If You Thought Dragonball Evolution Was Bad, Wait Until You Hear About This Other Live-Action Anime Adaptation

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While “Dragonball Evolution” is already known as a poorly received live-action anime adaptation, a more recent film released just three years ago has somehow managed to be even worse in its attempt to bring an anime series to life.

Bringing anime and manga to life with live-action adaptations is often a gamble. Recent shows like Alice in Borderland and One Piece have offered some promise, but many viewers still remember disappointing adaptations such as Cowboy Bebop, Death Note, and Fullmetal Alchemist. However, Dragonball Evolution is widely considered the worst offender, as it drastically missed the core spirit of the original story.

Recently, another anime-based movie has emerged that could potentially challenge Dragonball Evolution as the worst adaptation.

Knights Of The Zodiac’s 2023 Live-Action Movie Is No Better Than Dragonball Evolution

Live-action adaptations of anime often disappoint fans, but Dragonball Evolution is frequently considered the worst. It drastically changed the story and characters from the original anime and manga, replacing the cast with mostly white actors and turning it into a high school coming-of-age story. Ironically, the movie even got the source material’s name wrong.

The show immediately signaled trouble by combining the words “dragon” and “ball” into one title. Thankfully, the 2023 live-action version of Saint Seiya avoided that mistake. Called Knights of the Zodiac, the movie also appears to have made good choices when selecting its cast.

When it comes to the story, it’s debatable whether Knights of the Zodiac is actually an improvement over Dragonball Evolution.

Rather than faithfully adapting the original story, the live-action movie made the same error as Dragonball Evolution by attempting to create a more realistic and “relatable” environment. It turned Seiya into a gritty street fighter and simplified the source material into a typical sci-fi action film.

The new series focuses too much on just Seiya, and this hurts the strong sense of camaraderie between the Bronze Saints that fans loved in the original anime. What’s disappointing is that it also avoids the fun, unique qualities of the original. The designs and how the characters interact feel watered down and less interesting.

Although Knights of the Zodiac is slightly better than Dragonball Evolution, both films received very poor reviews. Their Rotten Tomatoes scores – 21% for Knights of the Zodiac and 14% for Dragonball Evolution – show that they’re both among the worst live-action adaptations of anime.

Knights Of The Zodiac & Dragonball Evolution Have Proven That We Don’t Need More Big-Screen Live-Action Anime Remakes

Both Knights of the Zodiac and Dragonball: Evolution demonstrate what not to do when adapting a long-running anime series into a movie. While live-action adaptations can be great, these films should build upon the existing story and details, not water them down to appeal to a wider audience.

With live-action versions of manga and anime like One Piece and Alice in Borderland proving popular on TV, it’s clear that television is a better format for these kinds of adaptations.

Live-action adaptations of anime, such as Death Note and Cowboy Bebop, have also faced criticism. But, unlike some shorter adaptations, these shows had enough episodes to properly explore the original stories and adapt them for television.

Live-action versions of anime haven’t had a great track record so far, making some question if they’re worth making. However, shows like One Piece offer hope that things are improving, and could lead to better adaptations that overcome the negative reputation created by failures like Dragonball Evolution and Knights of the Zodiac.

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2026-03-30 06:30