Yahello! and welcome back to kinda neet I don't know exactly how to tell
you guys this but this last week I did the unthinkable
the unforgivable the unfossiliferous I took a week off watching anime but wait
before you click off this video unsubscribe and bully me in the
comments hear me out it was for a good cause I
wanted to find out what 3d live-action Japanese movies had in common with anime
and if I'd get the same kind of enjoyment out of watching them just
because I'm a fan of anime a fanime if you will
over the past couple years I've
come to love several Japanese authors and have found great joy in watching
Japanese TV but for some reason I never gave Japanese cinema a fair chance
so after powering through some severe withdrawal symptoms I pushed anime off
to the side and dust it off the old DVD player only 90s kids oh not now sorry
about that over the past week I've watched four
point five Japanese films so I'm pretty much an expert at this point and you can
consider this video my doctoral dissertation I was a little nervous at
first so to dip my toe in the water I did the obvious thing and found myself a
slice-of-life high school romance to watch wolf girl and black prince from
there I went to the opposite end of the spectrum and watched a sci-fi thriller
about a ninth grade class forced to fight to the death
Tower of God style called Battle Royale then I met in the middle
watched a couple dramas nobody knows and still walking before finishing off with
that point five I mentioned before a rom-com about a high school upskirt
photographer but more on that to come let's start with wolf girl and black
prince this movie was based on a manga of the same name but to be fair you'd be
pretty hard pressed to find any romance movies not based on a manga so I gave it
a watch anyways and I was actually pleasantly surprised the story follows
Erika Shinohara who lies to all her friends about having a super kakkoii
boyfriend Kyōya Sata when Kyōya finds out about the deception he agrees to
pretend to be Erika's boyfriend in exchange for her becoming his dog who
will do absolutely whatever he tells her to
not only did it have similar set pieces to anime like cafes aquariums karaoke
and melonpan but it also had a similar energy the actors did a great job at
translating over-the-top anime reactions into the real world without being too
cheesy and at no point to the movie hold back from being well weird The
Situation's all felt very familiar like the classic oops I forgot my umbrella
here let's share shit I got one drop of water on me now I'm dead or the nosy
older sister who always takes things too far
or even the nerdy class rep who turns out to be super hot after he takes his
glasses off some things on the other hand don't translate super well like a
lot of the physical comedy came off as kinda weird
and seemingly due to budget
limitations the movie doesn't exactly portray Tokyo in the romanticized way
that anime does so there aren't many beautiful wides of the city or Sakura
petals floating through the air but I actually really got a kick out of the
way the city streets were shown it made a lot of really good memories come
rushing back and now I'm a little depressed because I can't go back to
Japan until the world goes back to normal
overall I actually really enjoyed watching this movie I had been so caught
up in anime that I kind of forgot what real people look like but that being
said despite having a similar look feel and sound to anime it didn't really
bring anything new to the table and lacks that whimsical editing style that
I've come to know and love so I don't think I'd ever choose to watch a
live-action rom-com over an animated one when I found out there was a Japanese
film about a 9th grade class abandoned on a deserted island and forced to fight
to the death I knew I was in for a treat
based on the 1999 book of the same name battle royale is a campy thriller film
that does not hold back in its brutality the plot bears a striking and I mean
striking resemblance to that of the Hunger Games which was not published
until eight years later suspicious absolutely anything to say about that
Suzanne I'm Suzanne Collins the books and authors that inspired me when I was
young still inspire me today I lived overseas unsurprisingly I absolutely
loved this film it takes itself pretty seriously but has a hilariously written
antagonist that provides a nice layer of humor
but I'm not here to enjoy myself this is
scientific research so was watching battle royale anything like watching
anime well yes and no the characters were all very familiar anime archetypes
from the brooding exchange student who's too cool for school to the peaceful
protag whose hair hangs down over his eyes there's the over-the-top bullies
and even the dweeb who only cares about studying for exams and as expected all
the costumes from school uniforms to track suits to street wear are all
things you'd see in anime because like I've talked about before anime costumes
are more or less a reflection of Japanese fashion in real life but to be
honest that's about all they have in common
the fight scenes are choreographed in a way unique to live-action and the pacing
and tone are different from any anime I've ever seen
aside from a few over-the-top flashbacks
my only real issue with this film was just how many characters they expect you
to keep track of and get invested in which I find most anime do a much better
job of balancing overall this was pretty much the inverse of wolf girl and black
prince it didn't have too many similarities to anime but it did bring a
whole lot of great things to the table that are unique to live-action I can't
believe I'm about to say this but Battle Royale was definitely worth taking time
off anime to watch I'm just gonna lump the two dramas I watched together
because they were very similar in vibe and pacing they even share an actress
you not you you with no last name just you you who you might recognize from
terrace house nobody knows follows a group of children
who were abandoned in a Tokyo apartment and must learn to fend for themselves
while still walking gives an intimate look into a family who only comes
together once a year to commemorate the premature death of the eldest son I
really racked my brain trying to think of a similar anime to these films and by
that I mean I scrolled through Anilist but I came out empty-handed
the closest thing I could find is violet evergarden but even that is a pretty
big stretch and that is because these films are so grounded in reality both
are social critiques showing the darker side of Japanese culture and neither put
any effort into romanticizing modern life in Japan which is pretty much all
anime is designed to do so aside from a few recognisable locations these movies
are pretty much as far from anime as The Cleveland Show all right if anyone's
actually still watching at this point it must just be because you wanna hear
about that point 5 voyeuristic photography movie I mentioned before
this is actually the first movie I came across while researching for this video
and when I saw that there was a Japanese rom-com with 91% on Rotten Tomatoes
I couldn't help but give it a watch love exposure is a 2008 film about a teenage
boy also named you know not you you you falls in love with a girl he runs
into while working as an upskirt photographer what stands out about this
film is that it has a runtime just shy of 4 hours that should have been my
first hint but after reading some glowing reviews I pushed on into the unknown and
what did I find you might ask a movie that's actually very similar to anime
after a very slow 30-minute exposition the writing and acting takes a sharp
left turn into camp goofy the editing and camerawork do not hold back on
trying to make you laugh and the ecchi nature of the humour reminded me of
shows like grand blue dreaming and Haganai so why does this only count as a
.5 .5 you might ask it's because I turned it off halfway through I can
understand why this movie has the reviews it does and I appreciate what it
was trying to do but what it was trying to do just wasn't for me no matter how
hard I tried I couldn't get invested in the characters let alone find the jokes
funny so although it was very similar to anime as far as comedies go I'm sticking with 2D
so after a week of immersing myself into the gritty embrace of Japanese cinema has my stance on 2D
verse 3D at all changed unfortunately not really most of the
movies I watched were pretty amazing and definitely worth while over most
Hollywood movies but I didn't find the same magic I feel when reading Japanese
literature or better yet watching Chinese cartoons
if you think that I'm wrong comment baka and try the experiment for yourself I
recommend starting with battle royale which I think was the only one that was
worth taking time away from anime to watch thank you so much for watching if
you enjoyed this video I've got many more like it and I especially recommend
this one it's probably my favorite and totally not something that YouTube's
algorithmically recommending to you based on your watch history