meta: Live-Action Manga
2019
'Alita: Battle Angel': She, The Ultimate Weapon February 17, 2019
A prime case study for how a film can be an fine adaptation of beloved source material, while also being breathless, overcrowded, and tangled as a story
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'Kamui Gaiden': Uncanny Valley Of The Ninja January 14, 2019
Get past the often terrible CGI, and you'll find a reasonably faithful movie adaptation of Sanpei Shirato's manga masterpiece
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2018
'Bleach' (2018): Kid Janitor Of The Spirit World September 19, 2018
A dialed-down take on elements from the first major story arc of Tite Kubo's long-running shōnen actioner, it's no classic but no disaster either
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'Gintama' (2017): The Fact That Elizabeth Is Played By A Guy In A Suit Is A Feature, Not A Bug March 17, 2018
Fans, this is about as on-target an adaptation of 'Gintama' to a live-action production as you're going to get -- but everyone else, don't walk in cold
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'Blade Of The Immortal': Die Another Day March 01, 2018
A great manga-to-screen adaptation, a good-to-great Takashi Miike picture, and a slightly overlong and ragged samurai flick, in roughly that order
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2017
How The Future (Of Western Live-Action Anime Adaptations) Can Be Female June 28, 2017
'Ghost In The Shell' fizzled, but there are tons of other worthwhile anime/manga titles with strong female leads that could be adapted excellently for English-speaking audiences
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'Wolf Guy': Bark At The Moon May 30, 2017
A truly strange specimen from Sonny Chiba's filmography, and an illuminating early example of how manga adaptations were a perfect fit for 1970s exploitation cinema from Japan
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