Refusing to lie through his teeth, the director for the Fullmetal Alchemist anime (Seiji Mizushima) has spoken up in regards to the franchise’s imminent live action movie, stating that the cast won’t be able to pull it off and that using a full Japanese cast was a bad idea (which those still mourning the live action Ghost in the Shell movie will no doubt disagree with).
The established director apparently took part in a discussion had at Nikufes Tokyo 2017 (a well known meat-based event) of all places and was accompanied by producers Hiroshi Kanemaru (Popin Q) and Tomoki Misawa (Urawa no Usagi-chan) – the topic that was brought up was the trend of live action anime/manga film adaptations, of which Seiji Mizushima had choice words about.
While Mizushima believes that these adaptations have aided in garnering the medium popularity, he was not fond of them:
“It’s hard for actors to capture the look and feel of the original manga. 2D is freer than live action… you can express more with it.”
When asked about the Fullmetal Alchemist live action film, he stated:
“If you asked me whether I think the cast could pull it off, I’d say that no, they can’t.”
In addition, Mizushima also stated that the Gintama film “looked stupid” and that the Terra Formars one was “a bad adaptation of a great manga”.
The other producers present agreed with Mizushima’s harsh opinions – Mizushima did however reaffirm that he does want to see the Fullmetal Alchemist film succeed, and in particular was curious as to how good the 3D CG would be.
hmmm… at least this director have the balls to admit if they f♥♥k up and move on…unlike the majority of dickwads in Hollywood who made anime-to-live-action aberrations like Deathnote, Dragonball, Dead or Alive, and to a lesser extent Ghost in the shell…
only anime adaptation produced by Japanese that is passable in my own opinion is the Ruruoni Kenshin (Samurai X) trilogy…the rest are a hit or a miss…mostly a miss…
Live actions and anime don’t fucking MIX!!!!!
Two different worlds!!!
tiny yellow people
He is right, full Japanese cast for the characters that are a mash up of multiple nationalities and only a handful of them being asian is a stupid idea.
Considering that Full Metal Alchemist is essentially supposed to be taking place in a European setting, it really shouldn’t be an all Japanese cast. Much as Ghost in the Shell should’ve been a mostly Japanese cast.
That said, either way, live action of anime is generally a bad idea anyway. Much like game-to-movie adaptations, they tend to suck horribly. From terrible casting and acting to terrible effects and diluted plots, they miss all the things that made their original sources popular.
I was thinking this myself, if Ed is Japanese, the golden haired golden eyed guy, I will eat my hat.