Live-Action Anime RANKED 

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Best thing about DB Evolution is James Marsters, the actor of Piccolo, reading the manga to know what he's getting into, getting hella into it and would later become the VA for Zamasu

In regards to Alita: "That romance was probably better" Would you believe that it was actually worse?

The one positive thing about the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie: it was JUST good enough that I managed to convince my dad to watch Brotherhood. He doesn't like anime--hates the animation style wrt the extreme expressions and such, but the movie was juuuuuuuust enough to convince him, and Brotherhood was well-written enough to keep him hooked beyond his hang-ups.

The inclusion of Detective Pikachu makes me want to see you guys do a tier list of video games movies next. The amount of movie adaptations would probably be enough for a video double the length of this one at the very least.

I agree about Willam Dafoe - without CGI he still would've portrayed an amazing Ryuk

One thing I think you forgot about Chad's strength in Bleach was that at the start of the anime he couldn't see Hollows, but he was still absurdly strong. A steel girder falls on him and he shrugs it off. A motorcycle crashes into him and he walks to the Kurosaki clinic, I think to get help for the guy who crashed into him. He also managed to rip a power pole out of the ground and swing it at a Hollow he couldn't see.

Please Note: Netflix only produced American Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, & One Piece. Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Ruroni Kenshin, and all the others you see on there were only distributed by Netflix, they had nothing to do with the production.

Speed Racer is my go to Live-Action Anime Adapation. Genuinely loved it more than any Speed Racer episode.

Having never seen the AOT live action movie, my jaw literally dropped when Lani said that they KILLED MIKASA IN PLACE OF EREN'S MOM..... My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined. Real life was, indeed, a mistake.

36:23 Chi Chi McRoberts, who could forget... "SHUT UP MR. MCROBERTS!" - Lani, TFS Plays.

To be fair, Ichigo standing back up four times against Byakuya and then immediately getting stabbed in an incredibly long scene. In the manga this serves to show the contrast between the cold, ruthless nature of the Reapers and Ichigo’s fighting spirit.

Remember that Chad couldn't see spirit stuff for a while. The whole Rukia riding his back and pointing the way for him was great in the anime.

Should have made a new bottom tier for Last Airbender "Existence is pain"

On the whole, "The Major is supposed to be asian" debate, even the creator has to remind people that her SHELL was built to look like a caucasian supermodel. So while the movie still honks, her casting was lore accurate.

As a GitS fan, I'm fine with Scar Jo playing the Major. There are numerous references in the other adaptions that her body type is either exotic, or straight up a foreign model. It also gets to the heart of series philosophy of "who are you really when you can can change your body/gender at any time. Your soul (actually called a Ghost in universe)stays the same, but the body (Shell) changes. It's what sets cyborgs apart from AI like in Innocence or SAC.

I really gotta give respect to Gokus actor who read so much of the original Dragon Ball manga and even read Journey to the West as well to try and get a firm understanding of Goku and the story proper. I really appreciate the effort he still put in to try and be a decent Goku. Sadly wasn't a good result still though.

Lady Snowblood and Edge of Tomorrow were so good that people forget they were based off a manga

Guys, I have been trying to audition for Chopper using puppetry, motion capture, or even going full fur suit to bring this adorable character to life. Showrunners want to keep production as practical as possible. I promise to keep the cute without being annoying. I've even made a rough Chopper marionette.

the only redeeming factor of the ATLA and DB:Evolution is that they both have actors that have went on to both play characters in shows with more favorable ratings in their respective series. James Marsters (King Piccolo) voicing Zamasu in Dragona Ball Super. Seychelle Gabriel (Princess Yue) voicing Asami Sato in Korra.

Bebop being on the same tier as DB Evolution is wild to me, but that's the fun of these lists I suppose

Scott, there's a reason they said "fuck it, just use his actual face" when they made No Way Home.

In the Battle Angel Alita manga, several Alita clones are introduced as enemies, some of whom she teams up with. One of them is basically just Vegita trapped in a 4 inch Bobble head doll.

When you moved Death Note down to "Good Bad", I felt a sudden wave of relief, like I'd been clenching a fist the entire time and finally let it go.

You guys definitely need to make a part 2 to this somewhere down the line. There's the Gintama movies, Assassination Classroom, both of the Guyver movies, the live action Sailor Moon series, and plenty more.

Fun fact to all my Kamen Rider homies Ichigo in the live action is played by actor: Fukushi Sōta, who is Kisaragi Gentaro/Kamen Rider Fourze Orihime is played by idol/actress: Mano Erina who is also Misaki Nadeshiko/Kamen Rider Nadeshiko, also from Fourze and Uryu is played by actor: Yoshizawa Ryō, who is Sakuta Ryūsei/Kamen Rider Meteor, ALSO from Fourze, and is the secondary Rider of that season So most of Team Karakura IS A FOURZE REUNION

I was so confused by the TV spinoff of Dragonball Evolution. Goku steals cars? Dr. Briefs is an alcoholic? They all live in Chicago? Such strange choices.

Can't believe I missed Fist of the North Star. I went on a Malcolm McDowell binge after Heroes.

Fun fact, the guy who played live action Koichi, played Koichi from Godzilla Minus One, and live action Okuyasu plays Zoro in One Piece live action

YuYuHakusho felt to me like everyone was afraid they were only going to get one or two seasons max before Netflix would cancel them.

The casting in the Bleach Live-action is actually what saved it for me. The people they cast for Ichigo, Orihime and Uryu were just such fun choices. Ichigo and Uryu's actors previously worked together on a show called Kamen Rider Fourze with almost the exact same roles. Ichigo's actor played the main protagonist, A hot-blooded action hero and Uryu's actor was the aloof and distant secondary protagonist. And Orihime's actress while only appearing in that show's tie-in movie, did play the only canon love interest the main character had on that show. So history repeated in this movie and I loved it. It was still only an okay movie, though. A solid okay, but still just okay.

There is ONE singular redeeming quality I can think of for the Last Airbender movie: It ended up inadvertently providing Legend of Korra with what might be the GREATEST meta-brick-joke I've ever seen. Specifically when you consider how in the leadup to LoK's first season, people were jokingly shipping Korra with Yue. Now remember that Seychelle Gabriel, who played Yue in the movie, would go on to voice ASAMI… XD

Why is the live-action Gintama movie never included in these rankings? The live-action Gintama movie deserves more respect.

The first Death in the Netflix Death Note made me and my friend laugh so hard that I think we actually needed to pause the movie. It’s like Final Destination by way of Mousetrap. XD

Nothing makes my Saturday like a nice long video from TFS:)

So I watched Netflix One Piece without having read or watched the manga and anime, and I loved it so much that I read all of the manga and have gotten about 300 episodes into the anime. So I just wanted to share my take on the walk to Arlong scene because I understand your opinion, but I have a bit of a different take. In the live action I loved it because of the promise of the final episode. Like that dramatic scene with Nami, Luffy's determination, the crew coming together for Nami, and then we see in the distance the town on fire. Like it was pure steadfast determination in the face of overwhelming odds, and it made me so excited for Episode 8. But of course the manga and especially the anime have a very different feel. There's still the determination, but it has more of a "We're going to show these assholes why they shouldn't mess with our friend." vibe. I still love both approaches, to be honest, though I fully understand why those already familiar with the source material would find this lacking.

31:48 Dafoe should’ve just been in the movie in black and white. Everyone else is in color.

31:33 seriously,he’s so good at that he doesn’t even the Green Goblin mask it’s terrifying without it

"Also is Ryuuk from a playstation 3 game?" "Yes" "Cool" perfection

The romance part in Alita's manga was... awkwardly teenaged. But yeah, the manga is a really slow burner (The original one ran from 1990 to 1995, but the sequels have been running since 2000!), and plenty of stuff got tweaked; Edward Norton's character IS a pivotal one for the manga, for example, but his "behind the events" approach is quite different. Also, debuts literally in the middle of the OG manga's run, despite consistent references even in the first volume.

Two comments about Netflix Death Note. 1. Good movie, bad adaptation. 2. He should have been named Hikaru Turner the same way Light is just an English word with a Japanese last name

There was no need for live action cowboy bebop, it already existed, it was called Firefly.

The fact that not a lot was said about Mob Psycho is going to lead me to wander into the gates of hell wondering "it can't be that bad, can it?"

1:00:10 Great minds think alike Lani. My first thought when I saw his face with that white outfit was the Dragon of Dojima.

Agree with all the ones I’ve seen (around half). I only would have moved One Piece from the top of the Good category to the bottom of “Actually Great” just because it was arguably the hardest anime to adapt into live action and that makes it so much more amazing how well of a job they did. I remember when they first announced the show everyone was saying it’s going to be a train wreck. It has no right to be this good and that makes it great imo.

I really do think the Netflix Death Note could have been amazing if they just went balls to the wall Final Destination style with over the top kills like the first kill with the car.

I was so mad at first when I saw they put Netflix Death Note above both One Piece and Pikachu. Thank you for correcting this mistake my faith has been restored.

Y'all always seem to upload around my lunch break which is great cause I need something to focus on while stuffing microwaved Mac n cheese in my face.

On the comment about Godzilla Minus One, shockingly, Toho is actually one of the best studios to work at in Japan because they actually take care of their employees. Somehow, they managed to make a movie that good looking on a small budget without crunch. It's amazing and I really hope more companies are able to learn from Toho.

The Death Note movies used the original ending they wanted for the manga but were forced to change by Shounen Jump. They even wrote about it in their other series Bakuman about two mangaka being forced to change their Death God story by Shounen Jump ... yes they were that literal about it.

Calling Yu Yu Hakusho live-action a mixed bag is definitely the best word to describe it, since for the first two episodes served as an abridged but still great version of the first arc of the series. And with some of the best action choreography I’ve seen in a live-action adaptation to boot. I didn’t even mind that the live action version was darker and more serious and removed a lot of the OG’s goofier elements (it sucks that they entirely cut Koenma’s baby form, most likely due to budget since it’d have to be CGI), but I was still on board due to diffing this alternative take on it. Where the show falls apart is in the final few episodes where it becomes a *very* loose adaptation of the Dark Tournament and introduces Team Toguro like right away. And then as a result it skips over an entire arc’s worth of development, and so not only do you barely feel anything from Genkai’s death due to…well, barely getting to spend any time with her, but introducing Toguro so early makes the fight between him and Yusuke feel less like this big battle the series has been building up to, and just your typical final villain fight. This show really needed more than four episodes, and it would’ve largely benefited from having season 1 be a adaptation of the first few arcs in the same way that One Piece live action condensed East Blue, and *then* save the Dark Tournament for season 2. But instead, just shoving a huge part of the series into, again, only *five* episodes ended up majorly hindering the story as a result. So tl;dr, stands squarely in the middle where it had potential, but unfortunately squandered most of it due to how rushed it was.

Totally agree on YYH. First 2 episodes? Phenomenal. Then in the 3rd episode, the slow realization of "Oh no, they are going to try to get through Dark Tournament..." Its like they were operating under the assumption that they weren't getting a 2nd season and were like "Well, we have to get Toguro in there." Still, enough to hold up and make me watch the whole thing. Agree with the placement.

Oh man, it's funny you guys mentioned seeing one of the Rurouni Kenshin movies in theaters a few years ago, because I was a couple rows in front of you guys and recognized y'all when you walked in. I ended up chickening out of talking to y'all after the movie lol

Rurouni Kenship was Great Actually. Honestly the first movie in that series was such a good mix of humor, action, and clean writing.

We need a part 2, so many more live action anime movies out there that need to be ranked.

Kaiser if you’re reading this you’ve scrolled far enough

Light Turner. Who here saw the "Fairly Odd Parents" parody animation of Death Note? "I am justice!"

Nice to hear Scott and Nick praise the Alita Battle Angel Live Action Movie I freaking love that movie, I saw it at the cinema when it came out and it made me want to go and read the Manga I hope we get the sequel at some point

I really love you guys both a lot and watching you make content simply makes my day ❤️ thank you 🙏🏽

I am so glad you guys mention Speed Racer and give it a positive score! To me, Speed Racer (the movie) was my childhood favorite, there’s just something they done right that’s between animation and real life. I don’t often see movies that pull off as good as Speed Racer. So thank you so very much, It means so much to me. Lol Last thing: If there’s any movie that did pull off like Speed Racer, let me know.👍🏼

just a reminder the "walk to Arlong park" is anime only the manga cuts straight from the crew saying okay, to Johnny and Yozaku blocking the town from raiding the park, to Luffy knocking the gate down the straw hats aren't even shown in the background of panels walking towards it, Luffy is last shown before with Nami before the panel of knocking the gate down grand total of 5 panels where the "walk to Arlong park" to the gate getting knocked down

You guys are killing it lately. All the videos lately have been super enjoyable.

Live action video game teir list when??

So, I don't know if it's filler, but Chad did have a fight in the anime where he couldn't see the Hollow, but could hit it, and he won thanks to Karin telling him where to strike with his telephone pole. I can agree with plenty of the points on One Piece, especially the one about Usopp should have Home Alone'd Kuro, but on the note of Chopper, one of the options I've seen is to have him be a Muppet, but I had the thought of having multiple actors for him: either a child or little person actor for Brain Point, a big buff guy for Muscle Point, and a trained reindeer for Walk Point, with his Rumble Ball forms being mostly CG, and the Brain Point actor doing dubbing for the other forms because that's the voice he has for the whole thing. Also, I've heard so much praise for the Speed Racer movie, I think I'm definitely going to have to watch it soon.

Sad to not see the Kingdom movies on here. The first one is genuinely the best live action adaptation of a manga I’ve ever seen. At the very least, much better than it’s anime adaptation.

Lani wearing the same babymetal shirt I got at their recent tour makes me happy

Alice in Borderlands is the best from all of those shows It’s so good that’s people didn’t knew it’s based on a manga and had an ova already.

So like anything else in this video Lani wearing a Babymetal shirt is the single greatest thing to ever happen and brought me great joy

Are you guys planning on bringing back the Talkcast Podshow at all this year?

Fun fact: The big monster tree form for Toguro being '100%' is actually a dubism. In the original, that form is referred to as 120%, but in the English version they changed it to "That last form was more like 85."

Welcome back, Happy New Year

heavily agree. I wish the netflix show had just been new scenarios with an adaptation of an episode here and there. that world is so interesting.

So here is the deal. The Walk To Arlong Park is anime original filler. It isn't in the manga at all. They needed to pad out the episode, so they put the best soundtrack on there that they could, and they just animated them walking to Arlong Park.

Bebop didn't deserve the destruction it got

Love your content guys 😊😊😊😊

I couldn’t watch Yu Yu hakusho’s live action. The first episode of the anime is among the best introductions to a series I have seen, and it all hinges on the emotional impact of the wake. I felt nothing at the wake in the live action, and I got the sense that the characters felt the same. Without that foundation, none of the rest was gonna hit for me.

Kinda wish the Cromartie High school live action made the list.

I agree with MOST of this list, but I personally liked the Japanese live action Death Note more than the actual anime, it's paced better and ends better, as opposed to outstaying it's welcome after L dies.

Crocodile being Luffy's other Dad would be so freaking good. Dragon X Crocodile lets go

The walk to Arlong park was epic

16:12 I agree, Lani!! I loved Seiichi Tanabe as Urahara; he’s an actor I really like and used to watch in the live adaptation of Glass Mask that I would scour online for

The live action Alita: Battle Angel is definitely superior to the anime OVA, and it's actually a REALLY strong adaptation of the first two volumes of the manga. But the manga holds an extremely dear place in my heart and James Cameron's version could never replace it.

great video guys and actually been wanting to see ichi the killer but kept forgetting about it, this helped remind me and ill have to check it out

Just gonna say shit like speed racer and Alita battle Angel are S tier, and you can’t tell me otherwise.

I actually really liked the live action Japanese Death Note movies and liked them, L Change The World is so good though

You guys forgot Cromartie High School (Actually Great), Detroid Metal City (I love it and it has Gene Simmons), The Guyver (Good Bad), and Guyver: Dark Hero (Actually Great)

The Japanese Deathnote live action movies were amazing

imo the Bleach Live Action adaptation was really well done, it's the best way a retelling of it could be done within 2 hours. The soundtrack slaps too, much better than the original. I'd assume if they had the greenlight for more movies, they'd flesh Chad and Orihime out during the Soul Society movie

Lani is so fucking charismatic goddamnit

My friend introduced me to Dragonball the Magic Begins and it's just a fun charming campy adaptation and it's hard to hate. Who doesn't love crocodile!?

Attack on Titan: At least Shiro SAGISU’s score is decent? Also, as a Kamen Rider Fourze enjoyer it’s neat to see the two lead actors from that show play Ichigo and Uryu.

Love how Kaiser always has a coffee or drink of some kind

Hi, I'm down here in the comments. Have only seen two entries on this list, but I enjoyed watching your takes on them.

35:10 - I'm pretty sure I've seen Dragonball Evolution more than anyone in the world. I am obsessed with the movie and even made a whole video on it!

I love the video and the rankings, but my one gripe with the video is that they don’t say the name of the entries when it comes up, I listen to these kind of vids podcast style and for the first little bit of each entry I’m confused because they tend to refer to the entries as “this” or “it” until I figure it out from context clues.

Speed Racer is better than it had *any* right to be. It's just so much damn fun. Don't know how they made that bold style work so well visually.

52:43: you haven't got to Kenshin yet, but I know your saving for later cuz I've heard good things. But it's probably the best example of make it live action, keep the surrealism, but make it look visually believable. I haven't seen all of them cuz of availability but there's a compilation on RU-vid. And my two favorite moments were firstly , he was running through a crowded battle in the Town streets, occasionally slashing, but he straight looked like he was sonic the hedgehog running and I'm just like "why can he do that, how did he lean this" and not long after when he fight the sword hunter and he ends it with the battostrike. He just shot across a semi long distance in one move and I shit my self and screamed " WHY IS THAT A THING. WHI CAN HE DO THAT" Cuz I had played fallen order yet but since then I have realized that that is also one of cal kestis's

I'll be honest, I mostly watched this out of curiosity for how many things would make the list. Onto looking at the one that I have watched, I really do think that One Piece had the potential to reach Actually Great, but agree with its placement. The biggest problem for me was the fact that Garp actually sent one of the Seven Warlords after his grandson. All the other changes were fine and, in many ways good, but that felt like it broke character. In the anime, Garp is a man torn between his loyalty to his job and protecting his family. In the live action, Garp actively brings in an element he can't fully control that could easily kill Luffy. In addition, the time that passes between that call to Hawkeye, who should be somewhere in the Grand Line, and Hawkeye tracking down and catching up to Luffy at the Baratie doesn't really time out. These are ships traveling at sea. That was way too short of a gap between Garp calling and Hawkeye arriving. I think the whole thing plays out much better if the reason for Hawkeye being there is still finishing off the Krieg Pirates. You could have him finish them off and stop in for lunch/dinner at Baratie where Zoro challenges him and avoid the whole Luffy/Krieg fight. Other than that plot change I really hate, the only real downside to One Piece is that the camera work is just OK. Rather than trying to recreate shots from the anime, they should lean into what can be done in film where you don't have to keep drawing and updating the background. A more dynamic camera that moves through the fights would be great as would less of those wide angle up close shots.

Crying Freeman deserves to be on this list somewhere. Stars Mark Dacoscos. Hard to find a movie like that 30 years later though.

I love both Lani and Kaiser separately, and also when they're together.... but Lani, please stop interrupting Kaiser, let him finish what he's saying (even when Kaiser's trying to find the right word, just let him) ty x