Tarik Mohammed El-sayed
Live action anime adaptations had their major introduction in the 1990s and has only grown in popularity throughout the years, notable adaptations include Death Note (2017), Dragon Ball Evolutions (2009) and One Piece (2023-). Although not all have been successful, there recently has been a steady production of these adaptations with studios’ persistence to capitalise on the popularity of the genre. This can be seen by the sheer number of adaptations currently in production, such as the One Punch Man film, produced by Sony with Justin Lin directing, along with Netflix’s Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance (2024-), produced by the studio behind Godzilla vs. Kong (2021).
Not only does this reveal that these adaptations will be sticking around for a while, especially with the positive reception of Netflix’s One Piece with a rating of 8.3/10 on IMDb, but also that studios have a lot of trust in producing these adaptations. This can be seen in the budgets of these projects, some reaching up to $170 million for projects like 2019’s Alita: Battle Angel. But is this trust justified? And what caused this decision from numerous studios?
This rising trend of producing films and TV shows based on beloved anime has not always been the case. It could be argued that studios are following the surge in popularity of anime as a trend, following into the mainstream in recent years. Though modern anime began to shape in the 1960s with shows such as Astro Boy, its popularity was debatably limited in Western society until the late 1980s to 1990s with the releases of shows such as Dragon Ball (1986-1989), Pokémon (1997-2023) and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1996-1997).
However, though the popularity of anime in the West first developed during this period, I would argue its popularity reached a new level in the mid 2010s through its growing prominence in pop culture. This is evident across gaming with the impact of Pokémon and the rise of anime-inspired games such as Overwatch and its web mini-series, GENESIS, and Cyberpunk 2077 with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022).
Furthermore, the recent surge in live-action anime adaptations can be attributed to the popularity of modern-day streaming platforms such as Crunchyroll, which is exclusively for anime, and Netflix, which has been responsible for adapting beloved manga to anime, a highlight being Dandadan (2024-). Conventions can also be given credit for the spike in Western anime culture, such as Anime-Expo and Comic-Con, which have spiked in popularity in recent years. In particular, MCM Comic-Con London 2025 reported attendance reached over 100,000 guests this year, which is a major increase in attendance from its early days in 2010, having under 50,000 guests.
“Constant remakes and retellings of the same stories drain audiences from original story telling”
As to the question of whether these adaptations should keep being produced: in my opinion, no. These adaptations, while fun to see how a beloved anime can hold through a live action translation, the overwhelming majority of them end up being unsuccessful and somewhat poor quality in comparison to its source material, along with many being argued as controversial with ‘white-washing’. This can be seen in the reaction towards the 2017’s Ghost in the Shell and the casting of Scarlett Johansson as the lead actress taking on the role of an originally Asian character, leading to a 6.3/10 rating on IMDb of the film and grossing only $169.8 million against the budget of $110 million. Furthermore, while original fans criticise them for their failure to live up to the source material, general audiences criticise these adaptations for their unfamiliar and often strange plots.
There is also a greater discussion on the lack of originality in movies and shows today. Constant remakes and retellings of the same stories drain audiences of original storytelling. This is not only evident in these adaptations, but also in major studios like Disney with their live action remakes, which can be seen as, in my opinion, Hollywood slop. This trend has taken over movies and shows in the past 10 years. With all that said, the promotion for the One Piece live-action has got me excited!
Tarik Mohammed El-sayed
Featured image courtesy of Dex Ezekiel via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In-article photos courtesy of @onepiecenetflix via Instagram. No changes were made to these photos.
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