Plenty of anime series have been adapted into live-action by Japanese and Western studios, but the results have been mixed at best. The very concept of live-action anime adaptations has a bad reputation thanks to the likes of Dragonball Evolution, which fans deny even exists at all. Anime is tough to adapt into live action for a variety of reasons, from the sheer length of some series to outlandish visuals or gratuitous fan service that would be downright creepy in live action.

There have been some exceptions to this grim rule – such as Netflix’s One Piece adaptation – but on a whole, it seems best not to adapt anime into live action movies or shows. Plenty of anime are unsuitable for live-action adaptations, from their outlandish visuals that would look clunky with CGI, to excessive fan service, or costumes/body props that would look less immersive and more like cosplay on flesh-and-blood actors.

10

Berserk is Too Extreme For Live Action

Some Scenes Didn’t Even Make it Into Anime Form

The original Berserk manga still stands out as a seinen icon, but adapting the story into anime form has been problematic to say the least. Naturally, a live-action Berserk series would be even worse. The single worst problem is the extreme and graphic content. It’s a bad sign that even the anime versions of Berserk omit and tone down much of the manga’s brutal material. Even the medieval Golden Age arc alone has too much graphic content for live action.

Having live-action characters portray nightmarish trauma would simply be too much for the performers and viewers alike. Scenes of unspeakable abuse and trauma can only barely be endured in manga form, while animated or live action depictions would no doubt be distressing for some viewers. Berserk will likely remain exactly what it should be: a legendary manga that should stay that way.

Berserk

Release Date

October 7, 1997

Directors

Naohito Takahashi

Writers

Yasuhiro Imagawa

9

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Would Look More Like CGI Fakery and Cosplay

Outlandish Stories Like Tensura Look Best in Anime Form

Isekai anime series like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime are too outlandish for live-action adaptations. Some exotic and colorful anime did get adaptations, such as Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood got live-action movies, but the results were iffy at best. The same would no doubt be true if Tensura got a live-action movie or series as well.

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The monster people in Tensura, such as the pig-like orcs and the lizard people, would no doubt look ridiculous and cheap, or at least creepy and unsettling, with CGI or prosthetics. The magic and special effects would end up looking cheesy or unconvincing unless the production had a massive budget rivaling an MCU movie, and that’s too much to ask for live-action anime in most cases. The story’s pacing is also too slow for live action, especially since some plot developments simply call for a lot of dialogue.

8

Food Wars! Has Way Too Much Fan Service

A Live Action Version Would Also Be Repetitive

While it would be feasible on a practical level to make a live-action TV show for Food Wars!, there would be other problems for such a production. Portraying the chef students in the kitchen would be easy enough, but handling the constant fan service would be nearly impossible to do right. That’s because the fan service isn’t just thrown in – the fan service is actually integral to the cooking, strange as that may sound.

Food Wars! adds a lot of raunchy pizazz to the otherwise mundane cooking by showing characters in PG1-13 situations to express how much they love the food they are eating. That could be omitted for live action, but without it, the story is too plain and straightforward. If the fan service was included after all, that would raise a lot of eyebrows as not just adults, but also teenagers had their clothes flying off in culinary ecstasy.

Food Wars!: Shokugeki No Soma

Release Date

2015 – 2020

Directors

Yoshitomo Yonetani

Writers

Shōgo Yasukawa

7

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Would Look Like Cosplay Shoots

The Skit Format Isn’t Ideal For Live Action, Either

On many levels, a live-action version of the reverse isekai anime Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid could work, like depicting Kobayashi herself, along with settings such as Kobayashi’s apartment and workplace. One problem, however, is that characters like Tohru the maid, Kanna, Lucoa, and Elma would look too silly as actors in costumes or as CGI dragons.

An anime like Dragon Maid would end up feeling more like a cosplay skit or photo shoot than an actual story, since anime like this rely on eye-catching outfits and cute girls to function. Such a vibe in live-action would hurt what little immersion the franchise already has, and there’s also the issue of the narrative. Dragon Maid is a collection of skits rather than a proper story, which would just be underwhelming in live action.

6

No Game No Life Couldn’t Properly Handle Shiro’s Character

Without Shiro, the Story Doesn’t Work

No Game No Life is one of several isekai anime that would look cheesy rather than impressive in live action. For one thing, anime like No Game No Life already rely so heavily on exotic landscapes and visuals, having a live-action adaptation would be almost pointless, just depicting two human characters wandering around a vivid jungle of CGI scenery. All that fakery means the franchise might as well stay in anime form.

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The other issue is that co-protagonist Shiro is a girl of just 11 years. It would feel unsettling for a live-action version to involve a young actress going on adventures along with a young man like Sora. Worst of all, the foster brother and sister are quite close. Their closer moments would be unacceptable with real actors, and even aging up Shiro to an adult would still feel odd as the foster brother & sister remain very close.

5

Fairy Tail Would Look Clunky in Live Action

Fairy Tail Probably Couldn’t Pull Off What One Piece Did

Anime fans might be tempted to think that if One Piece can get a successful live-action adaptation, so can Fairy Tail. That said, it’s a minor miracle One Piece worked out at all. The series could have just as easily ended up another live-action bomb, and the odds are good a live-action Fairy Tail show would have ended up as bad as One Piece could have been.

A live-action version of Fairy Tail would also be redundant with One Piece around, since One Piece is better than Fairy Tail as a whole. Fairy Tail is good enough to get an anime, but not good enough to warrant the effort and risks of live action. It doesn’t help that the outfits and magic of Fairy Tail would look too cheesy in live-action form, much more so than what fans saw in Netflix’s One Piece.

Fairy Tail

Release Date

2009 – 2018

Directors

Shinji Ishihira

Writers

Hiro Mashima, Masashi Sogo

Franchise(s)

Fairy Tail

4

Konosuba Relies on Over the Top Visuals to Be Appealing

Certain Styles of Humor Only Work in Anime Form

Konosuba is yet another isekai anime that simply wouldn’t feel right as a live-action anime. One problem is the Konosuba series already has so much magic and fantasy, the heavy reliance on CGI would make live action moot, which ruins the point. The Konosuba anime also relies on visual gags to drive the humor, which would be almost impossible to do with live actors.

This is an obstacle for most anime that rely on wacky visuals such as chibis or bizarre facial expressions to sell the humor and set an irreverent tone. Konosuba does plenty of this with characters like Aqua and Kazuma Sato, but even the most skilled actors would be missing a lot by trying to bring those zany characters to life.

KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!

Release Date

2016 – 2024

Directors

Takaomi Kanasaki

Writers

Natsume Akatsuki, Aoi Akashiro, Touko Machida, Kojiro Nakamura, Makoto Uezu, Alexander Von David

3

Hellsing is Too Bloody and Melodramatic For Live Action

Alucard Wouldn’t Look as Menacing in Live Action, Either

The bloody, graphic Hellsing manga inspired two different anime adaptations, with most fans regarding the newer Hellsing Ultimate as the better of the bunch. The Hellsing franchise is bloody and savage. Similar to Berserk. Hellsing is already hard enough to adapt into animation in palatable ways and would be even tougher to depict in live action. Some of the manga’s most brutal or graphic scenes are just barely tolerable in the anime and would feel like torture porn with live action.

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The sheer violence is the single biggest hurdle a live-action Hellsing Ultimate adaptation would face. Given how great the manga and anime are, there’s no real reason to gamble with a live-action version. The manga and anime are edgy enough as is. The story would reach ridiculous heights in live action as Alucard tortures his enemies to death while flamboyant Nazi vampires lay siege to London.

2

My Deer Friend Nokotan Needs to Be an Anime to Work

Deer Girls Wouldn’t Be Funny With Live Actors

Anime like My Deer Friend Nokotan would be easy enough to adapt into live-action, but that’s not really the problem. Even if production would be straightforward and palatable for most scenes in a slice-of-life high school anime, My Deer Friend Nokotan‘s visual comedy is another matter entirely. More than most SOL anime, My Deer Friend relies on outrageous visuals to make viewers laugh.

Nokotan also drives the comedy with her chibi form and bizarre physical stunts, from opening her head like a cookie jar to detaching her antlers or letting her antlers grow like spaghetti. Such visuals would look strange or even unsettling in live action, and there’s no way to make a live action chibi. Too much would be lost with a live-action My Deer Friend Nokotan adaptation that relied on dialogue alone to bring the story to life.

1

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun is Way Too Cartoony to Translate

Iruma-Kun’s Humor and Tone Rely on Colorful Animation

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun would face the same problems with live action many fantasy and isekai series would: needing an overreliance on CGI for the setting and special effects. The actual humanity within the actors would be drowned out by Iruma-Kun‘s CG setting in the demonic Netherworld, so everything would loop around to feeling entirely fake once again. At that point, why not just stick with the anime?

It doesn’t help that most of Iruma-Kun‘s cast would look like cosplayers instead of immersive characters thanks to their colorful, even flamboyant hair and outfits. This is always an inherent risk with live-action anime adaptations (and even book adaptations like A Song of Ice and Fire into Game of Thrones). Most importantly, the characters in Iruma-Kun often rely on anime’s cartoony visual humor, like with Valac Clara, that live action simply cannot replicate.