User blog:Samaru163/Deltora Comparison: Tom's Curious Shop

Hello Deltora fans, one and all and welcome to episode eight of my Deltora Quest comparison.

Thoughts on the Book
Since we once again find ourselves beginning a new arc in the anime, I will give you my brief thoughts on the book version.

City of the Rats is a very interesting book, especially following Lake of Tears, which I believe is the golden standard of a Deltora Book. Unlike the previous entry, City of the Rats has very few setpieces. Most of the book takes place either in the city of Noradz or Tom's shop. As such, there's barely any puzzles or monsters in this book, instead relying on a sense of mistery and stealth as our heroes have to circumnavigate these obstacles that they can't just brute force their way through. This is an interesting change of pace from the puzzle heavy obstacles of Tears, but I'm glad the rest of the series didn't rely too heavily on this system.

Rats is also the first book where our heroes find their core beliefs challenged. Lief, ever the optamist, is confronted with the fact that not everyone in Deltora is as committed to freeom as he is. Some people don't care who is in charge at the time so long as they make a living. Jasmine goes through a similar crisis where she doubts if the quest is even the right thing to do, as they could be trading a tyrant for a dissinterested monarch. These kinds of character moments are very good and helped to flesh the characters of Deltora Quest out even more.

Overall, City of the Rats is a good book, and has some great character-building moments, but its departure from the usual style of Deltora Quest makes it feel more tame than its bretheren.

Anime comparison
Tom's Curious Shop covers the events of chapters one to five, and part of chapter six, of the City of the Rats.

Characters
So remember how I praised the designs of Jin and Jod before? Don't expect that same treatment here: Thaegan's remaining children are laughably cartoony. Jin and Jod at least had some good details that made their designs grotesque and unique, but these look like someoen spent five minutes doodling and picked their favourite sketches to be official character models. Yes these monsters didn't have much time in the books, but Mark McBride made them all so unique and detailed in his illustration in the Deltora Book of Monsters, while these look like rejects from the Care Bears. I mean, Zan had six legs in the book, but still had arms so he could punch his siblings. Here, he only has six limbs and no arms. How does he eat?!

The design of their wolf forms are also different from book to anime. The book wolves were huge, hunched over beasts, with brown and yellow striped fur and black mouths. The wolves in the anime look... well, about as cartoony and non-threatning as the monsters in their normal forms.

Thankfully. Tom is spot-on in his design. Everything is there, from the cunning grin and spring in his step, to the spectacles and brown cap. His personality is also carried over from the book as well: constantly referring to himself in the third person and presenting himself as a neutral party to all who enter his shop.

The scar faced man is decent enough: he has the titular scar, black hair, dark skin, and cold look in his eyes. However, the book describes him as being as tall and large as Barda, with a shaggy beard. The anime dropped the ball on those last details, making him too skinny and clean shaven.

Bridge
Bonus points are also given to Jasmine pressing her ear to the ground to try and identify their chasers, and Ichabod demanding two legs and a head for his share of the feast.
 * Lief, Barda, and Jasmine travelling down a path flanked by thorns on both sides.
 * The companions discovering a sign leading to Tom's Shop, and Jasmine's confusion at the concept of a place where you buy and sell goods.
 * The companions being pursued by a pack of wolves who catch them in a net trap before revealing themselves as Thaegan's eleven surviving children.
 * The monsters singing the song Roast Meat as they prepare a bondfire.
 * Filli cutting through the net to allow the companions to escape, while Lief tricks the monsters into fighting one another to distract them.
 * Ichabod—the largest and most powerful of Thaegan's children—being the victor of the brawl, but losing the companions when they cross Thaegan's territory.
 * The companions arriving at Tom's shop, covered in Tom's name, and offering a free gift to every customer.
 * Barda's hand getting stuck to a lantern when he tries to pick it up, and only being let free when Tom pushes a hidden button.
 * Tom giving the companions a tour of his wears, Jasmine and her animals waiting outside, and them lamenting that they can't aford more of his goods.
 * A scar faced man arriving at the shop and getting a discount on self-coling rope for drawing the resistance symbol.
 * The man and Tom talking about the death of Thaegan and the Del King Thorns, named because they grew from the kings of Deltora's neglect.
 * Tom giving our heroes a jar of fire bedes and a pipe that blows bubbles of light for free when he realized they recogonized the symbol. Lief aslo reminds him to give them their free gift: a tin of water eaters.
 * Tom selling the companions three Muddlets, which they payed for with gold Jasmine brought from her hoard, and warning them not to travel to the Broad River.
 * The companions ignoring his warnings, and midway down the path, the Muddlets bolt and throw them from their backs, knocking them unconcious.

Alterations
Jasmine instantly catches wind of the pursuing wolves in the anime once they stop at Tom's sign, but in the book she heard them several hours later. At this point the companions had also lit a torch to light their way, while in the anime they only light torches to try and fend off the wolves.

Lief was able to deduce the identity of the wolves when he realized they were driving the companions a nearby tree. In the anime, this revelation is made when the monsters reveal their true forms. Add this one to the pile of scenes where Lief was awesome in the book, but was cut from the anime.

Thaegan's children are all a lot more chatty in the anime, as seems to be the case with a lot of the villains. Their vocabulary has also been expanded because of this, so their sentences aren't structured like, "Equal shares! Hot and Tot say equal shares!" They are also accompanied by the spirits of Jin and Jod, who seemed to be the ones who lead them to the companions.

The order of the monster's death is also different. When Lief convinces them to only be nine so they can each get a third of the meat, Hot and Tot are both killed in the book, since they were the most vocal for equal shares. In the anime, Either Lun or Lod, and Pick or Snick are tossed aside. Then, instead of Barda convincing them to be eight, due to the size difference between the companions, Lief says they should be three so each can get one human. This leaves Ichabod, Fie, and Fly standing, but they fight again when Lief says only one should get to eat so they can be full.

The monsters are also knocked out in the anime, while the books Ichabod killed his other siblings. This was done so that the monsters could return with their mother, and like with her, I am not against the idea of the monsters being recular villains. As for how this idea was executed... we'll have to wait and see.

In the anime, Tom's shop is located right on the edge of Thaegan's territory. In the book, the companions had a few hours of travel before they arrived. I assume this was changed for time reasons.

In the anime, Tom reminded the companions that there was a free gift for every customer. In the book, however, he was silent on that deal, as he operated on the rule of, "if you don't ask, you don't recieve."

Jasmine went outside while Lief and Barda were touring Tom's shop in the book, but the anime pushed it back until after the scar faced man arrived. Also, Jasmine was a lot more hostile to the man in the book, drawing her knife and preparing for a fight. I really can't justify why this change was made, other than they wanted Jasmine to be inside for longer.

The words to command the Muddlets in the book are Brix and Snuff for go and stop, while the anime changed them to Abra and Kadabra. No, I don't know why the names of two Psychic type Pokemon were chosen over words that sound like the noises you make when you sneeze, other than it's more recognizable for kids.

The anime gives us another idiot moment from Barda when he asks Jasmine where she got the gold she used to buy the Muddlets. I guess he just forgot that she robbed Grey Guards and had a giant pile of swag in her nest? What's more, Lief comes in and tells Jasmine she stole the gold coins from the guards... since when did Lief care if Grey Guards got robbed?

Omissions
A lot of the mystery behind the companions' pursuers was cut from the anime. Originally Lief thought they might be bandits and suggested they fight, but Barda shot it down because the thorns would restrict their movement. Jasmine realized they were not dealing with regular wolves when they passed a dead tree and the pack picked up speed.

After Ichabods's victory in the books, the companions leapt from the tree and knocked him into the bondfire to buy themsleves time to escape. This was cut from the anime so we could get a random scene of them leaping off a waterfall for our dramatic escape. Personally, I find it a downgraid.

The anime cut out Lief's purchase of special socks that would relieve aching feet, most likely because the companions have not been traveling for as long in the anime as they were in the book, so it didn't make sense for Lief to complain about his sore feet.

In the book, Tom was keeping three grey horses in a pen outside his shop, and flew into a brief frenzy when Jasmine petted them. Lief and Barda wanted to buy the horses from Tom, but even after Jasmine flashed her gold, Tom refused to sell them, instead offering the companions the Muddlets instead. I really have no idea why this scene was cut other than, because they had Jasmine stay inside the shop for longer, there wasn't any reason to have her interact with the horses.

All of Tom's bargaining scenes were cut from the anime. In the book, Tom tried to pursuade Lief to part with his sword and cloak in order to buy more goods, but Lief turned him down. Later, he offered the Muddlets for twenty gold, but haggled the price down to eighteen with saddles and bridles. I have to assume these were cut for time, but it makes Tom feel less like a buisnessman than he was in the books.

Final thoughts
This episode is pretty standard for a Deltora Quest episode. It has the skeleton of the plot from the book, but lacks a lot of the finer details. There are more cuts and alterations to this episode than any others so far, and they're all for the worse. Scenes are artaficially lengthened in order to meet that sweet twenty minutes, and while there is loyalty to book dialogue, tons of annoying and immmature dialogue is peppered through. There is also a big problem with pacing, as the episode begins with an action scene, then slows down for the rest of the episode, so it doesn't build to anything and quickly looses momentum.

Tom, for the most part, was pretty faithful to the book, and the actor and animation did a good job bringing the character to life, However, he doesn't feel nearly as sharp of savy as his book counterpart, thanks in no small part to the loss of his bargain scenes over Lief's cloak and the price of the Muddlets. Still, he fared better than Thaegan's children, who were turned into a bunch of reject saturday morning villains.

In the end, Tom's Curious Shop is what you've come to expect from the anime. Basic following of Emily Rodda's original work, and some book loyal dialogue, but the death comes in the details.

But what did you all think? Do you like the design of Thaegan's children? Did you forget how Jasmine got her money just like Barda? Did watching this episode make you want to get an Abra and Kadabra in Pokemon? Let me know below, and rememeber to always pay your animators, lest they decide not to animate your mouth for one scene.

Next time we will attempt to respect the laws and customs of Noradz the Clean.