History Main / HardToAdaptWork

* While it is very possible to build video games around most of the cast from ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'', the same cannot be said for [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Discord]]. Whether he was a player character or antagonist, it would require somehow managing to make the game challenging while winnable despite his blatant StoryBreakerPower; while lowering his power level or even taking his powers away just like in the show to create a manageable challenge defeats the whole purpose of involving TheOmnipotent on either side.

* Efforts to adapt ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' into a LiveActionAdaptation have been met with DevelopmentHell. Much like ''Dragon Ball'' or ''Evangelion'', the series is extremely expansive and full of incredible spectacle regarding its beautiful mechs making it immensely hard to do justice in live action without a massive budget and creative scope. However, after the success of ''Film/PacificRim'' "this can't be adapted" attitude towards the ''Gundam'' series has soften among fans and relatively more optimism towards announcements that Creator/LegendaryPictures and Creator/{{Netflix}} would take a stab at adapting the series.

* A ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' film has long been in DevelopmentHell, with the most recent announcement from Shigeru Miyamoto stating that a [[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2023/231108.html live-action film is in the works by Sony]]. Prior to this, there were pitches for two animated films (one by ''Imagi Animation Studios'' who did ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy'') as well as a live action Netflix series, all of which were rejected by Creator/{{Nintendo}}. In fairness to Nintendo, while a ''Zelda'' film with the scope and quality of something like ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' or a Creator/StudioGhibli film would doubtless be great, the fact that Link is usually a [[HeroicMime voiceless avatar for the player]] in the games presents a serious problem with characterization as he isn’t usually meant to a deep character with complex emotions, which results in the seeming necessity to give him a deeper personality in adaptations to make him easier to sell to the type of audiences who'd generally watch a cartoon or film. Unfortunately, much like with Samus, giving Link a personality that would be easily accepted by those familiar with the games has proven difficult. The [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda 80s cartoon]] managed to give him a solid personality, and it usually [[AdaptationalJerkass wasn’t a very nice]] [[WellExcuseMePrincess personality]]; something fans either found irking or hilarious and was a big departure from the games regardless (though it should be noted that this came out before future games personified Link the way we know). That being said, the ''Zelda'' manga adaptations have given Link a compelling personality and character drama and managed to be fairly well received, and it's also worth noting that ''Film/Legend1985'' is more or less a ''The Legend of Zelda'' movie (a forest boy saves a princess from evil incarnate with the help of a fairy) in spirit and actually helped influenced the Nintendo games themselves, so hope could yet remain for a proper film or cartoon adaptation of ''Zelda'' at some point in the future.

* A ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' film has long been in DevelopmentHell, with two animated film pitches (one by ''Imagi Animation Studios'' who did ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy'') getting rejected by Creator/{{Nintendo}} along with a live action Netflix series. In fairness to Nintendo, while a ''Zelda'' film with the scope and quality of something like ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' or a Creator/StudioGhibli film would doubtless be great, the fact that Link is usually a [[HeroicMime voiceless avatar for the player]] in the games presents a serious problem with characterization as he isn’t usually meant to a deep character with complex emotions, which results in the seeming necessity to give him a deeper personality in adaptations to make him easier to sell to the type of audiences who'd generally watch a cartoon or film. Unfortunately, much like with Samus, giving Link a personality that would be easily accepted by those familiar with the games has proven difficult. The [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda 80s cartoon]] managed to give him a solid personality, and it usually [[AdaptationalJerkass wasn’t a very nice]] [[WellExcuseMePrincess personality]]; something fans either found irking or hilarious and was a big departure from the games regardless (though it should be noted that this came out before future games personified Link the way we know). That being said, the ''Zelda'' manga adaptations have given Link a compelling personality and character drama and managed to be fairly well received, and it's also worth noting that ''Film/Legend1985'' is more or less a ''The Legend of Zelda'' movie (a forest boy saves a princess from evil incarnate with the help of a fairy) in spirit and actually helped influenced the Nintendo games themselves, so hope could yet remain for a proper film or cartoon adaptation of ''Zelda'' at some point in the future.

* Despite talks of a ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' film adaptation for years, it has remained in stasis. Scott Cawthon posted on Reddit revealing that a reason why was because many scripts for the movie were scrapped and rewritten. Most of the scrapped scripts were either because they were [=FNAF=] InNameOnly, had serious ContinuityLockout, or were not tonally appropriate for a [=FNAF=] adaptation. [=FNAF=]'s story is a lore-dense JigsawPuzzlePlot in AnachronicOrder, which also happens to be filled with MindScrew, SurrealHorror, and BlackComedy, likely playing a part. As it stands, the closest thing to a [=FNAF=] film adaptation is ''Film/WillysWonderland''. And while [[Film/FiveNightsAtFreddys2023 a direct film adaptation of the first game]] is set for release in 2023, only time will tell how well it turns out.

* While ''VideoGame/EternalFighterZero'''s other source visual novels, ''VisualNovel/{{Air}'', ''VisualNovel/{{Kanon}}'', and ''VisualNovel/OneKagayakuKisetsuE'' all have anime adaptations, ''MOON'' does not. The reason being that ''MOON'' has a plot of a hentai and is so dark, disgusting, and graphic that no studio will ever risk making an anime adaptation.

** The [[Anime/Berserk1997 90s anime]] and ''[[Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc Golden Age]]'' film trilogy, despite being extremely violent (particularly the latter), still censor a lot of the more explicit [[{{Gorn}} violence]], sex, and rape scenes, either toning them down or omitting them outright to make the series suitable for broadcast. A completely faithful adaptation of ''Berserk'' would likely demand an NC-17 rating (The third film in the ''Golden Age'' trilogy, where the Eclipse goes down and the ugliest stuff in the Golden Age Arc happens, even has an unrated version shown during midnight screenings). The manga itself ran on a seinen magazine, which gave it fewer restrictions for its content and subject matter. It's worth noting that the series has many scenes that, even by manga standards, are outright explicitly pornographic, with incredibly detailed onscreen penetration and all sorts of sexual deviancy.

* The works of Creator/JunjiIto heavily rely on [[PageTurnSurprise the nature of print media]] to build suspense leading to {{Jump Scare}}s and intricately detailed artwork depicting BodyHorror, both of which are difficult to translate to the screen without resulting in {{Narm}}, SpecialEffectFailure, and NightmareRetardant. While Ito's works have seen multiple live-action and anime adaptations, none of them are highly regarded by Ito fans.

* The works of Creator/JunjiIto heavily rely on [[PageTurnSurprise the nature of print media]] to build suspense leading to {{Jump Scare}}s and intricately detailed artwork depicting BodyHorror, both of which are difficult to translate to the screen without resulting in {{Narm}}, SpecialEffectFailure, and NightmareRetardant. While Ito's works have seen multiple live-action and anime adaptations, none of them are highly regarded by Ito fans. Averted with the 2023 ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'' anime series which to joyful surprise and great disbelief managed to [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qRrqvjjKlOs nigh-perfectly produce Ito’s style into animation]], though it took a large budget and painstaking attention to detail towards the manga to pull it off.

* Despite a devoted fanbase, resonant themes, and the potential for gorgeous visuals, a faithful adaptation of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' to a non-interactive medium would be exceedingly difficult. The story is intimately tied to video game mechanics as SaveScumming is a recognized in-universe phenomenon. The StoryBranching also poses a problem since an adaptation would necessarily excise important material included in the branches that aren't adapted. Most pointedly though, much of the emotional torque of the original game relies on the PlayerPunch to end all player punches, which would be difficult to pull off in a non-interactive medium where the audience is not responsible for the actions of the characters: [[spoiler: the entire game is a Deconstruction of the SociopathicHero tendencies of many [[RolePlayingGame Role-Playing Games]], a genre in which executing enemies in combat is expected an unremarkable, while in [[StealthPun another medium]] it would be harder for the audience to sympathize with Frisk slaughtering RandomEncounters, if the creators wanted to adapt the Genocide Route]].

* A ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' film has long been in DevelopmentHell, with two animated film pitches (one by ''Imagi Animation Studios'' who did ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy'') getting rejected by Creator/{{Nintendo}} along with a live action Netflix series. In fairness to Nintendo, while a ''Zelda'' film with the scope and quality of something like ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' or a Creator/StudioGhibli film would doubtless be great, the fact that Link is usually a [[HeroicMime voiceless avatar for the player]] in the games presents a serious problem with characterization as he isn’t usually meant to a deep character with complex emotions, which results in the seeming necessity to give him a deeper personality in adaptations to make him easier to sell to the type of audiences who'd generally watch a cartoon or film. Unfortunately, much like with Samus, giving Link a personality that would be easily accepted by those familiar with the games has proven difficult. The [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda 80s cartoon]] managed to give him a solid personality, and it [[AdaptationalJerkass wasn’t a very nice]] [[WellExcuseMePrincess personality]]; something fans either found irking or hilarious and was a big departure from the games regardless. That being said, the ''Zelda'' manga adaptations have given Link a compelling personality and character drama and managed to be fairly well received, and it's also worth noting that ''Film/Legend1985'' is more or less a ''The Legend of Zelda'' movie (a forest boy saves a princess from evil incarnate with the help of a fairy) in spirit and actually helped influenced the Nintendo games themselves, so hope could yet remain for a proper film or cartoon adaptation of ''Zelda'' at some point in the future.

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' has long since proved that it can be adapted effectively into animation, both 2D and 3D, being one of the most universally popular animes of all time. When it comes to a LiveActionAdaptation, however, it's [[Film/DragonBallFightForVictorySonGoku proved]] [[Film/DragonBallTheMagicBegins three]] [[Film/DragonBallEvolution times]] to be phenomenally difficult, if not ''nigh impossible'' to adapt into live action without serious SpecialEffectsFailure or, in the case of ''Dragon Ball Evolution'', ending up as InNameOnly to the source material. The main difficulties is that the world of ''Dragon Ball'' is a '''massive''' [[AnachronismStew anachronism packed]] FantasyKitchenSink with a futuristic setting, dinosaurs, talking animal characters, robots, aliens, and multiple superpowered-martial artist characters who can fly around destroying mountains and planets, shoot beams from their hands, and also travel to other worlds up to and including ''the afterlife''. To remotely do the series justice in live action, the budget would have to be around the level of the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' or ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' with fight choreography on the level of ''Film/IpMan'' and most {{Wuxia}} films, but few film companies are willing to go that length. Whilst there's been no attempts to adapt the series of late, films like ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions'' and ''Film/ManOfSteel'' do pay homage to ''Dragon Ball'' with their high-flying fight scenes and ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'' can be seen as a SpiritualAdaptation to the point of a direct ShoutOut.

* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' has gotten AdaptationOverdosed, but unfortunately only a handful of works (such as the comics, manga, CG films, books and a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcDjo_uKeF4&ab_channel=ResidenceofEvil commercial]]) are actually accurate to the games, while everything else like the [[LiveActionAdaptation live action adaptations]] take a [[InNameOnly notoriously loose approach]] to the games’ canon. The first hurdle producers reach is that RE’s story, much like ''VideoGame/MetalGear'', is quite impenetrable with a plot somewhere between ''Series/TheXFiles'' and ''Franchise/GIJoe'' and thus creators find it much easier to just take elements from the games (like the zombies, monsters and the Umbrella corporation) and make a new story with a CanonForeigner hero, as was the case with the Creator/PaulWSAnderson ''Film/ResidentEvilFilmSeries'' and ''Series/ResidentEvil2022''. If characters from the game do show up, they’re DemotedToExtra, unrecognisable, or killed off as characters in horror media generally aren’t expected to live long. ''Film/ResidentEvilWelcomeToRaccoonCity'' does at least attempt to adapt the games, but like the ''Silent Hill'' films make crucial changes to the characters and the story. In particular, it mashes the plots of the first and second games together, which are better suited separate, as cuts into the pacing and leaves multiple characters without room to grow. Tragically, the father of zombies Creator/GeorgeARomero pitched a movie script for '' [=RE1=]'' that was fairly faithful (besides Chris not being a S.T.A.R.S member and Barry being black) but it got rejected by Creator/{{Capcom}}.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s Slim Shady mythology has had multiple attempts to adapt it, including an AnimatedShockComedy that he played episodes of before his tour dates in 2001, but all have either fallen through or faced severely negative critical response. Part of this is because most of the songs featuring Shady are just stream-of-consciousness punchlines about him doing ChaoticStupid things, making the character useless for coherent storytelling, especially without the humour of Eminem's {{Inherently Funny Word}}s, [[LeastRhymeableWord bizarre rhymes]] and [[ARareSentence unexpected turns of phrase]]. The other part of it is that the content of Eminem's lyrics is too disgusting to tolerate in non-audio formats. When Interscope wanted to make an Eminem movie in the early 2000s, Eminem's initial plan was to make a BloodyHilarious, controversy-baiting shock comedy, but Eminem's label saw the movie as [[AudienceAlienatingPremise unwatchable grossout]], and instead had Eminem take an AutobiographicalRole in a serious, gritty drama movie. (And even there, the eventual ''Film/EightMile'' had its shock comedy content excised from the original script, in which Eminem's character was shown to go into an AnimatedShockComedy IndulgentFantasySegue when he wrote his rhymes.)

** One of the biggest issue with adapting the games is the scale of the ZombieApocalypse. In the games thanks to the heroes and the government, outbreaks never actually escalate beyond a city or country and after a while zombies themselves get shifted out for other exotic bio-horrors. ''Film/ResidentEvilFilmSeries'' and ''Series/ResidentEvil2022'', however, simply can't resist using the popular and standard AfterTheEnd zombie setting that most audiences are used to -- which, while serving the threat well, ultimately makes the efforts of the protagonists for nought, the exact opposite of what occurs in the games. Zombies themselves are also so popular that the live action adaptations only make half-hearted attempts to include other monsters from games.

* Creator/CirqueDuSoleil has successfully recorded many of its shows (which usually feature {{Excuse Plot}}s at best) for the TV/video market, but attempts to adapt them -- or at least their acts -- into narrative media have by and large failed. The [=IMAX=] UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie ShortFilm ''Journey of Man'' worked due to its deliberately episodic "stages of life" plot, brief length, and the shows being excerpted having similar aesthetics to each other. By comparison, the dramatic film built around ''Theatre/{{Alegria}}'' was too dark for children and too odd for adults, the VarietyShow / ThematicSeries hybrid ''Solstrom'' came off as a hard-to-market WidgetSeries for non-fans and a butchering of the original shows for fans, and ''Film/CirqueDuSoleilWorldsAway'''s loose stringing of vignettes lifted directly from actual Las Vegas shows upon an original [[TheEveryman Everywoman's]] quest resulted in an aimless story and odd tonal shifts due to the shows' clashing visual and aural aesthetics.

* ''Franchise/OnePiece'' is a manga known for many things, all of which are difficult to adapt into a live-action medium: its inherently outlandish and unrealistic character designs and locations; the surreal supernatural abilities, including the main character's RubberMan abilities; its carefully balance between comedic slapstick humor and serious and [[{{Tearjerker}} tearjerking]] drama; its [[{{Foreshadowing}} keen attention]] [[TheProducerThinksOfEverything to detail]], with even minor characters and ideas from early in the story coming back in full force many chapters later; and finally [[LongRunners its sheer length]], as both the manga and anime have over ''1000'' chapters/episodes (and counting) of material to adapt. The series also saw difficulty gaining a large audience in North America; while the manga is the best selling comic book of all time, especially in Japan, the manga and its anime adaptation enjoyed a smaller audience, which is commonly blamed on its [[{{Macekre}} poor English dub]] by Creator/FourKidsEntertainment and its more cartoony art style compared to other anime like ''Franchise/DragonBall'' and ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}''. ''One Piece'' only saw live-action plays before Netflix took up the task of creating a [[Series/OnePiece2023 live-action adaptation]], with the task of making the franchise more appealing to western audiences. To avoid the pitfalls of this trope that have plagued other live-action adaptations from Netflix like ''Series/CowboyBebop2021'' and ''Film/DeathNote2017'', the series creator Creator/EiichiroOda made it his business to get personally involved in the production, taking regular breaks away from producing the manga to [[CreatorChosenCasting choose the cast himself]] and ensure that the changes made by the creative team met his expectations, something he noted proved frustrating and difficult. The series began production in 2017 [[ExtremelyLengthyCreation and released its first season in 2023]], having some of the highest budgets-per-episode for a Netflix adaptation, but despite all odds, ''Series/OnePiece2023'' was met with a surprisingly warm critical and audience reception, who praise it for keeping the heart and spirit of the story while making meaningful and non-obtrusive changes.

* Despite talks of a ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' film adaptation for years, it has remained in stasis. Scott Cawthon posted on Reddit revealing that a reason why was because many scripts for the movie were scrapped and rewritten. Most of the scrapped scripts were either because they were [=FNAF=] InNameOnly, had serious ContinuityLockout, or were not tonally appropriate for a [=FNAF=] adaptation. [=FNAF=]'s story is a lore-dense JigsawPuzzlePlot in AnachronicOrder, which also happens to be filled with MindScrew, SurrealHorror, and BlackComedy, likely playing a part. As it stands, the closest thing to a [=FNAF=] film adaptation is ''Film/WillysWonderland''. And while a direct film adaptation of the first game is set for release in 2023, only time will tell how well it turns out.

* ''Franchise/OnePiece'' is a manga known for many things, all of which are difficult to adapt into a live-action medium: its inherently outlandish and unrealistic character designs and locations; the surreal supernatural abilities, including the main character's RubberMan abilities; its carefully balance between comedic slapstick humor and serious and [[{{Tearjerker}} tearjerking]] drama; its [[{{Foreshadowing}} keen attention]] [[TheProducerThinksOfEverything to detail]], with even minor characters and ideas from early in the story coming back in full force many chapters later; and finally [[LongRunners its sheer length]], as both the manga and anime have over ''1000'' chapters/episodes (and counting) of material to adapt. The series also saw difficulty gaining a large audience in North America; while the manga is the best selling comic book of all time, especially in Japan, the manga and its anime adaptation enjoyed a smaller audience, which is commonly blamed on its [[{{Macekre}} poor English dub]] by Creator/FourKidsEntertainment and its more cartoony art style compared to other anime like ''Franchise/DragonBall'' and ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}''. ''One Piece'' only saw live-action plays before Netflix took up the task of creating a [[Series/OnePiece2023 live-action adaptation]], with the task of making the franchise more appealing to western audiences. To avoid the pitfalls of this trope that have plagued other live-action adaptations from Netflix like ''Series/CowboyBebop2021'' and ''Film/DeathNote2017'', the series creator Creator/EiichiroOda made it his business to get personally involved in the production, taking regular breaks away from producing the manga to [[CreatorChosenCasting choose the cast himself]] and ensure that the changes made by the creative team met his expectations, something he noted proved frustrating and difficult. The series began production in 2017 [[ExtremelyLengthyCreation and released its first season in 2023]], having some of the highest budgets-per-episode for a Netflix adaptation, but despite all odds, ''One Piece'' was met with a surprisingly warm critical and audience reception, who praise it for keeping the heart and spirit of the story while making meaningful and non-obtrusive changes.

* There's been two [[Film/StreetFighterTheMovie cinematic live-action]] [[Film/StreetFighterTheLegendOfChunLi attempts]] at ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' and in contrast to ''Film/MortalKombatTheMovie'', neither were particularly accurate to/as liked as the games (though most people will agree Creator/RaulJulia's HamAndCheese as M. Bison alone makes the 1994 movie worth watching). The main trouble is that the story of the games doesn't usually lend itself to a traditional movie structure, being a global TournamentArc with a metric butt ton of characters, and narrowing that down to just beating Bison and Shadaloo as the films do leaves a good many fan favourite fighters by the way-side. Also the cast of the games are iconic and beloved for their anime-inspired designs and flashy fighting moves, which if not given proper justice or commitment to on screen can be [[SpecialEffectsFailure disastrous]], as ''The Legend of Chun-Li'' shows extensively. Another issue is that Ryu, the actual protagonist of the games, doesn't tend to have much in-story stakes besides being a wandering fighter whose sole motivation is fighting stronger opponents and improving his own martial arts talents, as opposed to beating the BigBad Bison to avenge a loved one or an ally. Which may be why the films swap him out as TheHero for Guile and Chun-Li respectively (though it might just be a case of MightyWhitey in the former). Not to say it's been impossible to have a more accurate live-action adaptation, ''WebVideo/StreetFighterAssassinsFist'' is very faithful to the games and well-reviewed despite its lower budget struggling with the ki effects and Akuma's design. ''Series/CobraKai'' is also considered a SpiritualAdaptation of ''Street Fighter'' by some fans.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' for very similar reasons to ''Street Fighter'' proved to be quite a [[Film/{{Tekken}} mess]] when adapted into live action, as it's mainly about a fighting tournament with numerous characters. In fact, one of the main reasons why the games are so liked in the first place is because there's many characters each with their own unique backstory, distinct personality and character arc. Not to mention that it's the kind of fighting game series where a bear and dinosaur with boxing gloves can be part of the roster. But trying to make such a story work in an hour and 27 minutes, unsurprisingly has been a fiasco. The 2010 live-action film similar to ''The Legend of Chun-Li'' tries to take a grounded DarkerAndEdgier tone, which jars greatly with the tone of the games and turns the story into more of a generic gritty martial arts film. The animated adaptations have been better received, especially the more recent ''Anime/TekkenBloodline'' series which got appreciation for giving genuine depth to characters such as Jin. Though like the previous anime adaptations, the de-emphasizing of particular fighters in favour of solely focusing on the Mishima plotline was bemoaned, given the serial-based narrative could allowed enough room for it.

** Another issue, which goes for most [[ShonenDemographic Shōnen]] live action adaptations, is that ''Dragon Ball'' is known and loved for its SugarWiki/AwesomeArt especially when it comes to its characters and fight scenes. Translating it into a medium like live action is very difficult, even when it's as faithful as possible. For example ''[=JoJo's=] Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable Chapter I'', ''Film/FullmetalAlchemist2017'' and ''[[Film/{{Bleach}} Bleach (2018)]]'' all got drummings for struggling to capture the look and feel of their source materials and ended up visually closer to just {{cosplay}}. This is also why a good amount of fans were anxious about the [[Series/OnePiece2023 live-action adaptation]] of ''Manga/OnePiece'', as its zany art style is in many respects ''even harder'' to replicate in live action than ''Dragon Ball'' or ''Bleach''. Fortunately, the series's vast amount of care, attention to detail, and smart adaptation of various elements has proven that it not only ''could'' be done, but it could be done well.

* ''Franchise/OnePiece'' is a manga known for many things, all of which are difficult to adapt into a live-action medium: its inherently outlandish and unrealistic character designs and locations; the surreal supernatural abilities, including the main character's RubberMan abilities; its carefully balance between comedic slapstick humor and serious and [[{{Tearjerker}} tearjerking]] drama; its [[{{Foreshadowing}} keen attention]] [[TheProducerThinksOfEverything to detail]], with even minor characters and ideas from early in the story coming back in full force many chapters later; and finally its sheer length, as both the manga and anime have over ''1000'' chapters/episodes of material to adapt. The series also saw difficulty gaining a large audience in North America; while the manga is the best selling comic book of all time, especially in Japan, the manga and its anime adaptation enjoyed a smaller audience, which is commonly blamed on its [[{{Macekre}} poor English dub]] by Creator/FourKidsEntertainment and its more cartoony art style compared to other anime like ''Franchise/DragonBall'' and ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}''. ''One Piece'' only saw live-action plays before Netflix took up the task of creating a [[Series/OnePiece2023 live-action adaptation]], with the task of making the franchise more appealing to western audiences. To avoid the pitfalls of this trope that have plagued other live-action adaptations from Netflix like ''Series/CowboyBebop2021'' and ''Film/DeathNote2017'', the series creator Creator/EiichiroOda made it his business to get personally involved in the production, taking regular breaks away from producing the manga to [[CreatorChosenCasting choose the cast himself]] and ensure that the changes made by the creative team met his expectations, something he noted proved frustrating and difficult. The series began production in 2017 [[ExtremelyLengthyCreation and released its first season in 2023]], having some of the highest budgets-per-episode for a Netflix adaptation, but despite all odds, ''One Piece'' was met with a surprisingly warm critical and audience reception, who praise it for keeping the heart and spirit of the story while making meaningful and non-obtrusive changes.

* ''Franchise/OnePiece'' is a manga known for many things, all of which are difficult to adapt into a live-action medium: its inherently outlandish and unrealistic character designs and locations; the surreal supernatural abilities, including the main character's RubberMan abilities; its carefully balance between comedic slapstick humor and serious and [[{{Tearjerker}} tearjerking]] drama; its [[{{Foreshadowing}} keen attention]] [[TheProducerThinksOfEverything to detail]], with even minor characters and ideas from early in the story coming back in full force many chapters later; and finally its sheer length, as both the manga and anime have over ''1000'' chapters/episodes of material to adapt. The series also saw difficulty gaining a large audience in North America; while the manga is the best selling comic book of all time, especially in Japan, the manga and its anime adaptation enjoyed a smaller audience, which is commonly blamed on its [[{{Macekre}} poor English dub]] by Creator/FourKidsEntertainment and its more cartoony art style compared to other anime like ''Franchise/DragonBall'' and ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}''. ''One Piece'' only saw live-action plays before Netflix took up the task of creating a [[Series/OnePiece2023 live-action adaptation]], with the task of making the franchise more appealing to western audiences. To avoid the pitfalls of this trope that have plagued other live-action adaptations from Netflix like ''Series/CowboyBebop2021'' and ''Film/DeathNote2017'', the series creator Creator/EiichiroOda made it his business to get personally involved in the production, taking regular breaks away from producing the manga to [[CreatorChosenCasting choose the cast himself]] and ensure that the changes made by the creative team met his expectations, something he noted proved frustrating and difficult. The series began production in 2017 [[ExtremelyLengthyCreation and released its first season in 2023]] and maintained one of the highest budgets for a Netflix adaptation, but despite all odds, ''One Piece'' was met with a surprisingly warm critical and audience reception, who praise it for keeping the heart and spirit of the story while making non-obtrusive changes.

* ''Franchise/AttackOnTitan'' has seen great success in anime and video game adaptations. However, bringing the Titans to live action has proven to be difficult. The story is long and takes its time building the world and lore of that ultimately drive the OntologicalMystery of the series. Almost every character has lengthy backstories that often tie into other characters which helps explain their motivations and goals. Finally, the titular Titans are massive [[Main/HumanoidAbomination humanoid abominations]] that leave lots of destruction in their wake. Fights against them involve lots of swinging with the omni-directional mobility gear like Spider-Man or Titan vs. Titan battles akin to Main/{{Kaiju}} works. To bring the Titans convincingly to live action would need an equally titanic budget. All of these issues have led to the series having a hard time coming to a live action medium:

* Projects with character designs by Creator/YoshitakaAmano tend to struggle with adaptation to animation, due to his designs being [[DesignStudentsOrgasm wispy, wavery watercolor paintings crowded with detail]], depicting [[OnlySixFaces very similar-looking characters]] in [[CostumePorn very complicated and ornate outfits]]--all things that do not translate well to animation. This means that Amano projects tend to need either the high budget and short runtime of an OVA or film (''Anime/AngelsEgg'', which still ends up looking very strange in motion) or a significant redesign to the point of looking little like his original work (''Literature/TheHeroicLegendOfArslan'', where the anime is based on the retooled manga adaptation by Creator/HiromuArakawa). This is even somewhat evident with his ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' work, where the protagonists of the first six games [[ArtworkAndGameGraphicsSegregation barely resemble their Amano-made character designs]] (though the monsters, being static sprites, were much easier to manage).

** Another issue, which goes for most [[ShonenDemographic Shōnen]] live action adaptations, is that ''Dragon Ball'' is known and loved for its SugarWiki/AwesomeArt especially when it comes to its characters and fight scenes. Translating it into a medium like live action is very difficult, even when it's as faithful as possible. For example ''[=JoJo's=] Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable Chapter I'', ''Film/FullmetalAlchemist2017'' and ''[[Film/{{Bleach}} Bleach (2018)]]'' all got drummings for struggling to capture the look and feel of their source materials and ended up visually closer to just {{cosplay}}.
** This also why a good amount of fans were anxious about the Creator/{{Netflix}} adaptation of ''Manga/OnePiece'', as its zany art style is in many respects ''even harder'' to replicate in live action than ''Dragon Ball'' or ''Bleach''. Fortunately, the series's vast amount of care, attention to detail, and smart adaptation of various elements has proven that it not only ''could'' be done, but it could be done well.

** Another issue, which goes for most [[ShonenDemographic Shōnen]] live action adaptations, is that ''Dragon Ball'' is known and loved for its SugarWiki/AwesomeArt especially when it comes to its characters and fight scenes. Translating it into a medium like live action is very difficult, even when it's as faithful as possible. For example ''[=JoJo's=] Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable Chapter I'', ''Film/FullmetalAlchemist2017'' and ''[[Film/{{Bleach}} Bleach (2018)]]'' all got drummings for struggling to capture the look and feel of their source materials and ended up visually closer to just {{cosplay}}. This also why a good amount of fans are anxious about the Creator/{{Netflix}} adaptation of ''Manga/OnePiece'', as its zany art style is in many respects ''even harder'' to replicate in live action than ''Dragon Ball'' or ''Bleach''.

** Prior to the announcement of ''Power Rangers Cosmic Fury,'' producer Simon Bennett stated this was why the source series, ''Series/UchuuSentaiKyuranger'', would not be given an adaptation. The show features a full team of ''twelve'' Rangers, which is a logistical nightmare in terms of giving them all proper character development over a single season. ''Cosmic Fury'' took a third option with the show adapting the ''Kyuranger'' mecha footage and having the team from ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'' in new suits.