These 7 movies are the worst anime adaptations into movies!

News culture These 7 movies are the worst anime adaptations into movies!

The attack of the Titans

As its name suggests, the film Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) is inspired by Hajime Isayama’s eponymous manga. It follows the fate of Eren Jager, who dreams of joining the exploration battalion to fight man-eating titans. When the feature film landed (in two parts) on Japanese screens in 2015, the anime was only in its first season and the manga, in volume 20 – which explains why the scenario is not as successful as the one we know now. Upon its release, the film truly divided critics. On the one hand, it was called a “refreshing blockbuster”, on the other, his deviations from Hisayama’s work were much criticized and the acting was called “appalling”.

Death Note

Death Note is a Netflix adaptation of the eponymous work by Takeshi Obata. It was released in 2017, but was totally “Americanized”. We follow high school student Light Turner who, one day, comes across a mysterious notebook. The latter belongs to the god of death Ryuk, who explains to Light that if he writes down a name in this book, the person in question will die. The schoolboy takes the opportunity to get rid of his enemies, but one day the police get involved. This adaptation was rather divisive, as critics praised its fresh take on the story. Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the original creators of Death Note, liked it a lot: “It followed and diverged from the original work, but in a good way”. However, once again, the fans did not appreciate the screenplay deviations. In 2018, its director confirmed that a sequel should see the light of day.

Dragon Ball Evolution

This is surely the best-known live-action manga adaptation on the list.. Released in 2009, but imagined in 2002, the film is based on the work of Akira Toriyama: Dragon Ball. It was directed by James Wong. For the purposes of the feature film, the action is moved to the United States and we follow the fight between the young Goku and the extraterrestrial Piccolo. The latter aims to collect the crystal balls to dominate the world. The feature film, which was supposed to be the start of a series, was a real box office failure. It has been criticized for its very many deviations from the original material. Its cast has been criticized for poor acting. The production has also been accused of “whitewashing” its characters, that is to say of choosing white performers to embody racialized people (here Asian).

The Netflix streaming platform adapted Hiromu Arakawa’s manga in 2018. In a world where alchemy is an extremely developed practice, the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric try to use it to perform a technique of human transmutation. Except that the experiment goes wrong. To solve their problem, they go in search of the philosopher’s stone. This time, the concern is that the film is too close to the original work. “Conservative fans may appreciate its loose fidelity, but the adaptation isn’t much fun when it’s only an approximation,” says a reporter for The Daily Telegraph.

Ghost in the Shell

The film Ghost in the Shell (2017), which features actress Scarlett Johansson, is far from having unanimous support. It is adapted from the eponymous manga by Masamune Shirow and takes place in a world where humans are improved through technology. We follow Major Mira Killian, who has become amnesiac by transferring her brain into a synthetic body with cybernetic abilities. However, she joins an anti-terrorist unit and proves to be particularly effective thanks to her skills in hacking and mind control. The feature film was praised for its visuals and action sequences. However, its plot and lack of character development have been criticized. Additionally, the casting was deemed racist and prompted accusations of “money laundering”.

Ken the survivor

Buronson and Tetsuo Hara’s manga had the right to a live-action film adaptation in 1995. Also called Fist of the North Star, we follow Kenshiro, in a world devastated by a nuclear war, who has given himself the objective of helping the weakest. He fights under the banner of the “polar star” thanks to an ancestral martial art. Actor Gary Daniels stars and is directed by American director Tony Randel (Tekken). This adaptation is far from unanimous and has aged quite badly, which places it in the nanar category. Some shots have become kitsch and some iconic actions of Ken’s character, like his punches, become ridiculous.

Old Boy (2013)

Garon Tsuchiya’s manga Old Boy has had two adaptations. The 2003 premiere is South Korean and was critically acclaimed. However the second, American, was considered bad. The latter was directed by Spike Lee in 2013, but he was criticized for being too action-oriented when the story was primarily psychological. We follow the quest for revenge of Joe Doucett, locked up for no reason for more years, who wants only one thing: to find the culprits. Compared to Park Chan-wook’s work, this new film has received very mixed reviews, and many consider it to be far more inferior. It has been called “dull” and “lack of depth”.