Manga Reviews With Hollywood in Mind
By
Lyn Jensen
Cross-marketing a manga series with film/TV is
commonplace in Japan. In that country manga is often part of an extensive media
franchise that also includes anime—animated films or TV or both—and sometimes
even live-action productions. Here in America Hollywood has a long history of
turning our comic-book franchises into movies and TV shows (Batman, Superman, Spiderman, The Green
Hornet, Captain America, the list goes
on and on). With one or two exceptions, however, Hollywood continues to
ignore Japanese—and American--manga as source material.
How long before Hollywood figures out manga provides
a whole new universe of licensing opportunities? The hundreds of thousands of
fans that continue to attend comic cons (and gamer cons and sci-fi cons) every
year should demonstrate there’s an audience—to say nothing of how Hollywood’s
always looking for the latest youth-culture trend.
After reading manga for nearly ten years, I keep
imagining several series (some Japanese, some American) with potential for
success on America’s big and small screens. (Animation’s a separate
conversation, so we’re limiting our suggestions to possible live-action
productions.) Any film directors and/or TV producers looking for your next scripted
project, call your agent about the following licenses:
Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova, published in
the US by Tokyo Pop
Every film season demands a never-ending supply of fresh
new romantic comedy. Svetlana Chmakova’s
English-language manga Dramacon remains
one of the most innovative romantic comedies found in any medium in recent
memory. Lovers meet up, break up, and make up amid the drama of a comics
convention—cosplayers, artists’ alleys, portfolio reviews, J-Pop music, and references
to tentacle-sex hentai anime.
The logline: A
pretty young would-be manga creator meets a handsome and mysterious cosplayer
who hides many secrets behind his dark glasses. A boorish boyfriend, well-intentioned
sister, comics-crazed fans, flirty cosplayers in skimpy costumes, and a
superstar manga mentor provide support and sub-plots. As demanded for a
successful romantic comedy, it perfectly balances laughs with more serious coming-of-age
drama.
A script adapted from the first volume could be shot
on a very low budget, too. Just use any small-time comic con for background
shooting, and cast some fresh up-and-coming talent. Chmakova’s entire series
runs three volumes—the latter two deteriorate in quality but can be held in
reserve should there be demand for a sequel. It’d be great as a summertime PG-13
theatrical movie—or for TV or Web or direct-to-DVD markets.
Fake by Sanami Matoh, published by Tokyo
Pop
One of the more twisted corners of my mind can see Fake taking on new life as a very, very gay Barney Miller crossed with a very, very
gay Starsky and Hutch. When Tokyo Pop published Fake about a decade ago, it introduced
the yaoi genre to America. Japanese manga
artist Sanami Matoh gave us her unique take—by turns farcical, thrilling and
very, very sexy—on all those gay jokes about the buddy-cop formula. It’s easy
to find enough ideas for several seasons on some edgy cable network. There’s
already enough fanfic (from PG-rated to XXX) about police
partners-in-more-ways-than-one Dee Laytner, Ryo McLean and the rest of the
romance-minded squad at New York’s 27th Precinct (yes, same
fictitious precinct as Law and Order).
King
of RPGs
by Jason Thompson, published by Del Rey
If The Brass
Teapot could make it to the big screen, King
of RPGs should, too, and it’s much funnier. Longtime manga expert Jason Thompson
has turned the world of Role Play Games (RPGs) into a hilarious two-volume English-language
manga series. Make a movie, and grab an audience of geeks, gamers, and anybody
who laughed through The Hangover or Bridesmaids.
The logline:
two very passionate young role-play gamers square off, each convinced
he’s the campus king of RPGs. Pop psychology, video gaming, comic book fans,
Renaissance re-enactors, knucklehead cops, and terror alerts get mixed in. Even
though the story’s a farce (and a great one), the characters are
multi-dimensional challenges for up-and-coming young comedy stars. The token
girl gamer isn’t a pin-up girl, she’s one of the guys, and the policewoman antagonist
could be a career move for any number of Hollywood’s young character actresses.
There are a few places where the plot could be tidier, but that’s what
screenwriters are for.
Banana
Fish
by Akimi Yoshida, published by VIZ
Government and criminal elements are out to take
over the world with a dangerous mind-control drug codenamed Banana Fish—and only
one person can stop them: teen super-gangsta Ash Lynx, who’s burdened with a
shocking past as a boy prostitute hired out to government men. A Japanese teen,
Eiji Okumura, is caught in the complicated web and only he can change Ash’s
fate—whether it be death or a new life together back in Japan. Which it will
be, however, is beyond either’s control.
That’s the epic and very convoluted plot of Akimi
Yoshida’s phenomenal 19-volume Banana
Fish, When first published in the eighties, it provided young Japanese
audiences with an unflattering and twisted critique of Reagan-era America: secret
CIA experiments, wounded Vietnam vets, warring youth gangs, ruthless drug
cartels, child prostitutes, government corruption, state-sponsored terrorism,
and a possible romance between young men. Parts of the story become
unbelievably far-fetched and illogical, especially the tragic final act, but it’s
nothing that can’t be fixed in a screen adaptation. (Without giving too much
away, it’s not the unsatisfying ending that’s the problem, it’s how it’s arrived
at.)
If post-9/11 America can welcome 24 into our living rooms, we ought to be
able to handle Banana Fish. This is
more than a movie, it’s an entire TV season--at least a six-to-eight-part miniseries
and possibly a whole 24-style series.
Saiyuki
(manga and media
franchise by Kazuya Minekura, published by Tokyo Pop)
Four superheroes embark on a long, dangerous, and
extreme mission across the Wild, Wild West. One’s a pistol-packing Buddhist
priest. One’s a scorned half-breed who fights like a demon and parties like a
rock star. One’s the mighty young Monkey God straight out of the Asian zodiac. One’s
that mild-mannered math-teaching serial killer who’s already seen his share of
movie makeovers. From China in the East to India in the West, in some far-off
forgotten time, they team up to battle gods and demons over the fate of the
universe.
Saiyuki
is
a classic Buddhist epic of gods, demons, martial arts, swords and sorcery. The
source has long been familiar to a certain geek streak outside Asia (it
inspired parts of Star Wars, for
example) but it’s never been faithfully dramatized for mass-market American pop
culture. Kazuya Minekura’s in-yer-face manga interpretation, however, may
change that. She twists and turns it into
an extreme sci-fi Gen-Next mash-up, with characters freely mixing cross-cultural
anachronisms while mad-scientist antagonists run computer data and conduct
experiments like demonic Dr. Framkensteins.
Superheroes are trending right now, and so are convoluted
seasons-long sci-fi/fantasy/thriller TV series. Think 24, Revolution, Grimm, and Once
Upon a Time but start with a demon-possessed Far East. Go heavy on the
special effects. Throw in some Star Trek and
Star Wars flavoring, add some Conan and some Kung Fu, and cast some appealing young action-hero actors (a blond
Genjo Sanzo, an emerald-eyed Cho Hakkai, you get the idea). We could soon see Son
Goku the Monkey God become as iconic a character to American audiences as Mr.
Spock.
