The vast majority of book cover art in Japan is fairly conservative. Tasteful even. But one publisher is trying to “update” classic books by covering them in anime art.
Tokyo-based Kadokawa is one of Japan’s largest publishers. In recent years, the company has expanded into movies and video games.
Seeming to take advantage of its manga-publishing arm, Kadokawa has a line of fairy tales and other children’s classics that have been given “contemporary covers” to appeal to younger readers. By “contemporary”, it looks like they mean giving the books manga-style covers. The result is trippy and somewhat ridiculous.
These classics with “cute” art are not new, and really started to appear in larger numbers in the last two years or so. Here, have a look. The more traditional covers are on the left, while the more “modern” ones are on the right.
The insides of the book are text heavy (well, relatively speaking!), but also have the same manga style illustrations. Here’s Alice in Wonderland (images via ASCII):
So they’re not exactly manga, as the text is laid out like a traditional Japanese book. However, they do have a lot of pictures in them. In all fairness, lots of books aimed a kids do, too!
That being said, I cannot believe they even changed The Little Prince‘s iconic cover art! Fret not: other Japanese publishers, such as Shinchosha, also publish a translation of The Little Prince and use the traditional (and correct!) cover.
You’ll be happy to know that these other books are also available from other publishers if more traditional covers. Maybe you won’t be happy to know that. I dunno!
Kadokawa isn’t the first publisher to try “cuting up” books to appeal to young readers. Publisher Shueisha, which also has a manga arm, has also rolled out a line of books with anime art:
As previously mentioned, Kawade Shobo also has a line of picture books with anime art. While those are aimed at a younger age group than the books from Kadokawa and Shueisha are going for, the sentiment feels the same. And that is? Saccharine.
Look, the publishers appear to know they are competing with comic books for readers. This is a ploy to get them to read these books, and as ridiculous as the art can seem, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
挿絵78点で美少女炸裂! アリスが女王になる!?okama版 新訳アリス [ASCII]
ハイジやアリスが思ってたんと違う！角川つばさ文庫の表紙が可愛い [まとめ]
角川つばさ文庫に負けるな！集英社みらい文庫の表紙も可愛い [まとめ]
Comments
8 responses to “Check Out Japan’s Ridiculous Anime-fied Fairy Tales”
These are pretty awesome, I am huge AIWL fan and heading to Japan next month I will keep my eye out for a cop thanks for the heads up
I don’t think it’s ridiculous that the book companies are trying to tap the large light novel/manga market to sell classics. It’s a great idea, that would also introduce these to kids that would otherwise think these are ‘old’.
Exactly, I like the new covers and think most of them are better than the old ones. If I was a kid trying to decide between the two books based on cover alone, I wouldn’t be picking the one that has old, and often ridiculously abstract art on it. I think BAshcraft’s just trying to stir up controversy.
Some of the new pics are quite decent, better than the “traditional” covers shown. The Alice in Wonderland pictures seem to be true to the story (and tells you more about the craziness than the cover showing a girl looking up at a cat.) There are a few there that are very forced, of course.
The obvious target here is the light novel market, which is huge in Japan; the new format seems to mirror the presentation of the typical light novel. If they can pull those readers into reading a few of the classics, more power to them.
(As a side benefit to the publisher, many of the really old images will be copyright-expired, so by commissioning new artwork they get a unique edition that can’t be copied freely.)
I’ve seen a much different version of Alice in Wonderland. With shit you can’t unsee. People who have also come across it know exactly what I’m talking about.
Oh you mean… yeah… HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
You mean…? Oh. Alice was never quite as magical afterwards. That asides though, the Alice in wonderland coverart was the only one I prefered to the kawaii version.
though the new covers are still fairly conservative compared with what would be considered to be the norm in anime