What will happened if

[Chocolate]

An animation company decided to pick up your comic? But they will made major changes to it and potentially changed the ending? Will you as a creator still give them the rights to animate your comic?

Some comics that the anime decided to altered are: Kuroshitsuji, Tokyo Ghoul, Shaman King, etc.

[BLTX]

Of course, it's heavily dependent on exactly what the major changes are. Like I've thought alot about potentially remaking my comic one day, and even though this first iteration of the story isn't done yet, there are definitely some major things I've considered adding, or changing. I do also think it's important to be open to changes, and open to other ideas, as well as remembering that network ideas aren't always going to be necessarily bad. All this said, my comic is a very personal story for me, and a lot of is based out of real life, albeit, heavily, heavily exaggerated. So I'm not really sure I'd be very open to changes that drastically change how the main story itself unfolds.

So in general, if I was caught in this situation, I would be pretty insistent on negotiating these things before really moving forward, and I'd be really tough on how the main parts of the story play out.

[BlueDragon]

Depends on if it's creative, or an improvement.

I liked the original Full Metal Alchemist OVA, as well as the manga and Brotherhood. While Brotherhood followed the manga, I think the team working on the first verison anime did a great job coming up with their own story (since Arakawa hadn't finished hers yet at time of airing).

If there is love, thought, and care put into an ending, and not just pandering to a general audience, I'd let them change it so people would have a reason to read the comic and get a different ending XD XD

[TheLemmaLlama]

Rights? Absolutely, always :] Exclusive rights? ... That would be a nope.

[smokesalty]

If they wanted to expand on certain character storylines and add more interesting content then I'd be all for it. And some changes could be for the better, who knows. (I'd love to expand on certain side characters but I'm not able to do that without drastically increasing the story's scope.) But with the ending- I'd be super hesitant. I feel it perfectly wraps up the story so I'd really have to see a good reason to change it.

But I'm pretty sure most people would let people animate their comic it's such a big opportunity. I'd definitely look into the company beforehand.

[darthmongoose]

I would be seriously surprised if somebody wanted to change the ending of Errant. The ending will really tie everything up nicely, and it was one of the first things I came up with when planning.

Honestly the thing I'd be more worried about would be... them wanting to take out all the queer stuff. Because yes, story-wise Errant can certainly function as a story and be broadcast in certain countries it otherwise couldn't if you take out things like Jules preferring "they" pronouns or change a prominent gay relationship later to a friendship while putting more focus onto a heterosexual pairing... but I would be so utterly pissed off if somebody did that.

Changing some story details? Sure, okay, I'm at least up to discuss it. Making it straight, though? NOPE.

[allenT]

A legit anime company picking up my comic?... that would be a dream come true.

It's their adaptation in respect of the source material. Of course I would need to be able to discuss & supervise with higher staff. I wouldn't want them to change the story at all, but the censorships if necessary. Let all of them wear pants would be too much, but they can go for slightly more cartoonish character designs.

If they want to try their creative chops they can make 1 filler episode in the mid part of the story (with me supervising the storyline).

[TheDoublekey]

I most certainly think I wouldn't give them the rights to animate my series. I'd like it to be adapted faithfully and, possibly even elevated a bit. I'm not inherently against changes, that is, as long as they are good and coherent with the themes of the story. Take for example Attack On Titan; the source material was adapted quite faithfully and even improved on by the studio itself, with new scenes added. Other anime like Tokyo Ghoul or even TPN, which partially followed their source material, ended up failing.

It's not always the case, though, as the first adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, which only followed a part of the manga, actually ended up being successful and loved. In the end, it's a hit or miss scenario and you never know how the production is going to handle your series. So, unless I'm in contact with the staff and I can still make some decisions and tweak things a little (like Isayama), I don't think I would accept such offer. I'd just love to see my work exactly how it is (maybe with a few extra things added in to make it better) in a different media and, since it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, I wouldn't like it to be ruined.

[NickRowler]

It’s hard to really compare adaptations to the Japanese industry. The reason why there are changes, especially to the end, is that there is a contract for 26 episodes yet the manga might not have 26 episodes worth of material and tends to be unfinished. So the anime studio has to add filler and make up their own ending.

For my work, I am OK with some changes but I sort of wish I had some say in it. I think I would be OK if it was a series inspired by the concept and characters but not an exact retelling, which is something that often happens with Western adaptations. I would be really annoyed if they made my characters sing and dance like they were in a musical.

[N1ghtm4r3]

depends on the changes as some spacifics are there for logic

[AlydaB]

As everyone else seems to be saying, it'd depend on said changes.

But my gut instinct says no.

If the story was given "major changes", it'd no longer be completely mine- but would remain linked to my name. Depending on the nature of those changes, they might dilute or even actively contradict my work's message.

I've always viewed storytelling as a way not only to entertain, but to communicate to the world and say things that matter to me. Due to that, I can't think of anything that'd be more upsetting as a creator than for someone to try to capitalize on my hard work and my story's success and twist the final product in order to send a message I disagree with.

..All that said, I'm also one of those few people who preferred by far the original Fullmetal Alchemist show to the Brotherhood remake which stayed faithful to the source material. I guess if I were going to hand my baby off to someone to do whatever they wanted with it, I'd just want it to be a team I knew respected my work and cared about doing it justice.

Can't deny it would be pretty cool to see my characters animated tho ^^

[EncryptedWriting]

Going to go with novel (that will eventually be adapted into a webcomic).

Ultimately I wouldn't mind changing minor things, but if people were to change the sexualities, races, and overall plot of the story, I might disagree with it. I really don't care much about location names, as yeah it's important, but they can easily be exchanged.

In the end, I wouldn't give up my rights for the adaptation (I say that now, but if this were an actually scenario I wonder if I would react differently). I would want the rights to my story, or at least my name on that adaptation.

I also would note that mine wouldn't really be a tv series, more like a movie. I can easily fill it with a tv series, but I would think a movie would go much better.

[Stargazer31]

I'd be fine with small changes, but not with anything drastic. If they tried to make Loki the villain, or tried to make Gunhild straight for example, I wouldn't want anything to do with it. If they changed the plot to a ridiculous degree (like the Percy Jackson films) I wouldn't be happy either.

Read Realmwalker | Tapas Web Comics

[RobertBMarks]

Not a comic, but...

A lot would depend on the studio in question and its history of adapting things. The question isn't so much "would there be changes" - a movie or animated series is a visual medium, while a book is not, and that alone means that adjustments would need to be made to transfer storytelling into a visual format. Then you have the issue of fitting to length, which in the case of a movie can mean major changes to condense it, or in the case of a series can mean major changes to flesh out the narrative to fit the space (which, when done properly adds depth, but when done poorly adds filler).

(Even a change to the ending isn't necessarily off the table, so long as the change is at least as good as what was there to begin with, and doesn't betray the characters, themes, or spirit of the work. I've heard of at least a couple of cases where books were adapted into movies with different endings, and the author thought the ending to the movie was better.)

So, if the studio has a long history of capturing the spirit and meaning of the works they adapt, then sure, I'd sign on the dotted line. If they have a history of bastardizing what they adapt, I'd give it a pass.

Read Re:Apotheosis | Tapas Web Novels

[Chaz]

Heck no! I would let an animation studio use my comic if I'm an executive producer and/or creative consultant! I would want to read through all of the episode scripts before production!

[sams_cartoon_shack]

Due to the fickle nature of motion picture production, I would be extremely reluctant to any animated adaption coming to pass until at least my comic strip has ended which won't be for another decade. However, when that time comes, I would be fine with certain major modifications to the episode plots if they're adapted directed from the source material since comic strip pacing is very different from shows and film.

As for changes to characterizations and the ending, that depends on how text they are with the changes.

[Caro]

I’ve been in talks with several studios the last two or so years from small to big and everything in between! And it really is all about negotiation. Even within the same companies I’m sure contracts look different from individual to individual.

One studio I took a few meetings with offered a writing gig on the show if it was picked up with the intent to train me to eventually showrun since I don’t have any experience doing that and if that had panned out (their initial offer wasn’t something me or the other people involved could agree on) that would’ve been ideal because I would’ve been in the room helping and learning how to adapt my own work for the screen.

I also think changes are inevitable. But I think one of the big reasons why changes are less common from manga to anime adaptations is because a lot of manga is written with the intent of adaptation so the transition is often smoother than a lot of western comic to animation adaptions (which so often are strips or one off graphic novels stretched into seasons long tv show episodes).

As far as rights go, that’s always where I end up negotiating the most with my lawyer. I’m willing to let go of some things though because that is a livelihood and a sold tv show to a network means stability AND the ability to work on more comics and more TV pitches.

[powerplantanimations]

Worse, doing stuff like this usually splits fanbases. It happened with Star Trek (turning an optimistic series into something nihilistic because the writers have a difficult time coming up with conflict), it happened with Venom (cautionary tale of mental health turned into a wacky romance story), Harley Quinn (cautionary tale of mental health turned into LOL RANDOM CLOWN LADY!), and don't get me started on the new Lord of the Rings.

I'm afraid of being told by a fan of a bastardized version of my work (should it ever happen) that I'm being silly for hating said version. Which I think is a eventuality since I'm getting my foot wet in the industry.

[system]

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