What I mean by “the point of adaptations” isn’t “the point where adaptations start sucking”, but more of like “what is the point of adaptations?” After all, regardless of how good or bad an adaptation will be, you’ll always have the grassroots insisting on the superiority of the original. The fanbase is fickle and insatiable, which means most, if not all of the discussions will result in a discordant clamour of “YOU NEVER SAW HOW BRILLIANT THE MANGA WAS”, or “YOU’RE BIASED BECAUSE YOU READ IT FIRST”.

Which brings me to two shows, both brilliant manga in their own domains: Bokurano and Claymore. I thought it’d be a good opportunity to review the anime for both seeing how they’re both based off a manga; furthermore, I’ve only read the manga for Claymore, and only saw the anime adaptation of Bokurano. So I have two questions:

What can be really constituted as perception bias? How should an adaptation from its source material, be it a visual novel, manga, or light novel, be truly judged? I find these questions to be of utmost relevance especially in this Autumn season for the top-tier, or at least what I perceive as the fandom perceiving as top-tier anime, i.e. Clannad and Shana II, happen to be adaptations too.

The first question isn’t something I’ve got a ready answer for, although I’ll attempt to answer it anyway. I don’t think the need is there to get all hoity-toity and assume a avowedly academic stance in an attempt to isolate and quantify bias scientifically — anime blogging is first and foremost about taste, which means that the data procured is qualitative, in turn meaning that any attempt s at all will be a subjective, individual affair.

Of course that doesn’t mean we should kid ourselves and pretend we’re not at all biased when we dive into an anime still carrying a torch for the omniscient quality of the original text, the gorgeous rendition of the CG pictures, or even the detailed fight scenes in the tankoubons. Remembering how it was done back in the day is one thing, constantly (and unfairly) comparing it in a self-justified manner is another.

Perhaps the key word at the end of it all would be moderation. The source is there not as a benchmark but as a yardstick by which to measure how well things are. It doesn’t have to, or can’t replicate the glory of the original per se, because differences in media mean that no matter how much you try, that same experience you had while consuming the original will never be there, and if you’re dead set on thinking otherwise, well, get over yourself. This is all really common sense.

a show like this would be boring, only because any melodrama stemming from a death could be easily nullified through fate, history, gaps, or even Master Spark… wait, would Zearth even be necessary?

The second, and infinitely more important question that isn’t a mere splitting of hairs, would be the means by which an adaptation should be judged. Should they even be at all? My answer to that is a definite yes. Without a measure of comparison back to the source it would be as if the anime was original material, and while in a perfect world we’d be able to isolate our tangible memories of something and shove them aside for true impartiality, I’m afraid we’ll have to make do with other measures for now.

I finished Bokurano yesterday, having done a marathon on episodes 14-24, and I unashamedly admit to crying multiple times while watching it, whether in the previous 13 episodes or otherwise. For the record, I’ve had zero experience with the manga, wanting to steer clear of any potential spoilers and plot twists to ensure full enjoyment of what seemed like a series with potential. Now that I’m done with it, I’m not that sure I want to revisit my intention of going through the source material.

While we’re on the subject of family, I’d like to state for the record that Clannad will fail, at least in my eyes, if it doesn’t explore the subject of family in the same degree of magnitude as Bokurano did. For all the obvious genre conventions of mecha, and to a lesser extent character death/society structure, it had the theme of family as a solid base on which it built its characters, ensuring that even if they were going to hit the dust eventually, as all 15 of them do (oh noes, spoilers), you’d be able to empathise with some, if not all of them.

Bokurano, then. I’ll be elaborating on it specifically in another post, but I’m pretty much convinced of Bokurano’s brilliance as an anime. The music by Yuuji Nomi is nothing short of genius work; quirky, syncopated piano or heart-rending violin slipped in as an afterthought that ensure it’s lifted above what was originally black and white print on cheap paper in those monthly manga magazines.

It’s where I think an adaptation should be judged — not whether it’s like the original, but whether or not it manages to capture the brilliance of the original. I’ve mentioned this in my review of the Honey & Clover live action movie, and I’ll say it again. Bokurano’s been a powerful journey, even if it seemed like it was going through the shotgun approach that harem/bishoujo anime are more often than not accused of doing. On the other hand, you could very well say that it had a diverse cast whose backgrounds collectively made up a truer representation of family than most, which is what I ultimately saw it doing.

If that was the case, it would then appear to be that Bokurano’s excellence did prevail, stemmed from a true to life portrayal of the sometimes harrowing, sometimes tragic life that many are prone towards having with our parents or family. The arrival of Zearth and Dung Beetle only draws this to the surface like a tasty bait would a large fish — the cast, rather than being a mere group of fifteen run-of-the-mill teens, now possess substantial depth. Their backstory gives them weight, instead of being an obligatory sacrifice to be endured every episode, and this is where the anime rises above the manga through its powerful voice acting and moving, symphonic music.

Compare this then to Claymore.

don’t forget to Awaken, yo!

While a few of you might think otherwise, I’ve been of the opinion that Claymore pretty much failed towards the end as far as the anime was concerned. This isn’t like the usual sentiment of “the manga isn’t finished, they should’ve known better”, although I do find it being guilty of doing so.

I’m more concerned how badly it detracted from the manga in a more abstract sense: in spirit, if you may. While it kept faithfully to the manga for the most part, the ending required a stretch of the imagination for those who’d read the manga. Jean walking all the way to the volcano with what she’d later call a mortal wound? That was still fine, but what about Clare tapping into her inner Teresa and going bankai on Priscilla? Still mildly tolerable, since there’s got to be some finale to top it off.

What I didn’t like about it was the way it had to resort to typical shounen conventions, as many noticed. While the justification people gave (”it was the best ending they could have mustered”) was passable, it struck me as a weak attempt to settle things while still leaving room open for another season. Who can blame them? Well, I can, for the last time I saw an anime end like this was in Trinity Blood, where the author of the light novels died.

Claymore, while not toying with the ideas of absolutely mind-blowing power levels or giving individuality to a bunch of indistinguishable superhumans, was all about the short and sweet battles. Fights didn’t go on for the sake of expanding on the plot (they actually had, shockingly enough, actual conversation outside the battlefield) but were instead tightly choreographed, no battle going on for longer than necessary.

The ending was butchered in that sense, made terrible with its tough posturing, antagonist taunting, protagonist remembering what she was fighting for, and everything in-between. Instead of demonstrations of vast power and how intelligent, calculated moves more often than not overcame that, it became a battle of glowing auras and high-pitched grunting, before finally putting I-should-have-been-long-dead-by-this-point Jean to rest.

Did that make Claymore automatically awful as a whole? Not really. Although that might be my possibly biased side speaking; I just felt like I had to voice out about what I felt digressed from the spirit of Claymore too much. What do you think about adaptations, and do you see them as failing or winning when they fail or manage to do the above?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 1:37 am and is filed under Anime, Manga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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