The live-action Naruto movie faces many obstacles on its path to success, but the upcoming film already has one major advantage over Netflix’s One Piece. Live-action adaptations of anime have gotten bad reputations over the years, as projects like Netflix’s Death Note and 20th Century Fox’s Dragonball Evolution fail to do the source material justice. However, improved technology and bigger budgets make it possible to do more with live-action takes on popular anime. One Piece is proof that such adaptations can work, and Lionsgate is clearly hoping to replicate Netflix’s success with its live-action Naruto movie.

Not much is known about the upcoming project or its cast, but there are questions about how a Naruto adaptation can work, especially given the original story’s length. Naruto faces a similar issue to One Piece, as Masashi Kishimoto’s manga is 700 chapters overall. One Piece is longer, but both stories will prove difficult to adapt on-screen. Naruto‘s movie format leaves even less time to handle all the elements of the source material. But while its format puts it at a disadvantage compared to One Piece, the Naruto adaptation has one thing going for it that the Netflix series doesn’t.

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8 Challenges The Live-Action Naruto Movie Faces Adapting The Anime

A live-action Naruto appears to be happening, but it will face some significant challenges to adapting the manga and anime for the big screen.

Naruto Includes A Time Skip Early On In The Story

This Will Make The Cast’s Aging Feel More Natural

Part of the reason it will be difficult to adapt the entirety of Naruto or One Piece in live-action is that the casts of both projects will inevitably age out of their roles. For Lionsgate’s Naruto film, this is less of an issue. The live-action Naruto has an advantage, as the manga and anime both feature time skips fairly early on. Although the series starts off with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura as pre-teens, the characters don’t remain that age for long. After the first few arcs, the narrative jumps forward about two and a half years.

Naruto: Shippuden picks up with the main characters around 15 years old, and they gradually get older as the story continues. Assuming Lionsgate is able to condense the first six arcs into one or two live-action movies, its Naruto adaptation will have a natural explanation for its actors getting older. There are still questions about how the films will fit everything into their runtimes. But Naruto‘s time jump puts it in a good position to make believable sequels. Netflix’s One Piece may not be so fortunate when it comes to its aging cast members.

One Piece’s Actors Might Age Out Of Their Characters Too Quickly

The Long Gaps Between Netflix’s Seasons Will Make This Noticeable

While Lionsgate’s live-action Naruto movie has a built-in way to address its aging cast, Netflix’s One Piece is likely to face obstacles on this front. The characters in One Piece are a bit older than those in Naruto, and this could buy the series time. However, One Piece‘s live-action cast is young enough that they will eventually age more noticeably. Given how slowly Netflix churns out new seasons of its TV shows, this could happen after just a few seasons. With little time passing in-universe, it will be difficult to explain why Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hats look so different.

This will get especially awkward if One Piece goes forward with its 12-season plan. While it would be great to see the adaptation continue for so long, it would take years and years to make this a reality. In the meantime, the actors will be aging in real life. Pretending they aren’t will be jarring and could take viewers out of the story. Fortunately, there is a time skip in One Piece —​​​​​​​ albeit much later — so the series could take a similar approach to Naruto during its later seasons. How it will handle the gaps between its earlier outings remains to be seen.

Naruto: Shippuden Means A Live-Action Naruto Franchise Can Grow With The Characters

Lionsgate’s Adaptations Will Unfold Naturally

While Netflix’s release timeline and One Piece‘s narrative create challenges for its live-action adaptation, Naruto: Shippuden ensures that Lionsgate’s franchise will unfold more naturally. In general, Naruto feels less frozen in time than One Piece, which means its younger cast members can grow up with their characters. Even if the first few arcs are adapted over two or three movies, Naruto‘s cast won’t be that much older than their on-screen counterparts. And Shippuden‘s time jump will solve any aging issues that do come up, then allow the actors and characters to grow naturally once again.

​​​​​​​This won’t solve the other challenges facing the live-action Naruto movie, like portraying the series’ large cast of characters or fitting in all the training arcs and fights that take place in the anime. Only time will tell if Lionsgate finds solutions to these issues as well. Whatever happens, Naruto should be set on the casting front — assuming it hires talented stars who are in the right age range to play their characters.

Naruto – Live Action

Director

Destin Daniel Cretton

Studio(s)

Arad Productions , Hisako

Distributor(s)

Lionsgate