Live Action Japanese Anime
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For many fans an anime can become like a lifestyle, when you watch these wonderfully colorful and diverse shows you connect with the characters, you care about them. You laugh, you cry, you sit and watch for years as your grow with these characters on the screen. Not many things can taint your enjoyment of your favorite shows, until a live-action adaptation comes into the picture.
The live-action adaptation has been a big deal of controversy in the anime community for a long time, but in recent years talks between those who think they are a good idea and those who oppose them have escalated to the mainstream.
In the live-action film, director Adam Wingard turns the main character from an intelligent, world changing idealest, into a groveling, whiny high schooler. Not to mention he turns an entirely Japanese anime into another whitewashed Hollywood pile of cinematic garbage. There are no redeeming qualities for this particular film.
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Best Dubbed Anime is a website which features anime TV series and movies which are English-dubbed such as Mirai Nikki, Sword Art Online, Psycho-Pass, Gintama, Death Note, Erased, Attack on Titan, and so on.
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But for every Kyo kara Ore wa!! or Nodame Cantabile, more live actions are significantly less lucky. You have many more like Akuma to Love Song, which never was really garnered a lot of attention nor when the live action was trotted out or a Nisekoi which was timed just a touch too late to really capitalize on what audience remained.
The same can be said for the ladies, one of my favorite examples being Tsuchiya Tao. It can be even harder for women then men to grow a fanbase off of live actions. Especially since Japanese actresses are significantly quicker to get pigeon-holed into typecasting but it can be done. Tsuchiya Tao has been in adaptations from Rurouni Kenshin, to Daytime Shooting Star and again managed to steal some hearts and mobilize her fans into her non-live action projects.
Getting popularity, relevancy down and adding an amazing casting is still only part of the formula of what makes a good live action adaptation. These projects, just like anime are made or broken by whose at the helm i.e. the director, and then the screenwriter(s).
Live-action anime adaptations have always been a hot topic of debate within the fandom. Plummeted by negative reviews from both critics and fans, whether they deserve it or not, most live-action films and series based on anime face overwhelming dismissal. After all, it's a strenuous task to strike a balance between capturing the original anime's magic and accurately bringing larger-than-life storylines into a grounded medium.
Updated on January 25, 2024 by Angelo Delos Trinos: Even if anime fans refuse to admit it, live-action anime have come a long way since the subgenre's earliest and most awkward days. Even if movies and series based on anime are still far from perfect, it would be unfair to ignore the progress made while clinging on to old preconceived notions that have been disproven. This list was updated to include more live-action anime that exceeded expectations.
Cutie Honey was a live-action anime in the most literal sense. Despite its contemporary trappings and live actors, Cutie Honey wholeheartedly embraced the anime's campy aesthetic and cartoony logic. There was no room for realism in Cutie Honey's extravagant fight scenes and heightened characters, and this was what made it great.
Where other live-action anime did their best to ground their source material in the real world, Cutie Honey did the opposite. The characters felt as over-the-top as their animated counterparts, and the action was ridiculously cartoonish. Few live-action adaptations of cartoons capture the medium's zany energy like Cutie Honey did.
It's always been an easy to pitch a movie or show about an unconventional teacher who finds a way to reach the unruly delinquent class assigned to them. Yet Gokusen tapped into that niche in a way that gave the drama surprising success, as the live-action anime ran even longer than the original anime did.
The focus was on Yamaguchi Kumiko, the homeroom teacher of Class 3-D: a group of delinquent students at Shirokin Gakuen. While the students attempt to rattle her, they fail to realize she's actually next in line to become a yakuza leader. Watching Kumiko gradually get through to her students and win them over was compelling enough for fans to come back for three seasons.
Older anime fans likely enjoy 1998's adaptation of the classic anime/manga GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka. The live-action anime felt condensed compared to its predecessors, but this didn't hurt its quality. The pacing and writing made each episode special, and there was never a point where GTO felt like it was wasting viewers' time.
GTO's episodes had a longer runtime than the anime's episodes did. This allowed for more time to develop the students, while viewers became more invested in their struggles and conflicts. Plus, the chemistry between the two leads, Onizuka and Fuyutsuki, was unmatched. As far as fans were concerned, this was why Onizuka and Fuyutsuki got married after the show ended.
During the '90s, the police comedy You're Under Arrest became a mega-success. The anime focused on two young women who became partners while working at the Bokuto Police District. Though they had little in common, their passion for the job caused them to get into trouble while stopping criminals. You're Under Arrest was popular enough for multiple anime seasons, a film, and a live-action adaptation.
While You're Under Arrest's live-action adaptation understandably had to tone down some of the anime's more ridiculous elements and exaggerated slapstick, Hara Sachie and Ito Misaki's superb acting made it work. Arguably, the live-action factor worked in You're Under Arrest's favor, making the anime's comedy more grounded and relatable.
Considering Sailor Moon is one of the most influential magical girl anime ever, it shouldn't be surprising to know that a live-action version exists. Known as Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, this live-action anime once again gathered the five Sailor Senshi and pit them against Queen Beryl.
After months of speculation regarding the quality of Netflix's One Piece adaptation, the series actually turned out great. Everyone involved behind the scenes had a clear passion for the iconic anime and legendary manga. This dedicated came through in every shot that brought Eiichiro Oda's shonen masterpiece to life.
The casting for One Piece's live-action adaptation was perfect. Each actor nailed their respective character without the series feeling too over the top. The live-action anime did a good job of adapting and condensing as much of One Piece's earliest arcs as possible, though the material will get more challenging. That said, everyone involved with Netflix's One Piece should feel proud they created a live-action adaptation as beloved as this one.
The beloved gag comedy franchise Gintama never shied away from utilizing animation to its fullest comedic potential. The anime's humor relied on absurd exaggerations, visual jokes, and medium-aware jokes. Naturally, this reliance on anime tropes to deliver a punchline made fans skeptical that a live-action version could succeed.
Shockingly, the Gintama live-action anime seamlessly transitioned into the new medium. The movies brought Gintama's iconic characters to life without losing their animated charm. The jokes and action were also just as kinetic and wild as their anime originals. If any comedy anime could exceed fans' expectations, even in a live-action format, it would be Gintama: the unrivaled master of witty experimentation in comedy.
One of the most successful directors of anime is that of Shinichiro Watanabe. Known for his work on the original and entirely peerless Cowboy Bebop, I was more than happy to catch up with him and discuss his long and eventful career.
When I started to go to junior high school, I began watching movies and anime. I then gradually felt like these were things I wanted to make myself. I was equally interested in both live-action and animation, so when I graduated high school, I wasn't sure which way I should go. That year was 1984 and it happened to be when three very prominent anime were released; Nausica, Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer and Macross: Do You Remember Love?. Watching these anime movies made me think that Japanese animation is far better than Japanese live-action. So I decided to go with making anime.
Of those three anime movies, Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer is my favorite. I really felt the movie exhibited great freedom of creativity. So many crazy things happen in a very surreal way. It felt like anything could happen and that touched me.
Back when I was in junior high school, I obviously enjoyed watching things like Gundam and Ideon, which were both Sunrise anime. Moreover, at that time Sunrise was making the highest number of new and original titles every year. So when I came around to picking an anime company to work for, I felt that if I joined Sunrise, I might be able to create my own original anime one day.
I went and took the entrance examination at Sunrise. I assumed it was a fairly casual type of industry, so I turned up in a t-shirt and some jeans. Whereas everyone else was in a suit, which was a bit of a shock. There also weren't many people taking the exam, around 6 or 7 in total. The test was a paper test where you listed your favorite movies and explained why. That was then followed by an in-person interview.
I was obviously young and naive about the world, so I was honest and straight up with my answers to the people interviewing me. There were three of them in total, with two of them frowning at me. However, the last interviewer seemed to find me very interesting and that was Ryosuke Takahashi.
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