Live Action Anime Adaptations: The Right and Wrong

The curse of live-action anime has been lifted. For years and years, film companies have failed to create a good spot-on, live-action adaptation that stays true to the manga/anime. Examples such as Death Note (2017), forcing gory images down your throat; Dragon Ball: Evolution (2009), completely separating itself from the source material; and Cowboy Bebop (2021), with weak pacing. Although many critics and audiences agree that One Piece (2023) is the best live-action anime adaptation that touches all the seven seas because examples such as Death Note (2017) and Dragon Ball: Evolution (2009) are horrible pieces of media it is, producers should learn to put time, effort, love, and appreciation into the adaptation of the anime/manga for it to be loved.

     One of the reasons why live-action anime adaptations are doomed to fail is because 2D animation is the key to storytelling in anime. These days, fans are alarmed when they hear their favorite anime is getting a live-action adaptation. So when a studio releases a teaser trailer, fans will quickly criticize how it looks and swarm together to swarm up a hurricane of hate. For example, my beloved Cowboy Bebop (1998) is known for its fashion style, animation, and voice acting and is still talked about two decades later. So, when Netflix released its adaptation, many complaints were made. Many scenes tried so hard to mirror the anime, but instead, it looks like a Sharkboy and Lavagirl scene doing goofy stunts. Ed, a giggly, eccentric, and childlike character, felt right in the anime because their motions are animated, but how they are portrayed on Netflix doesn’t feel right because animated movements can’t work with real people. The dialogue was another problem trying to mimic the anime, feeling out of place. Anime watchers may like an anime because of its line deliveries for comedy, capturing a horrific moment, and giving inspirational speeches. So when Netflix tried to copy and paste the anime lines into the live-action, it was laughable (not the good kind).

     Another problem studios make that can actually be avoided is staying true to the source material. Death Note (2017) is the first one I’ll use, being the first live-action adaptation I’ve watched. First, Netflix failed to portray the real rivalry between Light and L. In the manga, two intellectual powerhouses outwit each other, making decisions, including the chances of life or death. Still, in the Netflix version, they hardly interact with each other, and when they do, “Turner” can’t pull himself together in front of the world’s greatest detective. Another choice that made no sense by Netflix is making the police force supportive of Kira’s actions, other than Turner’s dad. In the manga, the police force being an obstacle to Light’s motives was a big part of the story. So, with the police supporting Kira’s actions, it makes it hard to determine who stands and who's against the vigilante murderer.

     I’m not a Dragon Ball fan, but I have friends who are obsessed with Dragon Ball and found its live-action adaptation a disgrace. So I gave it a watch with three manga volumes worth of information and couldn’t even finish it, and this is from someone who doesn’t know a lot. So I researched why I couldn’t finish it and learned why actual fans hate it. From what I read, Goku was a literal outsider living far away and barely knew anything until he met Bulma, but in the live-action, he was bullied in high school with a big crush on Chi-Chi. Fans loved his story because he kept learning and learning more about the world with his adventurous spirit in his journeys, which upset its audience that they couldn’t experience it. It was upsetting because of the love story between Chi-Chi and Goku, which shouldn’t even be a love story. In the manga, both characters met as children, with Goku promising to take Chi-Chi’s hand, not knowing what it really meant. Years later, she found and reminded him of the promise when Goku didn’t have any feelings for her, and that was one of the funniest parts of the story. However, in the live-action, the comedy is replaced with a generic “kid is bullied and falls in love with a pretty girl” high school trope early in the movie. Yes, there are a lot more examples I could've used, but these are the stories I have general knowledge of that I’m able to criticize its live-action version.

     So we have examples of why live-action adaptations suck, so why is One Piece (2023) so good? Simple, it honors, appreciates, and respects its source material. Unlike Cowboy Bebop’s version, the goofiness fits right in. Luffy is known to be one of the goofiest characters in all of anime, and they gave us healthy doses so it can feel cartoonish and whimsical. It’s very noticeable they try to stay true to the storytelling and spirit, but it’s also noticeable they took advantage of their creative liberties to make it work. For example, Garp’s persistent pursuit to capture and stop Luffy was definitely different from the original story. Since it’s true Garp raising Luffy was difficult because Luffy’s desire to become a pirate conflicted with Garp’s vision, they were able to reimagine this narrative, taking a different approach that’s still able to capture the relationship between them. In addition to why it’s so great is because both showrunners, Matt Owens and Steven Maeda, are superfans of the manga, which explains the effort they put into it. Finally, the creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, was involved in making the show and gave his blessing.