Ask John: Do Anime Get Rebooted?

Question:
In America it’s common for certain comic franchises to receive multiple reboots via various cartoons or movies. Spider-Man is on its 2nd movie reboot and has had several cartoons. Batman is expected to enter into a 3rd reboot which Superman recently did, both of which have multiple cartoons retelling and creating new stories in multiple ways. The closest equivalent to this seems to be “DBZ Kai” which basically just condenses the show to be more accurate to the manga. So why doesn’t Japan do complete reboots of successful shows? It would be pretty awesome to have several different versions of DBZ going around.

Answer:
Although we don’t recognize as many of them or see them quite as frequently as reboots of American entertainment franchises, Japan’s anime industry does, in fact, periodically reboot anime franchises. The most common reason for anime reboots is to update vintage franchises for new audiences. But occasionally anime are remade in order to compensate for weaknesses in the earlier productions.

Mahotsukai Sally launched the magical girl genre back in 1966. The series was re-made in color for contemporary viewers in 1989. Similarly, the magical girl anime television series Himitsu no Akko-chan premiered in 1969 and ran for 94 episodes, was remade in 1988 and ran for 61 episodes, then was rebooted again in 1998 with 44 episodes. The Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro franchise has had one TV series every decade since the 1960s, getting TV series in 1968, 1971, 1985, 1996, and 2007, not to mention 2008’s reboot Hakaba Kitaro. The franchise hasn’t gotten a relaunch in this decade yet, but there’s still seven years to come. Tetsujin 28-go premiered in 1963 then got remade in color in 1980 then got rebooted again in 2004, and that’s not to mention its 1992 sequel series Tetsujin 28 FX that starred original series hero Shotaro Kaneda’s son. The original black & white Tetsuwan Atom television series from 1963 was remade in color in 1980 then rebooted again for contemporary viewers in 2003. Likewise, the 1968 Cyborg 009 television series was rebooted for modern viewers in 2001.

The 1992 Giant Robo OVA series was rebooted with an appreciably different tone and feel as a little-seen 2007 TV series titled “GR -Giant Robo-.” Dirty Pair creator Haruka Takachiho personally rebooted his Dirty Pair franchise that got a 1985 TV series with the 1994 Dirty Pair Flash anime series that featured redesigned girls and an appreciably different relationship between agents Kei & Yuri. Go Nagai’s 1973 Cutey Honey television series was rebooted as a fairly faithful OVA series in 1994 then rebooted again as the Re: Cutey Honey OVA series in 2004. The original TV series that was targeted at young boys was also successfully rebooted 1997 as Cutey Honey F, a shoujo TV series created by the staff of the Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars TV series. Studio m.o.e.’s very risqué 2001 Hanaukyo Maid Tai television series was rebooted as the less racey, more otaku-humor-oriented Hanaukyo Maid Tai ~La Verite~ television series in 2004. Studio Xebec’s 2005 Mahou Sensei Negima television series was plagued by production difficulties and delays, resulting in a compromised series. So the show was rebooted the next year by studio Shaft under the title “Negima!?” Similarly, Gonzo’s atmospheric 2001 Hellsing television series was criticized for diverging from Kouta Hirano’s original manga. So the franchise was remade in 2006 as an OVA series that faithfully adapted the original manga, for better or worse. The exact same situation occurred with the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist television series that got remade in 2009 in a version more faithful to the original manga. Just last month the Rozen Maiden anime franchise that premiered in 2004 relaunched with a new Rozen Maiden television series that reboots the story from an entirely new continuity. Similarly, the ongoing Rebuild of Evangelion movie franchise is a new re-imagined telling of the original 1995 television series.

Obviously anime franchises do get relaunched and remade. These examples are only a few of many. But anime titles don’t seem to get rebooted quite as frequently as Hollywood franchises do because the Japanese film industry works a bit differently than America’s. American franchise rights are typically owned by a production and distribution studio. So when those rights change hands, the new studio naturally wants to create its own adaptation of the title. In Japan the rights to a title are owned by the original creator, and a production committee commissions adaptations from whichever studios it chooses. So Japanese studios don’t have the option to endlessly reboot franchises at their own discretion. Furthermore, American reboots are frequently created to compensate for weak earlier adaptations, for example: The Hulk, Judge Dredd, the Batman franchise getting rebooted after Batman & Robin, the Superman franchise getting rebooted after Superman IV: Quest for Peace and Superman Returns, Fantastic Four and Captain America getting remade because the original films were low-budget placeholders productions. With rare unintended exceptions, in the first place the anime industry is considerate enough not to produce terrible quality adaptations that need remakes. Titles like Hellsing (OVA) and Fullmetal Alchemist (2009) weren’t created because their preceding adaptations were bad; they were created to offer a supplemental, alternate adaptation to appease intense fan demand.