Anime Movies That Could be Made

After years of speculation, runarounds, and seemingly endless development hell, Hollywood's getting live action films based on popular anime made and ready to hit theaters. The first to come our way will be the Wacowski Brothers-directed “Speed Racer”, due out May 9, with “Dragon Ball” following it on August 15. And many more will follow after that, such as “Astro Boy”, “Blood the Last Vampire” and “Gatchaman”. Many others such as “Battle Angel” and “Evangelion” continue to have their problems, but perhaps the release and possible successes of the first batch of films will get some fires started.

But while there are plenty of anime-based properties on the way to sate fans' curiosities, there are plenty more anime titles out there that could get the live action treatment, provided a proper script is written and the right director chosen. So here's a list of some of those titles that deserve an adaptation, along with how they should be done and who should do them. Hollywood, take notes so you can do your jobs.

TRIGUN

The Anime:

Far into the future, on the distant planet of Gunsmoke where a “Wild West”-style civilization has risen up, the most wanted and dangerous man alive is Vash the Stampede, a gunslinger so dangerous that he has a 60,000,000,000 double-dollar bounty on his head for destroying the entire city of July. But in reality, Vash is peace-loving goofball who refuses to kill, no matter how dangerous things get. With bounty hunters after him and insurance agents Meryl and Millie and gun-toting priest Nicolas D. Wolfwood at his side, Vash travels the land looking for Knives, a man with a mysterious connection with him, while Knives sends his own agents, the Gung-Ho Guns, to either kill Vash or make him do the one thing he doesn't want to: kill.

The Movie

Making a “Trigun” movie would be rather easy, providing the story takes its primary basis from the anime, which told a more straight-forward story as compared to Yashiro Nightow's original manga. The movie itself would actually be a trilogy of films, which many sci-fi, fantasy and westerns are done best as. Each film would focus on a different act of the story. Film 1 would, of course, introduce Vash and the rest of the cast as he tries to survive a bounty hunter's plot to take him down. Film 2 would start to get into the main part of the story, introducing the Gung-ho Guns as they attack Vash and endanger those around him. The third and final film would reveal Vash's origin and his connection to Knives, leading up to their final confrontation.

As for directing this project, who better and more qualified than Robert Rodriguez? He's done western-style films with his “Mexican” trilogy, which also sported tricked out and hidden weapons, which “Trigun” has aplenty, such as Wolfwood's giant cross that contains a small arsenal of guns and later converts into a massive machine gun. He's done sci-fi comedy with the “Spy Kids” films, and he's done comic book adaptations with “Sin City”. He could even film the “Trigun” movies the same way, with the actors on a green-screen soundstage and the backgrounds added in later with CGI. Given some of the odd visuals of the original story, this might be a necessity.

GUNSMITH CATS/RIDING BEAN

The Anime:

This is actually two different anime, but both feature similar characters and were created by Kenichi Sonoda. “Gunsmith Cats” focuses on the adventures of bounty hunter Rally Vincent, as she hunts down dangerous criminals with her almost-unmatched skill with a gun and her bomb-toting partner, “Minnie” May Hopkins. “Riding Bean”, a one-shot OAV Sonoda created earlier, featured wheelman-for-hire Bean Bandit using his tricked out muscle car, the Road Buster, to outrun police and clear his name out of a kidnapping plot. It also featured an early version of Rally, who was Bean's partner in the OAV, while the “Gunsmith Cats” manga has Bean as a recurring supporting character who Rally and May frequently butted heads with. While its not sure how the two are connected (especially since Rally in the “Bean” OAV is blond and white while in “Gunsmith Cats” she has dark hair and skin), both are enjoyed by fans.

The Movie:

It wouldn't be too hard to adapt this one for American audiences, considering both stories are already set in America, Chicago, to be precise! Hollywood's best bet would be to first make a “Gunsmith Cats” movie, perhaps adapting the first volume of Sonoda's original manga with Rally and May chasing dangerous brother and sister gunrunners Bonnie and Clyde and Bean Bandit involved as the hired wheelman, but playing a bigger role than he did in the original manga. And while sequels for “Cats” would be a must depending on the first film's success, there could also be a “Riding Bean” spin-off, with Bean on his own solo adventure, either doing an original story or even adapting and expanding the original OAV. And to direct a film that has lots of guns and plenty of fast cars (Rally drives a tricked out Shelby GT Cobra), there's no better man qualified than Rob Cohen, director of “The Fast and the Furious”. And before anyone suggest Vin Diesel or Jason Stratham to possibly play ultra-cool badass Bean (a role both men are qualified for), bear in mind Bean has hair, and both actors look their best bald, not to mention there's Stratham's rather heavy British accent.