Poll: Game of Thrones as an Anime (Animation) show

[Smiley Face]

Ladies and Gentlemen, here I show my most outragious idea yet - Make a Game of Thrones animation show. It is the only way to truly grasp the books as they were, show the large, epic battles described on print and show the massive ensemble... After all, some book-lovers might be complaining at the translation of Game of Thrones into thee tv show- but what if it's translated into animation?

Imagine the mountain fighting the viper, the massive wall being assaulted by thousands of wildlings and giants-riding-on-mammoths... Imagine The battle of the Blackwater in all of its splendor, with massive ships, carnage outside the walls and Davos's kids burnt to ashes...Imagine the sack of Meereen, the massive dragons of the last Targaryen, the battle of the whispering woods...

Anyway, what's your opinion? Can Game of Thrones work in animation?

Could it work? Yes. Given proper care, most stories can be adapted to a decent product from one medium to another. Would it be better than the television show? No.

Anime and animation have some strengths, but they have some weaknesses too. You're absolutely right in that anime is great at cost-effectively portraying things that would otherwise require SFX, meaning they can go all out with the dragons and magic and decapitations and giant armies and sprawling kingdoms.

But, that's not what Game of Thrones, or A Song of Ice and Fire, is really about. The epic battles and the swords and sorcery are secondary to the story's main focus, the complex interplay and development of characters. Yes, these great and epic things happen in the story, but just as much time, if not more, depending on whether you're referring to the books or the TV show, is spent with characters describing these events after they have happened. In the books, we only learn how the Battle of the Blackwater played out after Tyrion regains consciousness and hears about how Renly's ghost saved the day. All we know of Robb's war is what we learn from second-hand perspectives, either Cat hearing about it after the fact, Tyrion hearing about it from his father, or Arya or someone hearing about it from the commoners.

The series' strength is in how its characters develop and interact, and that is something that live-action does better than anime. Anime is good at stylized characters, playing to or against a set of tropes, but the flip-side of that is that when a show doesn't call for that, it can be hard for them to avoid it, and Game of Thrones tries to play its characters as complex, but down to earth. It tries to lend as much realism to things as possible so that when you have someone horrible, like Joffrey, or something horrible, like the Red Wedding, or something that breaks away from reality, like the Walkers, it has more impact because of that overall realism, and that's something that anime can't do as well as television.

And with a show where the characters drive the plot, their performances make or break the show, and anime is limited in how far it can go there, because they aren't real people, you can't get the subtleties of facial expression, body language, the overall gestalt physicality of the performance, in a way that you can express and fine-tune it with an actual person.

So yeah, I can't honestly say that it would be better as an anime. Lord of the Rings, maybe, the plot drives the characters more than vice versa, and the epic battles really are a bigger part of everything. But not Game of Thrones.

 

[Kaimax]

Man, the prejudices people have how anime is made and done is overly stupid. It's like they never watched a serious anime before.

Watch Berserk Period.

 

[Padwolf]

Nope, nope nope nope. But hear me out. I like anime. Serious anime can be great. However, A Song of Ice and Fire is not about the battles, it is more a character driven story. As someone else has already said, there is so much of it that is just two characters talking and nothing else. It just would not work the way typical anime is done. Again, as someone else has already said, the characters are complex and have emotions that can only be shown live action. It can be done as an anime but it would be nowhere near as good as the TV show. The big battles are not a major part of the story. It's perfect as a live action TV show.

 

[chimeracreator]

How about I call bullshit on this statement. I've been watching Japanese anime my entire life and I'll be damnned if I'm ever going to agree with this statement. Anything that has been done with live-action can be done with the animated medium.

I've felt every emotion that one can feel just because there was that multi-layered emotion there. If anything live actors have to work harder to make me feel the same way.

If you've seen Record of Lodoss War then I'd say it can most certainly be done. It's all about the right studio will to give the right amount of effort.

Go watch Fist of the North Star or Gundam 0079 or Macross Plus and dare to make that statement afterwards.

Cool, I've been watching anime most of my life too, and have watched episodes from every one of those series except Record of Lodoss War. That doesn't change the fact that no anime has ever managed to match the range of expression of a human face. Instead they rely of kabuki like conventions where certain actions are known to have obvious emotional meanings. This helps ensure that the audience knows exactly what is happening, but it doesn't match the real when done right. If you don't believe me watch the following two clips with your sound turned off and tell me which clip conveys more information?

Game of Thrones: http://youtu.be/Ph8yEdP0xO0?t=26s
Berserk: http://youtu.be/enY3sXZUwBI?t=6s (you can stop at 1:15 or so)

In the case of the Game of Thrones clip the full range of human expression is shown because it's a real person doing it. While in the Berserk clip limitations of the technology (limits that still exist) force the creators to throw up relatively static and stereotypical facial expressions to show a single emotion. This helps guarantee that the audience understands the message the creator wishes to convey, but it has all of the subtly of a kabuki mask.

Ultimately all of this boils down to the question of: "When it is good to restrict communications channels?" The answer is that it can be beneficial if by doing so you are able to better express the meaning or message that you want. A quick Google search for "percent of nonverbal communication" returns:

Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Messages, conducted several studies on nonverbal communication. He found that 7% of any message is conveyed through words, 38% through certain vocal elements, and 55% through nonverbal elements (facial expressions, gestures, posture, etc).

When using real actors you are able to use 100% of your communication channels, but if an actor is unable to control their vocal or nonverbal elements correctly you end up introducing noise that can waste up to 93% of your message. As animations employ voice actors they are on part for the 45% of the spoke message, but rely on the animators to match the remaining 55% of the non-verbal portions of the message. Given the limitations of our current technology we cannot fully saturate this communication stream, but a skilled animator can still use it to send some information and do it with as little noise as an equally skilled actor.

Now like I said before these restrictions can be useful. A book is limited to a mere 7% of the communication potential of a live speaker, but because all of the context around the words is removed it allows the author to communicate this information without worrying about sending a mixed signal. Instead they must spend time describing every bit of detail that can immediately be detected in the course of normal human interaction, and do so in a manner that ignores the portion of our brains that is purpose built for this task. http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-behaving/awareness-and-attention/articles/2010/about-face-how-the-brain-recognizes-and-processes-faces/

 

[Casual Shinji]

Can it work; Yes.

Will it work; No.

As has already been stated by Fox12 there's already a Game of Thrones equivalent in anime, and it's called Berserk. While the anime itself isn't that great in my opinion, the manga is absolutely genius. It's also a lot less prone to throw tits around than GoT despite the amount of tits already present.

Currently though anime can't even tie its own shoes without a heavy amount of teenage pandering, so while it can be done very well, it won't be.

 

[Colour Scientist]

It might work but I probably wouldn't watch it.

I love Game of Thrones for the drama and the characters, I don't think I'd be able to take it as seriously if it was in anime form.
That probably stems from my own hang-ups about anime but I think, for me, the show would lose a lot of its impact if it were animated, the actors are what make the show.

The battles might translate really well from the books but I don't watch/read Game of Thrones for the action sequences.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Maybe? I mean we already have anime that has sex and violence and well set in medievil fantasy (Berserk and Gantz) but other than that it can be a hit and missed (huge cast of characters and switching between perspectives).

 

[Saippua]

As western animation maybe, but not as anime, itd be atrocious

 

[TheIronRuler]

Ladies and Gentlemen, here I show my most outragious idea yet - Make a Game of Thrones animation show. It is the only way to truly grasp the books as they were, show the large, epic battles described on print and show the massive ensemble... After all, some book-lovers might be complaining at the translation of Game of Thrones into thee tv show- but what if it's translated into animation?

Imagine the mountain fighting the viper, the massive wall being assaulted by thousands of wildlings and giants-riding-on-mammoths... Imagine The battle of the Blackwater in all of its splendor, with massive ships, carnage outside the walls and Davos's kids burnt to ashes...Imagine the sack of Meereen, the massive dragons of the last Targaryen, the battle of the whispering woods...

Anyway, what's your opinion? Can Game of Thrones work in animation?

They already have this. It's called Berserk, and it's better than Game of Thrones by far. You should check it out, if you like fantasy.

.
Berserk is old. I've been reading berserk up to the fairy island arc (it's when I lost interest/the will to carry on with such a slow update speed). I've watched the animations, and it's just plain old. You can't compete with the manga's incredible drawings, but the animation in Berserk is just...eh. Especially the movies.

*shudders*

 

[Avalanche91]

Can it work; Yes.

Will it work; No.

Pretty much this. There is so much that could go wrong with it and ruin the whole thing. The animation needs to be at least a 9 on the Miyazaki scale, the writer's need to understand and respect the source material, the studio must not push for a japanimizatition of the show, the voice actors need to bring their A-game, the japanese audience need to support it so it gets more than one season...... I could go on.

Point of the matter is: it is much more likely for such a project to flop than to get the anime equivalent of the HBO show.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

Considering that it's getting adapted into every medium already, I don't see why not

Seriously, we have a graphic novel of the thing so why not go crazy and shit?

 

[Vidiot421]

At least they have Jon Snow for the generic "pretty boy who mopes around, and has an OK 'average' life until a woman shows up and changes everything" protagonist.

 

[Jandau]

I honestly don't see why not. I mean, if you hate anime or animation on general principle, that's your problem, but I don't see anything in A Song of Ice and Fire (yes, that's the actual name of the series, Game of Thrones is just the name of the first book and is the name of the show because the creators weren't sure they'd get beyond first season) inherently incompatible with animation in general, or anime as a type of animation.

Honestly, it might turn out cool and might make for a less stripped down adaptation of the story than the show was (due to how expensive live-action fantasy can get). It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I don't see why not, at least on general principle...

 

[Julius Terrell]

I honestly don't see why not. I mean, if you hate anime or animation on general principle, that's your problem, but I don't see anything in A Song of Ice and Fire (yes, that's the actual name of the series, Game of Thrones is just the name of the first book and is the name of the show because the creators weren't sure they'd get beyond first season) inherently incompatible with animation in general, or anime as a type of animation.

Honestly, it might turn out cool and might make for a less stripped down adaptation of the story than the show was (due to how expensive live-action fantasy can get). It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I don't see why not, at least on general principle...

I like this guy's answer I think of the no answers stem from the fact that either most hate animation as a medium, or have a hatred for anime.

In a world that is already bias toward live action, it's a no win situation. Look at spawn: The tv series. It had an excellent story, and the animation style really suited the show. The show still got canceled for some unknown reason. The animation age Ghetto is quite real.

People like me are relegated to obscurity, because I'm an adult who prefers animation over live action.

While I'm at it, I want to see The Wheel of Time made into an anime series. That's the only way it can be done right.

Also, I forgot to mention that Monster is being adapted into a live action show to air on HBO. I mean WTF??? Just show the original TV show, because it's fucking brilliant. I guess the hatred for animation here is just that strong. It's just really sad that people get to miss out on a quality anime series, and an opportunity to show people that Japanese anime is quite capable of producing a high quality work.

 

[TheIceQueen]

Fuck no.

Like seriously, no. No. Noooooooooo.

What would even be the point? Game of Thrones isn't Lord of the rings, it isn't about grand epic splendor, nto about massive visuals or huge battles. It's very much character driven.

In fact, I don't think you've realised how much of game of thrones is just two or more characters talking and doing nothing else, which would be pretty boring for an animation, as well as pointless.

Besides, you do know that Anime is just animation, right? Or rather, a specific kind of it. I don't really see why you'd want a specific kind of animation when any can actually do grandness well.

I have to agree with SecretNegative here, especially seeing as how the books don't really show that many battles at all and the few that are ad-libbed by the show are small in comparison, such as the Daario, Grey Worm, and Jorah fight. Admittedly, I haven't read Dance with Dragons yet, because it started off pretty boring, but from what I've read, only two major battles are ever really shown, that being the battle at the Wall and the Battle of the Blackwater, the latter of which is most definitely fine in the show and is grand enough. Other than those two, most of how we're treated to the wars are the characters talking about tactics or else arguing/discussing about the battle after it happened.

There's just no reason to make it an animation when very little of animation's advantages would be useful for a show where they're mostly doing nothing.

 

[FPLOON]

I... think it would work better as a manga, instead...

Then again, as others have pointed out, there's Berserk... So, there's that...

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I don't know but I would watch a anime adaptation of game of thrones made by the studio that created Attack on Titan.

It would be hilarious and badass at the same time.

I WILL KILL ALL THE WHITE WALKERS!

Well consider me sold on this concept. I voted yes if only because the idea of making things into an anime makes a lot of people butt hurt. Though GoT isn't really that far off from an anime when you think about it. Many of the protagonists are teenagers, there's a good amount of tits in it, twincest, the series is based on an ongoing book series, etc

 

[Magmarock]

It's like arguing whether the Lord of the Rings was better as an animated movie or as Peter Jackson's trilogy. An animation allowed pretty unfeasible scenes and unique character designs to come to life without donning rubber suits or abusing CG graphics. But Peter Jackson's trilogy showed that it's still possible to have enormous battles and make it look good and exciting without sacrificing creative assets.

No real right answer, but I think most of us think the live action show is pretty faithful and isn't falling too short of what we wanted.

There is an animated version of Lord of the Rings. It was out before the Peter Jackson version too. Look it up it's quite fascinating.

 

[TheIronRuler]

I don't know but I would watch a anime adaptation of game of thrones made by the studio that created Attack on Titan.

It would be hilarious and badass at the same time.

I WILL KILL ALL THE WHITE WALKERS!

Well consider me sold on this concept. I voted yes if only because the idea of making things into an anime makes a lot of people butt hurt. Though GoT isn't really that far off from an anime when you think about it. Many of the protagonists are teenagers, there's a good amount of tits in it, twincest, the series is based on an ongoing book series, etc

.
Bonus points for the anime if we get actual ages of characters right and watch them grow up and mature during the series.