Anime that could work as an American television series

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The Smoking Bun

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I am a big fan of anime and animation in general and always feel disappointed when the medium is never given it's due either because of "it's for kiddies" mentality or "we need to sell toys" mentality. There is some honest to god HBO grade stuff out there particularly within the seinen genre (or even Josie aka adult women). Anime isn't limited to Attack on Titan or DBZ in terms of storytelling. So rather than expecting western audiences to suddenly embrace anime as the next medium of mature/adult storytelling, I thought it would be better if they could adapt the really good ones into live action american series.

My suggestion for an adaption would be Hell Girl. A very dark supernatural series about an online service that allows people being abused or tormented to turn the tables and get revenge on their enemies. On taking the service Ai Enma, the titular Hell Girl appears and basically drives the victim insane and carries them back to hell. The price for the service is that you are "marked" and will be sent to hell yourself once you die. The series begins as a series of one-shots but from episode 8 on-wards it introduces an investigative journalist who begins looking into the origins of this real life urban legend. The story is mostly about the ugliness prevalent in people's hearts and the internal conflict as to whether the journalist should bother trying to help the victims or let them burn. I would like to see an American adaptation of this series... a new American Horror Story.

Addendum: How come the magical girl genre isn't very big in the US? We have had american equivalents in Bewitched, Sabrina and Charmed?
 
Death Note easily. Would probably even be a better fit for it than a movie. Make an anthology while they're still popular and have new casts each season, maybe with a story arc connecting them.
 
Even though I'm tired of it, Death Note would work.

While a straight adaption of it wouldn't work I would really like to see someone take the idea of Stands from JoJo and do something with it.
 
Tiger and Bunny. It's a superhero reality competition show. I think it could've done well on TV here.
 
wwm0nkey said:
Even though I'm tired of it, Death Note would work.

While a straight adaption of it wouldn't work I would really like to see someone take the idea of Stands from JoJo and do something with it.
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Well Golden Compass series and a few other novels have used the concept of spirit animals taking physical form to defend you
 
Monster would totally work as a western television series, shame the plans for the HBO adaptation don't seem to be going anywhere.
 
I always thought Steins;Gate could work pretty well. You'd probably have to change some characters and remove the otaku-centric stuff, but it could definitely work. Probably be super cheap, too, and it lends itself well to that drip feed of little mysteries and conspiracies and stuff.
 
So rather than expecting western audiences to suddenly embrace anime as the next medium of mature/adult storytelling, I thought it would be better if they could adapt the really good ones into live action american series.
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I'd rather not have media that I currently like get caught in a licencing/rights nightmare to make crappy americanized adaptions for people who dont even want it.
 
The Smoking Bun said:
Well Golden Compass series and a few other novels have used the concept of spirit animals taking physical form to defend you
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Oh I know, but I would like to see it done on TV and they could honestly just do a version of Part 4 for the plot since that one would probably be accepted more by the general audience than going to Egypt to kill a vampire lol

I want more interesting fights in TV and I still think Stands are something that is still "new" to the western audience.
 
The Smoking Bun said:
I am a big fan of anime and animation in general and always feel disappointed when the medium is never given it's due either because of "it's for kiddies" mentality or "we need to sell toys" mentality.
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Actually laughed at this combined with the Pony avatar. Oh my god.

A large portion of Naoki Urasawa's works could easily be converted into a successful detective show. Monster is still happening, is it not?

A Bride's Story would be a delightful project for something like HBO too. It might not get Game of Thrones views but it would still be a solid thing to adapt.

Also the rate Cameron is getting around to Battle Angel Alita we could've probably had a TV show in the works and airing by now. Get on it, James.
 
It would be expensive, but Cowboy Bebop would be pretty neat.

Probably get cancelled though, Sci-Fi shows don't seem to last too long.
 
Stand Alone Complex has the potential to be a stunning live-action/CGI series if given the right treatment. Although more likely it would be done terribly and we'd all have to erase it from our minds :(
 
Bomber Bob said:
dunno, Ghost in the shell maybe?
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Cyberpunk period is surprisingly missing from television and film
I think that Robot buddy cop show called ALMOST HUMAN would have gone there

wwm0nkey said:
Oh also BECK would be super easy to make into a TV show.....like super fucking easy.
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Bonus points for having a Shiba Inu and cue the DOGE jokes.
Again, we had shows like BECK in the 80's, college rock bands and such
Surprising that we don't see stuff like that anymore.
 
Android18a said:
Stand Alone Complex has the potential to be a stunning live-action/CGI series if given the right treatment. Although more likely it would be done terribly and we'd all have to erase it from our minds :(
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Regarding the CG, I think it would be cool if all the characters with cyber/full prosthetic faces were touched up to look "perfect", giving them a slightly unnatural look appropriate for a person that can look as ideal as they want. Just an idea.
 
Sounds crazy, but Key the Metal Idol transposed to the United States. Key, short for Keysha (Tokiko) hails from the bayous of Louisiana (rural Mamio Valley). After the death of her inventor "Grandfather", the robot girl moves to LA (Tokyo) to pursue her dreams of becoming a pop star (idol singer). This action-drama will combine science fiction with voodoo (Shinto) mysticism.

I think this could work, even if the anime itself is totally Japanese.
 
Black lagoon and Jormungand would work pretty well I'd say. Plenty of crazy action and beautiful vocabulary xD.

I'd say a slice of life anime where the main characters have a clear goal could also be interesting such as Bakuman, though not sure how well that would work.
 
ppor said:
Sounds crazy, but Key the Metal Idol transposed to the United States. Key, short for Keysha (Tokiko) hails from the bayous of Louisiana (rural Mamio Valley). After the death of her inventor "Grandfather", the robot girl moves to LA (Tokyo) to pursue her dreams of becoming a pop star (idol singer). This action-drama will combine science fiction with voodoo (Shinto) mysticism.

I think this could work, even if the anime itself is totally Japanese.
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Sounds very 80's, I like it. However I think there is a desire for all science fiction to be grim and serious. Comedy-Science Fiction is rare. Th plot actually sounds like an episode of Eureka! Or it could basically be Sabrina the teenage Bot
 
Monster would work incredibly well, it isn't even funny. The anime already proved as much in the way it elevated the original work. I just doubt an American studio would give it the proper treatment.

I have only seen the first episode of Terror in Resonance and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 but they seemed both compelling and grounded enough that they would make decent miniseries.

Detective Conan is another manga/anime that would be incredibly easy to adapt from what I've seen. The question is, would the US audience accept a kid as a genius detective?

As far as sports anime go, Baby Steps would be the easiest to adapt as it doesn't feature crazy special moves. Hajime no Ippo is over the top and has some ridiculous shit but it could be reasonably replicated by a good action choreographer.
 
Barakamon.
But well in fact is a "Welcome to the north"(French movie) a la Japanese. So maybe is more like to be an european tv show with any other job instead a caligrapher.
 
I don't know if a live action television series could pull it up without looking bad, but I think Black Lagoon and Jormungand would work very well. Lot's of action, not really Japan centric and there are no real super natural occurrings. Psycho-Pass would work good, since the only really big special effect is the dominator and some of the bigger robots. The usual police and service robots are like Daleks.
 
Mushishi could work, though a lot of the point would probably be lost making a show for general audiences.

Another is a mystery in a school, so that could work as a mini-series.

If they toned down on the action and focused more on the paranoia aspect, Parasyte would work pretty well.

We're probably like two years from a CW Sailor Moon, so that.

Space Brothers might work.

Honestly, Durarara might work. Just set it in New York or something, the general style and mystery aspect of the show would work pretty well. Though, Shizuo might be the main sticking point.
 
Glass Rebel said:
Monster would work incredibly well, it isn't even funny. The anime already proved as much in the way it elevated the original work. I just doubt an American studio would give it the proper treatment.

I have only seen the first episode of Terror in Resonance and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 but they seemed both compelling and grounded enough that they would make decent miniseries.

Detective Conan is another manga/anime that would be incredibly easy to adapt from what I've seen. The question is, would the US audience accept a kid as a genius detective?

As far as sports anime go, Baby Steps would be the easiest to adapt as it doesn't feature crazy special moves. Hajime no Ippo is over the top and has some ridiculous shit but it could be reasonably replicated by a good action choreographer.
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Detective Conan could work if they made the kid a savant but socially awkward and basically a "weirdo" but he's got autistic superpowers so one of the cops listens to him and they solve cases.

For sports, wouldn't The Prince of Tennis (minus fan-service) work? Though I doubt many american's understand Tennis, it's rather European

Hellraider said:
I really, really, really, really want something to come out of the Monster project. HBO, Guillermo Del Toro and Steven Thompson is a fucking dream team.
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What's holding it back?
 
The Smoking Bun said:
For sports, wouldn't The Prince of Tennis (minus fan-service) work? Though I doubt many american's understand Tennis, it's rather European
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PoT has all those super ridiculous skill shots that would stop most American audiences from caring. Slam Dunk would be one of the few sports anime that would work.
 
Higurashi could work wonderfully. Especially if they wouldn't just straight translate it to live action. The game and anime used typical trapings of harem genre and then twisted them into horror. TV series could do the same with teen romance genre.
 
I'd watch a Fist of the North Star show. Buff guy wandering around a wasteland fighting guys? That would work.

I'd also be interested in Samurai Flamenco. It's kinda like Kickass so there's a basis for the story and then
I'd love to see general reaction to the twist.
 
The Smoking Bun said:
Detective Conan could work if they made the kid a savant but socially awkward and basically a "weirdo" but he's got autistic superpowers so one of the cops listens to him and they solve cases.
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Man, that's too real.

The Smoking Bun said:
For sports, wouldn't The Prince of Tennis (minus fan-service) work? Though I doubt many american's understand Tennis, it's rather European
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I was always under the impression that PoT was firmly on the ridiculous side, like Eyeshield 21 for example, but I could be mistaken, I've never watched it.
 
Aaron-Lagann said:
If they toned down on the action and focused more on the paranoia aspect, Parasyte would work pretty well.
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Good idea. You can actually handle this as a spin-off without the need of doing what the series did. The parasytes are not only in Japan, right? So just take the premise and involve someone with completely different circumstances than the original protagonist in that mess. Thinking of Shiki, just imagine a woman or man some day realizing that her or his small town is getting weird lately. Some people are off and while nothing of notice seem to happen, the protagonist starts investigating. What at first looks like paranoia and mental illness, gets really bad, when the situation gets so severe that he isn't the only one that starts to see it and people start dying. Further this with the question if humans are so much better than parasytes, parasytes developing emotions, doing experiments, etc.
I think the added layer of paraystes actually having intelligence without being way above humans in that regard can be very interesting and the relationship of the protagonists to these beings could be even more interesting, if he isn't bound to one himself.
 
The Smoking Bun said:
What's holding it back?
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Well Del Toro is working on Pacific Rim (2), plus HBO is pretty fastidious when it comes to shows. They ended up passing on an American Gods adaption after going through three writers because they couldn't get it right.
 
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