It was recently announced that "BLEACH" one of the most popular mangas and animes in Japan and the US is being finshed up, and ending it's run. First the Anime will end it's run on March 27 according to reports, and the manga will finish after one more story arc. With this series ending announcement, another was made about trying to make a live action BLEACH MOVIE.
I have always liked the idea of live action movie adaptations of my favorite comics, cartoons, and animes. Bleach is no exception. Unfortunately, live action seems to only work with big budgets, huge dramatic license, and often a bastardization of the orignal source characters. This is generally done so that the finished product is not only fan friendly but also appealing to a new audience. Even with the changes and marketing and millions in toys there is no guarantee that the movie will be any good. I personally liked Green Lantern, but yeah thought it could have been better - they went safe. But when I look at what happened with the Tick, and Dragonball, Attempts a Fantastic 4, Ghost Rider, Priest, and many others...I get sick to my stomach.
See my other Editorial about CGI movies.------------>
Since this is an anime adaptation I'll focus on that. Frankly, the only anime that I feel that was remotely successfull in being transfered to film is "Death Note". Then again this was a "real" world type anime. To go off the path just a bit, so is Spiderman, Batman, and Superman (to some extent). These are real people who have extrordinaty abilities (pseudo-grounded in real life). While Green Lantern for example had some alien "power ring" Which exists only in the comics world. My point is, is that it is easy to believe that a man can fly when it's presented as an after thought to all of the other things he can do. Or that technology and human spirit can allow someone to don a persona to fight crime. Or even that DNA experiments could create a "spiderman". In anime, especially Japanese anime you have to believe in "power". Power that is derived externally as well as internally. You have to believe that this power equates to strength, and is projected in appearance and as a means for battle. The problem...you can't see it, it just is. This is a significant difference between "East" and "West" mythologies when it comes to it's heroes.
My fear is that we are going to ruin the Property of Bleach by adapting it to a live action movie.
With DBZ, Evolution killed the franchise. The movie if doen right could have SPAWNed (another movie that tanked because of concept not character) many sequals and been a huge smash. With The Tick (TV adaptation) it also killed the franchise.
MY BIGGEST FEAR THOUGH...along with the death of a property never to be seen again...is this....IS THIS WHAT WE HAVE TO LOOK FORWARD TO?
In the world of CosPlay I'm sure this is great...but this is a reality for a movie...
