Highlights
- Netflix’s success with live-action anime adaptations suggests that other classic 90s anime could also work well in this format.
- Digimon Adventure could be a cost-effective option for a live-action show, but they must get the American theme song right.
- Trigun offers similar themes to the popular video game series Fallout and could be a strong competitor to Amazon’s upcoming series.
Netflix has had a good year with its live-action anime adaptations. One Piece was better than what any fan expected. It seemed impossible to get that anime right since it featured a diverse cast of characters with supernatural powers and weird races too, like fish people.
It was a big success with a confirmed season two on the way. While it hasn’t been renewed yet, Yu Yu Hakusho did well in reviews too thanks to its slightly more grounded premise. Both of these adaptations for Netflix were based on 90s anime, so it begs the question: What other classic 90s anime would work well in this TV format?
6 Digimon Adventure
Change Into Digital Monsters
If Pokemon can be made into a live-action movie via Detective Pikachu then the Digimon franchise has to keep up. Netflix could easily turn the first season of the anime into a live-action show with convincing CG creatures set in some sort of tropical location. It might be cost-effective to cut some of the cast to have less Digimon on screen, although that may anger some fans.
Also, this one should be centered on a Japanese cast since the teens in Digimon Adventure were all sent to camp from various schools within Japan. The biggest thing they have to get right though is the American theme song, which is simple but still a bop. Also, unlike Pokemon, Digimon have to talk.
5 Hunter X Hunter
It’s A Battle Royale!
|
Number of Episodes |
62 |
|
Release Date |
October 16, 1999 |
|
Directors |
Kazuhiro Fu |
Hunter x Hunter would do well as a Netflix series for fans of Squid Game. The first season’s story follows Gon as he tries to get his Hunter license, and meets three friends along the way. To get a Hunter license, hundreds of contestants have to make it through various trials including platforming through dungeons, answering questions, and fighting others in arena combat.
It’s a Battle Royale scenario except there is a point to it and it’s not just a death game with malicious intent. The anime has never been too flashy with effects, so like Yu Yu Hakusho, it could do well if it focuses on pure martial arts. Also, as a note, there was indeed a 90s version of Hunter X Hunter but it was short-lived before it got rebooted in 2011 which is the series most known today.
4 Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
It’s A Gundam!
| Number of Episodes | 12 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | January 25, 1996 |
| Directors | Takeyuki Kanda and Umanosuke Iida |
Right now there is a Gundam movie in production for Netflix which has a lot of fans hyped. It’s been a while since the last good mech-based movie came out in either live-action or animated form. If the film does well, then they should move on to creating a connected Gundam universe between more movies and TV shows.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team would work well as a show because it has an easy-to-understand plot, and it takes place on Earth in various jungle settings. It seems like an easy series to convert into a short, one-off season since it was just an OVA. The Gundams used in it are simple too, without a lot of flashy fights or models like in another 90s version of the franchise, Gundam Wing. It’s more of a character-based story that just so happens to have giant robots in it.
3 Neon Genesis Evangelion
A Trippy Timeloop
If Netflix doesn’t want to do more than one Gundam movie, then they should turn another 90s mech-based anime classic into a live-action drama. Neon Genesis Evangelion already has a place on Netflix since they brought it to streaming for the first time somewhat recently. They re-dubbed it as well, much to the chagrin of some fans.
Still, it was great that they struck this deal. The great thing about Neon Genesis Evangelion is sort of a spoiler, but the anime is basically a series of resets within itself. From the manga to the anime to the movies, they all conceivably take place in the same universe, albeit in reset conditions after the end of the world. A live-action version could then do whatever it wanted, as a lot of adaptations have taken wild swings in the past. One manga spinoff is kind of more about dating girls than fighting angels in giant humanoid mechs, for example.
2 Trigun
Why Am I Crying In French?
Amazon has a Fallout series coming out in 2024 based on the wildly popular video game series. Netflix could use some competition with that, and Trigun would be the anime to do it. They both fall under similar umbrellas. Fallout takes place in a desert wasteland in the future after a devastating apocalypse.
Trigun takes place on a desert planet that is slowly being terraformed by Earth civilians. The tech in the anime is very low-key, making it more of a Western than anything else. What truly had fans captured in the 90s, though, was the star, Vash the Stampede, who was very skilled with a gun. He was also charming, and funny, and did the right thing when it counted the most.
1 Yu-Gi-Oh
It’s Time To D-D-D-Duel
| Number of Episodes | 27 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | April 4, 1998 |
| Director | Hiroyuki Kakudo |
If Netflix doesn’t use the Digimon idea, then there is another monster route they could take via Yu-Gi-Oh. They already have a strong relationship with Konami thanks to four seasons of the anime based on Castlevania. Fans seem to dig that show, which may give Konami an incentive to partner on more of their properties.
A card-based anime probably didn’t sound engaging in the 90s and yet somehow Yu-Gi-Oh defied expectations. The Netflix adaptation could take the darker route that the main anime did, too. Yugi, in his possessed Egyptian form, got pretty sadistic in the early chapters of the manga, including lighting a man on fire. Now that would make for some great television.
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