Are you ready for an entire film of live action manga?


Live-action manga would just be a film, right? Wrong. Screw dialogue or voice acting: you've got to read for this one. What we have here is Excalibur Zero, an amateur film project that spans an hour and a half over nine YouTube videos (which I can't embed for you after the jump) that tries to mimic the style of anime and manga. Their description will give you a better idea:

Remember the days of 8 bit games and awesome Japanese robot cartoons and shows? [...] Combined with a Anime look and Manga format (Japanese Comic Books), this is one film you can't take your eyes off of. When evil alien forces attack earth, three school kids must form a friendship with an intergalactic team of heroes to save earth.

While clearly it's an amateur film, and really feels like it, I have to give them credit for trying something new. Nebs, who found the video, agrees that it's an ingenious way to tackle a story. Sure, there are lots of faults, like poor framing, the bad special effects, and the speech bubbles/sound effects aren't always the prettiest.

But on the plus side, they really do manage to replicate some of the angles from manga -- stuff you'd never see in film because it would look odd. But, because of the speech bubbles, it just works. Now go, and check out the video playlist on YouTube. Let us know what you think. And remember, before you trash it, think of how much work was put into this.

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Brad Rice
Brad RiceFounder   gamer profile




Filed under... #live-action #manga #TV and Film #video


