Ask John: Will Ender’s Game Ever Get an Anime?

Question:
I know people say “Book A or Comic B would make a great anime!” all the time but I just finished Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and it would make a fantastic anime (it’s a fantastic book. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. You can read it in a night.) Strange that it was written in the 80s since it could very well be the template for just about every “boy fights aliens to save the world” anime ever made.

Answer:
I apologize for this overdue reply. Like most sci-fi fans, I presume, I’ve at least heard mention of Orson Scott Card’s award winning 1985 novel, but I haven’t read Ender’s Game myself. The novel was first published in Japan in 1987, and it remains in print in Japan today, but I don’t know exactly how popular it is among Japanese readers. With my limited knowledge of the book and my unfamiliarity with its recognition and popularity in Japan, I can’t make any predictions or estimations about its suitability or probability for anime adaptation. However, surrounding facts do seem to suggest that the possibility exists. An American film adaptation of the novel has been in development since 2003. Just four months ago Tsotsi and Wolverine director Gavin Hood was tentatively named as a director. Increasing prominence for the novel in America may result in movement on the title in Japan as well. American sci-fi movies including The Matrix and Ultraviolet have gotten Japanese animated spin-offs. Contemporary classic American sci-fi novels including Mort Weisinger’s Captain Future, E.E. Smith’s Lensman, and Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers have gotten anime adaptations in the past, and new productions like Mardock Scramble demonstrate that Japanese audiences and the Japanese anime production industry are interested in serious “hard” sci-fi anime adaptations. Furthermore, the fact that Ender’s Game is largely set in an orbital military school places it conceptually close to existing and forthcoming anime like Uchuu no Stellvia, Mugen no Ryvius, and Infinite Stratos. Since this concept has proven successful in anime before, there’s no reason to expect that it won’t appear in anime again in the future.