Why I'm More Excited About The Lord Of The Rings Anime Than The Rings Of Power

thegamer.com:

As if we haven’t had enough Lord of the Rings news this week, New Line Pictures has now announced the release date for the Lord of the Rings anime that focuses on Helm Hammerhand and the creation of Helm’s Deep. We’ve got a while to wait, as The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is not arriving until April 12, 2024, but there’s plenty of other new Lord of the Rings stuff to satiate you until then.

I won’t get into the problems of creating a ‘Lord of the Rings universe’ in the vein of the MCU, or the fact that too much of something is not always a good thing, but I do share those concerns. I believe that the loudest voices criticising The Rings of Power come from a place of prejudice, I foresee some problems when it comes to the compressed timeline and the changes to the line of Durin. But my excitement isn’t about faithfulness, it’s about risk and reward.

Related: Which TV “Bad Dad” Will Play Durin III In The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power?

I want to get this out of the way early - I’m not particularly into anime. I’ve watched a bunch of Studio Ghibli flicks and Death Note. I’ll freely admit that this is the first time I’ve heard of Kenji Kamiyama, and I’ve not seen his adaptations of Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell. But conceptually, making a one-off animation (if it ends up being a one-off) instead of a five-season show is incredibly exciting. Compare Into The Spider-Verse with any MCU blockbuster. They’re worlds apart. Now I’m not saying that Spider-Verse is successful because of its animation, it was down to so much more than that, but it definitely gave the movie more freedom than any of its live-action counterparts, even going so far as to inspire the MCU movies that came after.

I’m also not