I grew up on science fiction and mythology. In fact, I remember the exact moment I put my feet on the path of a fantasy/ historical fiction/ sci-fi fan. I was 10 and I was in the school library during my lunch hour. I had parked myself in front of the historical section of books, yet again, and a book on Egyptian mythology caught my eye. After cracking the cover open, it was game over; I was hooked on mythology, and all it inspired, for life.
I’ve since evolved into other genres but I still remember my first taste of the fantastic. I now have favorite science fiction and fantasy novels residing in my library which are dog-eared, crumpled and not in salable condition, due to constant re-reading. A scant few of my fave authors are Mercedes Lackey (fantasy), Frank Herbert (sci-fi), Arthur C. Clarke (sc-fi), and Judith Tarr (fantasy).
I can absolutely see many of these novels making their way into the world of anime, and being a smashing success. One of these authors is already primed to hit a target audience: Yaoi fan girls. Mercedes Lackey is a very progressive author and has created many central characters who are openly gay. Yaoi and shonen-ai anime anyone?
Then there’s Frank Herbert. Some of his work is a mixture of uber-far-future sci-fi, fantasy and pseudo-religion. I’m referring especially to Dune. A Dune anime would be the absolute most daring task the medium has ever undertaken. Imagine:
A young Paul Atreides, bishie and strong; his adorable, strange yet powerful, quasi-loli sister; his powerful, hot mother who commands mystic powers of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood; giant worm creatures who are both friend and foe; a twisted fate intertwined with House Harrkonnen and the also bishie but sadistic, Feyd-Rautha; an intergalactic quest to gain control of spice; and a powerful plan by the Bene Gessrit to breed the ultimate warrior: the Kwisatz Haderach!
Hellllooo, giant studios, are the themes in the novel “anime” enough for you to make this thing? Do I need to list any other awesome plot points of this fantastic novel to convince someone, anyone, that this book has mass appeal to anime fans? And if Dune gets turned into an anime, the studios might finally get right what a full length live-action movie and mini series failed to do- tell the damn story like it is in the book!
Tatsunoko Production, the studio who did Karas, could do for Dune what it did for Karas; make it the hottest, best looking animated series to date.
I literally have dozens upon dozens of books and literally hundreds of reasons why each book could, nay, should be made into anime. I’ll list a few of my top ten:
- Dune, Frank Herbert- epic story, fantastic visuals
- Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke- a cautionary and humbling tale
- The Last Herald Mage, Mercedes Lackey- a dead sexy series of books filled with powerful magic
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein- a revolutionary book which paved the way for modern fantasy literature
- The Man Who Fell to Earth, Walter Tevis- another humanistic, cautionary tale
- Foundation, Issac Asimov- epic and far-reaching story with impressive backdrops and technology
OK, that was more than a few, and I could go on and on, but enough about what I want to see made into anime, what about you? Is there a book that’s inspired you and helped define your current tastes which you’d love to see as an anime? Was there a series of books which you read and said, “Damned if that wouldn’t look good animated!”? Which Western novel would you like to see get the anime treatment?
Command & Conquer. (there is a novel based on C&C3.. though i’d like to see some for Tiberian Sun)
Im usually just an Anime Nano lurker, but i thought this deserved some attention.
-member of http://www.tiberiumweb.com and http://www.ppmsite.com, both C&C modding community sites.
Most of the scifi novels would do well if it had a decent staff. Starship Troopers (already an anime though), the Forever War etc.
The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Admittedly some of the jokes may get lost in translation and they might change Ford Prefect to something like Datsun Cherry, but it could be loads better than the crappy movie.
Probably put Eccentrica Gallumbits in the regular cast for added fanservice.
While not western per-se, (It’s actually Russian) Roadside Picnic could use the RyÅ«tarÅ Nakamura treatment.
Well, seeing as how Count of Monte Cristo (Gankutsuo) turned out so nicely, how about Three Musketeers or Man in the Iron Mask? I think they’d translate excellently.
A Song of Ice and Fire by GRRM would make an amazing anime series.
Also the Farseer and Tawny Man series by Robin Hobb. i would give blood to see those adapted well.
I second the vote for GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire.
Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain would be fun, too. I’d also like to see Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones, Fair Peril by Nancy Springer, and the Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher.
There are plenty more, but those would make a good start
Anything by Terry Pratchett.
I third the vote for A Song of Ice and Fire.
Wheel of Time would probably make for a great anime adaption as well. Just think! It could be like a shonen anime and run for thousands of episodes and never have to go on filler!
Im not sure it would make a great anime but Terry Goodkinds Sword of Truth series is a must read for fantasy buffs. Id watch anything portaining to that series.
I think that the only way that this book series could be done properly by anime is Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, while the Golden Compass movie is due out soon it will be cleaned of most of it’s controversial aspects to please the Christian Godies.
Anime is a different medium than a novel, so rather than thinking, “hey what is awesome?” you should be thinking “hey what is unsuited to the novel medium?” Works with a lot of diologue, especially with a lot of inner monologue, or works with significant amounts of textual play, are good choices for the novel format. One thing the novel format does poorly is scene-setting. Readers can choke to death on the descriptive text necessary to convey what an anime can convey with a single image. For this reason, I will throw my support further behind the nomination of Song of Ice and Fire, as the huge chunks of visual description really dragged the story down, I felt.
i love Goodkind’s SOT to death. i dont want it to ever be adapted. ever. it cant ever be done justice. and the final book Confessor was just awesome.
I agree with Calamitous. Terry Pratchett is awesome.
Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, in the anime style of Avatar
@ChielScape, Welcome! I knew that Devil May Cry, the video game, had two light novels written for it, but I had no idea any other video game received the same treatment. What’s Command and Conquer about?
@tjhan, I have a theory that most anime fans are sci-fi/fantasy fans at heart, if not already self-proclaimed ones. I agree that many sci-fi novels would make great adaptations if the people helming the project had the novel’s best interest at heart.
@Dop, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy would be quite the anime, but I don’t think it would translate well.
@UncleHappy, Dumas wrote great novels, but I think the studios would need to approach them the same way they’ve been approaching other Western classics; with new eyes and set in different times. Gankutsuo was hella good!
@kauldron26, I’ve never heard of those novels; which authors or books could you compare them to? I’m always looking to try new authors…
@Julie, are those all fantasy? Man, I really to need to go to the library more!
@Calamitous, Terry Pratchett is funny as hell, do you think the anime should be funny too? I can see where the studios might not take the anime in that direction.
@Orion, thousands of episodes? Nooooooooo! Most expensive boxset, ever.
@Chris, I’m just about to read the Golden Compass; what’s so controversial about it that it could potentially offend people?
@Nominull, while your argument has merit, I would say that visuals are where studios can make the story their own. While I do have certain designs for scenes or characters set in my mind, I’m always eager to see how a studio will interpret visuals.
Even if a novel is somewhat lacking in the verbosity of their scene set-ups, studios can fill those voids with their own visions. That would help make the novel more anime. The whole idea behind anime is to tell a story- and visuals are important- but creating a backdrop isn’t as important as emoting and action.
@kauldron26, you never know, some director might be a huge fan and do the series justice.
@MK, Terry Pratchett is indeed the business.
@PassinGass, didn’t Robert Jordan die? Didn’t he leave a series- 11 books long, I heard- unfinished? I could never get into the guy’s work because it seemed like it never ended. Piers Anthony is like that too, and I ended up dumping him as an author. End dammit!
I think some of Stephen King’s novels have the potential to make some great anime series. In an earlier post, Rachel mentioned “IT” as being really scary. Not only is it scary, but has a great cast-of-characters that could make it fun to watch as a 26-episode series. Here’s a brief overview of IT from Wikipedia:
“Considered one of King’s most visceral and graphic works, It deals with themes which would eventually become King staples: the power of memory, the power of a unified group, childhood trauma and the ugliness lurking behind a happy, small-town facade.
The novel is a story of seven friends from the town of Derry, Maine, and the non-linear narrative alternates between two different time periods.”
If the overall ‘tone’ of the novel were kept the same, I think there could be quite a few liberties taken with the story and it would still be good.
Rachel, if you haven’t been following the controversy about the Golden Compass movie it was hard to miss, Fox News, CNN, the Catholic League, and many others have had their panties in a bunch over the movie.
The director basically admitted in a interview that he dumbed down the movie in order to make it appeal to a wider audience, so if the first movie is a success than they could make the other two movies.
Reviews of the movie by fans who saw the movie tonight have said that it was changed so that characters that died in the book just ended up confused in the movie and almost all of the moral questioning found in the books was removed.
At-least in anime people die for what they believe in, and for the most part anime directors don’t assume their viewers are complete idiots who can’t understand a complex moral question.
I also agree with David that many of Stephen King’s books would make great anime. Each of the Dark Tower book could be done properly as a 13-26 episode anime.
Actually Sword of Truth looks like it’s set to be adapted by Sam Raimi. Article here.
I guess I would nominate some of William Gibson’s books, in particular Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Maybe Raymond Feist’s early books? Sorry if these are old. I actually haven’t read too many western books recently
can i say jack kerouac? the machine? the characters. any votes?