Has an Anime producer ever asked to do the EC books?

[Chief Wiggum]

I quite enjoy watching (some) anime and the producers never seem worried about having to be conventional.

So I just womndered if any had ever been in touch regarding doing Anime version of the Elric/Eternal Champion stories?

Personally I imagine in the right hands it could be done successfully, as well as be faithful to the books (or at least a lot more faithful than I imagine most Hollywood producers would be willing to be).

[Governor of Rowe Island]

Just thought I'd bump this, in case Mike had missed it.

[L'Etranger]

With all respect, I would certainly be put off by EC stories in shape of Animأ© which I find always very soulless. Like plastic buttons where horn or brass should be. I know many like it and perhaps EC-animأ© would sell well, but that's just what I feel about it - artificial, plastic Sailor Moon proxy-emotions.

[Talisant]

As an aside, LEtranger, I'm with you about most of the anime I've seen, however, I find the Helsing story good enough to justify sitting through the standardized form illustration, check it out if you get a chance.

[Bakkhios]

Ahh, my friend L'Etranger, forget Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, GT or whatever and all the indeed soulless products of mass consumation crap!!!

But there is so much more to Anime than that!!! :)

You cannot dismiss anime basing yourself on its crappiest production only. You'd crucify Hollywood or for that matter the whole moviemaking industry ten thousand times for the same reasons, then. :twisted:

Forget the TV stuff. It's crap most of the time, and on the other side of the Pacific as well.
Now if you take a good look at the japanese animated feature films made these last decades, you'll realise there are plenty of talented authors out there in Japan! An that is also "anime". And nothing like Sailor Moon's kitschy "plastic buttons".

To name the best: Miyazaki. Have you seen his latest world-acclaimed movies "Princess Mononoke", "Chihiro's Journey" or "Howl's Moving Castle"? (If you haven't, do so! You'll see he's billions of lightyears away from Sailor Moon! )
Even if you don't like his style, you certainly cannot call his work "soulless". He's just the best in his trade nowadays and one of the greatest animators of all time. This is just my humble opinion (and an animator's opinion...). And I forgot to mention a very subtle, humane and true storyteller. His stories are filled with very genuine and deep emotion, and always a very personnal poetic touch.
He'd do brilliant things with an EC story.

Otomo is one of the big ones too ("Akira", "Steamboy", "Metropolis",...); young Okiura ("Jin Roh", "Ghost in the Shell") is another already very promising and talented author, Kawajiri ("Ninja Scroll", "Vampire Hunter D",...) is also very talented direction-wise but he needs a solid script... like something written by Mike, maybe?

And there are so many others...

So please, don't despise anime like so many people basing yourself only on the commercial refuse "that sells". It's doing it a great injustice.

And... I'm sure you'd find something you'd like just within the titles I mentionned above. After all we all have a lot of common tastes in this big "Moorcockian community", haven't we?

C'mon! Give it a chance! :) :) :) :)

P.S.: I don't want my buddy L' Etranger to feel cornered and like I'm giving out to him!!! Forgive me if I seemed passionate about this, I am! But there is no offense meant.
So: This goes for ALL YOU PEOPLE who think anime is just a load of crap because you've seen only the indeed crappy (on top of it re-cut, re-dubbed and re-scored...) TV series that sell so well and give such bad publicity to the rest of the quality production of Japanese animation. For that reason alone the movies I'm talking about were very hardly released until the last ten years at least in Europe, and this basically thanks to Miyazaki who showed the world Japanese could do so much more than aggressive silly TV cartoons.
But producers prefer to buy the crap that sells straight away instead of "taking risks"...
So all of you: C'MON!!! GIVE IT A CHANCE!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
You might even love it in the end.

Cheers to all,

[L'Etranger]

Dear Talisant, dear Bakkhios,

just before I go to get the Sunday croissants, no worry, I understood you.
It is worth looking into, I realise. Just what "animأ©" is hurled at you and what you usually come across is so artificial and shallow that I never ventured further. And I don't mean to insult the whole trade. I was only voicing my personal displeasure at what I so far got to see.

I'll keep an eye open.
Cheers, and now for the croissants.

[Bakkhios]

Dear L' Etranger, :)

No worry, you are right to voice your displeasure: I am too displeased at the same junk for as I mentionned above, it still keeps a lot of people from discovering the true quality stuff.

I'll keep an eye open.
Cheers, and now for the croissants.

Please do! :D If I can recommend only one as a start, I'd say "Princess Mononoke" by Miyazaki, as it reminded me a lot of some of Mike's ideas and main themes (I don't say more not to spoil anything) and it is one of the most "epic".

Enjoy your croissants; I unfortunately cannot have some myself as I went out yesterday evening and I overslept... I just woke up.

Ah, lazy sunday afternoons...

Cheers,

[Chief Wiggum]

I wasn't referring to the Pokemon/Dragonball type anime to be honest.

As Bakkhios says there are some really talented production companies who I think would make a really good job of doing EC anime (Gonzo, Production IG for example).

[L'Etranger]

Dear L' Etranger, :)

I'll keep an eye open.
Cheers, and now for the croissants.

Please do! :D If I can recommend only one as a start, I'd say "Princess Mononoke" by Miyazaki, as it reminded me a lot of some of Mike's ideas and main themes (I don't say more not to spoil anything) and it is one of the most "epic".

Enjoy your croissants; I unfortunately cannot have some myself as I went out yesterday evening and I overslept... I just woke up.

Ah, lazy sunday afternoons...

Cheers,

Dear Bakkhios,
maybe I come across the Princess tomorrow. Easy to remember (Mononoke, monocle, no problem). They have a Bandes Dessinأ©es shop at the central railway station, and I'm going on a business trip to Hamburg and that's a long ride. But ... it is not a movie, is it?

The croissants I had reserved the day before, otherwise they'd be all gone by 11.00hrs.
Salut and enjoy the rest of Sunday!

[Bakkhios]

Yes it is a movie! :? An animated feature film, that is. But I guess the dvd is easy to find in rentals, at least around here it is.
So, unless you have a laptop for the business ride....

Now if you were actually talking about "manga", that's the comics; "anime" is the animated stuff (a lot are adaptations of the manga comics anyway). As for the manga, the production is even more prolific, an intricate mix of crap and gems. If you want to try, it's hard to recommend you one in particular: if you have time flip through and just go with what catches your attention, it often works!
Storywise one of the best is maybe Osamu tezuka, "the Father of Manga", but not everybody likes his very peculiar drawing style (I do!) as it is now kind of old-fashioned, naive and very cutesy-cartoony (he was a fan of the early Disney).

That's a brilliant idea to reserve the croissants in advance :clap:; stupid lazy me never thought of it!!! :oops:

Enjoy what's left of the week-end too und Gutes Fahrt nach Hamburg!

[L'Etranger]

Yes it is a movie! :? An animated feature film, that is. But I guess the dvd is easy to find in rentals, at least around here it is.
So, unless you have a laptop for the business ride....

Ah.
I do mix the two up. but I assumed that there be both usually of most characters or stories, movies and comics. "Animأ©", of course comes from animation, but the quality of the good ones should also be felt in their comic versions, or am I wrong?

My laptop is a very small one without CD/DVD, about 1,3 kg, but I'm going to a programme fair (only documentaries) with lots of screening booths, so ...!

Enjoy what's left of the week-end too und Gute Fahrt nach Hamburg!

Merci!

[lemec]

Hello All,

I mostly lost track of Anime since 1995, but once in awhile I get a glimpse of a new one. :D Macross II was on cable the other day and now I realize how much I missed it.

I mentioned some of these in a different thread, but some of these are good examples of how well they could do an 'EC' story. (Not to disagree with anyone,just pointing things out as well.)

1) Record of Loddoss Wars (A great series that captures the spirit of fantasy adventure of a group of friends. D&D type)

2) Fist of the North Star (The main movie is so cool. Spoiler:


I love the part when the guy gets his arms torn off,hehe, or at least I thought it was funny at the time. End Spolier.

3) Battle Angel

4) Devil Hunter Yoko

5) The Proffesional (Golgo?)

6) Vilolence Jack

7) Akira (as Bakkhious mentioned)

8 ) Vampire Hunter D (Ditto)

9) Space Pirate, (sold as a childrens cartoon was really cool,like Starblazers.)

10) Robotech, the one that got me started way back when.

I forget some of the other ones that I used to watch.

I still did not find the comedy one where everone made fun of that one girl's 'Luck Kitty Gym Shorts' (Quite Hysterical)

Anyway, about the Eternal Champion, I could see Hawkmoon made into one of those computer animation movies. Hmm, there was that Final Fantasy one that was pretty cool and then there was one other...does anyone know the name of the sci-fi animated movie that has that blonde man floating in space on the cover? It escapes me at the moment. Anyway, that type of animation might work for an 'EC' story.

Oh, here is a trivia question:

"What Anime is shown in the Matthew Sweet video for 'Girlfriend'?

[Bakkhios]

the quality of the good ones should also be felt in their comic versions, or am I wrong?

Yes, mostly, but as a lot of manga has been adapted into anime, the reverse is not always true. There is also the "anime comics", which are screenshots from an anime turned into a comic, but that's not as interesting to me as it is basically a commercial flip! And even though they are very close, animation and comics are still too different medias.

Then try Miyazaki's "Nausicaa" (both in anime and manga and there are differences in the story between the two!); and anything by Otomo in manga as well.


@ Iemec: Wow, big list! :D
I'm not convinced yet about full realistic CGI animation movies, though. Though greatly rendered on stills, the characters of "Final fantasy" were still quite stiff and soulless when they moved and also when you compare them to traditionnal 2D, like... Miyazaki's (again!).
I didn't like "AppleSeed" either for the same reasons. They should have kept at least the human characters in 2D. Compare it to "Ghost in the Shell" and you'll see what I mean.
The blond guy floating in space??? :? Is it a CGI? I don't see which one... :scratch:
I haven't seen the Matthew Sweet video yet, so I can't answer that one either, sorry!

[Azariel]

As a note of clarity, Vampire Hunter D is the only "anime" not based on manga comics but a novel, in the 1980s, which has just been translated in english - the first two books are out, out of the licensed thirteen in the series.

Vampire Hunter D is the ONLY 'vampire' franchise I ever liked - 1) originality and 2) hammer horror 3) superb soundtrack 4) face-in-the-hand (creepy)

[Bakkhios]

They finally translated Kikuchi's novels??? Cool! :D :D :D

We've been waiting for this for a while!

Do they still use Amano's illustrations for the english version?