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Onward to the next panel at #ProjectAnime19: “Adopting Japanese Properties for a Global Audience” w/ Maya Kambe fr. Paramount, Tony Ishizuka, VP Int’l Productions - Sony PIctures, & David Uslan fr. Uslan Entertainment. 
As far as western adaptations of JP anime/manga content, “no one has cracked the code. But it also depends on your expectations. If you’re expecting a James Cameron-sized blockbuster, that’s a different challenge than if you’re going for smaller production.” - Tony Ishizuka
“It comes down to story & character. I’ve seen an increase in stories that have more universal appeal — that work locally and can be enjoyed globally. Eventually, we’ll see more content that will check all the boxes for global audiences” - David Uslan #ProjectAnime19
With JP anime/manga, “there are so many properties that are inherently Japanese. When you try to adapt this content for global audiences, you have to think of the core of the story, and if you can adapt it while keeping the essence of the original.” - Maya Kambe, Paramount
“There are a lot of hurdles when you adapt anime/manga to other mediums. You have to show a lot of crazy places that are difficult to replicate in live action. If you change a JP character to a non-JP person, you’ll get a backlash.” - Tony Ishizuka, Sony Pictures #ProjectAnime19
What do you do when the content is so inherently Japanese? “For stories like Ruroni Kenshin, you can’t change it from a samurai story.” - Tony Ishizuka, Sony Pictures #ProjectAnime
Re: adapting JP content - “It’s a Catch-22, especially w/ humor, which can be hard to translate. Some jokes (in anime/manga) feel inappropriate in the #metoo era.” Fans might find the Japanese-ness charming, but new viewers might take it the wrong way, or just not find it funny.
A lot of the adapted content are from shonen manga, but “Streaming is ripe for rom-coms. For example, Boys Over Flowers/Hana Yori Dango has been adapted in Taiwan, Korea, China. It’s a matter of harnessing this fan interest / story for other global audiences.” - Maya Kambe
Re: Boys Over Flowers - “I know the Asian high school experience is very specific, but look at Terrace House. That’s also a very Asian-specific take on romance, but my friends find it fascinating! There’s something we can learn from that.” - Maya Kambe
“There’s a lot of movie adaptations of manga in the works, but there’s not many live action TV series adaptations. When you condense a manga series into 2 hours, you do a disservice to the world-building that the fans love so much.” - Maya Kambe #ProjectAnime19
Re: adapting a manga/anime as a TV series instead of a movie - “Look at Game of Thrones. People are willing to go deep into world building over a period of time. Series adaptations is a great way to go (for longer manga series).” - Maya Kambe #ProjectAnime
“The Marvel anime adaptations were failures. The anime fans didn’t want them, and neither did the superhero fans. You have to think about what your audience wants too.” - Tony Ishizuka #ProjectAnime19
“You have to try to please the original fan base without pissing them off. There was a big backlash in N. America, in Japan, no one cared that Scarlett Johansson was in Ghost in the Shell.” - Tony Ishizuka #ProjectAnime19
“I’m more interested in newer IP — stories that don’t have the history and baggage of (older, fan favorite) series. This gives us more flexibility when we adapt these stories. - David Uslan #ProjectAnime19
“Maybe doing stories “based on” isn’t the way to go. For example, Inception is basically Paprika. At the end of the day, you just gotta make a good script.” - Tony Ishizuka #ProjectAnime19
