Rivan wrote:I am assuming we are only talking about the overall atmosphere and possibility of conversion theoretically rather than thinking about how much it would cost or how difficult it'd be to assemble a team to do it.
The answer is : Somewhat possible, but very problematic.
First of all, Hisao only has a limited amount of time to spend and yet, the anime would have to show more aspects of it than the visual novel did, which would sometimes have the possiblity of boring the viewer to death. Of course, overall, it'd still be interesting as a whole, just not as hooking as the game was.
Second of all, I share the feeling that it would lose a substantial amount of depth if just changed into an anime about a guy at school for the disabled.
Thrid of all... The route. Technically, none of the girls have more right to become the main love interest than the other. Rin can play the mysterious and aloof girl that he somehow falls in love with, Hanako is (initially, at least) White Knight Syndrome incarnate, Lilly is a perfect example of going from friends to lovers, while Shizune and Mischa would make a perfect dynamic for "I don't know which I prefer" kind of anime. Emi also has some claim to Hisao based entirely on the fact that she cares about his health.
Last but not least, some paths portray same events in vastly different ways so it would be rather hard to be fair to everyone without modyfying them.
Sorry, edited a bit of the quote for space. But this points out alot of good points about the conversion of things to different mediums.
I really agree that the game could be made into a Anime, but it needs to be thought of in a very different way then how the game itself is made due to the inherit differences in the two mediums. For sake of simplicity lets just say that from the get go budget is no issue and top notch voice actors have already been chosen so we can go right into post-production.
The first thing to realize is that you can't make a 1:1 conversion of the game to anime. The best example is why movies based on games are often terrible and same for games based off movies, how we experience the mediums though similar...are very different. In a game format you have unlimited time. The maker can give you a 40 hour long story that builds, slows, goes through tons of transitions and even has a good amount of welcomed fluff that would be called out as terrible in other mediums such as movies or anime. A Anime's timing is going to be much tighter, and in 24/30 min bites. Points are going to need to be made faster or in different ways.
Also, the format of a VN is rather different in every way from a anime. The first person perspective and Hisao's inner monologs would be cut (or at the least the inner monologs would be VERY condensed.) The much deeper connection the VN makes you with Hisao would now be gone in favor of pure characterization of Hisao. Thats not a good or bad thing its just different. Like I said in my point about the timing, while with a game to express Hisao's inner conflicts might be a very long inner monolog an anime might show his face with a particular look on his face for a brief second to get this point across.
On that point there are things the Anime can do much better and show off that the VN can't. A quick example is Misha. Misah's loud and boisterous and is constantly signing anything and everything someone says. She delivers a obviously snide remark from Shizune with the opposite tone meant for it. A anime can bring that to life in a much more amazing and (pardon the term) animated fashion then the VN.
I'd go on more but this is already very long!
TL;DR: The mediums are different and have to be approached differently for max effect. Attempting a 1:1 conversion won't work.