The Best Live-Action Anime On Netflix

This live-action anime adaptation is comprised of 10 short episodes (all less than seven minutes) featuring Tatsu and his pet kitty Gin. It’s quite simplified from the animated version, as Tatsu never ventures outside of his house. 

Each brief Netflix episode features Tatsu completing various household tasks with precision and style. The show gives a humorous take on chores, but it can also teach you a few things along the way. 

In the original anime, The Ingenuity of the Househusband , you learn that Tatsu is a retired yet infamous and feared yakuza boss who bears the nickname “The Immortal Dragon”.

He retired from his action-packed life to stay at home and support his wife Miku as she works to pursue her own professional career outside of the house. 

In the live-action version of Bleach, Ichigo Kurosaki is a 15-year-old high school student who has the ability to see the dead. If that wasn’t enough of a burden to bear, he and his family end up being attacked by an evil entity (known as a “Hollow”). 

During the attack, a Shinigami (Death God) named Kuchiki Rukia is injured trying to protect Ichigo and his family, and she quickly transfers her powers to Ichigo to finish the battle victoriously. 

Ichigo must now fight to defend humans from evil spirits and help guide good souls to the afterlife until he builds up enough Reiyoku energy (collected from defeating “Hollows”) to transfer the Shinigami power back to Kuchiki Rukia. 

This action-packed movie compresses the broad storyline of the original anime, but Netflix creators did a fairly good job of presenting the story in an engaging and visually stimulating way. 

This Fullmetal Alchemist live-action Netflix adaptation features a pair of brothers living in a world where alchemy is a common practice. Alchemists have the power to transmute objects into anything they want, except for humans. 

The Law of Equivalent Exchange sets the precedent that whenever something is transmuted, something else must be given as a sacrifice. The two brothers, Edward and Alphonse, work to hone their powers of alchemy until they believe they have grown strong enough to break the rules and resurrect their mother. 

Unfortunately, there are no exceptions in The Law of Equivalent Exchange, and the end result leaves Al’s soul bound to a metal suit of armor and Edward with a mechanical arm and leg. 

The goal then shifts to Edward spending all of his energy on finding the Philosopher’s Stone, which is said to give the bearer infinite powers. Edward plans to use the stone to restore Alphonse’s body and finally achieve the brother’s goal of bringing their mother back to life. 

Set in the year 2071, the Netflix live-action adaptation of the original anime series Cowboy Bebop centers around a motley crew of registered “cowboys” (or bounty hunters) who work to capture criminals and bring them in for justice. 

As crime throughout the galaxy has grown uncontrollable, bounty hunters are now law-sanctioned officers, and this crew will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. They travel in a converted interplanetary fishing trawler vessel named Bebop. 

Netflix only released six episodes for the first season, and the show was not renewed for a second season, however, it’s definitely worth a watch. The actors in the series did a great job of translating the anime characters, and you’ll likely get a few laughs out of it too. 

Last, but certainly not least, Death Note was an extraordinary anime released in October of 2007.

Death Note centers around a super-intelligent high school student named Light Yagami (his last name was Turner in the movie) who stumbles across a powerful book that he soon discovers has the power to kill anyone whose name is written in its pages. 

When Light decides to take the power into his own hands, he launches his own secret crusade to rid the world of its worst criminals. However, the moral questions that arise along the way find the lead character in the sights of a famous detective who is only known simply by the letter L. 

The storyline is as intriguing and engaging as they come and is definitely worth a watch. When Netflix chose to do a live-action adaptation of the show, they may have taken on a bit more than they could chew. 

The anime is packed full of rules that are meant to regulate the power of the book, and the movie didn’t quite cover them all. Critics said that it seemed a bit rushed and too compact.

They may have been right, but it was still pretty cool for fans to have a chance to see a live-action Shinigami (Death God) on the screen.