When anime meets litterature

Just so you know, the idea from this post comes from the book Ikebukuro West Gate Park because, as normal it is that the first 2 volumes made me think about Durarara!! (I'm still convinced Narita read it), the last one made me think about Tiger&Bunny, which is a little less normal. Unless there really is an evil organization that tattoos its mark on their members called Ouroboros in Japan but I highly doubt it.

Then I started to be convinced that everyone involved in pop culture in Japan somehow has read IWGP (which actually you should do too) and wondered what other influence I could maybe spot.

Sadly, my knowledge in litterature is primarily focused on European authors, but it doesn't mean you can't find any influence from them. Actually, these have been adapted a lot or at least a lot of Japanese anime have been influenced by those books.
Also, not counting light novels.

#1 The actual adaptations

Actually, there are a lot of those, even more in manga than in anime (Hell, they even made a manga version of Marx's The Capital).
I actually haven't seen a lot of those for which I have seen both the anime and read the original version. The only anime I can think of right now is Genji Monogatari which was a pretty good though really shortenned, adaptation of the book.
There's Howl's Moving Castle too and a lot of Ghibli works. Howl is a pretty good adaptation with Ghibli's defining style added to it.
Some others : Aoi Bungaku (pretty good initiation to Japanese "classical" litterature), The Count of Monte Christo, The Three Musketeers, etc etc

Please by all means add to this list.

#2 The influences

Again, those are everywhere because authors are always somehow influenced by something they have read or seen or whatever.
The one that comes immediately to my mind at this is actually a manga called Tsumi to Batsu that's been loosely based on Fyodor Dostoyevski's Crimes and Punishment, but set in modern times.
Some of those include works like Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (excuse me while I cringe at the French), Kuroshitsuji (no matter how you look at it, it's Faust), RomeoxJuliet (which is self explanatory, though I have actually never seen it so I assume it's only loosely based on Shakespeare's original), the Fate series (because some of the heroes are from books), Code Geass (because to me it looks like the whole thing is, loosely, based on the Bible) and probably a lot of others.

#3 And everything else ...

Actually this shouldn't really exist, I just can't really consider names a legit influence on a story.
But if you think about it, character names are often based on already existing characters.
Like, in Katekyo Hitman Reborn you have a whole team of characters whose names are based on demons, in Ao no Exorcist you have Mephisto which is from Faust.

There must be some more but I forgot.

In the end I guess that post wanted to summarize once again how amazed I am at how fluid Japanese are with categories. I am not saying French don't do it, we too have our "anime" loosely based on the Three Musketeers, but it's such a rare occurence that I can't help but admire how Japanese do it.  

I think I have something against battle manga

Between a few attempts at getting how Google+ works (Because that's the "in" thing to do latley, isn't it?) I found myself reading my weekly batch of Shonen Jump stuff and today I, finally, realized something. I hate the battles.
And I'm not even talking about Bleach.

I'm by no means a specialist in battle manga, to be honest when I started to read manga I tried Naruto and stopped, I tried One Piece and stopped, read Bleach too and somehow continued, even liked it enough to start watching the anime. And stopped watching a few weeks later once I had caught up.
But one day I discovered Katekyo Hitman Reborn, it has mafia, like I could ever ignore this, and I have been following this for 3 years now.

That's when the huge revelation happened, at the end of the current arc during the closing chapter. I hate the battles. I really do.
Because you know, after facing such hardships, nearly dying a hundred times, doesn't the daily life feel empty? Doesn't it feel like it was all for nothing? Why no one died to start with if the enemy was so great?
That and the constant upgrades of whatever power they're using feeling ridiculous. And the fact it's so sudden you don't understand what's going on anymore.

You're probably wondering why I keep on reading/watching it if I hate the battles so much.
Well, first and to be honest, I fast forward the battle scenes.
And second there's more to some battle manga than just the battles. Take KHR for example (since it's my problem today), it started as a gag manga, not very funny but it still made me smile, and while some of the characters are annoying as hell (like, most of the main ones) there are some badass villains and a storyline that allows crazy theories.

To sum it up, I think she should just stop drawing/writing annoying battles and focus on the interesting parts instead, like, where did the Pastry Guardians go? What about Kawahira? The last Hell Ring? That strange new flame? The Vindice? Sho-chan? Spanner? Byakuran? THE VARIA?!

I was about to say the same about Kubo as well, but there isn't a single thing that interest me anymore, not even Ken-chan, thus I haven't read anything of it since the beginning of the new arc and I genuinely think he doesn't even like his own manga anymore.

#01

For my first post, let's talk about the one of my numerous obsession which is known as seiyuu or voice actors in English.

Said seiyuu often record songs personnifying the characters they're voicing, recently a collection of one has been released for one of my favorite manga, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, so here are the songs and my thoughts.


This is Dino's song, by Kenn.
The music is nice, at least it suits me, I won't say anything about the wonderful and marvellous Engrish we are gifted with, for some parts I didn't even get it was English.
It's still my favorite song of the whole CD.


This one is by Junko Takeguchi, Hitomi Yoshida, Li-Mei Chiang, Yuuna Inamura and Satomi Akesaka.
Lyrics are, well how should I put it, simple? TATALATATAAAA
Casting aside the fact that these girls are definitely not my favorite characters at all, the song is nearly enjoyable, nearly, if it wasn't for that annoying TATALATATAAAA which seems to pop up anywhere in the song, and I don't like the talking part either.


By Yuka Terasaki and Yukari Kokubun.
Usually I'm not a fan of duets but this one is pretty interesting, mostly because their voices actually match (it's not always the case, sadly ^^) .
I also like the joyful feeling it gives, I needed to listen to it 10 times to actually start to like it, however now it's done and the end is hilarious. I'll translate :
- Eeeh it's the first time I sang enka
Basil this is NOT enka *desperate


This is sang by Takashi Kondou
My love for this character is neverending, however let's face the truth, his songs are more and more horrible as time goes. I really do not like it, dunno his voice doesn't sound right, it sounds more like he's trying to catch his breath than anything else. It's really a shame, the music is the kind of thing I like, it would have been really, really good if he sang better.


This one is Kiuchi Hidenobu
I love him, I really, really do, I think he's a really talented seiyuu, but I really don't have a thing for his Ryohei's voice, and the music doesn't help, sadly it's a no for me.


And there we have Hidezaki Ichinose
No really, the music is great but this voice, I just can't. Well this song is better than his other ones so I guess I should be happy.


Now Suguru Inoue
Instant no, the biggest NO I can give.


Aaand last but not least, Reborn's voice actors Neeko.
These songs are never to be taken seriously, they're always there to make us laugh, and so they do, it's more rock than her usual songs, I LOVE. And let's admit it, this girl is great.