Ask John: How Often do American Comic Creators Collaborate on Anime?

Question:
Are there any collaborations between anime studios and Western comic book creators? I remember this project 3 or so years ago, entitled “5 Killers” by Studio Gonzo with script by Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, Daredevil). For some reason, however, it fell through. As a fan of both anime/manga and standard Western comic books, I’d like to know if there are any such collaborations, except for the Marvel tie-ins with Madhouse.

Answer:
While collaboration between American comic artists and Japanese animators may seem like a natural and even inevitable marriage, it actually hasn’t occured frequently at all. In fact, apart from comic writer Warren Ellis providing initial scripts for the four Marvel Anime television series, I can only recall one instance of an American comic creator collaborating with Japanese animators. Stan Lee collaborated with anime studio BONES to create the 2010 Heroman anime television series, a show which inexplicably remains unreleased in America. A variety of other anime based on American comic properties exist, but all of them were either exclusively Japanese produced, or were comissions rather than collaborations. For example, American rocker & comic creator Glenn Danzig comissioned Madhouse to produce a Satanika anime pilot video in 1998. In 1996 Tsuburaya Productions animated a two episode Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles OVA series titled “Mutant Turtles: Choujin Densetsu-hen” (Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend) based on the animated series adaptation of Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird’s comic series. However, Eastman & Laird had no direct involvement in the Japanese exclusive anime production. Similarly, Gonzo produced its Witchblade anime series in 2006, based on Marc Silvestri’s American comic. However, American comic studio Top Cow had minimal creative involvement in Gonzo’s anime series. Select superhero animation has been produced in Japan. For example, Telecom Animation Film animated the Green Lantern: First Flight movie, Madhouse animated the Hulk Vs. and Planet Hulk movies, and TMS animated the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker movie. However, these productions are most appropriately classified as commissions rather than collaborations.

Although a variety of Japanese artists have collaborated on American comics, including Kia Asamiya drawing Batman: Child of Dreams, Shin Nagasawa drawing Wolverine: Soultaker, Gurihiru creating a variety of Power Pack mini-series for Marvel, Junko Mizuno contributing to Marvel’s Strange Tales, and Yoshitaka Amano working with American comic creators including Neil Gaiman & Greg Rucka, American comic creators working in Japanese productions seem a far less frequent occurance, possibly because Japanese art seems to be more easily integrated into American creations than the reverse. American comics have a diverse visual and narrative style, from expressionistic and lyrical fine art to mundane and realistic indie drama to conventional superhero stories. However, while anime is very diverse in tone, style, and narrative, anime tends to have a different pacing and narrative approach than American comics, which makes American comic artists and writers less relevant to conventional Japanese style anime narratives.