Not Another Live-Action

    We read a while back that they’re making a live-action adaptation of the hit anime movie “Your Name” by Makoto Shinkai, and all we can think is “Hollywood why are you doing this to us?” Why mess with a good thing?  We’re seriously getting sick and tired of Hollywood taking something phenomenal and deciding to remake it just so they can put their own spin on it. One could almost assume that this is happening because Your Name is now officially the highest-grossing anime film worldwide, having beaten out Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away who’s held the record since 2001.
   
    We hope for the sake of the fans that the studio’s motives are driven by more than just the prospect of the monetary gain, because we’d hate to be stuck with another Dragonball Evolution.  We also hope that they understand that just because something does extremely well elsewhere that it does not mean that that success will carry over to here. There’s so many cultural and psychological aspects that determines whether a film adaptation or remake will do well. Unfortunately not all films are universal, and what we mean by this is that each country and culture has a set of traditions, superstitions, references, practices, etc, that elsewhere would seem baffling, but that in those countries would be a key motive or driving factor in the story. If the studios keep this in mind and are able to explain these key aspects in a way that someone not familiar with the culture would get it, then maybe we have a chance of getting something decent.  Now to say that Anime to Live-Action adaptations have a poor track record is a bit of an understatement. The first time we heard that they were making an Akira and a Cowboy Bebop Live-Action adaptation it sent chills down our spines. Never have the words “stuck in production Hell” been so comforting.  We can’t personally say we know of anyone who has been content with these adaptations. Netflix’s Death Note being the one we’ve heard the most complaints about recently.

    If we were to tackle this solely from an animated to live-action angle then we’d have to say that going from a live-action film to an animated one is fine, but going from an animated film to a live-action one is not. The main reason we feel this way is because anime deals with unrealistic scenarios and visuals. The beauty of animation is that the worlds, and character, and stories are not bound by the limits of reality. We see this constantly pointed out in movies such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and SpaceJam where animation and live-action collide. There’s a great example of this in SpaceJam when Michael Jordan, after witnessing something preposterous happen, asked Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to explain how this is possible and Daffy Duck replies “No sweat this is Looney Toon Land” implying that anything is feasible.

    Another great example of this would be the use of the famous expression “When pigs fly”, people use this when talking about something unlikely or impossible. In reality pigs flying is unrealistic, but say that to Studio Ghibli and they would reply with Porco Rosso. So there you have it folks, the reason why some film mediums shouldn’t crossover. Even the Disney movie Enchanted, while mostly poking fun at its princess movies, also tongue-in-cheek mocks the difference between animated and live-action films. Which is ironic since Disney is now creating live-action versions of most of their animated classics.

    We can understand that they’re perhaps trying to change certain things about the originals that people found offensive or unrealistic, and to modernize them. While we appreciated the different take in Maleficent, with them focusing more on the love between a mother and daughter as opposed to the love at first sight between the prince and princess that we typically see, and then them pushing the feminist agenda in The Beauty and the Beast, as fans of the originals it was still weird seeing them as live-actions, and honestly we would just prefer that they continue to focus on their animated movies, and modernize the themes there like they did in Frozen and Moana.

    Another thing that many fans complain about in regards to live-action adaptations is the fact that studios will try to cram 50+ episodes into 2 hours. Most anime is already a condensed version of a manga, to then condense it even further into a feature film means that many plot lines & backstories get axed or are never fully explained, leaving fans disappointed and those new to the series confused. This is why many people are feeling apprehensive after finding out that they are working on a Naruto adaptation. The Naruto animated Tv series has 220 episodes and that’s not even counting the sequel Naruto Shippuden which is 500 episodes long. One has to hope that they’re planning on spreading the story out into more than one film. Even then the first film has to be good enough so that the other ones will get green lit or else we’ll have a repeat of the Avatar “The Last Airbender” movie debacle.

    Now anime to live-action adaptations are quite common in Japan, and actually tend to do well, but we can’t say they would do well here in North America. Even in the Japanese live-actions the characters look like they’re cosplaying, which makes sense since anime characters are made in such a way (Big eyes, unrealistic anatomical proportions, crazy hairstyles) that even though they are assumed to be Japanese they don’t actually look like someone who would fit anywhere in Japan, this might be a conscious decision on the creators’ part to remind the audience that what they are watching is fictional. Which is why in our opinion anime to live-action adaptations will never truly work here in North America, mainly because they aren’t believable.

    Anime is a part of Japanese culture, even if they’re not always supportive of the genre they’re used to it. Whereas here in North America anime is still a fairly unknown entity. Comic books on the other hand are a big part of our culture, which is why the Marvel movies have done so well. Just take the Avengers movies for example, which are comic book to live-action adaptations. The characters are created in such a way that they fit into our everyday world. Look at Iron Man for example, Tony Stark looks like an average person and it’s due to his great wealth, personality and family history that has enabled Iron Man to be realized. As a character he makes sense even if he’d only exist in an alternate reality of our own.  

    Everyone recognizes the names Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, or Peter Parker, but most won’t recognize the names Spike Spiegel, Major Motoko Kusanagi, or Shotaro Kaneda, and they’re not even trying to hide their identities.

    Like we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of cultural differences that make creating an american live-action adaptation of a Japanese anime difficult. We think it’s fair to say that most people who like anime are open to the Japanese culture, even going so far as calling themselves Otakus. Now the harsh reality of the american film industry is that they’re not always interested in outside cultures, which is why foreign movie remakes annoy us beyond belief.

    We’ve seen it with My Sassy Girl which is a remake of a Korean movie, and with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which was originally a Swedish movie, and now they’re making a remake of the French hit movie The Intouchables.  

    Our main problem with these Hollywood foreign movie remakes is that you are basically taking out the soul and quirks of a movie to insert your own feelings, scenarios and locations that are comfortable to you, but thats not the point. You’re taking out all the richness and spice, and leaving it bland. Which is probably why they don’t do as well at the american box offices. Unfortunately this also applies to anime to live-action adaptations.

    Finally we can’t talk about anime to live-action adaptations without mentioning the controversies that arise because of them. The biggest one recently being about Hollywood’s live-action adaptation of the popular anime classic Ghost in a Shell. The main criticism arose due to the casting of Scarlett Johansson as the lead role of Major Makoto Kusanagi.  This led many to accuse the studio of “Whitewashing”.  The majority of people who were upset by this were Asian-Americans and many people boycotted the movie on this principle alone.

    Now it was revealed that the director of the animated version of Ghost in a Shell, Mamoru Oshii saw absolutely no problem with the lead role being portrayed by a white actress, and thought that Scarlett Johansson would be perfect for it. It has also been noted that most people from Japan had no issue with this as well. You would think that that would put an end to the argument, unfortunately it didn’t. It brings back to mind that Kimono controversy at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2016. It’s interesting to note that most native Japanese people were not offended by the “Kimono Wednesdays” and were instead actually happy to see that the western world would be able to understand and embrace more of their culture. Which just goes to show you that this issue is much more complex then it seems. It could be because the sometimes overzealous PC police are wrongfully getting offended on the behalf of people who are not offended, or this stems from a deep rooted problem within America involving racism and the feelings of inequality of opportunity available to those of minority groups, or it could totally be something else, this really could be a whole other post on its own.          

    Another argument that crops up frequently on the internet is that Anime characters look more western than eastern, and therefore people don’t understand this whole “whitewashing” thing. Now before everyone loses their minds, we think it’s important to look back at the history of Anime. Animation has been well established in Japan since the 1930s, but it wasn’t until the manga artist Osamu Tezuka, known as the father of manga and creator of Astro Boy, developed the big eyes style that we are all familiar with today. The ironic part is that something that we all associate as a synonym of Japanese anime, was actually influenced by american animation. Tezuka was a huge fan of the Walt Disney films, spending hours redrawing the characters over and over again. Now if that is true than it is no surprise why people are constantly having this debate. Most of the western world has grown-up watching Walt Disney movies and is familiar with the trademark big eyes. Almost all of the characters in the princess movies are caucasian because most of the Disney stories are based off of European fairytales. This isn’t meant to be offensive, only factual. Now of course this doesn’t mean that anime characters are supposed to look western, the large eyes were mainly a style choice, and no one in Japan is in any doubt that the characters in anime, unless stated otherwise, are all Japanese.

    Now this causes some grumbles when it comes time to cast the live-action adaptations or when it comes to costuming and sets, we mean we all remember when the world went crazy about the Black Spiderman controversy involving Donald Glover; but we understand fans just wanting to watch a movie that stays true to the original, it is the details that count afterall. When we found out that the cast for the Beauty and the Beast’s live-action adaptation was predominately a British cast playing French characters we were pretty disappointed and confused by that choice. On their own we like many of the actors: Emma Watson, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Ewan McGregor, but not for this movie. There are many talented French actors who could have done a wonderful job, or at least if the English cast had done French accents and come across as being French. Lumiere is painful to listen to. The only reason for these big name UK stars could be because of what their names attached to this production would generate or maybe they felt that well they might be British but at least they’re European so close enough?

    When doing a remake it should be done with great care so that the new representation still respects not only the creators but also the fans, because the truth is fans are what keep the picture in motion. Fans will always find faults whenever their “favourites” (books, movies, shows) are concerned. If you can’t win over the fans, the picture isn’t likely to do well. So maybe the solution is that studios must either make sure that the team behind the movie are fans of the subject matter so that extra attention will be paid to these movies or they should just be avoided all together.

Even better go work on new stories Hollywood!

Stay Obsessed ~