From Manga to Anime. The Remediation of Black Butler

Having read all the current manga and watched all the anime for 'Black Butler', I will be talking this week about the remediation of this series from its graphic novel form to its audio-visual form. In this post I shall be exploring how things have been remediated from the manga of Black Butler to the anime adaption.

Art style 
Within the manga, Sebastian's character design has been developed throughout the series. When you look at how Sebastian was drawn in the first volumes compared to the latest, there is clearly a difference and improvement.

Volume 1                                                              Volume 15 

This type of remediation also happened in the Black Butler anime itself, it went through remediation when the art style of the characters from seasons one and two were re-vamped for the new Book of Circus and Book of Murder arcs, in order to try and be more loyal to the original art by Yana Toboso. Naturally when a manga is remediated into an anime, there can be some differences as the characters are re-drawn by animators. This can sometimes be drastic or noticeable (Season 1 and 2), but most of the time animators try to remain loyal as much as they can to the original character designs (new adaptions).

Ciel Phantomhive in Seasons 1 and 2

Ciel Phantomhive in Book of Circus and Book of Murder

Bolter and Grusin (1999) note that animation remediation 'is both disrupting and extending the tradition' of animation (149).

Storyline

Most people consider the manga to be the on-going true story, as the anime deviated entirely after the curry arc and was written by someone other than Yana Toboso. An entire new season (S2) and story was even made with only new character designs being provided by Yana Toboso. Many people didn't like the ending, as it came to clear end when there was a lot more to explain. However now, with the new (story loyal) anime adaptions that have come out of other story arcs in the manga, the story lines of the second half of season 1 and season 2 can be seen as standalone, parallel story lines which are still enjoyable with the same base material and dynamics.

With the manga still on-going and remediations being made of other arcs, Book of Circus, Book of Murder, the upcoming ship arc film, etc. It is clear that A1-Pictures want to milk more money out of the popular series and have realized their error of trying to conclude the previous 2 seasons too early.

Conclusion
Anime and manga both have their pros and cons. While anime can be expensive to make and produce, I personally feel it is a more effective and emotive medium where a manga author's creations and imaginations can come to life. I don't think any of us can deny that it is satisfying to see your favorite manga characters animated and in colour rather than on just a black and white page. However, manga is by no means inferior. It is a lot more cost effective, hence why there is more manga than anime, and it normally continues a story further, providing a more fulfilling experience. It also typically covers things not present in the anime due to the limited episode run time and episode count agreed with the production company. As I've mentioned for Black Butler, sometimes things can  also be changed from a manga, art or story wise, that might also put us off its anime adaption.

However, remediation from manga to anime is still an effective way of adding more depth and colour (literally) to a manga.

References:
Bolter, J.D. and Grusin, R. (1999) Remediation: Understanding New Media. United States of America: MIT Press

The Uncanny Valley and Anime

So! I have decided to make another analysis blog post and this time I will be looking at the 'Uncanny Valley' theory and how it relates to anime.

The uncanny valley concept was identified by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese roboticist in 1970. 'The theory of uncanny valley is the closer you approach to making something artificially human the higher the level of revulsion occurs in the human observing' (Chen cited in Menache, 2011, pg. 51)

Menache points out that 'our brains are so well trained to know what a human is supposed to look like that something as small as a twitch in the eye or the wrong dilation of a pupil can make it all seem strange' (2011, pg.51)

However, most anime the characters are unrealistic compared to real humans (e.g. big eyes and perfect bodies) and are normally 2-D animated, but for those who are not accustomed to the anime and manga style in general, they might not understand the appeal of characters looking in such a way (e.g. big eyes, small mouths) and so have an uncanny valley reaction.

Us anime and manga fans can also experience the uncanny valley reaction in different way.

There are some instances out there where we may see a character or characters in an anime or manga unappealing because of our expectations of how anime and manga characters should look. If they look vastly different from the norm then we can be disturbed. Here are some examples:

Episode 9 of 'Mekakucity Actors' got quite the reaction when the creators chose to animate the what was supposed to be a cute and heartwarming montage using CGI models, making the character faces look very wrong... The sequence was luckily reanimated into 2-D for the Blu-ray DVD version:

I think we can all agree we wouldn't want to encounter the titans in 'Attack on Titan' and the uncanny valley concept is used brilliantly here. The titans are deformed, humanoid monsters with creepy, cheerful smiles that never waver regardless of being blown apart or in the midst of devouring their victims:

The Forest God in the film 'Princess Mononoke' is also an example. A deer with a vaguely human like face and intense, staring eyes instead of a normal deer head:

Finally for something a little more subtle. Many aren't a fan of the stylistic choice to make the lips of the male characters in 'The Wallflower' more obvious and realistic, rather than having the simple and single line lips we are used to in most anime and manga:

So, why do characters that look more human like creep us out? Angela Tinwell considers that 'A sense of dread of own one's death and morality have been intrinsically linked with the uncanny, so it may be that for a human-like character encapsulate what it means to be human, it cannot represent an ethereal immortality, but it too must be aware and contemplative of its own survival needs and inevitable death' (2015, pg. 200)

References:
Chen, J. cited in Menache, A. (2011) Understanding motion capture for computer animation. 2nd edn. Massachusetts, USA: Morgan Kaufmann

Menache, A. (2011) Understanding motion capture for computer animation. 2nd edn. Massachusetts, USA: Morgan Kaufmann

Tinwell, A. (2015) The Uncanny Valley in Games and Animation. Florida, USA: CRC Press

Script and Character Names Confirmed!

Little update with my script!

I have now confirmed character names and the name of my script: The Fallen Prince!

Naturally all these character names have a Japanese influence:
Main Character - Yutan (18)
Yutan’s friend/love interest - Sotsu (18)
Yutan’s fake mum – Kemoko
Yutan’s fake dad - Tefun
Yutan’s real mum (Previous Queen) – Queen Yura
Yutan’s real dad (Previous King) – King Naru
Evil Ruler (Current King) – King Heshiman
Cloaks

The next process I have is coming up with place and town names within Feressia. If anyone has any suggestions for names or ideas for towns and areas, I would love to hear them!