LizetteHanshaw94
What's Anime Based On
Anime is most commonly based from a manga, which is basically the Japanese word for comics. Usually when individuals call something manga they imply that it had been produced in Japan. Many people prefer manga over anime and vice-versa however the two are usually quite closely associated with one another, if not directly following each other, although in almost all cases the manga comes first prior to the anime. Unfortunately I'm not keen on the genre and so i don't have much knowledge of reading it, obviously with my fascination with anime I have given manga an opportunity here and there however it will never be as good as anime to me. Manga is becoming increasingly popular in many areas of the planet including the Usa. Manga often is available in magazines that will include a few chapters of countless different series, some daily, some weekly, plus some much more spread out or even produced randomly. Whilst not all anime is based on manga, I would venture to say that at least 90% of them are. It's not uncommon for an anime to become produced simultaneously as the manga it is following, however this often leads to the anime catching up to the manga too rapidly which forces the anime creators to either go on a hiatus or create 'filler' episodes that have no real link with the general storyline. One problem that this creates for fans of anime although not manga is that the manga is definitely ahead, thus those who read it knows what will happen prior to the anime viewers will, one of the numerous reasons I've more often than not avoided anime discussion forums is due to the spoilers that manga readers inadvertently blurt out and may ruin months of anime viewing for me.
It gets better though, anime can also be very commonly based on video games, and some have entire franchises of video games based on the anime. One of the best examples I can think of for this is Star Ocean: EX, the anime almost follows the games storyline and cinematic perfectly, some people may not realize how powerful of storylines some video games have within them, and to have the entire thing given to you visually can really be quite stunning. Another great current types of games turned anime are Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Valkyria Chronicles, Gungrave, Devil May Cry, Pok?mon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, and much more. It was actually a misconception of mine for the longest period of time that the Pokemon anime came before the games, it had not been until about five years later which i realized how wrong I was. Those are just a select few that were in many cases beloved game titles of my childhood that left me wanting more, having an anime to watch that continues or provides me with more plot and story is definitely an attractive thing.
Obviously, some anime are even original creations, these however require much more work than taking math comic strips and animating them together (not a proper explanation from the manga to anime transformation but the gist from it). Original creations require, at least for me, a truly visionary person to produce them. OVA's, or original video animations, while sometimes based solely off an anime of the same name but created by another animation organization, are the most commonly seen forms of original anime content. Most OVA's are short in length ranging from 1 to 5 episodes each, however in some specific cases there are others that are between 10-100+ episodes long, obviously this is a factor of how much time and work adopts them. Currently I am following two anime OVA series that are around ten episodes each long but rather than weekly episodes they merely release about one episode every six months, that's right I said 6 months between episodes. Obviously this sounds like a problem, however, many OVA are thought to become better than their parent story anime with a great deal of the anime viewing public.
Not surprisingly some anime even evolves a measure further into using a live-action movie or series made based on it. Many of the popular anime have spawned off live-action creations such as Gantz, Dragon Ball, Detective Conan, Cowboy Bebop, and Great Teacher Onizuka. While the success of those live-action movies hasn't been spectacular, it is quite another watch and provides you a better check out the capabilities that anime has over what special effects can do for any movie. Having seen the live-action Dragon Ball, Detective Conan and Great Teacher Onizuka movies and other specials, I have to admit which i was quite disappointed together, but mainly because of bad acting and low budgets. Earlier I pointed out the Cowboy Bebop live-action movie, that is still in development at this time, but looks promising using the Matrix star Keanu Reaves playing the primary character Spike Spiegel, that alone puts it within the seemingly random set of actors I have seen in other live-action things. Hopefully Cowboy Bebop does well in American markets so we see more big name actors starring in live-action anime based movies, it's my belief that situations are leaning this way since I've noticed an increase in actors like Tina Fey, Matt Damon, Andy Richter, and Will Arnett amongst many others doing the voice-overs for major anime movies (usually ones made my Studio Ghibli) so that they can bring a wider American audience to anime. I personally watched among Studio Ghibli's movies recently, Ponyo on the cliff through the sea, in English and was overjoyed after i was able to recognize popular television and movie actors voices, however that movie comes complete with stars including Tina Fey, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, Betty White and many others, that was very unlike the usual one or two actors you may recognize.
