Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards is a live action adaptation of the Masamitsu Nigatsu manga, written for the screen by Hiroyuki Yatsu. The titular Honeko (Natsuki Deguchi) has a 100 million yen bounty on her head because she is the daughter of Masahito Jingu (genre legend Ken’ichi Endo). Mr. Jingu is the head of a national security organization. He describes this organization as a Japanese version of the CIA, thus making his daughter a target to hurt him directly from the organized crime bosses he tracks down. Jingu recruits Arakuni Ibuki (Raul Murakami) to be her bodyguard behind the scenes. But what Ibuki thinks is a solitary task quickly becomes something much different when he realizes that the entire class of students they belong to also share the same responsibility as he does. And of course, Honeko is oblivious to all of this.

Adapting a manga for live action you frequently find that what works on the page with its more fantastical manga background sometimes has a hard time translating to the screen. And Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards runs into some of these problems too. There’s also some predictable notes here along the way, but with a satisfying twist at the end. There’s never any real stakes here, but what else would you expect from a source material as goofy?

The cast is fine here, but 2 performances stand out high above the rest. Hikaru Takahashi is excellent as Nei, Honeko’s best friend/close combat defender. And Alice in Borderland vet Tao Tsuchiya absolutely devours all of the scenery as the fiery half sister/rival love interest of Honeko, Masachicka. For the limited time that Tao spends on screen the audience will miss her energy for the time she is not. It’s these and a few other performances that buoy the film into a recommended watch.