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[penfold]

There's a number of Manga that I'm really hoping that they turn into anime. Here's some of them.

Bitter Virgin
High school guy finds out that a girl in his class was abused as a child. In order to get closer to her he has to behave in a non threating and non sexual manner and as he spends time with her realises that he's falling for her but is worried how she'll react if he tries to move from being friends to asking her out.
Chances of a series: pretty low, I mean, who would you market it for. It sure ain't a kids show and it'd be hard to sell it to adults. The Japanese are pretty good at showing their kids that the world isn't all sweetness and light but a high school anime based around a girl recovering from child abuse?! No ball son, move along.

Yakisoba Milk Tea
When a high school boy is shoved into drag in order to pose for some wedding pictures he finds that he likes cross dressing and embarks on a second life as "Katherine".
Chances of a series: The chances of this one are actually pretty good. Most high-school characters can be voiced by women and at times it's hard to tell the gender of teenage characters at first glance anyway. Take Ouran High School Host Club for an example of this idea in reverse and a precedent for a cross dressing anime. It's more a drama than a comedy but I stil think this one could do quite well.

Lovely Complex
Very tall schoolgirl meets very short school boy and wacky maybe/maybe-not romance ensues.
Chances of a series: They've gone and made it into an anime allready. yay!
(The odd thing is that "tall girl" Risa is said to be 170cm (about 5'7") tall which is a bit shorter than the female average in England. Just goe's to show that even with a changed diet and an increase in average height since WWII the Japanese are still a short race. Wee even.)

Othello
Introverted high school girl (Yaya) develops a second personality (Nana) in order to deal with high school bullies. The problem is that this new personality likes to start as many problems as she solves and also takes a liking to the boy that Yaya likes and can, and will, be more forceful in taking what she wants than Yaya ever could.
Chances of a series: If they can make Peach girl then by god they can make this. I can see how many studios could shy away from it as using one character design and voice actress to essentially present two distinctly different characters (think Lucy/Nyu in Elfen Lied) can be quite tough. On top of this you'd need to create a whole bunch or really ripping songs for the in-show bands to play (think Beck) and well animated musical instruments and performances (Beck, Haruhi, Nodame) and you'd also need your lead actress to be a damn good singer (ala' Aya Hirano or Megumi Hayashibara) rather than just getting a shitty singer to play the lead and then just have all that other characters go "wow, aren't they great" when it's damn obvious that that aint. Koyuki from Beck, I'm pointing at you here!!

The rest of Yankumi, sorry... Gokusen
Chances of a series: Sorry, this one's fallen into GTO territory The chances of them finishing this one off is prettttty slim which is a crying shame as the manga's really hotting up.


Manga that i wish they hadn't

Karin.
Winner-kun... need I say more?

There's loads more but that's about all I can think off from the top of my head.

[phoinos]

I'm pretty weird in that I tend to not like having my favorite manga changed into anime.  It's all about disappointment, because in the majority of cases, the anime version can never live up to the version I've created out of the manga with my imagination.

But nevertheless, for the sake of argument, if I had to pick some series, these would be it:

From Far Away
This is probably my favorite shoujo series ever (depending how you define "shoujo series").  I picked it up on a lark, because I wanted to buy something, and to my surprise found out it was well-written.  It also lacks the usual girl-sent-to-other-world gimmicks.  The heroine is remarkably normal; her only real power is the emotional connection she has to the main protagonist, which evolves from pure dependence into independence and then love.
Chances of a series: Pretty low, because shoujo girl-to-a-foreign-land series are a dime a dozen nowadays.

Eternal Sabbath
This psychological series hooked me from the first volume, much like Monster did.  The characters are interesting, and the premise is intriguing.  It's a fascinating series that would do really well in an anime format, I think, if done right.
Chances of a series:  Fairly good, I think.  This would probably be a hit among the Monster fans who enjoy this kind of psychological cat-and-mouse stuff.

Manga I wish they hadn't:

Eyeshield 21
You can't take a series focused purely on football action and put it into an anime with speed lines and other animation budget cuts.  You can't take a series this comedic and cut out some of the most hilarious jokes.  You can't.... but they did.

[dkellis]

The sad thing is that I'm not much of a manga-reader in the first place, and of the manga I do know (and can remember), I went down the list: "no... no... oh, this would be good- wait, no, it's already an anime. And this one too. And this one. How about- oh, right, already an anime. No... let's see, already an anime. No... already an anime..."

[phoinos]

Hmmm... what about Blade of the Immortal?

They could never duplicate the fantastic art style through anime, but the story would be fascinating to see animated. 

Chance of a series: Slim to none, my pessimistic side tells me, although it would be a brilliant anime if done right.

[dkellis]

I will have to say that sometimes I wish Ken Akamatsu can have his works animated by a production company that is not XEBEC, and can be at least somewhat faithful to the original. We've seen a bit of it with Negima!? and SHAFT, but SHAFT is... different, in their own way. (And they did state right out that it would be an original story.) Still, after what happened with Love Hina, Itsudatte My Santa, and Negima!, I'm worried about what would happen if XEBEC ever turned its eyes on AI Love You.

Granted, Akamatsu's works aren't art, but they're still fairly enjoyable for the target audiences in manga form, and it's kind of painful to see such talented seiyuu in such mediocre productions of what were supposed to be fan-favourite stories.

Apart from that, there are also several bishoujo games (Heart de Roommate comes to mind) that I wouldn't mind seeing as anime. I'm also fully aware that others would mind Yet More Erogame Conversions, but I can only be true to my own preferences.

Hm... I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing Lilim Kiss animated. It's by the same mangaka as Ichigo 100%, and has much the same sort of humour (except with less panties). The upside is that unlike Ichigo 100%, the story has a definite progression from beginning to end, and so there isn't the endless waffling and increasingly contrived situations.

Chance of a series: Not that bad, actually. I don't think it'll be done particularly faithfully, but as long as the broad strokes are there, it should be a fun ride. Given that the mangaka already has a series animated, I'm guessing that the primary obstacle is lack of interest, both from casual fans, and from studios.

[penfold]

Perhaps the thread title should have been "Manga I'd rather they hadn't made into Anime" as I've just thought of a bunch more.

First off, Chokotto Sister. Cute little manga that worked way way better as a series of still images. A lot of it's charm was based on how they constructed a frame and posed the characters, not so much on what they showed but what they didn't. Turning it into animation just made it embarressing and irritating. Bad form Peter, bad form.

Tokko. I really enjoyed this manga but the series was just dead and lifeless. If you're gunna animate any more of Fujisawa's works how about finishing off GTO properly instead?

Ichigo 100%. As far I can remember they didn't even animate this as a proper series but just pulled a bunch of chapters out, seemingly at random, and just animated them willy nilly. Do it properly or don't do it at all. I'd prefer the not at all option (even if it means missing out on Satsuki) as I don't think i could handle 52 episodes made up of mostly dithering about interspersed with overdone fan service.

Poor Sisters Story or whatever it was called. "Yawn" I think about sums it up.

And that's quite enough negativity from me for one post. I'll be back with some positive comments later on.

[dkellis]

It may well be rather bad of me, but I sometimes kind of wish that Angelic Days, the spinoff manga based on Evangelion (well, technically the game based on the anime Girlfriend Of Steel 2) could get animated.

This is entirely because I've been wondering whether I'd have liked Evangelion more if it had been, in fact, a harem comedy anime. (And actually had a coherent story. But that's another rant.)

[penfold]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toradora

I was staring to write up a comment about how I wished ToraDora could be animated and, lo and behold, it seems that it's already being done!. What a result. And it looks like it's J C Staff that are handling it so it should be pretty well done. Best news I've had all day. 


EDIT: ok, regarding the female lead:
Short, diminutive, petite? Check.
Spoilt, rich, opinionated? Check.
Dominates the male lead, whom she may secretly hold feelings for but too shy to admit it? check.
Looks like a job for Rie Kugimiya and her Nagi/Shana/Louise "stroppy little princess" voice then... and what d'ya know. that's exactly who they've asked to voice her! 

[penfold]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-08-24/hells-angels-anime-to-premiere-in-october-in-japan
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=1740

Oh my day just gets better and better. Seems that apart from ToraDora, Vampire & Pantsu 2, Vampire Knight 2 and possibly Black Lagoon 3, the Autumn 2008 season will include Hell's Angels as well. Can you tell I'm excited?

[penfold]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=9014
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=11939

wahey, it seems yet another manga that I'm following, Shina Dark, will have an anime adaption pretty soon.

[harrellj]

Since I just agreed with Phoinos on Kieli being an excellent manga, I thought I'd throw that I think it'd make an excellent anime. They don't even need to take information from the novels (too much). I think the 2 volumes of the manga would make a wonderful 12 episode series, especially if its done by the people who did Mushishi and Natsume no Yujinchou (or they were careful to give it a similar carefree slice-of-life).

[phoinos]

Since I just agreed with Phoinos on Kieli being an excellent manga, I thought I'd throw that I think it'd make an excellent anime. They don't even need to take information from the novels (too much). I think the 2 volumes of the manga would make a wonderful 12 episode series, especially if its done by the people who did Mushishi and Natsume no Yujinchou (or they were careful to give it a similar carefree slice-of-life).

I actually totally agree with this.  Kieli, if done right, would be a brilliant anime.  I don't often say this about manga I like, but I would like to see that animated.... as long as it was done well!!

[phoinos]

Hanatsuki Hime.  There's not enough material to stretch it into a full series, but I think maybe a 3-episode OVA or something would be perfect.  The only thing is that the fan in me would demand lots of frames for a smoother, more realistic animation, because Lys tends to dance a lot and I would hate to have freeze-frame dancing and stationary, posed characters floating across the screen in place of actual action.

But I love this manga and would love to see it animated.