Ask John: What Determines How Faithful an Anime Adaptation of Manga Will Be?

Question:
What makes anime studios decide if the anime will follow the manga (like Naruto) or if it will gain it’s own path by “separating” from the manga’s storyline (like Fullmetal Alchemist, Black cat, etc.)? I think that if FMA & Black Cat were following the manga we could have seen much batter results because the storyline in the manga is better. If a studio decides to make an anime adaption, than why not to make life easier for themselves and for us, the viewers, and go by the manga?

Answer:
I don’t know the exact reasons why anime based on manga are or aren’t direct adaptations. Explanations probably vary with each show. I believe that a lot of the decision lies in the whims of anime screenwriters and directors. Some time ago when I conducted a personal interview with director Koji Masunari, I asked why the story in the Risky Safety anime was so drastically different than Ray Omishi’s original manga. Masunari explained that he liked the characters from the manga, and wanted to use them to tell a story that conveyed the theme and feeling he got from reading the manga.

The very fact that sometimes anime doesn’t “make life easier” by simply directly adapting a manga is part of what makes anime interesting. I usually don’t read a manga series and watch its anime if they’re identical. There are too many other works available that I could instead devoted time to experiencing rather than seeing the exact same story twice. I’m sure that there are other viewers and readers like me. Creating a literal shot for shot re-make of a manga in animation does happen, and can result in enjoyable anime, for example, Dragonball. Creating original anime stories loosely based on earlier manga offers viewers a totally new experience, and provides animators with an opportunity to exercise their own creativity.

Viewers shouldn’t be too disappointed by anime that don’t faithfully adapt earlier manga because, after all, anime and manga are entirely different things. Anime adaptations may sometimes use the story and even exact scenes and shots from a manga, but even in the case of exact duplicates, anime forces its music, voices, sounds, colors, motion, and timing on viewers, while manga allows readers to determine these characteristics uniquely. It’s reasonable and sometimes enlightening to compare anime adaptations to their original manga, but insisting that an anime strictly adhere to the format of an earlier work in a different format limits the potential of the anime, and limits the viewer’s ability to appreciate the anime as a unique, independant, original work. Anime fans should be receptive to anime, approaching loose adaptations as new works that have unique and possibly fulfilling characteristics to offer. Brilliant shows like Fullmetal Alchemist prove that anime doesn’t have to slavishly adhere to its source material to be compelling and entertaining. Devoted fans of original manga can always refer back to the manga while loose adaptations offer a new experience to receptive viewers.