Warner Brothers is now in the process of developing of making a live-action remake of the beloved anime classic "Ninja Scroll".

Now that sounds badass! Now if they can get the right director and right cast for this new version then i think it would work.

This week in "What the hell, Hollywood..."

Hollywood is too dense to pick up all the subtle nuance in japanese anime. To them, Ninja Scroll is just another cartoon about samurai and ninjas so they won't take it seriously at all.

Nuance in Ninja Scroll? Quoi?

Okay. First off we've been having this rumor/tidbit/news whatever for ages. Second, people mixed up the Ninja Scroll rumors with the production of Ninja Assasin. Wich is a ninja movie entirely unrelated to Ninja Scroll produced by the Weinsteins and released (published?) by Warner Brothers. They have mentioned NS as an inspiration though.

However. If you really, really WANT a live action Ninja Scroll movie. Bar Yoshiyaki Kawajiris character design, direction, obscenities... and everything it is really a reworking of the novel "the Kouga Ninja Scroll" (wich is really Romeo & Juliet meets superpowered hillbilly ninjas, neater than it sounds actually) starring folk character Yagyuu Yubei. The closest you could get is the 2006 movie "Shinobi: Heart Under The Blade".

Watch it back-to-back with Tokyo Gore Police or something for that 80's OAV feeling.

Latest Ninja Scroll movie rumor whas that Leonardo DiCaprio whas producing it anyway.

So he's doing Akira AND Ninja Scroll?

Subtle nuances? I had no idea Ninja Scroll was such a deep, complex film.

Uh, yeah, "Ninja Scroll" isn't some deep, sophisticated cinematic masterpiece. It's an animated popcorn flick. A drop-dead beautifully animated popcorn flick with a pretty cool if thin storyline and some awesome villains.

But it's still the animated equivalent of a Michael Bay film.


I love "Ninja Scroll", but all the continuations of it haven't been so hot. The TV series was pretty generic and dull, while the Wildstorm comic was a bit worse (the one-shot stories were great, but the arcs were awful).

A live action flick probably wouldn't be too hard to manage, so long as the director isn't some no-talent like Steven Sommers or whatever.

Let me guess: It'll be starring white people.

OK, maybe an "Oriental" as the villain, and probably another "Oriental" as the love interest.

Well i thought Stephen Sommers did a nice job on GI Joe to the big screen and that was pure fun all the way and was better then TF 2.

Oh come on, i thought the original Ninja Scroll is one of the best anime movies around that ranks with Akira, Ghost in The Shell, Grave of the Fireflies, Perfect Blue, Hayao Miyazaki's stuff, Metropolis, Cowboy Bebop The Movie, Wicked City, Vampire Hunter D 1 & 2, Fist of the North Star and others as one of those anime feature greats.

For anyone who liked Ninja Scroll, check out the director's own Wicked City and Vampire Hunter D 2 :Bloodlust.

Stop.

Have you even watched any of these films? There's no comparison in terms of quality. I seriously think you're just saying every anime you've seen. Are you like Brick from Anchorman? Will you be ranking the lamp in your next topic?

This is something that's been rumored on and off for years. I can't see it being good. I imagine they'd try to go for a *gasp* PG-13 rating too?

I for one really disliked Ghost in the Shell the movie when I first saw it. Not sure what I'd think now.

Randy

Yeah, I know. Reading that list I just...what?

I've seen all of those selected titles and they cross so many different genres, age-ratings and writing levels that I cannot see how you could rank them in the same list outside of "I wuv deez kartoonz!1!"

Might as well throw "Fantastic Adventures of Unico" in there, too, just because it's Japanese-animated. And hell, it would STILL be more relevant than most of those listed since it was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (before he discovered gratuitous nudity and gore).

Okay. Having seen most of that list and loving the ever-living hell out of Ninja Scroll, I have to say that no. No, Ninja Scroll is in no way, shape, or form on an equal footing with Grave of the Fireflies or Perfect Blue. The animation is gorgeous, I love the music, but no.

That said, even if this live-action nonsense weren't years old, I still wouldn't want it.

I'm rather surprised he didn't mention that other anime movie he likes. You know, that one. The one that we can't speak of. Yeah.

Yeah me too.

Both of you said exactly what I was thinking.... I understand were talking about a personal list of favorites, and thats fine...but no way can you say Ninja Scroll is on equal grounds with any of those..animation details aside.

Ehhhhh...The Dagger of Kamui did "animated ninja epic" years before Ninja Scroll, the early 1980's, in fact, and in a fashion much richer and more to my liking in story and artwork. Plus, it had Ichiro Nagai voicing another demented Buddhist monk. Funny how those things happen.

*cranky old-school fan excuses himself*

Well, maybe on equal footing to Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door.

So...live action titties and gore.

Well OK, I was wrong about Ninja Scroll having nuance but there is still one major difference between Hollywood and japanese animation studios. Even if Ninja Scroll is the animated equivalent of a Michael Bay film, a japanese animation studio would still take it seriously enough to put out a quality product while Hollywood would treat it like a big joke. Just look at the difference between the american and japanese versions of Iron Chef. They both have the same silly premise but where they differ is the japanese play it straight while the americans use it as an excuse to goof off.

Well, so far as my mileage goes, I prefer the Iron Chef America over Iron Chef Japan BECAUSE the people involved are having so much fun. The straight-forward SERIOUS BUSINESS approach of Iron Chef Japan always struck me as being pretty dull. I didn't like the show until the American version came out.

Different tastes, I suppose.

And it's not like they ham it up so much that the meaning and context of the original is indecipherable. They just livened up the commentary style, that's all.

Same people prefer ham while others prefer cheese.

I prefer both. Toasted, on wheat bread.

Well name some other anime more intelligent then Ninja Scroll?

What about Perfect Blue, Fist of the North Star, Hayao Miyazaki's movies, Cowboy Bebop the Movie, Golgo 13: The Professional, Vampire Hunter D 1 & 2, Metropolis, and others being anime greats?

Now Speed Racer was a good example of anime in live-action done right and so is Riki-Oh The Story of Ricky or Ichi The Killer.

I really like that movie. It's really great fun!

Cowboy Bebop and Fist of the North Star hardly classify among the "anime greats".

Not necessarily saying they're bad (I do enjoy Cowboy Bebop a great deal. Great fights, as is the norm for the series, but with even better animation). But ranking them among Hayao Miyazaki or Grave of the Fireflies or whatnot seems... almost blasphemous. They're popcorn flicks amongst more artful films.

Dennou Coil is.

And what do you think about the naughty tentacle genre of anime?

Please stop that.

Paranoia Agent, Ergo Proxy, RahXephon, Serial Experiments Lain (and pretty much anything by Chiaki J. Konaka. Even his work on Digimon Tamers, a "kiddy anime" was thoughtful and provocative), heck, even Black Lagoon.

Tons.


And "naughty tentacle" isn't a genre. To even consider it a genre is just... I don't know. It's a fetish, at most.

Frankly, boring. Lets face it, there isn't much that can be honestly done interestingly with tentacles. It's an alien/plant/demon that violates orifices. Not a lot of room for character development, or even interesting plot lines.


I'd say a bit of both. Definitely a fetish, and not even a particularly amusing one. And it would more accurately be a sub-genre of the hentai genre.

It's more amusing as the subject matter of jokes (as a bit of a "take that!" to some of Japan's more perverse subcultures). When played straight, it's just kinda disturbing.

One of my favourite bits in Samurai Champloo:

Mugen *leafting through Ukiyo-e art*: Damn. With a squid!?
(obviously in reference to "The Fisherman's Wife")


And greengoblin's at it again. Turning another thread into a discussion about fetishistic views.

So you think naughty tentacle hentai is what gives anime a bad name right especially the stuff of Toshio Meada? i'm sure it's the reason why some people hate anime.

Have you seen "Metropolis (2001)", "Spriggan", "Akira" and stuff like that? quality adult anime of brains with some brawn and good storytelling. Even "The Professional: Golgo 13" which is does have a little sex with bloody violence but it does have a good storyline about revenge and obsession, it does have a powerful emotional climax and it's very James Bond-esque.

bwuh? who's said that?

You're not even listening to everyone, are you?

I would agree with that. While it has its place, its over exposure in the 90's along with the rest of the Blood! Violence! Sex! - fueled "marketing" of anime in that time period really dealt a blow to the medium's credibility. The fact that for a long time, anime became synonymous with those things really hurt.

You can have those elements, and truly be mature, Black Lagoon in point (in which the violence and action are over-the-top and obviously treated with tongue-in-cheek flare, but the existentialist and socio-political commentary is dead earnest). But the way it was handled in the 90's was of the "juvenile maturity" type, which did nothing for the public image.

So? Some all time greats ARE popcorn flicks among more artful films. A film is a passive form of entertainment. Intelligence tends to make movies good, but a movie doesn't HAVE to be thought-provoking to be good. (and some movies are hurt by being TOO thought-provoking, which often muddies the plot or confuses the viewer)

I wouldn't say Bebop, Ninja Scroll or Fist are the greatest anime of all time but a film is supposed to be fun, memorable, and exciting, all which those movies are. And you can make the argument that Ninja Scroll and especially North Star were, in certain ways, genre-defining for their respective generations.

One thing about anime that really differs from live-action is this: with a live-action flick, you can have a very low-budget movie that still looks and feels as high-quality as a bigger-budget movie, especially if it's not special-effects-driven--the images, being captured by fairly industry standard camera equipment, look just as good as a big-budget flick. The 'artfulness' really comes from the skill of the director, cinematographer, actors, and editor. Not so in anime, because almost all of the budget goes into the actual images you see! One of the things about Ninja Scroll that was always impressive about it IS how much is done on a low budget. Of course it's not as artful as Akira or Grave or the Fireflies... those were huge, major productions! It could have had the exact same plot, seiyuus, direction, storyboards, everything as Akira but unless it's got Akira's animation budget it's just plain not going to look as good.

Also, I think I'm detecting a certain bias towards certain kinds of stories in you guys' debate about what the 'best' are. Because I've watched hundreds of anime in my life, and you know what? I STILL think Ninja Scroll is one of my favorites. So there.

Having said all that, I'm still not excited about the prospect of a live-action Ninja Scroll because so much of what made the movie tight is that it was an exercise in style. (Same for the aeon flux movie... totally missed the point of the source material.) To this day, I can't think of a single live-action anime adaptation that was really GOOD. (granted, there are many I haven't seen). And the only live-action anime I can think of off the top that was excellent is the Matrix. (yeah, I know it's not based on an anime, but it IS a live-action anime... that was what the Wachowski bros. set out to accomplish and from my first viewing it was extremely obvious to me.)

Yes i have been listening.

You serious about DiCaprio producing? and who would be perfect for Juebei?

Has anyone seen the live-action "Speed Racer" from the Matrix creators, a terrific and underrated example of anime brought to the big screen. Even 1992's Hong Kong import "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky" or "Ichi The Killer" are other two examples of animes brought to life.

but then you have examples like Dragon Ball, which didn't come across so well. As a matter of fact, anime going live action has a tendency to turn out pretty badly, since alot of the conventions that tend to make anime what it is doesn't convert well to live action.

Ninja Scroll can be done in live action, but it's going to lose a lot of what made it a pretty good anime movie. The live action will be, basically, ninjas with lots of titties and gore, unfortunately.

So it's just like the original, then.

Not exactly what I meant. Not to disparage against those titles, as they can be good in their own rights. But they're also not meant to stand up against more provocative "art" pieces like Grave of the Fireflies or Perfect Blue.

It was more a statement against greengoblin continually lumping the films together as if they all shared the same paramount in cinematic history, which they don't. Not even close.

Well Ninja Scroll wasn't just T&A and gory violence but had a storyline with incredible spectacular action sequences that influenced "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill". In fact The Wachowski Brothers, Terry Gilliam, George Lucas, Ralph Bakshi (The godfather of adult animation), Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan and others are fans of Ninja Scroll.

So without anime there'd be no unique movies we see like "The Matrix" and others. There's also talks of Spielberg to produce a new live-action Ghost in The Shell, DiCaprio to produce a live-action Akira, and there's even gonna be a live-action Battle Angel and Cowboy Bebop.

You havent seen the first 2 live action Death Note movies or Casshern I'm guessing?

Or the second Guyver movie.

All of those are great live action anime...though some people might disagree about Casshern, but I thought it was a good film....different from its routes, but I did enjoy it.

Those are cool too (Death Note i mean) but i've never seen Cassheren, any good? I've only seen Ichi The Killer, The Guyver 1 & 2 and Speed Racer in terms of live anime.

Eh, call me when they do live-action Mazingers.

, that's not a bad idea. Maybe it's time they should do that, someone contact Roland Emmerich and have him do it.

Now i would also love to see a proper live-action "Fist of the North Star" remake but done right, perhaps John Woo can be director. I heard of a live-action "Devil-Man" movie and that it sucked, is that true? i also heard of a live-action version of the hentai La Blue Girl from Toshia Medea (the creator of the demon tentacle erotic trend and the Chojin movies) but i have no interest.

There is even talks a Voltron live-action adaptation and that could be pure gold! even talks of Robotech with Tobey Mcguire as producer and star. Hollywood has taken notes from anime on how to take some liberties from the genre.

Hell there's even going to be a "Cowboy Bebop" live-action version coming soon from 20th Century Fox with Keanu Reeves in talks of playing Spike. They should hire Luc Besson ("Leon", "The Fifth Element", "Nikita") to do the film since he's a big anime fanatic or even Quentin Tarantino. But do you think it's against Katsuhiro Otomo's wishes that "Akira" is to be remade?

Who are you and what have you done with Greengoblin?