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The problem of the Hollywood adaptation of Boku no Hero Academia (Topic)

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The problem of the Hollywood adaptation of Boku no Hero Academia

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Let's start by stating the obvious: Most anime fans start whining when they hear about a new Western adaptation of an anime or manga. And in fact, there are reasons for this. The Netflix adaptation of Death Note killed everything we loved in heroes, the film version of Ghost in the Shell, although it became popular, did not capture the spirit of the original. Well, why Dragonball Evolution is bad can be disassembled in a whole series of articles. I want to be optimistic about the Boku no Hero Academia movie: Superhero movies are all the rage right now, and anime has been partially influenced by Western popular culture, so it might even be interesting. However, Hollywood's track record speaks for itself.

It's hard to ignore the fact that Boku no Hero Academia's western adaptation as a movie is more problematic than meets the eye. And this should be borne in mind when measuring your expectations. On the My Anime List, they have listed several compelling reasons why the adaptation of Ma Hero Academia is very difficult and has every chance of failure.

Hero Design

This is the most challenging part of adapting Boku no Hero Academia to live action. This is a kind of comic universe filled with many unusual body shapes and quirks, differing as much as possible. In one class 1-A, we have Tokoyama, Ashido, Asui and Shoji with a strange appearance. Even if the film stays true to canon, it is likely to overuse CGI. Comparing Boku no Hero Academia to its closest Western counterpart, X-Men, the characters' physiques are the main difference: Marvel comics are drawn in a realistic style compared to exaggerated manga features that look awkward in real life.

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It is difficult to adapt even ordinary heroes. For example, will Deku still have black and green hair? Will Ashido have hot pink skin and black eyes? Will Blowjob still remain small and breathe in the stomach of classmates? Previously, in anime adaptations such as Death Note, Ghost in the Shell, Dragon Ball, the main characters were ordinary people with natural hair color. Even if they try to pick a different hair and skin color for the Boku no Hero Academia characters, or choose naturalization, it will anger fans, because the design and quirks of these characters are central to their personality. It's almost a losing scenario in both cases.

Plot

Hollywood will need to somehow cope with the large volumes of anime. Compress the events of several seasons into 2 hours, roughly speaking. Even the Marvel and DC comics that Hollywood superhero movies are based on have stories that are easier to adapt. The first half of the film is likely to be very simple: we will be shown Midoriya's meeting with the Almighty, how he will receive power from him and pass the entrance exam to the academy. But what then? The arc of combat trials, where Midoriya and Uraraka defeat Ida and Bakugu, is unlikely to be worthy of an end, so it would be natural to assume that the first attack of the League of Villains will culminate.

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However, there are still two problematic questions here: will there be enough time to adequately show the story and will it be able to adequately end? The attack by the League of Villains is a turning point for the series and its characters: Class 1-A and the audience are introduced to the real world of heroes and villains. Bypassing it or adapting poorly due to tight deadlines would be wrong. It's hard to predict things like this when it comes to adaptation, but it's still a very worrying factor.

Of course, Hollywood has the ability to change history or do something original, but that could lead to crucifixion by fans of the franchise.

Setting

In making a film or TV series for a Western audience, where the action takes place in the East, casting is the main problem. If the film's setting remains in Japan, the actors must be mostly Asian. Otherwise, the film will be accused of "whitewashing", as was the case with Scarlett Johansson and "Ghost in the Shell." But since the movie is primarily made for Western audiences, this is unlikely to be well received by audiences as they expect to see Western actors. In the case of Death Note, the setting moved to America, which was actually one of the elements that worked in the film, since the Japanese setting was not a necessary element of the story. But to be fair, the bleaching turned Light from a calm and intelligent killer to a fearful neurotic who was his exact opposite in the anime.

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However, in addition to the anger of the fans, changing the setting in the film based on "My Hero Academy" can cause confusion in the plot. The anime emphasizes that the story is based on Japanese society and the Japanese school system. It would also change the origin of the Almighty, who became what he is after traveling to America for a while. And if the setting is not based in Japan, why does almost every character have a Japanese name? Changing them for westernization would be absolute suicide in itself, not to mention changing the character design or story. This is another losing scenario.

Action

Looking back on the Attack on Titan adaptation, many think that the titan fights in the film are terrible. However, I think this is not entirely true. Fighting in flight is pretty easy in terms of visuals, and has been practiced before in similar Spider-Man movies, and Titans have a simplistic design that's easy to create and animate. At its core, the action in Shingeki no Kyojin on the screen is a bit simplified, but the essence remains the same. In the case of Boku no Hero Academia, there are different sets of enemies with different powers that require a lot of calibration and technical work. You have Blowjob throwing balls out of his hair, Aoyama shoots a laser out of his belly, etc. And that's just Grade 1-A.

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The fight between the Almighty and Nomu is a really difficult thing to adapt. At the climax, they exchange hundreds of blows at supersonic speed, unlike Hollywood superheroes. Even Superman doesn't hit that fast.

These abilities are natural in anime form, but shifting into adaptation can make them even silly. How this will be adapted depends on the budget Legendary Pictures can give the film.

Summary

There are a lot of assumptions in this article as we know almost nothing about the movie, and I'm just highlighting a few things that could easily go wrong. However, no matter how you feel about the adaptation of Boku no Hero Academia, it will be much more difficult to create than many anime films before.

The Topic of Article: The problem of the Hollywood adaptation of Boku no Hero Academia.
Author: Jake Pinkman


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