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I hope he takes a lesson learned from this, but I have to agree with that it wasn't the Sendai trip that was the issue. It was that they made Machi out to have had such a traumatic experience while in Sendai that she decided that all she had worked for in trying to get out and go to the city, wanting to go to high school in the city, she turned her back on it. Like she just gave up on that goal. That I think is where the artist and or the anime creators in general turned their backs on the fans and the audience.

Last edited by relyat08 on Thu Jul 07, 2016 11:28 pm; edited 1 time in total

I feel like this is going to lead to more creators being even more hands on with anime adaptations. Not sure if that's necessarily good or bad, but when you have this sort of incompetence from a professional writer, I can't blame any creator for wanting to sign off on everything. I am also irritated that he felt the need to apologize for his comment. The scriptwriter for that episode should come out and apologize. I questioned whether or not I should even mention it, but that ending felt, to me, like someone fulfilling a dark sexual fantasy of theirs. Certainly didn't feel appropriate for this anime, even with the constant humiliation that Machi went through up till the end.

peno wrote:

Aquamine-Amarine wrote:

Mangaka need to step up and put their foot down whenever an animation studio decides it's a good idea to destroy their manga. If you're not going to respect the source material, why bother adapting it? ...

That's great premise I could agree with, but unfortunately, that's not how show business works... Usually, the production teams want their freedom from the author and unless it’s someone really big and popular, the authors agree so their work is made to the TV or movie screen. It’s sad, really, but that’s how it works.

I take what the mangaka blogged first as his true feelings, but you are right about the politics. The show got made ($$), introduced the manga to the broader public and has some level of support from a media company to market it so the mangaka has to be careful not to complain too sharply being the first outing with an adaptation and since they aren't well known in the public eye yet. I read what he said as "silently" pointing the finger at the scriptwriting team for the details of the end and trying to soften his previous tone, being careful to praise the overall staff and showing his appreciation for his level of involvement. Also, what mangamuscle said at the end of his post might be right. Personally, I'd like the jerks who did the end fired but in the end, if Ep12 doesn't dampen manga sales, it's a "win".

I totally agree there was absolutely no reason for him to apologize for the ending of Kumamiko after all it wasn't his fault that the show ended so badly although the show was quite good up until the very end. Sad

7jaws7 wrote:

mangamuscle wrote:

Maybe I am lost in translation, but it does not seem to me like he is apologizing for the anime ending, he is apologizing for his prior (deleted) post

Exactly. The title of this article is VERY misleading. He wants to take back his criticisms of the ending, and instead praise the staff for all their hard work.

He apologizes first for his comments and then for his role in the ending. Yeah, he does seem to... dodge the issue people actually have with the ending.

Basically the first apology was like "what the hell, anime staff, I left this in your hands and this is what you do?"

And then the second is like "okay, I have to be clear about this, it's not like I had absolutely nothing to do with production because I was on consulting, but I still wasn't completely behind this; I do have to be fair that you all did technically work hard, there were some good things that came out of it, but I gotta apologize to everyone this ending upset (and I can't say outright negative things anymore for diplomatic reasons)"

mangamuscle wrote:

That is how it works in the west, but in Japan when an anime is made into a TV series, the original aurhor has the final seal of approval. Probably the mangaka behind Detective Conan is already used to being in the loop, but that does not mean he cannot veto any idea for fillers (to give an example).

It is important to note that Detective Conan is one of most popular and longest running anime in Japan of all-time, and the studio needs to make sure that the filler content doesn't contradict any key plot points Gosho Aoyama plans to explore in the manga.

I'm sure when your as successful as Oda and Gosho, you probably have a lot more influence than other mangaka in these situations.

Regardless of his comments, is the ending really that bad? I just found it annoying in the 'not again' kind of way. It's another Himouto-style ending where all progression is reset, but it doesn't diminish the narrative that much.

Did Japan really get that angry? And did western fans too? Most of my friends found it okay.

Quote:

......and they did their best up until the end.

In short, " they did excellant work visually, but blew it at the very end with sloppy lazy writting." He's trying to be diplomatic else no one will take on his work for anime ever again. Wink

Mohawk52 wrote

Quote:

He's trying to be diplomatic else no one will take on his work for anime ever again.

Yeah, his publisher or his agent pointed out to him that he needed them a lot more than they needed him.

Alan45 wrote:

Yeah, his publisher or his agent pointed out to him that he needed them a lot more than they needed him.

If it were me I'd tell them " if this is the way you will treat my work in future, do me a favour and don't do me any favours". Mad

IceKirby wrote:

ebv2406 wrote:

What's so amazing about that apology is that they (the whole staff and creator) still don't seem to understand what's was wrong with the finale

I think they do. But IIRC what the author had previously criticized was what Yoshio says (which is included in the portion mentioned in this news), not the part after they return, so it seems like they are only apologizing about the part they talked about in public. Something like "I think X and Y was bad, but since I only complained about X, I will only apologize about X."

Except that X wasn't so bad if they had fix Y from the begining.
But yeah yiu are right they aren't really apologizong for the ending, or even for Yoshio's speech, they are actually just apologizing for criticizing.

Lord Dcast wrote:

Regardless of his comments, is the ending really that bad? I just found it annoying in the 'not again' kind of way. It's another Himouto-style ending where all progression is reset, but it doesn't diminish the narrative that much.

That's probably what it was intended as, but I thought they totally bungled the execution. "Reset button" endings that restore a show's status quo often leave the audience with the impression that the main characters are no worse for the wear, but in this case, Machi (with some assistance from the village's god and her closest friends) willfully decided to remain stuck in an unhealthy, untenable rut indefinitely. In the final moments, she reasons that difficult things aren't worth her time - and Natsu, her lifelong companion, fully supports this way of thinking because it suits his bottom line. This can't really quality as an "everything's back to normal" ending, since these characters are now worse off than we found them. Machi's resolved to stop learning new things, and Natsu no longer has any intention of making her a functional human being.

The ending didn't offend me to my very core, nor did I lose any sleep over it - but I thought it was a terrible, terrible way to wrap up this show.

Lord Dcast wrote:

Regardless of his comments, is the ending really that bad? I just found it annoying in the 'not again' kind of way. It's another Himouto-style ending where all progression is reset, but it doesn't diminish the narrative that much.

Did Japan really get that angry? And did western fans too? Most of my friends found it okay.

If it had been simply a "reset" ending, that would have made me roll my eyes and be done with it. This went well beyond that. It wasn't an ending where nothing changes and she'll live to give it a shot another day! It was her, by her own volition, deciding to give up on growing up and basically infantilizing herself for the rest of her life. She doesn't want to think, she doesn't want to do anything. She wants to be coddled like a baby so she doesn't have to every think like an adult again. Watch the last minute and a half again... Her mind is literally broken. That's pretty horrible.

mangamuscle wrote:

peno wrote:

Usually, the production teams want their freedom from the author and unless it’s someone really big and popular, the authors agree so their work is made to the TV or movie screen. It’s sad, really, but that’s how it works.

That is how it works in the west, but in Japan when an anime is made into a TV series, the original aurhor has the final seal of approval. Probably the mangaka behind Detective Conan is already used to being in the loop, but that does not mean he cannot veto any idea for fillers (to give an example).

For examples of what happens when they ignore the mangaka, google Polar Bear Cafe.

I do have heard that when a movie is done, since it a riskier proposition they do ask the author to give the seal of approval before the production starts, but even then he probably asks for a summary of the plot.

So I still think that even if the author gave his seal of approval, I think they added the real ending later to that piece of paper.

I will say what I (and probably many others) have been thinking all this time, the director probably wanted more loli fanservice but the mangaka repeatedly shot him down and as a vengance they did the shitty bad ending in the last five minutes.

No this is not true. The anime is generally commissioned by a consortium; which is mostly initiated by the manga artist's publisher (who believes the anime will help sell more manga), joined by a figure/goods (makes keychains, ufo prizes, coin bags) manufacturer, anime studio (who receives the bulk of the dvd sales), television station, hobby (anime/manga) magazine (who gets exclusive articles about the show published in their magazine), and whoever else feels they can benefit from the anime being produced. It being made has nothing to do with the original manga artist at all. In fact most manga artists (from what I understand by reading Japanese articles about it) are mostly indifferent about the anime and often think their manga work is superior to it.

To be honest, I can see why for a few reasons. The amount of control a manga artists has is mostly as a consultant. Only those whose work is highly regarded (either due to extreme popularity or being highly respected) get a chance to write the script or have any tangible influence over the production. These manga artists tend to be workoholics, extremely detail orientated people, or people bored/on hiatus with their manga work and wish for a new challenge. They are also viewed as interlopers by the anime studio. A manga artist may be a master of print but do not understand the unique dynamics of animated production. Therefore, they will clash. It's only natural.

However most of the time, manga artists have extremely little involvement. Which makes sense because manga artists whose work is still on-going, may not have the time to aid an animation staff due to weekly deadline commitments. Secondly, manga is more respected in Japan than anime. So a prolific manga always outlives its anime adaptations. Being so, a manga artist would rather spend their time creating good manga than worry about its anime. Therefore, their amount of "consulting" is done just enough to satisfy their contractual obligations; anime studios need the manga artist to participate to some extent, due to Japanese intellectual laws and to prevent blame if the anime is a mess (because they can say the creator was apart of making it).

Thirdly, the paid isn't very good at all. I read several Japanese articles that suggests manga artists with short anime series are paid a royalty of $150 - $300 per episode. The famous manga artists with longer running series may receive $1000 - $5000 per episode. Manga artists low pay for anime series is justified by the higher royalties they receive from book sales. On average book royalties are 10% of book sales. For example,Eiichiro Oda, the One Piece manga artist, makes only $160,000 USD per year from the One Piece Anime but gets $13.5 million USD from book royalties(http://laughy.jp/1418819870285108008). Oda is very lucky that his work is extremely mainstream. So his money from merchandise is $3 million higher than his book royalties. This is pretty rare as manga merchandise money is extremely low for even the most prolific manga artists. Other than One Piece, Detective Conan, Gintama, Sailor Moon, & Dragon Ball are the only other exceptions I can thing of.

This is the complete opposite for American comic book creators (who still own the rights to their works). Americans tend to prefer tv/movies over books.Therefore the richest ones receive the most money through tv/movie adaptations and merchandise sales. Their book royalties tend to be the lesser of all their revenue sources. While they may not be involved in the 3rd party stuff. They have heavily compensated for it vs the Japanese artist. So I do not cry for any comic creator who bemoans their work was "ruined" by a movie. Converting something into a different median (static images to motion pictures) require different approaches and different expertise. So of course, a movie based on a comic is going to play out differently than its original source. Not to mention, interpretations based on an original work is always going to have issues. Stephen King hates "The Shinning" movie ( a movie based off his book) but yet most movie critics consider Stanley Kubrick's interpretation as a masterpiece.

Finally, the belief that anime is always inferior to the manga and only serves as a commercial for its original works. Therefore,even terrible anime adaptations may cause a manga to sell well. So the bad ending for Kumamiko could be a good thing for the manga artist because people may be curious to see if the manga is as bad as the show. Him publishing "pseudo-apologies" ( public Japanese figures are masters at issuing these) may be an indirect way for him to get press for his work.

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