Summary

• One Piece is a successful Netflix live-action adaptation, exceeding expectations and setting records.
• Previous attempts like Death Note and Fullmetal Alchemist fell short of expectations.
• Netflix has improved in adapting anime, with series like Kakegurui and Alice in Borderland receiving critical praise.

One Piece (2023 - ) is one of the biggest releases in a long line of Netflix live-action anime adaptations. The streaming service has been trying to bring popular anime to life for the last decade, though not all have been as successful with audiences as others. It takes a lot of work to adapt the larger-than-life stories from different series with (often) hundreds of episodes to a live-action movie or TV series, and Netflix has proven that they can do it as well as anyone.

Though One Piece has shown that a good live-action remake of an anime is possible, several of its predecessors had audiences feeling it couldn't be done. Early attempts like Death Note (2017) let fans down, while others like Fullmetal Alchemist (2017) and Bleach (2018) failed to leave much of a mark. However, the right anime and the suitable adaptation format could mean a work of art that long-time anime fans and casual viewers alike can appreciate. The complete collection of Netflix live-action anime adaptations demonstrates that the streamer is improving.

16 Death Note (2017)

A high school student finds a notebook with supernatural powers.

The Netflix live-action anime adaptation of Death Note had a lot of promise, with a great cast and a decent budget to get the job done. The problem is that the complex and philosophically interesting anime was grossly simplified in creating a live-action adaptation. The story follows a high school student who finds a supernatural notebook that causes the death of anyone whose name is written in it, and gets into questions of morality, self-preservation, and mind-games.

However, in the adaptation, Light Turner's moral arc amounted to little, Mia Sutton was entirely different from the manga, and Ryuk's motivations remain confusing. Overall, Death Note was a disappointment. The movie received terrible reviews, with a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an even lower 23% audience score. While director Adam Wingard redeemed himself with his work on the last two Godzilla MonsterVerse movies, he missed this one. There is hope that the planned Netflix's Death Note sequel may set these wrongs straight.

15 Cowboy Bebop (2021)

A group of bounty hunters track down the galaxy's most dangerous criminals while avoiding their pasts.

As a classic anime from 1998, scrutiny was already high for Netflix's version of Cowboy Bebop. It had the opportunity to be a great success, what with the cult following the original series has developed over the years and fewer episodes compared to newer anime like One Piece, Bleach, and Death Note. Unfortunately, this didn't work out how Netflix had hoped. The series followed the same story as the original anime, with a ragtag group of bounty hunters chasing criminals across the solar system.

A petition was created to bring back Cowboy Bebop for a second season despite bad reviews (via NBC).

However, the audience was not there, and the reviews were brutal. The series was canceled after only one 10-episode season, with critics calling it out for its writing, pacing, special effects, and action sequences. The only praise went to the cast, which included John Cho in the lead role as Spike Spiegel. While the first week was great, with over 74 million viewing hours, it dropped drastically the next week, and Netflix canceled it three weeks after its release (via THR).

14 Fullmetal Alchemist: The Final Alchemy (2022)

The finale reveals truths about the past for the Elric brothers.

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Final Alchemy was the final film of Netflix's live-action Fullmetal Alchemist trilogy, none of which performed exceptionally well. Still, this last installation was the final nail in the franchise's coffin. With a poor 48% audience score and a 0% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, the live-action sequel was accused of forcing too much plot into too short a time.

Both versions of the original anime were so layered with subplots and massive reveals that even attempting to summarize it into a film trilogy was a massive undertaking. The plot itself is so bloated that not even the interesting twists and turns in the movie can help save it. It also doesn't help that the movies are based on the popular anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and critics pointed out that it pales in comparison.

13 Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge Of Scar (2022)

The Elric brothers face off against a mysterious serial killer.

Netflix's second Fullmetal Alchemist movie, The Revenge of Scar, focused a good deal of its plot on the familiar villain from the anime, which made it better than the last movie in the trilogy. It is more streamlined than the installment that would come after, and this film maintained more of a rise and fall with its plot and wasn't trying to be too much more than it was.

Still, with complaints of poor acting and subpar CGI, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar only managed to pull a 54% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, while critics mostly ignored it, so it has no recorded rating on the site. It also faces strong competition from other Netflix live-action anime adaptations, and the bad reviews and fan complaints ensured the entire trilogy would remain disappointing for fans of the anime.

12 Fullmetal Alchemist (2017)

This brought the start of the Elric brothers' story to live-action

The Fullmetal Alchemist anime was undoubtedly full of action, but a good deal of the plot existed in the dialogue and impactful moments in between. Unfortunately, this wasn't how Netflix's live-action adaptation went about things. Since the anime had two versions — both of which were mostly the same for the first few episodes — fans are very familiar with how the start of Ed and Al's story should go.

Unfortunately, Netflix's version rushed through everything to dive into the action, resulting in a superficial movie with no clear target audience. When the movie trilogy chooses to ignore the part of the movie where fans get to know the characters, it makes it harder to care about them when the action starts. With a rough start, things just went downhill with the sequels. This movie might be the best of the three, but none compare with the better Netflix live-action anime adaptations.

11 Zom 100: Bucket List Of The Dead (2023)

One man decides to get through a bucket list before he's turned into a zombie.

Zom 100: Bucket List Of The Dead has a premise that is bound to catch audiences' attention for at least a moment. A man realizes the zombie apocalypse is underway. However, instead of fighting for his life, he decides to set out and do things that he never got to do before in his life.

Unlike the Netflix live-action version, the anime holds an approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Though fairly unremarkable for an anime, bringing the idea of an eternally optimistic hero trying to get through a "before I become a zombie" bucket list is rather bizarre for live-action. Still, the Netflix series has proved that it can make it work. Unfortunately, Zom 100 missed out on driving home the point of the manga that being a zombie is preferred to being a mindless corporate monster. The anime was a fun social commentary, but Netflix's version missed that point and failed to find an audience as a result.

10 Bleach (2018)

A teenager fights evil spirits and tries to help souls to the afterlife.

The Bleach anime ran for 366 episodes, so Netflix could not condense the plot into a single movie. Therefore, the platform's 2018 adaptation stuck to the series' initial arc, which was the right choice. The film ended up well-rounded, and audiences gave it a fair 75%, with the critics agreeing with a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie follows Ichigo, a 15-year-old high school student who can see ghosts.

Since this only approached the first arc and did it in a movie under two hours, a lot was left unsaid, so although Bleach was a fun ride, it could have been more satisfying. It might have done much better as a One Piece. At least, unlike other anime that made it into live-action movies, it mainly remains faithful to the story it is adapting.

9 From Me To You: Kimi Ni Todoke (2023-)

A shy teenager develops feelings for her more outgoing classmate.

Though most of Netflix's anime adaptations have stayed within the action genre, the platform took a stab at a romance with From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke. Overall, it seems to have worked relatively well. It might have functioned fine as a movie, but the original anime was adapted into a live-action TV series, making it an even more true-to-source adaptation.

Still, it's hard to say that Netflix's version has had much to add, making the new series seem difficult to justify. Despite this, fans seemed to like it, as it has an impressive 86% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The coming-of-age drama had 12 episodes, all dropping on the streaming service in 2023. The anime had 38 episodes, so it is unclear if there will be more or if Netflix will end things with just the one season.

8 The Ingenuity Of The Househusband (2021-)

A former Yakuza member becomes a househusband.

The The Way of the Househusband is a funny series of short episodes about an ex-Yakuza member turned househusband. Of course, this means it isn't quite as heavy-hitting as series like One Piece or Cowboy Bebop, but there is something extraordinary about watching the main character, Tatsu, get so much delight from domestic tasks. One of the best things about Netflix's live-action adaptation, The Ingenuity of the Househusband, is that Kenjirô Tsuda, who voiced Tatsu in the anime, plays the character in the flesh.

This fact makes it a delight, but this version still lacks the original's comedy. What makes this Netflix live-action anime adaptation so interesting is that the episodes are all so short, each checking in at between four and six minutes. That means the entire season is less than an hour in running time, not even the length of a feature-length movie.

7 Kakegurui (2018-)

A teenage girl gambles to bring down the student council president.

The manga Kakegurui follows a high school whose social structure depends entirely on gambling, which makes it a reasonably simple premise to adapt into a live-action TV series. For this reason, Netflix's Kakegurui succeeds where others have failed. Without the larger-than-life aspects that typically make up anime, this series didn't require too much budget. Moreover, the writers managed to adapt Kakegurui almost perfectly from the source material, with very little left out.

Of course, without all the action and camp, it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but its two seasons are still a relative success for Netflix. Not only was the TV series a hit, but it was so successful that two live-action movies were also made, the first hitting in 2019 (Kakegurui) and the second in 2021 (Kakegurui 2: Ultimate Russian Roulette), both of which also received critical praise.