As a huge fan of Akira, the hit Anime movie from 1988 and the Manga, I’m not too thrilled about the movie rights being sold to Warner Bros. A report a few years ago suggested a live action Akira film was in the pipeline, however, the director Jaume Collet-Serra walked away from the project back in 2012 for unknown reasons.

On the other hand, that’s not the end of it apparently, as Jaume Collet-Serra plans on returning to the director’s chair to begin production of the movie in 2014 for a 2015 or 2016 release if everything goes according to plan. Now, while an Akira live action film sounds like a great idea, it probably won’t be that great after the finished product due to all the major changes, of which Warner Bros. is to blame.

The main characters are not Asian like in the original setting; instead, they are of Western origins. Furthermore, despite not being Asians, they carry the original names such as Kaneda and Tetsuo, (main characters.) Strangely enough, the film would take place in “New Manhattan” and not Neo Tokyo according to the original story.

I’m not some sad little fanboy who goes around finding problems with everything, but this, this is something worth finding a problem with. To many, Akira brought Anime into the mainstream outside of Japan, you just don’t take that and turn it into utter garbage, that is downright spitting in the face of fans around the world. Always stay true to the source material as much as possible, or at least the important aspects such as the setting and character race.

Hopefully, Warner Bros. and director Jaume Collet-Serra come to their senses before they completely turn Akira into one of the biggest live action flops since The Last Airbender. Who would have thought M. Night Shyamalan could turn such a project rich in content and lore into a huge Hollywood bust? No one.

[via Coming Soon, image via MyAnimeMangaFix]