Building a better video game anime

Your idea sounds significantly less weird than the actual Mario anime.
http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/mania/anime_amada.shtml
http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/mania/smbtgmtrpp.shtml

The irony is, the Pokemon anime wasn't that bad UNTIL after they started making the Hoenn Region and such.

The anime turned into this; a bit of story about one of the main characters doing something, middle of story, Team Rocket attacks, they almost lose Pikachu, they beat Team Rocket, Team Rocket gets blasted away, they beat the challenge or lose and train harder to beat them next time and win, happy ending.

That's about every episode of Seasons 5-9...

@2:

Pokemon sucked the minute Brock disappeared.

http://blog.myspace.com/nohithair

Dragonball, Dragonball Z & DragonballZ GT was the greatest anime series. Pokemon was a good series but I couldn't watch more than two episodes without shooting myself.

I run a huge Pokémon site, so I'm probably a little biased here, but the quality of the Pokémon anime post-Houen (ie. Battle Frontier arc, and the current D/P arc) has dramatically improved. Especially if you screw the dub, and go straight for raws and the occasional fansub from #pocketmonsters. There's a noticeable lack of filler, and when there is filler, it's actually decent for a change, without cookie cutter storylines.

look into ragnarok the animation. based in the same world as teh game, but much, MUCH darker. like a cute little homeless girl forced to kill her best friend... seriously messed up.

I haven't enjoyed Pokemon since Season 2 and the movies, but I can't argue that it has endured with fans.

I think what made Pokemon so successful is that it expanded on the game's world and delivered stories that would not fit in the original games, such as creating emotional bonds with the critters, exploring the world based on the Pokemon's capabilities rather than stupid HMs, characters (even minor one, and for the anime instead of the games) having their own back stories, and the stories having their own continuity (Ash IS NOT RED, for example), pushing the world and its characters and not concepts limited to the merchandise.

What not to do:
Yu-gi-oh. For the love of God it's a run down of the game's rules every episode.

Dragonball was entertaining. Z was annoying. GT was just plain out fucking retarded. Only the original stayed away from the "invincible hero" rut. The stories were about as compelling as a readers digest.

However, Gundam, GITS, Bleach, Code Geass, Boogiepop Phantom, Lain, Samurai 7, and yes, even Patlabor. Those are good anime.

I think the Tales of Phantasia anime was pretty damned good, it did a great job of summarizing the plot into four episodes and making the main characters even more awesome than they already were. I can only hope that the Tales of Symphonia anime coming out soon is the same way.

I agree with Sheppy's comments on the downfall of the Dragonball franchise with DBZ.

Except the Saiyan saga was pretty good. And Frieza saga would've been good, too, if they didn't drag it out for so long. After that, the show was really MEH, except for maybe a scant few episodes.
DBGT was just lame.


I've continuously watched Pokémon, and I feel that the Hoenn seasons have been pretty good.

But, uh, Ignatius? That's been pretty much how every episode has been like since Team Rocket was introduced (episode 2). Every episode can be summed up like that (except the first and the side-story episodes in Pokémon Chronicles).

NintendoFanbot has an interesting point about the Pokémon anime: it goes far beyond the limits of what a video game can do. It makes the Pokémon world seem more real than the video games do. From exploring truly huge cities (whereas they're kinda small in the games, due to video game limitations and the extreme boredom of having to cross many realistically-sized cities) to how Pokémon battles aren't just limited to element type face-offs (Ash's Pikachu once defeated a Cubone, even though Ground-types are immune to Electric-type attacks).

And Yu-Gi-Oh!? They change the rules to the game with every episode. :P


There's been one theme I've noticed in a few video game-based anime that I found very annoying:
-Sonic X
-Legend of the Mystical Ninja
-Megaman: Upon a Star
The theme is the characters from the video games cross-over into the "real world," and then get partnered with a weiner kid sidekick (though, none of them have been as annoying as the original weiner kid sidekick: Scrappy-Doo).

It's a concept I don't care much for. I'd much rather see a story based in their own world, and see things fold out as they would in that world.

BPM you forgot Transformers. Dangit Transformers is about freaking huge robots battling each other not the humans and especially not them having some weird powers that lets them battle too. The original generation the one the fans really enjoy is basically American. You got Optimus Prime a semi-truck, the glory of the American highway. You have Megatron the maniacal villian who transforms into a gun. A cannon was OK but now he's what? a dragon? a stealth bomber? They've also killed off Optimus way too much.

Pokemon lost me after Brock left too. I occasionally watched his championship bouts though. It just became too many filler episodes. They didn't seem to fit into the game world at all. If they explore somewhere or interact with an NPC I want that in the game. It's OK to expand on the world of a game but I watch the show for a take of where I've been and how closely it fits into my own experience in the game.

Never really had a GBA so I didn't bother with RSC. Might grab them now that they're cheaper and can uplink them into D/P.

the Devil May Cry anime is being made by madhouse, so we don't have to worry about that being good.

"We agree, and we're still waiting for the Super Mario Bros. anime that explores the plumbers' super-secret outer space battles between giant robots with enormous swords. Don't pretend you haven't pictured it yourself."

Sounds like Excel Saga, but not as funny.

Besides, anyone remember the Zelda one?
"Well excuuuuuuse me, Princess!"

#8 mentioned boogiepop phantom as being good. He's officially never allowed to speak ever again.

There are a few animes based on games out there, like Fate Stay Night and Pokemon, but they never end up being quite as good as an actual manga based anime or an original story. Video games are story driven, but the story is largely shown in cinematics sparsely shown throughout the game. The problem with turning a game into an anime is that you've got to come up with content to slot in-between what was formerly a cinematic in the video game. Noone has nailed it yet.

I like the dub better than the sub,the sub voices stunk but so do the english ones now that they fired the old VAs.Hoenn is what did it for me,it just sucked so bad as did most of what I've seen in Battle frontier.Maybe the new season will be better...