「Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War」「Kingdom」「Death Note」…What are the characteristics of a successful live-action manga/animation work?

・Rurouni Kenshin
The first film was a hit with 3.01 billion yen and the second film (front and back) was a huge hit with 5.22 billion yen and 4.35 billion yen respectively

・Orange
3.25 billion yen in sales due to the popularity among women

・Nobunaga Concerto
Although the drama rating was only 12.5%, the movie version earned 4.6 billion yen

・Assassination Classroom
The first film made 2.77 billion yen, and the second film made 3.51 billion yen, a steady increase

・Gintama
The first film was a hit with 3.84 billion yen and the second with 3.70 billion yen

・kingdom
5.69 billion yen in sales

What these works have in common is that they all have a more realistic worldview.
Assassination Classroom and Gintama have some science fiction elements, but the fantasy atmosphere is not too strong and not too far away from the real world.

Live-action adaption forces a two-dimensional world to become a three-dimensional world, which naturally creates distortions.
The stronger the fantasy flavor, the greater the distortion.

This is not just a matter of the worldview.
The same is true for works that have characters with hairstyles and hair colors that are unrealistic, as is often the case in shonen manga harem-type romantic comedies.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of live-action adaptations of these characters, but they inevitably give the impression of being in costume, and give a cheesy impression.

The only live-action films that have been successful are the ones that have had relatively few distortions.
On the other hand, some of the films that didn’t succeed are the ones that were made into live-action films and ended up being detached from reality.

Also, period and historical works tend to be the most popular.
This tendency is especially noticeable in the case of “Rurouni Kenshin”, which was not as fresh as it should have been more than 10 years after the series ended.

Do you need to respect the original work?

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

Essentially, live-action adaptations are an effective media mix that can reach more than just manga and anime fans, but as mentioned above, there are many works that fail because they try too hard to match the visuals of the original work.
Trying to make the original work look too much like the original work and distorting the visuals of the original work is a recipe for disaster.

If this is the case, it is not necessary to respect the original work, but that is not the case at all.
It doesn’t matter how much of a “No to live-action” trend there is, most of the people who go to the theater right after the release are the fans of the original work.
The first audience is the original fans.

The success of a film is determined by the number of people who visit the theater when it is released.
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to win the hearts of the fans of the original work.

However, this is completely different from the promise of the anime adaptation, which is “not to change much from the original work”.
A live-action adaptation is already a work that is far removed from the original work at that point in time.
Respect for the original work should be shown in a way that is different from being faithful to it.

For example, the movie version of Death Note changed the storyline and even changed the ending, which is in some ways the biggest taboo of all.
Nevertheless, the ending was so well received that some people even called it better than the original.

It is because the ending of this movie version of Death Note is different from the original, but it does not change two important points, “the defeat of the main character Light Yagami and the death of his rival L”.
This is the reason why it was appreciated by the fans of the original work.
Fans of the original work will be more forgiving if the production staff keeps the point of the work and each scene in check.

Also, the director’s comments are very important.
Fans of the original work will be able to judge how the director feels about the work and whether or not he or she has respect for the work by these comments.
Whether they think “Oh, this director is trustworthy” or “He seems to make it roughly…” will make a big difference in the level of expectation for the film.

Before the release of the film, the director of “Gintama”, Yuichi Fukuda, made public the fact that he was originally a fan of Gintama and his communication with the original author, Hideaki Sorachi, and he talked a lot about his love and respect for the work, saying “Gintama” saved my life”, “I’d rather do “Gintama” than “I want to do “Gintama””, and “I love “Gintama” after all”.
The director who originally showed comedic sense in “Yuusha Yoshihiko”, there was a welcoming mood among the fans, but it is certain that he won the hearts of the fans with these comments.

The same is true for the author, and his enthusiasm for the live-action adaptation will also inspire fans to enjoy live-action as well.
Mr. Aka Akasaka, the author of “Kaguya-sama wa Tsutsumi wo Sadaeratetai” (Kaguya-sama wa Tsutsumi wo Sadaeratai), which became a hit with over 2 billion yen, used an entire episode of the original work to express his enthusiasm for the live-action adaptation, and actively gave interviews to newspapers and other media to explain the significance of the live-action adaptation.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the success of the project was achieved as a result of the many fans who came to the movie theaters after receiving Mr. Akasaka’s enthusiasm.

Naturally, the content of a live-action film is important.
But in the case of a live-action film, the difference between success and failure can be made before it is even broadcast.

Summary

For fans, live-action adaptations may not be something they would approve of with open arms.
However, if a work is suitable for a live-action adaptation, and it is a live-action work created with love and respect, there will always be a lot of fans who will honestly admire it.
I think the reason why live-action works have a bad image is because many of them lack that kind of naturalness.