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In this video, I give my opinion on why so many live actions fail, and why One Piece live action (despite having it's flaws as well) succeeded. What do you think?
Everyone involved in one piece live action is actually a big fan of one piece and understand the characters their motivation. No one is cynical towards the goofiness and tried to change it.
I have to admit to myself that almost all of my nitpicks with the One Piece l/a come from being a manga reader first and how it chose to reshuffle events. I also wish Usopp had more screen time in his own arc and didn’t love *all* of the increased focus on Garp but everything else was awesome- the casting, the set pieces, the heart and spirit of One Piece is there.
i was fairly dissapointed with the One Piece Live Action, as i could envision a much better end result. they took more than a few liberties at changing the plot and the characters when it hardly make sense, even if we factor in budget and timesave. they were trying too hard to give their own spin to One Piece while still keeping it One Piece. and that half-measure is never a good thing. they had Oda on their side, they should have just went all in and made it a true One Piece adaptation, with only minor changes that might be necessary due to budget and screentime.
The most ironic thing is logically One Piece is the least sensical series and most difficult to be adapted into life action in comparison with other series mentioned here, yet it's the only one that ended up can be considered as a "success"...
One Piece being more nonsencial actually makes it more fun. If you've seen movies, like Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Just movies like that in general, had so much amazing sillyness.
@@Scarletcroft I think it's funny that the chitty chitty bang bang book is so different from the source material, but it works. I'm biased because both of them were major parts of my childhood (I still listen to the sound track every once in awhile), but the movie stays true to the original through the tone, just simply tells a different story, but one that fits better into a movie. Edit: I meant chitty chirty bang bang movie is different from the source material. The book is the original.
YES, like Nami for example, in some scenes it's just looks like cheap cosplay, they could have honestly just dyed the actresses hair a bit and it would have been perfect(full orange wouldn't work, just maybe have darker roots)
likely in real life it's battered. In close ups of the costumes in displays they don't have that straight from factory look. Luffy's costume you can see some tears in ep 1 @@moonman8450
There's two main reason why Rurouni Kenshin and One Piece Live Action works. 1. Stay true to the source material and spirit of author's vision. 2. Realistic changes to fit live action.
@@3slicessenpai yeah. but he's also part of the Full metal live action movie 1 😂 -I like him in both OPLA and Kenshin. Good writers makes a good actor shine. He was also good in Chihayafuru and Overdrive.
it's wild to me that the Avatar live action is a simplified version that takes away all the complexity when the original aired on Nickelodeon and this is supposed to be the more mature version
Because people don't respect animation as a medium. They think it's for kids, audiences do too unfortunately, even anime fans have been caught up in this idea. We've had leaked tweets and stuff from writters where they were like I'm gonna fix this crappy cartoon and make it actually good and legitimise it with love action. If you're excited for a live action you've already fallen into this there is ZERO need for it to exist the animated show is already great same with ANY video game or anime too. Things don't need adapted from one visual medium to another. It's a cash grab though and they want your money.
that's normal, much of society has a warped sense of maturity, which leads to shows with higher age demographics that are desperately trying to be mature to be much more immature, whereas series for younger people are much more mature and want to teach genuine morals, touch on important topics and whatnot
Tbf, even One Piece live action also simplify its complexity as well. But at least the showrunners were self-aware enough to realised that, admits its limitations and simply market it as a way to introduce One Piece to non-fans instead of claiming it as a much more "mature" or "darker" retelling of the story. There's this air of condescending and disrespect to the source material whenever a director/producer made claims like those. Which is something that we see with Avatar. They constantly throwing around claims like the story is more mature/grounded and shitty buzzword like "fixing" the problematic part of the story. Sometimes its all about the attitude.
i jumped out of the avatar live action bandwaggon when the creators did. I was skeptical of One Piece but Oda was fully involved and had final say. People dont want a condensed version or some new material for live action. They want the story that made them fall in love with the series. All the emotional highs, lows and nuances
Sanji was a simp in the live action too The difference is in the anime it was so aggressive because it's anime, but in the live action it was light because it's real people
yea i think they walked a fine line with him, they made him just enough of a ladie's man/flirt to make it charming rather than weird and off putting. if he acted like he did in the anime, i think new/non fans would have hated sanji.
I went from live action to anime and I just started return to sabaody last night. My god, did my view of him change drastically. I went from liking him to thinking he needs to be on a list.
@@josemontoya8027 yeah thriller bark and return to sabaody did so much damage to his character, it was really a bad choice from Oda, but he still have a long story arc to come He is the most written character with the most rise and falls
Film director here. In film school, the teacher encouraged to do everything different from the source material even if it's just out of spite. I even defended to the whole class that we're supposed to respect the fans of the books/mangas first and used Villeneuve's Dune, Lord of The Rings and live-actions Alita and One Piece as examples. Conclusion: f*ck the whole "we should change everything because is a DiFfErEnT MeDia" BS. Faithfulness is the answer of a successful movie/series adaptations. Period.
Its not exactly, it is, but what adapted should be what the work actually wants to say than being as faithful as possible, rather see what needs to change to see it work spiritually. or thematic. of if the work is average do that way better. or in twilight, yeah change whats possible to be less crappy
Wow, if this is truly what is being taught in film schools, no wonder Hollywood has been hemorrhaging money the past 4-5+ years. They are literally teaching the people coming in to do nothing but insult fans and do everything wrong. I can literally only think of one. ONE. Film adaptation of a book series that did things completely different from the source material AND was a massive success. That’s How to Train Your Dragon. I can’t think of a single time where “ChAnGe EvErYtHiNg OuT oF sPiTe!” Actually worked.
@@marocat4749 Like, changes like you just said are examples of good ones (mildly different recipe, same result), is what I'm doing on my scriptwriting. I'll even direct an adaptation of a book series I love since my teenage years, and the only three changes I'm doing is writing new lines here and there to improve the build up to the battle that happens in the last book, make a specific character much less creepy and making the protagonist less whiny. Beyond that, everything else will be faithful. I have an issue with when a change doesn't have a point beyond "I hate this in the book, so I'll cut/change just for the sake of it", which happens more frequently than it should.
Depressing if true. Treating adaptation as a chance just to hi-jack something... what do I even call it? Toxic and disrespectful doesn't feel strong enough. Despicable perhaps.
@@skywardsword2804 I know about only one adaptation that were 100% better than the book: The Handmaid's Tale. Like, the book clearly shows that the author had a great concept and lore in mind, but couldn't think of a great story to go with it, so she just told a "day by day" thing just to show the universe she created. It's basically a huge first act that ends on the inciting incident and skips to the epilogue, like if Harry Potter ends with Hagrid telling Harry he's a wizard then skipping to the 19 years later. Then the series came and turned the book's "story" into a theocratic version of Andor building up to a future Battle of Scarif for the final season, with more complex and compelling characters, deeper lore... It even served as a warning, because my country's social and political situation are matching with the "what it was before the cult took over the USA" flashbacks of the series very perfectly.
As much as people want to say it's because of unadaptable. It's only really because they don't put any effort. This is exactly how it was in the early '90s when people were making superhero movies. It wasn't that it couldn't be done. It was just that there was no real effort. When someone did take the job it was always made by somebody who never really understood the source material or wanted to change everything. I don't think anime adaptations are as difficult as people think they are. They're never given the right opportunity. Look at what marvel did. They gave iron man a budget, A competent director and the man who helped build marvel was helping them build this movie. Same thing with one piece. They had competent directors and the person who helped made it direct them in the right direction. When it comes to the Avatar show it was some dude who clearly had no real love for the show like the ones who made made one piece live action. They also didn't have the original creators helped them out. I think these are the factors that hold them back the most. If you get people who are actually passionate about the project, the worst you're going to get is alita battle angel and not death note live action. When it comes to the Japanese adaptions it's like they got the style right and The atmosphere right, but they don't have a coherent story.
Fun fact. The Avatar live action and the cartoon are pretty close in total run time. I think the difference is like ~30 mins so the issue isn't even condensing the material especially cause avatar book 1 had alot of "filler"
yep, they didnt let katara be emotional and wtf they didnt let sokka be an insecure teenager grow out of his machismo. And let katara be that flawed but great angry emotional yet sweet multidimensional character
Avatar creators are absolute masters in packing a lot of plot, character development and world building in a short amount of time with very clever and efficient camera work, dialogues, scene composition, etc
@@D__634 the biggest reason is just budget, not runtime. They need to condense stories together because they need less unique sets because whether practical or cg each new area they make is going to cost a lot of money.
Rant: Yeah people hate on live action but forget that they focus on the issues that they let go in animation. Live action adaptations have to condense to fill the hate that people have for OMGOSH this is boring dropped 10 min in that we currently have. People are super condensed in the I matter my time matters give me more era...it's like the life span of people decreased, how they are constantly unable to pay attention into anything and need to watch everything in fast forward. Any slow part = bad and boring, too fast = i dont care about what's going on. Then they just say the stuff they watched as kids was peak and complain about the agenda and bad hollywood writing yadda yadda, bunch of scapegoating nonsense. Good stuff is being made and people are too into nitpicking to notice. The reason a "perfect" story doesnt exist is cause it would have to over explain every single point just so people dont go...i liked it but why didnt the main character poop after eating so much, took me out of the story...3/10 overrated actually mid...why is everyone hyping this up as the best it's boring dropped at the 3 minute mark nothing happening mid...if it was good it would keep my attention. :P
The reason One Piece worked for me is b/c the changes they made were only for the adaptation in change of mediums (i know some ppl would toss in a few moderndayism that were in it, but they didn't detract from the story like most others do). from cartoon to live action. Otherwise it was true to the spirit and much of the letter, and i for one enjoyed it more than the anime.
The spirit was there but they still butchered the story and left out many important characters and story elements it's another POINTLESS adaption that doesn't need to exist. There's already an adaptation to a visual medium, the anime... But western viewers and writers want live action because they don't respect animated mediums as legitimate as live action and a lot of them think (the cowboybebop writter said this). That they can 'fix the anime and do it better' basically they think they're better writters than the mangaka and their going to make it 'actually good and legitimate' in live action.
@@WookieWarriorz I can agree that live action adaption doesn't need to exist. And that alot of Hollywood types have no respect for anime or Manga, it's very apparent. In this day where moral flag waving is more important than substance I'd rather no book/comic/Manga be adapted. And those same moralistic writers have almost no skill at all and no understanding of what they are changing. For One Piece, I've seen everything that the Netflix show covered in the anime but not much beyond that. And out of the two, yes Netflix left alot out and changed alot that I'm sure will effect things down the road, I still prefer it over the anime. That's mainly b/c I'm not a huge fan of the animeisms. It's not that I don't like anime, I'm just not a fan of the over the top emotions. I can try to bring up an example if you don't get what I referring too. But stuff like Frieren, Bersery: Golden Age arc (tho I don't like the cgi), and more reserved stuff I adore. So to be able to get the One Piece story without the fluff is nice. I actually started to watch a fan edit of One Piece that removes all the filler and I'm really enjoying it.
I've said this in another comment, sometimes its all about the attitude. The showrunners doesn't talk down to their audience or throws shade at the source materials or delusionally pretending that they're telling a more "mature"/"complex"/better story than the source material. They respect the fans and the manga. How they frame the changes with Sanji is the perfect example of this. They could've easily frame the changes as an improvement or "fix" to the source material but instead they simply acknowledge the changes as simply a limitation of the medium. Meanwhile, you have people like the Cowboy Bebop, Avatar and Halo teams say stupid shit like "modernizing" the stories or claim they don't even engage with any of the source material.
My main sticking point with live actions is a conceptual one. I just feel like the constant live action remakes feel like Hollywood invalidating animation as a valid storytelling medium. I feel the same way about adaptations of video games too. I have such a hard time telling what audience the studios think these adaptations are for- the majority of watchers will always be fans of the original series, but aside from OPLA I feel like usually the adaptations fail not only the original’s fans but they fail to enchant new fans as well with bland world and character building. Anyway, I just have a hard time wrapping my head around why live actions are ever needed when illustration and animation serve these stories so well in the first place. Great video by the way! I like your point about not being able to sink into the world and being aware of the actors acting it all out.
Some of my favorite live action manga, novel & webtoon adaptations :) 1. Oldboy 2003 2. Battle royale 2000 3. Rurouni Kenshin 1-5 4. Kingdom show 5. All of us are dead show 6. Alice in Borderland show
I love Sanji in the source material, he's my favorite Straw Hat, but I do agree that, post-timeskip (and even certain parts of pre-timeskip like Thriller Bark) increased his loverboy traits to exaggerated levels. I much prefer when he's a hopeless romantic and tries to smooth his way into a lady's heart, and I feel like the Live Action nailed that. His "something sweet for someone sweet" speech to Nami in the Baratie reminded me when he was parading around the Merry going "Oh, sweet sea, what angel you've brought me! Here's your treat~" when Robin is being interviewed by Usoop. He's incorrigible, but still the dapper gentleman.
Sanji for sure used to be one of my fav strawhats and I really enjoy when hes suave/badass but it's so frickin annoying when anything like that is always cut short by him simping for Nami and Robin to a sometimes gross extent. (I just finished Fish Man Island by the way) Maybe it gets better. 🤷♂
@@milesdevine1161 Yeah, Fish Man Island is not a good look for Sanji. He gets future showings that redeem him a bunch, yeah, but his time in Okama Island got him tweaking.
One thing about Oda though is he has a way of redeeming his characters. Limerence is a trait adopted by many who go through what Sanji went through as a kid (the abuse stuff, not the science-experiment stuff, but I'm sure that too) and while I can agree it is overplayed I see Sanji maturing and suddenly/possibly using his biggest peevy trait as one of his biggest power sources. I have a soft spot for Sanji though... I didn't change my avatar just to troll... I just think it's a silly photo of a character I love!
To me Sanji’s behaviour just never came across as creepy but funny instead. Maybe also due to the other characters’ reactions, not sure. There have been other anime i watched in which i got annoyed by the trope after a while, but in the case of Sanji it always makes me chuckle. Maybe it’s also because i went from live action to manga and only now to anime - they toned it down in the live action and in the manga it’s not animated, so it was like “getting eased into it” lol.
The thing I get from the one piece live action I don’t get from others is the sense of care and love. I feel a lot of the crew on live actions can feel like they see a popular brand and see just dollar signs. Every interview with any of the cast and crew of the one piece live action they all have a genuine love of the series and can tell how much it means to each one of them which comes across to the viewer as well
It may not be entirely due to the wigs, but they’re definitely an indicator. Also, no mention of the Dragonball adaptation 👀. Praying that Merphy doesn’t know it exists because the wigs are DEFINITELY an indicator of the quality there…
On the one hand, I want Merphy to watch DBE (sorry, puked in my mouth a bit) because she'll laugh hard. On the other hand, She didn't commit any crimes that we know of to deserve it.
She's seen The Last Airbender, she does not need to be subjected to that mess too. Also, "praying that Merphy doesn't know it exists" while bringing it up in her comments section 💀
These shows proved the vfx are there for anime adaptations, it's just the writing & direction thats lacking & I disgree with the lack of time to adapt, ATLA had the same run time in both the animated & Netflix versions And anime has so much non cannon filler to cut! The issue is they over explain something that they could have show with a facial expression Poor writing wastes the time, its not that they don't have enough
What I love about the One piece live action, is that the directors were só respectful to the original material. They were not ashamed of all of the non sense stuff, but brought it in a way that made sense
The big difference I see in most failed live-action series is that showrunners want to establish all of the worldbuilding and character development within the first episode and then rush through a compilation of the "greatest hits", as you say. Whereas in the original shows the audience was allowed to be confused for a while and go on a journey of discovery because we were intrigued by the new world/characters so we stayed around and developed an emotional attachment to the story.
One Piece l/a making people pick up the manga and start the anime is the truest benchmark of success imo. I had multiple friends ask me where they buy the manga after watching the Netflix series ❤
For ATLA, in particular, I genuinely think the lack of humor was a major factor. In the states kid’s cartoons always have humor so it’s easy to overlook the benefits/ distinctions that humor might add to a show, but when you strip away the humor from ATLA for the live-action it becomes a generic/ standard fantasy adventure. Not that that automatically makes it a bad experience, but a less memorable one. For example, the original Pirates of the Caribbean would’ve been a perfectly adequate movie with a Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, or Matt Damon- like actor in the role of Jack Sparrow. But it wouldn’t have been iconic.
One Piece Live Action doesn’t adapt “61 episodes into 8”, technically, yes it does, but you’re completely overlooking the glaring issue. Toei’s godawful anime pacing. the east blue isn’t as bad as later one piece, as it adapts 1.8 chapters per episode, (when after water 7 it’s pretty consistently just one chapter per episode), that’s still lower than the average anime episode. the average episode in anime is 2-4 manga chapters. JJK season 2 is 23 episodes and covers 75 chapters. that’s 3.3 chapters an episode. east blue in one piece is 61 episodes for 100 chapters, and removing filler it’s 1.8 chapters an episode. if one piece had the average pacing of an anime like JJK, the east blue would only be about 33 episodes. the live action also only adapts the first 95 chapters, not 100. so cutting 33 episodes worth of content down to 8, hour long episodes (24 anime episodes in length) is actually not too crazy. i get you’re moreso a manga reader, but yeah you’re pretty far off when it comes to anime to manga pacing, at least from this video.
animation in general is its own art If creatives want to do live action so bad they should adapt original stories within its own world. Example if you do a one piece live action do an ace or law live action. If you do a FMA live action do ishval war live action. If you do avatar do another avatar within another cycle Kyoshi or wan etc. That way the creatives are not limited to the original material and fans don't compare but rather enjoy new content within the same universe.
Please watch Alita Battle Angel. It's the best western anime live action adaptation. The biggest problem usualy people have with that movie is the romance betwin the 2 character but that doesn't make it a bad adaptation. That romance is as bad in the anime and in the manga. So sad that will never be a continuation to the movie.
The reasons you listed are exactly why people think The Stormlight Archive would work best as an anime and Mistborn as a game. I just wish they're good and stay true to the core of the story(hopefully with deep involvement of B$), whichever form they get adapted in.
You hit the nail on the head for me with Avatar. I only made it through episode one and i just felt like...why? The relationships werent being built and stuff just didnt make sense. Like they make these adaptations because of the fans but they throw out everything the fans love. Lets not even get started on the hot mess express that was Dragonball Evolution where they kinda went off on a tangent. They definitely dont seem to be able to capture the love the fans have for these shows. It's like they say, lets take big shot director x and have them make this big anime y. The director has NO connection to the source material and just wanna do whatever. They use the source as a guideline instead of the literal backbone like they should. Ugh i can rant all day but yeah, I'm scared everytime i see someone is doing a live action
It’s all about keeping the soul of the original story in tact. Keeping the characters true to how they were originally portrayed. Otherwise, they’re either just using the name of the story because they know it will make money no matter how bad it is, or they think they can do better than the person who created the story.
The Nojiko/Arlong Park scene is my only gripe with the Live Action. They took away the strength about the best arc in the East Blue. I’m glad everything else was done well.
It’s like a compass chart: budget, episode amount/length, writing, adaptive choice. I think the writers need to care, the studio needs to give a certain budget that facilitates quality and allow a number of episodes or length to enable the translation. For fans the most important part seems to be the changes (as change of medium requires there are some even if it’s what material isn’t included), which while maybe debatable should only be don’t in service for narrative. Adaptations are hard, but if any of these are off the adaptation will suffer somehow, even if other qualities of the show are good.
I think you nailed it, Merph. At the risk of opening an enormous can of worms, what you've said here also applies to all the recent Tolkien adaptations. LOTR movies: fantastic adaptations, nobody argues on that. The Hobbit movies: extremely OK. They have their fans but most Tolkien die-hards are lukewarm on them, with more than a few haters. But the Rings of Power TV show? Yikes. I don't know anyone who actually enjoyed it. I think the only thing really separating the Hobbit movies from the Rings of Power was that PJ wanted to keep the spirit of the story alive and Middle Earth is important to him.Yes the story was bloated and the reliance on CGI was way too much and nobody wanted the weird made-up love triangle, but you could tell the people involved cared about what they were making. Amazon just wanted a paycheque.
I think it’s probably the same with Wheel of Time. I haven’t watched it. But I saw ads promoting it. And since then I’ve heard absolutely nothing about the show. I spend time on Tumblr. If it was decent there probably would have been something. Pretty sure they only wanted something that could fill the Game of Thrones niche when the two series are nothing alike.
To be fair I think that the Hobbit adaptation was horrible both as an adaptation of the book and as movies by themselves. I have not watch ROP for my own good.
One of the most important aspects in a live action is to capture the spirit of the characters. If you succeed in that one thing, then you can put them in just about any story and it will be enjoyable because it feels like spending more time with characters you already love.
I have wondered how often the problems of live actions are studios, directors, and producers thinking they have to make the thing they are adapting "more adult" (and then translate that as "more dark more edge more drama more-whatever while ignoring what truly makes something "adult", or not understanding the difference in the first place). Avatar was already very adult a lot of the time because it maturely handled a lot of dark content better than most adult media. Because it didn't go in with the goal of being darker, it went in with the goal of telling a good story. Adaptations often don't start from that same place (just tell a good story) from the get go cos the good story already exists. The ones that do are often the ones that end up being good adaptations regardless of loyalty.
A lot of these producers are like Zack Snyder whose mentally still stuck in the 14 years old edgy phase. Also I feel like a lot of these showrunners, they put way too much stock on the demographic of a show to judge its maturity. Like Avatar's is technically a kids' show or family friendly and Shounen anime literally translated to young boys. They look at the age ratings of these shows and assume it's childish without realising that most of these shows can still be very mature without having the edge or the 18+ contents. In fact, they're much better off without it. Cause sometimes vulgarity only causes distraction and makes the story come across as significantly immature.
The recent Avatar live action was unwatchable for me personally. I didn't like Sokka's characterization, he was boring. The Iceberg scene was scuffed. The scene where he found Gyatso (however you spell it) was changed in a way that lessened the connection between Aang and Katara which I didn't like. Aang didn't actually run away but they act like he did. I just felt like I was watching a bad fan fiction version of ATLA and I hated it. Aang was too serious as well. He wasn't fun to watch and Sokka wasn't funny so it was like I was watching a drama. I came to see dumb kids save the world, not adults that don't really have flaws outside of being boring in the bodies of children. It could have more good things in it that come after those episodes and I liked how the fights looked but I couldn't care less. They destroyed it in a way that wasn't even something I felt I could meme on. It was just sad to see how they picked it apart and disappointing.
I think a big part of live action remakes failing is that quite often animation is simply the best medium to tell that story in. Before you even look at the questionable changes and writing of the Netflix show, in the Nickelodeon Last Airbender, there's no need to make the fantastical elements look realistic. They can just draw and animate those things in the same style as they would everything else. Even if the live action show was just a shot for shot remake of the original, the CGI is never going to look as good or as convincing as the fantastical elements did in the animated series. The exact same thing is true of every live action Disney remake.
It would made so much more sense to adapt Korra. -It’s set in one location -the setting has modern elements - not many hybrid animals -the main characters are almost late teen to twenties -it actually benefit from being cut down to 8 episodes.
But you forgot the biggest factor here. Korra was very much to say the least, not well received. A lot of people have issues with the writing and characterization of Korra. And this even way before the anti "woke" people and homophobes enters the chat. So from a business standpoint, it wouldn't make sense at all. Why would make a live action adaptation of something that people were probably not gonna be bothered with.
@@ZhaneDFrost Exactly! This is why not many people will complain if they make changes. Hell maybe, they can eliminate all of the issues plaguing the original.
@@TheNicMMc I can see where you're coming from but at the same time, it's too much of a risk that I don't think anybody would be willing to take. It would be really nice though if they actually made one.
1) Companies being hyper focused on short seasons 2) Not enough budget 3) Producers/executives/writers etc having a lack of understanding and investment/drive for the project, the og medium and source material which often leads to not respecting the foundation, ideas and wishes from the authors and fans Leading to: Some really bad decision, executions and inconsistencies with castings, action, directing, writing, costumes, uninspired camera work, inconsistent cgi and greenscreen stuff, pacing issues, and a lack of identification and vibe with the characters, world and story of the show
I think part of it is a lack of respect for the source material and its fans. If you watch a critique of the Last Airbender movie it’s pretty clear that Shyamalan didn’t care about the material at all. He thought it was just a silly kids show and didn’t put any real effort into telling the story in a compelling way. In contrast the Guardians of Ga’Hoole movie was genuinely a fun ride. It was nothing like the books, but in fairness a faithful adaptation of that series would probably end up being PG-13 or R. They had to tone down the violence a lot to make sure kids could actually watch it. But it was still good, and it felt like the people who worked on it liked the series and wanted the movie to work well. At least that’s kinda how I see it.
I think my biggest issue is when they ignore the lore for no reason. In One Piece's LA, i forgave the Garp stuff and cutting Hachi because i get that they were working with limitations. In Avatar (the show, not movie) they have Aang casually flying without his glider in the first 5 minutes. Why? The glider exists later in the show, so its not like they couldn't make it, nor was it some big plot change where Aang needed to be able to fly for something to make sense. They just did it cus it looked cool. Which screams "we dont care about the source material" to anyone who is a big fan.
One live-action I'm PRAYING doesn't happen: A Vinland Saga live-action movie with Californian actors speaking entirely in badly translated Norse, focusing more on action and making vikings look badass and cool rather than the series' core anti-violence theme. Characters are entirely one-note without any of the intricate character development: - Askeladd is a one-note cool bad dude. - Thorfinn is a one-note angry kid who has plenty of fight scenes. - Canute is a one-note plot device for Askeladd to make king, without showing why he's worthy to be king. - Thorkell is pure dumb muscle who also has lots of cool fight scenes. And the cherry on top of the shit sandwich: Thorfinn finally takes Askeladd's head, and travels all the way back to Iceland holding his head.
In addition to what you said, I think there are two big other factors: over reliance on cgi to bring fantastical elements to life without the budget to make it work, and show runners who think that because they work in film making they know better than the creator what is best for the overall story.
I think that showrunners and producers should definitely work with the original creators. However, it is flawed logic for people to assume that the original creator will always know best when it comes to adapting their work to another medium. Being knowledgeable about characters in animation doesn't necessarily translate to knowing how to best portray them with real actors. Good example of this is the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The author of the comic was the head honcho when it came to the live action show and essentially ruined it because he structured the plot points of the show as if it was a comic book. Another example is the Death Note movie, which was indeed approved and praised by the author while simultaneously being a complete bastardization of his story. With that being said, it is IMPERATIVE that the people adapting the source material have reverence for it. Lets say Oda was busy and didn't have time to work with the showrunners for the One Piece live action. The producers holding the anime/manga in such high regard will increase the likelihood of them retaining its core values.
I think you nailed it. If studios learn one thing from live action one pieces success is that they need to understand why people like that particular story. Most people these days don’t like certain anime just because that’s their favorite visual aesthetic (I’m sure some do though). It really is the stories and what each brings that capture the audience.
Your segment on pacing reminds me of some of the One Piece "Episode" movies. Seriously, watch Episode of Alabasta (or better yet, don't). It hits those emotional high points with zero build up to it, and so it's just empty. You can't abridge a story like that and expect it to be good. Bigger changes have to be made to give SOME kind of emotional investment for that payoff.
As you said Merphy, major point in Oda being on set. As for ATLA, the original creator's left the project quite early. The formula must be partly tied to working with the writer's of the original story. You have ideas for changes, the creator has the view to make it work in his world.
I haven't gotten into the anime or manga for One Piece, but just finished the live action this weekend and liked it, so it got me interested enough to maybe go down the rabbit hole. Can't say the same for most of the others.
Loved your thoughts. I watched the One Piece live action never having read the manga or watched the anime, and I LOVED it. I watched ATLA live action, and had many qualms (though there were some things I enjoyed). I love what you said about being able to sink into a story when it's animated, I relate to that (and in the world of so many live action remakes, I've wondered if I'm crazy for that, since it seemed people prized live action over animation...). While not a live-action remake, in line with what you said about flawed characters, I'm watching Vampire Diaries right now for the first time (season 1 rn), and one of the things that has me so incredibly engrossed is the FLAWS in most (all?) of the characters. So many of these side characters have some flaw or another, and I am so invested in seeing these little glimpses of light, of wanting to be better, and I want to SEE these characters get better, and want to watch the next episode to see if they make a better choice, learn a lesson, and how that will impact them, their story and potentially the overall plot. (There's a balance to be struck, of course...I used to love Once Upon a Time, and it had amazing character work, but as the seasons continued I noticed even then that they were backpedaling character development so they could do it again, I suspect because it proved such an effective formula for viewers the first time...but watching the same characters repeat development and even watching different characters go through the same development as others, did start to feel like tired writing. First 2 and a half seasons I still think are really good, but after that it gets a bit hit or miss.)
OPLA didn't fail, and while NATLA has its flaws, it's not a failure either. That's why both shows have been renewed for more seasons. If people can't accept that live action is gonna be different to a cartoon, there is no point in them watching it.
I think the biggest problem with anime to live action is the directors not embracing the new medium. Honestly, I think this is true for all adaptations that change mediums. If you want to change to a different art form, you need to embrace that new form. For me, One Piece did not do this. I'm happy people enjoyed it, but my god. I tried to get through the blue soup, foam swords, the people meowing, and bizarre ships, but I could not. They all felt like they were trying to be... anime. I don't need the Lord of the Rings quality, but I would love it to look like it could be real.
They have superpowers, I think they made it as realistic as they could have. Both poison and medicines are often unusual colors in real life. The ships were actually fully built sets, too. In real life, there's a lot of different animal figurehead that have been used for ships. This isn't something that the One Piece Anime invented. This is the series brought into the real world. If you want a more serious series, watch black sails or Pirates of the Caribbean.
@dl2839 Thanks for sharing, and I'm glad the show worked for you. About the superpowers, I have seen many live action movies/shows that makes what I'm seeing feel real. About the ships, I think it's definitely a personal issue rather than a community one (honestly, most of what I'm saying is personal preference), but they just look silly to me. Which works great in anime, but it doesn't give me that, "Oh wow, I'm glad they moved it to live action," feeling. For me, this would have done better as an American cartoon or even a different anime. Just doesn't feel like it matters that it is a live action or not.
Wouldn't it be more appropriate to see good adaptations based on mangas? There are many good films based on good mangas. Old Boy, Our Lister Sister, Himizu, Blue, Always Sunset on Thind Street, Lady Snowblood, Female Prisoner Scorpion, Ichi the Killer,little forest,death note,blade of the imortal,air doll etc.
I am one of the few who complains a lot about One Piece LA A lot of things it does makes me worry about future. Like along with some of your complaints, I worry about its heart too. Remember Nami-Luffy argument after Zoro vs Mihawk? Luffy seems childish for chasing after dreams and too naively-stupid to be a captain....and nothing really happened in the series to prove Luffy's point of view right. Luffy had a clarity and wisdom to him from the start in manga that he is missing in live action For characters, the showrunners just focused on chars they thought were cool and enhanced that coolness factor instead of depicting them for silly-billies they are. Which could work, but it led them to just taking everything away from Usopp!! They gave him a side char treatment in a series that should give its side chars a main char treatment I think OP LA worked cause we desperately wanted it to. I worry that we will be disillusioned with it in future
I just can't with live action adaptations. I tried to give both One Piece & Avatar a chance, especially because they were both received relatively well by viewers, but I just can't watch without hurting and slowly dying inside.
I think its A) having the creator involved in gut checking the screenplay and directing choices, B) making sure that the directors have an avid love for accuracy and the original medium, C) selecting passionate actors that want to get it right D) making sure that everyone involved loves manga and anime. I remember back in High School one of my friends despised anime/manga so much he went out of his way to express it those of us who drew it in art class, I feel that directors who have put out bad adaptations are somehow just as bitter and uncaring about getting it right or towards the medium at large. I remember my film studies teacher saying anime/cartoons have no mise en scene or any of the things that make up film, but I know its not even close to being true. I really think people do not like anime/manga as a medium and try to make horrible /bastardize adaptations
I think one of the problems with adapting from an animated show to a live-action show is that there is not that big of a shift in medium. When adapting a novel, for instance, the change in medium is drastic, and so an adaptation makes sense and brings something significantly different. Going from an an animated show to a live-action show, however, it is literally just taking scenes that already exist and making them slightly different (think of the Disney remakes and how there is nothing really original going on there). I think the recent Last of Us show is an illustration of this, too: the game was very cinematic, and so even though the show was good and a video game adaptation done right, it was ultimately somewhat forgettable, since it was essentially just "here is this thing you liked, but slightly different."
I think if you're going to make a live action movie of an anime series, you need to pick a plot point and explore that. Or do a Harry Potter. Make it a series of movies. You can't just take a story that's been explored through a long period and cut out the bits that make it so good just to force it to fit. Reminds me of the ugly step sisters cutting off bits of their feet to fit in Cinderella's shoes, but no matter how much they try, they'll never fit. "Coo, coo, there's blood on the shoe" indeed.
It's funny how One Piece works as a live action even tho the whole idea of the series being portrait with real actors and set pieces is really uncanny (live action Snails have a special corner in my nightmares) while a series like Death Note, wich should be perfect to adapt to Live Action, ended up being a total train wreck
For me personally, it's the massive changing of story and it's characters. Like, as someone who has watched ATLA the cartoon well over 30 times in it's entirety, I just wanted to see the same story being done by real people for once... I'm just so tired of all these directors personal "ideas" on how THEY would have done something. Idc how they would do it for a "modern audience". Like, I get that alot of people don't like 1for1, but I do, or at least close to it. Like 1for1.2 or something. I just genuinely feeling the live action right now is like watching the Ember Island Players... for those who know how it's supposed to be, it's just wrong.
I don’t think One Piece is as successful as people think. It’s just live action adaptations have been sooooo bad that One Piece looks successful in comparison. On its own though, it sucks.
It honestly baffles me how any stakeholder can confidently write a blank check to someone that’s going to make an adaptation of a best selling story WITHOUT having the original author in the room approving 70 ~ 90% of the decisions?! In all fairness, the only reason Oda was going so much control over the live action was probably just because of his fame and status. Had he been any other mangaka they probably would’ve just interviewed them, asked them a few questions, and then turned in the completed series the next morning without asking for feedback. I bet all live actions what would see a surge in popularity if we simply took the trouble of making the mangaka a co-director.
I honestly don't get the point of making a live action of an already successful TV show/manga. I mean... Superhero comics I get, because one of the reasons why superheroes are hard to get into is also one of the reasons why they are "easy" to adapt; Because they haven't been written by just one person and don't tell just one story, so they can actually "adapt" the character into a new for. I mean... for example, the main Spider-Man comic (The Amazing Spider-Man) has been in publication since 1963, and technically everything that has happened in those comics is part of his story (which is why Marvel comics are perceived as not friendly for new readers -too much shit has happened), but it isn't just this one big narration with a begining a middle and an end. But manga (or even an animated TV show like Avatar) doesn't have that. Those stories are fixed, and those stories have already been adapted for TV. They aren't adding anything to it.
I think the big thing it comes down to in the end is, why did you want to make this story into live action? If the answer is "to tap into an existing market demo that's hungry for more of this story" or "to expand into new market demos that have an aversion to animation" or even "it's cheaper than remaking the anime", it's never going to work. The kind of creative spark needed to adapt something across mediums relies on a deep appreciation for the original work and a desire to do something with it that the original medium couldn't. And there are very few things that animation can't do that live action can. Comedy, tragedy, action, romance, fantasy, sci fi, even small domestic slice of life stories work great in animation. The only genre I can think of that might work better in live action is horror, because it's easier to trick our brains into thinking the characters on screen are real people in danger than with cartoon characters, where there's a more substantial barrier of suspension of disbelief.
I disagree. I mean with what the actual problems are and One Piece live action being good. When 2 different live actions with 2 (or more) different writers somehow manage to make the same mistakes, then addressing the mistakes is not enough. We definitely need to point out the root cause and we need to talk about it. So, I think One Piece is as problematic as other mentioned adaptation. The reason why it's less obvious because the errors in this case are in the logic, while usually the western audience cares more about the vibe. In other cases, the western script also ruins the vibe or the mood of the show and that's why it is harder for the fans to enjoy them. Just to name a good example when it comes to adaptation, I think Alice in Borderland is one of the best adaptation. This is also a Netflix adaptation and shows that it can be done well. In case of One Piece, the logic behind the power dynamics is problematic. Because they had less screen time, they needed an alternative way to show and develop the crew (like as a team building exercise), so they changed the fights. Morgan who was originally beaten by Luffy alone, fought Luffy AND Zoro, while for example Buggy fought all of them. The problem with this is that it looks like Arlong is the weakest pirate because Luffy beat him alon, while the strongest is Arlong's henchman, because all 3 of them (Luffy, Name and Zoro) needed to work together against Buggy, but Buggy was beaten by Arlong's crewmember alone. As for the root cause, I think on the west (maybe because it's hollywood) writers think that "they know it better", so they might just rewrite it. They could explain why all of those adaptations were weak in certain aspects (including Ghost in the Shell). While Alice in Borderland which was adapted and written by Japanese was really good.
Animtion is able to be more expressive, more physical, and show wider arrays of locations and characters for a much smaller budget. In general, I'd love everything to be adapted to animation, not the other way around. It allows you to stylize the visuals in a way that makes YOUR project stand out. It's why Spider-Verse IS the best Spiderman film. It's why every Disney Live Action remake is a pointless, boring mess. And it's why anime adaptations often disappoint more than succeed. One Piece skirted by because Oda signed off, which is rare for most adaptations. I think thst is honestly the first step to make adaptations work is getting the original creator to give their approval. It shows care and respect to THEIR story. And a willingness to adhere to the core vision of their idea.
The key mistake Avatar makes, imo, is not paying attention to how the new changes will effect other things. Everything that happens in the original cartoon, happens that way for a reason, and the adaptation lost a lot of the cause-and-effect of choices and events, that made the world- and the storytelling- make sense. The result is a ton of plot holes and/or unsatisfying arcs. I honestly can't explain why the One Piece adaptation worked where others failed. The degree of difficulty for it was so high. Skepticism was so high. It seemed unfilmable. And they just. Go for it.Luffy is stretching, Zoro's holding a sword in his mouth, Buggy is actually breaking up into pieces?! There's something bold, almost freeing about being this unashamed of what it is. And it's poetic that this approach to adapting it reflects the very attitude of its main character. That is the spirit of the source material coming through. (And "My Sails are Set" is just a beautiful song.)
We give alot of leeway to anime characters, in their mannerisms, humor and overreactions, that don't translate well to live action. I personally find fantastical combat often looks quite odd in live action. Lord of the rings action vs Hobbit action comes to mind, the dwarf combat just looked very odd, in comparison to Gimli. (Legolas in lotr had some of this too, mostly because of the dated animation) They could benefit by making more serious or grounded anime into live action, such as Psychopass, Vinland, Violet Evergarden which could become quite critically acclaimed if done well. There's also something to be said about the creators/directors of these live actions, they are usually untested directors or responsible for a strew of mediocre movies, yet we expect them to turn it around and make a 8-9/10 movie.
I wish they would stop with the live actions already. It gives me an icky feeling of "we're elevating this animation to real people acting status" which is completely unnecessary. Like you said, there's a reason these stories were first made into animation. If anything, they should maybe update the originals? I would love to see a remastered version of ATLA, because the image quality and format aged... not the best, let's put it this way. If they were to make the animation a bit smoother, expand on the format, that would be much nicer (and also, no, not the 3d rendered animation. 2d, just improved upon a bit). That's a much better use of budget in my opinion LOL they wouldn't have to rerecord the voice acting - because that's basically perfect in the original, so it would only be a visual 'upgrade', if you will
I'm just glad they swapped from trying to make a manga/anime into a live action movie.....ONE MOVIE. There's nooooooo way to fit a whole tv show accurately into a movie and not be bad imo. Making a live action tv series was a great idea and they're still working on perfecting it.
I would argue that Sokka's sexism DID age well. Why? Because he overcame it. Yes, it's gross to begin with, but he grew and changed, and that's awesome.
I just find them uncessary. I love Steins;Gate for example but I am not asking for it to be live action. Never did I watch FMA or Avatar and think "This would be better in live action". I just think that even when they are good, or okay, they are still worse than the original version. If I am going to rewatch one, it will be the original, not the live action. The only purpose I can think of for them existing is to get people who don't like animation to watch these shows. But is that necessary? If they don't want to watch them then that is an okay option. I love FMA but I don't need my Grandma to see it.
All the points you making can be Applyed to the SuperHeroes movies too.... u.u but the thing that most Adaptations Be Mangá/book/HQ's fail is because they not really interested in the history or the source material they just Want to use the IP/Image an the fans of those successful franchises to make money... so they cut corners in production, change unnecessary things and hire writers and directors who don't know nothing or care about the materials and all that lead to this BAD adaptations!!
I wonder if Frieren would work well as a live-action show? It would translate better if they kept the story but used the aesthetic of Lord of the Rings instead, avoiding having the actors wear brightly colored wigs. I heard that part of the reason characters in anime have colored hair is to reflect their personality types anyway so 🤷🏻♀. But perhaps ignoring the anime/manga aesthetic would ruin the identity of the story? Not sure 🤔
Dragonball Evolution is largely responsible for the bad feelings towards live action adaptations. It's a special kinda not good. Might be worth watching just for the fun.
Ultimately, here are my observations for why these live actions don’t work 1) many times they’re cringey. I enjoyed live action one piece but that doesn’t negate the fact that it was still cringey. The Dutch angles and fish eye angles were awful. And it’s also cringey when the scene is not realistic. Like emotions are more so things to get through, not to actually feel and experience. Like when Nojiko and Nami meet on that log and one of them is crying and one of them says one thing and they’re like “oh wow I didn’t know” and that’s the end of that deep emotional pain. Like I just didn’t buy it. 2) another major thing is simply that I’m convinced often times these movies and tv shows are not made or run by people who actually enjoy and understand the series. Simply for the fact that they make the sorts of choices like you described - cutting stuff down, pacing, removing the heart and soul - how would a genuine fan who understands the material do that? I can’t fathom it. What you said was great. But these are just my additional thoughts
I really think that if you're making just a single movie based on a TV show, you need to focus on a smaller part of the story and not get too ambitious. And I genuinely would love to see a movie that's just like an expanded version of Reole or the mining town, or maybe a combination: something that makes it easy to introduce them as characters and lets them be cool but also has some of that drama about their past and about Ed's status as a state alchemist Alternatively, if you wanna include Nina then make Nina the main story. She deserves it. I could see a movie that did something maybe similar to the 2003 anime where they sort of combine the backstory and the state alchemist exam with the Nina story (I don't mean replicating the 2003 anime version exactly, but I think moving it earlier was an effective adaptational choice. Of course it does mean the brothers would be younger though) The only thing is that idk how to give it a satisfying ending as a movie because it's obviously a huge bummer but you still need Ed to get his drive back in the end
You should watch the original Japanese live action Death Note movies. They are so much better. Rurouni Kenshin & Bakuman are also quite good. The only gripe I have with Alita is that they pretty much completely omitted Hugo's motivation. I seem to also remember enjoying Ghost in the Shell as well but it has been too long since I've seen it so I don't remember.
1:44-1:55 omg why do you and every other youtuber keep forgetting that the runtimes of the live action shows and the animated shows aren’t the same. This is a tired criticism. Each episode of the one piece live action and the Avatar live action is an hour long as opposed to the animated shows episodes which are about 20 minutes each. Also seriously?! 61 episodes of one piece? You included a filler arc multiple filler episodes and the whole Loguetown arc that wasn’t covered (the showrunner said he’ll cover it next season) the live action covered 44 episodes of anime not 61. Also ATLA has ZERO excuse for pacing issues if anything it has too much time to cover its content
Live action manga/anime adaptations will never work, because of the fact that manga/anime are often over the top in terms of comedy, drama, action, fantasy (and much more) elements. There are a few anime/mangas that are quite in the western style of storytelling, like for example Perfect Blue or Millenium Actress, that would work in a live action format. Ghost in the shell and Alita worked for me, not as good as the originals, but they're ok adaptations. But most of them, and surely most of those popular ones are just not adaptable. It won't help if the director will be good and loves source material, if the script will be good, the budget will be big, casting spot on and so on. Most of anime/manga won't work in live action. There is a better chance of making a good video game adaptations than anime/manga and I hope Hollywood and other studios won't try to mindlessly make one after another. Some things are better the way they are.
I just don’t see the point in all these live actions except for profit. 90% of them even if they’re decent don’t really add anything to the source material who is already good and well loved. Just adapt a new story god knows they’s enough of good ones out there. And what really bothers me about this live action trend is that animation as a medium is loosing popularity (not talking about anime here). I’d love to see animated adaptations of fantasy series everything would look so much better and cooler but all we get a boring live adaptions like the Wheel of Time. Sure there’s the odd Game of Thrones and The Witcher s1-2 succesful adaptations but they’re definitely exceptions, most of them are at best mediocre.
I just watched a guy compare a scene from the mexican breaking bad adaptation Metastasis to the original scene. It's wild how different a scene can be with the same characters in the same setting with the same script. One clear example is a part where Walt says "just for the record, i think we should all be wearing masks". In the original, walt delivers it almost like a disappointed parent preparing himself to say "i told you so." It is walt trying to regain control of the situation, trying to downplay how much deep shit he's in, trying to show his authority and expertise. In Metastasis, the line is delivered like Walt actually cares about safety, like he's very concerned about the fumes and wants everyone to have masks. It's VERY different and it feels like the differences come from nobody on set understanding what the purpose of the lines actually are, what aspects of the character they are conveying.
Okay but why is live action Luffy in the thumbnail of this? The One Piece live action isn't bad and I personally think that Iñaki Godoy as Luffy was one of the better parts.
For One Piece specifically, it's not just involvement from Oda. from watching interviews with the showrunner we can tell from the conversations that he truly a huge OP fanboy. he's not writing just from his own personal interpretations, but apparently he also seem to have talked to other OP content creators for second opinions. Owens did not find it too challenging to convince Oda to accept the changes that he proposed. The original script was closer to the source material (Hachi was in the original script) but due to the budget constraints they had to rewrite Arlong Park arc. So I'm guessing that the name drop on the dancing lion and chouchou's brief cameo may have been added after rewriting the script.
