Marvel going Anime Style
Venkman here and it looks like Marvel is going to expand their market in Japan by turning some of their Superheros into Anime characters. Here is what New York Times reports:
Marvel is teaming up with Madhouse, a renowned Japanese animation studio, to develop new versions of its characters for four anime series that will premiere in spring 2010 in Japan.
Madhouse has made anime films such as 'Vampire Hunter D', 'Bloodlust', Metropolis', 'Tokyo Tribes' , and 'Paprika'.
Rather than simply importing American characters and concepts, said Simon Philips, president of Marvel International, the goal is to create "something that is part of the fabric of society." This means reimagining the back stories and redesigning the look of Marvel's stable of characters to reflect Japanese culture. "It will create an entire parallel universe for Marvel," he said.
"Marvel today is so open-minded," said Jungo Maruta, the president and chief executive of Madhouse, through his interpreter, Alex Yeh, the chief operating officer of the studio, during a recent meeting in New York. "Marvel gives creators freedom to fly."
It will be interesting to see what they end up coming up with design and story wise. Anime is a totally different style of art and storytelling. So they are going to start out by reimagining the back stories of the characters, a different Universe than what we are used to seeing. I don't know, it could be very cool. It is interesting what they notwe here.
‘I want Japanese anime,’ it’s not what they actually want. They want a hybrid between Japanese and Western animation.”
So they are not going full on 100% Anime. This is kind of odd because I thought Marvel Animations 'Dr. Strange' and the trailer for 'Hulk Vs. Thor' is kind of a hybrid. I can see some Anime influence in them. Maybe these next animated Anime films will be a little bit more Anime. This new direction they are going will also include Comic Books and cell phone downloads.
It should be interesting and cool to see what they end up coming up with. Four Superheros will get the Anime make over including Iron Man and Spiderman.
They did try to do this in the 1970's with Spiderman Manga Check It Out Here.