To my amazement, the True Beauty K-drama adaptation was a fairly good watch, reasonable enough to include about as much of the storyline as was maintained from the webtoon. I can say it was a hit but one that was ok but would not revolutionize the industry. To the best of my judgement, the drama did find a good balance – it was moving yet not fundamentally misplaced alongside the main emphasis of the plot, even if the main center of focus was not honed. There were some stereotypical features that K drama lovers have come to expect: the drama element, the love triangle affair
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and the fait accompaniment of little drama. But admittedly, I like these elements. Without them, it is difficult to imagine what in fact gives K-dramas the unique and special identity in the first place. They provide an opportunity of identifying more easily with the characters though at times this detracts from the nature of the story and slows down events in the drama.
While watching True Beauty, watching these emotional layers helped the characters. The characters were relatable and almost vulnerable — something that did not quite come off with the anime adaptation. Outer beauty, or pleasing the society was not the point of it; it was deeper, more inner conflicts, and every character had their own problem. The reality, the way the show handled these particular issues was realistic, although, sometimes maybe it went a bit too melodramatic. Incorporating the arcs of self acceptance of the characters, specially the main character it may have drawn some of the fans for the drama, for me, one of them is that. Or it might’ve been explained as the Wokey and cheesy in some cases, but I’d call it out K-drama bane. We always expect tension from them and as a result we always end up emotionally invested in the plot. You're very finely walking a line to stay with the major tale and still attempt to work with the moody scenes and I think the drama overall has gotten that harmony.
What was the anime version of that, in contrast, was rather, I don’t know, unbearable, I guess. I at least hoped the show would bring something new in despite the fact that there wasn’t too much excitement in my heart for it, given the anime’s creative scope. Unfortunately, it failed to produce the feeling and emotion that was a core element of True Beauty and thus became very popular in being a manhwa to draw. The animation was medium quality and the pace was so quick it didn’t allow any character development to take place that the plot required. In the anime, it seems that instead of going into the heart of the character change and the social conflict with which they must contend, that plot points in the anime were spent making sure they packed in as much as they could which ultimately blunted these emotional climaxes. It was unfortunate because there’s so much you can do with anime when it comes to delivering both a personal challenge as well as an epic story without taking a dilution angle like True Beauty.
Anime, unlike other art forms, can completely encompass the viewer and immerse them into an author’s desire in ways that are hard to achieve through live-action. If there is an author’s vision, there is also a director who works to achieve that vision in full by achieving the right colors, shapes and frequent infusing of the smallest details that make up the author’s imagination. Because of this, even the most fantastic worlds are portrayed in the most believable fashion. In anime, every aspect about a character and scene originates from the creator’s vision, combining together to tell their story exactly as it was meant to be told. In this way, anime provides an uncanny degree of accuracy to the viewer in terms of what the creator’s intentions were, and this brings about an experience that is not only memorable but a realistic sensation to the audience. This potential is what I was expecting to get from True Beauty’s anime adaptation; however, it did not come to fruition which was unfortunate.
Although they failed to produce a good anime adaptation, the idea of using manhwas as reference to anime is something which I look forward to. Since constantly expanding the anime industry, it is not just limited to adapting from Japanese manga, and I believe this is great. It offers so many opportunities to tell different kinds of stories, influence them with different cultures, create more varied characters which can be interesting to everyone around the globe. Not every story can be made in live-action because some stories are stylized or have setting or internal world that need artistic liberty to create. Here, there is an opportunity of engendering such magnanimous impressions fit to the screen without the imposition of realistic drama, and harness the potential of the manga-inspired format to its finest.
It’s fascinating to think about where this pattern may lead in the future of but is it possible for anime to move from just being an entertainment form rooted in Japan to ruling the world, or will it fail to compete with lots of other types of entertainment as it goes international? Time will tell, but there definitely is growth here and we look forward to the anime industry looking into this option more seriously. It feels like, thanks to studios gradually trying new formats from various sources – manhwas, novels, and whatnot – we might be on the brink of a new era for anime that has something for everyone.
As it is now evident, media changes constantly and the anime industry has a particular opportunity to reestablish itself to a whole new demographic that it has never targeted before. Perhaps some of the best ever novels and manhwas will turn into anime in the coming years, stories that ideally suited to anime and difficult to translate into live-action works. As of now, I am watching where anime industry is going..
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Nov 23, 2024
Yeosin Gangnim
(Anime)
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To my amazement, the True Beauty K-drama adaptation was a fairly good watch, reasonable enough to include about as much of the storyline as was maintained from the webtoon. I can say it was a hit but one that was ok but would not revolutionize the industry. To the best of my judgement, the drama did find a good balance – it was moving yet not fundamentally misplaced alongside the main emphasis of the plot, even if the main center of focus was not honed. There were some stereotypical features that K drama lovers have come to expect: the drama element, the love triangle affair
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