Top 10 Worst Anime Character Portrayals

“Dragonball Evolution” (2009)

She’s by far the most accomplished actress on this entire list, and has got some killer accolades to her name, but she’s is most certainly not Bulma. Try as she might to bring the genius engineer to life, her character in this garbage fire of a film just comes across as eye candy that’s apparently also a huge tech geek with a love for shooting things, according to all the exposition dumps, all with a distinct lack of her iconic blue hair, might we add.

“Fullmetal Alchemist” (2017)

If you’re tackling one of the quintessential masterpieces of the anime scene, at the very least try not to trip over your feet at the starting gate. Say what you will about how the Elrics were handled, the biggest offender for coming across as just plain goofy is this Homonculus. His appetites and appearance don’t inspire any kind of fear, made all the worse when they try to mesh some terrible looking CGI. A stomach turning into a gaping maw with an evil eye in the middle should never get a “meh” response, and yet that’s what everyone collectively said as they watched this blob fumble around.

“Kite” (2014)

First things first. Sam Jackson. Dude. The money cannot have been worth it. Second, wow what a colossal misstep. Kite as a character is a young girl who forces herself through the sickening world of low lives in the name of vengeance, consumed by her trauma and constantly reminding us she’s one bad day away from falling off the edge. This actress? Dull with an extra shade of dull, along with a sprinkle of gratuitous over-sexualisation just for another dig at the original. How this flick manages to do all this and yet still feel watered down is somewhat astounding.

“Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins” (1991)

And to think, this isn’t the worst live-action portrayal of Goku. Not that the star of this Taiwanese adaptation of the Dragon Ball animated film Curse of the Blood Rubies is giving us much to rant and rave about. He’s hyperactive and has a tail, that’s about it. A performance that holds just as much in common with the credibility of Dragon Ball GT. You can’t expect much for authenticity when the whole thing has a shoe-string budget, but it’s still jarring to see Goku brought to life in such a manner.

“The Guyver” (1991)

Want to know the reason why this performance pisses us off so much? Because an American version of this gory sci-fi spectacle could have worked. We had Mark Hamill, who could have easily played the main role for this schlock-fest get relegated to being the side character for no good reason. So what did we get instead? A U.S version of Shō Fukamachi who can’t act to save his life and drags the whole thing down in the process.

“Attack on Titan” (2015)

Now this was a role you didn’t want to mess up, after all this ball of rage and vengeance is the face of arguably the most popular and impactful anime in modern memory. And what did they do? Messed it up, hard. While Eren does have an immature side to him, this live-action version leaned on it so hard they turned him into such a whiner that he passed into the realm of pathetic. Combine that with a dumbass mentality, and this version is as far from the original as you can get. Give this guy one of Levi’s special beatdowns... oh wait Levi wasn’t even in the film!

“Fist of the North Star” (1995)

Upon release, this film was already dead. Atrocious acting aside, what makes this take on the Hokuto Kenshin user fail so hard is that he can’t pull off the action. The blows look goofy and cheap, to the point where the fight scenes aren’t even cheesy, just sad. You know you’ve failed as Kenshiro when the seven scars on your chest are made from unused condoms (true fact), and you deliver his iconic line with all the gravitas and badassery of a wet fart.

“Death Note” (2017)

According to director Adam Wingard, the character of Mia was meant to encompass the sociopathic qualities of Kira, acting as one half of a disturbing whole alongside Light Turner. Aka – nothing to do with Misa Amane whatsoever. This complete overhaul might sound unique on paper, but then you realise it's purely to retain Light’s sympathetic nature. So instead of a tragic victim caught in a web of obsession and manipulation, we have one crazy psycho who gets high off the thought of killing people for fun. Oh Misa Misa, you deserved so much better.

“Death Note” (2017)

Not that we can put all the blame on poor bastard, it’s just this rehashed, American version of such a beloved villain is terribly written. Instead of the intellect, hubris and slow descent into madness we have come to inspect from the God of the New World, we’re given a guy who screams a lot, makes idiotic mistakes, gets tripped up and outwitted by Mia most of the way, and yet still wins the day because the plot says so. Guess we should apologise to Near…

“Dragonball Evolution” (2009)

You all knew it was coming. In what just might be Hollywood’s biggest sin against anime, everything in this flick is pretty much the definition of anti-Dragon Ball, with this tail-less excuse for a Saiyan standing at the forefront of it all. His performance never really extends beyond generic, stale action star who just repeats the plot over and over. This would be terrible in any kind of role, but for Goku? The curious stranger from another world who trained his way into the ultimate shounen powerhouse? Yeah, fans weren’t having it. And of course, he managed to mess up the Kamehameha too!