When I was a small child, my life consisted of binge-watching Japanese cartoons and struggling to defeat Pokémon gym leaders on my Nintendo DS. I never imagined that several years later, I would be watching the trailer of “Detective Pikachu” coming in May 2019, which made me scream at the sight of Psyduck. Hollywood, please don’t ruin my favorite childhood memories with another live-action film adaptation.
Now that more people are watching anime than ever before, major studios are turning their heads to Japanese anime and manga. In hopes of attracting a wider audience, Hollywood is determined to earn money off of Japan’s biggest franchises by recreating their content.
However, most adaptations don’t sell well and result in failure due to their whitewashed casts and staff, poor production quality and drastic changes to original plots or characters.
Fans of an original story will hate them for completely changing something they love, and others who’ve never heard of it simply won’t care to watch something of such poor quality. In most cases, Western anime adaptations are changed beyond all recognition, taking away the originals’ unique style of storytelling.
Consider Netflix’s “Death Note” as an example. The film adaptation lacked in every area of how a basic movie should be. It removed vital parts of the anime that made me fall in love from the first episode. After watching the first 20 minutes, I couldn’t wait for the movie to end.
Audiences, aside from fans of foreign works, generally do not watch subtitled live-action works. They prefer watching with English dub, causing characters to look incredibly awkward due to their unmatched mouth movements and voices. Whitewashed versions of anime will never be successful. For most American adaptations, the number of Japanese actors and production team members can be counted on one hand.
It’s difficult to understand why studios continue to use white actors for leads in their films when it clearly doesn’t benefit them. As a long-term fan of anime, it’s embarrassing to know that these adaptations are derived from some of anime’s greatest masterpieces.
However, there are some incredible adaptations, like “Rurouni Kenshin” and “Parasyte.” Part of the reason why these remakes were so successful is because the cast and production staff were entirely Japanese. The adaptations incorporate almost every crucial part from the original series while successfully modernizing it to appeal to the audience.
With that said, I don’t want major film studios to give up on creating adaptations. There is a high potential for filmmakers to succeed in producing remakes that are enjoyable to watch. All they need to do is think twice about what audiences actually want.
As of now, the only mystery left to solve is whether “Detective Pikachu” is worth watching. The main cast consists of more Asians than any other American anime film adaptation, even having a Japanese actor. I hope it will serve as an example for future adaptations as a good representation of an original story.
TCHS School Newspaper