The American film market has tried its hand more than once at adapting some famous anime and manga. Very rarely does it pay off. Often they are accused of severe whitewashing, and almost always they just end up as bad movies.
With the amount of hate for some of these American anime adaptations being so high, some may be under the impression that people are being too harsh. While in some cases that does happen, with American anime remakes that really isn't the case. These movies just tend to always suck, for a variety of reasons. The main reason audiences see is cultural appropriation or insensitivity, and that's definitely very present, but there are a plethora of other things that make these films awful.
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Of the terrible American anime adaptations, 2017's Death Note is probably the least offensive. It's a Netflix Original adaptation of the very popular Japanese manga and anime, that tells the story of a teenaged boy named Light. He finds a black notebook called the "Death Note" that gives him the power to kill anyone as long as he knows their name and face.
This movie is just very boring. It's slow and the lead characters come off as incredibly stupid. The lead character of Light, while not played terribly by Nat Wolff, is so dumb it's unbearable. It's kind of a disservice to the original series, and just isn't a great adaptation or a great movie as a whole. Some of the deaths are fun for horror fans, but it does change the sentiment from the original series and many didn't like that.
In terms of political correctness and cultural respect, this adaptation isn't necessarily offensive. Some did feel that changing the lead from Asian to white is inappropriate, and there's a valid conversation to be had about that. However, it was an American remake that really did just change the setting to America so it doesn't come off quite as ignorant as the next film on this list. Overall this is a bad movie that's a bit of a slog to get through, but not near as offensive as some make it out to be. A sequel is reportedly planned.
Dragonball: Evolution is exactly what not to do when it comes to an anime adaptation. Sadly, Dragon Ball was not treated with respect whatsoever when this film was made, which is such a shame as it is one of the most iconic anime of all time.
The original Dragon Ball series follows Goku and his friends and family who are a mix of martial arts loving humans and aliens and Gods. While originally it was mainly about them and their journey to find Dragon Balls, a set of balls that allow someone to have a wish granted when all found, that plot has kind of been put on the back burner and later storylines more revolve around the group saving the world from absurdly strong enemies. Dragonball: Evolution is a very loose adaptation of this. It's a terrible movie, and highly culturally insensitive.
This is a very Americanized version of the story that features some pretty offensive whitewashing. Goku is played by white actor Justin Chatwin, but most of the other main characters are played by Asian actors. They engage in some horrible racist stereotypes, and the writing is so bad that this honestly feels like it's making fun of Dragon Ball. It's not as boring as Death Note, but its quality makes Death Note seem like a good movie. The effects are horrendous, the costumes and dialogue are very stupid and clunky, and overall it should just probably not exist.
So it's worth noting that M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender isn't technically an American anime remake. The series it's based on, Avatar: The Last Airbender, isn't a Japanese anime. It's an American series, produced by Nickelodeon. However, this film encompasses all of the problems with American anime remakes and is probably the worst offender overall.
The original series is set in a world where certain groups of people can use powers to manipulate, or "bend" one of the four elements. The main character is Aang, who is known as the "Avatar" which means he can manipulate all four elements, and it's his duty to keep peace between all nations. It's a very popular series, with a lot of hardcore fans and a lot of critical acclaim. The Last Airbender is a different story.
This film is often seen as one of the worst movies of all time, and topped a lot of "Worst Movies of the 2010's" lists. While it maybe isn't as unwatchable as Dragonball: Evolution, it's still very bad. It's very guilty of whitewashing. Even though the original series was American, its central characters were meant to be Asian. Almost all of the leads in this film are white. Besides that, it's just very poorly written and acted and some parts look strange as they were intended to be in 3D. Without knowing the original series, it takes some time to figure out what's going on and they rely on info dumps to fit lore into the story. The hate for this film is practically universal, and that's rightfully so.
As a whole, these live-action American anime remakes just don't work on so many levels. Whether it's for cultural reasons or just because some things work better as a series, and an animated series at that. Overall, studios should probably stop attempting these because they just never seem to go well. With the aforementioned Death Note sequel as well as One Punch Man and Naruto live-action remakes in the works though, it seems like the hint has not been received.
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