Two warnings, manga spoiler alert, and moderatly long post .

No where have I seen a book converted to film butchered more than I have seen when a manga is converted to anime, not even Disney is as bad. While this does not apply to all anime/manga conversions (ie; Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha stay mostly true) it does apply to almost every threatrical release.

For those that have seen "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind" this is a brutal example. The breakdown of storyline is almost completely different while I won't go typing out the whole storyline for you here are some things in the movie that never happened in the manga.

-Kushana never loses her arm to the forest insects, she has no more hatred of them than the average person. Kushana does have a hatred for her father and three older brothers for the poisoning of her mother (poison her mother took in place of Kushana to save her life, the courts of Torumekia are a dangerous place). Amusingly her father saves the life of Nausicaa at the most crucial part of the story.

-The valley of wind is never invaded by the Torumekians, though there is a brief skirmish in the beginning of the book when Kushana brings worm handlers into the valley in search of the key used to bring to life the god warrior, they land in a freshly seeded field without going through inspection and the wormhandlers are forsaken throughout the kingdoms, considered a great insult and a breach of ancient oaths and alliances, it is also considered an act of war. Nausicaa is forced to confront them and ends up dueling with one of Kushana's soldiers before Lord Yupa interferes and saves the valley from becoming involved in a war with Torumekia.

-Kurotawa and his men don't kill king Jill, he dies of the hardening disease caused by spending time in the forests, as well as his age, well after Nausicaa leaves the valley.

-Nausicaa and the old men of the valley are not taken prisoner, they are actually reqruited for war, the old men are chosen as Nausicaa and her father feel that the young are too important to the continued existance of their people (they are mainly reqruited for the gunship that the valley possesses, as are the other periphery kingdoms, allies of the Torumekians all).

-The Torumekians never take possession of the god warrior for longer than they hold Pejeti, the Doroks attack and take it back to the holy city of Shuwa, though they do destroy Pejeti in an attempt to get it, Asbel flees with it and does later attack the military convoy (a mixture of periphery gunships and Torumekian bumblecrows) out of revenge for what happened at Pejeti.

-The god warrior (later named Ohma by Nausicaa after it begins to think of her as its mother) never disolves after attacking the insects, in fact I don't think it ever kills one insect through the entire manga, humans on the other hand die by the thousands, if not more. As well Ohma is intelligent and communicates telepathically with humans similiar to the way the Ohmu do. He becomes an important part of the storyline and survives through many of the books though is importance is only brought to light near the end of the storyline, he is prevalent in the last two books of the manga series.

-Teto dies of radiation sickness, a sickness that almost claims the life of Nausicaa (Ohma radiates it). Lord Yupa also dies, in a self sacrifice made to save the Dorok and Torumekian from restarting their fighting and as atonement for thier priest having once given his life to save Yupa, Asbel and Ketcha. Both these incedents happen close to the end of the story.

-The insects never come to the valley of wind, though the part where they are led by one of their young that has been tortured and mutilated is true, though it is not the people of Pejeti, it is the Dorok people and they are using it to attack the army of Kushana. As well Nausicaa is not killed and brought back by the insects at any point in the storyline, though she comes close on one occasion.

-Nausicaa never returns to the valley of wind. She stays amonst the Dorok and helps them to rebuild and recover after the war.

And this is all just the tip of a very large iceberg of differences, while I love the movie "Nausicaa of the Valley of wind", I in no way compare it to the manga, they are two entirely different storys.
There is never any mention of the Dorok people, the war, the priests, the many deaths and incedents that happen, the genetics, the people who started it all long before the world fell, the Heedra. There is no mention of the politics or religion that make the story what it is. There is no mention of the forest people who live in harmony with the insects. The list goes on and on.
Many characters are just plain left out even though they are there through the entire (or most of) the storyline, and are important to the plotline. The insects kill many people (and that is one way I never want to die, I'd like my body in one piece rather than several ).
They do not glorify war and make it obvious that it is deadly and disgusting, some of the scenes in the manga I would compare to the D-Day scene opening of "Saving Private Ryan". Make no illusions, the manga is graphic and disturbing, people of all ages die and in ways that are familiar and unimaginable. It is a story of war and slavery, death and extinction, genetics and apocalypse, politics and religion. I highly recommend it regardless, especially if you liked the anime, it is a story that makes one stop and think, and that is always a good thing.

"Akira", "Blood: The Last Vampire", "Battle Angel Alita" & "Ghost in the Shell" are further examples of this, the diffences usually bordering on drastic. Though I won't go into detail there are as many differences as listed above for Nausicaa as there are for these, they are no the same stories, just based in the same ideas. It doesn't end there, and there are many others that just don't compare to each other, but I'll leave it at that for now .

I'm telling you - Great Teacher Onizuka.

It's so exacting to the manga that it's just as funny and weird.

The three last anime movies you mentioned there (Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Battle Angel) were made at the time with the premise in mind that the people watching these films were going to be the fans who begged and begged and begged for an animated version of their favorite manga. They were never made with an "outside" audience in mind - they were not made for people who know nothing about the story.

So when Americans started watching these movies, they were totally stumped by them. Somehow, that made them more "special." That confounds me - the more confusing and profound the anime is, the more the otaku flock to it. I'll use Chobits as an example - Chobits as a series seems to be one thing to otakus when the Japanese understand the idea behind why it was made into a series.

It's the "fan-boi/grrl" culture here in the States that use random Japanese words and phrases in their sentences and parade around blabbing about their favorite anime that makes me wish I could legally wield a flamethrower.

Ok without going into a huge block of text and me rereading 12 pages, I want cyberpunk stuff.

I have GitS, and GitS2 but is the series worth the DVD its printed on? What else is out there - recent stuff. I know there is a lot out there that was done yesteryear but it show a tad. I also have the Appleseed and dearly want another - too cool for words.

Help.


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

On the subject of mecha, check this out!

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I have a curiousity for those out there who have seen the anime Gunslinger Girls, I've read mentions about cybernetics and such, was wondering if anyone who has seen this would recommend it. After seeing this with a song by Jem-They who I've never heard before but now tops the list as one of my favorite all time songs, I'm a bit of a sucker for songs that include kids voices in them and this one really connected with me, especially to this video, really offsets the music especially in this case. I'm all over the idea of seeing this series now and wanted some general opinions from those who've seen it, or read the manga, as I'm obviously likely to go for both I'd like to know what general thoughts those who have seen it would pass on.

Adding a recommendation for Final Fantasy: Advent Children as well, a CG anime which carries on the story after the video game Final Fantasy VII ends.

Edit: I decided to check it out anyway and "Gunslinger Girl" was a step above most anime series I have watched. Surprisingly short at only 13 episodes with no movie, it was a serious story rather than the slightly comedic ones you normally come across, in fact at only two points in the series did I chuckle, and both times were light humor, the kind you'd find in everyday conversation.
The storyline was gripping and pretty realistic overall, though quite depressing and a bit of a sad ending. There was no off drawn little cartoon bubbles, in fact the animation style was as serious as you might find in one of the GitS movies, strongly mimicing real life movement and facial motions, rather than the exaggerated facial expressions you see in many styles that take the storyline less seriously. Be prepared for a pretty sad story, though something like this is possible if the technology came to light. On a 1-10 list I'd give it 10, at no point was I disappointed with the way the whole came together, enjoyed it, and would watch it again, I recommend it for those who are curious or just weren't aware of it.

This is an that shows scenes from Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion the movie done to Apocalyptica, heh, this shows how alive the giant beings from NGE really are, especially when she cracks one in half dousing her EVA with blood, or the one where she crushes in the skull of another revealling grey matter, defineatly not giant robots.

New anime I can add to my viewing list, Macross Zero, Gungrave, Grave of the fireflys (wow, just sad, this WARNING: SPOILER shows just how), Bleach, Samurai Champloo, Final Fantasy: Advent Children (very cool CG), Eureka 7, Fruits Basket (a laugh riot), Captain Harlock, Read or Die, Phychodiver (which it turned out I had already seen), thanx to CapnG's mention of it I can add Saber Riders (which I forgot even existed, lol), Oh my Goddess, and Elfen Lied. Heh, and more being added when I can watch them .

Edited and moved to a more appropriate topic.

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