 |
This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007) |
|
|
This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (August 2009) |
A metaseries[1] includes stories which reference each other and some overall similar chronology, cast, and/or background, but are not similar enough to be considered direct sequels.
Among some anime fans, the term may be used to describe all the works and adaptations of a single overall story or franchise, especially when each adaptation is not wholly consistent with another. For example, progressive market interest can get a manga made into a short OVA, later made into a television series (animated, live-action, or both), and then a movie. Long-running Japanese anime TV programs are divided into separate series (unlike American television 'seasons'), so the term 'metaseries' may apply to an entire collection of series that make up one program.
The series Macross, Transformers, Cutie Honey, Dragon Ball[2], Sailor Moon[2], and Tenchi Muyo! have been comics, multiple TV series, and movies, but they do not have a rigid, single continuity - though Tenchi Muyo! does have continuity within the same form of media.
The Gundam franchise is an example of a metaseries. Mobile Suit Gundam is a television anime series that has spawned at least four continuation series (beginning with Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam) and seven alternate universe series, including one with its own continuation series (the Cosmic Era timeline). In addition countless movies, manga, video games, novels, and various other works have been created based on this anime. They all share the common theme of giant mecha Real Robots used as weapons of war and, for the most part, distinguish themselves by portraying giant robots with a degree of shared aestetic elements. However, there is no single continuity, although one series, Turn A Gundam, attempted to reconcile the various alternate universes into a single rigid timeline, only for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED to come along and break-up that continuity with its Cosmic Era timeline some years later. Mobile Suit Gundam 00 once again departed from this by being set in the current Anno Domini timeline instead.
Pokémon is an anime series, a video game series, and a manga series, none of them with the same characters. In the anime Ash travels with his friends Brock and Misty (later May and Max, then Dawn) collecting and battling Pokémon. In the video games, the player controls the silent main character, who collects and battles Pokémon and wins the local Pokémon League. The various manga series are largely unrelated to each other and feature various characters, some original and some based on the video games and anime.
In American comic books, the term metaseries is almost never used to refer to all interconnected series in a large shared universe, such as the DC universe or the Marvel Universe (or, even more broadly, the crossovers between such universes)[citation needed]. More often, the term metaseries (or, in some cases, "megaseries") is used to refer to a small group of interconnected limited series, often by the same creators. Jack Kirby's Fourth World, Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory and Mike Mignola's Hellboy are notable examples of this.[citation needed]
Notes and references
- ^ Metaseries is not to be confused with meta fan fiction.
- ^ a b Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball metaseries information at http://simplicity.com/
See also
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
