Top 10 Worst Live Action Movie Adaptations of Animes
I like anime. Who doesn't? Oh, yeah...Hollywood doesn't. Now, I'm not saying every anime live action sucks! I love the Death Note Live Action Movie (2006), but there's some out there that you wish Hollywood or whoever took more seriously with. The anime themselves down below are pretty good for the most part. These movies....ergh. Now, I haven't seen every single one. So I'll put some suggestions in and ones that I have seen. So, here we go.
I'm sure I would have sinned if I didn't add this one on. This film is legendary bad. Which sucks because I like the actors but the characters they were supposed to portray made them look bad. Goku is an angsty teenager, ChiChi is the forced romantic interest, Piccolo is evil and everyone is a side character. They even did that Star Wars cliche of killing off Goku's family and he sobs out upset. Then it turns into a lame roadtrip movie in search of the Dragonballs. Not to mention these fight scenes suck. I would take Warriors of Virtue any day over this movie. At least the villain was funny. This movie was just pathetic.
Never plan on watching it. I've seen enough reviews to know it sucks. And I can't believe they're trying to adapt Naruto as well. Yeah because when they tried to adapt DragonBall (another large shounen anime) it worked out SO well.
I know that I'm personally not into the Dragonball anime but wow this movie just looks bad. Plus why is Goku being portrayed by a white guy when he's very obviously supposed to be Asian? (Oh wait never mind, I figured it out now).
Yeah it could have done better, but nope. This is an example on how not to do a live-action Hollywood adaption of a famous anime series.

The only thing I liked about this movie is Ryuk and the guy who voiced him, which was perfect.
I think the whitewashing isn't the biggest problem with this movie, it has more to do with the characters, plot, and some of the things they left out, like the famous potato chip scene. Seriously, no one complains about when other countries remake American movies and don't use Caucasian actors for Caucasian characters. I've seen a Japanese remake of the American movie Ghost ( which I liked), and they had Asian actors for Caucasian characters. I think some of the people who complain with whitewash are sometimes hypocrites, and when it's vis versa they don't really defend the original work.
Now don't get me wrong, I also would've liked that Death Note the movie did take place in Japan with Asian actors, but what did we expect when we saw that America was remaking a Japanese anime show? Since we're talking about the characters are not originally being Asian, then why in the ...more
While the first movie had a different ending (which was better than the anime), it had a really good cast and followed the original story very well. Then, Netflix joined the game. They wanted to make another live-action movie, 11 years later! And I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but from the trailer, this seems pretty bad.
1. They cast celebrities instead of people who might resemble the characters.
For example, they cast a blonde little brat to play Light. Light isn't a blonde little brat.
And maybe the worst part: a rapper is now playing L. A damn rapper.
2. They changed the characters.
Light is now a bullied guy with zero friends. In the anime, he is the most popular kid!
And so on.
Shocking, the story/character were inaccurate. Light Yagami was a disappointment. Sometimes I believe it's better for an anime to stay as an anime instead of getting a live action edition.
I was so disappointed because I was excited to watch this movie because of L but he was an emotional fool and his deduction skills were not available in his brain.

Levi and Annie were smart not to come to this party. This movie was astonishingly bad. I couldn't believe what I was watching. I liked the anime but wasn't obsessed with it like other people. This movie just failed. The characters didn't act like they did in the manga or anime, the flying with the ODM gear looked tacky and hard to see, the titans looked like bad CGI in the 80's. It might look cool but pause the titan and look at it closely. You'll see it's not as cool as it might look. Everything you liked about the anime isn't here and I can't believe they somehow made a part 2.
The only live action anime movie worse than this Dragonball Evolution. And Dragonball Evolution was an AMERICAN live adaptation. So that should tell you something. This movie has given anime a bad name. The characters were in no way like their manga and anime counterparts at all, the plot was WAY off from the original material, and they cut out key characters like Annie and Levi! And then they made a sequel that no one wanted or asked or!? WHAT THE HELL, SHINJI HIGUCHI!
I don't know why on Earth they decided to make a part two. Every aspect of this movie sucked. Wait, they did two things right: They spared Annie and Levi and had Eren and Mikasa ened up together! But other than that, this movie made me want to cry for the franchise.
To make matters worse, now Hollywood wants to adapt Attack on Titan into a live-action movie too. Screw it, Warner Bros.


Perhaps the worst adaptation of all time, The Last Airbender rejects not only all that made the anime great, but also the basic elements of story. Yes, it is worse than Dragonball: Evolution. If anything it's even worse than the live-action adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist. Whitewashed actors stare at the camera and deliver poorly-written lines with all the feeling of Kristen Stewart on painkillers. Avoid this film at all costs and watch the anime.
Not only one of the worst adaptations, yet one of the worst movies out there

Ruins the original badass character of Kenshiro. Story was not dramatic, it just felt like watching a weaboo trying to act as if he is a badass omnipotent being. Overall terrible CG and story.

Not the worst I've heard of, but even to this day, if there's one thing that I hate about this movie, it's the god-awful CGI visuals. Aside from some of the characters being more significantly different from the original manga source than the Madhouse anime adaptation did, the fights in the live-action Parasyte were very underwhelming and poorly choreographed, given that the way the Parasytes fight are very slow and lack any tension whatsoever, paling WAY TOO MUCH in comparison to the fast-paced and thrilling fight scenes in the Parasyte anime. I haven't actually seen the Parasyte live-action movies myself, but even if it's not the worst live-action anime adaptation ever, it certainly doesn't do any respect to either the manga or the anime.
I never watched this anime. But my friend and one of her brothers did. Right now I'm seeing how this movie looks like. One word: WHY?!

You've got to be kidding me!
First, they turn Ciel into a girl.
Second, they changed the perfectly goo "Phantomhive" into "Genpo"
Third, they made Sebastian a complete and utter, almost useless, twerp.
Fourth, first 15 minutes and you already have a rip off of episode 2.
Fifth, I'm a Sebaciel fan and all but SERIOOUSLY? Instead of devouring his or her or his or her soul, he hissed her... or him... or her... I don't even know anymore!
Sixth, Bart and Finnian weren't present.
Seventh, Madam Red wasn't Madam Red at all.
Eight, they made the clumsy Mey Rin into a badass woman who eventually died.
Lastly, they put the whole movie in the 2000's era.
Ruined one of my favorite anime shows. At least the Ao Oni movie was decent!


This movie just sucks.

Yes, I know this is technically based off a game. However, there is an Ao Oni Anime called Aooni the Blue Monster so I consider it anime. However, the movie was terrible. It was not scary. At all. Those cheap jumpscares in January horror movies, those are in here. You know that creepy music chasing you when the Ao Oni is coming? It only plays once though a phone. I'm dead serious. Confusing stuff like how the house is exactly like the one from the game. So the creator of the game, who is in this movie, has to remember what he did in order to survive. Who made the house this way? Why did they do that? Then the main character, she...she...she is Kristen Stewarts Asian counterpart. No expression and heavy breathing. The movie also ended the worst way a movie could end. It was all just a dream. I'm not joking.


While I haven't seen the movie yet, it's undeniable that it's gotten quite a lot of controversy for its whitewashed cast, with Scarlett Johansson taking the most heat since she was cast in the role of an Asian character. Not to mention that this movie did horrible at the box office, so it did pretty bad financially. For the film itself in terms of quality? That's... up to opinion, but while I have to applaud the astounding visuals and how Johansson really performs her best as Motoko Kusanagi, I haven't heard much praise outside of that since talk about the story of this live-action adaptation have been quite polarizing. Either way, it's no Dragonball: Evolution or The Last Airbender, but Hollywood can do better than this.
Strongly disagree. Watch it for yourself before you tag this movie.

This movie is not bad at all. It follows the manga pretty well and I really enjoyed it. But the manga, anime and the sequel to this movie Tokyo Ghoul S are definitely better.

This honestly deserves #1 because forget what the Honest Trailer Voice said about Dragon Ball Evolution, THIS is the West's worst insult to Japanese culture since Hiroshima. It's a Gundam movie that feels nothing like a Gundam movie. The plot feels more like it was ripped straight out of a rejected Doctor Who episode than an actual Gundam series.

I'm not joking! This crime against humanity got a live-action adaptation while Crossbone Gundam hasn't even been adapted into an anime yet! Humanity really has sunken the bar lower.
The only good thing about this movie is that they brought back the original English dub actors for the dub over and the og Alphonse voice actor.
As a long time bleach fan I was quite impressed with the characters and cgi, sure it might not have the same story line as the anime and manga, but what do you expect from a 2 hour movie.
Bleach…. one of the greatest Anime of all time. Now I could tell you about everything I hate about this movie such as the character costumes, designs and portrayal (Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, basically everyone else) but I'm gonna say what they did right...…

I just finished watching this and I have to say...this shouldn't have been made into a movie. It's like when you're working on a group project and that one group member, just says a really dumb idea. Yet you're forced to go along with it anyways. That's this movie. The acting was over the top, I couldn't take any of this seriously. You know how in anime, there's sparkles surrounding the character and it's supposed to show an emotion. Let's just say it works better in anime and manga than in a live action movie. There's random things that happen, that can work in anime. Like how a heart will pop up and then be shot by an arrow. Yet when it happens in real life, it just looks stupid. The biggest downfall of this movie was the story. Like many other live action anime movies, it falls into cramming over twenty or more episodes into an hour and a half movie. That leads barely any character development and makes the story choppy. Overall, not a great experience. Check out the anime and ...more


Was released not too long ago and pissed off all the fans of the original show.
