If you’ve spent any time on a platform like Netflix in the past decade, or you just keep your ear to what is happening in Hollywood, then you know live-action adaptations of manga and anime are a thing. You also know they’re growing in popularity. Even when audiences and critics may not be the biggest fans of these adaptations, more seem to be on the docket for the next few years.
Even outside of anime adaptations, Disney has been bringing some of their most popular works back to audiences in the form of live-action remakes. Essentially, more studios see something with an existing audience, whether that be a Disney classic like Aladdin (1992) or an anime like Naruto (1999-2014), and want to capture that same audience. In their eyes, it’s guaranteed viewers, and it’s guaranteed dollars in their pocket.
Live-Action Animanga in America: A History
Japan has released live-action adaptations since the 1970s with titles like Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972) and Lady Snowblood (1973), and the number of releases has exploded since the 2000s. The strategy of adapting manga into film proved lucrative, and as time went on and the popularity of manga grew, production studios wanted to adapt more of those stories.
In the 1990s, there was the occasional live-action anime adaptation in America, like Fist of the North Star (1995), and then later in the 2000s, there was Speed Racer (2008) and Dragonball Evolution (2009). While something like Speed Racer has gained cult status, most of these entries were critically panned and hated by fans of the original source material. However, Hollywood didn’t stop.
Studios wanted to adapt Death Note at this time, a series that was huge in Japan and overseas. In Japan, there were multiple live-action films and TV series, but studios in America took a while to actually do anything with the rights. In 2017, director Adam Wingard and Netflix released their version of the film to negative reviews. Audiences felt the film was rushed and didn’t quite capture the elements that made the original story great.
Similar complaints were launched toward the Ghost in the Shell adaptation from 2017, with specific criticism aimed at the casting of Scarlett Johansson in the main role. A Cowboy Bebop live-action remake was announced, and after one season in 2021, it was cancelled. The live-action One Piece adaptation has somewhat bucked this trend though, as critics and fans alike have been more receptive, pushing the series to release a second and third season (set for release in 2027).
Now, there’s even a live-action Naruto film in pre-production with Destin Daniel Cretton at the helm, and a Gundam film starring Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo has finished filming. With more flops than faves, why is there still so much momentum behind these live-action adaptations?
More, More, More Adaptations
The number of live-action adaptations has grown exponentially over the years. In the beginning, only the most realistic stories had potential because studios were limited to more grounded, less visual-effect intensive films. As visual effects and CGI became more accessible, so did the live-action adaptations of the more “weird” stories that were previously seen as off-limits.
After the 2000s, Japanese studios were able to do a lot more. Budgets increased, and now it was possible to adapt fantastical series into films like:
- Parasyte (2014)
- Assassination Classroom (2015)
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable (2017)
- Bleach (2018)
Something like One Piece (1997-present) was untouchable for the longest time, but even that’s changed with the live-action series in 2023. Oda had been skeptical for the longest time about CGI’s capability to replicate his series, but was eventually receptive to an adaptation, so long as he had creative oversight.
Now it seems as if there are going to be even more co-productions between studios in Japan and America, combining budgets to bring these stories to a more global audience. With Cowboy Bebop’s adaptation, series director Shinichirō Watanabe was brought on as a creative consultant, and Masashi Kishimoto is involved with the new Naruto film.
The New Strategy
With previous adaptations in America, there hasn’t been as big an emphasis on accurately telling the story, as producers often Americanized the source material. Studios wanted more American audiences to buy tickets, but as globalization progresses and cultural borders continue coming down, smarter producers and studios see the new and more lucrative strategy is to work alongside original artists.
This strategy keeps some of the original market of fans happy and engaged with the new live-action adaptation, and it doesn’t totally alienate outsiders as the average consumers’ media diet is more and more out there.
Regardless of some fans’ ire with these adaptations and the general public’s meh attitudes, these live-action films and TV shows keep getting made, and it mostly comes down to the money. Adapting these stories makes money, so people are going to keep making them.
In the grand scheme of things, these adaptations are low-risk. With properties like Death Note, One Piece, and Naruto, there’s already an established market of highly devoted fans. However, we’re only seeing the beginning of this new trend.
Fans have already pointed out the fact that actors are going to age while their characters technically do not. In One Piece, Luffy is 17 at the beginning of the story, and is 19 now. Production for the live-action began in 2021 when actor Iñaki Godoy was 17, and now he’s 22 and still filming the first quarter of the series. As live-action productions grow in size, so do the potential problems they may encounter.
Can You Make a Good Live-Action Adaptation?
Outside the actual feasibility of continuing to make live-action manga and anime adaptations, specifically the longer stories, can you actually make a good live-action adaptation?
For some stories, particularly the ones more grounded in reality, live-action can do a great job of matching the source material, potentially elevating it in some ways. The combination of excellent direction, cinematography, acting, editing, production design, and music can make amazing things. Ichi the Killer (2001), Cutie Honey (2004), and Alice in Borderland (2020-2025) are some of the better examples.
These titles are the exceptions, and for many fans they may only meet the standards set by the source material, rather than surpass them. When trying to answer the question of “Can you make a good live-action adaptation?” I say no.
The original goal when creating a piece of art, for most artists, is to tell a story. It’s not to make money. What is the purpose of a film or TV producer buying the rights to something so they can create a live-action adaptation? To sanitize the source material, make it as inoffensive as possible, market it to as wide an audience as possible. It makes sense, but when that is your goal, you’re typically not going to end up making something people qualify as “good.”
Speed Racer (2008) from The Wachowskis really struggled here. Legendary Japanese animator Yasuo Ōtsuka talked about anime and the use of constructed realism extensively, saying that genuine realism doesn’t really suit the medium. On the other side of that coin, you could say that this constructed realism, which is in both anime and manga, does not really suit the medium of live-action.
Many producers wanted genuine realism, and The Wachowskis really leaned into the more surrealist and maximalist vibes of the 1966 source material - a constructed realism. The result was a box-office failure, a film whose tone and style left most audiences at the time confused. Today, it’s been reassessed as something more ambitious in its visual language.
Adaptations As a Whole
Adaptations in principle are tricky. I’m not a medium purist - some of the best anime series have come from a manga, and the anime elevated it and turned it into something entirely unique - but I do feel like there is always going to be a struggle.
Something as big as One Piece has gained a lot with its anime, but it’s also lost a lot as viewers drown in repetitiveness, fan-service, overused sound effects, and filler. On the other hand, Mob Psycho 100’s anime from 2016-2022 took ONE’s series to the next level, elevating it with fantastic animation and music.
No adaptation is ever going to be a 1:1 recreation and both be masterpieces. Something is always lost and gained. I don’t mean to be a cynic, but the live-action trend for manga and anime is one I’m overall unhappy with.
I could see something like Psycho-Pass (2012-2013) having a great adaptation, à la True Detective (2014), but something like live-action One Piece bothers me. My suspension of disbelief can only go so far until the boredom bug gets me and I look at everything more critically. Iñaki Godoy seems like a good guy and a competent actor, but every time he screams “Gum Gum” and stretches, he dips further into the uncanny valley, taking me and others further out of the series.
