“Why Hollywood Anime Movies Are So Rubbish”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Apr 18, 2012 21:57 JST
- Tags: Adaptations, Akira, Dragonball, Hollywood, Movies, Rankings, Statistics, USA
Japanese quizzed about why it is they loathe Hollywood’s unending stream of atrocious anime and game adaptations (the likes of Dragonball and Street Fighter naturally being top of the list) provide reasons even the crazy foreigners responsible may be able to comprehend.
The top 5 reasons given and some of the responses:
1. The cast of the original and the movie are totally unalike – 42.9%
“I get the feeling they usually change the characters to fit the actors they want to use.”
“Even domestic adaptations can be dubious, but with overseas tastes they become even more so!”
“At least cast Japanese for Japanese characters…”
2. The hero isn’t Japanese but a foreigner – 39%
“It’s hard to sympathise with a foreigner.”
“If there are foreigners, it ruins your internal image of the characters.”
“They can’t portray the feelings of a Japanese.”
3. It’s totally different to the original – 36.8%
“What’s the point of making them like this. As a fan, you’d rather they didn’t bother.”
“They always ignore the essence of the original.”
“Usually only the title is recognisable.”
4. The characters have had their backgrounds completely altered – 23.7%
“At least leave the characters intact!”
“They totally ignore the originals.”
5. It’s just some action movie now – 19.7%
“It’s nigh on impossible to reproduce an anime in a movie.”
“You just can’t reproduce an anime setting in a live action movie.”
And Akira isn’t even out yet…
Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 “Owner’s Mode” = “SJW Bait”
Musaigen no Phantom World Relentlessly Cute
Dragon Quest Stage Event Highly Promising
Project X Zone 2 Trailer Hits Hard
Kagura Ero-Figure Extremely Tentacular
Monmusu BD “Bigger With Every Release!”
MLP Futanari: “Bronies Weirder Than Ever…”
Blade & Soul Launch Unexpectedly Voluptuous
Nisemonogatari Pachinko Machine Unveiled
Lax Lady Venera Figure
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Ceaselessly Naughty
“Abusive” Breast-Groping Fundraiser Molested by Petition
Hanayo Koizumi’s Birthday Highly Revered
Toyota Prius CM Goes Full KanColle Mode
Usamimi Anette-san Micro-Bikini Figure
A Full Course Dream 3some “An Otaku Wet-Dream”
Dimension W “Both Cute & Grotesque!”
Monster Monpiece Naked Trailer Shamelessly Shameless
Digimon Adventure Tri PV Full of Promise
Tekken Moves Performed in Real Life
Adorable Ati Cosplay by Kaieda Kai Kemonomimi Chaos
Momo Velia Deviluke Cosplay Bursting With Bridal Beauty
Skimpy Sonico Cosplay Barely Contained
Kumiko & Reina Cosplay Hardly Blows At All
Skimpy Elf Bikini Cosplay by Saku Supremely Sexy
Gothic Lolita Hatsune Miku Cosplay Busts Out
Delectable Dizzy Cosplay by Lechat
Dark Elf Cosplay by Non Very Dark Indeed
Titillating Tamako Cosplay Perfectly Pink
Goddess of 2ch: “Full of Lust & Urges (& Also Videos)!”
To all the offended Americans in here, ask yourselves this: Would you not feel the same as they do if, hypothetically speaking, they do an adaptation of Batman, Spider-Man or some other popular superhero? Would you honestly not feel the same if Peter Parker looked like Takahashi Kenji instead?
"Witchblade" was based on an American comic, yet I liked the Japanese portrayal FAR better than the American one. (Yes, I am American.)
Oh by the way, I find that the batman mini series and dark knight movies a ton better than "batman XXXXXX" and X-men...
I saw part of an Ironman animation trailer from Japan, and it looked pretty good. The only problem? I could not recognize the villain at all...
At the same time I felt they did Spiderman's story wrong. It's the same with most of the American Movies: They try to squash everything into a small time frame, including all the background. Why not say "read a bit first!" so they can leave more of the movie to the movie rather than "let me spend half the movie on background". They do that in operas you know. It's called "The Programme".
they made spider-man epic and gave him a flying fortress transformer! Batman yeah don't see that working out well. I get your point.
Roger Smith is Japanese batman.
He's still "american" though.
But they do have a couple of Batman anime shorts, and a decent Wolverine anime and nobody cried.
No one is saying to put a western actor to portray a obviously japanese character.
Batman is obviously western, while Armor from X-Men is obviously japanese. To take a japanese actor to play Batman and a western girl to play Armor would ruin the characters we know all the same.
If not specified, there is no problem to get a random actor to play one character, as long as its obvious characteristics are kept. Goku is an alien in a world without "Japan" or "USA", so there is no problem in having a western actor to play him
Kyo Kusanagi's obviously Japanese, what's your point?
Anime is anime, we talkin' that tree-dee son where people are people. A modern adaptation if you want to be specific.
well actually they worked with Stan Lee and other Marvel executives to capture the essence of the Wolverine and X-Men anime's. Hollywood just buys the rights to an IP, and guts and remakes the whole in what they think will sell to american's. The Magnificent seven wasn't bad. I think if an adaptation is done right, won't matter who plays what, but I can't think of any Anime adaptation that Hollywood has done that keeps the Core essence. The ones bitching about it not being played by Japanese are just racist mo fuckers, or people angry at the the bad adaptation that they are agreeing with the racist mo fuckers, then again Hollywood is still racist as fuck. I recall a Live action Japanese based spider-man ages ago, but i could be wrong you should look it up. Then again look at power rangers here, most of the action scenes are cut and paste from the Japanese versions aside from a few scene, to keep some semblance of continuity, at least from the little I've seen of it. well anyways i'm rambling later.
Then why did "Storm" in X-men have to be black? Why aren't there more 'asian' and 'latin' people in these movies?
If you want to play the "you are racist, they take the essence", then you better say that in front of every foreign piece they screwed up.
Oh wait, Harry Potter isn't foreign. It's only produced by Warner Brothers with FOREIGN actors who happen to be BRITISH and MATCHING THE STORY!
...Except Susan Bones, who was played by a Yank. Which is why she lost her only lines in the whole series.
I'd be pissed. We gave them Sean Faris and Kristin Kreuk, let's hope they don't make some Japanese guy living in Gotham City who was adopted by some white people with the last name Wayne.
They did. A Spiderman series in the 70's infamous for his use of a sentai influenced mecha. Truth be told, the movie only sold because it had dragon ball in it's title.
Huh? It's already been done and no one is whinging.
Get off your high horse JAPAN.
Yeah I don't think we'd mind at all as long as they portray the character correctly. This shows Japan is racist as usual.
You mean feeling offended if the Japanese were to make a series about ancient Rome and then cast all the important characters as Japanese?
The explanation with that one is that since it is a Japanese guy that is transported back to Rome, and he keeps the same look he has and everyone just matches him in his mind, everyone "appears" to be Japanese to him. Now that on the outside he looks Roman, other Romans look normal to him, but since he was used to looking at Japanese faces, they actually look Japanese.
I heard that from some interview or something. It is a clever way to try to answer the question, but still pretty shit in the end.
To answer the question: No, not really.
And to add to that, I don't think there are any offended Americans. We all recognize the above is f'ing true.
Except like, all the people arguing about how Goku's casting didn't matter because he's not Japanese anyway - so why should Japan be QQ'ing? Then you get a completely white dude cast as Kyo Kusanagi and a half-Asian as Chun-Li as another anon mentioned. You'd wonder if it's really intentional or not.
See how you'd like it if they made a Japanese Superman and changed the whole story so that it's not even in Metropolis anymore. You probably can't 'sympathize with a foreigner' portraying a role you're familiar with, can you?
Actually i can sympathize with a communist superman who WORKS at some soviet farm.
Yet i hate movies, i don't even know why everyone is arguing in this post, come on people, we watch anime and read manga, fuck that 3D shit.
I think this statment is wrong. I think it should be: Why ALL anime to live action movies suck.
Japanese made live action anime movies are terrible too.
beck had a good live action movie :o
The Kimi ni Todoke live action was quite good actually. Gives the vibes of cheesyness which is good for this series.
The "cheesyness" is present in all Japanese live-action. It's just that some get away with it and others don't.
Honey and Clover bitches
Honey and Clover anime was great, but the movie was ridiculously AWFUL. That was an example of taking characters from their origin and completely raping them of their original personality.
If you disagree, tell me Shinobu in the movie is actually like the character from the anime.
Honey and Clover is so boring!
A great anime that was turned into a live action movie was "Toki wo kakeru shoujo". Great stuff. Also "Death note" wasn't bad either. Movie 1 and 2.
As for a great Japanese movie I've seen several (More bad than good really). Two that I can think of off the top of my head is "Departures" or "Okuribito" and "My darling is a foreigner"
In general, japanese live-action are terribly cheesy, overdone, and full of itself while being laughingstock of discerning audience. They try to take themselves so seriously and wind up looking childishly foolish.
Indeed. Japland is incapable of producing decent live-action drama/comedy/action for the basic reason that Japlandic actors are incapable of summoning real emotion in their performances.
Male Jap actors are hamstrung by their effeminate, ineffectual & bland nature. Female Jap actors are limited by their ice-cold & sexless nature.
Japan will always be a land that produces the movie-watching EQUIPMENT. Never the movie itself.
I thought Death Note was terrible and I am a film student. However, Japan has some great directors like Kurosawa.
"THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME" LIVE ACTION!!
WTF Does it have the same name never seen it.
AWESOME ANIME................................
triti
I think being called a weeaboo is better than being called a pretentious, foul-smelling bag of rotting dicks which, coincidentally, we're calling you. Good day, sir!
Its a live action based on the NOVEL.
NOT THE ANIME.
Even the anime is somewhat a sequel to the original novel.
01:46 you expect weeaboo scum to fact check before posting?!
Don't forget Ashita no Joe movie which i believed is one of the best movie for the series.
Other Japanese movies worth watching:
All about Lily Chou Chou
Aoi Haru
Audition
Funuke - show some love you losers
Outrage
The Legend of Goemon
Casshern
Usagi Drop
and for random fun The Incite Mill
I don't even delve that deep into the Japanese movie scene and was disappointed you didn't mention these. :(
¿Battle Royale?
Also Nodame Cantabile and anything directed by Miike.
In addition to the above, check out Confession (Kokuhaku) and 2LDK.
I agree with you but this article is about how Hollywood fucks up anime (or manga) inspired movies.
So Hollywood fucks them up not Japanese made movies.
In general I love Japanese (anime) live action movies, some do have that cheesy-ness but that kinda add to the overall feeling of such movies, it gives it character, IMO. LOVE Death Note <3
i didnt like the live action death notes at all...
So he states his opinion like everybody else..
so what ?
Japanese movies are generally terrible. There are some noble exceptions from this rule, but Japanese tend to ignore them (while said movies are winning film festivals around the world)
Yeah. Casting is the least of the problem for that stupid movie. It was just horrible. I'm sure if there were directors who were fans of the series and understood it well, it would've been at least a decent, if not good, movie.
Air
Clannad
Live action. What would it be?
Agreed and same goes for Hollywood. Hollywood makes EVERYTHING rubbish, this isn't so much about Japanese anime, look what they did with Avatar: the last air bender.
"Avatar: the last air bender" is not a Japanese anime. For me its an american cartoon that should be lined up with hanna-barbaric and disney cartoons.
No one said it was Japanese anime. Learn how to read.
There's no Avatar Airbender movie. It doesn't exist.
I keep on repeating this, so it must be true. IT... MUST...!
One other good example is Mortal Kombat.
Although Avatar: the last air bender is not a japanese anime we're talking about how hollywood fucks up all the cartoons and anime with their shit live action movies. Too sad they make that bullshit to sell it to american shitheads. If i was american, i would be ashamed of my country, my fatness and my puppet behavior.
Hollywood was just as quick to rape Yogi Bear and the Smurfs, sad to say.
Pretty much, the Detective conan Live Actions were made by the Japanese played by Japanese, but it doesn't stop them from any less horrible
Live action is fucking gay in all it's forms..
Kill it with fire and let the anime stay anime!
Yeah but tell me at least one live action movie from Hollywood who deserve recognition.
some of the "no so best" but best than Hollywood at least, that where made in japan are Gantz, Death Note, Blood: The Last Vampire, Mushishi.
and at least they preserve the characters and their background story no like Hollywood who transformed Goku in a 18 years old HighschoolBboy
Look at this: On his 18th birthday, a young high-school student and martial artist named Goku (Justin Chatwin) is given the 4-Star Dragonball by his grandfather, Grandpa Gohan (Randall Duk Kim). Returning home from a party hosted by his crush Chi-Chi (Jamie Chung), Goku finds his home destroyed and his grandfather near death after Piccolo's failed attempt to acquire the Dragonball.
Before he dies, Gohan tells Goku to seek out martial arts master Muten Roshi (Chow Yun-fat), who holds another one of the Dragonballs. Along the way, Goku meets Bulma Briefs (Emmy Rossum) of the Capsule Corporation, who was studying the 5-Star Dragonball until it was stolen by Mai.
very far from the original manga and the anime
now look at this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VolvOrdTCfs&feature=related
even the fans can make a decent movie more than Hollywood could. counting the experienced Director and the a greater budget that Hollywood have.
lol, I remember a Dragon Ball movie where Master Roshi did a dance to summon the Nimbus, Oolong was a fat kid and a lot of other crazy shit. So bad it's good.
the Chinese Dragonball! that's the one that counts!
Tell me a Hollywood adaptation who deserve the recognition, at least the Japanese Live action preserve the character and the story of the original anime or manga at some degree but Hollywood alter everything making an noble anime or manga a crap movie adaptation
have u watched Dragon-ball Evolution, is just stupid, haha! Goku as a 18 years old high school boy bullied by his classmates, when he was able to take the egg of a dinosaur and catch a fish bigger the Bus by himself when he was like 5-10 years old.
some of the japan live action most well done "no the best" but better than Hollywood are: Gantz, DeathNote,Blood the last Vampire,Casshern,Mushishi,Nana to Kaoru as examples
even the Fan-made Naruto clip is by far better that whatever Hollywood could make if they make a Naruto Live Action in the future--->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VolvOrdTCfs&feature=related
Agreed.
AGREED! The Death Note movies are just Cliff's Notes versions of the series with everything good sucked out.
Tried watching the anime.
Still wondering why a fucking moron like Light was considered a genius.
Then again I should know, the biggest idiots I've known were in Mensa.
Gantz the movie part 1 are cool even with out the oppai teleportation.
GTO is freaking awesome, so your statement is invalid.
THAT'S A LIE!
TMA make live action anime adaptations all the time and they're all high quality.
your name suits you sir. you win one internetz.
It's true. TMA is awesomesauce.
THANK YOU!!!
Japs just don't like to admit that their movies are just as bad if not WORST than Hollywood anime movies.
No, the Phoenix Wright film was better than anything Hollywood produced in a long time.
Yes even those made by the Japanese themselves usually suck terribly.
The biggest issues in my book are they don't stick to the story and decide to completely change it and somethings just don't translate to 3D well.
japanese films are just horrible, period.
I'd take them over the crappy Hollywood movies anytime.