22 August, Friday: When Netflix announced its live-action remake of Solo Leveling, fans braced for disappointment. The series, originally a 2016 Korean web novel, became a global hit as an anime in 2024, topping Sony-owned Crunchyroll’s charts and even surpassing Demon Slayer and One Piece.
Fans say live-action strips soul of the content
But loyal fans doubt Netflix can match the original’s intensity. Swedish fan Andre Denisson told the BBC: “I have never had a great experience with live-action, and I do not see a future or need for them to exist.” Spanish viewer Ander Guerrero echoed this, arguing the remake risks becoming “a half-baked story” because the fight sequences that define Solo Leveling are “hard to replicate in live action.”
Critics say the problem goes deeper than CGI. Anime thrives on stylistic exaggeration of gravity-defying battles, expressive faces, and unique art styles that look awkward in realism. Dedicated fans strongly oppose the plot cuts and changes that are made to condense detailed storylines, and they are an obvious reason for past failures. Casting controversies, such as the whitewashing in Ghost in the Shell (2017), only worsen mistrust. “The most iconic moments of the original anime might not work in live action, but whatever changes you make, those moments still need to be recognisable,” noted reviewer Geoff Thew of Mother’s Basement on YouTube. https://youtube.com/@mothersbasement?si=w5qdBS4kB_vPYIAE
Why studios keep making remakes despite backlash
Despite fan hostility, studios keep coming back. Hollywood has long struggled—Dragonball Evolution (2009) was so despised that its scriptwriter later apologized, while Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop (2021) was cancelled after one season, with creator Shinichirō Watanabe saying he “could only watch one scene.”
Still, the incentives are huge. The global anime market was worth $34 billion in 2024 and could hit $60 billion by 2030 (Grand View Research). Netflix claims more than half its 300 million subscribers now watch anime, with consumption tripling in the past five years. Streaming analysts like Alex Cameron of Parrot Analytics told the BBC that live-action remakes can drive retention by pushing new viewers toward the original anime, boosting engagement.
Japanese culture expert Emerald King from the University of Tasmania summed it up: there is now “a desire to make the perfect live action, to somehow figure out what the formula is.” For fans, though, the formula may never exist.
