What’s the best way to feel better about the Akira casting process? Checking out how the live action Ranma 1/2 TV special is going. Okay, okay, that’s not completely fair, but the commercial for this killed what little interest we had in it as well as any interest in revisiting the anime TV series itself anytime soon. The special is set to debut on December 9th on NTV and has been fun to watch the casting pictures come out and some of the nods. This gives us a good look at the panda, the transformations and the general look of the characters. Adapting animation into live action is hardly ever easy or seamless, and even less so with low budget Japanese TV fare. Suffice to say, this doesn’t help build a case that it can be done well.
