Mistborn Anime

[Drazhar]

I don't know about other people but I'm a huge fantasy fan but i like it in all forms... including anime.

People have been talking about making Mistborn a movie and a game which i think is great but i haven't read anyone talk about anime although I could have mist it (bad pun i know). I think it has great potential for anime because it involves a lot of assassin/shadow/ninja elements, along with a great original magic system and storyline. When i read mistborn all i could think of in the action scenes was animes like Basilisk. The quick movements, trickery and "powers" or "abilities" scream anime ninja stuff.

I dunno maybe I'm wrong but i think it would make a great manga or anime.

P.S. The video game thing everyone has been saying it would make a good fps or rpg but i think a third person action would be better like god of war or bayonetta.

[ryos]

I'd love to see an animated interpretation of Mistborn...produced with good old-fashioned American CGI. From what I can tell, the hallmarks of anime are horrible dialog, ludicrous premises, bad writing, and caricatured, ridiculous fight scenes. Please, please, PLEASE don't get any of that in my Mistborn.

Edit: Before I get crucified by anime fans, let me say that, despite my low opinion of Anime in general, I do watch some of it. I'd call it a guilty pleasure—guilty because half the time I can't help but hold my nose at all the ridiculousness, yet there I am, watching it anyway.

The highest-quality, least-odiforous anime I've seen is Fullmetal Alchemist. I've never seen a better piece of fiction come out of Japan.

[Fireborn]

Ah, but an adaption to anime would negate all of the flaws you've picked out, just by properly implementing the source material.
Dialog is something that Mistborn is pretty good at, check.
Premise?  DUH.  Check.
Writing is top notch from Brandon, check.
Fight scenes?  Booyah, check.
And, TADAH!!!  We've taken your usual complaints with anime and replaced it good ol', Mistborn-y awesomeness.
You're welcome.

[ryos]

And if you do all those things, what you'll have is an American cartoon.

[Drazhar]

I think you aren't giving anime enough credit however you did agree that fullmetal was good and so do i but American cartoons don't have the style or finesse to pull off the stunning visuals of mistborn. American cartoons are too bland.

If you can name one cartoon that pulls off amazing visuals or great leaps and stunning martial arts i would like to see it.

look at fullmetal the action scenes and dialog and just the style of the animation is perfect for such a fantastic thing as Mistborn. If they made it an anime why couldn't they make it like that? Why would it have to be like a bad anime?

Maybe I'm not being clear I'm not arguing that mistborn could only be an anime or that anime is the best but just that anime style is a perfect fit. When you watch a Japanese anime of a ninja running through a dark street unrealistically fast and throw a shuriken into a hidden ninja then jump ridiculously high and land on a roof; is it that different from Vin running down a a misty street with pewter and coin shooting a hidden allomancer she detected using bronze then pushing her way onto a rooftop? If anything the "ridiculous" or "caricaturistic" fight scenes of anime are the same as mistborn.

[ryos]

If you can name one cartoon that pulls off amazing visuals or great leaps and stunning martial arts i would like to see it.

Exhibit A: Kung Fu Panda.

If anything the "ridiculous" or "caricaturistic" fight scenes of anime are the same as mistborn.

I wasn't talking about the fantasy elements when I called the fight scenes ridiculous. I'm talking about the posturing. Anime would be far more entertaining if the characters would just shut the fetch up and fight.

[douglas]

I wasn't talking about the fantasy elements when I called the fight scenes ridiculous. I'm talking about the posturing. Anime would be far more entertaining if the characters would just shut the fetch up and fight.

Yes, a lot of anime does do that, and it is ridiculous.  On the other hand that's usually a combination of adapting from a manga (where dialog is cheap because it takes up space rather than time, and a lot less of it than a detailed fight scene) and trying to not catch up to the manga too quickly.  There are anime shows out there that have sensible amounts of dialog in their fight scenes, and neither of those two factors would apply to an anime based on Mistborn.  I don't watch all that many anime shows myself, but I personally know of two that don't have that problem: Code Geass, and Avatar: The Last Airbender (ok, this one may not technically be an anime because it's really American-made, but it's in the anime style).

It's a common problem for anime, but it's far from universal and is due in large part to the nature of the usual source material.  I will note that both of the examples I just gave were not based on any manga; they were, in fact, both original to the TV medium.  Mistborn, as a purely text novel that is already completed, is different enough from manga as a source that I think it would also not suffer from this problem if converted to anime.

[Drazhar]

Kung Fu Panda is a CGI it isn't a cartoon, my argument i suppose isn't very good anyways because in the right hands anything can be made. Mistborn could be and amazing live action, CGI, comic, anime or what ever as long as the right people make it.

I'm just saying that if given the opportunity Mistborn could make an excellent anime and just like Doug said the text: plot, battles, everything, are already written it just has to be produced in the anime format.

It would still be "original Mistborn" and its own style, it would simply be in a different representation.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

ryos, have you seen Cowboy Bebop? It's Brandon's favorite anime, and he says he's never seen a U.S. series as well done.

[Inkthinker]

It might be worth mentioning that the reason you don't see an "American" series as well done as most anime is that there's no American Animation Industry of that sort any more. It was outsourced to near-death over a decade ago.

Everything longer than a commercial or animated beyond cutouts is shifted to Asia to lower costs. The Simpsons, Family Guy, Avatar the Last Airbender, Ben 10, Justice League, you name it and it's probably being done in Korea, China or Malaysia.

For that matter, most Japanese animation is outsourced as well, at least when it breaks down to the actual work. Nobody wants pass up the budgeting opportunity to pay animators pennies over dollars.

Ultimately, where you source the animation isn't as important as the size of the budget, and where that budget is applied. Most everyone, Asian or otherwise, uses the same techniques derived from Hanna-Barbera's production methods, created some 30-40 years ago.

Most of people's complaints about anime "posturing, pacing" are budgetary functions. It costs less to have a person talk than to fight. If the anime is an adaptation of a comic, there are incentives to not pace as rapidly as the comic might ("Dragonball Syndrome").  These are perceived as aspects of "anime" not because of anything that's inherent to Asian animation, but rather because they're aspects inherent to low-budget animation production.

[JCHancey]

I'm one of those who don't like anime mixed with my fantasy, it has always just seemed weird to me, but maybe that's my American ignorance piping in.

[Miyabi]

ryos, have you seen Cowboy Bebop? It's Brandon's favorite anime, and he says he's never seen a U.S. series as well done.

It's my favorite too.  I love that series.  Can't wait for the movie.

I would be interested in seeing a bit of it adapted by Aikawa Shou.

[Eerongal]

If you can name one cartoon that pulls off amazing visuals or great leaps and stunning martial arts i would like to see it.

Just about any disney movie looks great, and what little fighting they do have looks very good.  (aladdin, the lion king, etc.)

For older stuff, heavy metal and wizards were incredibly awesome looking for their time, and had battle.

Heavy metal 2000 continues this trend of the first.

(note that heavy metal and heavy metal 2000 were made in canada, but i'm lumping it in with american animation, since the US and canada have about the same ecosystem when it comes to TV and movies.)

Hercules and Xena - The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus looked great and had a ton of fighting.

the Gargoyles TV series (and i suppose accompanying direct-to-video movie, though i've never seen it) was very well animated, and had a pretty decent storyline to go with it.

Batman: The animated series. 'Nuff said there.

Xmen the animated series.


Also: not every anime has top-notch visuals either. The old speed racer, astroboy (but i wont lie about my love of either of these two series. Also, ive always seen their bad animation as part of their charm.), shinchan (though i think that one has bad visuals intentionally)


I could probably go on, but these are just off the top of my head.

Point is: American, asian, european and whatever nationality/region/whatever you want to pick has produced good and bad content.

Also: Quality of visuals is largely opinion.

ryos, have you seen Cowboy Bebop? It's Brandon's favorite anime, and he says he's never seen a U.S. series as well done.

I LURRRRRRRRRVS me some cowboy bebop.

[Link von Kelsier Harvey XXIV]

Cowboy Bebop freaking rocks.

[ryos]

Huh. I guess I'll be checking out some Cowboy Bebop then. Hard to get past the feeling I'm being set up to watch a Western-themed musical with all country songs.