Live Action Manga Blues [What Won't Be Covered]

Perhaps before charging headlong into my exploration of the dearth of memorable live action manga/anime output that has come out of Japan in recent years, perhaps it is best to just go ahead and let folks in on exactly what I won't be covering. As long as japanese cinema & tv has been around, the comics world has been a somewhat common well to often be mined by the big studios. And since comics in Japan meant a lot more than merely superheroes, there has been a fascinating wealth of mentionable movie versions. Some good, some not-so-good. The point is, that aside from the animation industry's love of animating popular manga titles, and having a certain edge over the live action community, this has been a long accepted staple of popular movies.

Some of which have significant fan followings regardless of the limits that low budget live action often provide. And a lot of this naturally lies with the choice of content.

We won't be talking about some of the earliest adaptations like the 1962 attempt at bringing Tetsuwan Atomu to life, nor will we go into the ever popular
Lone Wolf And Cub , or the scuzzy fantastic of the Sasori films. The latter as much as I've enjoyed them in the past, is a fitting title that works in those films as there is a historical grounding that allows us to better accept the stories. Where my interest lies in finding the enjoyment in bringing the wild, unrestrained nature of manga to life in this more fluid medium. So perhaps now one can see where this is all going to go...

There's a language in live action film that can get lost when dealing with the often hyperbolic nature of japanese comics, a medium that sprouts beyond mere concepts such as panels, and seems to leap from the page as if the paper itself can't contain the visuals. And now considering the bizarre & vibrant directions manga took come the 1970s, the film community must have salivated at the idea of taking on some works before considering the iconographic necessities of said works. Whether the film be yet another fun tokusatsu spin on a famous title, or even a gritty, violent celebration of one perennial badass or another , the films of the 60s - 90s covered the gamut of film interpretations whether or not the source material begs to be made live.

Some examples?

Try HAUSU director, Nobuhiko Obayashi when he took his loopy sensibilities to tell a bizarrely international co-ed version of Kazuo Umezzu's legendary horror epic, The Drifting Classroom(Hyoori Kyooshitsu). A landmark of awkward.



(So, if your head hasn't completely exploded, let's move on.)

Also near this time, comes the ever puzzling initial version of Takahashi's
seinen favorite, Maison Ikkoku.



-Now one may be thinking that Ikkoku doesn't follow my train of thought. In an odd way, it is one of those rare instances where despite the world of the manga, there's something about it going live action that somehow feels false. A strange inversion of reality takes place, which can be argued will become an issue with later films.

The treatment of manga in live form is such an insurmountably difficult achievement to pull off, which is why it is that we have seen so many fall by the wayside with the occasional moment, or laugh. And more likely than not, this is either due to technical limitations, or as in many adaptations made here in the US, a lack of understanding what connected readers to the original work in the first place. So many elements come into that manner of play that can be lost on film. (calling nearly every single video game adaptation to date) And so, we'll be looking more into adaptations made in a time where CG and special effects have eliminated one part of the limits, thereby leaving the one remaining question to the bulk of these films, "why do they still not work?"

We will be checking out several "big scale" productions that have surfaced within and after the anime boom of the late 90s-2000s in hopes of finding out what happened.

And, as tempting as the notion may be..We will be avoiding Rapeman.

Sorry.

Living & Breathing Kanno

And where would this blog be without some of the rare few individuals who have not only provided me, and many others with enjoyment, but have also been a profound fuel for inspiration in my world. Would be easy enough to just highlight a list of these folks, but in the spirit of the sheer weigh of inspiration we are dealing with, it only makes sense to give full stage to someone who's works have not only helped illuminate great stories, but significantly helped raised the bar for production value for an entire medium. In V.Zero, they would be considered titans. This is something far more significant.

Muses can exist.

But to perhaps gain a clearer idea of what I mean, I probably need to reveal a little more about certain inspirations in my life. Like most people,one of the greatest sources of dream fuel I had was music, and no type of music was more potent to me than the sound of a full orchestra. Be it listening to an old vinyl recording of Bach or Tchaikovsky, or another of my endlessly growing collection of movie scores. I was infected by the film score virus quite early, mostly due to one John Williams, who's Star Wars, Jaws, and Close Encounters albums were immense in complimenting my dreams, be it day or night. And soon came Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Hermann, James Horner and many others...

But upon growing into my high school years..The recoil began to surface,and I soon found myself rebelling against the very thing that inspired me. Not quite sure what I would find on the other end, it was a world that was ripped wide open due to discovering pop-core legends like Pixies,and then into esoterically bizarre material like Throbbing Gristle, SPK,and soforth...Over time..it really began to feel as if my tastes had mutated into a limitless space of pure possibility.....or just plain artistic absurdity.

And then the anime bug came back with a vengeance...but with a new pack of venom called Macross Plus. Being the big budget new chapter in what was perhaps my first true favorite series, i was taken aback by the idea that some companies saw money in bringing some soundtracks overseas...(remember..this was a time when fandom was mostly comprised of older men..the Pokemon/shoujo revolution was at least four years away)The sky blue cover with Sharon Apple symbol on the cover,mentioning the music composed by a completely unknown female writer. Well..being one never to shy away from a tease(I hadn't watched Plus just yet...I just found a new job and was doing something I like doing,...listening to a film's music before seeing the work,just to put myself in the headspace first.), I bought the first album.....and was simply stunned at the pure vision this composer had. The music budget was clearly higher than for most anime I had heard at that time....And the amazing mix between orchestral sweep,and intimate usage of guitar,pianos, & synth...signaled a calling.

One that would speak to me in a way that I always wanted to hear...but never could believe was probable in this modern musical climate.

That was August of 95. The effect was immediate. My bloodstream caught the grand and beautiful illness called Yoko Kanno.

Since then, her output has been nothing short of mind-boggling as she continues to shock, amaze, and continuously refresh my mind with her incredible resolve and deep sense of life. Whether it be her too-cool-for-Lucas collaboration with Hajime Mizoguchi in Tenku No Escaflowne, eclectic etherea in Brain Powerd, industry smashing rock-jazz extravaganza Cowboy Bebop, or others..she never ceases to transport hundreds of thousands in search of what most musicians could only dream of achieving in one lifetime. Only in her albums can one have a massive orchestral piece, replete with choir, shift to a sullen country ballad, then go wild jazz, suddenly to pure experimental and even metal in the same twenty minutes of cd time. It is not only my admiring of her immense crop of work..she is also an incredible collaborator.. Often working alongside amazing talent like Maaya Sakamoto, Mai Yamane, Steve Conte, Tim Jensen, Origa, Ilaria Graziano, Gariela Robin, Akino Arai, James Wendt, and many others..She is a musical luminary not unlike David Bowie, Brian Eno, David Byrne, and perhaps capable of heights beyond. There's just noone out there who's musical bases are this ambitiously covered.

(and let's not forget the hyperbole-defining work she contributed toward making Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex one of the defining anime works of the modern age.)

And there isn't a genre she doesn't love either..which is also a testament to the power of her work.

Right around the period upon which america was just beginning to catch on with the stateside release of Escaflowne and Bebop, she made a rare appearance to Anaheim's Anime Expo in 99,...where not only did a friend and I lost one night's sleep in order to be in line for her performance/panel...We were able to get tickets in order to meet the woman herself...A life memory I wouldn't trade for all the money..anywhere...She wasn't only the most focused person I had ever met,..she was also one of the funniest,most inviting folk I've ever had the dumb luck to meet.(Radical Edward is more than comic relief, and loosely based on her often loopy personality.)Just being able to ask her whom she'd love to work with in america was enough for me to feel blessed.

Perhaps one can even imagine my reaction when her music adorned the flashy fan "thank-yous" of Macross Frontier. Needless to say I felt as if I had skipped death, and was in smack in the middle of musical Valhalla, with perhaps some of the most ambitious work she has done to date, delivering J-Pop beyond anything readily available in the mainstream. Frontier's musical charms were proof that Kanno has only emboldened with time, and will remain a force to be reckoned with when regarding musical image.

So I guess you can say that Kanno-sensei has pretty much been a very important part of the last fourteen years, and i could only look forward to the day when her voice reaches that much larger of an audience.

Or perhaps it has already happened, and she's frankly beyond anything remotely within the West's reach?

-Oh..and as for the one director she'd love to work for in the US?

David Lynch...But she says he has a great enough one though. (Badalamenti)

Well put. Well put indeed.