Ask John: Why Don’t Good RPGs Get Turned Into Anime?

Question:
Why is it when anime are based off games, they always choose the worst possible games, generally fighting games. There are a host of excellent RPGs that would make breathtaking anime, such as the Suikoden series, Lunar series, Parasite Eve, Granstream Saga, and so on. Yet no one ever seems to attempt to use these stories, though it would seem natural as a good RPG holds all the elements that make an excellent anime. Any idea why such games aren’t used?

Answer:
I think that only Japanese animators know exactly how source material for anime adaptations are chosen, but I do have a theory on why certain types of video games are more frequently adapted into anime than other types. My guess is that in most cases, unlike anime based on manga, anime based on video games are intended to fill in gaps rather than actually animate a story.

In the case of manga, the original source material is static- unmoving, and frequently thoroughly extensive in story development. On the other hand, video games already feature motion and color and sound- all of the basic elements of animation. So video games don’t benefit from being animated the way manga does. (That’s just a figure of speech. I don’t mean to imply that animation is an improvement over manga.) When we examine video games themselves, RPGs in particular already have extended, multi-faceted stories. It’s fighting games and action games that only hint at their back-story; thus it’s these type of video games that can be best served by the additional storytelling power of animation.

The Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, Samurai Spirits II anime, for example, all flesh out and expand the stories and characterizations only hinted at or briefly mentioned in their respective video games. Virtually all of the Sakura Taisen animation is set during the time periods between the games and at other locations concurrent with the games. The Final Fantasy: Unlimited anime, according to director Mahiro Maeda, was intentionally different from the video games at the request of Squaresoft, which wanted the anime to be something different and unique.

This suggests another, less obvious possible explanation. Japanese video game designers are no less artists than Japanese animators. It’s very reasonable to assume that the staff which creates an intricately plotted role playing game wishes players to play their story, not just watch it on screen. We may see few anime adaptations of fantasy role playing games because their creators don’t want their games turned into anime because anime is not interactive. Anime is actually one step further away from the way the story’s original creators intended viewers to experience the story.

But there are plenty of fantasy RPG games that do have anime adaptations, among them Tales of Eternia, Tales of Phantasia, Spectral Force, Dragonquest, Popolocrois, Kingdom of Chaos, Wild Arms, Final Fantasy, Star Ocean EX and Ragnarok Online. Sadly, many of these anime adaptations have more than adequately proven that a solid story in the original RPG doesn’t ensure an equally good anime series.