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There seems to be quite a few Root Letter projects recently, but I don't see much discussion surrounding this. How popular is Root Letter in Japan?

I played the game/visual novel a few months ago and really enjoyed it, although the the latter parts of the game did have someissues which shouldn't be a problem for a film adaptation.

I'm a pretty skeptical about this film adaptation. It's not the first time Hollywood has produced a live action film from a Japanese source, but it's the first I know of that's bot of the action/thriller genre (I guess you can add Death Note in as an exception although I haven't seen the Netflix adaptation). The biggest obstacle here would be the cultural barriers the producers will have to cross to make this happen. Root Letter has a strong Japanese feel with it. There are a lot of cultural references which take time explaining in the game but films won't have time. The film is either going to Americanise the entire setting which will potentially cause it to lose the main appeal of Root Letter for me, or they are sticking to the story's roots which might mean the film will be a smaller production as it won't be able to draw in much audiences.

My instinct is to not look to adaptations of anime for reference but perhaps to adaptations of J-horror films, which is probably where this may be going, if it goes anywhere at all.

Horror?! I didn't play past the spoiler[marriage ending]. How bad did some of those routes get?!

I don’t know why, but I find it disappointing when a LN, VN, or manga gets an adaptation other than an anime before an anime adaptation. Maybe I just prefer the medium or just know the anime will reach a wider audience automatically. Though it could also be that anime seem to be rarely made if the product gets adapted elsewhere.

Now then - what about that Doki Doki Literature Club anime? LOL.

I don’t know why, but I find it disappointing when a LN, VN, or manga gets an adaptation other than an anime before an anime adaptation. Maybe I just prefer the medium or just know the anime will reach a wider audience automatically. Though it could also be that anime seem to be rarely made if the product gets adapted elsewhere.

Now then - what about that Doki Doki Literature Club anime? LOL.

LuScr wrote:

Horror?! I didn't play past the spoiler[marriage ending]. How bad did some of those routes get?!

From your respone I'm assyming you have only played spoiler[the Crossing Paths and Bonds of Marriage routes. ]

As for the other endings I will spoil the general gist of each ending route. spoiler[ the routes they take storywise becomes almost unrelated to each other and delve into other genres. The Cursed Letter Route is about the cursed class that Shiori and friends are part of, where every year someone is to play the role of Aya and make her a pen pal without them finding out that Aya is dead by the end of the school year. If they succeed then the pen pal will die and be friends with the dead Aya. If they fail, then the person faking Aya and their friends will ne cursed and die. The route basically follows the groul as they try to break the curse which involves killing a particular person amongst them, which ends up in getting them all killed. The Princess of Himegamori route has Shiori becoming possessed by the dead Aya, who turns out to be some sociopath/psychopath and gets Aya's mum killed. After graduation she disappears and returns in the game to cause trouble. The last route is A Government Plot, which is basically some weird shenanigans where Shiori was an alien agent and some characters work for a government organisation, trying to keeo their alien research a secret. ]

If they can get Japanese-Americans actors/actresses to play the rules, I think that kind of balances out it being set in the USA should choose to set it there. Of course, them actually releasing the movie is another thing.

Speaking of above last sentence, I think a now good rule of thumb for news stories of a foreign IP getting the Hollywood treatment is this: if that American movie studio don't have it released within 42 calendar months of the initial announcement, they might as well scrap it. Of course, ones that are a $100 million budget are given more leeway. For that, I would give it 48 months.

I find this kind of weird. Root Letter isn't exactly a cultural phenomenon on either side of the Pacific, AFAIK.

Well, this is a surprise, what were the odds? But why? I think Hollywood is just tapped out and they're back to their old method of looking somewhere else to get materials. Most people aren't going understand. Much of the references are going to be gone. Be prepared for another Vanilla Sky.