can only dream at this point though.
It’s not adaptable. At least in anime format. Too complex, too long, too many characters. At the beginning of each book, you have an index to remember what character they are talking about. Erikson made one of the widest, longest, most complex and most enjoyable fantasy series, but the tropes of anime are not meant to be mixed with this series.
I’m not a manga reader so the only thing I can think of are sequels
Hunter x Hunter seems like a good choice here
Very little unadapted material though – just the first part of another long, long arc. I’d love to see a certain Heaven’s Arena fight in an OVA though…
Five Star Stories, though I don’t have a fix on the studio yet. It flew back to my attention thanks to a throwaway joke from Tensei Slime. LOL
1. Sunrise adapted one volume of FSS long ago, and they have a good track record with modern adaptations of old franchises like Uchuu Senkan Yamato and Universal Century-era Gundams. 😀
2. ufotable makes good work with unlimited budget, but has little experience with mecha.
3. Madhouse.
I was sad to see the Stellvia and Nadesco sequels canceled by Xebec years back. I’m not overly bothered if something doesn’t get an adaptation but given the way Stellvia ended I’ve always wondered how they would go forward with it.
Wouldn’t mind a Gantz adaptation that covers the entire manga too, although the final arc sucked. Gonzo did a reasonable job so I would keep them aboard.
There’s also a Vandread Third stage that got canceled prematurely by Gonzo not that long after the second season. I know they were planning to show more of the Earth and an older Dita & Hibiki with a child. Knowing that something existed at some stage and never being able to see it is so frustrating lol.
The Stellvia sequel was going to focus on the younger brother, I remember that much.
Mia Glennorth too, the sister of Arisa. From a Scifi perspective I was interested to see where they could go from the solar system being on the brink of doom in a second season. Though I’d imagine they’d play on the siblings attending the same school dynamic a lot.
That Jinchuu arc from Rurouni Kenshin could do with a proper anime adaptation. I know Mappa wasn’t the studio that produced the original RK series, but based on how they excellently adapted Dororo, I think they would be a match made in heaven.
That was certainly on my shortlist. And MAPPA would probably be my choice too.
I would want Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria adapted by Shaft.
I would like to see the Mutineers’ Moon anime that ADV was working on actually happen made by Madhouse.
It was funny how ADV acted like a company with money that they didn’t have. With the sort of ambition they had its no wonder they went bankrupt and lost their throne as the #No1 anime licensor in the U.S. to Funimation.
Like Stilts, I would want to make my own anime. It might not sell but I would definitely treat the staff well. I know April 1 is over; however, I had a crazy idea today: make Salad Fingers the anime, from the Japanese perspective. Better yet, make it an isekai.
Where to begin? If I could give a lot of the Golden Age of Science Fiction to a major anime studio, there are plenty of tales, even from the 1930s pulp magazines, that would transfer well to a Japanese, American, or world audience. Especially when done without the present Illuminati symbolism in every Hollywood live-action movie or the “girls first, no matter what!” emphasis by Disney. A.E. Van Vogt’s Slan or World of Null-A series would be my first attempt, followed by Issac Asimov’s Lucky Starr series, his Black Widowers series, and finally his Foundation series. Imagine Philip José Farmer’s Dayworld or Riverworld series as done by Xebec. Alan Dean Foster’s Sentenced to Prism or The Tar-Aiym Krang as OVAs or movies. My list is legion.
I would love to see claymore, Rosario & Vampire, and Seikrei get animated to conclusion.
There is an on-going manhua called The Ravages of Time. To me it’s a wonderful depiction of the Three Kingdom period like none other. Every word, diplomatic relationships, geographic location, weather, action made or idleness are exploited as part of a chain stratagem. Strategist uses rumors as vanguards, and Lords has their reputation as shield. Like Kingdom, the heroic/bastardy actions of the Lords and generals can give great strength to the army moral, but the result of such actions are more within the confine of logistics, endurance, and other factors. A well disciplined army will still continue fighting efficiently even when their general loses in a one-on-one battle. A minor officer can still step up and use the army’s trained formation to repel attacks to a certain degree. Overall this will be my choice for animation.