In all honesty, I'm looking forward more to the Shin Kyoto-Hen movie that'll be on DVD in March. I realize how difficult a live action adaptation can be, so I'm not getting my hopes up too high, y'know?
Same here! Albeit, I can't seem to find the damn trailer of Shin Kyoto-Hen for some reason...
As for Live Actions, indeed, they can easily go quite wrong. However, and especially since they're
not from Hollywood, several Live Actions of various anime have been quite successful.
"Deathnote" for one thing was amazing (even though I still prefer the anime) and main characters (including Takesh Kaga) were brilliant!
Then there's "Blood, The Last Vampire", though its story seemed morphed a bit, which was an aesthetic blessing for me.
"Prince of Tennis" may not have good special effects, but my bro seemed to like the movie. Though my favourite?
"Detective Conan" ruled, and the characters were nearly spot on -- Oguri Shun suited the role of Shinichi Kudo, and the same goes for Jinnai Takanori's role of Mouri Kogoro (not to mention, Shinichi carries the same
Sherlock Holmes obsession as his anime counterpart).
And especially "Detective Academy Q" (Tantei Gakuen Q), which was fucking awesome -- agreed, the characters look nothing like their anime counterparts, and they may have been altered slightly to suit realistic settings, but the theme remains the same: baffling cases, gruesome murders, a labyrinth of mystery and intrigue just beckoning to a group of ingenious children, "Come, solve me!"
With all that's said and done, I'm certainly looking forward to the adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin.
Also, happy Noose Beers, people! Hope you get twice the presents this year by Ded Moroz!
EDIT: Here's something for Saj, or anyone fond of detective fiction.
Detective Academy Q is about a class of students training to become future professionals in criminal investigation; each student seems to have a special ability of their own, and often they need to work together to solve cases. Now here's an interesting bit: each student of Class-Q seems to be symbolic for every trait
Sherlock Holmes possesses. One example is Sherlock's eye and memory for detail and Megumi's "Photographic Memory".