Five Books That Would Make Awesome Anime TV Series By dukethepcdr [14 more lists]

I enjoy Anime TV series mainly for the amazing artwork. Some of the series make such beautiful use of light, shadow, color and motion that they are interesting to watch even with the sound off. So many Anime series have plots that make no sense at all or that seem to be nothing more than an animated soap opera, that I wish more of the great books I've read would be used for plots in Anime movies instead. Here are five of those books that I think would make really good Anime TV series. If you agree, disagree and/or can think of some more books, please comment.

Print Info View 2 Views: 1229 Items: 5

Rank Name

1

The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien

This is a deep and meaningful book that is even more difficult for most people to appreciate than the more famous book "The Lord of the Rings". The Anime style is perfectly suited to turning Tolkien's intricate word-pictures in this book into a beautiful film. It is basically the origin story of the world in which "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" take place.
BUY @ amazon
2

Saga of Old City - Gary Gygax

Anyone who enjoys any aspect of Dungeons and Dragons, and especially of the game-world Greyhawk, really ought to read this book. It is a well told tale of the first D&D hero Gord the Rogue, told by the creator of D&D himself. In fact, the whole series of Gord the Rogue books that Gygax wrote would make an epic TV series that would run almost as long as the Anime series Robotec.
BUY @ amazon
3

The Dark Elf Trilogy - Robert Anthony Salvatore

R.A. Salvator created an equally fascinating hero named Drizzit D'Urden in his many stories set in Ed Greenwood's game-world of The Forgotten Realms. This drow who comes to realize how evil his culture is and escapes to the surface to seek out a better way would make an excellent TV series. It has all the high adventure, comedy, horror, nasty monsters and amazing battles that any Anime fan would love.
BUY @ amazon
4

Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn

For some reason, Lucasfilm seems stuck in the era of the Clone Wars between Episodes I and II when it comes to coming out with new Star Wars series. I say that an even better series of stories to make into an animated series would be the ones following Episode VI (aka Return of the Jedi). This excellent novel by Timothy Zhan would be a perfect starting point for such a series. Anime is quite well suited for depicting the colorful and light and shadow filled spectacles of the battles in any good Star Wars story.
BUY @ amazon
5

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún - J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien

Tolkien's masterful translation of the ancient legends of Sigurd the Dragonslayer would make an excellent Anime series. Filmmakers have attempted in the past to make rip-offs of this famous tale, but have failed to truly capture the story as it is really told. A well-written screenplay based on this book would make a much better version. There is so much more to the tale than just slaying the dragon Fafnir (though that part is really cool), that a two hour movie doesn't do it justice.
BUY @ amazon