Hollywood's Involvement in Anime: Good Or Bad?

[Taufiq91]

In 2003, Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill & The Wachowski's Matrix franchise decides to dabble themselves into anime. Tarantino decides to add an anime flashback scene with the help of Production IG in Kill Bill, whereas The Wachowski asked Studio 4C to come up with an anthology series set in the Matrix universe with the help of Shinchiro Watanabe and Peter Chung and call it "The Animatrix".

Both became huge successes in Japan & The United States and as a result, it has started a minimal trend where franchises like Halo, Marvel, Highlander, Supernatural & Batman got their own anime versions.

But is this a trend that will gain newer Western interest in anime, or is it nothing more than just another shallow trend trying to cash in on the popularity of Kill Bill & the Animatrix?

i mean, as much as i love seeing Hollywood recognizing anime, to me it has more to do with making money than actually caring. I mean, while halo Legends was good, The Iron Man anime is still bland and has a "i don't care, just animate it so that we can get the money and finish it before the deadline" feel to it.

I mean, look at video game adaptations of movies. Look at the Iron Man 2 game, Enter The Matrix, or the video game for Terminator 3 & Salvation. Now, the same is starting to happen with animes of Hollywood franchises.

Infact, there's gonna be a Mass Effect anime to be released a few months after the game was released. however, i do think it'd be just like the Iron Man anime, where everything feels rushed because they need to finish it before the deadline.

However i do want to see more anime adaptations of stuff like Highlander, where it's pure quality and is way better than the Highlander sequels. I would also love to see anime side-stories for Sin City, or Dexter. They can be done properly without a deadline and since the Supernatural anime was good, i don't mind seeing an anime version of Dexter, with Mamoru Miyano as Dexter Morgan.

So what do you think? Is Hollywood's recent involvement in anime a good thing or a bad thing?

[Vexx]

I think its a one-off moment. Intrinsically, Hollywood tends to fail in adapting foreign properties. As a superficial assessment, Hollywood management is almost too damn stupid to do *American* properties well... they're totally out of their depth in foreign works.

So you'll get individual moments that might work (e.g. Matrix 1) but I think in general, they're destined to mostly just insult anyone who's read more than a page of asian culture (or any other culture).

[Kagayaki]

To be honest, I haven't actually watched the anime versions of Supernatural, Wolverine, or Iron Man, but I haven't heard good things about them. I see no signs that that adapting western franchises straight over to Anime is going to produce anything particularly memorable, although obviously I'd be glad to be pleasantly surprised.

Originally Posted by Taufiq91

i mean, as much as i love seeing Hollywood recognizing anime, to me it has more to do with making money than actually caring. I mean, while halo Legends was good, The Iron Man anime is still bland and has a "i don't care, just animate it so that we can get the money and finish it before the deadline" feel to it.

The issue with adaptations is pretty much what you said. They're more interested in making money than making a better realization of the original. I mean, Dragonball is loads of fun as an anime/manga, but if anyone at Fox had been worried about whether making it live-action was going to express any part of it better than animation could, Dragonball Evolution never would have been made. I think most anime adaptations of western things suffer from the same problem.

That said, I really look forward to seeing more works that are stylistically inspired by anime, like Kill Bill and the Animatrix. What made these better were that they were what the creators of the original work were actually trying to portray, and the creators felt that anime-style animation was the best way to express themselves.

TL;DR IMO, cross-inspired original work = good, adaptations = bad.

[Archon_Wing]

*Remembers Dragon Ball Evolution*
*Shudders*

[Pocari_Sweat]

I was smart enough not to watch DB Evolution

Back on topic, I agree with pretty much Kagayaki said regarding cross-inspired work and using elements from another culture are great, but pure source material to adaptations usually end up horribly.

[Kyuu]

I'd like to see American studios making their own anime; but that ain't gonna happen - anytime soon... IF ever.

Originally Posted by OP

So what do you think? Is Hollywood's recent involvement in anime a good thing or a bad thing?

It just shows how either Hollywood is desperate for ideas or how they're flat out of ideas. Then again, in the long run, the Japanese industry is fated to fall into this pattern as well. We'll end up seeing the same ole' same ole' crap out of them -- without any stretch of originality anywhere. Of course, in certain genres, it already has gotten to that point... like harems, for example.

[cyth]

Well, this "one-off moment" has been going on for quite some time now. We can't call it a trend, but it is a small niche of Japanese animation which is, coincidentally, also the most profitable one in the U.S. I think animations such as the Marvel Comics adaptations, the Halos, the Witchblades have only one audience - the established AMERICAN fanbases of its respected franchises.

Now, I'd be very careful to label titles like that "anime." Sure, anime = animation = cartoons, it's all the same medium, whatever, but the word "anime" denotes, at least in western culture, cartoons originating from Japan. Now, what does that mean exactly? I think this brings us to the overarching question of what is anime. How do we define anime? Most of these titles aren't created with Japanese sensitivities in mind, most of them have creative control over in the U.S., and most of them are primarily tailored for and marketed toward American audiences, not Japanese audiences. At this point, Japanese animation studios are mere contractors for western projects, so I have a real problem with FUNimation marketing their future release of Mass Effect animations as "anime." This is just a bullshit marketing move to draw in casual anime fans that weren't much of anime fans to begin with, rather gamers and general geeks at heart. I know plently of such people, they will buy something labeled anime, it just needs to have that American flavor, same as with dub watchers. Not to mention, such adaptations have huge market potential with gamers and other general geeks.

So, as far as business practices are concerned, FUNimation is on the right track to getting out of their current mess, it being that there's not much of a home video market for anime in the U.S. anymore. So they hire cheap Japanese talent to animate their American properties, thus receiving an excuse to call them "anime." Doing so, they remove the stigma associated with cartoons and smoothen out fan insecurities about buying them, sell it to geeks, real anime fans, and popular culture artfags alike. I hate them. It's a cheap trick that's only going to hamper the identity of Japanese cartoons in the long run. I wasn't particularly conscious of The Animatrix being a Japanese property, it really wasn't, but it was a great way to showcase Japanese talent nonetheless. I still think that such titles do more harm than good for anime.

[wontaek]

If the involvement means more capital and exposure to the anime, then, in the long run, it is a good thing. You may get some awful failures, but anime world needs to take some new risks for it to grow.

[cyth]

There's something inherently stupid about thinking Americans can fix problems of a Japanese pop-art business. What these animations will be doing is only expanding the American entertainment industry and not helping the Japanese much, since they are mere contractors in these relationships, after all.

[Ahiru77]

Well, X-men the anime is pretty good. o_o

[Taufiq91]

Originally Posted by cyth

There's something inherently stupid about thinking Americans can fix problems of a Japanese pop-art business. What these animations will be doing is only expanding the American entertainment industry and not helping the Japanese much, since they are mere contractors in these relationships, after all.

True.

I mean, it's basically the same as America using Iraqi oil rigs, or Wal-Mart & other US companies using Chinese labour. It's only gonna benefit the former, not the latter.

[DonQuigleone]

I don't think it ever work very well, though I think it could if they did it right, and made a little effort. For instance a live-action Gundam adaptation could probably work quite well (with a few plot tweaks to make it more appealing to american audiences, for instances an adult protagonist rather then an angsty teen).

On the other hand, why not come up with something original instead? We're perfectly capable of coming up with our own Sci-Fi, we don't need to adapt other ideas, be it from a foreign source or in remakes... Come up with more Avatars and District 9s, rather then try and slavishly emulate others. Likewise the Japanese should come up with their own ideas rather then make Marvel remakes, more Tiger & Bunnies and less Iron Mans.

Another thing that we have to beware with this trend is that it can lead to a decrease in talent if the only work being done is from outsourcing. Korea has a huge numbers of Animators, but hasn't managed to develop it's own creative industry largely (in my view) because they're continuously being relegated to outsourced jobs.

With a project like Iron-Man it's doesn't really develop the staff's abilities much, and if they stay making that sort of thing they'll just fall behind in their abilities to fully develop their own ideas.

I see nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from foreign source (EG Kill Bill, or western influences in Cowboy Bebop), but it's much better if they're working on their own stories. Manga adaptions can lead to similiar issues, but aren't quite as bad, as there's not as much of a cultural and linguistic barrier preventing colaboration between studios and mangakas.

[ahelo]

As much as I would love anime to be more popular to general audiences, Hollywood ruined DragonBall. I still can't forgive Hollywood for that.

Otheerwise though, as long as they can make something that won't make me cringe, sure why not?

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by Ahiru77

Well, X-men the anime is pretty good. o_o

But, that's the reverse aspect to the original question.

[Progbuusters]

Avatar the Last Airbender, case closed

[MakubeX2]

This is just another phase for western cinemas after the remake trends of East Asian films. And there's bound to be good and bad takes.

Anyone remember The Grudge,Dark Water,The Eye and Godzilla '98 ? Classic examples of How Not To.

Likewise, we have decent stuffs like The Ring, Shall We Dance and masterpiece such as Magnificent Seven and Departed.

It all boils down to the director's skill actually.

PS :- Is the western live action take of Evangelion still on ?

[Master_Yoma]

Well Hollywood making anime into live action hell no they all way fuck it up some how and they even fuck up comic books to and remakes of old movies

But some of US stuff can be turned into anime at less Japan dont fuck it up to much. Well Iron Man did suck bad but at less it wasnt as bad of those live action movies

[Kameruka]

Should I mention Sucker Punch? That's the best attempt for Hollywood imitating anime.

[Taufiq91]

Originally Posted by Kameruka

Should I mention Sucker Punch? That's the best attempt for Hollywood imitating anime.

More like Sucker Punch trying to imitate every Adult Swim anime out there.

Scott Pilgrim is pretty much the one that truly imitates anime in a live action setting, whereas How I Met Your Mother is pretty much the live action version of slice of life animes.

[brocko]

I'd say Scott Pilgrim is more video game imitation as opposed to anime. I didn't really think the film was anything spectacular myself anyway but i can see why people enjoyed it so much more than i did.