It’s common knowledge within the anime fandom that series based off of on-going manga or light novels resort to producing original episodes, which serve as padding, in order for the anime’s story to maintain a certain distance from the original story.
However, there’s somewhat of an inherent problem with fillers or anime-original episodes. Half of the time they’re bad, sometimes they’re decent, and very rarely are they ever as good as the genuine articles. More on this after the jump.
So, after Toei’s anime was cancelled after adapting the first seven volumes like total spazzes, Konami and Nihon Ad Systems decided to make their own Yu-Gi-Oh! adaptation two years later. Only this adaptation was made to be a pure advertisement for their card game. This was their plan: skip the first seven volumes of the manga, remove everything unrelated to Duel Monsters before and after (or make them related), and go straight to the first story arc where Duel Monsters take center stage as the main game – Duelist Kingdom. King of “Games”, my ass.
Problem is, it doesn’t completely skip the first seven volumes, per se. They decided to mesh up elements from the early manga and re-imagine them in their Duel Monsters-centric anime (such as characters), creating one of the worst introduction sagas in an anime to ever hit television. Ever. To name one, Seto Kaiba, the #1 gamer in Japan and poster boy for Magic & Wizards (as the card game is called in the Japanese manga), had his whole arc rewritten as the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.
Basically, the whole first episode is a “kitbash” of his two introduction chapters from the manga and the Death-T saga, a story revolving around his “amusement” park of deadly games – all designed to kill Yuugi and his friends in the name of vengeance. Needless to say, skipping seven volume’s worth of details and rewriting one volume’s worth of events into one anime episode will always result in one thing:
Total. BS.
This episode was Yu-Gi-Oh!‘s official anime debut, based on chapter one of the manga, “The Puzzle of the Gods.” As you can guess, it shows Yuugi completing the Sennen Puzzle and awakening his other half “Dark Yuugi”, befriending Jonouchi, and starting his spree of mindraping just about anyone that messes with him or his friends/family through Games of Darkness.
Appropriately, the first episode is one of the more faithful episodes of this anime, despite some characterization changes and the Game of Darkness between Yuugi and Ushio (no, not the cute one from CLANNAD xD) being completely different, as well as his Penalty Game.
Continue reading Yu-Gi-Oh! (1998 Toei Animation) 01 Manga Comparison
So I just got around to reading Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: The Innocent Malice, up to the latest chapter. Suffice to say, it starts out pretty happy, but since I’ve watch the original Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime series, the quick shift to utter darkness didn’t catch me off guard this time around.
I have to say, the plot twist in chapter 14 was pretty awesome, especially since you can spot some clever foreshadowing while re-reading previous chapters. 😀 Even though it isn’t written by Gen Urobuchi, the overall spirit and mood of its parent series is still there, and is emulated perfectly by Maaki Hiramatsu. Kind of miss Ume Aoki’s designs though, but Takashi Tensugi’s art is pretty. This spin-off seems to have much more yuri undertones than its parent series did (which all could have been taken out of context, for all we know), so I’m a happy man. <3
Without being as spoilerish as possible, I summarize my thoughts on the latest chapter in two words: POOR KAZUMI.
And also…
(BEWARE)
Continue reading You Can’t Fool Me Twice! (Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: The Innocent Malice)
Don’t worry… Ahnnnnn~… Readers… I’ll write for you.
The craziest anime series of the Fall 2011 just came to a close, but it left with me with something that didn’t live up to the zany expectations of the middle episodes. Not to say it was disappointing, but it felt that something was missing. No, rather, it felt like something was out of place. It’s been a fun ride, Mirai Nikki, especially not starting off as a reader of the manga, but I must say… why?
…until someone pointed them out to me, and thus I shall never unsee.
Continue reading Three clichés in Japanese fiction that I hardly ever noticed
Holy effin’ balls. This is the creepiest manga I’ve ever read. No bullshit. Screw Higurashi. Screw Battle Royale. Screw that Highschool of the Dead BS. This is true horror on black and white pages.
I recommend everyone to kill their lights and read this (unless you somehow manage to get a hold of the actual book, in which case turning off the lights will be fucking stupid). This will make you piss your pants if you happen to have a little sister. Why, you ask? Read it and it will ALL make sense to you. I’m not taking out the trash EVER again.
(Yeah, I didn’t finish blogging the summer season. Sue me. My priorities at the moment are: college prep stuff > video games > anime. Too bad they’re not in the order in which I would prefer them to be. As an apology, here’s a funny video Steven showed me, which he found on VG Cats (wait, they actually updated?!). Cookies for anyone who can point out the person who is most likely saying “yyeah bitches” during that Black Friday stampede.)
It’s a school day and writer’s block calls for fanart dump.
Bonus 4koma (Strip #1. Yes, there will be more). An inside joke between the lazy co-writer (Steven) and I.
Emil Castagnier (Tales of Symphonia -Knight of Ratatosk-)
Plue (Rave Master)
Daisuke/Riku (D•N•Angel) (version 2 has slight differences)
All done with a mouse on Manga Studio EX 4.0. No tablets (everything would look better with tablets :P). Lightly-colored for an extra innocent chibi effect. Enjoy.
As I thought, mirror boy turned out to be a douche that’s trying to take Daisuke’s place in the real world. When Daisuke got sucked into the world of Insomnia, I figured it was either because Insomnia was lonely or he wanted to become the new Daisuke. His motive was pretty predictable, but other than that, these recent chapters were pretty interesting reads.
Where have I been these past two days? I’ve been getting back into the D•N•Angel manga, along with a ton of other shoujo manga. I had to marathon a lot of D•N•Angel chapters, since it took one long ass hiatus and my memory of it is pretty iffy.
I forgot how much this manga got me high on kawaii, especially with the Daisuke x Riku pairing. <3 Very good shoujo manga. This definitely needs a new anime adaptation once Sugisaki is finished with the manga! =)
Oh well. They were pretty convenient sites whenever I was on a budget or in a hurry for some good manga reading. Not that big of a loss, at least for me. Granted, it was fun browsing through random titles and reading whatever looked interesting immediately.
As long as they don’t purge the whole internet of scanlation sites, I’m cool with this. That kind of move would be one of the most retarded moves the manga industry could ever make. I know a good amount of people (including me) that like to read unlicensed titles before they hit the United States, to make sure we like it or not, before buying (in extreme cases, some titles don’t get licensed at all). Nothing beats holding the actual manga books!
I can understand the Japanese manga industry intervening, since a good amount of bastard-fans over there like to pirate raw scans and scanlations despite having access to those products.
Manga isn’t even that expensive in Japan, compared to the DVDs and video games. It’s not even expensive at all. They’re cheaper than manga books in the United States. Way to potentially screw some of us over. ):<
I’ll give you a cookie if you can name all three characters and where they originated. 😛
The list is in no specific order. #5 may apply to other countries, as well. Also note that I’m against these opinions, not siding with them.
Continue reading Top 10 Xenophobic/Ignorant Attitudes Aimed Towards Japanese Media
First name: 安昂 Last name: Brown… Wait, what?
Most of us tend to despise live action adaptations of the anime/manga and cartoons we love, mostly because there is always something wrong with them. Whether it be adaptation decay, whitewashing, miscasting, character derailment… you name it. Most of the live action adaptations I’ve ever hated come from Hollywood because they usually combine all of these elements into one big clusterfuck of fail.
Do not proceed if you are a white supremacist, a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, or if you enjoyed most of his movies that are not The Sixth Sense.
Continue reading The Problem with Live Action Adaptations in Hollywood
Seriously, I totally forgot about it. Apparently Arakawa forgot about it too… or didn’t bring it up on purpose because Mustang hasn’t become the Fuhrer yet. A mention of it would have been nice, though. I guess she left it up for the readers to decide.
So, do YOU think Roy will ever get his money back? 😛
Or did that smart bastard Ed manage to get away with not paying the Flame Alchemist back? F-F-F-F-F
And so goes the fandom I’ve been following for god knows how long. First anime was a mixed bag, monthly waits for the manga chapters were a torture, and the second anime brought me into an adrenaline rush that was certainly not good for my health. But let me say this: it was worth the ride and I’m very happy that I got to see this series develop during these past several years.
(My thoughts on the manga version here.)
Continue reading Fullmetal Analysis: Comprehension, Deconstruction, & Reconstruction (Series End)
Keep moving forward.
All good things must come to an en-
Orite… the last episode of the 2009 anime hasn’t aired yet. My bad. Spoilers ahead.
OH. MY. GAWD. KOBATO.
Despite my being giddy over the anime adaptation coming out when it was first revealed months ago, I never actually got around to watching it because I forgot about it being made (T_T). I wasn’t paying attention to CLAMP in general towards the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, and frankly, I should stab myself for it.
Now that I have gotten around to watching, I must say, I’m impressed with what MADHOUSE has done with it. They’ve met my expectations and have earned more respect from me, on top of my already-high respect for them.
Continue reading Kobato ♥ anime (first impressions) eps 01 – 02
