Anime and the big Samurai Series, why not so many crossovers?

[waywardsage]

I was thinking about Anime and Samurai Films and was wondering why there weren't that many cross overs of Samurai film characters being turned into Anime serials. I know that they remade Kurosawa's 7 Samurai into the excellent Samurai 7 anime, but I can't seem to remember that many others.

To think of all the badass characters that could have been turned into badass anime serials!

Lone Wolf and Cub
Yojimbo
Son of the Black Mass
Satans Sword
Shadow Hunters

And especially Zatoichi! I'm flabbergasted that there's never been an anime interpretation of him.

Thoughts?

[waywardsage]

Did nobody see my thread? Any thoughts on why there has never been a Zatoichi series?

[Yakuza954]

Well, the samurai genre has never been very well represented in anime. Rurouni Kenshin was a big hit, but everything else has had only minor success at best. Even stuff that was really big in the West, like Ninja Scroll, didn't do so hot in Japan.

The different audiences for each factor in. Chambara has traditionally been for older viewers, while animation in Japan is made mostly for kids and teenagers

If it's any consolation, Ninja Scroll's getting a sequel, but it's not because of Japanese demand for it.

[derwood]

you only have to look at the difference in representation of existing titles to see there is too wide a gap to bridge between live action & anime when it come to the chambara genre
Ninja scroll is a great example of how its best done in anime, having wild fantasy elments and ott sequences, which can be accepted via animation, but just would not work for live action
On the other hand you have the likes of Zatoichi which relies heavily on the actors emotional content delivered through facial expression, which does not translate into animation without becoming cheap. The stories also become bland and unacceptable without the added spice of the Ninja Scroll type fantasy, which, for me at least, ruins something which is perfectly fine the way it is...kind of like the remastered Star Wars 4-6 problem

my 2 cents

[waywardsage]

Samurai Champoo did an awesome job and it wasn't full of fantasy elements. Of course they'd have to have more action than a typical Zatoichi film, but I think it could work.