Anime and Novels (Good Combo?)

In Harry Potter they shouted all of their "attacks"

But yeah. Using whatever you have at hand for inspiration is great. I have music, books, and real life to inspire me. But you must realize the limitations of each medium.

What you do in music you can't do in books. There's no describing on paper the way a note sustained just a quarter note longer than what's written can change a song and make your chest swell with emotion (I could go on about the recently-released live version of Muse's Map of the Problematique versus the album version, and the way "right" is sung at 3:08 and how it made me feel in my cold black heart, but I'll... mostly... spare you). Which is why I refuse to try and describe music or singing. It will always fall flat for me.

Same with anime. For instance, the sweatdrop ( ^.^() ). The nosebleed. Things like that don't translate to written form very well (cultural barriers aside).

Inspiration is fine. Line-by-line translation doesn't always work though.

I w ould say write it, see how it looks, then get opinions from people who love the genre you're writing for.

See if it works or not. Experimentation is great.

First off, I'm not sure if any such things exist, but... I wondered if you might get novelisations of anime things? If so, then maybe that would help you see how to translate the sort of visuals you have in your head to written form? Might be something to look into. I'm not very up on anime though, which is why I'm not sure if there are such books. What I mean is like a book version of an anime series or such like.

I sometimes have a similar problem in that I tend to picture scenes as though they were played out in a movie (and I started off, in fact, writing playscripts for performance then screenplays, so I sometimes think in terms of stuff that will look cool, and later discover it isn't all that great when it's transferred into writing.)

I know you've been told this loads of times but really the only way to improve on that is to keep reading. Maybe even TV or film novelisations - if you have a favourite movie, pick a scene and then read the novelisation to see how they wrote it up? I know sometimes those books aren't the greatest prose in the world but it might help.

Harry Potter shouted their attacks since they were casting spells, and did not learn who to cast without calling out the spell until book six.

Try it to see how it reads, you may also need some backstory as to the reason why they call them out. Such as to activate their powers or if for example their abilities use a chi type of energy similar to Dragon Ball Z.

Vampire Hunter D anyone?

Just goes to show it can be done.

Sage said:

There are some anime/manga that have novelizations, actually.

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I was pretty sure I'd seen some in Forbidden Planet or somewhere similar.

Wolvel said:

Harry Potter shouted their attacks since they were casting spells, and did not learn who to cast without calling out the spell until book six.

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I'm aware. I was (partly) making a joke.

And it's a perfectly good reason to call out attacks. (Which I always thought was silly anyway. Why would you want to let the opponent know what you're coming with? Your body gives enough away in attacks with looks and twitches. That's just making it far too easy.)

(I am ever the pragmatist.)

dempsey said:

I'm aware. I was (partly) making a joke.

And it's a perfectly good reason to call out attacks. (Which I always thought was silly anyway. Why would you want to let the opponent know what you're coming with? Your body gives enough away in attacks with looks and twitches. That's just making it far too easy.)

(I am ever the pragmatist.)

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I have a language-based magic system in one of my WIPs. It works by using the sound of the words and the resonance that causes, and there's a whole big mythological reason for it working like that but it has given me a lot of trouble, in that it does feel silly having people shouting out spells. I would like to change it in mine to be honest but the language issue is very tightly tied up with my worldbuilding so it's proving difficult.

One reason that people might call out, which just occurred to me when I read the Harry Potter thing, is that for someone who is inexperienced it might focus their energy more if they state the name of the spell / attack. If that attack requires concentration, for instance, else it might go wrong it could help to do that. And I suppose if the spell happens quick enough after it's said, then it's not that much of a giveaway as in order to defend you still need time to physically state the name of your counterattack?

dempsey said:

I'm aware. I was (partly) making a joke.

And it's a perfectly good reason to call out attacks. (Which I always thought was silly anyway. Why would you want to let the opponent know what you're coming with? Your body gives enough away in attacks with looks and twitches. That's just making it far too easy.)

(I am ever the pragmatist.)

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Was not trying to correct what you posted, in truth i was agreeing with the example.

BlueLucario said:

which reminds me, I have a talking cat that casts spells like Harry Potter. She even had a spell that goes -Munortap Otcepxe- (It's spelled backwards for)

I had a fight scene going out right now, and since she's a spell casting magickat, she has to call out those spells. But I don't know about my Main character, she learns to walk on water and waterbend. She has to shout out "water blast" or something like that.

I thought it'd be more 'anime' like.

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Drawing your inspiration from anime is fine, but remember what Sage said about thinking about why things are how they are. If you want your characters to call out the names of spells, it'll help you a lot, and help your readers to suspend disbelief, if you have a reason why they need to do that. Having them do that just so as it feels like anime wouldn't be enough, IMO, or just because they do it in anime. Remember that this is a book and, as Sage said, there are different requirements compared to a visual thing like animation. For an example, in a cartoon, it might be perfectly reasonable to have two characters shouting names of spells at each other and throwing fireballs back and forth (or something like pokemon, with the little beastie things having a go at one another - I'm showing my age here, I know ). Think how that would look in a book though. It could get very boring very quickly. That's not to say you couldn't make it interesting but you'd have to think about it on more levels than just blocking it out like a cartoon.

Thinking about how your magic / powers actually work might give you some ideas anyway, in that if you make up a system and figure out when it does and doesn't work, you might get ideas how to have your villain stop the MC's powers or things like that, things that make the story more interesting.

BlueLucario said:

Do novels and anime go together?

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Honestly, no.

Wen Spencer (friend of mine) did a book (Tinker) that was based on anime because she adores it. What she discovered is that the average Fantasy reader doesn't watch anime and/or doesn't recognize it in the written word. While she did do a sequel (Wolf Who Rules) she's had to drop the series and the world because sales weren't up to snuff. The readership was too much of a niche market to do anything noteable for her career.

My daughter is very into anime (founded and past president of at least 2 school anime clubs) and reports that the vast majority of the people she's met in those groups have never read an entire book in their lives (and were often proud of the fact), let alone pay money for one.

Remember: these are individual experiences, and not the general rule. If you're going to write this for your enjoyment, go for it and don't look back. If you're thinking this is going to put you on the NYT bestseller list, you might be in for a lot more work to make it so.

BlueLucario said:

wow, readers are picky >.< (And I love pokemon. Look at my avatar) Yeah, come to think of it now, it sounds more like fanfiction. Do you think I should have the cat call out her spells? Because she needs to call out the spells for her magic to work.

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How does her calling out the spells make the magic work, can I ask? Does the magic have to be spoken in order to work?

'Speaking' magic is pretty common in fantasy fiction, from Harry Potter to chanting satanists conjuring demons with a load of pseudo-Latin, so I should think it's perfectly acceptible for you to have the names of the spells said aloud. Just it might help you if you have a good reason for it, and before you decide if you need it or not, think about how your magic will work on the page. Would it be more interesting to have fireballs coming out of nowhere all of a sudden, or to have the villain shout 'Firey-burney-thingy!' first? Figure out what would be most dramatic and what would be most interesting to read about. If you do keep the 'calling out' method, then make sure when you come to write it that you don't just have two characters shouting spell names back and forth, that you vary the prose with lots of action as well. You might find, if you're writing it, that you don't need to have each spell named, that you can assume it's happened.

Example: 'Dungball!' shouted Susie, ducking behind a rock as soon as her extremely smelly spell shot forth. She heard a squishing sound and peeped over the top of the rock to see if it had hit home. A rush of warm air hit and she dropped down again as a fireball soared overhead, singing her pigtails. '
Rats,' she thought. 'Must've missed.'

That's just made up, and to be honest I've forgotten the point I was trying to make. Anyway, I think you can do it, but just remember you're writing a book, not a script.

It makes your magic more plausible, IMO, and as I said can give you ways to get around the magic, so that every problem your MC faces can't be solved just by a spell. For an example, as my system of magic has to be said aloud, the way most people prevent attacks is to do something to prevent the other person speaking.

-Snippity Snip-

What you do in music you can't do in books. There's no describing on paper the way a note sustained just a quarter note longer than what's written can change a song and make your chest swell with emotion (I could go on about the recently-released live version of Muse's Map of the Problematique versus the album version, and the way "right" is sung at 3:08 and how it made me feel in my cold black heart, but I'll... mostly... spare you). Which is why I refuse to try and describe music or singing. It will always fall flat for me.

Same with anime. For instance, the sweatdrop ( ^.^() ). The nosebleed. Things like that don't translate to written form very well (cultural barriers aside).

Inspiration is fine. Line-by-line translation doesn't always work though.

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About the music. Rich Shapiro (Shapero?) tried to combine music and words when he penned the novel Wild Animus. Wild Animus is a rather unknown book, but--personal opinion here, though shared with many others--one of the worst ever written in history. Had potential, though, and the concept was certainly interesting. Poor execution can ruin the best ideas.

In anime fanfiction, you often read characters "sweat-dropping" which makes me think of dirty old men snapping younger men in the butt with wet towels, BUT, that's beside the point. It's annoying and distracting and I've read many a rant about "sweat-dropping" characters.

I always had the consideration of when writing fight scenes, I should have the character say the name of their attacks before using them.(Since I loved anime, I thought it would be cool.) I thought that way, the reader would know each of the characters and their variety of attacks that they know. I know TV and books don't normally mix. But amine is the best inspiration I've got.

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I've always thought it was cheesy. Even in Harry Potter I thought it was cheesy. On the flipping anime and manga I thought it was--you get the point. (Cheese in on my mind, tonight. I have this wicked craving for sharp cheddar and brie. Yum.)

It's cheesy mostly because it's overdramatic. It screams LOOKATMEMEMEME. Then again, if used for comic effect or if the names are cool, it might actually work. Used too much, though, even a funny, well-named attack would get annoying.

I take a lot of inspiration from anime, too. If you don't mind me asking, what are your inspirational anime? Mine are: Yugioh, Digimon, Pokemon (I'm such a dork), Wolf's Rain, Bakugan, and pretty much anything else that's kiddish and has monster/cool animals in it.

What do you guys think? Do novels and anime go together?

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I think almost anything can go well together, if well-executed. Since anime is more of an aural/visual medium, I would expect an animesque piece of writing to be. . . maybe. . . cinematic(?) and very appealing to all of the senses. Also, some things that are common in certain anime would definitely be out of the question in novels. One example given was "sweat-dropping". Sweat-dropping is one way of showing exasperation in anime.

Furthermore, anime is allowed to leave open questions that novels are not. Some anime have plot holes, implausible happenings, etc. You probaby couldn't get away with that stuff in a novel unless you were Super Terrific Excellently Good. You especially couldn't get away with the gravity-defying boobies and the Short Skirts of Doom hah Sailor Moon.

I've noticed, that in novels, pretty much everything has to have some reason behind it, preferably a good one. In anime, not so much, as long as at the core of the series the world, plot, and characters make sense.

Okay, enough rambling from the pudding gallery over here (no peanuts, because they taste icky ).

Note: I didn't read all the replies first.

First, you shouldn't be embarassed to show your face. Nobody thinks less of you. You're taking that prank much too seriously.

Second, you need to keep something in mind when you dream of writing a novel stylistically based on anime/manga, and that is: A picture's worth a thousand words.

Let me explain. I collect original YAOI manga. I have a two-parter called Saihoshi (The Guardian). The Guardian, named Sastre, in question has duties to which he must attend, which forbids him by law to take a partner or leave his duties behind. He falls in love (and sleeps) with someone, and the next morning, informs that person that they will be left at the nearest village because they can't be together. Lover storms off, and another Guardian sitting at the campfire starts criticizing Sastre for being callus enough to sleep with the boy and then abandon him... until he sees Sastre's face, which is twisted in grief and pain. Nobody remarks on the expression, it's just a half-page panel carefully drawn so that the look on his face wrenches the reader's heart. Manga can DO that... communicate a page's worth of exposition in one panel... but writers have to actually write out the page of exposition. Manga can isolate dialogue by simply showing what the characters are doing, but we have to describe it. The difference is very pronounced. As much as we, as writers, strive to return to a state of simplicity, we will never be able to get as simple and eloquent as graphic novel format.

I've noticed this a lot while working on my current project. I can clearly visualize scenes in my mind, but the reader's not IN my mind. Especially when you talk about fight scenes, this becomes important. So it's all right to draw inspiration from anime and manga, but as a novelist, your execution is going to be quite different.

Anime is divided into episodes, a novel, into chapters. Episodes may leave the characters in the same position they were in at the beginning of the episode. A chapter though, must keep the characters moving and advancing towards the climax at the end.

To turn an anime into a novel would require considerable restructuring and concision.

Structure aside, I do draw some inspiration from anime.

Riley said:

If you don't mind me asking, what are your inspirational anime?

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Evangelion, Saikano, Trigun

I agree with you there Sonn. I've had perfect scenes in my head until I've tried to get them down on paper then they sucked big time.

My anime inspirations: Cowboy Bebop, Read or Die, Elfen Lied, and Ah! My Goddess!

I think novels and manga and anime can mix, but before doing so, you have to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each form. I actually think of manga and anime as two separate forms, because while they are both more visual forms, anime has to show pretty much everything, while manga only captures the essence (by showing the picture that best represents the action, where as anime shows all the action).

The best example is Sailor Moon, mostly because of all the formats it can be found in (anime, manga, musical, live-action drama, and novelizations) In each episode of the anime, Sailor Moon and the other Sailor Scouts/Senshi have to fight the youma (or whatever the bad guy of the week happens to be). Each episode slowly advances the overall plot, but mostly it's about defeating the weekly bad guy. Then you get to the live-action drama (which is called Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon or PGSM), where most of the episodes are about defeating the weekly youma, but then as the story/plot advances, it moves away from fighting the youma to fighting the Four General who control the youma, to fighting Beryl and Metallia, Tuxedo Mask, and finally Princess Moon. But if you read the manga, there is no weekly youma to defeat. When Sailor Jupiter is first introduced, she wastes Nephrite the first chance she gets. (Note, however, that I have not seen the musicals nor have I read the novelizations. Yet.)

I have at least three stories that are heavily influenced by anime. The first was a magical girl story, much like Sailor Moon. I haven't wanted to unearth the novel since I wrote "the end", but I wrote a short story using the same characters and turned it in for a creative writing class. In it, my character had to fight an evil version of herself who was trying to take over her city (had it been set in Japan, she would have destroyed Tokyo, but she made do with destroying Red Wing, MN). And yeah, she and all the other characters used attack phrases, to which I got mixed results on. Some students in my class just didn't get it. One student said he thought the average American who does not watch anime wouldn't get it, and therefore I should take it out (when I never actually considered the average American to be my audience, since it was a YA novel about a 15 year old magical girl). Another student really liked that I used attack phrases because it reminded him of rpgs. And my teacher liked it because he tried to visualize what a "Shield of Lust, Bash!" looked like. Since then I've learned that a more or less direct translation of anime to novel doesn't work.

I have another magical girl story, only she's older (17), has some esper abilities, and uses a big sword to fight other supernaturals, including other espers, mages, mummies or "psychic vampires", constructs, demons, and shapeshifters (there're probably others, I just can't think of them at the moment.) I think she's more of a Devil Hunter Yoko kind of girl, but I don't know because I've never seen the anime (though it's on my list).

And the third story was inspired by watching a lot of the more boy/fighting anime (Bleach, Inuyasha, Naruto) where they would hint at a romantic relationship between two of the characters, but that's all they would do. So I developed a story around an Intragalactic Fighting Tournament that my heroine gets "invited" to. Every contestant gets a magical sword that they must fight with, but each sword has magical powers (that need an "attack phrase" to be activated). In addition to fighting all the other people in the tournament and learning about her own magical abilities (as well as those in her sword), she ends up falling in love.

I've probably rambled on quite a bit, but yeah, I think anime and novels can mix.

Also, I would check out SHOMI. Even though it's an "action romance" line, they're still striving to combine novels with romance, action, SF, and anime/manga. So at least someone in the publishing world thinks it can be done.

Yttar

What do we think of the style, or of the sample itself?