Fire Emblem anime?

[AmericanBuizel]

So, I'm wondering, not counting the OVA, what would you do if they made an anime series based off Fire Emblem? Which continent/games would you like to see it based off of? (Not counting Awakening/Fates/Shadow Dragon)

[bethany81707]

Askr. You have the perfect plot device to summon anyone you want for a Monster-of-the-Week equivalent, a set of characters that includes Anna to develop on the main cast, and a set of villains that's both interesting and also has access to a method to summon Monster-of-the-Weeks.

All you need is a romance arc. And I'm pretty sure you could fudge an Alfonse/Anna or a Sharena/Zacharias if you were desparate enough.

[Dylan Corona]

I'm not sure if this would be a popular thing, but I would kinda like them to make their own story, maybe? Like not based on any games. Maybe have games based on it, at some point. I don't know, I feel like basing it off the game would...hold it back? If that makes sense? I don't know haha.

[Magical Glace]

I'd rather they didn't, since there are so many worlds it'd be very hard to satisfy everyone.

If I got what I wanted, it'd be for the Scouring in the backstory of 6/7.  But that'd get a lot of salt, probably, so yeah.

[Dylan Corona]

3 minutes ago, Glaceon Mage said:

I'd rather they didn't, since there are so many worlds it'd be very hard to satisfy everyone.

If I got what I wanted, it'd be for the Scouring in the backstory of 6/7.  But that'd get a lot of salt, probably, so yeah.

Oh, I would be down for that. They could kinda do their own thing with it, since it was only lightly touched up on. I feel like that's a setting where they wouldn't be held back by the games.

[bethany81707]

12 minutes ago, Glaceon Mage said:

I'd rather they didn't, since there are so many worlds it'd be very hard to satisfy everyone.

If I got what I wanted, it'd be for the Scouring in the backstory of 6/7.  But that'd get a lot of salt, probably, so yeah.

I'd also accept the Magvelian heroes (of which we know two, one by name only and the other by a vague plot point that I am informed the translation messed up by using the wrong gender) and the Great Flood of Tellius (I really want to see more of the woman who dual-wielded Ragnell and Alondite).

[Light Strategist]

33 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

(I really want to see more of the woman who dual-wielded Ragnell and Alondite).

Slightly unrelated, but I see a possibility of it in FE Warriors.

Overall, if we're talking about background information and ancient lore, any of the plots could do.

Actually I think the prospect of Pokémon Generations but Fire Emblem based would be a cool idea. Give the audience a little bit of everything, but at the same time, make it things they wouldn't know perfectly.

[Tuvy2]

I was thinkin fe7 with a LOT of character death.

[Nym]

I don't want to sound too harsh but considering the story is the weak point in most of FE games, you would have to either change a lot of things or take a risk that the anime become too ''cliché''.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Nym

[Thinks Their Own Way]

Video games stories are designed for video games. They don't translate well to other mediums. The emphasis is on the game-play in video games not in anime. 

Change to much and purist will be upset that it's radically different from what they love; but stay to faithful, it can isolate those who haven't played the games (which is far more than people who have played the games). Don't get me started on the shipping war to end all shipping wars if Awakening was turned in an anime. 

Basically, a Fire Emblem anime is a bad idea to be honest.

[Cute Chao]

I quite liked the Fire Emblem ovas, myself. I wish they'd continued :(

I like the idea of a Heroes one that someone mentioned... mostly 'cos I'd love little scenes of various characters interacting. Not sure it would work outside of the Fire Emblem fandom, though xD

[JJ48]

FE7.  Season 1 practically writes itself, as you'd just have the heroes fighting a different bandit group in Sacae each week.  For Season 2, you mix it up and have them start fighting different bandit groups in Bern!

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I hope people wouldn't actually throw a tantrum if they adapted a game that wasn't their favorite of the series. Like, really? I'm not invested in the archanea saga at all, but I found the two episode OVA to be endearing, even daring with the source material. Showing Marth's father, Elice's sacrifice, the deer flashback scene, some semblance of civilian life before Talys is raided. The Navarl episode was interesting too, but that's where you'd look to find the show's low art and animation budget, and bizarre moments of "...I think there was another scene planned here?".

I feel like Fire Emblem is the most adaptable for a show among Nintendo's properties and that now is the time to strike with several games on the horizon as well as a massive character poll where we outright tell them which characters we like.

[NoirCore]

The problem with making an anime of an army's adventures is that there's so many characters that it would leave little room for character screentime.

However...I could see there perhaps being an anime that takes place in one of the FE worlds already in existence (like Archanea or maybe Magvel), but instead of an army engaging in wars and stuff, it's a small group of friends consisting of new, original characters traveling on a journey to stop some evil (yes, like plenty of JRPGs in fantasy settings, I know). Along the way, the characters can meet up with past FE characters once in a while to interact with them in some way while battling new villains, and they could also visit towns from the games that we could really only see from a top-down map perspective in the past. It would probably be best to have the anime take place outside of the period of time the world's game's plot takes place in to avoid any "insert characters into this plot" complications and instead make a fresh, new plot.

Just throwing out an idea.

[Aethin]

9 hours ago, phineas81707 said:

I'd also accept the Magvelian heroes (of which we know two, one by name only and the other by a vague plot point that I am informed the translation messed up by using the wrong gender)

Wait, I'm confused--are we talking about Latona or Grado?

(Also, Sacred Stones lore makes me think of Nada Kuya, who also never got any explaining outside of Eirika×Saleh. She could definitely use an expansion!)

[bethany81707]

4 hours ago, Aethin said:

Wait, I'm confused--are we talking about Latona or Grado?

(Also, Sacred Stones lore makes me think of Nada Kuya, who also never got any explaining outside of Eirika×Saleh. She could definitely use an expansion!)

Latona. I don't think Grado got anything outside of a cameo in a Support conversation. Latona got mentioned in the story.

[Extrasolar]

I've always wondered why the FE1 anime flopped as hard as it did, because on paper the story would make a fine anime - action-packed, fantasy, deep (for the time, compared to other video games) lore... Plus, fantasy as a market for anime was booming in the 90s (speaking of stuff like Slayers, InuYasha, and the like). Not to mention, for such a simple and text-sparse game, they showed no hesitation in expanding and deepening the story with plenty of scenes that weren't in the original game, so the length of the game itself wouldn't be an issue...

Ah, strange. It'll always be strange to me.

But I think that FE is actually prime material for an anime adaptation, since the games themselves are structured in short chapters that slowly advance the story along. Depending on what happens in a given chapter, you wouldn't necessarily have to do one chapter per one episode, but for the heavier/more important chapters you could go that way.

Honestly as far as anime adaptations go, I'd point to the Tellius games as the best fodder for that. They have what I consider the most unique setting of FE, and as they have among the most worldbuilding in the series, a lot of the nuance and interest is fleshed out for you. The Tellius plot starts out comparatively simple, only to become much deeper as time passes, like most anime do. Its structure in arcs, especially in RD, is especially conducive to an anime setup - RD adaptation: First arc, the Daein Liberation arc, second the Crimean Civil War Arc (which would hopefully expand the plot of that, since it was rather rushed due to the short length of Part II), the Laguz-Begnion War arc third, etc.

9 hours ago, Cute Chao said:

I like the idea of a Heroes one that someone mentioned... mostly 'cos I'd love little scenes of various characters interacting. Not sure it would work outside of the Fire Emblem fandom, though xD

As for the FE Heroes anime idea, I honestly see it working best as a series of shorts spotlighting a character or characters, alongside one of the original characters. Maybe we can get a few flashback episodes about the Askr trio to give them more relevance; we'd find out how they came together, something about their past with the mysterious Masked Man, or their influence in other worlds, even their interaction with past Summoners and heroes...after all, who exactly were those heroes that Alfonse got close to, but left and left him heartbroken?

10 hours ago, Nym said:

I don't want to sound too harsh but considering the story is the weak point in most of FE games, you would have to either change a lot of things or take a risk that the anime become too ''cliché''.

Everything is built on cliches, to be honest. There's nothing original in fiction or the world anymore; everything's been done. What makes an anime series great or interesting is just how they spin these cliches, or the unique perspectives they do with them. I wouldn't say you'd have to change much; FE is no more cliche than a ton of other popular fantasy stories that use the same tropes out on the market. Sometimes they're even more unique - the Tellius games' worlds, races, and setup, again.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Extrasolar

[Azure Sen]

Despite being a filthy anime-loving weeb someone who enjoys anime, I don't think FE would make for a good anime adaptation. Aside from the inability to please everyone regardless of which game they choose to adapt, the anime industry doesn't have a stellar track record of game adaptations in the past few years, especially when it comes to RPGs or games with large casts. And that's not getting into possible changes they would make in order to make the games easier to adapt, like say cutting characters entirely or giving unequal focus to specific chapters/events/characters while leaving out others. 12-26 episodes just isn't enough time to tell the story of a 40-80 hour game without making major cuts.

55 minutes ago, Extrasolar said:

I've always wondered why the FE1 anime flopped as hard as it did, because on paper the story would make a fine anime - action-packed, fantasy, deep (for the time, compared to other video games) lore... Plus, fantasy as a market for anime was booming in the 90s (speaking of stuff like Slayers, InuYasha, and the like). Not to mention, for such a simple and text-sparse game, they showed no hesitation in expanding and deepening the story with plenty of scenes that weren't in the original game, so the length of the game itself wouldn't be an issue...

It didn't flop so much as they didn't have the money to make more than two episodes, from what I've read.

Edited March 21, 2017 by AzureSen

[Magical Glace]

13 hours ago, NoirCore said:

The problem with making an anime of an army's adventures is that there's so many characters that it would leave little room for character screentime.

However...I could see there perhaps being an anime that takes place in one of the FE worlds already in existence (like Archanea or maybe Magvel), but instead of an army engaging in wars and stuff, it's a small group of friends consisting of new, original characters traveling on a journey to stop some evil (yes, like plenty of JRPGs in fantasy settings, I know). Along the way, the characters can meet up with past FE characters once in a while to interact with them in some way while battling new villains, and they could also visit towns from the games that we could really only see from a top-down map perspective in the past. It would probably be best to have the anime take place outside of the period of time the world's game's plot takes place in to avoid any "insert characters into this plot" complications and instead make a fresh, new plot.

Just throwing out an idea.

...Isn't this basically what Hasha no Tsurugi did?  Starred a small group of OC's who occasionally crossed paths with Roy's group to interact with them.

[NoirCore]

1 hour ago, Glaceon Mage said:

...Isn't this basically what Hasha no Tsurugi did?  Starred a small group of OC's who occasionally crossed paths with Roy's group to interact with them.

Well, I said outside of the time the game's plot happened so there'd be no "shoehorning" characters into an already-established plot and instead putting them in a fresh new one so there isn't risking any drastic canon modifying of already-established characters potentially for the negative. Basically, avoiding a Kris situation. (Of course, I haven't read that manga myself yet.)

[Extrasolar]

Just saying, I'd rather not get something like the FE6 manga... Just...no thanks. I want my FE adaptations to focus on the actual FE characters themselves, if that's not too much to ask...

I'd rather have them slightly change up plot events or what have you rather than try to insert whole new OCs and focus on them just rubbing elbows with the heroes. Speaking personally, I don't want to watch a non-FE fantasy story guest starring an FE character every now and then...

11 hours ago, AzureSen said:

Despite being a filthy anime-loving weeb someone who enjoys anime, I don't think FE would make for a good anime adaptation. Aside from the inability to please everyone regardless of which game they choose to adapt, the anime industry doesn't have a stellar track record of game adaptations in the past few years, especially when it comes to RPGs or games with large casts. And that's not getting into possible changes they would make in order to make the games easier to adapt, like say cutting characters entirely or giving unequal focus to specific chapters/events/characters while leaving out others. 12-26 episodes just isn't enough time to tell the story of a 40-80 hour game without making major cuts.

It didn't flop so much as they didn't have the money to make more than two episodes, from what I've read.

Ah, I see. That makes sense - budget restraints... Sucks, we could have had something great.

Yeah, I see your point. That's always the trap when it comes to any video game adaptations of anything, from film to animation. I see it as more the fault of writers trying to compress the entire game into animation with a much shorter running time, rather than picking and choosing the key plot points, character moments, and such to adapt (which in and of itself requires careful choice and planning, and here is where a lot of adaptations go wrong). That style is always doomed for failure, imo. (And of course, plenty of games don't lend themselves well to episodic formats, but I'd argue that FE is one of the rare ones that does due to its already chapter-based format.)

But I remember one in particular, the Tales of the Abyss anime, that did it pretty well, with only 26 episodes to adapt a huge, huge game. It hit all the major plot points and interactions for the most part, but was also easy to follow for someone who had never played the game (my friend who never touched the game before watched it alongside me, and he wasn't lost or confused at really any point).

Speaking of 26 episodes though, we could always get more than that, if we're lucky...

Edited March 21, 2017 by Extrasolar

[JJ48]

15 hours ago, Extrasolar said:

Everything is built on cliches, to be honest. There's nothing original in fiction or the world anymore; everything's been done. What makes an anime series great or interesting is just how they spin these cliches, or the unique perspectives they do with them. I wouldn't say you'd have to change much; FE is no more cliche than a ton of other popular fantasy stories that use the same tropes out on the market. Sometimes they're even more unique - the Tellius games' worlds, races, and setup, again.

Exactly.  Being a good storyteller isn't about being completely new or unexpected.  Whether the story is ground-breakingly new or an old favorite, what matters is telling it well.

 

Look at Disney:  a large part of their success was founded on taking a familiar story, giving it a happy ending, and simply telling it in an entertaining way.  (Then they started going into sequels and spin-offs for absolutely every movie they had ever made, and the less said about most of those, the better...)

[Zapp Branniglenn]

So these Shadows of Valentia cutscenes may be their test drive of the format for Fire Emblem, yes? At first I thought it was just a reduced budget for the game that made them choose the cheaper alternative of 2D over 3D, but maybe there's more to this. The entire Echoes project seems to be about gauging fan interest in older titles as well as profiting from them. The next Echoes project could be an anime instead of a game.

[Vaximillian]

On 20.03.2017 at 11:45 PM, Cute Chao said:

I quite liked the Fire Emblem ovas, myself. I wish they'd continued :(

This. I was disappointed when I learned there were only two episodes. It was so distinctively 90s, but it wasn't bad. I liked it.

[Dandy Druid]

Wasn't there a FE manga that wasn't based off of a game? That seems like the safest bet, since it's easier to translate manga into anime than a videogame into manga. Plus, that manga isn't as well known/popular, so you're likely to not upset as many fans if any changes were made. But then we would need to question if it will get enough attention then.