One major advantage of next Naruto Live-Action Movie already exists over One Piece.
Though greater technology and larger budgets allow more to be done with live-action interpretations on popular anime, live-action adaptations of anime have earned a negative image over years. One Piece is evidence that such adaptations are successful, and Lionsgate obviously wants to match Netflix's success with its live-action Naruto film. Though little is known about the forthcoming movie or its cast, given the length of the original story, one wonders how a Naruto adaptation may go. Given that Masashi Kishimoto's manga consists of 700 chapters total, Naruto suffers a comparable problem to One Piece. One Piece is longer, but both tales will challenge on-screen adaptation. The way Naruto's films are structured leaves even less time to manage every component of the original work. One factor, nevertheless, makes the Naruto translation stand out from the Netflix series, even if its structure disadvantages it relative to One Piece.
A Live-action performance Though it will present some major difficulties adjusting the manga and Anime for the big screen, Naruto seems to be happening.
Naruto features an early on time skip early in the narrative.
One of the reasons it will be challenging to adapt the whole of Naruto or One Piece in Live-action is that the casts of both projects would surely age out of their parts. For the Naruto movie by Lionsgate, this is less of a problem. The live-action Naruto has an edge since Time Skips in both the manga and the anime somewhat early on. Though the show opens with Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke as pre-teens, the characters hardly stay that age for very long. The story leaps ahead around two and a half years following the first few arcs. The fact that the casts of both projects will inevitably age out of their roles adds part of the difficulty in adapting the whole of Naruto or One Piece in live-action.
Naruto: Shippuden opens up with the main protagonists at 15 years old, and as the narrative runs on they progressively get older. Assuming Lionsgate can reduce the first six arcs into one or two live-action films, its Naruto adaptation will naturally explain why its actors are aging. How the movies will fit everything inside their running times still begs issues. But Naruto's time jump positions it to create plausible successors. Regarding its aging ensemble, Netflix's One Piece might not be as lucky.
The Actors of One Piece Might Age Out Of Their Characters Too Fast
While Netflix's One Piece is probably going to run up challenges on this front, Lionsgate's live-action Naruto film has a built-in approach to address its Aging Cast. One Piece's cast of characters is rather older than that of Naruto, which might help to explain why the show runs for so long. Still, One Piece's live-action ensemble is young enough to someday age more conspicuously. Given how slowly Netflix releases fresh seasons of its TV shows, this may occur after just a few seasons. It will be tough to explain why Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hats appear so different with little time passing in-universe.
Should One Piece follow its 12-season schedule, this will get quite embarrassing. Although it would be fantastic to see the adaptation carried on for so long, years and years would be needed to bring this to pass. The performers will be aging in actual life in the meantime. Acting as though one is not will be shocking and could pull viewers from the narrative. Luckily, One Piece has a Time Skip considerably later, thus the show might follow Naruto's later seasons in some measure. It remains to be seen how it will manage the voids between its past visits.
Shippuden Means A Live-Action Naruto Naruto Franchise Might Expand Using The Characters
While Netflix's release schedule and One Piece's story present difficulties for its live-action adaptation, Naruto: Shippuden guarantees that Lionsgate's franchise will develop more naturally. Generally speaking, Naruto feels less stuck in time than One Piece, hence its younger actors can grow up surrounded by their roles. Naruto's cast won't be particularly older than their on-screen counterparts even if the first few arcs are adapted over two or three films. Shippuden's time jump will also cure any aging problems that arise and then let the performers and characters to develop normally once more.
This won't address the other difficulties the live-action Naruto film has, including accurately depicting the huge cast of characters from the series or fitting in all the training arcs and battles the Anime runs across. Only time will reveal whether Lionsgate also discovers answers to these problems. Whatever happens, Naruto should be set on the casting front — providing it chooses gifted performers in the proper age range to portray their characters.
