Actual chance of a Fire Emblem movie or anime?

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

With the success of the Mario movie, What are chances of getting an actual Fire Emblem movie/tv series/etc?

[vanguard333]

Better than before. Fire Emblem is now a mainstream Nintendo franchise, so it certainly has a real chance.

I think it would more likely get an anime; while it is a big franchise now, it might not be theatrical-movie-funding big. But this would be to Fire Emblem's benefit; the types of stories in the Fire Emblem franchise are better-suited to an anime that has as much time as necessary, compared to an animated movie where the whole story has to be shown all at once in less than two hours.

 

That said, I think the main thing that will embolden Nintendo going forward with movie/TV adaptations is not the financial success of the Mario movie, but the overall positive audience reception towards the movie. The thing that soured Nintendo to the idea of adaptations after the 90s wasn't that the cartoons and the movie were flops (though that helped), but that, with one or two exceptions, they were complete garbage. The immediate returns of one of these movies or shows isn't as important business-wise as much as how much they affect the respective franchise overall, and a video game movie flopping isn't going to adversely affect the franchise nearly as much as a video game movie being terrible; Blizzard even outright stated that their main concern with the Warcraft movie was that, if it ended up being bad, it would adversely affect the Warcraft franchise as a whole.

Edited April 22, 2023 by vanguard333

[Etrurian emperor]

A movie is unlikely. The cast is just way too big, and the stories too long for that to really work. But an anime series or at least another ova is pretty possible. 

[vanguard333]

23 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

A movie is unlikely. The cast is just way too big, and the stories too long for that to really work. But an anime series or at least another ova is pretty possible. 

Yeah; the only way I can see a Fire Emblem movie working would be for it to actually be multiple movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and even then, I can only see that working for a game with a thinner script like Shadow Dragon since there's less emphasis on the supporting cast.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

A movie is a possibility for Marth's games, or Alm's, because those ones have a lighter script and/or a smaller number of characters to focus on. The other games have a higher chance of getting a show, and they'd work better as a show anyway.

[Captain Karnage]

A movie is really unlikely, plus I think the show format is better for telling stories 

 

I can see them doing an adaptation of Awakening 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

despite how much I loved the anime we did get I think a live action adaptation would be superior. Given Fire Emblem's 98% Human casts, focus on inter-personal relationships, and low reliance on VFX. Would definitely bet money that this took less to produce than the 90s two episode anime. But the realm of 2D animation has evolved and cheapened considerably in the decades since, so the budget argument probably doesn't hold water anymore. Costuming is just...y'know, standard Renfaire stuff. And hey man the Witcher is getting a third season. On a platform that notoriously orders just one run of a show before dropping it. The Lord of the Rings was adapted successfully two decades ago, Fire Emblem is a low-concept story by comparison.

As for what game to adapt: do an original story. We are already used to the idea that there are multiple fire emblem worlds with different creation myths, plot macguffins, and lore. So why invite the comparison to an existing work? Why feel obligated to put muted-colored wigs on attractive young actors just to match some artist's drawing? 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

8 hours ago, Captain Karnage said:

A movie is really unlikely, plus I think the show format is better for telling stories 

 

I can see them doing an adaptation of Awakening 

How will that work though? Other than ChromxSumia, we don't even have canon pairings for the other future children. Fates will have the same issue. 

[Windshipping]

9 hours ago, NotYourKindOfPeople said:

How will that work though? Other than ChromxSumia, we don't even have canon pairings for the other future children. Fates will have the same issue. 

They can just pick a pair and go with it, this is how a lot of visual novels are adapted in animes. Animes are absurdly costly to make though, though still less than full movies with big names... TV series might be cheaper.

Recents FEs already have quite a lot of 'cinematic' appeal to them, so I'm not really sure what it would bring on top of that... I'd rather have a remake of older games with VAs and animated scenes (though I'd surely welcome the adaptation if it's out).

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

12 hours ago, Windshipping said:

They can just pick a pair and go with it, this is how a lot of visual novels are adapted in animes. Animes are absurdly costly to make though, though still less than full movies with big names... TV series might be cheaper.

Recents FEs already have quite a lot of 'cinematic' appeal to them, so I'm not really sure what it would bring on top of that... I'd rather have a remake of older games with VAs and animated scenes (though I'd surely welcome the adaptation if it's out).

Anime is actually much cheaper to make than TV series because studios in Japan are grossly underpaid for their efforts, while producers keep most of the profit. It is why almost 100+ anime are produced each year. 

[vanguard333]

On 4/22/2023 at 10:52 PM, Captain Karnage said:

I can see them doing an adaptation of Awakening 

Personally, I would prefer a Path of Radiance adaptation. It's a good story that would be the easiest Fire Emblem plot to adapt to a TV show format.

Awakening's plot isn't bad, but a lot of its appeal as a "Fire Emblem Greatest Hits", taking place in the continents from the NES games 2,000 years in the future and constantly referencing Marth among others. It could work, but it would be best done after adapting other games first.

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

9 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Personally, I would prefer a Path of Radiance adaptation. It's a good story that would be the easiest Fire Emblem plot to adapt to a TV show format.

Awakening's plot isn't bad, but a lot of its appeal as a "Fire Emblem Greatest Hits", taking place in the continents from the NES games 2,000 years in the future and constantly referencing Marth among others. It could work, but it would be best done after adapting other games first.

I don't think a Tellius adaptation will ever happen due to its low sales but I agree that Telius is probably the most adaptation friendly. Anything beyond New Mystery of the Emblem is full of branching paths, multiple support conversations, unconfirmed love-pairings that make it very hard for a proper adaptation. Unless they do an original story, modern FE seems down-right unadaptable. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by NotYourKindOfPeople

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, NotYourKindOfPeople said:

I don't think a Tellius adaptation will ever happen due to its low sales but I agree that Tellius is probably the most adaptation friendly. Anything beyond New Mystery of the Emblem is full of branching paths, multiple support conversations, unconfirmed love-pairings that make it very hard for a proper adaptation. Unless they do an original story, modern FE seems down-right unadaptable. 

The Tellius games didn't sell well when they released, and they have yet to receive any re-release, but they have received a lot of recognition; just look at how popular Ike has become (admittedly largely due to Smash Bros., but Fire Emblem would have remained Japan-only if not for Smash Bros.), so I could see a Tellius adaptation actually happen. It's not likely, but it's possible.

[Fabulously Olivier]

A Fire Emblem anime (Geneology, Path of Radiance, or Three Houses) in the style of Netflix Castlevania would just be incredible.

[Seazas]

On 4/23/2023 at 2:18 PM, Windshipping said:

They can just pick a pair and go with it

Intelligent Systems will never let that happen. They went as far as walking back on all of FE5's romance confirmations/implications from FE4. If we get an anime they're just going to go with the "everyone is friends" angle.

[genesis]

I'd love a tv show. Following any of the games, like game of Thrones, a big budget live action and more realistic. Honestly, animes often have huge clichês and dumbed down stuff, Fire Emblem has potential to be a big epic with the great writers and producers. Even the games with simpler stories like Archanea, Awakening and Elibe have potential to be turned great with some fleshing out and some added twists

 

The main problem is that any story would create a lot of issues with the current fanbase: pairings and routes and gender of avatar, and most importantly, who dies and lives. They would need to kill characters, period.  Unless they decide to put a Fate: Zero, Stay Night, etc and create different versions for different outcomes, which would be complicated as well but a better solution, though in this case would work better as an anime. 

 

The producers can ignore the whinny fanbase and do whatever they want, since they would also target a biggest audience. I think It has a lot of potential of a good tv show or a mature darker animation. 

Edited April 28, 2023 by genesis

[genesis]

Other Idea of Fire Emblem animation or tv show is covering other time periods to expand the world and promote a game, (more likely) a remake. For example,

- a story that covers the crusaders of Jugdral.

- A story that covers Chroms father crusades and tell a bit of Robin's mother and Validar.

- The time period of Anselma, Lambert, Tiana;

-or covering the story of Rhea against Nemesis when Flayn and Seterh were alive as well.

 

- Mikoto and Arete times in Valla and First periods in Nohr and Hoshido courts

-The time of Morva, Nada Kuya and the founder heroes in Magvel, etc... Etc...

Edited April 28, 2023 by genesis

[Jotari]

On 4/23/2023 at 11:52 AM, Captain Karnage said:

A movie is really unlikely, plus I think the show format is better for telling stories 

 

I can see them doing an adaptation of Awakening 

 

On 4/23/2023 at 8:50 PM, NotYourKindOfPeople said:

How will that work though? Other than ChromxSumia, we don't even have canon pairings for the other future children. Fates will have the same issue. 

I would like to see them "canonize" certain pairings (though no real preference for any of them aside from Tiki x Robin as that works best thematically with the Grima stuff), but they could really just ignore the non Lucina children. Goodness knows the main plot certainly does. Every single child except Lucina can just safely be ignored, and arguably for a non video game faithful adaptation of Awakening, should be ignored for the sake of pacing, or at most have them be seen in a flashback. Otherwise you're going to have a bunch of, essentially, filler episodes that fill out the (already bloated) cast with faces that don't ultimately matter.

[Samz707]

On 4/22/2023 at 2:03 PM, NotYourKindOfPeople said:

With the success of the Mario movie, What are chances of getting an actual Fire Emblem movie/tv series/etc?

It doesn't seem impossible.

Valkyria Chronicles got an anime.

As for which, it depends.

I'm an FE7 fan so obviously I'd love to see that, especially since it hasn't gotten an voice acted adaptation yet. 

I actually really liked the OVA and I liked how it was seemingly going to flesh the characters out  (While I hear the DS games didn't really do that.) for FE3.

Awakening is popular so it's honestly likely though. (Not that I'd like that, I really didn't like it as a game and making it an anime wouldn't fix my issues with it.)

Multi-route games are the least likely unless we get some weird thing where A: Byleth can now time travel to the start of FE3H Routes in canon now for that game or B: they make several different seasons of it that follow different routes. 

 

 

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

16 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Awakening is popular so it's honestly likely though. (Not that I'd like that, I really didn't like it as a game and making it an anime wouldn't fix my issues with it.)

The issue with an Awakening adaptation is that it is a story about a lot of children coming from the future to save the past and the games leaving it to us to decide who parented said children. No matter what pairings they decide are canon, it will make the adaptation very much hated by the people who played the original game as everyone has their own pairing choices that they consider "canon". Same goes for Fates as well.

  

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

I would like to see them "canonize" certain pairings (though no real preference for any of them aside from Tiki x Robin as that works best thematically with the Grima stuff), but they could really just ignore the non Lucina children. Goodness knows the main plot certainly does. Every single child except Lucina can just safely be ignored, and arguably for a non video game faithful adaptation of Awakening, should be ignored for the sake of pacing, or at most have them be seen in a flashback. Otherwise you're going to have a bunch of, essentially, filler episodes that fill out the (already bloated) cast with faces that don't ultimately matter.

Even so, they can't ignore Owain, Severa and Inigo at the very least as those three have a rather bigger role in a future game.

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by NotYourKindOfPeople

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, NotYourKindOfPeople said:

 

Even so, they can't ignore Owain, Severa and Inigo at the very least as those three have a rather bigger role in a future game.

 

Course they can. Awakening already does.

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

13 hours ago, Jotari said:

Course they can. Awakening already does.

I can tell you are coming from a personal place, but even so. If the adaptation is going to ignore every future child except Lucina then what is even the point of an anime adaptation at that point. Might as well not do it at all, which is exactly why I think a modern FE adaptation is never going to happen. We are more likely to get another shot at a Shadow Dragon adaptation. 

Edited May 6, 2023 by NotYourKindOfPeople

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, NotYourKindOfPeople said:

I can tell you are coming from a personal place, but even so. If the adaptation is going to ignore every future child except Lucina then what is even the point of an anime adaptation at that point. Might as well not do it at all, which is exactly why I think a modern FE adaptation is never going to happen. We are more likely to get another shot at a Shadow Dragon adaptation. 

Well I agree that there's not a huge point to adapt Awakening.  It's a game, and decent enough as a game, there's no guarantee it's going to be served any better as a series of anime episodes. Awakening in particular among Fire Emblem as probably has more filler than any other Fire Emblem title. 50% of the chapters are optional paralogues, and that's before you factor in the DLC. I'm not saying the child units should be ignored out of spite or malice, but because Awakening's pacing simply doesn't lend towards it. It's uniquely illsuited for an anime adaptation. And Fire Emblem animes on general are always going to be somewhat illsuited for adaptation by virtue of the size of their cast. There are just so many characters in each game that just aren't directly relevant. From that perspective Sacred Stones, as someone suggested earlier, would be probably be one of the best titles due to both its smaller cast and it's shorter story, given more freedom to develop side characters.

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Well I agree that there's not a huge point to adapt Awakening.  It's a game, and decent enough as a game, there's no guarantee it's going to be served any better as a series of anime episodes. Awakening in particular among Fire Emblem as probably has more filler than any other Fire Emblem title. 50% of the chapters are optional paralogues, and that's before you factor in the DLC. I'm not saying the child units should be ignored out of spite or malice, but because Awakening's pacing simply doesn't lend towards it. It's uniquely illsuited for an anime adaptation. And Fire Emblem animes on general are always going to be somewhat illsuited for adaptation by virtue of the size of their cast. There are just so many characters in each game that just aren't directly relevant. From that perspective Sacred Stones, as someone suggested earlier, would be probably be one of the best titles due to both its smaller cast and it's shorter story, given more freedom to develop side characters.

To be honest, I am a fan of Awakening and even I have to agree how expansive yet wasted 3/4th of the cast is. Even fan favorites like Tharja ultimately have nothing to do with the story in the long run. If it were up to me, I'd rather see a Tellius series adaptation.