Hollywood has brought anime live actions to the big screen and has been very successful. Movies like Alita Battle Angel and Detective Pikachu has done great with the box office. However, there is still a problem with these movies and how they are adapted in the west.
Hollywood does not get anime and it is reflected on the decisions they make with the live action movies. A good example of this is when Scarlet Johansson was chosen to play Major Motoko in Ghost in the Shell. It wasn’t just the white washing that people did not like.
Anime and Japanese TV shows don’t talk down to you.
Anime focuses on entertaining the audience with a good story while American movies, cartoons and TV shows love to get into politics and don’t down to the audience (this is true now more than ever). American entertainment likes to tell you how to think as oppose to Japanese entertainment they want you to be entertained.
Japanese shows were serious and treated the viewers intellectually (they make you think).
The Story Is Controlled By The Creators Not The Companies
The stories in Japanese manga and anime are controlled by the original creators as oppose to America where the writers and artist are hired hands and the owner or director tells the writer what to write.
Japanese have more creative control and the manga artist have creative control over their art. In America, comic book artist do not own the art work, they are hired hands and the comic book characters belong to the company that invented the idea.
Even Japanese employees who are hired by a company like Square Enix, the company trust you to make it well, so the art is all up to you. In America, the company tells you what to do, what they want, how they want it and so on.
Reboots VS Serials
In America, stories are often rebooted, remade or retold in different ways for whatever reason. However, in Japan stories are serialized, that means one chapter of a manga per week, bi -weekly or monthly. You can see this in franchises like Dragon Ball or One Piece where the story continues on and on. Stories either end or continue. In America, stories are brought back for the new generation or are retold. This is true with franchises like Marvel and DC. They are always telling the same story in different ways.
Being Cool VS Classical
In America, franchises from Japan are taken and are changed because they want to make it appealing for the young audience. However, what they really do is try to make it “cool.” Its all about being and looking cool. Americans are more worried about being cool while Japan tries to create a feeling of yearning. Yearning for something. The Japanese let people enjoy something for what it is and what made people enjoyed it for. Very different. When Disney brought Studio Ghibli films to America, they kept it as it is. They didn’t try to change too much.
Why do you think Hollywood does not get Anime?
