Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

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Matches Malone
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Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by Matches Malone » Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:29 am

Jump just announced that their live action One Piece series on Netflix will be getting a 10 episode 1st season. With how mishandled (to put it nicely) anime has been in live action, and with how popular DB is worldwide, what's your thoughts on a potential Live action DB show on streaming ? Netflix, Disney+, etc.

I think story wise, it'd be better suited for a show than movies as that will allow them to flesh out the story in a way movies won't allow, but I don't know if they'd be able to find someone who's talented enough and who likes DB enough to pull it off.

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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by Arteaga4K » Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:38 am

Not something I'd look forward to at all. Some things are better left drawn, Dragon Ball is one of em
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by kei17 » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:09 am

Definitely not interested in live action adaptations due to PTSD caused by Evolution, but I hope someday they'll reboot the series with a large budget given by one of these major VOD services. I think it will be Netflix if it really happens because they have a partnership with Fuji TV.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by JulieYBM » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:12 am

I don't really care what some westerners think of Dragon Ball. I might be interested in a toku series from Toei but otherwise I want none of that nonsense.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:45 am

I've watched the Bleach and Death Note live action adaptations and neither was particularly compelling. The only live action retelling of a manga that I've enjoyed was Tomie1 and that was mostly because, being an episodic series, Tomie lent itself easily to alternate forms of media. I also remember the live action Earthsea adaptation, how terrible that was, and, while nothing spectacularly, how much more fun the Studio Ghibli adaptation was. On average I think fantastical stories work better animated than in live action.

1. I know there's plans for a new liveaction. I'm not optimistic.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by Matches Malone » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:54 am

It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:45 amOn average I think fantastical stories work better animated than in live action.
JulieYBM wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:12 amI don't really care what some westerners think of Dragon Ball. I might be interested in a toku series from Toei but otherwise I want none of that nonsense.
Arteaga4K wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:38 amNot something I'd look forward to at all. Some things are better left drawn, Dragon Ball is one of em.
I think most fans share this opinion and believe that DB works best in animation, but with how popular anime is becoming and if One Piece is successful (which doesn't mean good), I think we'll eventually get another take on live action DB. I just hope when that happens, it's by someone who understands and respects DB for what it is, and not someone who's just there to get payed and put "their" spin on it. I'm very interested in seeing what they do with One Piece as I believe that's even harder to adapt than DB.
kei17 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:09 am I hope someday they'll reboot the series with a large budget given by one of these major VOD services.
As important as the budget is, I think a passionate crew is just as important if not more so. I don't want to see a big budgeted "modern take" on DB where Goku and the rest of the cast are so different from what they are that they're not recognizable, or for the story to take place in some U.S city.

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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips » Thu Jan 30, 2020 4:25 am

While the weirder aspects of One Piece might be hard to adapt, I think its premise and comedic style lend itself pretty well to hollywood adaptation. Monkee D Luffy may be much weirder than Horatio Hornblower and Ahab, but the themes of OP are still recognizably part of the same genre.

I cannot say the same about Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball is to martial arts movies as Hot Fuzz is to Bad Boys. It's pastiche and if DB's hypothetical live action handlers don't realize their inspiration should be Shaolin Soccer instead of Enter the Dragon whatever they make isn't going to feel like Dragon Ball.

But yeah. If One Piece is seen as being successful I dunno why they wouldn't make a live action Dragon Ball. When wads of cash are begging you to stuff your pockets with them you don't just say no!
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by TheGreatness25 » Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:18 am

They took a masterpiece in Death Note and made it... what it was. I have no faith in these live action projects. There's no way to do it without having an incredibly long series (you're not stuffing DB into a mini-series) with a ton of CG and having characters look stupid. I'm sorry, but all these wigs and whatnot don't look right. It's one thing to go to a convention and look like the character, it's another doing live action and trying to claim that third character just looks like that without any rhyme or reason.

Hurst leave it alone -- some things only work in anime.

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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by ABED » Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:00 am

First, Death Note is fucking awful. I don't know how it got a reputation as a masterpiece. Netflix didn't ruin the source material, there's only so much they can do with such a terrible story. With better source material, there's little reason to think Netflix couldn't do a good live action show. The budget wouldn't be an issue, either. Netflix loves spending money. That said, it's unlikely DB could be done well in live action since it is very cartoony in feel. I see little benefit in a live action version.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by sangofe » Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:28 pm

Matches Malone wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:29 am Jump just announced that their live action One Piece series on Netflix will be getting a 10 episode 1st season. With how mishandled (to put it nicely) anime has been in live action, and with how popular DB is worldwide, what's your thoughts on a potential Live action DB show on streaming ? Netflix, Disney+, etc.

I think story wise, it'd be better suited for a show than movies as that will allow them to flesh out the story in a way movies won't allow, but I don't know if they'd be able to find someone who's talented enough and who likes DB enough to pull it off.
There will be a live-action show of One Piece on netflix?

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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by Matches Malone » Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:33 pm

sangofe wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:28 pmThere will be a live-action show of One Piece on netflix?
It was announced in late 2018-early 2019 but after that things went silent so this is the first update we've gotten on it. With that said, we could still go another year or more before seeing it, if we see it at all.

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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by ABED » Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:47 pm

I read they are in the middle of casting, but just not ready to announce anyone yet.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by Matches Malone » Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:41 pm

ABED wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:47 pm I read they are in the middle of casting, but just not ready to announce anyone yet.
It's going to be very interesting to see who they cast as One Piece has a very odd group of characters that I assume makes casting them difficult, both in terms of looks and behavior.

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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by funrush » Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:47 pm

I'd prefer it be a movie so they have the money to nail the visuals. That's one of the biggest issues I've noticed with these live-action anime things, is that regardless of the plot, they tend to just look bad.

But I guess that's more an issue of having a talented costume designer than it is an issue of throwing money at CG people.

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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by ABED » Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:22 pm

funrush wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:47 pm I'd prefer it be a movie so they have the money to nail the visuals. That's one of the biggest issues I've noticed with these live-action anime things, is that regardless of the plot, they tend to just look bad.

But I guess that's more an issue of having a talented costume designer than it is an issue of throwing money at CG people.
First, I don't think money will be an issue, and second, I'd rather these long form stories not be adapted into film. I can deal with cheaper visuals if the story and acting are good. They are the things that really stay with people.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by dario03 » Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:49 pm

I think DB works better animated. Positive side of a series over a movie is they could work on story telling more with longer run time, down side though is it would probably have less budget for fight scenes. But maybe they could go big with it and get some good fight choreography. New Star Treks have some episodes that look like movies and I have seen some pretty good fights in shows. Mix that choreography with some Netlix budget and maybe the fights would be alright.

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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by Robo4900 » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:29 pm

If there's to be a live-action western adaptation of Dragon Ball, I think it'd work best as a movie, preferably starting at the actual beginning of the story, but unafraid to do different things with the story (think something like the 10th anniversary movie. Which, actually, could probably be expanded out into a pretty fun 6-8-episode miniseries).

But really, there's no reason a live-action Dragon Ball thing couldn't be good.
Yes, it'd be very easy for whatever studio to screw it up (see: all the examples everyone in this thread has thrown out, as they keep throwing out whenever anything like this is brought up), but in the hands of the right filmmaker (read: not Zack fucking Snyder), some fun movies or TV could be made based on Dragon Ball. Would work best if they work hard to maintain the eastern kung-fu flavour. Probably tone the perversity way, way, WAY down, but still fill it with humour, get actors with great chemistry (ideally quite a diverse cast at that, though having a largely Asian cast would be a good idea. Just whatever they do, let's not have a white-dominated cast), and we could have something pretty great.
If it's a movie, then a director like Taika Waititi would probably be a solid choice for a western director, though if they're not getting someone who's directed a martial arts movie, probably they should bring someone who has on-board as a sort of co-director. Gotta have the authenticity.

The litmus test for me on a project like this would be easy:
If they're skipping to the "Z" stories, it's going to suck and be an abomination on a similar plane as Evolution. It'll be a lame cash-in done on the cheap, probably with a big-name celebrity phoning in a minor role as a fan favourite character, and we'll be hearing stories for years of early pitches that were far better ideas that the studio killed off.
If they're starting at the beginning, it might be pretty fun, even if it doesn't necessarily stick the landing. If it's a series, it'd probably take a few episodes to find its groove (basically every Netflix show has done this), but get really fun once it does.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by goku the krump dancer » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:31 pm

ABED wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:00 am First, Death Note is fucking awful. I don't know how it got a reputation as a masterpiece. Netflix didn't ruin the source material, there's only so much they can do with such a terrible story. With better source material, there's little reason to think Netflix couldn't do a good live action show. The budget wouldn't be an issue, either. Netflix loves spending money. That said, it's unlikely DB could be done well in live action since it is very cartoony in feel. I see little benefit in a live action version.
While I dont think Death Note is horrible I do think it's pretty overrated. I'm curious as to why you think is so bad though lol, mostly because this is an extremely unpopular opinion among the modern anime community.

I do mostly agree that Dragon Ball is almost too exaggerated artistically to translate well into a live action Marvel/DC Movie aesthetic but on saying that I do think some of the designs for some of the American Comic characters that we do see on the big screen are utterly ridiculous in comic form yet they work well enough when given a "realistic" spin to them.

Example:
The Movie version of Hela still has that same aesthetic feel of her comic counter part but because the crown is a bit smaller, the costume colors a more muted and her cape isnt standing on angles, it brings together an artistic idea that works imo.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by Robo4900 » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:35 pm

goku the krump dancer wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:31 pm
ABED wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:00 am First, Death Note is fucking awful. I don't know how it got a reputation as a masterpiece. Netflix didn't ruin the source material, there's only so much they can do with such a terrible story. With better source material, there's little reason to think Netflix couldn't do a good live action show. The budget wouldn't be an issue, either. Netflix loves spending money. That said, it's unlikely DB could be done well in live action since it is very cartoony in feel. I see little benefit in a live action version.
While I dont think Death Note is horrible I do think it's pretty overrated. I'm curious as to why you think is so bad though lol, mostly because this is an extremely unpopular opinion among the modern anime community.

I do mostly agree that Dragon Ball is almost too exaggerated artistically to translate well into a live action Marvel/DC Movie aesthetic but on saying that I do think some of the designs for some of the American Comic characters that we do see on the big screen are utterly ridiculous in comic form yet they work well enough when given a "realistic" spin to them.

Example:
The Movie version of Hela still has that same aesthetic feel of her comic counter part but because the crown is a bit smaller, the costume colors a more muted and her cape isnt standing on angles, it brings together an artistic idea that works imo.
I'm glad you brought up Thor Ragnarok.
Honestly, look at that film in general, and compare it to the comic panels that inspired it. If someone can do that, I think someone can figure out how to make Dragon Ball work.

The only problems are likely to be the attitudes that made Evolution such a shitty movie with no actual ties to Dragon Ball; a disregard for/disinterest in the source material, an emphasis on commercialism, etc.
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Re: Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

Post by Matches Malone » Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:50 pm

goku the krump dancer wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:31 pmDragon Ball is almost too exaggerated artistically to translate well into a live action Marvel/DC Movie aesthetic but I do think some of the designs of Comic characters that we do see on the big screen are utterly ridiculous in comic form yet they work well enough when given a "realistic" spin to them.
I think the main difference between adapting comics and DB is that there are countless versions of comic characters but only one version of DB. Nolan's Batman is very different from Bruce Timm's Batman, which is very different from Arkham's Batman. Comic fans are used to massive changes being done from medium to medium and from creator to creator, but that's something we've never seen with DB. Every DB product from manga, to anime, to games are the exact same version. As open as I am to other versions of comics, I don't know how open I'd be for DB to start making massive changes due to how familiar I am with the one version we've had all these years.

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