Baseless Speculation: 3 Anime-worthy stories

After the SF Channel's failure with "Earthsea", I didn't have much hope for Studio Ghibli's try. Ursula K. Le Guin's "Wizard of Earthsea" was innovative and imaginative, but dry. Another one of her stories featured scientists discovering the language of animal and included a segment on an ant revolutionary spreading anti-monarchist slogans. While it was intellectually stimulating, it didn't exactly get the pulse pounding.

Nevertheless, there are many works that would fare better after being translated to full motion. Science fiction and fantasy stories would benefit the most in the medium. Even with the new digital technology, good special effects still cost a pretty penny. The bar for viewer satisfaction has risen a ways since the hey day of the original "Star Trek" and Tom Baker's "Doctor Who".The Hollywood adaptation of "Starship Trooper" was scaled back by omitting the powered armor detailed. A line used to represent a spaceship is similar to the line used to draw a Reliant K car. Ditto for magic, dragons, and light sabers. Also, emulating book characters with a separate design and vocal performance is far easier than finding a talented actor with the right looks.

Here are three works that are ripe for the jump to animation.


1. Julian May's "Saga of Pliocene Exile" ("Many Colored Land", "Golden Torc", "Nonborn King", and "Adversary")

The "Pliocene Exile" series starts out on a utopian Earth that was established with the help of several enlightened alien races. The abrupt change to Earth society is too much for some people to assimilate. Some of these misfit and adventurers take a one-way ticket through a time gate to the Pliocene era. In the past, the time travelers encounter a pair of alien races that crash landed on Earth who use them as pawns in their ancient power struggle.

The setting is fresh and dynamic, while the psychic powers spice up the plot. The cast is large, diverse, and come to play an active role in the events. There's Aiken Drum the trickster who adopts a middle finger as his war banner (a symbol of raffish defiance). Mercy the ex-nun is another traveler, who draws the unwelcome attention of the maniacally stronge and psychotic Felice. My favorite is Steiner the Viking berserker wannabe. Also, the olympian Tanu race provide bishounen for the fan-girls. The disparate travelers give a wide range of personalities for the audience to connect with.

The story has a strong mix action and original ideas. Julian May also has an eye for striking scenes. Towards the end of one volume, Aiken duels the ogre-like champion Pallol One-eye. Pallol opens the match with a blast of psychic energy toward the sky. Another scene described a flying Tanu hunt for elasmosaurs over the Atlantic.

The series may be long, but the books have a good start and end point. Books two and three probably could be trimmed and combined; both suffered mildly from middle book syndrome. With a combination of action, big concepts, and cool characters, it's a wonder that this series didn't grab more attention from the RPG, movie, and other creators.

2. Tamora Pierce's "Lioness Quartet" ("Alanna: The First Adventure", "In the Hand of the Goddess", "The Woman Who Rides Like a Man", and "Lioness Rampant")

Japanese cover for book 1 [1]

I was surprised when I found out that "Deltora Quest", another western young adult series, beat out the "Lioness Quartet" in becoming anime. Anyway, the "Lioness Quartet" takes place in the medieval fantasy kingdom of Tortall. Young Alanna Trebond is barred from becoming a knight by the rules barring woman. Undaunted, the saucy heroine switches places with her bookish twin brother and undergoes chivalric training while he takes her place at a mystic monastery. Folded between the sword fighting, romance, politics, and sorcery is a journey of growing-up and the story of a woman finding her place in a man's world.

Alanna's honesty and courage could have placed her on the pages of Shounen Jump. As an adolescent cross dressing warrior-mage, she could have followed "Hana Kimi" or "W Juliet" into a shoujo anthology.

A big strength of Pierce's quartet is the strong heroine that she develops in all four dimensions; the fourth dimension is time. Alanna develops from a dreamer to a self-determined woman. She suffers growing pains and loss, but forges on in the name of justice. This is definitely not cringing fodder for another "meido" fantasy.

Oriental Light and Magic proved that they could do sword and sorcery in "Berserk" and were chosen for "Deltora Quest" They would be the front runner to breathe motion and color into the "Lionness Quartet". If the Madhouse crew of the original "Record of the Lodoss War" OAV could be reassembled, they would also be prime candidates.

3. Meredith Ann Pierce's "Dark Angel"
This story was reputedly based on a woman's dream therapy session where she described vampires on the moon. And yes, the story takes place on the moon and the Earth rises daily to bath the lunar landscape in aqueous light. Aeriel is a servant whose mistress is taken by a seraphim with black wings. The girl journeys to the vampire's haven to avenge her mistress and avoid the punishment that she would suffer as the prime suspect in her mistress's disappearance.

Her thirst for revenge is overwhelmed by the dark angel's supernatural power and beauty. She finds out that he must take the souls of twelve maidens to complete his transformation into a truly soulless demon, and tries to save rather than destroy him.

The Dark Angel [2]

Like the Pliocene Saga, a group like Gonzo Digimation ("Gankutsuou" and "Last Exile") could take advantage of alien setting, while the young Ariel and the magical tale would be right up the alley of many anime fans.

[1] from http://www.tamora-pierce.com/gallery.htm
[2] after http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darkangel_Trilogy

Honey & Clover: Umino's Divide

WARNING - SPOILERS

The "Honey and Clover" (HC) anime contains numerous direct and indirect references to "Maison Ikkoku" (MI). These references can inform the reader about Umino's overall approach to and structure of the HC story.

Rumiko Takahashi's MI was slice-of-life romance comedy manga that became the basis for a 96 episode TV anime. The main character Yuusaku Godai (first name, family name) starts out as a loser ronin who falls for the new manager at the boarding house that he lives in. The manager Kyoko Otonashi turns out to a be a widow. There complex love story spans seven years of painful misunderstandings, mishaps, and many moving moments.

Here are the similarities that jumped out at me:

• Mayama, Takemoto, and Morita live in a boarding house, which is an anachronism in Japan.
• Mayama falls for the widowed Rika who cannot forget her first husband. In MI, Godai and his rival both struggle against the spectre of Kyoko's first husband. Also, Mayama is younger than Rika as Godai is younger than Kyoko. In anime and manga, the older woman rarely wins out.
• Both widows are encouraged by an older man to live life rather waiting to die (which is the meaning for the japanese word for widow). Here are mugshots of these gentlemen.

• Rika's dog is named "Shiro", which is also the original name for Kyoko's dog. Kyoko's dog eventually receives her husband's name, including the -san.
• Arguably, Ayu's internal conflict is similar to Kyoko's. Kyoko genuinely grew to like Godai, but thought that falling in love with Godai would render her earlier love for her husband Souichiro as false.
• Takemoto's disastrous job search takes a turn for the worse when the company that hires him goes bust. Ditto for Godai.
  

HC was strongly influenced by MI. More importantly, a half of HC was influenced by MI. HC divides its cast into two major romantic groups:

1. Hagu, Takemoto, Morita, and later Hanamoto-sensei
2. Mayama, Rika, Ayu, Nomiya

Besides the setting of the boarding house, most of the MI references apply to the second group. During the first series of HC, Takemoto's doubts and insecurities are examined. He undertakes the journey of self discovery to find the source of the sound of emptiness. The pivotal search for the four leaf clover is narrated from his point of view. His monologues are nuanced with human frailty.

Hagu is afflicted by a paralyzing shyness. She is continually tortured by Morita. From the standpoint of society, her art is her only redeeming quality; she would be considered socially inept and a burden on Hanamoto-sensei.

Contrast these flawed creations with the three other core characters. Ayu's conflict is her inability to find true love in spite her beauty and other good points. Mayama is solid, dependable, and charismatic. Even his obsessive power, his major weakness, nets him the object of his affections in the end. Morita's bizarre behavior is brazen and does not serve as a crutch to him as it does to Hagu. His manic energy and mysterious movements seem strong enough to overcome any obstacle. While Ayu, Mayama, and Morita have their flaws, their identifying characteristics are strengths. Umino created these characters to be looked up to and admired.

The story seems to be told on two different levels, there is an elevated level that Ayu's and Mayama's story takes. Morita also shares a similar level with his quest to regain his family's legacy. Takemoto's doubts are less clear, muddy, and transpire on a more earthly level, and Hagu's life shares the same mundane aspect as she cries over Ayu's heavenly body.

Umino also attended an art college and drew HC from her own experiences. Even after HC garnered attention, the author preferred to remain anonymous and camera shy. She shares some of the same quirks as Hagu. The intimacy invested in Takemoto's monologues implied that he is also based off the author's personal experiences.

I believe that the others were based off of friends and classmates she new. Matt Ruff's "Fool on the Hill" draws a cast from his college days at Cornell University and elevates his acquaintances to heroic stature. In summary, I believe that Umino drew inspiration from MI for more distant half of "Honey and Clover", while her more intimate characters follow a less clean-cut, but more personal plot.

Please feel free to air your corrections, disagreements, and expansions. Thanks for reading