With the upcoming live action movie of the anime classic Ghost in the Shell about to hit theaters March 31st 2017, anime fans are finding that more and more of the animes that they love are being adapted into live action movies.  Most fans are super critical of any live action adaptation of an anime because, most times, an anime does not translate well into a live action.  Yet the movie industry (Hollywood and international) are determined to make these live action adaptations.  I have had my eye on a few for a while, and in this article I will go into each of the ones that I have excited yet apprehensive to see.

Ghost in the Shell

The live action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell starring Scarlett Johansson has been met with a flurry of controversy over the “whitewashing” of the anime classic due to the fact that Scarlett Johansson was cast as the lead role.  Scarlett Johansson plays Major Motoko Kusunagi, and many people wish they had cast a Japanese or asian actress for the role.  I personally have no problem with the casting as the creator of the series liked Scarlett Johansson as the lead character and I personally think she looks like the character.

Now, after watching the full length trailer, I can say that I am really excited to see this movie as it looks really faithful to the original material and the cinematography looks amazing.  Check out the trailer below:

Hopefully, I will not be let down in that regard, but I have high hopes that this movie will probably be the first really good adaptation of an anime, and if that happens, I think the doors will open for others  to be adapted as well.

Death Note

Image from the Death Note 2017 IMDB page.

This is another Hollywood production that came under fire for “white washing” of the cast, and this is one I can sort of understand the backlash.  I am a firm believer that a movie role should be given for the person who can bring that character to life in the best way possible regardless of ethnicity.  Would I have liked to see an asian actor in this as the lead?  Yes, but only because it would have been a nice change.

The lead character of Light will be played by Nat Wolff (actor in Paper Towns), and his arch nemesis L will be played by Keith Stanfield.

Nat Wolff as Light Turner in the American adaptation.

Keith Stanfield as L.

There has already been a live action Japanese movie adaptation and a Japanese live action television show for Death Note.  And I understand that each adaptation is its own thing.  This takes place in America, so why not give it a fresh and new take?  I’m willing to give this movie a chance, but I share my reservations about this adaptation in another article I previously wrote seen here.  The only real reservations I have is whether or not the actors casted can do their complicated and dark characters justice.

Still, in a story like Death Note, I really don’t think a person’s ethnicity really matters.  There is some back lash over the fact that L is African American, but I actually find that to be refreshing and true to the American multicultural society.  It’s more important that the actors chosen really understand and accurately portray their characters. In Death Note, Light and L are incredibly complex and, in Light’s case, incredibly dark characters.  I have more reservations about Nat Wolff playing one of the most maniacal characters I have ever seen, and I hope he can pull it off.

For me, so long as they stay true to the story, which was so incredibly well done, and the characters are portrayed right then I will be happy.  In a way, I want to root for this cast to do well and prove everyone wrong because there was so much hate against them over this and I want a really good adaptation of Death Note.  And the picture below gives me a little more confidence in Keith Stanfield as L as it seems to fit his character:

Scene shot taken from the live action American adaptation of Death Note.

This picture definitely has piqued my interest about this adaptation.  Now since my original article on the topic, there have been interesting developments for this adaptation.  Warner Brothers, the original backers of the project, backed out last minute.  I’m not entirely sure why and I don’t really want to put rumors out there, so I will leave it at that.

According to the Death Note IMDB page, Netflix has picked up the rights.  Lately, Netflix has been producing some incredibly good shows most notably Stranger Things.  This has me excited to see what will come of this.  I will only really be able to make a fair judgment call once a trailer hits.  Until then, I’m willing to have an open mind about this.

Naruto

Naruto is hands down one of my favorite animes of all time.  I love the story and the characters and the idea of seeing it come to life as a live action both excites me and terrifies me.  This is the one that I will most likely be the most critical of.  Not much is known  about this adaptation.  I wrote a full article on my thoughts about this here.  I won’t go into to much detail about what I think about this as I did in that article.

As of today, the Naruto live action movie is still in production as seen in the Naruto IMDB page.  We have a director (Michael Gracey), and a well known producer Avi Arad.  The really interesting thing about this is that Avi Arad also worked on the upcoming live action Ghost in the Shell movie that I mentioned earlier.¹  I will have to see how well Ghost in the Shell does.  Needless to say there are so many ways that a live action adaptation of Naruto could go wrong and very few ways that it could go right.  If Ghost in the Shell is as good as it looks, then there may be hope for Naruto.  (Fun fact, Avi Arad is also a producer for an adaptation of Metal Gear Solid as well).

Fullmetal Alchemist

I came across this live action adaptation for this one and I was, again, both excited and a little bit critical.  Check out the teaser trailer below:

Now, despite the fact that this is a Japanese manga and anime, Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the few animes (like Attack on Titan) where you could get away with casting European or American actors and actresses.  This is not the route they took as it has all Japanese actors and actresses, but it has a European looking setting that the anime is known for and the European names like Edward Elric.  Check out it’s IMDB page here.

After watching the teaser, I’m not sure how I feel about it.  One the one hand, it is only a teaser so there is not much we can get from it, and some of the effects look kind of cool, and some look like they are CGI. Plus the cinematography looks very close to the cinematography of the Japanese live action adaptation of Attack on Titan which makes me a little nervous.  Attack on Titan looked kind of cool in the trailer, but some of the scenes still looked CGI in the movie and they changed major things in the story and with the characters.

I hope this is not the case for Fullmetal Alchemist as the story is so good.  This is another anime that I absolutely love and I would hate for it to be butchered.  I will have to wait for a full length trailer to get a better idea for this adaptation before I say whether or not I like it.  I will give this one a chance just because I love the anime so much.

Bleach

Bleach was one of the first animes I really binge watched.  I love the story, the character designs and the world that fans are immersed in in Bleach.  It has a live action stage play, but now it will have a live action movie as well.  Check out the IMDB page here.

So far there isn’t much out there about this film.  It is still in the in development phase which could take years, but this may not be the case for this.  According to the anime news network (whose source was the Shonen Jump magazine), Bleach live action movie will be out some time in 2018 and has casted Japanese actor Sōta Fukushi as the lead role of Ichigo Kurosaki.²

Sota Fukushi as Ichigo Kurosaki.

Now this is one anime that I wholeheartedly want to have a full Japanese cast.  I can’t see it any other way actually and I’m glad they are going that route.  I’m excited to see who the other cast members will be and what route they will take.  There have been some set shots leaked for this movie, but I think it is way too early to make a judgment call on this movie based off of those types of pictures.  When more information is known, I will be sure to post up something for this as I have my eye on this adaptation as well.

Overall, it looks as if the next few years we will be seeing a flurry of live action adaptations of major anime franchises.  This makes me a little nervous as I don’t really want the anime world to be plundered and those stories butchered. On the other hand, I would love to see good live action versions of these animes and I would love to have their stories introduced to whole new audiences that would have never heard of them otherwise.

1.) Avi Arad IMDB page

2.) Anime News Network article