To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this movie, I didn't even expect to like it. Why is it on the list then? Because there are thing to say about it. Live action anime adaptations are usually terrible, they either deviate themselves a lot from its source material to the point is not the same thing anymore or dumb down the whole thing to the point of becoming a shadow of the original. This Kaiji adaptation did both things yet it managed to be...well, I wouldn't say good but, is not awful either. Surprisingly, where it failed is in trying to imitate the original while the changes it did worked in its favor to the most part. Here's the balance:
Cons
-The visual metaphors weren't nearly as impressive as the ones from the anime, plus they were overused to the point they lost narrative purpose and became a distraction.
-There are no themes here, sure the main focus in Kaiji were always the thrilling situations and the mind games, but there were a lot of themes treated superficially in the series, here they threw any shreds of depth to the ocean.
-The whole killer clown thing was stupid, I can't believe this is the best way they came up with to make the main character aggressive. It even works against the movie because those scenes take a lot of time if you count them all, and they are not even real most of the time, it's just the protagonist being delusional with no repercussions after that. In other words, dead time which slows the plot.
Pros
-They bothered to explain the whole killer clown thing as a serious scar from the past. This excuses the element but not its use, as I said before, it was overused and it didn't have repercussions in the story while taking a lot of screentime.
-They gave Kaiji (it's not his real name in the movie but whatever) a stronger reason to participate in the whole thing, which genuinely impressed me.
-They gave him a way closer relationship with his partner, which makes the betrayal even more powerful.
-Every character acts in a cynical and calm manner, which is an improvement from their over the top caricaturistic behavior from the series.
As you see, Animal World is a mixed bag, is a rare case where a live action anime adaptation is not complete shit, is somewhat faithful to its source material and it even introduces small improvements from the original. If it didn't have stupid clowns and a lot of dead time, it would have been good. Is a step forward in live action adaptations from anime and manga, but is also a small one. I didn't enjoy it, but it gave me hopes that someday I will find a good live action anime adaptation, besides dramas.
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My biggest disappointments in entertainment (146 tv items)
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