Anime adaptations that Angered their Original Authors
When a manga gets an anime adaptation, the production team often seeks to fill gaps left by the author, either with extra stories or adding original characters.
There are certain anime adaptations that have made their original authors angry, because when an author is not involved with the production, there is complete freedom in the anime production process.
The website Magmix compiled cases in which anime ended up irritating their original authors due to something done in the animation.
Anime adaptations that Angered their Original Authors
A good example is the 2001 anime adaptation of Hellsing. This was the first anime adaptation of the vampire manga and was highly anticipated by fans.
In this case, characters were added that ended up erasing the shine of the original characters in the work.
The production team’s reason for this was their apprehensions about including depictions of the fictional Nazis that appear in the original story. The Major, leader of the remaining Nazi organization Millennium, named by ”Adolf Hitler” himself, had been a problematic character to include.
As the distribution of the anime abroad had already been decided, the production decided to end with The Major, but this ended up causing the story to remain without an antagonist and key character that made Hellsing what it was.
It turns out that Kouta Hirano, original author of Hellsing, didn’t like this decision making and expressed his disappointment in a series of posts on his social media commenting that he ”was a fool to have had expectations.”
Hirano also refused to make a cover illustration for the DVD edition of the anime and stated that he sold this copy of the DVD to a retailer.
Now, speaking of a sports anime, the 2019 high school basketball anime Ahiru no Sora, due to the theme of the story, the anime had already been associated with the basketball anime and manga Kuroko no Basuke, but in a certain episode of the anime, the production team decided to add a detail that does not exist in the original, which could even be interpreted as plagiarism.
During a match, characters had light coming out of their eyes, which is a characteristic representation of athletes entering the Zone in Kuroko no Basuke.
Original author Takeshi Hinata apologized online, calling the production a ”disappointment”.
Now, there have been cases where the artistic liberties taken by the adaptation made the original material more acclaimed, even though the changes were not what the original author wanted.
This was the case with the manga Gunslinger Girls, which tells the story of girls with cybernetic implants being trained to be killers by manipulative men.
The author did not participate in the first part of the anime and narrative freedom was taken, exploring the characters’ suffering and relationships, resulting in a contemplative drama with touches of tragedy.
However, as the author Yu Aida did not like the changes, he became directly involved in the production of the sequel, which therefore faithfully followed the manga, but caused surprise reactions from the public due to the sudden change in tone, including shrill, cheerful dubbing, personalities of radically different characters and more frequent panty shots.
Such changes in anime adaptations may not only not please the original author, but also the public, causing the anime to receive poor reviews, drop in sales and so on, which leads us to believe that respect for the original material is necessary.
Source: Magmix via Automaton
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