Animation Quality Struggles Continue for Sakamoto Days and Solo Leveling

People love 'living and breathing' their favorite shows or books, and manga isn't different at all. It seems that fans of Japanese manga and animation are not that much different. Adaptations from books to TV shows or movies were always 'laced' with expectations from the fans, and some did it better than others (Game of Thrones army stand up!). This is the same 'pet peeve' in the anime and manga spectre, and it seems that hit series in Solo Leveling and Sakamoto Days, specifically their anime adaptations, made their fans very mad.

Adaptation To Other Media Was Always Difficult

Adapting books to TV shows or movies was always a 'touchy' object for most consumers or fans of their respective titles, and only a few can boast about their job well done. Most would agree that Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series was adapted very well, if not almost perfectly, to three movies. The LOTR trilogy was a hit that is still very relevant today, and others tried their best to replicate the success of Peter Jackson's work. However, although Game of Thrones did well at the beginning, the last two or even more seasons of the TV show, for many fans, ruined the show because of the absence of source material from George R.R. Martin.

In Japan, the recent success stories of manga-to-anime adaptations are definitely Dandadan and Jujutsu Kaisen that people absolutely loved. Great animation, amazing voice acting, and willingness to transfer charm and artwork of manga to anime are what make these projects successful. However, it's not always easy to adapt from manga to anime, and besides the aforementioned main reasons for this blog post analysis, there were many different examples of anime not capturing the essence of the source material.

Manga Artwork Is Hard to Translate To Anime

OG fans of Naruto will remember when the epic fight between Pain and Naruto occurred in the manga, which was one of the best parts of the series, but when it finally got the anime adaptation, fans were appalled with the bad animation quality. The distorted parts of Naruto's body during his transformation into Nine-Tailed Beast and Pain's face when the Gutsy Ninja hit him are two of the worst animated sequences in the whole Naruto anime.

It was later revealed that the studio Pierrot was under pressure due to time limits, and the animation was the consequence of that. Same went with another Kishimoto project, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, which obviously lacked the quality of the manga series artwork. It is really hard to adapt manga to anime, just for the artwork but also if the animation director doesn't understand the source material. If we ask Sakamoto Days and Solo Leveling fans, they will tell you their favorite series' became 'victims' of bad adaptations due to, you guessed it, bad animation quality.

If you wish to discuss Solo Leveling with other fans, check out this dedicated Reddit community.

Sakamoto Days and Solo Leveling Fans Are Not Happy

Now, to the main point of this blog post. Let's talk about Solo Leveling, a light novel and eventually a manhwa, a South Korean fantasy series that became incredibly popular worldwide. The first season of the anime started two years ago, and new fans loved the concept of the story and its premise, but the manhwa and light novel fans weren't very happy with what they were served. They thought the artwork of the source material wasn't transferred to anime in all its glory, making some of the fans even not give the anime a chance.

However, it seems that the second season of the anime saw improvement in the animation department, with some fans even saying the anime looks at times better than the artwork in the manhwa, which is a huge 180-degree turn for a huge portion of the fanbase. Of course, there are still lingering skeptics who demand even better standards, posting every day about their 'pet peeves,' which is fair but sometimes over the top. It simply ruins the enjoyment of other fans for the show, which isn't fair at all.

Sakamoto Days fanbase is currently going through the 'animation is bad' phase, and it's relentless every single day—at least if we look at the series subreddit and other social media forums. Personally, as someone who started to read manga series and follows the show on Netflix, there is some room for improvement, but the complaining is getting over the top as new episodes get released. For example, the seventh episode of Sakamoto Days is getting released next week for the West, and people are already praising the improvement from the first episode. It's good to demand quality, but you simply cannot transfer manga artwork pixel by pixel to anime—it's simply not possible. Even Dandadan couldn't do it, and it's still the most beloved current anime adaptation.

Conclusion: It Will Get Better  

It's nice to demand more: better quality of the product and, most importantly, a project that will make your life better. Both Sakamoto Days and Solo Leveling communities are facing some fans who are not happy with the anime adaptation; some of the reasons are valid, but some of the complaints are simply too nitpicky. The latter type of fans seems to make it their mission to make everyone lose the enjoyment from these great series.

Both series' adaptations will get much better with more episodes, and even now we're witnessing improvement from both Sakamoto Days and Solo Leveling that will continue with more seasons—we're sure of that. 

Watch Sakamoto Days on Netflix.