zellami said:
You know, you are right. By far it's better than Fruits Basket, but never popular enough because of it at the time. I don't know how the industry thinks in this regard, but it always ends adapting the utterest shits from shoujo manga, and as far as I can see, shoujos (at least those remotely good) have problems being published even as manga series. For example, Shiawase kissa sanchoume was very enjoyable, had a nice premise, was very successful in introducing and developing the extended cast - yet, the central story was horribly dragged, then rushed, and made obvious from the very beginning. The series got a CD drama or something for making itself popular enough, but this seemed to be everything the industry was willing to offer.
The same with Motomi Kyousuke's works, which I find extremely good and amusing, yet - Beast Master, idk, took a live-action or something, when an anime can make all of her works insanely popular (if done right) and perhaps improve the standard for animated shoujos. For the life of me I can't understand why Vampire Knight was even published, when MeruPrui could be much more entertaining as anime. Not to mention manga series like Tokyo Crazy Paradise, Mekakushi no Kuni, and Cat Street, which are among my favorites. Perhaps because all of them are finished series and need not to boost, milk, and rip anything more from the Japanese girls, investing in adaptations either would be a slim profit margin or waste on the source .
NG Life isn't perfect, but it's funny, curious, and not cheesy. While connecting different worlds is not something unheard of in shoujo manga, the events in the past world might look too dramatic and mature for a shoujo. The current level is the adaptation of Arata Kangatari, and, man, this is just horrible.
So it took like two years for me to reply. Mostly because I kind of forgot this hardcore -high from too much manga- rant of mine. But I've calmed down... hopefully.
You've raised a LOT of valid points. But let me just start by saying how glad I am that Kusanagi sensei's Akatsuki No Yona got animated <3 For some reason I felt the anime was a lot more drawn out than the manga but that's a story for another time.
So over the two years I've immersed myself in manga and I've read boat loads. And I mean BOATLOADS and it pains me that I've hardly found any new series that appealed to me or moved me to the point where I'm itching for the next chapter. Really, the only things I follow right now are Koe no Katachi, UNTOUCHable, Horimiya and Gekkan shoujo Nozaki kun. And I guess the last two don't really classify as shoujo. Point is stories are getting shallower and I can't for the life of me find anything that can be animated in a way appealing enough to make people like the shoujo genre (or atleast to make them stop thinking it's nothing more than crap) The Ao Haru Ride show was cute in away but the way the manga progressed didn't really make me feel too hooked... I may have turned cynical over the years and I guess I'm diverting from the topic.
Bottom line is I've come to accept that NG Life and a lot of other awesome shoujomanga will never be animated, partially because it never got as much popularity and well, it's complete. There's really nothing much left to earn. Since most anime right now are made from ongoing series and almost NEVER warrant a second season.
Suffice to say shoujo masterpieces will remain hidden gems. I'll settle for appreciating -drooling- over them in their form now than watch a train-wreck animated version because really there was so much rush and not much budget (Horimiya OVA version,anyone? >.>) |