The Challenges of Making A Code Geass Live Action Movie

By Sam Murphy aka wildmoo6

What if Code Geass was made into a live action movie, is a question that stuck with me day and night and wouldn’t go away. The fan in me liked the idea, but the critic in me groaned audibly. My inner critic told me that live action anime adaptations suck and that it isn’t possible to do them well; at least not for a western audience. But I found myself eager to try.

But wanting something to happen doesn’t mitigate the challenges. Live action anime adaptations simply haven’t done very well. There are exceptions like Rurouni Kenshin for example, but for every success there are about a dozen failures (looking at you Dragon Ball Evolution). Most seem to be, small budget films with characters and tones that are very different from the source material. We have yet to see an anime converted into a western style live action movie, without some sort of awkward tweaking such as gag anime adaptation. To do well, an adaptor must recognize the differences between anime, and wester styled cinema, and then translate the story across the mediums.

This is much more difficult than it sounds. First of all, we are converting from anime to western styled live action which has huge contextual differences in the medium (and in the culture). Then there are emotive differences in how characters react to stimuli and events which also impacts dialog. Finally, there key thematic differences.

The context of each medium helps storytellers communicate with us, the audience, by using our expectations and experiences as a shortcut. This allows us to understand characters, motivations, and events in a way that is far more nuanced than otherwise possible. For example, as soon as we see a broody teenager in an anime, because we already know characters like Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto, and Todoroki from My Hero Academia, we assume that the guy is powerful and has deep emotional wounds from family related drama. We don’t need to be told it with 7 minutes of dialog. We also know that the ‘hot female’ is evil because we all remember Lust in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and that the cute female is probably our new #bestGirl because of Hinata from Naruto and Asuna from Sword Art Online. From the moment that we meet certain characters we form opinions of them, which is important so that we can later understand the weight of their decisions. But western live action has different heroes and different villains which means that what is familiar and why it is familiar is also different. One must be careful to translate the appeal of anime characters without drawing false comparisons.

Another big challenge is that major differences exist in how characters display extreme emotions or react to stimuli. Though less popular today, sexual arousal in anime was shown in years past with nose bleeds. Rage is more commonly called upon by anime heroes than western heroes and is expressed through shouting and screaming more frequently. In a western context, power is displayed with raw destructive capability and spectacle ‘shock and awe’ yet anime characters are more commonly afraid of opponents with overwhelming speed, or impossibly resilient shielding. Such opponents cause anime characters to react with intense fear and panic, neither of which is common in western film apart from horror. There are even major differences in how characters express regret and how they apologize. Anime characters bow in order to show sincere apology and regret. Western characters don’t tend to apologize to others as frequently, and when they do, it is rarely with physical posture. 

There are also thematic differences. Western characters, apart from horror, don’t tend to show fear very frequently or with the same intensity that anime characters do. When they do, they fear failure more frequently than loss of life. Yet in anime deep fear is a regular theme, fear, hopelessness, helplessness, and the fear of death occur more frequently especially in psychological anime. Loneliness and isolation are also themes that are much more common in anime than in western films and the effects are harder to cure. Anime also likes to delve into deeper more philosophical questions more frequently such as: the meaning of humanity, penance and atonement, prejudice, and morality questions such as sacrificing some to save the whole population.

The differences between anime and western live action are numerous and significantly impact the adaptation of Code Geass to western live action. Contextual differences mean that different methods of introducing characters and expressing their personalities would be needed. This would require some characters to undergo significant changes to preserve their roles in the story. Emotive differences between the mediums change the tone of key scenes and would require many big moments to be tweaked in order to have the same amount of weight. Many anime themes, such as terror and the fear of death, while perfectly fine in their worlds, are more commonly used in darker genres in western cinema and this has a big impact on how the audience relates to the medium. These differences must be considered if an adaptation is to be successful.

There are a lot of challenges with doing so, but over the next several weeks I will be making a template for a live action adaptation of Code Geass which is my favorite anime ever made. Each week on the TeamJVS website, I’ll be releasing an article on a character from the franchise that I’ve adapted, and one for the world of Code Geass, before finally releasing a plot outline.

I’m Sam-2, aka wildmoo6, part of team JVS, the really tall guy who has an excited but slightly nasally voice. If you haven’t seen me yet in a video review, you should know that I’m a bit of a die-hard and am pretty competitive. When someone says “can’t,” my interest is immediately piqued. Another thing that is important to know is that Code Geass is my favorite anime of all time. I personally consider it the best anime ever made, even as someone who grew up during the days of Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing. I love the way that it blends genres, mecha and psychological, mystery and coming of age. The story is a tasteful buffet of characters, options, and themes, and I for one loved every second of the ride. I’m a writer, editor, and love getting to act every once in a while as I substitute teach elementary students!