The anime-to-live-action (or would that be manga-to-anime-to-live-action?) production mill continues to turn. After Bleach getting an English-language adaptation greenlit over at Warner Brothers, here's a peek at a live-action adaptation from Japan that's been in the works for a bit: Ouran High School Host Club.
There's no subtitles on the trailer (at YouTube), but one glance shows plenty of the same goofball spirit as the show itself -- including the zany visuals that made watching the show itself such a treat. I'm not sure how well that stuff translates into live action, though -- after a certain point it stops feeling like live action or animation, but some oddball netherworld somewhere between the two.
Also, a TV drama was also made from the original material in Japan -- so technically speaking this film could be considered an adaptation of that. It's not uncommon for adaptations to span a startling number of different media and parallel incarnations.
No word yet on distribution outside of Japan (it's handled by Sony over there), so it may be a bit before we can all see for ourselves how it stacks up against the best live-action anime adaptations that we've been blessed with so far. Also check out my own candidate list for anime that should be adapted as live-action, although I confess Ouran wasn't on that list at the time it was compiled.
Image: Ouran High School Host Club. Image courtesy Pricegrabber.
Comments
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!!!! CAN’T WAIT!!!!
Hmmm…I liked the anime quite a bit, but I wonder if trying to recreate the same level of comedy in a live-action version will make it too over the top. Obviously there are a lot of things that are really funny when animated, but to have those things happen with real actors might come off as too contrived. I guess time will tell.
Stephanie: I did get the impression from the trailer that they are being as faithful as they can to the zany tone of the show — but I’m also worried that’s not the kind of thing you can transport into a live-action production without going ridiculously over-the-top.