Thread:BOSS SUKR/@comment-4829046-20140317154111

Hi there. I see you are new here. I saw your comment -

"On a side note, if the morale is to read the LN then what would be the point of watching the anime

An adaptation is meant to be a substitute into another medium to gain more fans and not to draw info from the original medium and if you need to know the other medium then what would be the point of an adaptation"

You are new to the Japanese Industry aren't you? The Japanese Industry is not like the American(or other) counterpart. Also, you will find that most of our "problems" about series come from a non-Jap perspective. Some non-Jap critics admit that they are dumbfounded by how the Japanese audience receives things.

Here's what you need to remember. Anime in general are more of a promotion since it is broadcast throughout Japan and as a treat for the fans of the original work. You see, the reason they make anime, is to gain profit, same as any other, but the thing about adaptations is that they want to gain a profit via someone else's idea. This is the usual pattern(not always though).

1. A writer gets his work published either as a manga or light novel

2. He gains popularity among the Japanese audiences.

3. He is approached by an anime team that wishes to adapt it

4. To most authors(if not all) this is a great honor, as not only do they gain satisfaction, they also gain extra cash if the anime is successful(or even if it's not since it's sales that count, not necessarily if each person likes it). But even without the money, how many people would actually say no when someone gives them the chance to see their work on the screen?

5. People start getting into the anime and thus channels get views and profit gained is shared among the parties

6. Merchandise is made if not already made prior to the anime announcement. With this comes special deals and special events.

7. Curiosity is created and more die-hard fans who didn't really have the chance to try out the original source are born as well

8. The manga and light novel sales increase ten-fold due to the anime and thus the authors gain a huge amount of cash(again)

So you see, it's a cycle. Almost everything made in Japan is made to entice people to buy more. A light novel series gets popular. What do they do? Make an anime and manga counterpart. It gets more popular? What do they do? Make games out of it. It gets EVEN more popular, what do they do? Why, make OVAs, omakes, special events, special pages, polls, prizes etc.

And actually, you answered your own question. It's an "adaptation", a.k.a. an "imitation" of the original. It's not supposed to be the same as the original cause then, no one would want to buy the original and that would be disadvantageous to the publishers of the original work.

You must understand that this is marketing strategy. The original is always used in conjunction with the anime. The anime helps bring in more fans or rather more people that are literally throwing money to get items related to the series. Also cour anime serve a mode of creating curiosity to learn more and thus potential buyers of the original but this may vary according to the series.

Remember that tons of hard-core fans or rather otaku spend their money on getting all the items, limited edition or otherwise of a series they love and thus the industry needs to target them.

Mind you, that this info might not be accurate, but you can ask someone who is more well versed in Japanese marketing if you want.

BUT! A big BUT, you also need to remember something more crucial. An anime team has a budget and a time-space. They need to do their adaptation according to these. This often results in lots of scenes and events being cut out due to time constrictions and also may result in the addition of filler. Thus, you see, it is VERY and I mean VERY difficult for a adapted anime to stay true to the original. To do so requires more effort and time and anime run on a tight schedule. Which is why some series release continuations to the story via OVAs(you need to buy the DVDs to see them) and through movies. Sometimes live-action dramas are also done but these are sometimes even less faithful to the story than the anime.  