The Old School Otaku Lounge

Ok, so currently we have a live-action Ghost in the Shell, a live-action Robotech, and a live-action Astro Boy all in various degrees of being in the works (I guess we still can't completely rule out Akira, either, since that doesn't seem to be completely dead yet)...I'm not completely against a live-action Ghost in the Shell, but the fact that they want Scarlet Johanson as the Major kinda makes me a bit. A live-action Robotech seems like a pipe-dream....I'm not convinced that would be something that would perform very well at the box office unless it had an all-star cast, amazing budget, and a well-written script (all 3 seem very unlikely). Out of all of those, really I think Astro Boy would be the only one that could MAYBE do well? But considering what a flop the last Astro Boy film was, and how AB is definitely not the well-known character he used to be in US mainstream, I'm not really holding out any hope (although I heard some of the people behind the Lego movie want to do it, and that was a fun movie, so...I suppose it's possible?)

It just seems like Hollywood's on a weird anime kick lately. What do you guys think?

Other than Speed Racer, which was actually a bit groundbreaking in terms of use of CGI in live action, there has almost never been a good Hollywood adaptation of an anime.

Plus, there's always something inherently tacky about live actioning something that's already set in people's minds in animated form. I don't think Hollywood adaptations of anime is that far from the likes of live action versions of Garfield, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and Yogi Bear in terms of "stuff that makes me roll my eyes". In other words, they should really not even do it.

I don't think anyone in Hollywood has ever wanted to do a faithful adaptation of anime. They won't even do faithful adaptations of American cartoons (See GI Joe, Transformers, or Inspector Gadget). Hollywood types have creative egos and they're going to make what they want to make regardless of what title is attached to their movie. They'll keep the basic premise and characters, but nothing is sacred.

Have you ever heard of the term "Bayformers"? It's what fans of Transformers call the movie Transformers that look like they've been through a blender. The thing is though, that is exactly what people like Michael Bay want: The important thing about the Transformers movies is not Transformers, but Michael Bay.

I don't expect faithfulness from Hollywood so it's easy for me to just not care at all what they do with anime movies. As for the Scarlett Johansson thing, I don't see how it is a disappointment to anyone: disappointment implies high expectations. Big budget American movies are going to have white actors as leads, period, with exceptions like Will Smith proving the rule. And I wouldn't expect any other country to make its own version of an American story to hire all American actors. They need to make the story accessible to their own people, and the fact is that people like faces that look like their own.

So Hollywood egos + subtle racisms means we're never going to see a faithful anime adaption with Japanese leads from Hollywood.

Those are my thoughts anyway!

Danth--- you are absolutely right. I really do need to remember to lower my expectations even lower than they are already...these adaptations are never meant to be taken very seriously.

I have heard that Edge of Tomorrow was a surprisingly good adaptation of the "All you need is kill" novel/manga, but they totally fucked it up by changing the name for the DVD/blu-ray release to "Live.Die.Repeat", which I'm sure confused a hell of a lot of people. Ugh...Hollywood. :p

Yep, edge of tommorrow was good, but as you said, it's a manga/novel adaptation, and print to film are usually better than anime to live action. I realize many anime are based on manga too, but I'll talk about it another time.

Ahhh, let us not conflate racism as the same or equal to the long-known issue of 'they just don't get it' when it comes to adapting ANYTHING, let alone anime.

Casting Scarlett Johanssen as Mokoto isn't 'whitewashing' (that phrasing in itself a horrible mayfly media construct) because the character isn't Japanese. Yeah, even regardless of her name.

Or rather, she doesn't LOOK Japanese, because anime chara never look Japanese unless there is a specific reason to use a visual stereotype.

If a live action Ghost in the Shell were to be done by a Japanese studio, they'd use a Japanese actress. Probably. They might choose a S. Korean singer for the slightly 'exotic' air. Or more likely because of some cross-national money/rights/production deal.

But as to the core of Hollywood screwing up any anime adaption, deal with it. Happens with books, happens with plays, happens with re-imagining a previously produced version, happens when a TV series gets picked.

Lots of reasons why. Lots. Insecurity. Lack of faith in the parent material. Copyright issues. way way too many brain dead people in positions of power, feeling a burning need (insecurity!) to prove they're JUST AS GOOD and JUST AS SMART as a writer, producer or director.

I mean, David Lynch is by all accounts a pretty with-it man (tho clearly deeply, deeply disturbed) so he should have gotten the POINT of Dune the relationship of the politics, the Spice, the Spacing Guild and what Paul threatened, but that 'rain on the whole planet' ending showed that the visual trumped everything. (for those that don't know Dune, that ending meant the complete death of star travel for the entire civilization, as rain like that would kill ALL the worms and it was the Spice that allowed safe starflight. blah blah. )

But to paraphrase others, a crappy Hollywood adaption doesn't kill enjoying the original. Unless you don't have a copy in your collection.

I'm already placing bets that Hollywood's take on Ghost in the Shell is going to be absolute dreck. It will be dumbed down to appeal to the U.S. masses, the philosophical elements will be jettisoned in favor of mindless action, and Scarlet Johansson will be on hand to give yet another one of her lifeless performances.

I am intrigued about the possibility of a Robotech movie and how that'll be handled. I'd much rather see a live-action adaptation of it than have Harmony Gold continue to sit on the property and do nothing with it, save for the yearly DVD re-release (ugh).

Astro Boy will be interesting too, but I have my suspicions it'll be similar to the CGI film they did a few years back. I'd much rather see a Gigantor film. Hollywood seems dead set on picking properties that would be difficult to translate to live-action. Dragonball being one of them. I can see Death Note working well. To a lesser degree, even Evangelion or Gundam...but only if a director was a fan of the source material like, for example, Peter Jackson with LOTR (even if he did make a ton of changes to The Hobbit).

Unfortunately, at this point, I have scant hope for enjoying nearly any film being churned out by Hollywood these days, whether they be films adapted from anime or not. What little faith I had left was finally erased last year after watching 2014's Godzilla, a movie so terrible I can barely put into words how disgusted I was that I paid to see that trash.

At least there was one anime that Hollywood succeeded in translating well, that being Guyver 2: Dark Hero.

SteveH - I don't necessarily think that people's complaints about not having a Japanese woman as the lead in GitS are invalid. A lot of people online brought up the fact that Pacific Rim's Rinko Kikuchi would have been a perfect choice (she looks a LOT like the major in the film, I kind of agree! She looks pretty darn similar to the source material here: http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/976x549/p01cvng2.jpg). I mostly roll my eyes at the fact that Johansen just seems to be everyone's choice for a lead action female now, ie Avengers, Lucy, ect. While I don't HATE her, I just find that kinda boring and would've liked to see them try someone different for a change...but like Danth pointed out, that's probably me expecting way too much out of Hollywood: They don't really care that much, it's all just a cash-grab for them usually when it comes to adaptations of any sort. It's become more vaguely-amusing than disappointing lately. And you're right--new versions of things definitely don't alter or kill the original source material. (I definitely have a laugh when people claim remakes of things "ruin their childhood"...if that's all it takes, it must not have been very good in the first place!)

Char - I'm not sure if Harmony Gold has a hand in it or they're just making money off of someone using the Robotech name (probably the later). I can see Astro Boy being a hit with kids if they play their cards right, but considering how lousy the last CGI movie did, who knows? They're already trying to make a new Astro Boy animated film, but this one looks to be less CGI and more flat-animation, which I think is at least an interesting style choice. It's being produced by a French animation company working with Tezuka Pro, so it could go either way. (I'm much more interested in how that will be at this point than any live-action movie, lol.)

What will make or break the Scarlett Johansen thing for me is whether or not the movie is set in Tokyo. If it is, and they keep the name Major Kusanagi, it's going to seem pretty silly.

usamimi wrote:I don't necessarily think that people's complaints about not having a Japanese woman as the lead in GitS are invalid. A lot of people online brought up the fact that Pacific Rim's Rinko Kikuchi would have been a perfect choice

I couldn't agree more, Rinko Kikuchi would have been a fantastic choice. Typically, I find no fault with Hollywood using non-Japanese actors in adaptations so that the films would appeal to the mainstream American public. It's just the nature of the beast. But Ghost in the Shell is the exception. Motoko Kusanagi is portrayed as Japanese in the anime/manga, or at the least, utilizing a Japanese cyborg body. And, unless Hollywood changes the character's very Japanese name and identity, it's going to be laughable to see Johansson play the role.

On a further note, Hollywood has had a mixed history of portraying futuristic cyberpunk on the big screen, and they already have the cards stacked agains them with GitS. Fans of the source material will be turned off, and it'll be the studios goal to appeal to newcomers of the brand (which is not something Hollywood is well-versed in doing anymore). If Hollywood wants cyberpunk, William Gibson's Neuromancer would have been the ideal choice. I'm sure they would cast Johansson as Molly Millions.

The one manga/anime that I would love to see Hollywood tackle is Golgo 13, especially if they base it off the 1983 anime. As long as they don't give us a wimpy PG-13 version, I'd be all for it.