The notion of adapting any anime to live-action is a tough one; quadruply so if adapting that anime to live-action for a western market. After Shinichiro Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop had a disastrous Netflix adaptation a few years ago, the idea, you’d imagine, would be dead. And yet, not even very long afterwards, Tomorrow Studios proved it could be done properly with their faithful and loving adaptation of One Piece. With Bebop seemingly off the table, at least for the time being, Tomorrow has shifted their sights to another Watanabe classic, Samurai Champloo. This time, they’ve even got Watanabe himself on board for it.
The news, via Variety, comes just ahead of One Piece season two dropping on Netflix. That series has garnered praise and adulation from fans of the source material for its modifying One Piece to fit a western audience without sacrificing the core tone and tenets of the Japanese original. In many ways, if Tomorrow Studios could do it with a show like One Piece, they’d arguably have a much easier time with Samurai Champloo.
Becky Clements, co-founder of Tomorrow Studios and producer of One Piece, told Variety “We had dinner with [Watanabe] in Japan and said, if we move forward on doing Samurai Champloo, we really want you to be a part of the creative. We were thrilled that he was willing to do that.”
The original 26-episode Samurai Champloo from 2004 transported viewers to a highly anachronistic version of Edo Japan and follows a young teahouse waitress named Fuu who, through various circumstances, recruits stoic ronin Jin and slovenly warrior Mugen to help her seek revenge against a mysterious samurai who smells of sunflowers. As the travel the country looking for this man, the trio find themselves in one scrape after another, set to modern day music.
At this point, if I were a mangaka or anime creator, I wouldn’t want anyone except Tomorrow Studios adapting my work to live-action. So while the Champloo project is in very early stages, it’s safe to assume it will be in good hands.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
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