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Live-action anime adaptations tend to be divisive, if not outright disappointments. Whether it's due to not understanding the source material, deviating too much or too little, or condensing down the source material to fit an unreasonable timeframe, live-action anime adaptations usually tend to have flaws that downplay any interest/enthusiasm fans might initially have.
Given that the reasons for the same are varied, it can be very difficult to nail down one exact point why live-action adaptations often miss the mark. It's also difficult to restrict it to just 10 reasons, as every anime fan often has their criticisms of whatever live-action anime adaptation they view.
Disclaimer: This article will contain spoilers for many anime and live-action anime adaptations. Any opinions mentioned here are exclusive to the author.
Several reasons why live-action anime adaptations tend to disappoint audiences
1) Live Action limitations
The most obvious reason why live-action anime adaptations disappoint audiences has to do with the medium difference between animation and live-action. Animation offers a plethora of advantages and creativity that cannot truly be grasped in a live-action context without either layers of CGI or practical effects and a larger budget.
The artistic side loses something in live-action anime adaptations. Animation can present something like a character that can destroy a planet, summon clones of themselves, or have alien worlds and fantasy environments that are all believable, even if they take place in a contemporary or historical setting like Jujutsu Kaisen, Undead Unluck, or Demon Slayer.
Live-action, by contrast, limits and narrows down that suspension of disbelief. It runs the risk of the uncanny valley coming into play, especially when CGI is not integrated well. It creates a sharp contrast when real people are acting and interacting with something that isn't there and the effort to mesh things together is poor.
2) The story gets condensed too much
In recent years, streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Crunchyroll, and others have seemingly shortened their series' length. The condensing of shows from 26 episodes to as low as eight has had a major ripple effect - usually for the worse - on the quality of any live-action anime adaptation.
Take, for example, Yu Yu Hakusho's live-action anime adaptation that was released on Netflix in December 2023. One major flaw of that adaptation was trying to condense two full sagas - The Spirit Detective and Dark Tournament sagas - which were well over 50 episodes into 8 episodes that ran anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour each.
When this happens, it results in the story missing out on plenty of character and development, as was demonstrated by the mixed reviews. For instance, in the case of Yu Yu Hakusho, Genkai doesn't warm up to Yusuke half as much as she does in the anime before her death, Hiei doesn't warm up to Team Urameshi or kidnap Keiko, and the product comes off as trying too hard to get to the big story fights with none of the buildups.
3) Too much deviation
Paradoxically, many live-action anime adaptations at once condense too much and deviate too much. As a reminder and disclaimer, deviations from the source material are to be expected in any adaptation. Being utterly 100% faithful to the source results in audiences seeing the adaptation as a waste of time.
Going too far in the other direction by deviating too much, however, is another big complaint many anime fans have grumbled about for quite some time. To simplify the complaint: this is when the story is taken too far off the track or when characters, settings, or iconic powers are completely unrecognizable.
One of the most infamous examples of a live-action anime adaptation that deviated so far from its source material it might as well be considered an alternate universe was Dragon Ball: Evolution. The film had Bulma with barely a streak of blue hair, ki was non-existent or called air-bending, Goku was in school as a bullied teenager, Emperor Pilaf was erased and Demon King Piccolo was replaced by Piccolo Junior as the villain.
4) Massive tonal shifts
Tone is a very important idea to convey in any form of art. Tonal shifts, whether gradual or abrupt, can help to enhance or kill the mood, depending on the material. Unfortunately, too many live-action anime adaptations massively shift the tone of the original work to an unrecognizable state.
To return to Dragon Ball: Evolution as an example, while Dragon Ball did get darker on occasion, especially when Z started killing people regularly, the film tried too hard to pull its adaptation into a completely unfitting tone where everything was bleak or dark despite Dragon Ball's usually upbeat nature.
Something similar happened with the tonal shifts around the 2017 Death Note movie by Netflix. The morally complex story, set in the Japanese law system, was turned into a more straightforward "bullied nerd gets revenge" story in the movie, and thus all complexity was erased.
5) Badly done action scenes
Not everyone watches anime for the action scenes, but messing up an iconic attack, scene, or fight is a quick ticket to igniting fans' ire. This is, again, a limitation of live-action.
A lot of anime action scenes tend to either be in the air, on the ground, or otherwise somewhere that the heroes and villains can duke it out to the fullest and show off. The problem with live-action anime adaptations in this area is, again, the practicality and budget issues.
Sometimes the action is easy: swordplay or hand-to-hand and doesn't require any special effects unless the source material happens to include these elements. Even then, fight choreography is important to keep fights as accurate and quick as possible. This requires hours, if not days, of practice with the whole thing being helmed by experienced people. This is a lot more expensive and time-consuming than just animating a fight scene.
6) Humor doesn't translate well
Building off the idea of things being lost in the translation between mediums, the exaggerated facial expressions and humorous pitfalls typical of anime aren't usually present in live-action adaptations. This usually leads to some scenes falling flat unless the comedic timing is good.
In other words, comedic cartoon violence comes off better when animated than in a live-action medium, unless the live-action is a comedy itself. So a character's charms that translate in animation aren't going to cut it in live action unless the actor extensively studies the character.
Even a serious scene can be somewhat comedic or a comedic moment may not come off as such if the actors are overacting. The live-action One Piece adaptation notably kept a lot of the humor intact, whereas the Yu Yu Hakusho adaptation had to rely on the actors and comedic timing.
7) Changing characters too much
There are times in a live-action anime adaptation when creative decisions can mess with the characters. This happens in a variety of ways: their appearances and roles in the story or personalities can be altered drastically from their source material counterparts. This can be severely jarring, especially if the actors are not good at the role.
A good example is the aforementioned Yu Yu Hakusho live-action anime adaptation from Netflix, which fast-forwarded Hiei's development in the first season.
In the anime, Hiei starts as a villainous demon who nearly killed Yusuke twice and kidnapped Keiko to use as leverage against Yusuke. After his defeat, Hiei had an icy relationship that thawed over time as he got used to Team Urameshi.
In the live-action adaptation, however, Hiei's personality is fast-forwarded to the more anti-hero role he plays later on in the anime. This skips over developing Hiei's relationships with Team Urameshi.
Similarly, the 2017 Death Note adaptation changed many characters: it fused Misa and Mia and downgraded Light and L from intelligent people to a typically bullied teen in Los Angeles and a man who threatens everyone with guns, respectively.
8) The "live-action over animation" attitude
A little more of a broader point regarding live-action anime adaptations - or live-action remakes of animated properties in general - is the belief that live-action is inherently better than all other mediums of storytelling. This is more of an executive attitude that has plagued Hollywood, thanks to fans of anime and video games, awards shows, and other executives and industries that work in entertainment.
This attitude can bleed into the production side of a live-action anime adaptation and thus doom the project if the wrong thing is said during interviews. Although many fans don't typically take what's said behind the scenes at face value or seriously at all, there are times when it's worth paying attention to what's being said about the art being made.
A non-anime example is the various Disney live-action remakes, which despite being considered vastly inferior to their animated counterparts continue to be made. An anime example is Ghost in the Shell, the live-action movie released in 2017, which spurred controversy for having Hollywood actors like Scarlet Johansson take the lead.
9) Bad production
As stated before, live-action is a great medium for certain stories in certain contexts and so is animation. The problem comes in when a live-action anime adaptation makes everything look obvious and cheap: the monsters are all badly rendered CGI, the costumes don't look right, and the actors don't play their roles well.
This often results in the entire thing being forgotten. A good anime example of a forgotten film is the live-action Attack on Titan film which makes the Titans too obviously CGI and not as monstrous as they were in the anime. Another example is the Parasyte live-action anime adaptation with badly done fight scenes. However, arguably, one of the most infamous examples of this is a non-anime example.
Whatever the Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom may have thought of the Netflix series, nearly everyone preferred it to the travesty that was The Last Airbender movie that was released in 2010. The script direction was awful, the bending looked fake, too many plot points were skipped over, and the action didn't look as fluid as it was in the show. Topping it off was horrible acting and an awful script.
10) Authenticity vs. cynicism
This is again a broader point overall when judging live-action adaptations, but it has its place in the anime community. The reason the One Piece adaptation got the near-universal praise that it did was by remaining faithful to the source material while changing some things, like getting rid of Don Krieg, and everything else aligning perfectly.
It was authentic and sincere and had the original creator along for the ride and involved in the production nearly every step of the way. The problem with other live-action anime adaptations is that they don't have this authenticity or sincerity. Brightly colored and positive characters are often made more muddied and grey, for instance.
Other examples include the problem of not making the audience believe in the fantasy or investing in it. Fantastical locations are sacrificed for more modern-day locations, the characters come off as flat or very two-dimensional compared to their animated counterparts, and fanservice is thrown in to compensate for the lack of characters or development. Netflix's Cowboy Bebop adaptation suffered from this.
Final Thoughts
There are more than 10 reasons why a live-action anime adaptation would disappoint fans, as this list isn't exhaustive and only includes a fairly common handful of complaints that fans have had over a decade.
There's always trepidation whenever a live-action anime adaptation is announced and for very good reason, as they mostly tend to flop for one reason or another. This doesn't mean that efforts like the aforementioned live-action One Piece should be discounted. However, audiences are extremely critical of any live-action effort to bring their favorite characters and worlds to life in another medium.
While there's always hope a live-action anime adaptation won't be a complete failure, most anime fans would rather just watch the anime or read the manga instead. It's usually a lot better than trying to parse out the intent of a live-action anime adaptation, much less asking the question of who it was for.
