The Old School Otaku Lounge

usamimi wrote:Oooh, looks like we finally got confirmation that the live-action Kiki movie is real! http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... ry-service

Sounds like it'll be more like an adaptation of the original novel than the Ghibli movie, though, so that might mean a lot of differences.

I kinda like that the chose not to follow Ghibli's version and will stick to the novels, so they will both stand alone, so to speak. I love the animated film, but I'm very anxious to see a live action. I'd love the read the original novels too!

They actually released the novel in English a few years ago: http://www.amazon.com/Kikis-Delivery-Se ... 1550377884

I never picked it up because I thought the cover looked dreadful, but from the prices apparently it's becoming harder to find so maybe I will eventually...

usamimi wrote:They actually released the novel in English a few years ago: http://www.amazon.com/Kikis-Delivery-Se ... 1550377884

I never picked it up because I thought the cover looked dreadful, but from the prices apparently it's becoming harder to find so maybe I will eventually...

My god. I swear I own that book (purchased and never read many years back) but I have no idea where it wandered off to. I hope it turns up one day, because at those prices I doubt I'll be able to re-buy it.

usamimi wrote:Oooh, looks like we finally got confirmation that the live-action Kiki movie is real! http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... ry-service

Sounds like it'll be more like an adaptation of the original novel than the Ghibli movie, though, so that might mean a lot of differences.

I had no idea that Majou no Takkyuubin was a series of 6 novels! I thought it was just one book. Sounds like the Japanese equivalent to Harry Potter. If they do it right, this could be a real goldmine of opportunity.

EDIT: Oh my crap, you are right about the cover of the book. Way to go, making the protagonist of the book look like she belongs in some special ed class. Their second choice to portray Kiki must have been this girl:

Yeah, I'm kind of sad that they've only translated one book in English :/ I guess the book didn't sell enough to warrant the rest of the series.

Awww! I just assume that the publishing company didn't have the money to really get a decent cover artist...but really, did they have to go with THAT? They could've easily just have done a simple cover with maybe one of the original Japanese illustrations, or even just a silhouette of a witch on a broom. That painting just...makes me cringe every time I see it.

EDIT: OH! I forgot to mention that it seems like Guillermo del Toro and Steven Thompson (Dr. Who, Sherlock) are working together to make a pilot for HBO for a series based on Naoki Urasawa's "Monster". http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2 ... nga-at-hbo

Now, part of me wants to be excited for this because 1. I LOVE "Monster", 2. I love del Toro, 3. I like Sherlock well enough & it has pretty sharp writing and 4. a TV series is a lot more reasonable for a long-running series like this than that movie idea for Monster New Line was throwing around a while back. But at the same time, I have a few concerns. Namely: 1. since it's for HBO, I'm worried they'll inject this series with a lot of random/unnecessary sex (there is literally next to none in this series), given how for both Trueblood & GoT has been handled and 2. they'll turn Tenma into a white dude. Now, I know since they're "localizing" the story for an English-speaking audience, that would make sense, but at the same time that's kind of a key element in the story: it takes place in Germany, and the main character is on the run from the law, and him being Japanese sometimes makes him stick out like a sore thumb...thus adding to his difficulties, yadda yadda. Since they're in Germany, everyone else can obviously be as white as HBO wants to make 'em, but if they make Dr. Tenma a white dude, too...well, there goes half of the danger and urgency from the plot.

usamimi wrote:Now, part of me wants to be excited for this because 1. I LOVE "Monster", 2. I love del Toro, 3. I like Sherlock well enough & it has pretty sharp writing and 4. a TV series is a lot more reasonable for a long-running series like this than that movie idea for Monster New Line was throwing around a while back. But at the same time, I have a few concerns. Namely: 1. since it's for HBO, I'm worried they'll inject this series with a lot of random/unnecessary sex (there is literally next to none in this series), given how for both Trueblood & GoT has been handled and 2. they'll turn Tenma into a white dude. Now, I know since they're "localizing" the story for an English-speaking audience, that would make sense, but at the same time that's kind of a key element in the story: it takes place in Germany, and the main character is on the run from the law, and him being Japanese sometimes makes him stick out like a sore thumb...thus adding to his difficulties, yadda yadda. Since they're in Germany, everyone else can obviously be as white as HBO wants to make 'em, but if they make Dr. Tenma a white dude, too...well, there goes half of the danger and urgency from the plot.

I admit that I'm not a HUGE fan of "Monster" (still not entirely sure if I like it or not after watching the full run), but I don't think the "he's JAPANESE, in GERMANY" thing was THAT big a deal. Yes, it's remarked upon at times, but if you're a notorious enough criminal (or "accused"), especially in the current days of the internet, it's very hard to stay anonymous. I'm not saying they SHOULD localize him, I'm just saying the whole story seems to pull from "The Fugitive" anyway, and that had a white guy in a "majority white" country and still got the urgency of it all. To make that happen they might increase the role of one or more cops.

Well, the story takes place in the 80s, so no internet....I think that would be something that would make his being Japanese more of a problem: people might not know what he looked like, but they hear the criminal's Japanese and that would automatically make him more suspicious.

Granted, they could totally change it and make it in a present day setting, but I think that would also throw it off a bit. It made him a tad easier to hide and run--with the internet, like you said, it would make that a LOT harder to be anonymous anywhere. I think that was a factor in Urusawa writing the story that way, most likely.

The story could be re-written for a white guy but I'm not really a fan of casting white actors into everything. Having a Japanese male lead in a series would be a nice change, really, I can't think of many instances were an Asian male was the lead character on a tv show (albeit a cable one, since it'd be on HBO).

Devil Takaman (featuring the comedy duo, Tunnels)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PLVPWDidU8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuliYaAEk8w

A live-action Yukikaze film is planned, starring... Tom Cruise.
http://www.slashfilm.com/tom-cruise-con ... -yukikaze/

I could ask a new friend of mine who has worked with del Toro in Toronto. If I can get down to Toronto when he is at one of the fan expos, I can ask him myself...