Interpreting Live-Action Adaptations of Anime

Anime is a medium of entertainment from Japan that is distinguished by its characteristic style, design, color palettes, extravagant stories, and characters of widespread genres and themes. In fact, the word anime is the Japanese shorthand for animation, and refers to all forms of Japanese animated media.

Some of the most popular anime characters of the recent decade including Naruto and Monkey D. Luffy.

The arrival of the digital age led to the gradual and widespread proliferation of animated media from all corners of the world. Reception towards Japanese anime in the West evolved from a niche audience in the 1960s to its present-day mainstream popularity. Further progress in the fields of animation and cinema have led to a growing interest in the transformation of anime shows into live-action adaptations. These adaptations have been shared with Western and Japanese audiences alike; their subsequent reception has been polarizing and demonstrate the influence culture and societal perspectives play in the continual evolution of the anime industry.

Tezuka & Disney: East meets West

Disney with his iconic character Mickey Mouse.

Anime has common roots with Western animation harking back to the early days of Walt Disney and Osamu Tezuka.Both men were influenced and inspired by each other’s works and guided the mainstream development of the animation industry in their respective nations. While anime is strictly differentiated from Western animation, the differences can be relegated to a unique and stylized interpretation of Western cartoons in the East. Interestingly, in Japan, Disney movies are collectively referred to as Disney anime.

Tezuka with his titular character Astro Boy.

The stories authored by Disney, Tezuka, and their counterparts served as representations of their cultures and were highly influenced by the political and historical landscapes of their era. The first Japanese anime to make landfall in the West was Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy in the 1960s. Tezuka would state that the inspiration for his iconic nuclear-powered but peace-loving boy robot came from being punched in the face by a drunken GI. Although its Japanese origins were underplayed in the West, Astro Boy set the standard and aesthetic for the stylized cartoons that would later become recognized worldwide as anime.

Anime Live-Action Adaptations

Live-action adaptations refer to a form of cinematography where caricatures, models, and images that are usually drawn or produced by a computer are brought to life by replacing animation with real people or animals. Notable examples of anime live-action adaptations include popular titles such as Death Note, Rurouni Kenshin, Ghost in the Shell, and Shingeki no Kyojin (Atttack on Titan), etc. Live-action cinematography can also be combined with animation to produce a live-action animated film.

Disney’s 2019 remake of The Lion King is often erroneously referred to as a live-action adaptation but is indeed a special case of photorealistic animation.

Adapting a beloved anime into a live-action movie or series is no easy task, and directors often face an up-hill battle against the various factors that may contribute to their work’s success or failure. Among the most recent of live-action adaptations that have met with relative success despite mixed reviews are Death Note (2017), Ghost in the Shell (2017), and Shingeki no Kyojin (2015).

Case Studies: Death Note (2006 & 2017) vs. Ghost in the Shell (2017) vs. Shingeki no Kyojin (2015)

Death Note is a study in contrast when comparing the Japanese adaptation released in 2006 with the Western adaptation released in 2017. Compared to the latter, the 2006 adaptation retains great reviews in the domestic and international turfs.

Despite its moderate budget, the 2006 adaptation was received well by the audience and spawned several sequels.

The 2017 adaptation, upon announcement, was beset with high expectations while receiving its fair share of controversy involving Hollywood whitewashing concerning the cast. The final product experienced a poor run at the box-office and has been widely panned by critics and anime fans alike.

Willem Dafoe’s performance as the ominous shinigami “Ryuk” was one of the few aspects of the 2017 adaptation that received a positive response.

A similar atmosphere beset another Hollywood adaptation of a classic Japanese anime in Ghost in the Shell. The movie released to mixed reviews and was ultimately not as successful as expected. Surprisingly, unlike the case of 2017’s Death Note, Ghost in the Shell was well-received within Japan.

Scarlett Johannson would play the role of the protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi.

Japanese audiences commended director Rupert Sanders and co. for having done their homework and demonstrating a sincere appreciation of Masamune Shirow’s original manga. Hollywood’s choice of a white actress to play the titular role of Major Motoko Kusangi invited controversy. But, these controversies were largely immaterial in the eyes of the native audience who felt that the source material’s themes of self-identity, and the use of artificial and natural bodies blurred the lines of casting specifications. Additionally, there was the obvious reasoning that a Hollywood production would naturally choose a white actress.

When it comes to a unanimous response from Western and Japanese fans alike, the live-action adaptation of Shingeki no Kyojin takes the top spot, in disappointment that is. The critics’ misplaced comparisons of the film’s special effects with Hollywood’s standards led to director Nishimura to respond:

“I’m sorry, but deciding what movies to see based on their budget, and comparing everything to Hollywood, that’s like how some people feel secure buying Okame natto when they go to the supermarket”. Higuchi referenced one critic of the film’s characters, saying “who’s the idiot who gave this guy an early release of the film?!”

Promotional poster of the live-action adaptation of Shingeki no Kyojin.

While fans sympathized with the director on this front, given the meager budget of the film production, the film’s deviation from the source material was not welcome with replacements of popular characters such as Levi Ackerman leading to great displeasure within the anime community. Though the live-action adaptation failed to impress the Western and Japanese anime audiences, it was deemed entertaining by the neutral fan with no exposure to the manga or its animated counterpart.

Forming an Opinion

For every laudable adaptation like the Rurouni Kenshin series, there have been an equal share of disasters in the making by both Hollywood and Japanese studios alike. Setting aside practical elements such as budget, production costs, casting choice, and the directorial personnel involved, the examples discussed so far demonstrate that audiences mainly expect the adaptation to be honest and true to the source material. This is a highly subjective viewpoint as opinions on creative freedoms regarding the adaptation of a work differ greatly from one individual to another.

In adapting a beloved anime to the live-action medium, the director must satisfy three classes of audience: the critics, the dedicated anime fan, and the neutral audience. It is indeed an up-hill battle. Thus, in trying to cater to all three classes of viewers, directors often exercise their own subjective preference toward the source material leading to its modification and the adaptation often losing its original message. In the cases of anime such as Dragonball Z or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, the very medium of live-action is met with mixed response as the suspension of disbelief provided by the animated medium is lost in reality. A similar case could be argued for Disney’s 2019 remake of The Lion King.

The problem here is one that is encountered in all forms of artistic media. Adapting an original work automatically elicits a level of subjective interpretation by the maker as well as the audience. No adaption can be deemed perfect on all accounts. Some have come close but for every fan who loves the live-action adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin or Death Note (2007), there remains a fair share of the population who differ on said account. Thus, the notion of “staying true to the source material” becomes a subjective standard of merit in judging an adaptation.

Film, as an art, is an interpretative medium. By creating and judging these live-action adaptations it is important to remember that what may work for one individual may not be the same for another. Nevertheless, this does not immediately bode a disaster. What matters is that one is true to the spirit of the source material while providing their own interpretation, no matter how different it may be, of another’s work.

In the end, it’s all relative.

Works Cited

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Tezuka Osamu Monogatari, Tezuka Productions, 1992.

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Lambert, David (2006-07-01). “Astroboy – Press Release for Astro Boy (1963) – Ultra Collector’s Edition Set 1 DVDs!”. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090425023608/http:/www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Astroboy/4850

“Live-action”. Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved November 25, 2019. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/live-action

“Live-action”. Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved November 25. 2019.https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/live-action

“Get It Right: Disney Is Doing An Animated—Not Live-Action—Remake of ‘The Lion King'”. Cartoon Brew. September 28, 2016. https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/get-right-disney-animated-not-live-action-remake-lion-king-143343.html

“No, Disney Isn’t Making a ‘Live-Action’ Lion King Movie – Mandatory”. Mandatory. September 28, 2016. https://www.mandatory.com/culture/1129001-no-disney-isnt-making-live-action-lion-king-movie

Opam, Kwame. “Ghost in the Shell review: a solid film built on a broken foundation”.The Verge. Mar 29, 2017. https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15114902/ghost-in-the-shell-review-scarlett-johansson

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Blair, Gavin J. “Scarlett Johansson in ‘Ghost in the Shell’: Japanese Industry, Fans Surprised by ‘Whitewashing’ Outrage”. The Hollywood Reporter. Apr 19, 2016.https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/scarlett-johansson-ghost-shell-japanese-885462

Hawkes, Rebecca. “‘You should watch movies that have been hit in the face with stacks of cash’: Attack on Titan filmmakers blast critics”. Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. Aug 5, 2015. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/attack-on-titan/bad-reviews-critics-reaction/

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Jia, Si. “The Best And Worst Live-Action Anime Movies Ever Made”.Geek Culture. July 23, 2018.https://geekculture.co/the-best-and-worst-live-action-anime-movies-ever-made/

Stone, Sam. “Hollywood’s Live-Action Anime Remakes Ranked, According to Critics”.CBR Exclusives. Feb 21, 2019. https://www.cbr.com/hollywood-live-action-anime-remakes-ranked/3/

Maher, John. “Now That Anime Is Cool, Hollywood Wants to Ruin It With Live-Action Remakes”.Thrillist. Jul 15, 2019. https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/live-action-anime-reboots

What do you think? .