Anime and the art of adaptation : eight famous works from page to screen

221 Pages·2010·1.596 MB·English

by  Cavallaro, Dani

Anime and the
Art of Adaptation
ALSOBYDANICAVALLARO
ANDFROMMCFARLAND
Anime and the Visual Novel: Narrative
Structure, Design and Play at the Crossroads
of Animation and Computer Games(2010)
Magic as Metaphor in Anime:
A Critical Study(2010)
The Mind of Italo Calvino: A Critical
Exploration of His Thought and Writings(2010)
Anime and Memory: Aesthetic, Cultural
and Thematic Perspectives(2009)
The Art of Studio Gainax: Experimentation, Style and
Innovation at the Leading Edge of Anime(2009)
Anime Intersections: Tradition and Innovation
in Theme and Technique(2007)
The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki(2006)
The Cinema of Mamoru Oshii: Fantasy,
Technology and Politics(2006)
Anime and the
Art of Adaptation
Eight Famous Works
from Page to Screen
D C
ANI AVALLARO
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Cavallaro, Dani.
Anime and the art of adaptation : eight famous works from
page to screen / Dani Cavallaro.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes filmography.
ISBN 978-0-7864-5860-8
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Animated films—History and criticism. 2. Film
adaptations—History and criticism. I. Title.
NC1765.C38 2010
791.43'34—dc22 2010024301
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2010 Dani Cavallaro. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Artwork from the 1988 animated film
Grave of the Fireflies(Studio Ghibli/The Kobal Collection)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To Paddy,
with love and gratitude
... and to Betsy, too, in homage to her supervisory role
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. The Frame of Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2. The Nightmare of History
Belladonna of Sadness, Grave of the Fireflies
and Like the Clouds, Like the Wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3. Epic Adventure with a Sci-Fi Twist
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo . . . . . . . . . . 38
4. The Fairy Tale Reimagined
The Snow Queen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5. Romance Meets Revolution
Romeo x Juliet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6. A Magical Murder Enigma
Umineko no Naku Koro ni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7. A Tapestry of Courtly Life
The Tale of Genji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Filmography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
vii
Language is an archaeological vehicle ... the
language we speak is a whole palimpsest
of human effort and history.
—Russell Hoban
For the world to be interesting, you have
to be manipulating it all the time.
—Brian Eno
Preface
Keep on the lookout for novel ideas that others have used
successfully. Your idea has to be original only in its
adaptation to the problem you’re working on.
To invent, you need a good
imagination and a pile of junk.
—Thomas Alva Edison
This study explores a selection of anime offering adaptations of famous
works of both Eastern and Western provenance. It is not concerned with
assessing the so-called quality of adaptations in value judgmental terms but
with appreciating their significance and appeal as autonomous textual forma-
tions. Its basic premise is that by contrast with Western animation studios,
whose adaptations of illustrious originals turn exclusively to children’s books
and fairy tales for inspiration and always endeavor to edulcorate the sources’
messages, anime studios utilizing well-known dramatic, mythical or literary
antecedents are frequently drawn to stories with grave undertones or even to
the realms of tragedy and epic. When they do venture into the domain of
children’s fiction, they often bring out its more mature themes or else reimag-
ine the initial yarns by infusing their worlds with complex subtexts. This
divergence in preferences within the particular field of adaptation can be
related to a broader phenomenon: the attraction famously evinced by Eastern
audiences (and cultures generally) to materials of darker texture, not solely
in anime but also in other cogent facets of the performance, literary and visual
arts. In the specific case of Japanese culture, that proclivity can be seen as a
direct corollary of an essential facet of indigenous aesthetics tersely captured
by John Reeve as follows: “Serenity and turbulence, spirituality and slaughter
have often gone hand in hand in Japanese culture.... Japanese art, like Japanese
religion, can provide an assurance (or illusion) of calm while also honestly
reflecting the turbulence of life both outside and within” (Reeve, p. 22). This
entails that the very concepts of entertainment, amusement, pleasure and fun
1