Going global requires looking to Hollywood? Well-known film critics comment on the Hollywoodization of famous Japanese IPs

Today, the well-known Japanese film critic Hiroaki Saito published an article titled "Will the Success of Pikachu Affect the Future Hollywoodization of Well-known Japanese IPs?", which comprehensively commented on the well-known Japanese IPs (ACG) that are being adapted into Hollywood movies in large numbers. Let's take a look.

"Detective Pikachu" will be released in Japan on May 3. There are not many examples of Hollywood movies being released in Japan in advance, and the industry at home and abroad has high hopes for the box office of "Detective Pikachu", which may even exceed the previous "The Lion King".

· Another IP that is often Hollywoodized, "Godzilla", is not so well received. The 1999 "GODZILLA" directed by Rolando received extremely bad reviews, but the 2014 new version of "GODZILLA" seems to have restored some popularity, and I'm afraid there will be many more movies centered around the theme of Godzilla in the future.

Let's take a look at what happened to other Hollywood movies based on well-known IPs. The biggest failure was "DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION" in 2009, which even the original author Mr. Akira Toriyama was speechless. Then there were "Ghost in the Shell" in 2017 and "Battle Angel" at the beginning of this year. Other Hollywood movies based on Japanese IPs, but the response was not as enthusiastic as expected.

The “Resident Evil” series of films has produced many movies, perhaps to prove that it still has “box office” value, although the general response from the audience (in Japan) is that “it doesn’t feel like the ‘original Japanese plan’…” On the contrary, this type of Hollywood movie with a well-known Japanese IP is more likely to be accepted by people around the world.

Based on the experience of these years, although the Hollywood adaptation of well-known Japanese IPs always gives people a worry of "ruining the original work", it still cannot stop a large number of well-known Japanese IPs (ACG series) from being gradually adapted into Hollywood movies. Currently, there are "Sonic", "Monster Hunter", "Your Name", "Akira", "Mobile Suit Gundam", "One Piece", "Naruto", etc. Do well-known Japanese IPs have to go to Hollywood to go global? Maybe Hollywood needs to spend more time learning how to better integrate "Eastern and Western cultures".