When it comes to anime and manga getting live-action adaptations, the track record has been fairly disastrous with the likes of “Dragonball Evolution,” “Ghost in the Shell” and “Cowboy Bebop”. Every now and then something worked – the underappreciated Wachowski’s “Speed Racer,” the Tom Cruise-led “Edge of Tomorrow,” and the James Cameron-produced “Battle Angel: Alita”. It was the success of Netflix’s “One Piece,” well-received by both fans and newcomers alike along with being one of Netflix’s most watched shows of last year, which really opened the floodgates.
Now, more attention is being turned to anime as a potential source for live-action works and anime streaming giant Crunchyroll looks to be taking steps to get into that space. Rahul Purini, current CEO of Crunchyroll, spoke with (via ) recently about the SVOD services’s global expansion and during this he revealed the service is in talks with parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment about the future of live-action anime: “We believe that we can take advantage of being part of Sony Pictures Entertainment. We are discussing the possibility of making live-action versions of some anime IP with our Japanese partners and parent company.
We are considering producing them not just for Crunchyroll, but for other platforms that are interested in them, to increase interest in anime.” Anime is growing fast with Gen Z and Gen Alpha worldwide consuming it at rates far faster than prior gene.