The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2004
Japan's live-action Devilman spent 1B yen on a beloved manga and made half back
The adaptation of Go Nagai's Devilman cast pop-idol twins in the lead roles, cost around 1 billion yen, and grossed only about 520 million yen.
Go Nagai · 2004-11-06
What happened
Producers adapted Go Nagai's classic manga and anime Devilman into a live-action film, committing an unusually high budget for a Japanese production at around 1 billion yen, and cast twin brothers from the idol group FLAME in the lead roles rather than established dramatic actors.
The finished film used digital effects reviewers described as amateurish and constant rapid camera cuts, and departed heavily from the manga's tone. It drew some of the harshest reviews of any Japanese film of its era, with the leads' inexperience singled out repeatedly.
Devilman opened to poor turnout and closed with roughly 520 million yen in box office revenue against its 1 billion yen budget, recovering about half its cost. It has since become a fixture on Japanese lists of the worst live-action manga adaptations.
Why it happened
- Producers cast idol-group members with no acting track record in lead roles carrying a major manga adaptation's budget.
- The visual effects budget and execution didn't match the ambition of the production's overall spend.
- Nobody tested whether departing this far from the source manga's tone would alienate the built-in fanbase the budget depended on.
- The production proceeded to release despite reviews during test screenings already flagging the effects and performances.
The lesson
A famous source manga doesn't insure a budget against casting and effects choices that alienate the audience it's supposed to draw.
Aftermath
Devilman is frequently cited in Japanese media retrospectives as a cautionary example for manga adaptations, and no further live-action Devilman film followed for two decades.
Sources
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Blue Protocol: Bandai Namco's anime MMO shut down after 19 months
Toei financed a 2.5B yen film with Japan's first movie security token, and lost most of it
Hyenas: Sega cancelled its most expensive game ever, writing off ~¥14.3B
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.