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NEWS: Hollywood Reporter: Live-Action Akira Film's Production Shut Down

configspace wrote:

Japanese mangaka or writers don't have to do anything nor should they try to cater to Hollywood in any special way. Having them rely on Hollywood to grow is a BAD economic sign.

So instead of catering to Hollywood (i.e mainstream) they should instead cater to Japanese otaku?

Oh no, George Lucas.

A successful manga based movie will also lead to more anime movies, creating further benefit and funding more anime & manga.

Charred Knight wrote:

configspace wrote: Japanese mangaka or writers don't have to do anything nor should they try to cater to Hollywood in any special way. Having them rely on Hollywood to grow is a BAD economic sign. So instead of catering to Hollywood (i.e mainstream) they should instead cater to Japanese otaku?

That's not even a question. Yes Japanese manga-ka should focus and rely on their primary audience as a means to support and grow their work. Relying on Hollywood adaptions 20+ years after the fact would be a bad call.

But really, the whole idea about worrying about growth is unfounded because there's a plethora--I mean just TONS and TONS of material to choose from for adaptations that keeps on growing, much more that also lends itself to lower budgets (less risk) and easier adaptations.

US and European sales are going to remain key for NIS going forward, too. "The overseas market is key," Niikawa commented. "It's not something we can turn our backs to. However, I think it's a bad idea to create products targeted for the West. Even if Japanese people try their best to make a game that feels Western, there's no way they'd outclass actual Westerners doing that. I could probably count on one hand the number of Japanese people who'd even have a chance. I know we can't, so our only choice is to make titles that hardcore Japanese fans go for, then bring them out overseas as a purely made-in-Japan product. Disgaea is a success in the West, so I think it's best to go with a natural flow instead of trying to force ourselves in some unnatural direction."

I've never wondered that.
If I did wonder that I would take things like population, economy, and entertainment history into account when attempting to explain the difference between Hollywood and the Japanese film industry. I don't even know how I would approach a comparison between Hollywood and a manga-ka's best interest.

Am I saying that all mangaka's need to make hollywood blockbusters type movies? No, all I am saying is that anime is in a rut now trying to all get noticed by the exact same people.

I am not just talking about Hollywood, I am talking about in video games as well. Japan used to dominate the market but America is now the dominate market with Japan fading.

When was Japan the dominate market for gaming?
Statistically speaking Japan as always(I welcome anyone to point out the one time Japan had a bigger market share of a system) been the smallest market. Of course that's just speaking in terms of hardware. For software Japan is working fine on it's own with both games that sell fine in Japan that we'd never see in America and games that sell well as exports.

ArsenicSteel wrote:

When was Japan the dominate market for gaming? Statistically speaking Japan as always(I welcome anyone to point out the one time Japan had a bigger market share of a system) been the smallest market. Of course that's just speaking in terms of hardware. For software Japan is working fine on it's own with both games that sell fine in Japan that we'd never see in America and games that sell well as exports.

I think I might be misunderstanding what you mean here, or have the wrong context... From NES to SNES to Sega to Playstation to Dreamcast, Japan used to be pretty much the only purveyor of consoles and the predominant developer of games. That's like two decades starting from the early 80's to the late 90's that Japan reigned king. America only recently broke in with Microsoft's Xbox in the early 2000's, and American studios have been mushrooming since.

Are you talking about some other kind of gaming, or mean something else by "dominant market"?

enurtsol wrote:

If things remain in status quo, the industry would not get any better. Ya guys wanna know why Japan still intends to join the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) despite protestations from many in the anime/manga/doujin/cosplay industry? Because Japan has been in a status quo for 2 decades now - their "Lost Decade" has now become 2 decades and going on 3. If they don't do anything, they will continue to not grow while everyone else around them catches up (like South Korea is doing) or passes them by (like China already did). They can't afford to do the same old, same old.

No, the TPP does absolutely nothing for them that is not possible now.

Anyways, the entire "lost decade" is a larger economic matter outside of the anime market itself. In terms of anime, manga, pop culture, it is still Japan's domain and they still retain soft-power none of the other countries approach.

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Yep, and the average non-anime fan would not have wanted to read the Akira manga in the first place anyways, so a lack of successful movie would not have affected that at all.

And yet this was cited as one reason beneficial to the anime/manga biz. So why worry if it's not going to affect it one way or another?

Personally, I don't think so for everyone. Many people might not check out the original, but there will be some who are potentially interested. After all you just mentioned:

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Yes, the movie successes of Harry Potter, et al. have been credited to bringing back kids to reading. Maybe not all of them would try out other books, but some of them definitely would.

So like Lightning Leo mentioned with his experience, a bad adaptation can kill what potential interest there is.

It also kills further interest in adaptations for Hollywood.

But really, the whole idea about worrying about growth is unfounded because there's a plethora--I mean just TONS and TONS of material to choose from for adaptations that keeps on growing, much more that also lends itself to lower budgets (less risk) and easier adaptations. A lot obscure yes, but again, if you're marketing to an audience that supposedly doesn't care, then it shouldn't matter anyways.

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We don't know for sure if those Japanese names would've survived into the movie. Everything was very preliminary. It hasn't even gotten all the way to the dreaded marketing department yet - y'know, the type of people who changes rice balls into donuts.

Well, there's been no evidence that they were planning on changing the names of the characters nor the title. The casting calls have all kept the original names and descriptions so far.

I hope they do though, because that is certainly the biggest stumbling block IMO. You'll note that adaptations of manga to foreign settings make corresponding character changes, like in Asian dramas, which again, are the most successful kinds of adaptations.

enurtsol wrote:

Yes, the movie successes of Harry Potter, et al. have been credited to bringing back kids to reading. Maybe not all of them would try out other books, but some of them definitely would. And since the movies became successes, there becomes a high number of initial interested parties - thus even if just a fraction of that high number continue reading other books, it would still yield quite a significant number. And as for American comics, even the lack of success of Watchmen and Scott Pilgrim still drove their books to the top of the charts. Particularly Watchmen, whose expensive $20 softcover and $40 hardcover books, were #1 in all graphic novels (including manga) for months and months after the movie - not bad for a 2-1/2-decade-old franchise.

I understand that completely, which is exactly why I cited the Transformers example you quoted when you replied just now, but that isn't the argument Tempest and Surrender Artist are making here. People in this thread, including yourself, are tossing this implication around that the success of these Hollywood film adventures translate into hope for the anime & manga industry at a broad macro level. My point is, based on the performance of the anime adaptations that have already been done, and the nature of the Hollywood beast in general, I don't see any indication of truth in that implication?

If the big screen adaptation of Astro Boy, Dragonball and Speed Racer helped boost sales for the respective anime & manga publishers and put a few extra dollars in their pocket, that's great, I'm genuinely happy for them. But boosting sales for the sake of boosting sales, as an end unto itself, obviously isn't a primary concern of mine as a consumer and fan. Meeting and/or exceeding sales targets is the job the producers/publishers make their money from their respective companies to be responsible for. They are primarily concerned with their own firm and propert(ies) finding success, whereas my interest is seeing the industry as a whole and the artform finding success; and in the long run, I'm just not seeing any correlation.

The thing is the "boosting sales" thing is only temporary. Sure, Watchmen and Scott Pilgrim got a bump, but that bump is gone. Also, only those two got bumps, the Scott Pilgrim movie didn't suddenly make a bunch of comics sell more. Boosting the sales of one series isn't really going to help the industry as a whole.

Same with Harry Potter. You can't cite it as 'getting kids back to reading' when all they're reading is Harry Potter. It's not really the same thing.

Also that really only applies to short series.. Marvel and DC movies don't really give them a bump in sales at all. So it's not like it always happens.

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Japanese mangaka or writers don't have to do anything nor should they try to cater to Hollywood in any special way. Having them rely on Hollywood to grow is a BAD economic sign.

Personally the thing I like about anime is they actually have animated movies. One Piece can have 10 animated movies, Naruto can have 8, Pocket Monsters can have 14 and so forth. All tied into the series itself no less, and not some 'remake' or 'reimagining' (Well, aside from that Alabasta and Drum Island movies, but still, you know what I mean)

I wouldn't trade animated movies for some live-action Hollywood stuff. I think that's the biggest strength of anime, the movies they do have actually have some effort put into them and tie into the series itself.

I am not against the movies but against bad choices for casting the roles and scripts choices. The scenes have to be where it seems believable and related to the original work as much as possible. Look at LOTRO it did so well because they stuck to the books so the same goes for manga/anime adaptations.

Uh. The only American console that's around these days is the Xbox 360 (which is more or less dead in Japan these days). The PS3, Wii, 3DS/DS and PSP/Vita are all Japanese hardware. One console out of 3 isn't really a "dominate force" if you ask me. Of course comparing straight numbers would be a bit off since Japan has roughly 1/3rd the population.

bradc wrote:

Surrender Artist wrote: Why do some people always resort to such zealous purism when it comes to adaptations? Tons of comic books and novels gets their own adaptation made and turn into a movie or saga. But for some reasons when it comes to Japan's Manga and Anime, it just doesn't work... Unless it present itself as an animated movie, anything by Hayao Miyazaki, or even the latest Full Metal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos. Unless Japan does it themselves, Rurouni Kenshin Live-Action seemingly speaking in volumes. We all know what happened... Dragon Ball Evolution. (=_=#)

Manga and American comics are an entirely different format. You can do a Superman or Batman story in 2 hours just fine since the comics have no real overall plot and have been doing that stuff for over sixty years. Manga tends to be much more linear and story driven. No way you can tell Dragonball's story in 2 hours, but a Superman VS Lex Luthor one would fit. Plus superheroes are easy to do since they always take place in modern American cities. Dragonball was a fantasy world with lots of creatures and wacky stuff.

tempest wrote:

A successful manga based movie will also lead to more anime movies, creating further benefit and funding more anime & manga.

If internet streaming can not lead to an increase in sales of DVDs, merchandise, and manga, there's no way a movie is going to do it, especially when the movie's stripped of anything relating it to anime and manga.