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The List - 5 Unrealized Western Anime Movies

To be pretty fair Japan itself isn't too much better with their live action adaptations that have japanese actors playing characters that aren't asian in the source material.

Whatever happened to that live action One Piece series that was supposed to happen? I can't imagine that actually looking good with all the CGI necessary for so many characters.

Also, it's surprising this conversation has made it this far without anyone bringing up the infamous live action Dragon Ball movie.

Also, it's surprising this conversation has made it this far without anyone bringing up the infamous live action Dragon Ball movie.

Japan's approach to live-action is completely different though. Japan doesn't change the race because they don't think movies starring non-Japanese won't do well or they're culturally appropriating another country's work; they do it because their population is almost 100% homogeneous and there's not many foreign actors in the industry.

Japanese live-action films are also just mean to to be side projects, not overtake the anime adaption or original manga. In America live-action adaptions are considered the de-facto versions of comics and books

completely overshadowing the source material. The same is true for Hollywood remaking anime. They know your name will never catch on with the average American viewer, so they need an American director to make a live action version so Americans can take the movie seriously since animation has such a stigma in the west.

What ever became of the American version of Star Blazers that director Christopher McQuarrie had purchased the right in 2011? Of course the Disney version in the 90's would have removed all Japanese reference.

While everyone talks about the infamous Toon Makers Sailor Moon, one planned remake that isn't talked about as much was when Disney tried to make a live action film remake of Sailor Moon in the 90s. No plot details ever surfaced and I don't know that it's known how far they ever got into writing a script. The only thing we knew about it was Geena Davis was cast as Queen Beryl and she was a big driving force of the film. I also remember rumors of everyone from Melissa Joan Heart to Lindsay Lohan being cast as Serena. More recently, whatever happened to that live action Sword Art Online TV show Netflix had planned?

It’s only a manga, but if it had an anime, Lone Wolf and Cub would be in there, too.

I don’t suppose you can count Road to Perdition.

Adaptations of any work on meant to be that an adaptation. I've not heard of a single live action adaptation in Hollywood displacing it's source material for relevancy like with Akira or The Ghost In The Shell movies/TV series.

As a Tolkien fan, I have to say what they're saying is definitely true. I run into this problem all the time. I remember trying to find Lord of the Rings figures not based on the movies, and the only ones I could find were old stuff that came out prior to the movies. Although even those had their fair share of Ralph Bakshi version toys. The chances of any company focusing on the original book versions of the characters for merchandising are very low, especially high-end merchandise.