Being a fan of video games and anime, whenever there is an announcement that a property is being turned into a live action movie, a hint of skepticism and doubt is cast. Especially with video games. But sometimes, there are a few that may surprise and even cause people to have actual hope and hype.
There are two different properties that fall under that category. The first one is anime I remember watching when I was still in high school, Rurouni Kenshin. Rurorni Kenshin is the tale of a wandering samurai named Kenshin Himura who has vowed to protect the weak and innocent in order to pay for the sins he has done as his past self, Hiroki Batosai aka (manslayer in english). Here’s the first trailer that was released:
After watching the trailer, it has gotten me excited to see the anime get a live action. The fight choreography looks good and some of the actors looks on spot with their anime counterparts, with some liberties taken. And from what I understand, the movie is to follow the anime closely, which I think is really good. Plus it’s a period movie and some of the better movies that Japan makes are period movies.
The next movie I want to mention, at first will scratch your head and why this is being made into a move. But once you see this trailer, you’ll get it:
If your thinking, “Hey….isn’t that Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright? From those DS games?” Yes it is. The good lawyer is getting his very one live action called Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix’s name in Japan) coming February 2012. Again some of the characters given a bit of design liberty, but you can’t deny how spot on they do look. And if you look closely, most of the cases are cases from the first game. So we can expect for the movie to follow closely to the source material instead of making things up. And the best part is that the movie is being directed by famed Japanese director Takishii Mike, mostly known for his yakuza themed movies.
So it is possible for anime and video game live actions to look great when left in the right hands. Although these are just trailers and the real thing could look completely different, that’s not going to stop me to give these movies a chance.
