Can we please stop with the live-action adaptations of anime classics?
They never do the originals justice.
With the recent announcement of Nickelodeon’s Avatar Studios launch and plans to begin production of an animated Avatar: the Last Airbender feature film later this year, do we really need that Netflix live-action adaptation anymore? Well, we really didn’t need it in the first place.
Before I continue any further, I should make the disclaimer that I am aware that Avatar: the Last Airbender is an American cartoon and doesn’t necessarily fall under the “anime” category. However, considering the show’s creators drew heavily on both the anime style and East Asian culture as a whole for inspiration, and considering the word “anime” is just a shortened version of the Japanese word for “cartoon”, I believe it is perfectly valid to lump Avatar in with the other shows I will be discussing.
After the well known disaster that was M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, many fans of the original series (including myself) were justifiably wary of Netflix’s announcement to create their own live-action Avatar: the Last Airbender series. The only saving grace that came with this announcement was the fact that the original creators would be working with Netflix to produce the new series. Updates on the show remained non-existent from 2018 up until half-way through 2020, when original creator Mike DiMartino made a blog post announcing the decision for him and co-creator Bryan Konietzko to leave the production, citing creative restrictions from Netflix. So far, this upsetting news has been the only confirmed updated on the series since it’s initial announcement two years ago.
With the departure of the creators, many fans have gone from skeptical to full on pessimistic about Netflix’s live-action series. Along with worries about how Netflix will tell the story of the Gaang, there are also valid concerns with how visually appealing the set and special effects will appear in a live-action setting. Production quality has come a long way since Shyamalan’s 2010 adaptation, but there is always something a bit off-putting about meshing real actors with fantastical worlds and creatures, as is apparent with criticism on shows as recent as The Witcher.
Meshing cartoon fantasy with real actors heightens disbelief
One of the beauties in using animation as a medium for story-telling is it’s ability to create other-worldly environments and characters that fully immerse the viewer in the magical setting of the creator’s choosing. But the constant push to make everything from Disney classics to popular animes into live-action films tells me that audiences have seemingly forgotten the value of a well animated show and would much rather see real people thrust into environments that highlight the unbelievability of all things magical.
Live-action adaptations of animes like Fullmetal Alchemist, directed by Fumihiko Sori, were impossible for me to watch for more than five minutes because I couldn’t get passed the fact that main characters just looked like cos-players running around an Amestris theme park, like how you see Potter-heads running around Universal Studios. Even with the understanding that it was a Japanese produced film, watching Japanese actors attempting to embody all the European qualities inherent to Amestrians, golden locks and all, made immersion into the story impossible. And while the CGI was well done, it still missed the mark in feeling believable, again because watching a real person use CGI alchemy to create a weapon just doesn’t hit the same as watching a cartoon character using cartoon alchemy.
Live-action creators never seem to grasp the importance of character ethnicities
The Fullmetal live-adaptation isn’t the only recent film to disappoint with it’s disregard to character ethnicity. The 2015 adaptation of Attack on Titan, directed by Shinji Higuchi, is also guilty of placing an entirely Japanese cast into a European world. Again, this would be forgivable considering the Japanese based production, but one would have to set aside a major plot point that is directly tied to the characters’ ethnicities. In the world of Attack on Titan, we experience the last survivors of humanity. Forced into hiding from human-eating titans, presiding safely behind massive walls, it is no surprise that diversity is non-existent. Except for, of course, the ever perfect Mikasa.
In both the manga and anime, Mikasa’s Asian heritage sets her apart from others not only in appearance but also in important plot points. If it wasn’t for her unique ethnicity, she wouldn’t have fallen victim to human-trafficking and therefore wouldn’t have formed an allegiance with main character Eren Yeager. As both the manga and anime have progressed, it has come to light that her Asian roots prove even more important than setting up a tragic backstory. But all of that is thrown out the window in a live-adaptation that casts all characters as Japanese, not even attempting to make Mikasa a different ethnicity to highlight the importance of her character’s arc. It makes one wonder if character development and story-telling were even important to the directors when creating their version of this widely regarded story.
While we have Japanese productions dismissing key plot points tied to characters’ Eurocentric ethnicities in Japan, we also get to watch Hollywood continue to whitewash Asian characters in adaptations like Netflix’s 2017 Death Note, directed by Adam Wingard. Here we have a classic anime, originally taking place in Tokyo with a cast made up entirely of Japanese characters, yet Netflix decides to change the setting to Seattle with a predominantly white cast.
If you want to make characters unrecognizable from their source material, just write your own original story.
As if changing that much of the original story isn’t enough, Netflix’s creators also felt it necessary to practically rewrite main character Light Yagami’s entire personality. In the original manga and anime, Light is a promising high school student with the academic potential to go far in life. His mature nature aids in his ability to smooth talk his way through conflict while remaining calm, cool, and collected. This basic personality trait makes the premise of him playing moral God and evading police interrogation all the more believable. Yet Wingard’s interpretation rewrites Light as more of a social outcast and awkward burn out, who delivers one of the most hilarious blood-curdling screams about ten minutes into the film- hardly the same Light that manga and anime fans would recognize.
Live-action adaptations have proven countless times, in numerous ways, that their visions are incompatible with their source material. Constantly providing a disservice to fans and critics alike, one needs only to look at the less-than-stellar Rotten Tomatoes scores for the films I listed above (Attack on Titan being the only exception for fan admiration).
In a time where shifting anything and everything to live-action seems to be the key money maker, it is essential to remember the riches that other art mediums provide. Animators and illustrators hold a magical key that allows viewers to enter worlds us humans aren’t meant to tread. With their various styles, animators are able to create fictional worlds that hold such beauty and magic, it seems almost too pure for the likes of us to actually set foot in.
Instead, we get to walk the worlds of Edward Elric, Eren Yeager, Light Yagami, the Gaang, and countless others (could you imagine if someone tried to sully the worlds of Cowboy Bepop or FLCL with such live-action nonsense?) from their perspective, in worlds unsullied by real human footprints.
So, Netflix, I guess go ahead with your live-action Avatar, but I’m not holding my breath just to be disappointed yet again.
