Tag: anime

Naruto Live-Action Movie Adaptation Finds Writer in Tasha Huo: Report

The Naruto live-action movie has reportedly found its writer. As per Variety, Tasha Huo, best known for Netflix’s The Witcher: Blood Origin and the upcoming Tomb Raider animated show, will serve as the scribe for the Naruto adaptation. Development on the film has been in limbo for years at Lionsgate, and this would mark the first official update since director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) took on the project in 2015. It seems as though the success of Netflix’s One Piece has caused several abandoned anime to live-action adaptation projects to be revived, as a means to cash in on the Japanese medium’s popularity, while introducing those stories to casual audiences.

Huo was noted by Variety as one of the top screenwriters to be on the lookout for in 2023, having written a script for Marvel’s Red Sonja, a sword-bearing barbarian warrior who leads a group of unlikely allies on a quest to free themselves from enslavement by an evil tyrant. “Adapting iconic characters or IP makes the writing of it easier because the passion for writing it is already there,” she said, claiming that it’s a good means to explore human stories. “I’m so inspired by these characters already that it’s exciting to just take a part of their journey and try to tell that fun story in a way that would appeal to me as a fan.” No other details were revealed, but the fact that it’s still in development is a massive update.

Created by acclaimed mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto is pretty much a household name in Shonen anime, easily on par with epics like Dragon Ball Z and the aforementioned One Piece — both of which have received live-action Hollywood treatment. 2009’s Dragon Ball: Evolution was a dud, alongside Adam Wingard’s Death Note and the Scarlett Johansson-led Ghost in the Shell, which completely diverted from the core themes and plot. Not to mention, the lead roles were largely played by Caucasian actors instead of Japanese. Clearly, Hollywood doesn’t have a great track record with such adaptations, but Netflix’s One Piece, which already has a second season in development, is a glimmer of hope that it is an achievable standard.

Naruto centres around the titular teenage shinobi Naruto Uzumaki, an orphan who is shunned by the village folk after an age-old catastrophe causes the spirit of a demonic fox to be sealed within him. Aspiring to be the Hokage (village leader), he embarks on a coming-of-age journey, making new friends, barely passing ninja exams, and battling a twisted scientist who can shapeshift into a serpent. The anime adaptation partly owes its popularity in the Western realm to Toonami, an anime so sprawling that it had to be split into two halves — Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden, with the latter being set two-and-a-half years after, as our young shinobi returns from training with his lecherous Sannin mentor Jiraiya.

It’s unclear how the live-action adaptation would condense the first part’s arc into a feature-length film unless Lionsgate already has sequels planned. The One Piece series was based merely on the East Blue Saga, but the character development never felt rushed because it was stretched across 10 episodes.

Currently, there is no release window for the Naruto live-action movie.

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Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Trailer Promises Vibrant Battles, Complicated Love Triangle, More

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the new anime series from Netflix, just got a trailer, promising a vibrantly stylised affair that reimagines the classic battle of the exes tale. While the art style draws heavily from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s original graphic novel series, it brings back the cast from Edgar Wright’s 2010 live-action film. As such, it forms a full-circle moment, though the anime format allows co-writer BenDavid Grabinski to take an ambitious leap — one that would’ve cost more than Avatar if Netflix were to re-interpret the comics accurately in live-action format. The Scott Pilgrim anime is out November 17.

The trailer for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off opens with the titular 23-year-old bass player (Michael Cera) of the ‘Sex Bob-Omb,’ dreaming about Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a rebel delivery girl he recently met and fell head over heels for. She’s the new girl in town, just moved to Canada from her busy life in New York City, and instantly grabs Scott’s attention at a party. “Hey, wanna go out sometime?”, he asks her, while shaking in his boots, only to be met with a polite yes. Unbeknownst to him, Ramona’s got seven evil exes, all of whom he must defeat in distinct standoffs — from video-gamey arcade arenas to a musical faceoff — to be able to actually date her.

As mentioned before, the entire cast from the live-action film is back, starting with Satya Bhabha as Ramona’s first ex-boyfriend Matthew Patel, Hollywood actor Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), the mighty vegan Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), the specialised ninja Roxy (Mae Whitman), and more. All the while, Scott must also deal with the fallout of his recent breakup with Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), who’s hellbent on winning him back by besting Ramona in combat. Adding onto the pile are the disapproving glares and judgemental comments from his sister Stacey (Anna Kendrick) and his obnoxious former classmate Julie Powers (Aubrey Plaza). Netflix released a clip from the Scott Pilgrim anime last month, in which the latter can be seen strictly forbidding him from going after Ramona. There seems to be some history between the two, which I hope is explored in the show.

While the clip isn’t reflective of the entire eight-episode-long show, I found the dialogue delivery to be quite jarring, with a lack of flow suggesting that the actors were possibly not in the same room/ studio during the recording process. Wright, who directed Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, returns as executive producer on the anime. “Luckily, the Scott Pilgrim cast became a close-knit family and friendships were forged for life,” he said in a prepared statement. “There — to this day — is still a group email with the entire cast on it, that’s been going since 2010. I was happy to be able to reach out to everyone with the news that we had finally come up with a way to continue the adventure.”

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is being produced by Japanese animation studio Science SARU, known for taking traditionally drawn art and moving it around digitally. Some of their renowned works include Devilman Crybaby and Japan Sinks: 2020, both of which featured incredibly rough linework with weird bodily proportions. However, with this new project, the team appears to be sticking with O’Malley’s original vision.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off releases November 17 on Netflix.

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Amazon Prime Video Brings Animax + Gem Content to India in New Partnership

Amazon Prime Video is expanding its anime catalogue through a newly-signed partnership with KC Global Media. The Asian media giant is now bringing Animax and Gem content to the streaming platform, boasting popular anime such as Haikyu!!, My Senpai is Annoying, Fruits Basket, and more. The content is now available as an add-on subscription-based channel and costs Rs. 299 per year. The package also includes a collection of J-dramas (Japanese), which also come included with English subtitles. Once subscribed, users can stream the shows at their leisure, just like all other content on Prime Video.

“Fueled by passionate fans and the strong following of Japanese pop culture in India, we are excited to bring the ultimate Japanese entertainment experience in collaboration with one of India’s leading streaming platforms,” George Chien, Co-Founder, President, and CEO of KC Global Media said in a prepared statement. “This partnership with Amazon Prime Video marks another significant milestone for us, as we continue our efforts to provide fans in India with greater accessibility across multiple genres of premium Japanese hit series and anime content, anytime, anywhere.” Japanese pop culture in India has been on a staggering rise recently, with some anime films like Suzume and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To The Swordsmith Village getting theatrical releases.

The key highlight of this deal is Haikyu!!, which follows a short-statured teenager Shōyō Hinata, who joins the Karasuno high school volleyball team upon getting inspired by a TV segment. All four seasons of the sports anime will unlock upon subscribing to the Animax + Gem channel and will include English subtitles to go along with the original Japanese audio. It’s worth noting that Haikyu!! is alternatively also available on Netflix, though for now, it’s unclear if this new alliance will have any adverse effect on its availability there. Other notable inclusions are the slice-of-life anime Fruits Basket, Seven Deadly Sins, and My Senpai is Annoying. All of this is categorised under Animax’s offerings, of course.

Meanwhile, Gem marks its Indian debut with a lineup of Japanese dramas and variety shows, including the boxing drama 10 Count to the Future, the police procedural Outsider Cops, an airborne love story Nice Flight!, and more. Amazon Prime Video previously partnered with Paramount to bring its Hollywood content slate — featuring Star Trek: Discovery, 1883, and more — to the streamer, albeit it was included as part of the base subscription rather than as a separate channel.

Reports from last week also suggested that Prime Video has been beta testing ad-supported MiniTV content on the platform, which integrates an ad-supported carousel. Currently, it’s unclear what this would look like, though the idea is to incorporate advertisements of any new launches, product promotions, and add any brand extensions.

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Stream It or Skip It?

It’s sad to say that in many cultures, it’s still considered scandalous when women enjoy anime, video games, and eating delicious food. Those are things for “other” people. For “ugly” girls who’ll never find romance. These antiquated ways of thinking are embarrassing enough, but imagine being forced to give up the things you actually enjoy doing as a woman because some irritating little fairy needs you to help raise the birth rate in Japan. It sounds disgusting, but that’s the situation in Romantic Killer. It’s supposed to be funny, a way to turn rom-com clichés on their head, but it ends up falling more than a little flat. It’s also quite creepy when you really think about it.

Opening Shot: A young woman stands in the doorway of her home clutching a bag of snacks and a box containing a video game. She rubs the box all over her face affectionately and recounts her childhood spending time playing games with male friends and eating plenty of snacks, talking about how she’s always eschewed relationships.

The Gist: Anzu Hoshino (Deneen Melody) is a high school girl who absolutely loves gaming. Strike that. It’s kind of her life. She also loves chocolate, snacks, and her cat. She prefers staying home and playing games instead of finding romance in the real world, and she isn’t about to give all that up at random to go out on a date.

But a magical fairy named Riri (Courtney Lin) is trying to change all that. One day, Anzu plays the wrong game — and she finds her favorite hobbies, cat, and snacks taken away so she can live life as if she were in a dating sim game. Riri comes to Anzu straight out of her TV, warning the high schooler of Japan’s declining birth rate, and how she’s been selected as part of an “experience” to help improve things.

The fairy race Riri belongs to can’t run a business without the innocent hearts of additional children in the world. Riri’s plan goes like this: By forcing people who the fairies believe will be “forever single” to find love, the birth rate will skyrocket and things will get back to business as usual. With that, Anzu is forced to live in a world straight out of a shoujo manga. Sure, there’ll be plenty of “hot guys” and all that as well as situations you only see in romantic anime, but Anzu doesn’t want that. So she’ll fight tooth and nail against it to the bitter end.

Source: Netflix

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? You’ll undoubtedly have visions of Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, or even Teasing Master Takagi-san, both romantic comedies with decidedly pushy characters and some frustratingly unlikable personalities vying for your attention.

Our Take: On one hand, Romantic Killer is meant to be parodic to a fault and satirical. However, it has a bizarre premise that fails anyone looking for any scrap of feminist ideals. While it’s obviously trying to make light of stereotypes from time to time and doesn’t paint Riri in a positive light, it’s hard to get into a story where the entire goal for this fairy is to ensure a high school girl enters a relationship and eventually gets pregnant so the fairy race can benefit. It’s a little strange, right?

If the premise hasn’t set you off the series by now, the way everything plays out just might. Anzu steels herself against falling in love to defy the fairy who’s forcibly changed her life, but that isn’t how things play out. Almost immediately, the seemingly perfect (and totally hot) Kazuki Tsukasa (Jason Griffith) appears in her life, with all the perfect conditions in place for them to fall for one another.

Riri keeps trying to force the two together in so many cliche and pained ways, and while Anzu is adamant that she won’t fall for these tricks, we all know what’s going to happen. The writing’s on the wall: the pair are going to get together, and this is going to be a painfully slow descent into shoujo manga tropes. Except the heroine has to throw away the things she enjoyed in her life to do so, for…reasons?

Sex and Skin: None in this episode, but the story’s implications, despite being parodic, are frankly quite strange and may not be appropriate for younger viewers.

Parting Shot: Having taken shelter in the rain in a playground, Anzu wears one sandal and one Croc while waiting out the storm. As the rain pours and she sits beneath an oversized slide, Kazuki walks up to her carrying an umbrella and a bag from the convenience store. The pair stare at each other for a beat.

Sleeper Star: Courtney Lin ensures Riri is one of the most irritating characters I’ve seen in an anime series since Madoka Magica’s Kyubey. She’s great at her job, lending Riri this insistent and patronizing personality that quickly grates on the nerves as you question why Riri thinks they have the authority to suddenly do all this to Anzu. That’s a testament to how convincing Lin can be, as she plays Riri fantastically.

Most Pilot-y Line: “We’re here to solve Japan’s extremely serious low birth rate problem,” Riri tells Anzu. There it is, folks. That’s why Anzu has to give up what she enjoys doing so she can…let’s check our notes here…have a child she hasn’t even thought about having.

Our Call: SKIP IT. The first episode won’t convince anyone that Romantic Killer is more than just a reverse harem and the creators’ commentary on what women should be doing with their lives. And despite having read the manga source material, it does tend to add a bit more nuance later on – with Riri having a few changes in store – but you likely won’t want to stick around to see it through. Sure, some of this pilot might elicit a few chuckles, but in the current world climate where women’s bodily autonomy is challenged on a daily basis, the laughs tend to come too slowly to make Romantic Killer a satisfying watch when you really look deeper.

Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech. Follow her on Twitter: @MolotovCupcake.



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Stream It or Skip It?

Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners is a story based in the world of Night City, straight out of CD Projekt RED’s game, Cyberpunk 2077. That universe itself is based on a world created by cyberpunk legend Mike Pondsmith. This anime adaptation is the brainchild of CD Projekt RED and Studio Trigger, the anime outfit that brought us classics like Kill la Kill and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. This anime series features original characters not seen in the game, but the world is just as richly detailed as it would be if you were hopping back into it yourself — as well as a few surprising cameos. It’s a high-octane, neon-soaked thrill ride that has a bit of a traumatizing first episode for its protagonist that ultimately escalates into a nonstop parade of giddy violence, adolescent rage, and – you guessed it – true cyberpunk realness.

Opening Shot: The camera pulls back on a multihued city at night, eventually focusing on a man with cybernetic ocular enhancements. A series of police cars with cops talking about their shifts (and their wives) can be seen. Suddenly, someone opens fire on the men in the cars. It’s a bloodbath, and it’s ugly.

The Gist: David Martinez (Zach Aguilar) is a student at Arasaka Academy in the flashy yet corrupt Night City who lives with his mother Gloria (Gloria Garayua). David doesn’t care much for school and prefers to spend most of his time braindancing (essentially viewing interactive footage akin to VR) with discs containing “experiences” from those with cyberpsychosis — a mental illness derived from the constant replacement of body parts with cybernetics.

While David clashes with his fellow classmates, his mother works as a first responder with the medical Trauma Team division. When tragedy strikes, David comes into possession of a military-grade piece of cybernetic tech known as a Sandesvistan. He plans to use it to teach a set of bullies a lesson. But in the meantime, he’s jobless, broke, and without any future prospects. Life seems like it has no purpose for him in Night City…but he’s going to take revenge on those who wronged him on the way to get to this lowly state, that’s for sure.

Photo: Netflix

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As this is a Studio Trigger anime, the parallels between shows like Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill can’t be ignored, from top to bottom. Visually, it also resembles the more recent Trigger film, Promare. If you enjoy the studio’s other productions, there’s no doubt you’ll be on board with this one as well.

Our Take: David’s tale is one that will be familiar to stories with a down-and-out protagonist, but that just makes it easier to root for him. Seeing Night City through his eyes really illustrates just how dismal life can truly be there, even if it’s painted as the ultimate utopia by some of those who live there. It’s even easier to get into his head and root for him as the underdog than it was for protagonist V in the video game, because you know how worn down David is by everything from the very beginning. In fact, this is the story that should have been told from the start in the Cyberpunk video game.

It’s relatable, easy to digest, and you can feel for David as he’s filled with anger, hurt, and confusion – where to go next? Who’s responsible? Who will pay for the hurt he’s endured? That’s more powerful than any heist gone wrong, and a story that would have made the perfect playable set of missions. It’s also what makes this series so watchable right off the bat. That, and its impossibly cool vibes. It might be the coolest series Trigger has done yet.

Sex and Skin: There’s full-frontal nudity a few minutes into the episode with a glimpse of a woman having sex. It’s pretty quick, but it’s detailed – you can’t mistake what’s going on. It happens again later in the episode with additional nude women, who are revealed to be part of a braindance program a ripperdoc is — ahem –– enjoying alone. Also, the character Lucy (seen briefly) is wearing what looks like a thong akin to Ghost in the Shell’s Major Motoko Kusanagi.

Parting Shot: An enraged David, now fed up with the cards life has dealt him, is sick of being bullied. He takes the military-grade Sandevistan cybernetic implant to the ripperdoc he saw at the beginning of the episode and, instead of trying to sell it, demands that the doc install it so he can defend himself. He’s not going to let anyone step on him any longer.

Sleeper Star: Gloria Garayua brings warmth and understanding to Gloria Martinez, whose role is shorter than it should have been. She’s a believable concerned mother to David and wants what’s best for her son. Still, the first episode reveals she may have had some secrets as well. Garayua’s tone fits the character perfectly — and here’s hoping we see more of her again at some point for a repeat performance.

Most Pilot-y Line: “‘Bout time I chrome the f**k up,” David seethes when he bursts into his ripperdoc’s office and asks that his newfound equipment be fused to his spine. From this point forward, we know he’s never going to take being abused and mistreated by his peers lying down again. And that means plenty of action is to follow, so you’d better stay in your seat and see how it all goes down.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners is a fantastic addition to the Cyberpunk universe. Its narrative is even more engaging than the original game in certain respects, with a protagonist it’s easy to get behind and root for. It’s rife with stylistic decisions that keep it 1:1 with its source material, from the language to the in-game call system, colors and fonts included. The animation is gorgeous, dynamic, and colorful, just as in-your-face as Night City should be. And it’s a shame it wasn’t a playable story in-game, because this is the epitome of what Cyberpunk in-universe storytelling could be.

(Note: If you do watch, unless subtitles are required for your viewing, you’re best left keeping them off, as Netflix’s subs are completely inaccurate, with a good 90% of the lines incorrect in ways that completely change the meaning of a sentence. Hopefully this is a problem that’s resolved going forward, but this may be the worst case of Netflix subtitling issues seen in an anime series on the platform and that’s not an exaggeration.)

Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech. Follow her on Twitter: @MolotovCupcake.



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