The first “fail” is in hair coloring and appearance of the characters. The problem with manga and anime becoming a Japanese live-action adaptation is that most of the characters have a western look to them in the manga or anime but that changes in the live-action.

Next is the writing. It seems that the writers of live-action adaptations have no understanding of what made the original manga or even the anime adaptation so popular.

Third is the acting. Some of the acting and directing for live-action adaptations is just awful.

The best live-action adaptations I’ve seen so far from Japan is the “Honey and Clover” movie and then the TV series (which has different actors). The movie’s only problem is compressing so much material into a single movie, but I felt that the writing and actors did what they could. The TV series was better because they had more time and I really got into it despite knowing the story pretty well (and the writers did make some changes but nothing that drove me spare). However in both cases, Hagu-chan is a normal, dark-haired Japanese girl (though short) whereas in the manga and anime, she’s a blonde with blue eyes.

Another good adaptation of a novel is “Shinobi: Blade Under Heart,” which adapts “Kouga Ninja Scrolls” (the anime adaptation is “Basilisk”). As expected, a movie adaptation has to cut a lot of material, but I really got into the live-action version, so much so that when FUNimation released a Blu-ray version, I bought it.

As to American live-action adaptations, it becomes a case of over domestication, poor writing, poor acting, etc. In the hands of a true fan of the original who UNDERSTANDS the original materials, an adaptation could be good. For example, I know that as a writer and executive producer of a live-action Tenchi Muyo! series, at the very least I would have very happy Tenchi fans both in the U.S. and Japan (assuming no outside interventions). I rather doubt that anyone else would have the passion and understanding of the series to make a live-action adaptation that is faithful to the source material and does it justice in a live-action format.