Most manga-to-anime adaptations have been successful endeavors. In some cases, there are even anime adaptations that shone more brightly than their original written-and-drawn counterparts.
The live action gig is another terrain altogether, and not all of them receive the same brand of success. However, there has been an explosion of live-action adaptations recently, and considering the upcoming lineup alone, it’s worth checking out if some might just live up to its considerable hype.
We enumerate the five upcoming live-action adaptations. Do you think you’ll be looking forward to any one of them?
Yowamushi Pedal
Wataru Watanabe’s Yowamushi Pedal will have a live action premiering on Aug. 26. To get fans ramped up, a new set of photos, this time showing off the mainstays of the Hakone team have been released through its official Twitter.
Most of the cast are reprising their roles from the stage play adaptations of the manga. However, the three newbies of the Shohoku team, Sakamichi Onoda, Shunsuke Imaizumi, and Shoukichi Naruko, will be portrayed by Yuuki Ogoe, Tatsunari Kimura and Taiga Fukazawa respectively.
As far as looks go, most of the cast look the part for the Hakone team, particularly Eiji Takigawa (Juichi Fukutomi), Hiroki Suzuki (Yasutomo Arakita), and Ryo Kitamura as Jinpachi Toudo.
The first and second seasons of the Yowamushi Pedal anime are a must-watch, from my bias seiyuus to the great pacing that had me going through an unexpected marathon ride (no pun intended). At the very least, fans of the anime can while the time away with the movie before the third season gets aired.
Gintama
With the recently concluded anime, fans are at a loss for what mangaka Hideaki Sorachi has up his sleeve for the future of his masterpiece Gintama.
Followers of the manga are still hoping that BN Pictures studio is just looking to get more material to work with to continue the anime. There are only a few chapters left from where the last episode took off, though fans could argue that there are also a lot of skipped short comedy arcs to work with.
To give hope for fellow fans, a long-standing rumor of a live-action film has been confirmed. And before you say "Troll!" there's already a name linked to play the role of Gintoki. He's none other than Shun Oguri, who is most known for his work in Detective Conan and Great Teacher Onizuka.
Gintama fans, what do you think? Does Oguri-san fit the bill as the white-haired, lazy-bum samurai to the letter? If you ask me, the most important aspects of Gintoki to get are the dead eyes, which change immensely when he gets into battle, protect-his-nakamas mode. After all, we can’t do anything about the voice. Let’s all just hope that the rest of the manga gets animated to get our fix of Tomokazu Sugita.
Death Note
Adaptations, when done right, is a great way to extend a franchise. One rather recent proof of this is Prison School, which got every look of the characters right. From the Gakuto’s (portrayed by Tokio Emoto) insanity and verbosity to the personified appeal of the shapely fuku kaichou (played by Meiko Shiraki).
In the American adaptation of Death Note, not the same can be said outright. For starters, the recent sighting of production on-site shows who appears to be L out in public in front of a press conference.
According to Crunchyroll, the adaptation sees The Fault in Our Stars’ Nat Wolff as Light Turner, Margaret Qualley as Mia Sutton and Keith Stanfield as L. Granted, this is an American adaptation, so the fact that L’s race was different may be a different treatment that Netflix wants to portray.
What’s a little disappointing is the fact that seeing L in public is already a different treatment to the story itself. Unless the images spotted reenact the first twist in Death Note, then the mysteriousness of L in the anime and manga may not be what fans are looking for.
Still, it’s a must-watch, if only to see the kind of treatment that Netflix will approach the Death Note live adaptation. It’s planned for release sometime in 2017, so there’s still quite a few months for polishing.
I personally loved the anime version of Death Note. Miyano Mamoru’s voicing for Light’s decline from bored A-student to obsessive character was a true descent to madness with just his voice alone. If the production is not staying true to the material, let’s hope it interprets L in a manner that serves the character justice.
Your Lie in April
The official website for the live-action adaptation of Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso) has a new poster and some stills worth checking out. The muted colors of the poster with a backdrop of cherry blossoms resounds with the anime adaptation.
While not all of the characters have a certain depth in the anime/manga, Your Lie in April is definitely one of the sleeper hits of its season. The art and animation alone are great, though I wonder if the same feeling of monotone and color clash will be demonstrated in the live-action.
The cast includes Kento Yamazaki, Suzu Hirose, Anna Ishii, and Taishi Nakagawa. The film will be out in theaters in Japan on Sept. 10.
Chihayafuru 2
A sequel has been set for the live-action version of Chihayafuru. The announcement followed the English-subtitled streaming for the trailer of the two-part film in Fantasia International Film Festival, as spotted by Anime News Network.
The sequel film will star Suzu Hirose (Chihaya Ayase), Shuuhei Nomura (Taichi Mashima), Mackenyu (Arata Wataya), Yuuki Morinaga (Tsutomu Komano), and Yuuma Yamato (Yuusei Nishida).
I've only seen a handful of the episodes for the anime, and I must say that the characters are worth remembering. Action-wise, there's not a lot you can really do with the karuta game, but if you're looking for character exploration in a quieter manner than say Kuroko no Basuke or some other sports-anime, this is a good go-to. From the looks of the characters in the live-action, it's already looking hopeful and good.
Tokyo Ghoul
Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul is no newbie to live-action adaptations. As early as June of this year, Kotaku has spotted the first clues of a live-action movie for the franchise.
Alongside this, Tokyo Ghoul is also reported for a special Stage Play event. This may be the sequel to the stage play from two years back, and will be set to run in Tokyo and Osaka come summer of 2017. Fans will be happy to know that the stage play and movie are both set to open summer next year.
Some of the cast from the stage play will reportedly return. Hopefully that includes Mitsu Murata and Shogo Suzuki, who portrayed Uta and Nishiki Nishio respectively.
Since I loved the anime, I am looking forward to this live-action adaptation. How they’ll get Kaneki and the gang to have Kagune sprouting from their backs alone is worth seeing—just please don’t let it be a CGI disaster.
P to JK
Do you prefer a live-action that makes you go doki-doki instead? Those who are more into light-hearted shoujo can look forward to this little rom-com P and JK.
Anyone slightly familiar with the Japanese language—or, if you’re like me who watched enough animes in subbed form to understand some of its slang words—P here means police, while JK is the shortened form of Joshi Kousei or a high school girl. As the title suggests, it’s romance between a high school girl and a policeman.
Maki Miyoshi’s ongoing series will now be adapted as a live-action film coming in spring of 2017. According to Crunchyroll, Tao Tsuchiya and Kazuya Kamenashi have been signed to portray the lead roles of Kako Motoya and Kota Sagano respectively.
I’ve only truly appreciated and loved one shojo manga/anime adapted to live action, Honey and Clover. And that’s the Japanese version, starring Toma Ikuta, Riko Narumi, Osamu Mukai, Hiroki Narimiya, and Natsuki Harada. For me, that’s the only version that managed to keep the humor while delivering all the right tugs that Hachimitsu to Kuroba was known for.
From what I've read in the manga, P to JK goes the usual route of maiden humor, especially since it's high school girls we're dealing with here. Of course what made it intriguing was the fact that, hey--it's love between a policeman and a high school girl. It's like a teacher-student scandal waiting to happen.
The manga is actually too fast-paced for my taste. I need a little more convincing to believe the way they met and fell in love, given that age difference. But if the live-action adaptation manages to arrange that right without sounding preachy, this could be an interesting film to see.