Even after the demise of Akira, the live-action anime mill continues to grind on. Now the new project in the works is nothing less than Tite Kubo's Bleach.
Anime fans scarcely need an introduction to the property, as almost all of them can recite from memory the premise. But how will mainstream audiences react to a story about a kid who can see ghosts and is recruited by a kind of sweeper team from the afterlife to deal with renegade evil spirits?
That all depends on the approach taken by the current production regime for the remake. Slashfilm is reporting the project is being produced at Warner Brothers by Peter Segal (of Get Smart), and now has a screenwriter attached: Clash of the Titans sequel scribe Dan Mazeau.
As with Akira, the biggest problem with a live-action Bleach is how deeply the way the premise works is rooted in its setting. Moving it out of Japan would make it that much less ... well, Bleach. Unfortunately, the track record for such remakes is to do exactly that, and to end up with something that appeals neither to its original audience nor to mainstream audiences.
(On a side note, series creator Tite Kubo himself has gone on record to say that he didn't think a live-action version of the story would work in any setting.)
I'm not holding my breath for this one, but maybe they'll surprise us yet.
Image: Bleach (Season 1). Image courtesy Pricegrabber.
Comments
Oh, here’s hoping, cause my nephew will flip!!!!!!! YAY!!!!
Let’s hope that it will be a better adaptation than the DZ live action movies were
Sharon: I couldn’t agree more. The DBZ live-action adaptation was a veritable compendium of filmed bad ideas.