It seems like wherever the idea of a Super Mario anime series is brought up, people are really into it for the most part. As you all know, Nintendo already had a go with OVAs and movies (the Amada series and the Great Mission to Save Princess Peach respectively), but I've been thinking lately that an anime might be really good for the series, provided that it's done right... and as you can see below I have some funtime criteria. I'm just curious, (and yes, I'm aware that I'm acting like a fanboy right now, but who are any of us to judge) about what the rest of you would like to see in an anime... any characters you'd like to see revisited? Ideas for characters? Plots? Let's hear them!
Stumpers' Incredibly Fanboyish List of Things that he Personally Believes Nintendo Would Need to Do Should They Chose to Make an Anime:
1) Follow the storyline of the video games exactly. A big issue with the non-video games over the years have been the liberties taken with their connection to the video games. Many assume (rightly?) that their cartoons would still sell the same if they make little continuity errors here and there. My *dream* cartoon series would be one that directly references past events (not just "Oh, Bowser's kidnapped me again!" but things like "It's just Dinosaur Land and Isle Delfino all over again! We can never have a peaceful vacation!") and spells out the connections to past events that happened in the video games. For this to work, I suppose Nintendo would have to stay in direct contact with the people behind the anime or produce it themselves... I believe they've already done some of that with the F-Zero, Kirby, and Pokemon animes, and F-Zero even tied in with the video games! Characters crossing over from the anime into the video games would be fun to see, even if they were small things.
2) Chose an appropriate art style. Yeah, I've been saying anime, but that's because other people have been talking about it... I could really see a variety of art styles. By far my favorite 2D art styles have been those of the Mario & Luigi series and of Super Mario Adventures. The latter provided a bright, colorful world with ridiculous attention to detail (there's a Toad version of the Maniquen Pis (spelling error) in Peach's castle for example... did you see it?) and the former provided an essential humorous art style. Seriously, would Fawful have been as funny if he didn't have the teeth? However - I did find the use of color slightly disappointing. No matter what, though, it would need to have fluid, detailed animation that would rival the look of the video games series. Like I said above, this can't be just an add-on if Nintendo were to do it.
3) Storylines distinct from the games. Super Mario-Kun made the mistake of trying to retell the story behind the video games, thus, and this is solely my opinion, limited the artist's creative possibilities. Not only would doing the same mess with point 1, but it would also limit the anime, spoiling the plot of the games for those who haven't played them and boring people who have played them by telling the same story over again... with added potty humor or otherwise. (the reference is to Super Mario Kun: one issue alone had a Dino-Torch poop at Mario, Mario sticking a key into a fish's anus, and Yoshi farting... there's more but...)
4) A continuous story: episodic plots have been played out for the Mario series, IMO.
4) Limited action scenes: stomping Gooma's can be exciting for only so long, and I think the DiC cartoons played that out as much as possible. Donkey Kong Country (the cartoon) got it right in my opinion: only a few minutes of fighting each episode... of course, chase scenes are still fun.
Super Mario Adventures also did that very well... Mario-Kun... not so well. Just my opinion.
5) Strong female protagonists (who are fully clothed): The RPGs were made stronger by their female characters... Peach especially. It's the 21st century and the Mario series has plenty to catch up upon. Of course, Peach is gonna be captured at some point in the series, she HAS to be, but that doesn't mean she can't do some Paper Mario style stuff or pull out the ol' frying pan. And there are other female characters.
6) Reference the spin-offs. Super Mario-Kun had a really fun Doctor Mario reference... as did many comics, actually. It was one of the more clever gags, really.
So that's my laundry list of stuff that would make an anime/new cartoon series good. Anything you'd add or remove?
Stumpers' Incredibly Fanboyish List of Things that he Personally Believes Nintendo Would Need to Do Should They Chose to Make an Anime:
1) Follow the storyline of the video games exactly. A big issue with the non-video games over the years have been the liberties taken with their connection to the video games. Many assume (rightly?) that their cartoons would still sell the same if they make little continuity errors here and there. My *dream* cartoon series would be one that directly references past events (not just "Oh, Bowser's kidnapped me again!" but things like "It's just Dinosaur Land and Isle Delfino all over again! We can never have a peaceful vacation!") and spells out the connections to past events that happened in the video games. For this to work, I suppose Nintendo would have to stay in direct contact with the people behind the anime or produce it themselves... I believe they've already done some of that with the F-Zero, Kirby, and Pokemon animes, and F-Zero even tied in with the video games! Characters crossing over from the anime into the video games would be fun to see, even if they were small things.
2) Chose an appropriate art style. Yeah, I've been saying anime, but that's because other people have been talking about it... I could really see a variety of art styles. By far my favorite 2D art styles have been those of the Mario & Luigi series and of Super Mario Adventures. The latter provided a bright, colorful world with ridiculous attention to detail (there's a Toad version of the Maniquen Pis (spelling error) in Peach's castle for example... did you see it?) and the former provided an essential humorous art style. Seriously, would Fawful have been as funny if he didn't have the teeth? However - I did find the use of color slightly disappointing. No matter what, though, it would need to have fluid, detailed animation that would rival the look of the video games series. Like I said above, this can't be just an add-on if Nintendo were to do it.
3) Storylines distinct from the games. Super Mario-Kun made the mistake of trying to retell the story behind the video games, thus, and this is solely my opinion, limited the artist's creative possibilities. Not only would doing the same mess with point 1, but it would also limit the anime, spoiling the plot of the games for those who haven't played them and boring people who have played them by telling the same story over again... with added potty humor or otherwise. (the reference is to Super Mario Kun: one issue alone had a Dino-Torch poop at Mario, Mario sticking a key into a fish's anus, and Yoshi farting... there's more but...)
4) A continuous story: episodic plots have been played out for the Mario series, IMO.
4) Limited action scenes: stomping Gooma's can be exciting for only so long, and I think the DiC cartoons played that out as much as possible. Donkey Kong Country (the cartoon) got it right in my opinion: only a few minutes of fighting each episode... of course, chase scenes are still fun.
Super Mario Adventures also did that very well... Mario-Kun... not so well. Just my opinion.5) Strong female protagonists (who are fully clothed): The RPGs were made stronger by their female characters... Peach especially. It's the 21st century and the Mario series has plenty to catch up upon. Of course, Peach is gonna be captured at some point in the series, she HAS to be, but that doesn't mean she can't do some Paper Mario style stuff or pull out the ol' frying pan. And there are other female characters.
6) Reference the spin-offs. Super Mario-Kun had a really fun Doctor Mario reference... as did many comics, actually. It was one of the more clever gags, really.
So that's my laundry list of stuff that would make an anime/new cartoon series good. Anything you'd add or remove?
