Why Are Live Action Adaptations So Bad?!

It's aliiiiive... action...
After watching Netflix's One Piece adaptation, I decided to explore live action adaptations. What does live action even mean? Are there any counterexamples? Why are they so bad?!
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[@whitewing2]

One youtuber pointed out what makes a good live action adaptation They some how forgot to invest first on the show they make Non Anime watchers enjoyed One Piece LA because 1. The characters are well written and Likable 2. The plot is engaging 3. It has a heart, more likely a soul The secret in making a good live action is Make a good show 1st Adaptation later

[@itsonlyaidan]

I got a One Piece tattoo after I watched the show

[@justindaughtry]

If it isn’t a lower back Arlong tattoo you need to get a refund PRONTO

[@itsonlyaidan]

@@justindaughtry how’d you know??

[@jamesstratton18]

my parents didnt let me stay up to watch the finale of avatar the last airbender. i still havent forgiven them

[@justindaughtry]

Unforgivable.

[@bellissimo4520]

9:04 - "We don't need a live-action adaptation for everything!" - Tell that to Disney...

[@jsnrock]

this was in my recommended, I'm sure it's gonna blow. Incredible video

[@justindaughtry]

Thanks for giving it a shot! I appreciate it

[@jsnrock]

@@justindaughtry Videos like these are excellent to watch when I'm focused on a task. You made a great video and provided valuable insight. I can't wait to see what else you've got planned.

[@erigsen9181]

They already did a live action version of a gear 5 type character in 1994, it's called the mask. To me it's not so much about if they can do it but more so if it will work and translate well.

[@GalekC]

MY NAME IS ANKH So, in 2010, I fell in love with One Piece. But hadn't grown up with Avatar since there was so much on my plate & I had since switched from Nick to basically all cartoon network by that point. Episode 11 of Avatar with the old man Earthbender made such a strong impression on me that I have it memorized as its 11th episode despite only watching it once. I loved it, and I'm going to do overview/commentated content on the series to preserve my experience with it once & for all.

[@tyler_smith]

The one piece is real. It is this video. Well done, Justin Daughtry. 👍

[@gauthamvadlamudi3500]

imo, we don't need live Action adaptations for everything, but every great story needs to be told and needs to reach wider audience... Which is possible through live Action. And one piece is not just a fantasy series with wacky designs and powers. It is telling one of the greatest stories of all time in a brilliant way. And that story needs to reach everyone and deserves the recognition it deserves. That's the reason one piece live action adaptation is necessary. Similarly, any animation or book which has a story worth telling deserves to be adapted and introduced to wider audience. The fact that my "muggle friends" who never watch animation or anime loved one piece live action and now are even more excited for season 2 and want it immediately and can't wait for 1 more year... This alone shows that one piece live action succeeded only because it retained the spirit, soul and essence of the original story, characters and the world... And since one piece animanga genuinely has a great story to be told, and the same is conveyed through the adaptation, it's obvious everyone will fall in love with it... Just like every one piece fan. Me a long time one piece fan liked the live Action a lot.. (but wanted more from it especially due to the condensing and all), but the more I rewatch it, I'm falling in love with it even more. And FYI, one piece live action is an adaptation of the one piece manga and not one piece anime specifically. But the show runner, Executive producer and the Head writer, Matt Owens being a long term one piece of fan and is someone who genuinely loves, cares and understands one piece.. He uses all the one piece lore in the author question corners in the manga (SBS), anime content, manga content, one piece movies, color spreads, and even the future events running currently in the manga to use that info for furthering the world building, put foreshadowings, eastereggs in the show (advantage of hindsight), ofc inputs from the discussions with mangaka Oda sensei himself and also considering the general opinion of what aspects the core one piece fans like him (him being deeply involved with the one piece community and knows ins and outs, memes, winks, etc), love about the original. @4:40 you pointed the soul reason why the live action one piece succeeded. The show creators need to have the full understanding of the original story, characters, lore, world, to change and adapt without losing the original character building, world, details, etc. Matt Owens understands one piece at a very deep level being a long time one piece fan and one who is fully invested in it and also one who owes one piece to bring him out of a dark place in his life. SO, ALL NETFLIX DID IS TO PUT THE RIGHT PERSON AND RIGHT TEAM IN THE RIGHT PLACE... AND IT ALL WORKED OUT. Still this doesn't confirm that the other future adaptations will work automatically, as ultimately the people and the team involved in the making of the show and their intentions, skills, amis what makes it breaks an adaptation. I hope the creators and management of different shows learn a lesson by seeing Matt Owens and one piece and learn to put the right people in the right position for anything to succeed

[@digital-underworld]

Personally I think people specifying Live-Action adaptations is because there is already an existing Animated Adaptation or the source material itself was already in Animated form. Calling it Live-action serves to separate it from those versions. It's easier to think of it this way because an adaptation inherently means the source material was in a different form of media.

[@iNabber]

good vid dude

[@justindaughtry]

I appreciate it! Thanks for giving it a shot!

[@zirak93-2]

Thanks to mr. G(Oda) this was possible. I bet he was involved to make it this good.

[@justindaughtry]

No doubt! I’m sure it would’ve been a completely different show without his involvement.

[@christafart4202]

Regarding gear 5, have u seen the mask?

[@justindaughtry]

I have! I had the exact same thought about gear 5 after recording this, but I don’t know how I feel about it 😳

[@willofthebald3848]

I was about to comment the same thing.

[@SeconidasIII]

i was always very skeptical of this adaptation, and there is some stuff i wish they had done differently. But honestly, ive seen a lot of people who had no interest in one piece, watch the live action and really enjoy it and get imersed into the world, and thats all i could ask for. If it got more people who never knew about it get invested in it, and helped people who knew about it but were afraid of taking the commitment to start watching it to actually take the first step, its a huge success for me. Idk what to expect from future seasons, i hope they dont skip laboon and that chopper doenst look terrible, but i now have faith that theyll at least satisfy people new to the series

[@peterfrost377]

Imo it mostly depends on the scource material itself, the people they hire & how they choose to adapt it. My 10 favorite live action manga & webtoon adaptations are :) 1. Rurouni Kenshin films 2. Oldboy 2003 3. Ichi the killer 4. Kingdom show 5. All of us are dead show 6. Alice in Borderland show 7. Sweet home show 8. One piece show 9. Lone wolf & cub films 10. Lady snowblood 1&2

[@justindaughtry]

I couldn’t agree more! Those are some great picks! I’ve seen about half of your list, but I’ll definitely have to check out the rest!

[@dhruvsaini2806]

Yoooo I didn't even realise that it's a small creator the editing and the script is good and i like your opinion on this topic actually a good video

[@justindaughtry]

I appreciate that! Thanks for tuning in 🫡

[@mayraalejandragonzalezeraz5886]

What about FMA live action?

[@shuunknown]

Everyone can agree that Dragon Ball Evolution is one of the worst adaptations ever made BUT if you watch it as a standalone movie, forgetting the original lore, it's actually a pretty decent movie

[@justindaughtry]

Very true! I hadn't watched much Dragon Ball Z as a kid so I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but now… yeah…

[@leviadhysta7335]

C'mon man. As standalone itself is bad. How goku creepily watch chichi in classroom is so bizzare, how goku classmates bully goku is so evil, head sliding move, why chichi doppelganger teach goku how to 'fart' offensively, air bending?! If it makes as home film (not theatre movie), i could let ot slide. As box office movie with big budget, it is so bad, it makes me believe that the studio that greenlit this movie got conned by whoever pitch the script.

[@GalekC]

All too common in those days. Can say the exact same for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

[@xmetalgamerx]

Emily Rudd and Jeff Ward stole the show for me. They were the most believable and impactful imo.

[@justindaughtry]

Couldn't agree more. They killed it!

[@vixevinweria8400]

I've already seen a decent gear 5 adaptation on twitter. It can work.

[@l3nsman]

I liken any adaptation to trying to paint an oil painting with water colours or crayons. Novels, comic books, manga and anime offer the author completely different sets of tools to engage and grip the audience. And because those tools are vastly different from medium to medium, something that works in one medium doesn't necessarily translate well to another. Take the literary device of the "inner monologue" for example. It's great when you read it in novels, comics and manga, but using it in live action and animation means you are going to lose your audience. So, when adapting the inner monologue you need to find other ways to get your point across. Going back to the analogy: Imagine having the task to paint the Mona Lisa with water colours. How do you do it? You could try to do a one-to-one recreation of the painting but that won't really do justice to the Mona Lisa because oil colours blend in different ways than water colors. What you will get is a pale imitation of the Mona Lisa. This is why most Japanese live-action adaptations don't work by the way. They transfer the source material *exactly* as it is on screen and the result is often not something you can take seriously. So painting the Mona Lisa with water colors doesn't quite work if you do it accurately. What actually works is using the water colors and the base of the Mona Lisa to create in your own way, with your own set of tools, something that invokes the same *feeling* you get while seeing the original Mona Lisa. So the adaptation is now not a question of "how do I translate the original on screen" but rather "what does the original make me feel". Ultimately, what does the original *mean* for me? This is why most Western adaptations don't work. Most of them are made by people who just don't get the source material and in some cases even actively hate it. And their lack of connection shows on screen. The main reason the Cowboy Bebop adaptation didn't work was because it's clear that the people who made it were not fans of the original. They didn't get excited when Spike displayed his unique brand of martial arts on the first episode, almost dancing to Yoko Kanno's iconic music. They didn't laugh at Fay Valentine's introduction. They didn't get shocked when they found out Spike's past. They didn't cry at the final "Bang" on episode 25 and didn't bawl their eyes out when "The real folk blues" was heard one final time on screen. Ultimately, Cowboy Bebop didn't actually *mean* anything to them. It was just a paycheck to them. And their indifference showed on screen at the abomination that ended up being the end result. Because the people who made the adaptation felt nothing, the audience ended up receiving nothing. If you feel nothing when you look at the Mona Lisa, what are you doing repainting it in the first place? The main reason the live adaptation of One Piece worked was that the source material was important to the people who made it. Matt Owens, the show's writer and producer has gone on record to say that One Piece saved his life and many of the actors involved either were fans of the franchise (Mackenyu & Emily Rudd) or became invested afterwards (Skylar & Godoy). The people who made the Live-Action adaptation of One Piece did a good job of transferring the feeling of reading One Piece on screen because it *meant* something to them. They each put a piece of their love and their soul on screen and the result was something brilliant. They didn't just please old fans they bought new fans into the franchise because they knew One Piece was amazing in its own merits and knew that if they made something that gave you the *feeling* of reading the original One Piece, other people would find it amazing as well. Was the One Piece adaptation perfect? Not by a long shot. It was however a perfect representation of how One Piece actually *feels* and for that it will also have a special place for me. If for nothing else in that it got the people close to me to *finally* understand what was so special about that weird "Japanese super -powered pirate cartoon" I've been watching for the past 20 years. In the end, painting the Mona Lisa with water colours is just not possible. The best you can hope for is your water painting to bring out the same feelings you had when you looked at the Mona Lisa. If you do it right, your little sibling who bumps into your water drawing will realise that the Mona Lisa is something truly unique and incredible... ...and will strive to one day look at the Mona Lisa with their own eyes to experience more of the feelings your water drawing brought out from them.

[@justindaughtry]

Beautifully said! I couldn’t agree more! The goal should be to capture the feeling, not recreate every frame. It’s easy to fail when you don’t understand what makes the source material special in the first place! I can’t remember where I read about this, but in the live action showrunner’s first communication with Oda, he described what he thinks One Piece is about, and Oda responded with something like “I have full faith in you now”.

[@golden_zebra]

Honestly, the One Piece live action could just focus more on the characters and drama (and realistic creativity) than the action aspect of the story in the future seasons. I've read the manga and watched the anime and live action and I enjoyed everything. In the end, the manga, anime and live action should at least compliment each other because, for me, I don't even mind reading and watching one piece multiple times in multiple different adaptations as long as the story HAS HEART and is sincere to the original themes and ideas. I read the manga because the lore and story is good and there's a few more extra chapters there. I watch the anime because I love the action scenes and colors and the creativity of the fight scenes. I watch the live action because we get to hang out with the crew more than in the anime. If I can have each and every adaptation of one piece then that's good! They don't have to one up each other on which is better.

[@justindaughtry]

Well said! I couldn't agree more!

[@GalekC]

What did you write at the end? The YT UI got in the way of it. I'd like maybe 3-5 seasons of One Piece, and I think that would be satisfactory as people would be keen enough by that point to jump into the anime a little bit before, during, or after that moment they adapt & they'd feel probably the most compelled to continue from there. Statistically, that's the general experience I've seen with the series. Well, actually, maybe hopefully 7. There's certain things about the series that definitely have not aged well & if the Live Action can even slightly fix them, that would be stellar. Maybe I actually do want it to go all the way through, and by that point the anime may have its own edited-down version that is much more easily digestible.

[@justindaughtry]

It was a just dumb joke. I didn't even realize that it was covered! I just removed the end screen stuff so it can be read now! I agree! If they can keep up this quality, I think they can try with 2 more seasons, see how well they are able to adapt the source material, and then make a decision on how far they really want to go with it. I would love it if they trim down some of the poorly aged and less digestible stuff too. The 1000+ episode barrier is daunting for a lot of people, and this would help ease people in!

[@AtheosAthanatos]

yo, what were you looking at the bottom left, script?

[@justindaughtry]

I’m not sure 🤔 I think it was just out of habit. My script is usually on my other side!

[@AtheosAthanatos]

@@justindaughtry ah I see. It was so frequent I had to point it out. Great vid tho!

[@justindaughtry]

@@AtheosAthanatos No worries! I honestly didn’t even notice it, but now that you said it I can’t unsee it! Thank you!