Methodology

The research will be practice led and carry out by analyzing animation and its manga panel side by side. Through observation, we will be investigating how the animation adapts from its origin and whether there are significant differences, similarities and/or any terms we could generalize.

 

The research will be carrying out in the following routine:

Choose of case study > Layout the animation and the manga panel > Identify the similarities and differences > Investigate and analysis the question > Document the findings.

 

I have adapted this methodology from Grigsby Mary’s framework, developed in “‘Sailormoon’: Manga and Anime” in Journal of Popular Culture, where she analysis the Sailor Moon anime by reviewing it with the manga side by side together. While the content of the video is essentially an animated version of the manga. As criteria, putting the effort in experiencing the visual presentation of the material in animation with frame by frame review of the printed manga. It forms a primary source for evaluation in this study (Grigsby, 1998).

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Conceptual Analysis & Case Study

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4.1 Plot and Non-Plot Elements

Analyzing the plot and non-plot element is to see the decision that were made from directors and how they would present the elements of the manga to animation without breaking its origin.

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4.1.1 Sailor Moon (1992) and Sailor Moon Crystal (2014)

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon was written by Naoko Takeuchi and published by Kondansha in 1991 to 1997. Its first animated series was directed by Junichi Sato from Toei Animation Studio and was aired in March 7, 1992.

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Naoko Takeuchi initially developed Sailor Moon anime for one season only. Due to the popularity, Toei Animation wanted her to keep drawing for the manga. At the end, the Sailor Moon manga ended up with 52 chapters and was adapted into animation with 200 episodes. The animation series consist of 5 separate seasons – Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon SuperS, Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars. Each season represents one of the five major story arcs of the manga following the general storyline.

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While the manga was published during the animation production, the anime release would only lag the manga by a month or two. Thus, the anime follows the storyline of the manga fairly close. Takeuchi stated that due to the time when the Sailor Moon anime was in production, Toei Animation were mostly consist of male production staff and she felt that the anime version of Sailor Moon has a slight male perspective. As a result, even though it was a full adaptation, there were still significant differences in terms of graphic style, editing and key panel images. 

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In 2014, Sailor Moon Crystal released, an original net animation adaptation of Sailor Moon manga with the celebration of its 20th anniversary. Produced by Toei Animation Studio, Sailor Moon Crystal was considered to be a reboot of the Sailor Moon animated series with a more faithful adaptation of its original manga in terms of art style and key panels and story pacing. However, the first two seasons of Sailor Moon Crystal were criticized for its overly fast pacing in animation with noticeable errors. Art style tends to be out of consistency after episode 4. However, this was resolved in the third season and was praised for its improvement in overall art style, animation and characterization.

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From the analysis, we can see even though Sailor Moon Crystal was considered to be a more faithful adaptation, not every panel from the manga were adapted. Surprisingly, it did not adapt the last scene where Tuxedo Mask leaves and Sailor Moon was fully attracted by him with the hearts in her eyes, as this is one of the key moments in the series. However, this was shown on the 1992 series of the Sailor Moon anime. 

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Extra scenes were added for both version of the anime to establish the antagonist appearance and actions. A certain of composition in the scenes were re-arranged for consistency. For example, when Lunar crashes into Usagi’s room from the window and talks to her, Usagi turns a blind eye and goes into sleep, this scene is completely opposite in terms of composition from the manga.

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One major thing about the differences between manga and anime for the series is the transformation of the Sailor Soldiers. In the manga, transformation weren’t as strongly emphasis and mostly it only uses one or two panels to show the crew into transformation. However, in the anime series, it is totally opposite. Transformation in the anime takes a big part in the show and it also became a signature of it. Unfortunately, there aren’t many details about how they conduct the animation of the transformations in terms of the calligraphy. But from the examples (Sailor Moon 1992) we can see that the animation was handle differently in terms of quality and frames and it is to be distinctive from the main story. In Sailor Moon Crystal, transformation were done with 3D toon shade, individuals criticizes that it ruins the consistency of the overall art style but this may be a subjective matter. The calligraphy of the transformation is an iteration from the 1994 series and features the same ending poses after transformation.

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4.1.2 Neon Genesis Evangelion

The manga of Neon Genesis Evangelion was published by Shonen Ace in December 1994. It is a media franchise created by Hideaki Anno and was used as a way to generate interesting upcoming anime release during the period. The anime series was also written and directed by Hideaki Anno and created by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production (animation assistance). It was aired in October 4, 1995 to March 27, 1996 with 26 episodes.

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Evangelion’s animation and manga initially were planned at the same period. The anime series was conceived before the manga but due to production delays, the manga was released first. In the animation, by episode 13 the series began to deviate from the original story. From episode 16 onwards, the show changed drastically from the main narrative of salvation to focusing on individual characters. The decision was made by Anno’s development of interest in psychology after a friend lent him a book about mental illness. It also culminated in a psychoanalysis of the characters in the last two episodes. The controversial about the last two episodes, 25 and 26, featured heavy use of abstract animation, flashbacks, simple line drawings, photography and fixed images with voice over dialogue. Toshio Okada, CEO of Gainax, stated that Anno couldn’t decide the ending until the time came. In 1997, Hideaki Anno and Studio Gainax released two animated feature films, Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion, an alternative ending for the series.

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4.2 Timing

Time is a tricky matter when it comes to transitioning manga into animation. While time can be defined in lot of different ways in manga. From the book, Understanding Comics (McCloud, 2008) suggested that time in manga are defined by panels. However, the length of the time can be presented in many different ways. McCloud (2008) suggested that the number of panels, the size of the panel, the alignment of the panels or even the content itself within the panel could affect how we interpret time. However, in animation, time is a duration. Any scene whether it is talking, in action or even idle, everything has a time span and how the animation uses the time span to create the action affects the outcome. Moreover, is the determination in editing for the episode, when is the right timing to end an episode? How many chapters of manga should it cover? Etc.

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4.2.1 Nichijou

Nichijou is a manga series written and illustrated by Keiichi Arawi. It uses a combination of normal comic format and 4 panel comic strips. Initially, the manga was meant to be a short, stand-alone series which was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten’s Shonen Ace magazine between the May and October 2006 issues. Starting with the December 2006 issue, the manga began regular serialization in Shonen Ace, and was also serialized in Kadokawa’s Comptiq magazine between the March 2007 and July 2008 issues. 

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The 26 episode animated series directed by Tatsuya Ishihara and produced by Kyoto Animation was broadcast in Japan between April and September 2011, after an earlier original video animation was released in March. Set in a suburban Japanese town, Nichijou is populated by ensemble set of characters, mainly focusing on the energetic Yuko Aioi, the bright and cheerful Mio Naganohara, the quiet and deadpan Mai Minakami, the anxious robot Nano Shinonome, her young creator the Professor, and a talking cat named Sakamoto, along with a set of cast characters. Featuring moments from their everyday lives which alternate between the mundane and the strange, without much focus on a narrative. Its comedy is mostly delivered by the randomness of events and the exaggerative presentations.

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In Nichijou episode 25, Mio had a scene where she is doing the boxer punch. In the manga this scene is only in one panel, but in the animation, this is a 15 second scene. This is considered to be a long-animated scene with only a few words dialog. 

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Most of the action in this 3 minute scene were lengthened from the manga, for example when Mio running into the shopping district, a photographer was taking a photo of a salesman in front of a store while Mio and Yuko ran past them. They cleverly recapture that moment of the scene through the photographer’s camera lens. Showing Mio and Yuko ran past and caused a turbulence ruining the salesman’s hair. Moreover, editors rearranged some of the scene from the manga in order to establish the action faster and faster. From the boxer punch, running into shopping district, helping the old lady crossing the intersection, running on train tracks, running across archers, hopping on PE students back, sliding on the hand rail on the bridge, each individual action in the manga were only 1 panel. While in the anime, the duration of each action gets shorter and shorter. We could tell by how frequent Yuko shouts Mio’s name.

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4.3 Style and Colour

Colour is one of the obvious differences between manga and animation and it is one of the elements of defining style / tone. Colour is also considered to be a visual language that expresses symbolic and aesthetic idea of key visual element in the scene (Horno-López, 2016). While Japanese manga are mostly published in black and white, color brings a new element to the scene. Especially when animation consist of style change (transformation), color would be a crucial element to bring out the sense of tone and emphasis.

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4.3.1 Asobo Asobasa (Expression)

Asobi Asobase is written and illustrated by Rin Suzukawa. It was serialized on Hakusensha’s Young Animal Densi website in June 26, 2015. The 12 episode animated series, directed by Seiji Kishi and produced by Lerche, aired from July 8 to September 23, 2018.

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The series centres on the rich and energetic Hanako, the mysterious foreign student Olivia and the shy and mindful Kasumi, second year students in a girl’s middle school and the only three members of the Pastimers Club - a non-officially recognized group. The club has very ambiguous goals, usually consisting of whatever so-called “pastimes” the girls happen to think up. The comedy mainly focus on how the 3 main protagonists react to things and from time to time the visual changes into other style to exaggerate their reactions (transformation). Having the overall tone of the animated series as very Shojo - thin lines, pale colour tone, characters are considerably cute with big eyes, the style change creates an incredible bizarre distinctive effect among jokes. They also have a few parody jokes where in episode 8 Hanako pretending as Sailor Moon and Kasumi imitates the move of Kamehameha from Dragon Ball in front of the teacher.

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There are many ways to convey expression and motion in manga while happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, anger, disgust is considered as universal, it may not be the case in manga (Abbott, 2011). While manga expression may be flat and static, in animation, it consist of eye movement, talking motion, body motion or even hair flow etc. As on this topic, I would like to show how colour and style represented though animation from manga adaptation.

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In Asobi Asobasa episode 8, we can see the constant change of style to exaggerate the expression of Hanako in different situation. Each style has a different tone of colour to spice up the scene. For example the shy scene they gave Hanoka a light pink faded highlight around her to show the feminine of a shy girl. The cruel look had a high contrasting shadow with a dark tone while the scared look had a grey pale face with a totally different drawing style.

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4.3.2 One Punch Man (Indication)

One Punch Man is written and illustrated (web manga) by ONE and began publication in early 2009. With the creative idea of having the main protagonist – Saitama, also known as One Punch Man, capable of destroy any enemy with only one punch, the series quickly went viral and surpassing 7.9 million hits in June 2012. Yusuke Murata, a famous manga artist well known for illustrating Eyeshield 21, contacted ONE with a proposal to redraw the comic for digital publication in Weekly Young Jump’s spin off manga website Tonari no Young Jump, published by Shueisha.

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The first season anime adaptation was produced by Madhouse directed by Shingo Natsume and was aired between October 5, 2015 and December 21, 2015. The second season of the show was produced by J.C. Staff with Chikara Sakurai as the director and was aired during April 9, 2019 to July 2, 2019.

 

The review of the first season was overwhelmingly positive. It holds an approval rating of 100% in Rotten Tomatoes based on 11 reviews (Rotten Tomatoes, 2019). As critics mostly praise on its uniqueness, animation quality (especially fight scenes), humours and characters. The series was also nominated for an Eisner Award in 2015. However, the review for second season was mixed. Though the second series was able to retain the quality of storytelling with humour and characters, critics were very critical on the animation quality. As the change in animation studio with director, critics criticize the show took a horrendous shortcuts in producing the fight scenes and concluded as a half-baked jumble of poor and lazy animation. 

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In One Punch Man season 1 episode 3, colour was cleverly used in the battle between Saitama and Asura Kabuto. As the battle consist of high speed action, during the climax, directors decided to change the lab (arena) into red tone. While Asura Kabuto in his Asura mode, he changes from brown to purple with glowing green strip.

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Saitama is always in his yellow uniform. All elements in the scene are high contrast colors. Even though the fighting action is in high speed, their actions were still easily establish for audiences. Similar technique were also used in episode 12 when Saitama fought with Boros.

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4.3.3 Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure Diamond is Unbreakable (Atmosphere)

Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure is written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. Before it become as a monthly publication in seinen (young adult) magazine Ultra Jump in 2005, it was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1987 to 2004. Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure has 8 story arcs produced to date. Currently, it is Shueisha’s second largest manga series with its chapters collected into 125 tankobon volumes.

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The animated series was produced by David Production and directed by Naokatsu Tsuda and Ken’ichi Suzuki. The first 2 arcs of the story, “Phantom Blood” and “Battle Tendency” was aired in October 5, 2012 to April 5, 2013 with 26 episodes. With the same studio and directors, they released the third arc of the story – “Stardust Crusaders”, with 2 seasons, 48 episodes together from April 4, 2014 to June 19, 2015; A 39 episode adaptation was aired between April 1, 2016 and December 23, 2016 covering the fourth arc of the story – “Diamond is Unbreakable”; and another 39 episode season adapting the fifth arc of the story, “Golden Wind” in October 5, 2018 and ended in July 28, 2019.

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In the animated series, Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure chapter 4 – “Diamond is Unbreakable”, the overall colour tone of the environment is irregularly done. They have used yellow for the sky, white for the clouds and purple for plants and buildings. Instead of having normal colours for the background, it sets the tone of this small bizarre town where anything could happen within. It is not know why they have used these colours (yellow, white and purple) for the environment, but it is the same colour palette as the main protagonist – Higashikata Josuke.

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4.4 Sound

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4.4.1 Character Voice

Another obvious difference between manga and animation is sound. Having the same animation but voiced with a different sound can result in a totally different outcome. Sound creates a second impression of the character or surroundings to the imagery.

 

4.4.1.1 Pop Teen Epic

Pop Team Epic, also known as Poptepipic, is a Japanese 4 panel surreal comedy webcomic and digital manga series written and illustrated by Bkub Okawa, which started serialize on Takeshobo’s Manga Life Win website in August 29, 2014.

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The manga features the misadventures of two 14 year old girls named Popuko and Pipimi, who encounter a variety of both mundane and bizarre situations and respond to them in equally bizarre and exaggerated ways. The manga is noted for its frequent parodies of pop culture and its combination of surrealism, absurdity, and non-sequitur, all of which have contributed to it developing a cult following among both Japanese and Western audiences. An animated television series adaptation animated by Kamikaze Douga, produced by King Records and directed by Jun Aoki and Aoi Umeki aired between January and March 2018.

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In Pop Teen Epic, the animation is separated into part A and B. While the content of part A and B are the same (the editing may differ and certain episodes and may have different drawing style), the voice acting is different with different cast. Hence, the same idea may result in a different attitude of comedy due to sound.

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4.4.2 Onomatopoeia

Another element of sound is that Japanese manga tends to use a lot of onomatopoeia. When panels that include onomatopoeia adapting into animation, the scene will emphasis the sound stronger than normally it would be. While some animation will intentionally put the onomatopoeia into the animation as an animated text. Also, for manga panel, text bubbles have different styles that indicate the tone of the sound, voice actors may change the performance of the voice acting according to it.

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4.4.2.1 Asobi Asobase

In Asobi Asobase Episode 8, when the president of student council chases Olivia, the background sound when silent with only a strong bass “zoom”. The “zoom” created an atmosphere of how supernatural of the speed of president of student council is walking, even though she was walking at a normal speed.

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4.4.2.2 Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders

Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure uses a lot of onomatopoeia in the manga, however, in the animation they use ambient sound/music to represent the status of the scene. In the example, the manga shows a lot of “ゴ” during the staircase, “ゴ” is a “go” sound in Japanese, the author uses it in situation where there is an uncertainty, mystery situation or a pressure aura from strong character. 

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As the scene shows the main protagonists first meet the revived vampire – Dio. As they have no idea of what Dio’s ability is, the main protagonists are in an uncertain situation where they could be attacked. In the animation, instead of having a lot of “ゴ” sound/noise, they used an ambient music (violin) to create the atmosphere and drops a brass bass for that one moment when Dio’s coffin first appear. It puts audience into the atmospheric pressure of mystery strong foe would appear in front of the protagonists.

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5. Miscellaneous - The Extend of Adaptation 

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From the about examples we could see how animation was adapted from manga. While manga adaptation does not only apply to animation, recent years, varies movies and video games also have been adapted from mangas. The conceptual analyses that were mentioned may potentially apply to other forms of adaptation.

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5.1 Gantz / Gantz: Perfect Answer & Gantz: O

The real-life movie of Gantz based on its manga series written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku. It is directed by Shinsuke Sato and Produced by Takahiro Sato. Released in January 29, 2011 (Gantz) and April 23, 2011 (Gantz: Perfect Answer), the film featured Kazunari Ninomiya as Kei Kurono and Ken’ichi Matsuyama as Masaru Kato, the 2 main protagonists. Gantz: O is a CGI animated sci-fi action film released in October 14, 2016, directed by Yasushi Kawamura and produced by Digital Frontier. 

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5.2 Dragon Ball FighterZ

Dragon Ball FighterZ is a 2.5D fighting game developed by Arc System Works and produced by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was released in January 26, 2018. Youtuber IKevinX has put up a series of video showing how the characters action referenced from the manga in the game. Hence, showing that manga adaptation also applies to game development.

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5.3 One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is an upcoming 3D fighting game set to be release in 2020, developed by Spike Chunsoft and produced by Bandai Namco Entertainment. This interesting example shows how manga adaptation affects gameplay. 

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As Saitama is almost an invincible character that can defeat anything with one punch. In order to not break the balance of the game, when choosing Saitama as the playable character for the team, he is set to be late with the team. There is a buffer time before he can be used in the scene, if the team is defeated before Saitama arrives, the team will be considered as lose. 

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If Saitama makes it on time to the scene, the opponent team will be in great disadvantage as Saitama can K.O. almost any opponent with only one hit of his punch including his jabs. If both team uses Saitama and both Saitama makes it to the scene, they will fight evenly.

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