Racebending

That's a flimsy and entirely unconvincing if, and I know you know it.

My point was that it's not necessary to assure people that they too can be considered beautiful, because it's entirely possible to live a happy life without caring about your body image.

And I guess you could say I view discussin race the same way I view committing violence: sometimes other people's actions make it the lesser of two evils, but you should still be very careful about using it except to defend yourself or others.

This is way off-topic by now (and I'm afraid it was that already when I posted.)

Sure.

edited 23rd Jan '12 12:47:49 AM by BestOf

I suspect it has to do with discussing other closely related things.

Think it's salvageable?

Okay . . . so . . .

How do people feel about the Witchblade anime throwing out the modern day America setting of the Witchblade comic book in favor of futuristic Japan and replacing the white American protagonist with a completely unrelated yamato Japanese protagonist?

I don't really feel anything. There is no shortage of anime with non-Japanese settings and characters, so there is no parallel with what the American studios are doing.

I did find it a little silly that Monster used a Japanese protagonist for a story set in Europe, but then again, it did that in both the anime and the manga.

edited 23rd Jan '12 4:53:49 AM by feotakahari

And then there's Danny Glover's movie about Haitian history that's having trouble getting funding because there isn't a white viewpoint character...there's a problem all right.

Oh MAN. Danny! Set up a website for donations - I'll totally chip in :D

Witchblade has the advantage that the title object canonically transfers hosts every so often, and the only limiting factor is that they have to be women, so it popping up in Japan and attaching itself to a Japanese woman instead of in America attached to an Italian-American woman is perfectly reasonable.

With Akira, I'd be more kindly if the US producers just went whole hog with the setting change. The movie is now titled "Adonis", it takes place in Neo-Manhattan, and the cast is now just as multi-ethnic as you'd expect if you actually lived in New York City. The Kaneda character is still probably going to be a White Male Lead, but Tetsuo could be Japanese-American, the lady from the Resistance Puetro Rican, the military leader black, etc.

Take advantage of the setting change to aggressively pursue diversity in casting!

It's an unfortunate fact that appearance matters in acting, and that there can be certain appearance demands brought on by the nature of a script in addition to audience expectations of seeing attractive actors... ie, if a script is set in medieval Europe, or deals with race relations in the post Civil War south, it will matter what color an actor is for a given part.

But, as pointed out, that doesn't excuse a lack of scripts with lead or meaty parts for non-white actors comparable to their distribution in the population, or a lack of leading or meaty parts for actresses as compared to actors (As a sometime amateur actress, I notice this one a lot, and it annoys the heck out of me. Especially when the only relatively large female parts are beautiful love interests, and let's just say that at my extremely unimpressive height I don't think directors consider me for those for very long). And when race (or, again, gender) of a part doesn't matter, directors SHOULD cast the best person for the part regardless.

So where does this leave this american adaptation of Akira? I could possibly buy that there are some Japanese overtones that an American setting wouldn't replicate, but it is an American adaptation, so I would expect the points those overtones are making to be adapted in a way most americans would recognize and work with the intended audience. Secondly, it's being made (and set, probably for practicality as well as recognition) in america, and since the race of the characters doesn't matter, and a racially diverse cast could easily be explained in a big city and might even be expected, why not? Quite honestly, I wouldn't expect a Neo-Manhattan to be inhabited solely, or even mostly, by white folks.

But that's what I think, and I'm not a casting director in Hollywood, and my philosophy on art as commodity is more 'Make it good and the audience will come' than 'Hey, a big seller. Klone Time!'

Oh hey, they finally are offering a role to someone who isn't white.

As the villian.

Oh joy.

What exactly are you implying here?

Well, at least he was offered it as opposed to making a Sadistic Choice like Dev Patel did with Airbender.

Still, I really hope Gary Oldman gets the part instead. He'll at least be the best part of the movie.

edited 23rd Jan '12 1:57:37 PM by Sharysa

The Colonel isn't precisely the villain of Akira, more an antagonist. The ratlike politician, now, he's a villain.

Yeah, I wouldn't really call the character an antagonist; while he's not exactly on the main protagonist's side, he is trying to stop the Person of Mass Destruction from killing a lot of people. Though, of course, the character could become more villainous or more heroic in the adaptation.

All the people saying "Aang ain't white". This is still judging people based on skin color/race. Heck, in the cartoon, Aang is voiced... by a white kid!

It reminds me of this Troll that says "only Asians can cosplay": https://www.youtube.com/user/ProudCutePureAsian

He says only Asians can cosplay (especially anime characters) and "Westerners" can only cosplay "Western" characters.

edited 1st Feb '12 7:24:13 AM by Pipcard

If they're resetting the story in New York it should properly reflect New York. Putting it in NY then casting all Asian-Americans would be a huge shock to the suspension of disbelief of most of the audience, and wouldn't work. You'd be better off casting all blacks and latinos, as has been pointed out, but even that's not a proper reflection.

If they're planning on leaving it in Tokyo and casting all Asian-Americans, why not just present the original animated movie subtitled. That'd be the best way to retain the original's nuances anyway.

The big difference between this transplant and Avatar was that casting all Asians wouldn't have messed with suspension of disbelief. Instead, casting whites did. Appropriately, Avatar got the most stink about it for whitewashing than any movie I can think of. Had they made every Norse character in Thor black that would have caused issues with the same thing, but leaving it to just Heimdal didn't do that, and the only people who got upset weren't really worth listening to.

Even though most of the Avatar world is Asian-influenced, it does not take place in Asia. And again, Aang is voiced by a white kid.

(Please note that I am not trying to defend the movie here. Just commenting on the Racebending movement)

edited 1st Feb '12 3:56:43 PM by Pipcard

The problem is that Aang, Katara, and Sooka are some of the few white people in the movie, excepting extras and villains.

What this says is that if your non-white you are either evil or unimportant.

What if the only white people were extras/bad guys? Or only Asians were cast? (people who say "Aang ain't white" seem to imply this)

That is still discrimination in casting.

The problem is that while parts for Asian-Americans are slim, parts for white people are abundant.

There are always roles for white and most lead roles already go to whites.

The way I see it is more about the response. I mean, if someone had decided to cast Harry Potter with all Asians then there would be a huge uproar (in fact I'm pretty sure some people would be upset if they had had Americans), but when it's the other way around people try to justify it.

And then other people would call the people making the uproar butthurt fanboys/girls.

The problem with arguing "and if they had made only the unimportant people white?" is that this has not happened, is not happening and thus is a moot point. Nobody is arguing for such a thing but to suggest it as the only other thing that could happen is just plain silly.

Minorities aren't getting the parts where they should in fact be considered first for and there's an attempt at justification to allow whites in those roles. So there's only upward pressure for white actors and none for minorities.

That would be discrimination, if it ever happened. The fact that it does not happen, that it is never the white actors who are marginalized, should tell you something.