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Which english books would make good japanese anime adaptations?

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Aoede Since: Jan, 2001
#51: Dec 24th 2010 at 8:11:10 AM

Mought as well make it Western Animation and have Barker hisself on board.

MrDanhattan Since: Aug, 2010
#52: Dec 24th 2010 at 9:21:05 AM

Retribution Falls/Black Lung Captain seem like rather theatrical books, and the characters are certainly distinct. Makes sense to me at least.

Wicked223 from Death Star in the forest Since: Apr, 2009
#53: Dec 24th 2010 at 9:23:53 AM

Twilight written by Rumiko Takahashi.

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!
Bur from Flyover Country (Living Relic) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#54: Dec 24th 2010 at 9:26:26 AM

Intriguing, if she can keep it to a reasonable length.

Sparkysharps Since: Jan, 2001
#55: Dec 25th 2010 at 4:12:47 PM

[up] You kiddin?' it'll go on for ten years minimum, and the official couple will only get as far as holding hands by the finale.

edited 25th Dec '10 4:12:55 PM by Sparkysharps

MajorTom Since: Dec, 2009
#56: Dec 26th 2010 at 6:00:34 PM

^ I'd pay money to see that kind of ridiculous Adaptation Decay applied to Twilight. It would probably be much better than the original book.

KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#57: Dec 26th 2010 at 6:19:57 PM

Because Hollywood shits things up, while comparatively little is shat up with Japanese doujinshi studios.

<eyetwitch>

Not even getting into that particular bit of blatant bias, I will note that the use of the term "Hollywood" is likely inaccurate, as most things dealing with animation do not actually focus there.

In particular, as I said before, there isn't much precedent for this sort of thing in the opposite direction (that is, a Japanese story or piece of literature being adapted into a new English medium), unless you count translations, which I don't because they're not the same thing.

edited 26th Dec '10 6:20:26 PM by KnownUnknown

Malkavian What is this from madness Since: Jan, 2001
What is this
#58: Dec 28th 2010 at 12:32:12 PM

I'd like to see the Phillip Marlowe novels get a treatment similar to Gankutsuou with The Count Of Monte Cristo where they put it in a fantastic setting and make Marlowe a... I dunno a vulcan or something.

"Everyone wants an answer, don't they?... I hate things with answers." — Grant Morrison
Bur from Flyover Country (Living Relic) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#59: Dec 28th 2010 at 1:02:58 PM

I would may good money to see Marlowe as a Vulcan.

Yuanchosaan antic disposition from Australia Since: Jan, 2010
antic disposition
#60: Dec 29th 2010 at 1:33:47 AM

There's already a Twilight manga, so that's one step closer.

An anime adaptation of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series would interest me.

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj
Sparkysharps Since: Jan, 2001
#61: Dec 30th 2010 at 11:29:23 PM

^ I'd like to see a Warbreaker adaptation myself, if only because Siri inexplicably looks like a Miyazaki heroine in my head.

Also, it would be done by Studio BONES (or Ghibli, due to aforementioned Miyazaki heroine thing), because if your going to adapt a story about color, you better make it really fucking pretty.

edited 30th Dec '10 11:30:14 PM by Sparkysharps

BalloonFleet MASTER-DEBATER from Chicago, IL, USA Since: Jun, 2010
MASTER-DEBATER
#62: Dec 31st 2010 at 1:31:29 AM

<eyetwitch> Not even getting into that particular bit of blatant bias, I will note that the use of the term "Hollywood" is likely inaccurate, as most things dealing with animation do not actually focus there.

Note that I am a kawaii-and-uguu-using-weeaboo. There [lol]

In particular, as I said before, there isn't much precedent for this sort of thing in the opposite direction (that is, a Japanese story or piece of literature being adapted into a new English medium), unless you count translations, which I don't because they're not the same thing.

I meant a general trend of japanese taking western concepts and not butchering them too badly, but point taken as I don't know of many american-made shows that were directly converted into japanese as opposed to concepts and trends borrowed (E.g. Heroman, Panty and Stocking). And I'm too sleepy to think too well ;_;

edited 31st Dec '10 1:33:12 AM by BalloonFleet

WHASSUP....... ....with lolis!
Malkavian What is this from madness Since: Jan, 2001
What is this
#63: Dec 31st 2010 at 1:46:52 PM

Come to think of it, the Drizzt Do'Urden novels would be much better as an anime.

"Everyone wants an answer, don't they?... I hate things with answers." — Grant Morrison
sz σχίζω from over there Since: Apr, 2009
σχίζω
#64: Dec 31st 2010 at 5:35:45 PM

Jack Kerouac's On the Road.

...on a more serious note, Dr. Sax.

"Good year and model, but Vladimir Putin is strangling journalists in the back seat."
Anarchy just a medicine seller from Perak, Malaysia Since: Jun, 2010
just a medicine seller
#65: Jan 1st 2011 at 8:42:16 AM

^^ One season per book, yes? :) Or, do you think that we could fit, say, the first three books into the first season or something like that?

Jordan Azor Ahai from Westeros Since: Jan, 2001
Azor Ahai
#66: Jan 1st 2011 at 11:09:29 PM

Thought of a good one- The Trial by Studio Shaft and the makers of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

Hodor
Scardoll Burn Since: Nov, 2010
Burn
#67: Jan 1st 2011 at 11:30:41 PM

The idea that the Japanese can't shit up an English work is hilarious. Have you seen the Magic The Gathering Brothers War manga? They got Urza and Mishra switched up and turned into bishounen! The two main characters!

As for a good book-to-anime adaptation? Probably not the Dresden Files. A lot of the humor from the books comes from English pop cultural references, and the books are very American in terms of feel. Despite the geographical errors in the first few novels, Chicago is still a necessary element. A Japanese adaptation would have to preserve the tone along with the action, and unless it's filled with Woolseyisms with the source material to appeal to the Japanese, I doubt there's any chance of success of capturing the original tone.

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.
KnightofLsama Since: Sep, 2010
#68: Jan 2nd 2011 at 2:00:16 AM

English pop cultural references, and the books are very American in terms of feel

Hey, it worked for Black Lagoon.

Scardoll Burn Since: Nov, 2010
Burn
#69: Jan 2nd 2011 at 2:24:01 AM

Yeah, but Black Lagoon was translated one way; a supposed Dresden Files anime would have to be Woolseyed from English to Japanese and back to English.

The only way I could see that happening is with very clever translators who can match the tone of the original for the Japanese adaptation and translators who have access to and are willing to read the original books for the Japanese to English translation.

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.
DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#70: Jan 2nd 2011 at 4:09:15 AM

I have to say, it's funny how the title of this thread is "English books" (including all of the Anglosphere, I guess), yet I'm seeing people mention works by Dostoyevsky, Kafka and Ariosto.

edited 2nd Jan '11 4:09:32 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

Anarchy just a medicine seller from Perak, Malaysia Since: Jun, 2010
just a medicine seller
#71: Jan 2nd 2011 at 5:51:16 AM

I assume by English books the OP meant books that exist in English?

edited 2nd Jan '11 5:51:31 AM by Anarchy

KnightofLsama Since: Sep, 2010
#72: Jan 2nd 2011 at 2:23:09 PM

[up][up][up] Actually the point I was making that a lot of the US pop-culture references in Black Lagoon aren't from the translation, they're in the original Japanese. Obviously you wouldn't be able to include all the references that Harry drops on a routine basis but it probably wouldn't be too hard to get a good selection that would work for both English speaking and Japanese audiences and maintain Harry's pop culture credentials.

The real question is, who do you get to voice Harry. I'm inclined to think Tomokazu Sugita or Takehito Koyasu

Kraken Since: Jun, 2012
Yuval Since: May, 2013
#74: Jan 12th 2011 at 1:01:16 AM

I would love to see purely-visual-medium Abarat of some description, but it would really have to be done well. If the art style wasn't exactly right, it would just been unwatchable. No matter how good the animation was otherwise, it would have to look just perfectly Barkeresque.

Seconding this. Barker's already an artist; have you seen the illustrated edition of Abarat (or are all the editions illustrated)? It's amazing. Hard to animate, of course, but if the anime industry can produce something like Mononoke, then I don't see why it'd be impossible to distill Barker's style down into something easier to work with.

An animated Abarat would be great, but even more than that, I'd like to see an animated Weaveworld.

ssfsx17 crazy and proud of it Since: Jun, 2009
crazy and proud of it
#75: Jan 12th 2011 at 11:35:43 AM

The Great Gatsby — the voice acting would be awesome

The Old Man And The Sea — directed by Mamoru Oshii

Don Quixote — directed by Satoshi Kon

Call Of The Wild — by Studio BONES

Dune — by the people who did the anime series for Toward The Terra, done as a full 26-episode anime series, plus an additional 13 episodes for each of the sequel books.


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