Unless you live under a rock or, heaven forbid, you're not a fan of Japanese cartoons, you may have realised that Full Metal Alchemist, the most popular anime ever made if wikipedia isn't lying to me, is being remade in a more 'true to the manga' format.
For the life of me I can't decide whether this is a good or a bad thing. Western comic book to movie conversions have been plagued for years by crazy fans that insist that movies stay as close to the source material as possible even if the original content doesn't work in the context of a movie. Japan on the other hand seems a tad more relaxed on this front (or maybe I just don't have to listen to the fans whine because my Japanese is piss poor) often accepting massive changes when and where necessary.
Some of you might remember the latest Hellsing Ovas which attempted to redo the series pretty much scene for scene from the manga, I certainly do, the art was hideous, the story stilted and the animation hampered by the dogmatic adherence to the manga's shot layout. While the introduction of missing characters such as the Wild Geese was welcome there simply wasn't enough differences from the original anime version to make it worth owning. All in all it felt like a cash in.
Now with Full Metal Alchemist there are a few mitigating factors. There simply wasn't enough Manga material to make a whole series at the time so they simply took a wild guess at where it would go (ironically their guess was twice as good as the direction the manga actually took) and the series really took off in it's second season onwards. A lot of the awesome story elements the anime brought to the table such as
will be retconned out of existence.
Then again on the other hand the series is being done by Bones and it feels very close to the original anime (one of my favourites) in it's look and feel. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to sit through the god damn origin story, again, urgh.
So yeah, what do you think? Do western move conversions and manga-anime conversions have to be as close to the source material as possible? Is this an attempt to please the hardcore fans or just an attempt to squeeze more money out of an epic franchise? Or is it both?
For the life of me I can't decide whether this is a good or a bad thing. Western comic book to movie conversions have been plagued for years by crazy fans that insist that movies stay as close to the source material as possible even if the original content doesn't work in the context of a movie. Japan on the other hand seems a tad more relaxed on this front (or maybe I just don't have to listen to the fans whine because my Japanese is piss poor) often accepting massive changes when and where necessary.
Some of you might remember the latest Hellsing Ovas which attempted to redo the series pretty much scene for scene from the manga, I certainly do, the art was hideous, the story stilted and the animation hampered by the dogmatic adherence to the manga's shot layout. While the introduction of missing characters such as the Wild Geese was welcome there simply wasn't enough differences from the original anime version to make it worth owning. All in all it felt like a cash in.
Now with Full Metal Alchemist there are a few mitigating factors. There simply wasn't enough Manga material to make a whole series at the time so they simply took a wild guess at where it would go (ironically their guess was twice as good as the direction the manga actually took) and the series really took off in it's second season onwards. A lot of the awesome story elements the anime brought to the table such as
Hayne's death, Ed's mom being a homunculus, Kind Bradley being the last homunculus etc
Then again on the other hand the series is being done by Bones and it feels very close to the original anime (one of my favourites) in it's look and feel. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to sit through the god damn origin story, again, urgh.
So yeah, what do you think? Do western move conversions and manga-anime conversions have to be as close to the source material as possible? Is this an attempt to please the hardcore fans or just an attempt to squeeze more money out of an epic franchise? Or is it both?
