Live action adaptation of Oshi no Ko 【推しの子】 (no spoilers)

This is a spoiler-free post about the live action adaptation of Oshi no Ko, which recently started showing on Amazon Prime Video, spanning 8 episodes that covers the manga's story up to Kana's scandal, followed by a 129-minute movie that premiered today in Japanese theatres. And of course, I got my ticket and made my way to the local cinema.

This live action adaptation follows the manga quite closely, but certain arcs and even characters were left out. Well, the manga spans 166 chapters printed in 16 volumes. The anime, at the conclusion of 2 seasons (total of 24 episodes, roughly 640 minutes because the first episode was around 90 minutes), has only adapted 80 chapters (8 volumes). The live action adaptation sought to adapt the entire story in 520 minutes (391 minutes covered by the drama series, and 129 minutes by the movie). In terms of the time available, more than half of the story would have to be cut to fit the story into the 520 minutes.

But this actually worked out in a nice way for the live action adaptation. The manga itself had several side characters and their stories that had little if any impact on the main story itself. By removing them from the adaptation, the live action adaptation has a more focused story that sticks to the main plot: revenge. By simplifying the story to just the main plot, and even simplifying the characters to what is necessary to drive the main plot, this live action adaptation manages to fully utilise the short time it has to tell the key elements of the original work, capturing the main story and presenting it in a different format without undermining the original story. This is quite an achievement, since most live action adaptations of manga works tend to fall flat. Of course, some major changes were also made, likely due to budget.

Overall, I felt that it was easy to follow the story of this live action adaptation as someone who had read the manga. For those new to the series, it can be a bit difficult, but not impossible, to understand the full story due to the story jumping around along the chronological timeline. The entire adaptation stands on its own and I would recommend it as an example of a successful live action adaptation of a manga series.

The movie's "pamphlet" can be bought at cinemas and contains interviews and such, plus an illustration "bookmark" was handed out as a gift to those who watch the movie, and it has a QR code to a video of a song.

Oh, one thing about the cast. I find it quite interesting that they chose Hara Nanoka to play Arima Kana. Arima Kana was probably modeled after Ashida Mana, and being in the same age group as her, Hara Nanoka probably contested with Ashida Mana for many roles when they were both child actors. In this sense, Hara Nanoka was the real-life version of Kurokawa Akane. I guess making Ashida Mana play Arima Kana and Hara Nanoka play Kurokawa Akane would be a bit too real for both of them as well as the audience. 😅  

Related posts:

Live action adaptation of Oshi no Ko 【推しの子】 (with spoilers)

Cells at Work! live action movie, an example of another recent successful adaptation