The first look at Ikki Tousen would indicate that it’s been made for the entertainment of adolescent males that love to look at nearly-naked anime girls and get insanely excited over their unrealistic figures and then enjoy them even more as they flex, kick, and punch in ways that the animators decide would be highly alluring. Well….yeah, it is that to be certain, but beneath the objectification there is a story if it can be divined long enough to make it shine through. The sexual nature of this anime is something that a lot of people might find appalling if it was ever brought to a live action movie since the idea of a woman’s clothes being ripped off by sheer force or by someone that’s actually doing the ripping seems to be a giant no-no these days. The idea of young warriors representing their school however would be something that might draw a lot of positive attention as it could possibly, if done right, spark an interest in those that might see it as female empowerment. After all, people are pushing for an all-female movie in the MCU, so why not start looking in other directions for female inspiration?
Using the source material would have to be a careful selection of what to incorporate and what to change. The outfits might need to change just enough so that it doesn’t become a massive, two-hour lingerie expose punctuated by a few insanely awesome fight scenes. It’s great that the animators of the show wanted to incorporate that time-honored anime style, meaning that the young women are bound to be nearly naked at some point or will somehow lose their clothing throughout the course of the show, but sensibilities being what they are these days it seems very likely that it could work if someone wanted to risk it, but the movie would flop simply because too many people would call it out for gratuitous sexuality. Yes, you can easily assume that such a thing would happen largely because in this day and age people don’t let much go when it comes to what they watch on TV or in the movies.
The story though could work since it is something that could be built off of and possibly inspire a lot of ideas that you just don’t get thanks to the need for so much exposure that usually gets a lot of time put into it. Personally I used to be one of those young individuals that liked to see the daring use of excess cleavage and the risque manner that anime affected time and time again. But while there is a lot of demand for it there’s also a lot of demand for a good story that doesn’t revolve around the female actors looking and acting like Playmates. If this was to be made into a live action movie it would need to change in a few ways. The amount of clothing used, and kept, would be one good way to insure that it was taken at least somewhat seriously, while the fighting would also be another way to get peoples’ interest and keep it.
Fans of the show would no doubt want to see everything exactly as it is, but the reality of it is that making a movie such as this would need to cater to the sensibilities of more than just the hardcore fans that want to see the source material used 100 percent. Unless Ikki Tousen has a fan base that could easily make the movie a box office hit all on their own then the effort would have to be given to create something that is both smart and sexy, classy and dirty, and definitely focus more on the story and the movie itself rather than how to position a shot at the nether regions of the young ladies. This is meant to be a live action film after all, not an adult film.
That being said, the story is something that would be easy to work with so long as no one objects to the fact that he gems the girls use are from China and the story takes place in Japan. So far it doesn’t seem to have caused that much of a stir, but you just never know what could happen along the line once a movie starts production. The cast would need to be selected carefully and with great care so as not to upset certain people that might think about causing a stink, and the story itself, well, that would be the easy part. Telling it in a voice that people would listen to would be the challenge. A lot of fans and movie buffs want to see something new, something they haven’t seen before or in a long while, and it’s rare that any movie gives this kind of experience with every minute. Ikki Tousen might be able to deliver, but it’d be interesting to see how.
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