Cowboy Bebop Just Isn't The Same 

"You are black, and you are male!" I can't believe someone wrote that line. I can't believe someone approved that line. I can't believe someone delivered that line.

It was kinda weird that they started the series off with an action scene but I noticed that it’s based off of the corner store scene of the cowboy bebop movie in 2001

I would have added a bit on Edge of Tomorrow which is an adaptation of All You Need is Kill. It follows your three rules and nails the anime feel without being derivative.

I feel you could take a screen shot from any moment in the anime and have a bad ass wall paper. I remember a guy I worked with actually had a scene from the first episode where Spike is smoking naked tatooed on his stomach. This was before I binged the series so I was kinda a bit weirded out why he'd get a scend inked on himself, but after watching the anime in full I completely understand lol.

Idk why more studios don't make live action adaptations of slice of life anime. I feel like that would be the easiest way to hit a home run. Imagine a live action adaptation of Your Lie in April or March Comes In like a Lion. One is a show about a boy who plays piano and a girl who plays violin and the other is about a kid whos a really good chess player. I think they'd be excellent because they don't have to worry about the crazy over-the-top action or magic most other shows commonly have.

I didn't watch the new adaptation, purely because I knew it was going to be shit and I didn't want to subject myself to it. Seeing it broken down like this, scene by scene and compared to the original just highlights how shitty it really is, and how much the creators miss the mark on most if not all aspects.

Finished the Video! It was great dude. -Couple other things, If I remember correctly, in the original anime series Faye wasn't a bounty hunter until she joined the bebop. She was a con artist, gambling addict and Femme fatale before she met the crew but she was not a Bounty hunter. -And what you state about the series look cheap, but not cheap and how everything is obviously a set I noticed also. Uncanny valley of set and costume design, especially with the cars that really bugs me. In the series almost every car was replaced with a space craft, the fact that characters get in cars and drive around really sells the "cosplay" ness of the show. -Also the fact that John Cho is the eldest of the trio completely erases the idea that Jet Black was kind of a father figure. Due to the outrage after Angelina Jolie, a white woman being cast to play Motoko Kusanagi an obvious Japanese woman, I wouldn't be surprised if they sent out a casting call for only Asian Americans to audition for the role of spike Spiegel. -When Vicious and Julia showed up it was rare and a occasion. Vicious only appears in 5 episodes, and all of those episodes are extremely important and impactful. Havin Julia and Vicious show up every episode downplays their importance I guess. I Dunno the fact the show up every episode makes the duo just seem like villain of the week stuff

Can we state how disrespectful they were to gren? A gay POW veteran in the anime got turned into a Flamboyant gay crossdresser stereotype or whatever. Its kind of insulting conisdering that gren was only hinted to be gay. I showed my sister the entire 26 episode run and she loved it, we watched 10 minutes of the 1st episode and she went ew. I consider Cowboy Bebop to one of the few anime series that could be done in live action if done well, others in this group are Black Lagoon, Wangan Midnight, Inital D, Speed racer, Ghost in the Shell Lupin the third and maybe Trigun. Last thing I wanna say, and I told this to my cousin as well, if you adapt an anime EXACTLY to the source material the characters can come off as cringy, meanwhile if you try and fit them into the real world people will get angry at you.

Alita: Battle Angel remains the only anime adaptation I think is actually Very Good. Ghost in the Shell was at least not bad, just kinda okay. Inoffensive (depending on who you ask). Then you have your Death Notes where yeah it's much worse than the original but kinda does its own thing and isn't complete shit (and is only like two hours). Then you have your Bebopflix which is a step above DBZ Evolution to me.

I love that you brought up the Matrix, as the creators of that made a great(to me) live action adaptation after making that. Speed Racer managed to add more depth to the characters, better action and racing, all while staying true to the anime.

This show is a sin to mankind, but how they ''subverted'' the Ballad of Fallen Angels scene and pretty much ass-fucked it entirely, it almost put me in a comatose state how baffling the entire show was. As I was watching this shit-piece, my first overall thought was of ''dragged on, bland, unnecessary, toneless'', but more and more I watched it, the bigger the disdain I held towards it and the ending just made me despise it completely.

Why all keep forgetting the Rurouni Kenshin live action movies? Those are simply perfect. Netflix's Cowboy Bebop it literally the "Netflix adaptation" meme, and it sucks.

Bro you earned my sub for not only an amazing video, but also the fact that you are actively in this comment section, liking and and replying to people, almost a year after poster. Also amazing come up, hearing you say here that you had 80 subs is mind bending.

Now that you mention it, I actually saw this show one time when I was very young. It was late at night so I had no idea what was going on. But the image of the ship getting eviscerated was ingrained into my head, along with Spike's design. I never even knew the name, or what anime even was back then. But seeing the episode being described to me unlocked an old old old memory I forgot I even had. I was so sleepy and had no clue what this show was even about (I only really watched shows like SpongeBob at the time, and I couldn't pay attention long enough to grasp deeper plots) so it all felt like a dream. I'm pretty sure I did dream about that one scene that night. I have a tendency to dream while my brain acts like I'm still awake (it's pretty trippy). This video was something I didn't even know I needed. Thanks.

Just discovered your channel yesterday, nice work! Would totally watch a live adaptation of Monster!

i’ll forever be holding the flag for the 2008 speed racer movie. as someone who grew up on the original and still loves it despite its…. datedness… i think it really is the perfect adaptation. they literally made the live action more anime than the actual anime. granted speed racer might be an easier adaptation because the source material was a lot older, simpler, and didn’t have some complex plot, so there was more room to go crazy. but still, that movie is one of my fave of all time and the casting was PHENOMENAL

The "Don't make a direct adaptation" is so true that is the reason why super hero movies worked. Since you have a shit ton of chronology bullshit in the comics, it just doesn't work to, for example, make a Superman movie by adapting the first numbers of Action Comics. So what they do? They blend together lots of important parts of the originals and create a more or less new story, yet still being an adaptation. The Dark Night, Spiderman 2, Infinity War, 70s Superman, they're all movies that you can't pinpoint a single comic and say "They're adapting this", they're actually adapting a bunch of stuff at the same time while inventing new things.

Great video, thoughtful breakdown. I’m enjoying the content man, keep up the great work, glad to see you’ve doubled in subs since I first found you a few days ago! 👍🏻

OMG When you said Death Note Live action was bad all I could think was WTH you talking about it was great. Then you play a clip and I was like OHHHHH "That one" Because I had forgotten Netflix made an adaptation. I was thinking of the Japanese Live Action Death Note. The problem with a lot of adaptations is they get Americanized which destroys part of their appeal. Since Anime comes from a completely different culture they have their own views, norms, cultural references, and so on. As someone who actually enjoys media from other cultures, like British TV & Comedy, it pisses me off to see some of those shows get Americanized.

Best thing that came from this adaptation was getting to watch everyone on RU-vid shit on it. Good video man, subbed.

Great video! You have me sold on having you be on the team of netflix executives that want to do an anime adaptation lol

The dragon ball live action made me cringe. My hubby and I were completely disappointed. I want to rewatch cowboy bebop anime. It was one of my favorites in my high school years.

Edge of Tomorrow is another rare quality adaptation. It wasn't a complete rewrite but it was changed in ways that made it better for a live action US viewing audience.

Those Asian guys doing the JoJo parody is hilarious 😆

Your section on tone was my first thought when I saw the trailers, but I didn't quite realize it back then. There's very few scenes from the anime that I remember as "bright" or "upbeat." There's a lot of understated tones, faded colors, even in the sunlight. The sets and color palette in the live action one is too high contrast, to bright, like it assaults your eyes. And Bebop could be totally whacky sometimes, especially when it comes to ED, but it's... you know, an anime. But the moments and scenes I remember the most are the ones where people are just smoking, or talking about life, regrets. Long, slow shots. There was also probably no way to cast Spike 'correctly.' That character design has so much Leg, and because it's an anime, and specifically one set to jazz, his movements can pause, he move off beat, like he's dancing. Just no way to pull that off in live action, not even sure why the tried.

Really well reviewed! You need more viewers!!

This was such a good breakdown! i just stumbled upon your channel today and watched a few vids and was blown away by the quality. Keep up the good work!

I would like to point out that it actually took a really long time for super hero movies (marvel, DC, image comics) to be taken seriously in a live action format. Hollywood and other media creators in the west haven't really figured out how popular anime actually is. That's why we have only just tasted getting a variety of quality Anime style Games in the past few years. Also why doesn't anyone ever mention Blood the last vampire when talking about live action anime?

Another banger on this channel keep up the good work man

This was awesome ; subscribed!

I will make a good bebop live action someday. I will reference this video if it works out. fingers crossed

I made the mistake of having Cowboy Bebop be the first anime series I watched. Nothing has ever and I have no faith that anything will ever come close to it.

Lextorias, "Today I'd rather watch Sponge Bob than most shows." That's probably because most shows are written by children for children with less intellectual depth than the kids show written a decade or two ago. Thus they stand the test of time while more modern shows are already on their way out before release.

"You can be in an existential depression and this opener will make you want to go out and commit space crime." Inaccurate. I don't need my crime to be space related at all.

Let me elaborate since that first posting was a little weird I think the level research to do is extremely informative and that's what I like out of a documentary you're editing and the way you panning in pen out and do different things it definitely keeps it interesting I also can't see very good and I definitely can't read this writing so I hope that it's not bastardized or typo it or miss printed by my voice memo what do you call voice dictation so in short brother please keep making your good quality documentaries about stuff that I actually care about and I found it interesting thank you

Live action gave Katerina backstory about being from some famous family & I was hoping it could have been a new, unique storyline. Good adaptations are the Rurouni Kenshin movies. With the pandemic, I got into slice of life anime like K-on, Super Cub & Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater. Crazy as it sounds, the low key nature of these series & the fact that they don't have any outlandish anime tendencies might make them possible candidates for adaptation, but slice of life is a niche that most don't go for.

You just got another subscriber, thanks for being great

Bro you need to keep making videos definitely have a bright future I love watching all your videos not to sound creepy

the Initial-D live adaptation was too Good!

great vid

I think a straight adaptation is a good idea, because the point of a live action adaptation isn’t to appease the fans of the original anime, it’s to introduce the franchise to an audience that would never have watched the original anime in the first place.

Radical Edward was my favorite character in Cowboy Bebop and Netflix did her so dirty, I was outraged. Her saying Spike's name in the show reminded me of Chunk from the Goonies yelling, "HEY YOU GUYS!!"

Netflix cowboy bebop reminds me of a soap opera show, the way it looks, dialogue, and in plot, especially in scenes with vicious

ive just began watching cow boy bebop and i never knew that song was from this anime. ive heard it a lot and i didnt know it came from the show

I feel like, since anime are so stylised, you have to "destylise" them to work as live action. The sets need more dirt, some colours need to be washed out, and you need to add all the little details the anime left out. A lot of anime draw inspirations from classic movies, so you can take the inspiration directly, rather than going through the anime. Think about how the original writers and creators made the anime!

I've not watched Cowboy Bebop, the anime or the Netflix adaptation, I wanna watch the adaptation and then the OG, as I've planned to for a while for something you said: "The show was fun when I forgot it was an adaptation". I think that as fans of content, we all hold our favourite shows to a level of love that far surpasses what most people outside of those group care about. I had this thought a good while ago, my memory is cloudy, but, my introduction to anime essentially stems from the Death Note live action movies. I recall watching the Death Note live-action movies one stupidly late night during the school holidays, and then wanting to rewatch them a while later, and wasn't 100% sure of what it was and ended up grabbing the LAs and the Anime. The movies were actually pretty darn well done considering the budget and the medium, while Ryuk looked stupidly gamey, It really had no impact given that even top end CGI wasn't super amazing at that point in time but overall, remained pretty faithful towards what it was adapting. It always amazed me as to how wrong the netflix adaptation was, but, I had it in my mind towards what I'd say to somebody who asked me about it, and the best conclusion I could come up with was a level of "If you've never watched the OGs, it's a mediocre but acceptable story", and, that's partially what I want to test with Bebop. When it comes to Netflix's Death Note, I wasn't annoyed at the show for being bad, don't get me wrong, it wasn't amazing but I don't think it was all that bad either, but I was more annoyed at their mangling of the characters and general detraction from the plot into something I can only describe as for "a modern day (American) audience". Ryuk, who probably should have been in there more, was probably the best part of the characters. I feel that they misinterpreted L and kinda babified him emotionally, and then you get to light/"misa"... For their relationship, I feel that they americanised it far too much, they turned light from I can only describe as a diabolical genius into somebody who at the beginning was seemingly supposed to be a nerd, but then turned out to just be average? and then "Misa" was turned into what felt like the one who was actually dragging Light; I think it's fair to say that the character trope that Misa enveloped probably isn't as acceptable of a trope these days, but I feel that they too heavily 180'd her character in a way that just made little sense to me in terms of wanting to watch a retelling of a piece of media I adored. I think that adaptations are a huge trap, for fans and studios. The most vocal people coming to see these adaptations will be fans of the original, and many people will be offput by the fact that it's an adaptation of a form of medium, and you're gonna be judged harshly when you return something which has been adjusted for a different culture. and that's before you get into some of the common "in medium only" type stuff. I think adaptations are doable, but, only in a really grounded sense, and pretty much never "for the fans".

Quite frankly you're such a good storyteller and narrator that I'm watching videos about topics that normally would never interest me. Fascinating

What app do you use for editing

Edge of Tommorrow with Tom Cruize is the best live action anime

This video is going to make me watch the show before finishing this video. Ive been meaning to, but i think you've sold me during the runthrough of the first episode

Youre so smart, thanks for youre opinion. And realy funny at the best moments :D Did learn Something from you. Sorry english isnt my nativ language.

Live action Gantz and Ruroni Kenshin get no love

That got it right back in the day the magnificent 7 was a Japanese film and then adapted to a western!

Thank you! Thank you so much for talking about the wrong tone! They could have made this amazing just by leaning into the dark tone.

Y´know, I grew INTO Anime just one or two ys ago, One Piece did it for me. The fun for me is: the show took 20ys to go somewhere and now I love it. All the characters are fully developed and now they presented Dr. Vegapunk, that eerie name finally has a face. And what a face. And he begged the Strawhats for help. The Movie Cowboy Bebop was a standalone to me, like Akira. Now I´m old enough to enjoy that layer cake that´s Anime to me.

Honestly none of them felt like the characters..and Ed was the cringey one

A bit like you I remember enjoying live action Cowboy Bebop more than most seemed to, but by the end its unwillingness to make it its own thing just hurt the production. Diehards for the original would not be on board with the changes and newbies would probably sense that they're missing something since so much of the show leans so heavily on cues (the producers expect people to recognize) from the source material. Somewhat morbid curiosity does make me wonder where they would have gone with the series if they got picked up, but the pessimist in me feels like it's probably for the best that that wasn't going to happen

The one I hear no one mentioning is Monster by Urasawa Naoki. Would be able to do an almost 1:1 live action remake.

You should watch the 2008 Speed Racer live-action movie and give you're an honest review on it. I'm pretty sure it would make a good video for you, something like "Was the 2008 Speed Racer movie actually bad?" Since the movie did so poorly upon release, and despite the faults the movie may have, they did plenty of stuff good that would definitely warrant an argument on whether the movie was actually good or not. I think it would make for a great video. You're probably not going to see this comment since this video is pretty old now, But I really hope you do.

I believe the creators of the Matrix said they were inspired by Ghost in the Shell. Thought that was pretty cool and can see elements from the anime in it.

80 subscribers... look at you now!

Easily in the first 5 seconds and you've already made a mistake. "I just watched the live action remake of Cowboy Bebop."

Death Note live action could have been good. It wasn't, but I don't think the source is unable to make a good live action retelling. Edit: Also, I feel similarly about Ghost in the Shell. Of live action remakes, it's actually one of the better ones imo; but it, like many others, feel tonally different. I feel like Lextorias is sometimes a bit overly fan of anime, in a way that seems to come in a zero-sum format with other entertainment. Because of this, the aesthetics and general existence of live action anime will be unlikely to ever meet his preference for the original. It's the same thing that happens with people who read the books to things; despite the fact that Lord of the Rings was objectively better than the books. I'll die on that particular hill. Also he seems to have overlooked a huge reason for making live action adaptations of the original stories: not everyone likes the aesthetic of anime. I know, it's probably blasphemy to his ears, but my fiance is a great example. She really can't get into most anime due to an intense "anime" aesthetic that is often unenjoyable. She liked Psychopass and all 25 episodes of Death Note.

33:00 American Psycho felt like a live action anime as well, and a great one at that

I just want to say despite Dragonball Evolution, we've had the perfect live action format for a Dragonball movie. Kung Fu Hustle

my biggest problem with the show was the clashing aesthetics. like jets flies this futuristic spaceship all around the universe but when he goes to visit his daughter the mom lives in like a suburban house. or like there is a dingy bar playing jazz and there is some guy on stage wearing a graphic tshirt and jeans

I would be genuinely interested to see how you feel about the One Piece anime adaptation because I think it's a pretty good example of a silly, over the top anime turned into a pretty successful live action show. (I have been told) the show plays out pretty close to the anime as far as story is concerned, but I haven't seen the anime so I can't confirm.

The first episode of Cowboy Bebop is something special, moreso than the series itself or the movie because of how absurdly well done it is on all points: as an anime, as an action show, as a space western...

You mention center frame shots. Combined with the over saturated colours, it almost looks like they wanted to copy the Wes Anderson aesthetics, without having the skill and flair of Wes Anderson, in addition to the show simply not being suitable for that sort of approach. I tend to agree with you. There were moments when the live action show was pretty decent. To me, it was like you point out, the moments when it does it's own thing, but there were also some moments when it almost got it right. Specific scenes where I got that feeling of "Yep, this is what it COULD have been like." But in the end, it was just...very mediocre. As for Battle Angel Alita... The manga is fucking weird. It leans HEAVILY into the really, really, strange side of manga, where the rule of cool reigns heavy, and if those "cool" things don't hit you, it just doesn't work. And the manga is also a LOT more pervy than the live action movie. In fact, this one to me, was one where I felt the live action adaptation was a better end product than the manga.

Netflix really screwed this show. Something that didn't have to be remade live-action. It was a mess all around

24:24 the pyro meme😂😂

I personally feel no live action anime adaption can ever work for the same reason Berserk can't be adapted (at least for fans of the original) - the change in medium/story-conveyance vehicle, no matter how good, can't ever reproduce the atmosphere and tone that the original had (at least for visual->visual media; book->visual faces a lot fewer in-built issues). This is for a variety of reasons such as level of detail getting wildly more expensive/difficult to execute with the change in medium for the same level of fidelity/believability (good costumes are harder to produce than to draw/animate; fights are easier to key-frame to perfection by drawing/animating than by having humans take on poses that accentuate form/figure over function (see JoJo's posing mid-fight while actual fighters would never); creature design and world building is more uniform for drawings than CGI blending with real life; etc etc) This isn't even considering the weight of fan expectations and the hype generated by fans thinking they're getting more of the thing they love, or strangers expecting the content to be markedly better than a random new IP ("it obviously wouldn't get an adaption if the original thing wasn't any good"). For anyone invested in a story, the best you can do is provide them with extra content around the core story they love - there's no way to replace or reproduce the thing they love because not even they know why they love it so they can't ever verbalise what issues the adaption has. Live action adaptations are an uphill battle with near unwinnable odds stacked against you - I'd love for someone to beat the odds but dear god is each attempt painful to see

jin roh wolf brigade is a good korean live action of the same name anime movie. only its been adjusted for modern times. i enjoyed it.

mm.. yeah, i can see why you wouldnt like it, personally i loved it, loved everything about it honestly, if i could watch the anime as well, i absolutely would, but i love the live action, wish itd come back.

"I had the most fun with this show when i forgot it was supposed to be a cowboy bebop rip" This sentence singlehandedly describes why i despise reboots or anything advertized as one. Adaptations are always going to be in this wierd area but its the same there. If the show is going to bank itself and want you to compare to the original positively in order to con you to buy it, then its a HUGE double standard to judge it on its own merits in a critical way. In general this is an issue about accessibility. You can flame war all you want about subs vs dubs but more good dubs is often a good compromise if you arent a dumbass who thinks that animation is for children or idiots only(which, obviously, enough people in the west do that the closest we get to adult animation is adult swim, and often not even somewhat decent stylized animation.) In general the worst adaptation i can think of isnt even anime. Artemis fowl was absolutely BUTCHERED because any sort of risky play like even suggesting that the main character could be bad in some way was unthinkable to disney executives. They fucked up so bad that i had to remind myself that fucking SNYDER made a guardians of gahoole movie and made reasonable decisions on how to make it self contained. But then again, this is disney, where they wanted an adaptation of a terry pratchett book where the literal grim reaper was a central plot thread and ended up scrapping the project when they wanted to remove the grim reaper... you know... in a book exploring his home, family, job, entire philosophy, and the fact that his apprentice wanted to battle him to the death because he fucked up his first job alone.

if you still like to watch anime, try first season on "Black lagoon" second is quite nice but hastly done and s3 i dunno what they did. also on bad adaptations, avatar the last airbender. that´s just a joke

I love your callout on the conclusion to watch Dragon Ball evolution. I onehundred percent intended to do that after this😅

gimme black lagoon with some John Wick inspired action scenes. Plus you've got some of the best written women in anime to date

Stick with it, you have a good perspective.

Hearing the music excites me

Damn. Now I feel like watching Firefly and Serenity again

I never expect a Hollywood show to be the same as the book. They just have to mess it up somehow. Insert "live-action" for "Hollywood" and "anime" or "manga" in place of "book", and there you go.

Cowboy Bebop live action needed to be made in the late '90s. It is simply too mature. Visually and artistically (especially visually), Bebop is a product of its time in the most "fine aged wine" way possible. Also, I knew live action Bebop was going to be total sh*t (just from the clips shown here) when I saw the airsoft guns and cgi muzzle flare. They couldn't even get the co2 powered ones where the slide moves. People who didn't understand anything about the original were clearly in charge.

Ey ou this really reminds me of the Great pretender.

1. Understand what made the original good, don't overlook details like tone, genre/tropes/inspirations, character drama, artistry like cinematography, music and color etc. 2. understand why many of those wouldn't work in live action 3. if you can spot something that the original did NOt do well and you start thinking: "you know, this could work better in a different medium, congrats, you've caught on to an excuse to make the show in the first place. But you'll have to change things in adaptation to add things that utilizes the format and drop things that don't work in the format either way. An adaptation has to work as its own thing. 4. You can't and shouldn't ever stay 100% true to the source. You must, however, stay true to the invent and spirit of the source. (Eg. maybe pink-hair with a robot arm would look silly on a real actor, but you can add other design choices to express the idea that the character is "cool" "tryhard" "seductive" "youthful" "grizzled" "astute" practical" "crazy" etc.) It's possible to completely change the story to one that still expresses the same general idea.

Jet was spot on.

I think I see what they were going for as far as art design, and it might not have been a bad idea with different source material but it just doesn’t work well with the noir aesthetic of the anime. Watching the show in terms of design, color, costumes, etc it reminded me of the design treatment of the 1990 Dick Tracy movie adaptation. Both end up missing the feel of the original medium by trying to too closely mimic the tone of the original. But yes, it was horrible and I gave up after three episodes. And every episode felt like I was watching Dick Tracy.

What is the main problem with the show was that it didn’t either stay close enough tone wise to the original so you have these moments I kind of feel like you’re in this light TV, novella soap opera, and then these moments that I like the anime. I think if they had Leaned into the soap opera vibes more it woulda gone better

I can't remember who did a video about "it's a good game, but a bad ________ game". But I think your perspective helps validate that statement. It's not fair to a lot of things that it can't be "a ______ thing" just because it does something different, but our perceptions and expectations can dictate otherwise.

k I watched all of your vids. What do I do now

Finally I round Simeone with the same theory. She Made dure of ir.

If you ever haven't, watch the UA:LA pilot. It's an amazing adaptation that captures the spirit of anime in terms of action, narrative framing and shot composition without looking like Dragonball Evolution

From the moment that opening music hit I knew Cowboy Bebop was something special, still at the top of my list! In regards to the netflix show--you nailed it with Vicious, I rapidly lost interest as soon as they over showed him and Julia. Their casting and changes were horrible.

I felt myself enjoy this a lot more just because it's so much better in comparison with all of Netflix's prior adaptations lmao

I really enjoyed the cheap look of the sets and costumes, though I would prefer a much more polished and serious take, like The Mandalorian.

Theres a show named coyboy bebop on netflix and it looks completly diffrent to what im seeing here, the other was was garbage so i just assumed. I'll check it out

You know what they should've done? Instead of trying to tackle the insne task of adapting Cowboy Bepop, arguably THE BEST anime to this day, they could've done Space Dandy. It would've fit the goofier tone a lot more and would've opened up more avenues for writing episodes with its more episodic nature. A lot more flashy too, and a lot closer to something Westerners are familliar with, like Star Wars.

For me, personally, none of the main anime characters in any anime really come across as 'Japanese'. Dragonball Evolution for example, I wasn't bothered by the casting for Goku as much as I was bothered by how the movie was handle. So I agree with the commentary about Spike, he didn't look like Spike at all to me but that wasn't the thing that was off putting, it was how he didn't really act like Spike, or as mentioned, how the theme of Spike and the show was treated.

I love Kakeguri, but as a live action show it's just not the same. The girl playing the main character can't channel her at all

The only live action adaptation that I liked better than the anime is Erased, maybe because it's almost one to one adaptation of the manga