Again, Japan isn't that ethically diverse. For example, I doubt there's many, if any, black or white people working as police officers in Japan. Again, just a hunch.mduncan50 said:
GITS Publisher: "never imagined it would be a Japanese actress in the first place.?
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I love how I can tell right off the bat who just loves Scarlett Johansson and knows this movie will abuse the opportunity to make her get naked, and who actually has respect for the franchise.
Let me clue you in about why Scarlett Johansson as Ghost in the Shell is a failure, as an actual GITS fan:
1. Scarlett's already playing one massive nerd culture icon -- should we give every female anime/comic book part to her just because we think she'll sell? It'd be nice if, 20-30 years down the line when the famous nerd movie cast is making the rounds through the comic convention circuit collecting welfare checks, that we have more than two white women.
2. When I look at Chris Hemsworth I see Thor. When I look at Robert Downey Jr I see Iron Man. I don't see Makoto Kusanagi in Scarlett Johansson. End of story.
3. The main failure isn't Scarlett Johansson, its the concept of an American made GITS movie in the first place. You could have an entire cast of Japanese actors and not fix the problem of inherit culture whitewashing, but to sum it up it's frankly stunning that people would not be offended that a studio would change things to be more American for the public -- as if we're all racist idiots who can't handle anything that isn't wrapped up in an American flag, carried on the back of a bald eagle, singing the national anthem.
But -- the concept that Scarlett Johansson is playing Makoto just SUMS UP the problem -- the fact that we need to get a white female to play an asian character and create all different types of excuses like the model being Caucasian, and 'but the character's a cyborg', (yes. They are excuses.) is deplorable in and of itself.
4. BUT HEY, if you wanna stick to all that cute little stuff you claim is canon, I can't wait to see if you'll all still be singing praises and defenses if and when they remove the fact that Makoto is hinted/shown as being bisexual. (See: Episode 5, 8 and 20 of the first season SAC anime with her canonical female fwbs, the CANONICAL manga in which she has a virtual threesome with these women, her relationship with a man who turned at to be a terrorist in the most recent animated show, her relationship with that one guy from either section 8 or section 1, I forget, etcetc.)
5. Or the time she Sexually flirted and lied naked in the same bed with a hinted underaged male.
Let me clue you in about why Scarlett Johansson as Ghost in the Shell is a failure, as an actual GITS fan:
1. Scarlett's already playing one massive nerd culture icon -- should we give every female anime/comic book part to her just because we think she'll sell? It'd be nice if, 20-30 years down the line when the famous nerd movie cast is making the rounds through the comic convention circuit collecting welfare checks, that we have more than two white women.
2. When I look at Chris Hemsworth I see Thor. When I look at Robert Downey Jr I see Iron Man. I don't see Makoto Kusanagi in Scarlett Johansson. End of story.
3. The main failure isn't Scarlett Johansson, its the concept of an American made GITS movie in the first place. You could have an entire cast of Japanese actors and not fix the problem of inherit culture whitewashing, but to sum it up it's frankly stunning that people would not be offended that a studio would change things to be more American for the public -- as if we're all racist idiots who can't handle anything that isn't wrapped up in an American flag, carried on the back of a bald eagle, singing the national anthem.
But -- the concept that Scarlett Johansson is playing Makoto just SUMS UP the problem -- the fact that we need to get a white female to play an asian character and create all different types of excuses like the model being Caucasian, and 'but the character's a cyborg', (yes. They are excuses.) is deplorable in and of itself.
4. BUT HEY, if you wanna stick to all that cute little stuff you claim is canon, I can't wait to see if you'll all still be singing praises and defenses if and when they remove the fact that Makoto is hinted/shown as being bisexual. (See: Episode 5, 8 and 20 of the first season SAC anime with her canonical female fwbs, the CANONICAL manga in which she has a virtual threesome with these women, her relationship with a man who turned at to be a terrorist in the most recent animated show, her relationship with that one guy from either section 8 or section 1, I forget, etcetc.)
5. Or the time she Sexually flirted and lied naked in the same bed with a hinted underaged male.
Japan's population is about 97-99 percent native if I remember correctly.Casual Shinji said:
Japan's census of how many of the country's population is Japanese actually states that it is 98.5%, however you don't seem to understand what that means. "Japanese" means that they are citizens of Japan, not that they have Japanese ancestry. Your leap in logic would mean that 93% of people in the United States are white.
Considering her age of getting her complete prosthetic body, it's doubtful she has a self image of what she would look like to maintain.Casual Shinji said:
In SAC, she was moving from one body to another that was the same appearance, and in the transition... Stuff happened.
Though, in the movie, she was put into the body of a small child, since her body got destroyed.
And, in its sequel, she barely appears in physical form.
Considering post-WW4 Japan is an economic juggernaut and rising military power, only held back from being considered a world power by its security pact with the American Empire, it's become more of melting pot than it currently is.
Then, you know how his appearance makes him immediately recognizable as an immigrant, which is why he often had to seek refuge in the illegal immigrant communities and take work from underworld organizations for protection.
But does he need to be specifically Japanese for that? He could be natively from India and be recognizable as an immigrant just as well. Heck, technically he could be a white American and be considered an immigrant, since it takes place in Germany.madwarper said:
They should obviously keep him Japanese if they were to make a live-action television series, since that's what he was in the source material, but there doesn't seem to be any logical reason why they couldn't change his ethnicity and keep the plot and character motivation intact.
If they make a live-action Akira there's no logical reason why some or all of the characters can't be white and retain their Japanese names, since white people with Japanese names and who speak Japanese do exist. It's future Japan, so the nation could be more multicutural by that point, and their ethicity makes no impact on the story. So they could just as well be white. It's perfectly logical, but it still make no sense.
It could be possible, you you had asked why he couldn't have been whitewashed, and anyone that was in the know wouldn't have asked.Casual Shinji said:
And, how exactly do you plan on differentiating between a white American speaking fluent German from a white German speaking fluent German?
You do understand that Akira doesn't take place in the same world as GitS. Appleseed on the other hand...
Which welcomes another issue: I can easily believe Scarlett Johansson is actually Deunan Newt more than I can believe she's Mokoto Kusanagi. EASILY. Plus, to be honest, I'd rather see an American Appleseed then an American GITS.madwarper said: