Anime to live action doesn't always mean a winning combination, in a lot of cases it's was complete disaster. But Space Travelers is not an ordinary live adaptation of a Japanese anime. Instead of transferring an anime into a live action movie, the movie chooses to include and make reference to the anime. But does it work well, I would say even more than I expected. Katsuyuki Motohiro has accomplished a smash hit again. After having seen Bayside Shakedown, I was fascinated by the work of this Japanese director. His movies always have a simple premise but the story turn out to be something you would have never expected. But the strongest point of Motohiro is his camera work and editing, he can turn an ordinary scenes to something very funny, dramatic, creepy or very dynamic in a very effective and imaginative way. But even if his movies are stylish, he always keep them on a level that everyone can enjoy and Space Travelers is a nice example at that. As well for the beautiful music that really enhanced the experience of the viewing, which was again produced by Akihiko Matsumoto, who also scored Bayside Shakedown.

The premise of Space Travelers is ordinary and might even look to some people a little Americanized for a Japanese movie but I am sure that you will be surprised how the story will evolve. Right from the start I was wondering if the 3 friends and the hostage will finally be able to make it or not. The only downside that I found in the story was the ending, I didn't mind the changing pace of the movie to a more serious atmosphere, but it is the kind of ending that you can interpret the way you want. Anyway, I will leave this to you because I don't want to spoil anything for you.

But what really makes Space Travelers a must see Japanese movie is the characters in the movie. At the beginning they look like your regular Japanese's characters, stereotyped and without any real ambitions. But as the movie advances you will witness the evolution of these memorable characters. The associations with the anime characters will give them life, self-confidence and make them forget that they are just regular people with simple lives. They will become and accomplish things that they would have never done before. Watching these characters changing and personalizing the anime characters was good fun and it is also a big part of the movie in the story. If you are like me and love Japanese movies for their crazy and colorful characters, you will fall in love with those in this movie. They will make you laugh and cry all along the movie. Also thanks to the great level of acting in the movie, from the leader played by Kaneshiro to the funny cops who discover the hostage situation, every character was played marvelously.

Space Travelers is in general a comedy with a lot of great laughs but also with some melodramatic moments. I'm sure that some people will find these more dramatic pieces a little cheesy but I found that they added a second level to the movie. I like to laugh during a comedy but if I don't feel anything special while watching the movie I will probably not want to watch it again and again. The first part of the movie contained most of the best jokes and the second part becomes a little more serious as the friendly gang realize that there's not a lot of options remaining to escape from the bank. The humor was very good, subtle and effective. Don't expect a crazy comedy with slapstick humor cause it is far from that style. The humor was also very international, since most of the jokes were situational; you don't need to know Japanese culture that much to really appreciate the humor of the movie. But if you already like Japanese movies, you will be able to appreciate the movie even more.

The concept of Otaku is now more common in North America, but in Japan it's still a very big thing, some might even say a problem too. I don't know if the movie had the intention to make allusion to that problem and say that it can also help some people to accomplish thing, good or bad, that they would have never done by themselves. But how Space Travelers approaches the concept of mixing anime element into a live action movie was a genius idea. I think that anime fans should also appreciate Space Travelers a lot. Who never wanted to be a cool anime character or a super hero at least one time in is life. In the movie these characters finally have this chance and they will really enjoy their short play as much as they can. If you like comedies, especially Japanese comedy, don't miss Space Travelers.