fireweed

Oh sweet, I’ll go check it out!

Oh I’ve been around the scene long enough to remember what it was like back before anime studios started adapting manga into anime panel-by-panel as a default. Some of those 90s series in particular had horrible filler (not just filler arcs, randomly-inserted filler scenes, as well as other highly-questionable changes to the source material). It was a huge relief when anime adaptations started becoming way more faithful to the source material in the 00s.

The problem is that when adapting the story from one medium to another, panel-by-panel adaptation means taking pacing that fits the manga format and awkwardly forcing it into the anime format. So when I say that 5 minutes of manga content gets dragged out to 22 minutes of anime content, I’m not referring to filler, I’m speaking to the nature of the manga vs anime media. In other words, a 5-minute manga chapter turns into a 22-minute anime episode once dialogue is spoken, actions are animated, sound effects are given auditory form, etc. (after all, think about how much faster it is to read dialogue vs speak it aloud, and how much quicker it is to flip through a manga’s action scene of a few panels vs watching the scene fully animated). Sure some substance is added through the addition of a soundtrack, visual flare, and such, however as far as plot, character development, theme development, etc go, you end up with less substance per minute of experience… and it takes a lot of soundtrack and visual flare to compensate for that. Some series pull it off, but it takes a lot of effort, skill, and more importantly, budget, for it to be truly successful. And even then, the thing about manga is that the reader gets to control the pace (they can decide whether to read slowly and savor the experience, or speed through it and absorb as much content as possible as quickly as possible), whereas with anime you cannot (unless you start fiddling with playback speed, which is much more effortful and affects the quality of the work dramatically).

Thank you!

Thank you! I thought I heard Nitter got taken down, but the link works for me so shrug

The pacing in manga (especially compared to any adaptations) is almost always better. With only a handful of exceptions, anime is too dragged out, which ruins action, humor, and drama alike. It shouldn’t take 22 minutes to adapt ~5 minutes of manga content. I said what I said.

Can we keep the “no smoking inside commercial establishments” policy at least? Otherwise I’m down.

Yuri Camp

Typo, or Freudian slip? ;)

I’m a little surprised too, although I was personally disappointed with the series (read the manga some years back, haven’t seen the anime). It was educational for a shonen series, but that’s a pretty low bar. I found the science references to be somewhat shallow, and they gave way to action pretty quickly, as if the series used science as an aesthetic rather than a premise. Felt like wasted potential imo.

One of the great things about anime is that it’s already somewhat niche and already attracts nerds, so why not lean into it? Make that historically-accurate horse-racing series! Recreate real plays from top sports games! Geek out about your special interest; there’s bound to be an audience of other otaku who are also into that! Unfortunately a lot of the especially niche subjects don’t make it to an official English translation, but that’s where scanlations come to the rescue to fill in the gaps.

I’ve never seen Umamusume, but from what I’ve heard it’s shockingly high effort; the historical accuracy doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’d be interested in a breakdown from someone who specializes in Chinese history of the accuracy of Apothecary Diaries (on the surface it seems at least somewhat accurate, but it also feels a bit romanticized… I want to believe!). Vinland Saga didn’t seem quite my taste so I’ve never seen it. Tanya the Evil is awesome, but I think it’s much more on the “inspired by” side of historical (makes for a great aesthetic, though).

That is super cool! I had never heard of this; thanks for sharing.

I hope inter-species love was the cause of our mixed DNA and not, you know, the other thing…

MEMES ARE REAL LIFE!!!1