Ask John: How Much Involvement Do Mangaka Have in Anime Adaptations?

Question:
Exactly how much involvement do the original authors of a manga have in the filler episodes of the anime adaptation? I know that filler episodes are used to create a larger gap between the latest episodes of the anime adaptation and the latest chapters of an ongoing serialized manga like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, etc. But filler episodes just don’t seem to have as much weight to them as the ones that stick to the content of the published manga chapters. My conclusion has been that the original creators must not have had any hand in the writing or even creation of the filler episodes or even the theatrical movies which also tend to veer from the original narrative.

I recently went back to check where the Bleach anime had left off in relation to the ongoing story arc in the manga. Turns out they’ve cut into the middle of the story arc to focus on a story that’s not in the manga, in which the shinigami have to battle against the materialization of their respective zanpakutou. I don’t recall ever seeing any of the designs – save for Ichigo’s – in the manga, so someone must have designed them. So that made me wonder whether Kubo Tite designed them or someone else did. Do other manga artists also have any involvement in the creation of filler episodes for their respective creations?

Answer:
Not only to manga creators often have little input or involvement in the development of “filler,” or as Japanese fans call them, “original” anime episodes, in most cases manga creators have little involvement with anime adaptations of their stories at all. Typically in the case of anime based on earlier media like manga, novels, or games, the original creator may be periodically queried for impressions or broad input, but original creators and animators are usually quite distinct. Viewers naturally tend to perceive anime adaptations as companions or parallels to the material they’re based on. But Japanese creators usually don’t subscribe to a similar perspective. In most cases manga creators, writers, and game programs stay involved in their own work and their own fields and consider anime adaptations of their work completely original creations developed and managed by their respective animators. Animators realize that they need to acknowledge the source material they adapt because viewers expect to see certain events and characteristics from the source appear in the anime. But I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read comments from Japanese manga artists that encourage animators to craft unique and distinctive adaptations, and anime directors who state that they only met with the manga creator briefly and infrequently.

Manga creators directly getting deeply involved in the creation of anime based on their works happens so infrequently that it’s news when it does happen. For example, Masamune Shirow personally directed the Black Magic M-66 anime based on his manga, but Shirow hasn’t been deeply involved in the anime adaptations of Appleseed or Ghost in the Shell. Out of more than 30 years worth of Lupin III anime, the 1996 feature film “Dead or Alive” has been the only Lupin anime installment personally directed by Lupin creator Monkey Punch. This year’s 10th One Piece movie is especially noteworthy because it’s the first One Piece anime for which franchise creator Eichiro Oda is personally providing story and character concepts. Keroro Gunso creator Yoshizaki Mine personally wrote the story for last year’s short “Kero 0: Shuppatsu Da Yo! Zenin Shugo” movie although he hasn’t been heavily involved in the development of any of the other Keroro Gunso anime. Takayuki Mizushina provided the animation character designs and theme song lyrics for the anime adaptation of his Kemono to Chat manga.

If you ever look closely at the production credits for anime, you’ll discover that the original creator is rarely ever credited for anything besides creating the original source. Manga creators are typically too busy working on their manga to devote time to supervising anime. And manga creators frequently seem to be genuinely interested in allowing fellow artists to approach, interpret, and develop their concepts in distinct, original ways. Fans may complain when anime diverge from the manga they’re based on, but manga and anime are not the same thing. They’re developed independently; they’re not strictly targeted at the same audience, although there will be some audience overlap; and the requirements of their storytelling and pacing are different- sometimes dramatically so. Manga artists just don’t have the time to diligently supervise the anime based on their work. And in many cases manga artists don’t want to, in a sense, step on the toes of the screenwriters and directors whose specialty is developing anime.

As you’ve guessed, “filler” story arcs in TV anime tend to be developed by the anime staff with little or no input from the original manga creator. This is actually very necessary for a number of reasons. If the manga creator is busy developing the core manga story, he or she probably doesn’t have the time or energy to compose detailed plots or designs for additional “filler” story arcs. Furthermore, leaving these “original” story arcs in the hands of the animation staff enables the animation staff to get a better feel for the story and characters, in order to keep the anime going when the original creator is inaccessible or busy. This is an extreme but still relevant example. The screenwriters and animators of studio Shin’ei will be continuing the popular Crayon Shin-chan anime after the untimely death of creator Yoshito Usui because the animation staff has become able to confidently create original stories that respect the spirit of the creator’s own work. Filler episodes are necessary to put something on the air when there’s possibly not enough fresh source manga to adapt and the manga creator is devoting his full attention to his primary work. So anime screenwriters and designers have to step in and do the best they can to mirror the creator’s style without writing anything that may conflict with the story direction the original creator is working on.