live-action versions of anime

[kndy]

"Gatchaman" Trailer 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... VKaIFxQa98

"Gatchaman" Trailer 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... xFLfsUz1XQ

[greg]

Wow, that looks pretty cool! The costumes look pretty great for a live-action rendition. Updated, yet still faithful. Not quite as bird-like. Still, this is about as close as an American comic book-style superhero movie that Japan can come close to. I kept waiting for something in the trailer to really grip me and make me exclaim, "Badass!" It didn't happen, but that's not to say that the movie will be weak. Should be interesting.

[usamimi]

Wow, looks pretty cool! I hope the movie will at least fun to watch.

[_D_]

Dunno. Hard sell internationally. In the original as well as the spin offs, the characters do not look Japanese at all (I know they are supposed to be because of the Japanese names) which made it easy to sell the show overseas. Still might be worth a look. Will need a review by someone in Japan going to see this...

Did check out the trailers. The problem I always had with most of the Japanese productions wasn't just limited to the area of operation. In Gatchaman you knew Galactor was an International organization and so, operated all over the world. Gatchaman was under the auspices of the UN and as such was also an international organization. In most Henshin and Sentai shows, the logical conclusion would be for the evil organization to just operate outside of Japan. That solves the problem of the do gooders out to stop them. That seldom happened though. Of course, since the shows were intended for a young Japanese audience that wasn't a problem, nor was it one for me. This is after all, escapist literature. But flash forward to the 21st Century and now the world is known to every school age kid because of the media bombardment and everything is still operating out of Japan? Why? And the villains are still too dumb to move off the islands? Why? Quite illogical...

Still, as a popcorn flick when I have nothing else to watch some night or like today when it's the summer solstice and its rainy out, might be worth a look...

[greg]

Has anyone seen the live action Ashita no Joe movie? I caught it subbed on a plane to Japan a few years ago. It was a pretty cool boxing drama. I couldn't tell you about the manga whatsoever, but the movie was interesting.

[Path]

Anyone see the live action Space Brothers movie? I saw it on the way to Japan, but I've never seen the anime. Does it compare at all?

[_D_]

That title always sticks in my mind as something that would have been done by Blaxploitation film makers back in the 1970s...

[Animusubi]

This was announced in May, but I guess there's a live-action Kite movie coming out: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... instein-co

[usamimi]

Yeah, they've been trying to get that movie made & off the ground for a little while now. (At least 2 years, iirc.) I'm curious to see if/when it does eventually get released....I wasn't too excited about it at first because the original director's list of previous work (his movies include Snakes on a Plane, the Final Destination movies, and a few other "so bad they're watchable" films ^^; ) But Samuel L Jackson keeps talking it up, saying it's a good project, so...I'd at least give it a shot, I think.

[usamimi]

Looks like Mamoru Oshii will be working on the new live-action Patlabor movie: http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2 ... or-project