With season two of Netflix’s live-action One Piece series right around the corner, fans have not even tried to hide their excitement at seeing the live action Straw Hats finally cross into the Grand Line.
Season two already promises to hit the ground running with locales including Loguetown, Whiskey Peak, and Drum Island as the Straw Hats have their first run-ins with Baroque Works. Ms. All Sunday, Ms. Wednesday, Mr. 3, and Mr. 5 are just a few of the assassins Monkey D. Luffy will have to contend with, along with new threats from the Navy such as Captain Smoker, and old adversaries like Buggy the Clown.
Its success also begs the question – what anime could be the next to make a successful jump to live-action?
As of 2026, One Piece remains more the exception and not the rule when it comes to the quality of live action adaptations. More often than not, they just aren’t very good. Quality has slowly been trending upward, though, but One Piece still vastly outpaced most other adaptations.
It doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of anime that are ripe for live-action and may even benefit from jumping to that medium.
Cowboy Bebop
Alright, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Yes, Netflix already took a crack at adapting the beloved space western anime to live action in 2021 and it didn’t work out. The show had some bright spots, especially when it came to the core trio of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, and Faye Valentine, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the rest of the show’s shortcomings.
It doesn’t mean the world of Cowboy Bebop isn’t worth taking another crack at.
Despite being a space western, Cowboy Bebop has a somewhat grounded aesthetic that does lend itself to live action. The world is a blend of futuristic sci-fi, modern industrial, and old west styles that allows the world to feel fantastical while still feeling believable.
The action is also more grounded compared to other anime out there. Most fights are resolved in either gun fights or intense martial arts duels which are easy enough to translate, and even the more over-the-top sequences don’t feel so out of place in live action.
Its now just a question of who is willing to take that second crack at Spike and the crew of the Bebop?
Berserk
In the realm of fantasy anime and manga, one of the longest-running and most recognized names in the genre is Berserk.
The dark fantasy series follows the journey of Guts, a mercenary raised to fight from childhood, who fought as part of a legendary mercenary group named the Band of the Falcon. Tragedy befalls the group, though, setting Guts on a path of revenge against the demonic God’s Hand and its numerous apostles.
This short description doesn’t do justice to how dark Berserk can truly get, regularly putting central characters such as Guts, his lover Casca, the tiny elf Puck, and several others through the physical and emotional ringers regularly. It isn’t shy about giving you reasons to hate the villains at the heart of Berserk’s story, especially the newest member of the God’s Hand, Femto.
A big reason a Berserk adaptation is even a possibility is because studios have been on the look out for the next “Game of Thrones” and getting it on their respective platform. As of February 2026, the closest anyone has gotten is HBO with simply more Game of Thrones-related content in House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Other series such as Amazon Prime’s Rings of Power and Netflix’s The Witcher have done well enough, but haven’t been able to command audiences’ attention the way Game of Thrones did.
Berserk, being a dark fantasy series with a style very much in-line with traditional Western dark fantasy, could easily throw its hat into the ring to take that Game of Thrones’ crown. It is violent, sexy, emotional, and everything in between that audiences look for in dark fantasy shows and films.
Gundam
Next is the proverbial-king of mecha, Gundam. It is among one of anime’s biggest and most successful franchises, in and out of the mecha genre, as it nears its 50th anniversary in 2029.
Gundam began life with the original anime Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979, set in what would become known as the Universal Century timeline. The series follows what becomes known as the One Year War, a massive conflict between the Principality of Zion and Earth Federation. The war is fought using towering mech suits, or Mobile Suits, resulting in devastating levels of destruction on Earth and across the various colonies involved in the war.
As Gundam grew, the franchise would expand with various spin-off series and timelines, though the Universal Century timeline would be the one the franchise would revisit most often.
The point is that this, alone, gives anyone trying to bring Gundam to live action plenty to pull from for a film or a show. They could dive headfirst into bringing the Universal Century to the screen or adapt any of its one-offs such as Gundam Wing or Mobile Fighter G Gundam to “test the waters” for more Gundam.
Aesthetically, as well, it is another universe that may be easier to translate to the screen.
Mecha of various forms are not new to modern film and TV screens between things like Pacific Rim and Power Rangers. There’s an argument that, compared to those examples, many of Gundam’s series are even more grounded in its designs than some Western mech properties.
Where Gundam gets significantly darker, though, is the franchise’s thematic choices. Many of the series focus on the cost of war, child soldiers, and loss of innocence via the conflict on screen. The lead character in most Gundam series is, more of than not, teens who haven’t even seen their 16th birthday. Audiences are given a view of the conflict through their eyes and see just how these destructive battles take their toll on them.
Given the state of the world in 2026, sending such a poignant message via a colorful, bombastic mecha anime live action adaptation may not be a bad idea.
Hellsing
The last one on the docket today is vampire-centric series, Hellsing.
Like Western entertainment, Japan loves to offer its takes on vampires and Dracula via anime, manga, and video games. One obvious example of this is the Castlevania franchise, which began as a massively successful video game franchise from Konami that has since been adapted into an anime series for Netflix.
And then there is something like Hellsing, which takes any sense of subtlety and throws it right out the window.
Set primarily in the United Kingdom, Hellsing follows the exploits of the Hellsing Organization, England’s top secret and premiere monster hunting group. It is led by Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, the descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, and commands the power of the organization’s most dangerous weapon and hunter, Alucard.
Formerly known as Count Dracula, he is the original and most powerful vampire in existence. He was defeated by Abraham Van Helsing and swore loyalty to his family, becoming their loyal hunter.
The two are also joined by the Sir Integra’s loyal retainer Walter C. Dornez and Seras Victoria, a policewoman who was turned into a vampire by Alucard after being attacked and mortally wounded by another vampire Alucard was hunting.
The original series follows Alucard and Hellsing as it investigates an uptick in vampire attacks across England and its neighbors, putting them at odds with the Vatican’s own secret monster hunting organization, Section XIII. Pulling the strings behind the scenes is the mysterious group Millennium, a dangerous force comprised of Nazis who survived World War 2 and are dead set on seeing Hitler’s vision of a “thousand year Reich” to fruition. Most of the organization’s soldiers have been transformed into vampires as part of this effort, led by a man known only as The Major.
As mentioned, Hellsing throws subtlety right out the window from the start. The action and dialogue is extremely straight to the point and over the top, especially when Alucard is standing across from his greatest rival in the series, Father Alexander Anderson of Section XIII.
Despite this, Hellsing’s visual design remains fairly grounded in Western modern and gothic designs befitting of European vampire lore.
The dialogue, if anything, may have to be reined in somewhat just to better fit live action mediums, otherwise Hellsing could easily find its way to film or television.
Minimum Wage Nerd 