While some fantasy novels are begging to be adapted for the big screen, there are many other fantasy novels that are begging for adaptation. fantasy novel that deserves to be adapted into an anime. Television and movies based on fantasy novels have really taken off in the past few years. Most of these adaptations are made by American studios in live-action form. On the other hand, anime adaptations of popular Fantasy novels are relatively unexplored territory, with a few exceptions like the Deltora Quest anime series.
As is the case with the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, these adaptations will take full advantage of the stylistic and narrative possibilities opened up by an anime adaptation. Anime allows these adaptations to avoid the pitfalls of cheap costumes and shoddy special effects. By taking advantage of what anime can do, these novels are able to reach their full potential and bring the world of each page to the screen in style.
10 Epic of Gilgamesh – anonymous
Photo by Bilge Şeyma Kütükoğlu from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-cuneiform-carvings-8349847/
Technically not a novel, the Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Sumerian poem and one of the oldest written works ever. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of the demigod king Gilgamesh and the beast-man Enkidu, friends who become rivals but bring out the best in each other, perhaps not so different from Vegeta and Goku. With so many popular anime and manga inspired by real-world ancient mythology to a greater or lesser degree, like Record of Ragnarok and Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, The Epic of Gilgamesh would be a good fit. fits that trend , and a beautiful, stylized art direction would really suit the poem’s incredible heroes, gods, and monsters.
9 Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy – multiple authors
Having long had a mythological setting even in the lore of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game, the Horus Heresy is begging for an anime adaptation more than any other event in the history of 40K. The over-the-top Sci-Fi setting would be difficult to adapt to the screen in any medium, and the Emperor and the Primarchs pose and specific challenges. The normal Space Marine is already a walking tank with power armor and a chainsaw sword, the normal Chaos Space Marine is like that, but with dark magic and monstrous mutations infused by Chaos, and the Primarchs are to the Space Marines what the Space Marines are to mortals. . Horus Heresy is Dark Fantasy, meets Gundunda, meets vividly recurring night terrors and deserves all the surrealism and epic scale that anime can offer.
8 Fionavar Tapestry – Guy Gavriel Kay
Isekai before isekai, The Fionavar Tapestry tells the story of five Canadian university students who are sent by a witch to the world of Fionavar, the mythical world that is the source of all other worlds and realities. Their battle with the evil god Rakoth the Unraveller holds not only Fionavar’s fate, but the fate of all reality. A High Fantasy epic inspired by the Record of Lodoss War, proudly wearing the influences of Tolkien and Arthurian legend on its sleeve, the Fionavar Tapestry anime will also be a compelling alternative epic to the isekai genre, often humorous and gently.
7 Conan the Savage – Robert E. Howard
One of the most famous fantasy heroes of all time, Conan has had many screen adaptations, the most famous being the 1982 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. There was even a children’s cartoon in the 1990s that lacked most of the grit and maturity synonymous with the Conan stories. A Conan anime aimed at an adult audience could capture the gritty, complex elements of the original stories and the standalone nature of the original stories that make for multi-team collaborations like Star Wars: Visions . Another anime studio could adapt each individual Conan story into its own episode.
6 Wrong Sons – Brandon Sanderson
The most memorable element of the Mistborn world is its metal-based magic system. Vin’s journey from learning to understand and harness his newfound powers to becoming a hero capable of saving the world makes the series almost a fantasy version of My Hero Academia. In addition to serving this obvious parallel to the anime adaptation of Mistborn, the anime medium itself would help portray the powers and various details of the characters as well as the potentially disappointing world-building. large when depicted in live-action.
5 Ranger Apprentices – John Flanagan
Fifteen-year-old Will is recruited into the Rangers of the Kingdom of Araluen, to train to become one of the kingdom’s elite combat and intelligence agents. From there, it’s an epic fantasy adventure and coming-of-age story. On one hand, Will travels through a fairly standard but well-developed fantasy world as a ranger-in-training to fend off rebellions, invasions, and monster bears that scare people to death. On the other hand, he meets several potential love interests, meets people and makes friends, and learns valuable lessons as an adult. It would be the perfect shounen anime. It’s like Naruto but is training to become Aragorn instead of a ninja.
4 Daughter of the King of Elfland – Lord Dunsany
Dancing Fairies/Public Domain
A middle ground between traditional Fairy Tales and Fantasy in the style of the genre, largely defined by Tolkien, The Elfland King’s Daughter tells a familiar love story. The mortal Alveric falls in love with the Elven princess Lirazel, but Lirazel soon grows tired of life in the mortal world and returns to Elfland. Finally, Alveric and Lirazel are reunited and the lines between the mortal world and Elfland gradually blur. The story doesn’t have a lot of action, but every word in the story has a poetic quality that can surprisingly translate into a surreal and experimental art style like Paprika.
3 Kings Once – TH White
The first book in the four-book series about the rise and fall of King Arthur was adapted into Disney’s The Sword in the Stone in 1963. However, because it was aimed at children and only mentioned the book first, that film did not have the opportunity to address or depict the increasingly dark and mature themes of the series, culminating in the tragedy of the fall of Camelot. Aiming for an adaptation for an adult audience would allow for fidelity to the text, both thematically and in terms of sticking to the plot. An epic series worthy of an adaptation like Vinland Saga, an epic, mature war story blending historical fiction and mythology flourishes when it suits the story, just as the original series did. do.
2 Elric Stories – Michael Moorcock
Not to be confused with Edward from Fullmetal Alchemist, Elric of Melniboné travels at the behest of an evil sword as a pawn in the eternal conflict between Order and Chaos. Elric’s journey has inspired fantasy artists and heavy metal musicians and the eerie, supernatural and mythological elements of the Saga really lend themselves to animation. Berserk’s enduring popularity has proven that there is an audience for gritty, bleak fantasy adventure stories and, as was the case with Berserk, the anime effectively delivers those elements. Elric Saga’s most horrifying fantasy with horrifying beauty.
1 The Book of the New Sun – Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolf’s science fiction story about a torturer-in-training exiled in South America in the distant future has become a science fiction classic. It is also known for its use of obscure vocabulary and impenetrable symbolism. An anime adaptation has two paths: simplify the storytelling to make it more accessible to a wider audience, or fully commit to a high level of symbolism to use it as the basis for many metaphors and interesting, strange Evangelion-style visuals to create an anime series that requires as many viewers as the original books require multiple readings.
The limitless possibilities of the fantasy genre require creative approaches to adaptation for the screen. Creative stories deserve creative adaptations. Even in purely practical terms, live-action adaptations are limited by budget and special effects limitations. To make a truly unique adaptation that fulfills the source material’s potential, Anime is a unique adaptation of several fantasy genres book.
