Live-action anime adaptations have slowly become more popular in recent years, and Netflix has been trying to cash in. But it’s a risky business. When a live-action version of a lovable animation fails, it fails hard. There are a lot of titles that were extremely popular in anime but, once adapted, became box office busts. Speed Racer, Dragonball: Evolution, and Avatar: The Last Airbender represent some very successful titles in animation that were made into terrible live-action movies. What’s interesting is that the failures are usually more famous than the successes, though there have been far fewer of the latter.
Anime adaptations have a big mountain to climb when it comes to pleasing an audience. Anime fans are some of the most loyal on the planet, and they can be difficult to please. When a live-action adaptation flops, it’s easy for fans to be very vocal about how they feel. So it’s no wonder why the genre has such a bad rep. But no production company seems to be calling for the movies to stop. In fact, the business of live-action animes has picked up over the last few years. And it’s because streaming services have a better opportunity than movie theaters to show more movies and avoid outrage if one fails. Though there are still big challenges that come with adapting anime, a lot more of them will probably make the jump into reality very soon. But with the cards stacked against them, why should they?
Artistic License
Netflix
Yes, the vox populi seems to be erring on the side of general hate for these movies, but live-action anime is still a burgeoning genre when you look at the big picture. Not many movies have been made compared to the sci-fi or action movie genres. And there hasn’t been that one big hit that gives the genre that breakout moment onto the Hollywood scene. Alita: Battle Angel was a fairly big blockbuster, but for the most part, live-action anime still falls in with the alternative comic book crowd, e.g., Valerian and Scott Pilgrim. But anime is a world full of potential. Fewer titles have been adapted than, say, in Marvel or DC. And while the superhero genre has become fairly recognizable and a little whitewashed, the world of manga is full of rich craziness that defies the logic we’ve seen even in the highest concept of sci-fi.
And the best thing, there are no rules! There are very few previous films that have yet to establish clichés or genre-wide tropes for this type of film. So when creating a movie from a source anime, there is a lot of room for interpretation. Not having a canonical universe may seem like a disadvantage, but it opens up possibilities for moviemakers to be more creative with their work. Pleasing the fans is always a big goal with these films, and writers and directors will have to remember this in their process. But individual movies based on unique source material give creatives more room to do what they do best when they don’t have big companies like Disney to kowtow to.
Challenge/Opportunity
Adam Wingard/Netflix
Some of the greatest difficulties with anime come with just how far beyond the scope of reality they tend to go – the superpowers characters might possess, the huge, incredible universes that artists create. Turning these into special effects matched with live actors is a big deal. But they are just bigger chances to surprise the audience. The Bleach adaptation managed to make its hollows integrate very smoothly with the real world. And Assassination Classroom made its tentacled Koro-sensei seem like tentacles were just another day in the park for a teacher, sort of. While not a fantastic film overall, Ace Attorney was cheerfully surprising with how it adapted its characters.
Storytelling would be the next challenge, as it is for any movie trying to reimagine something into a different medium. The narrative is what the viewer remains grounded in, despite all the other craziness going on. And straying too far from the source material means losing your fan base. But this is the key point of attack for moviemakers looking to marry two audiences of anime viewers and those who think cartoons are childish. The Rurouni Kenshin movies are the best examples of good storytelling. While some may say it was easier for the anime to succeed due to its low need for special effects, it was important to get the right feeling of a wanderer trying to escape his past. And the structure of the film allowed the writers to build compelling characters that stayed close to their anime counterparts.
Whether or not it’s the goal of filmmakers to appeal to those that love anime and those that don’t at the same time, it’s a simple fact that you just need a good movie. It might be more expensive to get better special effects. And it might be more challenging to adapt a story well to film. But one thing’s for sure Netflix is not stopping with live-action anime. With Alice in Borderland renewed, a YuYu Hakusho adaptation in the works, and yes, even a live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series on the way, Netflix is not going to stop breaking into this genre.
