Anime Are Movies Of Series Better Than The Original?

[ElrickOtaku]

A question over movies and the importance of them in being a true anime fan has been raised recently. That question seems irrelevant to me, but it seems to raise a far more interesting question.

When a movie is made from an anime series, does it surpass the series?

Having seen several of these, notably Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, I would say that they often have the potential to surpass the series from which they were born. This is as in movies there is a sufficent budget as well as better time and care taken over the animation and plot, than can be given to individual episodes in series.

Even so, I have little doubt that many will oppose this opinion, just vote and give good justification for your vote, backed with examples.

[Queen Asuka]

[color=hotpink][size=1]I don't think they necessarily surpass, just glorify and add on to what the original series has already developed, if that makes any sense.[/color][/size]

[Dagger]

Heh, Elrick, I'd have to disagree with you on that. Most series-based movies are simply incapable of standing alone. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is rather good, but it relies way too much on action and contains very little character development. Now, for fans of the original show, explicating the leads' personalities wouldn't really have been necessary. But I've spoken with a lot of people who, because they didn't quite love the movie, fail to understand the glory that is Bebop.

Films [i]always[/i] have better animation than the series upon which they're based. That's pretty much a given. Yet the television version of CB features some pretty nifty sequences, although the movie definitely looks glossier.

On a side note, isn't Endless Waltz made up of three OAV episodes (rather than being an actual movie)?

Anyway. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is one of the best TV-based anime films currently available (I'm really, really hoping that the RahXephon movie will also turn out to be spectacular). This is due mainly to the fact that it plays out like an extra set of episodes from the original series; trying to squeeze CB's entire storyline into two and a half hours would simply not have worked.

Unfortunately, many anime films are ruined by that disastrous mistake. The theatrical versions of Escaflowne and X are little more than a few hours of empty eye candy, and I was quite tempted to sleep through them. The worst part is that both movies had such potential--there were moments in Escaflowne when I thought, "Hey, this could be really great!" And then it just..... wasn't. Which is why I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing X: TV, as well as the original Vision of Escaflowne series. Both of them have got to be far more compelling than their corresponding films.

~Dagger~

[Kanariya]

[size=1][color=chocolate]I don't think anime movies surpass the episodes of a series really.
The good about a series in my opinion is its character development and different things. (The adventure, action, comedy, blah blah) That's what I look for, but Cowboy Bebop Movie, like Dagger said, had overdone the action and had little character development. It was good thought.

[quote]Films [i]always[/i] have better animation than the series upon which they're based.[/quote]

I don't completely agree with you there. (Of what I think you're saying) The Cowboy Bebop Movie did have 'glossier' scenes then the show though.

I don't know what you mean by the graphics, or the character's look. If you mean the character's look, here's an [url=http://animeyume.com/inymovieposter.jpg]InuYasha Movie Poster link.[/url]
If you're meaning the graphics, then I have nothing to point out.[/size][/color]

[Dagger]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Wasabi [/i]
[B][size=1][color=chocolate]I don't know what you mean by the graphics, or the character's look.[/size][/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

When I say "animation," I mean animation. ^_~

More seriously, though, I was referring mainly to the fluidity of the characters' movements (particularly during action-oriented sequences), and the detail shown in backgrounds.

Poor character design is something else altogether.

~Dagger~

[Kanariya]

[size=1][color=chocolate]Oh, all right. Of when I think of animation, I usually think of it as the character design *like how they move and their look*, not the background detail. Oops.

Putting it that way, yes anime movies do have better animation then the series.[/size][/color]

[ElrickOtaku]

When I set up this thread my intention was not to say that the Anime films could replace the series.

Instead my point is that most of the films made from series enhance the story and improve upon the series by having the character development based in the series, rather than having to spend time in the film on it. This means that in these films there is more time to spend on enhancing an interesting storyline and thus making that particular series even better, especially if the series had some serious down-points.

A superb example of this is Evangelion: End of Evangelion, which gave a real ending to that particular series rather than the dumb series-based 'Congratulations' ending.

[Dagger]

I believe that anything which involves characters should also contain some degree of character development.

As I stated earlier, it's good when movies build upon a pre-existing storyline, rather than being made by stuffing all the material of a 13-hour series into a relatively short production. While I haven't seen Evangelion or EoE, I assume that EoE provides an alternative ending to the show--something which I wholeheartedly approve of, particularly if the original ending was less than satisfactory.

Series-based films should be used to perform exactly that kind of task, instead of being a weirdly mediocre version of the show upon which they're based.

~Dagger~

[pbfrontmanvdp]

I have to mostly agree with Dagger. Movies just dont cut it with a storyline, most of them are just action. I loved the CB movie and it had an interesting concept to it, but the series was just so much better.

The only thing i could see as being better than the original is probably the Rurouni Kenshin OVA's. They totally surprised me when i saw that and compared to the TV series, it surpassed it.

Hopefully the RahXephon movie will be a great addition to the series and clear the one question still left answered for me.