Whether they're made in Japan or internationally, live-action anime adaptations usually don't have the most stellar reputation with audiences. As far as most anime and manga fans are concerned, live-action adaptations should never even be attempted, and are an insult to their favorite artistic medium. Even in light of recent successes like Alita: Battle Angel, Netflix's One Piece and the Ruroni Kenshin movies, it's hard to deny that this particular cinematic niche still has a lot of learning and improving to do. These titles tend to be exceptions to the norm. One notable adaptation that future live-action anime movies can learn from is Bleach (2018), directed by Shinsuke Sato and based on the manga of the same name by Tite Kubo.
Starring Sota Fukushi as Ichigo Kurosaki and Hana Sugisaki as Rukia Kuchiki, Bleach (2018) was one of the best live-action anime adaptations that came out during the subgenre's recent boom. Although it's underrated and overlooked when compared to its more successful and popular contemporaries, Bleach (2018) is undeniably one of the few adaptations that successfully and respectfully translated its source material to live-action. That being said, it could be argued that Bleach (2018) would've been even better if it were the feature-length pilot episode to a live-action Bleach TV show, not a stand-alone movie. The franchise is ripe for adaptation and the fact a live-action movie worked at all lends credence to the idea that a proper live-action series would do Bleach more than enough justice to justify.
Bleach (2018) Is One of the Most Underrated Live-Action Anime Adaptations
Tite Kubo Gave Bleach (2018) His Seal of Approval
One of the most common complaints and issues that comes with adapting anime and/or manga to live-action is the fact that it's almost impossible to condense the source material into a feature-length runtime. A single anime season can last anywhere from 13 to 50 episodes, while manga often need more than 100 chapters to complete their story and in some cases even a story arc. In Bleach's (2018) case, it adapted an arc that lasted 8 volumes, 16 episodes and 70 chapters. This is something that many live-action anime, such as Blade of the Immortal and Fullmetal Alchemist, struggled with, but Bleach (2018) found the solution.
Instead of sticking as closely to the manga and anime as possible, Bleach (2018) abridged its source material.Bleach (2018) kept the broad story and themes intact while shortening or even cutting out excess subplots that wouldn't have fit into a movie. This was the same approach that Ruroni Kenshin and most superhero movies -- most notably the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) -- took when they adapted their lengthy materials, and it worked perfectly here. In fact, the movie was so good that Kubo himself approved of the movie and recommended that Bleach fans watch it.
Bleach (2018) was a fun cross between an action movie and a supernatural adventure for young adults. The battles were well-choreographed and just as fun as watching Ichigo, Rukia and the rest of the cast goof around. The cast's performances (especially Fukushi and Sugisaki's) were solid, the script did a good job of balancing comedy and pathos, the fights were a treat to watch on-screen and the movie's visual perfectly blended the real world with Bleach's more fantastical ideas. Even the movie's necessary adaptational changes ended up fitting in well with the canon material.
The biggest change was the ending, where Rukia wiped Ichigo's memories so that he wouldn't remember her when she was executed in Soul Society. That said, it was strongly hinted that Ichigo could break through this amnesia, setting up a potential sequel. Not only did this help Bleach (2018) work as a stand-alone movie, but it was the perfect bittersweet conclusion to the movie's narrative. The movie was the story of how Rukia forever changed Ichigo's life in just a short amount of time, not Soul Society's civil war or its battles against otherworldly evildoers. It made sense that Bleach's (2018) intimate story and lower stakes would end on a more personal note between Ichigo and Rukia, not the promise of bigger things to come seen in the manga and anime.
The worst thing that could be said about Bleach (2018) is that it lacked the source material's spunk and levity. Despite Ichigo and Rukia's slapstick bits, the movie was generally dour in tone. Its atmosphere and visuals had more in common with a teen horror movie than an exhilarating isekai adventure. Bleach's anime and manga were no strangers to terrifying monsters or disturbing themes, but these were balanced out with heightened comic relief and fantastical concepts that helped keep the overall tone comfortable. Bleach (2018) seemingly traded all this for a fidelity to realism that, in a way, betrayed the source material's creativity and iconography. Characters' personalities were toned down to make them more realistic, and the Zanpakuto were barely a part of the plot. It's understandable that not everything in manga and anime will translate well to live-action, but Bleach (2018) would've benefited from being more eccentric.
The movie was also, unfortunately, overshadowed by other live-action anime. It's difficult to determine why this was the case, but it's possible that Bleach wasn't memorably great or horrible enough to leave a particularly lasting impact after its release. Bleach (2018) was a perfectly fine adaptation that did everything that was expected of it, but the movie's lackluster visual cues and legacy paled in comparison to its larger adaptational shortcomings and never quite reached the same heights as its source manga & anime.
Bleach (2018) Would’ve Been Better as a Live-Action Series
There Was Only So Much of the Manga and Anime That One Movie Could Adapt
Bleach's most glaring problem was its limited runtime. For what it's worth, Bleach (2018) did a decent job of abridging Ichigo and Rukia's early adventures, but this came with a steep price. To fit its one hour and 48 minute runtime, the movie excised most of Karakura Town's residents, combined Ichigo's duel against the Grand Fisher and his first encounter with the Soul Reapers into one battle, and limited the number of onscreen Soul Reapers to just four. None of the Soul Reapers even unleashed anything stronger than their Zanpakuto's Shikai for brevity and practicality's sake.
Worse yet, important characters like Chad and Orihime Inoue were reduced to glorified extras due to the lack of time. Zangetsu himself was nowhere to be seen. Ishida, Renji and Byakuya had it mildly better since they were relegated to flat rivals for Ichigo to fight, but even this wasn't a perfect solution. It was also clear that Bleach's wider world-building, character development and most popular cast members (especially the Gotei 13's Captains) were being saved for later. As self-contained as it was, Bleach (2018) ended on a frustrating cliffhanger that's still begging for a sequel that may or may not ever happen.
With all this in mind, it would've made more sense if Bleach was adapted into a live-action series instead, not unlike the underrated Alice in Borderland or YuYu Hakusho. As a seasonal show or a limited miniseries, Bleach (2018) would've had more time to flesh out its characters' lives while telling its own take on the manga. Every episode could compress an entire subplot, such as Orihime's Hollowfied brother, instead of just outright dropping them. An episodic format would've also deepened Ichigo and Rukia's bond.
As it stands, Ichigo and Rukia's live-action dynamic wasn't bad – their actors did a great job of reenacting what made Ichigo and Rukia's friendship so compelling – but when compared to the time they spent in the anime and manga, the movie fell short. For one, they lacked a sense of normalcy before Renji and Byakuya arrived under orders to bring Rukia back to Soul Society. This was the movie's central conflict, whereas it was a tragic wake-up call that was gradually built-up to in the anime. In the movie, Ichigo and Rukia were fire-forged friends who got to know each other well over the course of a few days. But previously, their bond was so tight that they became one of the most shipped couples in anime history.
More importantly, a series would've given Bleach (2018) necessary room to breath. Bleach's main selling point was that the mundane real world was part of a larger, unseen world that included different levels of the afterlife. With the inclusion of the spin-off Burn the Witch, Bleach's take on the realms of the living and the dead included the entire world. In the movie, the world was just too small. It was simply modern-day Japan with a few Hollow attacks here and there. At most, a moonlit Seireitei was given a quick glimpse.
Due to its reduced scope, Bleach (2018) didn't have a wider story to tell or a bigger world to show. This went against the epic story depicted in the manga and anime, especially since one of the original story's most important themes was that there was more to life than a humble small town's comforts. Expanding the live-action Bleach into a series would've made its setting as big and lived in as it was in the source material. It would've also made Ichigo's world more interesting to explore.
To its credit, Bleach (2018) succeeded in adapting the most important parts of Ichigo's origin to live-action. The movie is a solid and user-friendly gateway to Bleach. It's also one of the few live-action anime that can stand as its own movie. That said, it missed the chance to truly transport old and new Bleach fans into the manga's greater world. Bleach needed more than just one movie or a series of them to properly adapt even half of the manga and anime. It's for this reason that it's difficult not to wish that Bleach (2018), as good as it is, was a longer series' pilot episode, not a stand-alone movie. Bleach (2018) proved that it's possible to adapt Ichigo's adventures as a Substitute Soul Reaper into a movie. It just needs to take the extra step forward to bring the rest of Bleach to life.
Bleach (2018) is now streaming on Netflix.
