 Hey everybody, welcome to another exciting episode, another audio edition of A Week in Geek, them here on YouTube. This time, it's an apology, an open rant and an open apology at the same time. You see, a couple of videos ago, I don't know the precise date, but many, many videos ago, I did sort of a mini discussion on the concept of a U.S. adaptation of Death Note and a video defending the adaptation for Ghost in the Shell. Well, keep in mind, I didn't know the end result back then, but I do now and I kind of want to apologize, actually not for the reasons that you're thinking of, like I stand by my statements, it's just sort of an open essay, an open rant, if you will. I'm not really apologizing, you know, I like what I like and I do what I think people want to see or hear or whatever. But yeah, back then I didn't know the end result for those movies and boy, oh boy. Let's start with the Death Note movie. When that thing was first announced, I really thought they were going to take the concept and bring it over here with sort of like an alternate take, like what if the notebook fell over here instead of Japan and we had a new host or a new user, I should say, for the Death Note. That's not what we got. Instead, they took the core elements and simplified them. It felt like I was watching Great Value Death Note instead of reading the manga or watching the anime adaptation. Now keep in mind, there have been so many adaptations of the Death Note manga that it is kind of exhausting. You know, there's like five live action movies, I think there's a live action TV series, there's a play, I think, there's also the anime and now you've got the Netflix US version, which, oh boy, oh boy, I mean, I don't really think you should go out of your way to adapt every single anime property out there, but this was a series which catered to Western audiences heavily and you could have done a good job instead, like I mentioned earlier, instead of going with the alternate route, which I think would have been best, you went and took the character of Light and just did a bastardized version of the character and took away the core essential element, which is his methodical genius intellect and the way he went about things and instead you just gave us a punk character with a weird I don't know, it was just an odd vendetta against society and it felt like Mr. Robot but without the tech and smarts and wit and just a punkish foul mouthed version of Light that I did not appreciate. That cat and mouse game that is so famous with the original story sort of gets lost because the character isn't up there in the intellect level. Instead, he's just screaming left and right, especially that funny ass scene where he meets Ryuk for the first time. And by the way, that is the movie's only saving grace. Willem Dafoe is an amazing version of Ryuk. I really enjoyed his version and it was just perfect in my opinion. It was literally watching the show or the reading the manga come to life when it came to him. The rest of the characters, this movie felt more like I was watching a 90s movie. That sort of mentality where we take these anime bombastic animation things and try and do like slapstick over the top adaptations and it doesn't work. I don't know, I think they could have done so much better if they would have just stripped it down to the bare necessities and you could have gone with an intellectual route on violence in America, just the different values and the way people go about their daily lives over here. I think it would have been a very interesting take with the character of L if you wanted to do L, I don't know, or doing that hunting for this killer with this mysterious artifact known as a death note. It was just a mess. The music was forgettable. Everything about it was super bland. As for the ghost in the shell movie, man, it was just boring. Look, I was a fan from the beginning. I didn't mind Scarlett Johansson. Yes, I understand the whitewashing thing that everybody was so upset about. I'm not going to talk about that. What I didn't mind is that the story lends itself to the idea of having actors playing other characters simply because of the nature of the story and the fact that they're using robots and you know, the ghost and the shell are two separate things and the shell can be interchangeable. I really liked the idea and thought it was a very interesting thing to explore in a live action medium. The movie looks incredible. I really like the cinematography and the special effects and all that stuff. It looks great. And unfortunately, the completionist in me had to get it. I have the manga, I have the anime, I had to get the live action movie. Sue me. It's in there somewhere, but if it's to your comfort, I did get it from a third-party market dealer. The movie's just boring, man. Part of what made the manga such a classic, same with the animated movie, the animated TV shows and all that stuff, is that social political commentary, that smart manga that I love so much. And that just sort of gets stripped down to the bare bones. It's a very dull and lifeless experience watching this movie. And I think, like, you're a whole cast. You could have gotten more lively people or at least have them speak Japanese. I kind of wanted to see the movie subtitled practically. I don't know. I was let down simply because the movie doesn't really do much. Yeah, it's adapting mostly the laughing man and the original 1994, I want to say 94 movie with concepts of the original manga. But hopefully in the future, we can get a reboot and do like a standalone complex adaptation that I would go for with the proper production and whatnot. I don't know. What do you guys think? Do you hate these adaptations? I would like to think so, based on all the comments I see online. Hopefully the next batch of anime adaptations, because you know they're coming. They're gonna take a while, but they're coming. We've got Battle Angel Alita. And while I'm not a huge fan of that, I'm still gonna watch it simply out of curiosity. And maybe it piques my interest. And I want to go and read the manga. I don't know. But there's gonna be more. But I think if you want adaptations to survive, you're gonna have to find a way to get past the visual aesthetic and worry more about the plot. Because if you look at the track record, Dragon Ball is super complicated to adapt for like 90 minutes or 60, 70 minutes or whatever the hell that movie was. You've got Speed Racer, which is pretty hokey. You know, it's a classic for some people, but it's a little dated compared to nowadays. And they're just picking these movies that I think I've said it before. You should pick stuff that's a little bit more contemporary and a little bit easier with more Western sensibilities. You know, a cowboy bebop of the world. I'm not saying you should adapt it, but a cowboy bebop of the world could fare better than say a one piece adaptation. Because I do know they want to make a TV show out of it. Anime, I think, shouldn't be exploited like comic book and other mediums have. It's very, you know, it's its own thing. It's what I'm trying to get at. I don't know. If you could have an anime adaptation, what would it be? Let me know down below. I'm very interested in reading what you guys think. That's my quote unquote apology for these disastrous movies. Guys, thank you for in this case listening to another installment of A Week in Geekdom here on YouTube. As always, like, comment, and subscribe, and follow me on your favorite social media platform. I've got to go. I will catch all of you on our next episode.