Live-Action Anime: The Key to Faithful Adaptations
Nat Wolff - Death Note/Netflix (2017) and Tatsuya Fujiwara - Death Note (2006)
There has been a recurring opinion amongst fans of anime series that the live-action adaptations of their beloved shows are often disappointing and bad. Anime, for the purpose of this article, refers to animated series produced in Japan, which includes works that are later distributed internationally. In the United States, anime has become an immense force in the entertainment field, with an estimated $26.89 billion market size in 2022. The release of anime films in this past year has proven that the medium has strong foundations in the US already, with Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and One Piece Film Red both topping their opening weekend box offices, despite competing with other American fields. If anime is so popular in America in addition to Japan, why have their live-action adaptations been so poorly received?
Fans have pointed to a myriad of reasons why live-action adaptations often fall flat. These can include poor visuals, disjointed dialogue translations, and even the alteration of major plot points and characterization. However, one of the lesser-acknowledged reasons for weak anime adaptations lies behind the screen. The anime adaptations that American audiences are more familiar with are created by Western production studios and play a major role in why these iterations of popular shows are less favorably received than their source material. When anime series is adapted for Western audiences, there’s a strong lack of Asian American and Pacific Islander inclusion behind the screen which weakens the strength of the product. The craft of anime production has evolved over time in Japan, becoming an intertwined aspect of their culture. The interconnectedness that anime has with Japanese culture is an integral aspect of the medium’s charm, so a lack of understanding from the production side often leads to lackluster products.
To get an understanding of this, one can look at two popular anime that have received live-action adaptations: Death Note and Cowboy Bebop. Both original shows are critically acclaimed, while their live-action Western adaptations fall flat.
Death Note and Cowboy Bebop
Death Note is one of the most popular anime of all time. The series follows the cat-and-mouse game between Light Yagami and L. Light is a high school student that found the titular Death Note, a book let’s kills anyone whose name is written inside of it and uses it to become Kira: a mysterious figure that kills criminals and threatens people outside the bounds of the justice system to create “peace” in the world. L is considered the greatest detective and focuses his efforts on finding the enigmatic Kira.
The American adaptation of this series was a crime thriller produced by Netflix in 2017 and sets the story in Seattle, Washington rather than Japan. The adaptation was received poorly, with an audience score of 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie featured no AAPI directors or screenplay writers, though the original authors Tsugumi Ôba and Takeshi Obata received credits for the source material.
Cowboy Bebop is one of the most critically acclaimed anime, premiering in 1998 and followed the adventures of a space-traveling group of misfit bounty hunters, combining genres like Westerns, science-fiction, and noir films in one series.
Netflix also produced the live-action adaptation of this series which was released in December 2021 but was canceled after its singular season. The series garnered higher ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 46% Tomatometer rating and a 60% average audience score, but its failure to secure a second season is a strong indicator of its reception. Similar to Death Note (2017), there were no AAPI involved in the directing or producing of the adaptation, with very limited contributions to the writing.
It would be a disservice to these works to cite the lack of AAPI representation in production as the sole, or even primary, reason for their less-than-stellar receptions. In fact, the pursuit of a more globalized version of Death Note was director Adam Wingard’s driving reasoning behind his casting and writing choices. However, the lack of critical acclaim and commercial success following these adaptations makes fans wary, hesitant, and, at times, perpetually pessimistic about live-action adaptations. Many viewers would even go so far as to dissuade production companies from even pursuing live-action versions of anime because they have historically been so unsuccessful. So, what can fans of anime who hope to see a wider range of mediums for these works of fiction hope for?
The Alternative?
The alternative option for these live-action adaptations is often just to avoid adapting anime series in general, however, that does not need to be the case. There’s a simple idea that has not received much traction so far: distribute live-action anime adaptations made in Japan to international audiences.
Live-action adaptations of anime that are produced in Japan are noted to be more authentic to the source material and consistently receive greater critical acclaim. This can be seen in adaptations of the same source material. Compare the scores of the Western Death Note vs. the Japanese live-action Death Note: the former has a 23% audience score on RT, whereas the older live-action version received an 82% audience score. Both have the same source material, yet the reception was vastly different. In fact, there have been a far greater number of Japanese live-action versions of anime to receive positive reviews, as they are often considered positive additions to the franchise rather than detrimental products. However, these are produced in Japan, making distribution to international audiences the next question.
There have historically been low levels of distribution of international and foreign language media in the United States. Even with the immense buying power of anime today, the immense spike in popularity came after the boom in streaming services and years after it had already become a staple of Japanese media. For a long time, anime was seen as a niche interest in the US, with only notable exceptions hitting the mainstream. It’s a similar phenomenon to association football/soccer, which has a smaller following in the US, but hits mainstream consciousness when the World Cup occurs.
In addition to distribution obstacles, American audiences have only recently engaged with translated works in the mainstream. Parasite won a bevy of film awards and Squid Games has become one of the most streamed, most popular series on Netflix, with both being international productions that needed subtitles or audio dub for American audiences. Both Parasite and Squid Games were produced in Korea and distributed in the US, to great critical and commercial acclaim. Live-action anime adaptations should follow suit and take the Japanese productions and simply distribute them to Western audiences, which would bring a more authentic version of the product to a wider range of audiences and to more favorable receptions.
The Future
Regardless of which medium, adaptations of one source of fiction into another format face the scrutiny of fans loyal to the original source. Accurate and honest representation in media has been on an upswing in recent years, which is an encouraging sign for anime fans in search of adaptations more closely connected with the spirit of the original show. The upcoming live-action One Piece adaptation on Netflix has had higher hopes attached to it because the original author of the manga, Eiichirô Oda, is playing an integral role as an executive producer. Fans looking forward to live-action versions of their favorite series should pay attention to the names behind the production of these adaptations to get a clearer gauge of the authenticity that edition will bring.
