Live-action anime adaptations are hit-or-miss, and they’re usually the latter. The two media often have conflicting aesthetics, so a realistic adaptation loses the “anime” feel, but a faithful adaptation can come across as cheesy or uncanny. For every Speed Racer, there’s an Attack on Titan, and the less said about that Dragonball movie, the better.
But thanks to modern streaming platforms, the tide has started to turn. Suddenly, decent anime adaptations are everywhere: a trilogy of Fullmetal Alchemist movies, multiple seasons of Alice in Borderland, and even high-budget adaptations of The Last Airbender and One Piece. Now, another fan-favorite anime is getting the live-action treatment, although the spectre of an old failure looms over it. According to Variety, Tomorrow Studios, the production company behind the One Piece adaptation, is tackling Samurai Champloo, the samurai period-thriller by Shinichirō Watanabe.
