Wolf Children
Anime That Deserve a Live-Action Netflix Adaptation
Another Mamoru Hosoda classic, Wolf Children mixes the real trials and tribulations of being a single mother with the not-so real problems of raising werewolves. Granted, they’re a far cry from the cursed men and women portrayed in most werewolf movies, but they bring their own problems that revolve around their dual natures. Do they live in the wild as wolves or in civilization as humans? How do they cope with children’s stories portraying wolves in a negative light? These aren’t the kinds of problems we normally associate with werewolves (or stories about single mothers), but Hosoda works his magic to make these questions poignant and the characters relatable.
Wolf Children is yet another feature-length anime movie that would make a compelling live-action Netflix adaptation. It’s a family drama with a powerful message, and the supernatural elements add to the movie’s charm. Plus, werewolves are major horror icons in America, more so than they are in Japan. An adaptation of Wolf Children could add to Hosoda’s vision and tell a fresh story about raising werewolf children in a society that has grown up on stories of werewolves as bloodthirsty monsters. That’s the beauty of remakes and adaptations: they give filmmakers a chance to put a different spin on a concept, one that the original creators might never have considered.
