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INTEREST: Star Trek Actor Petitions Against Akira 'Whitewashing'

Meanwhile, Japan seemingly releases new (mostly) non-canon One Piece movies, Conan movies, Pokemon, Precure, etc. every year for like 10 straight years, so those are kinda reboots. Confused

Can anyone say The Last Airbender? Seriously Shyamalan did the same thing with Avatar: The Last Airbender by whitewashing it's characters and everyone (unfortunately) has seen the result. Please do not decimate the classic of Akira!

And to those dissing the Speed Racer movie - STFU. If you think it's a crappy movie what the heck were you expecting from a movie based off Speed Racer?

Of course, from the perspective of actual Asians (most of whom hate each other) rather than the happily undifferentiated “Asian” Americans, the prospect of seeing a bunch of Chinese and Korean actors play faux-Japanese in a Hollywood production may be even less appealing than seeing a bunch of big-name Caucasian actors in any case…

Or you are in fact a fan of animation and simply don't care about such things as "american animation," "anime," or "show aimed at girls". All you're doing is simply claiming that anime blows american animation out of the water without explaining why. There are some talented people working in anime, but the same is true for American animation, Greg Weisman has proven himself to be a genius many times over, and Lauren Faust has shown that she wants to make the best program she can, and doesn't care what anyone thinks.

There's only been a few TMNT series all-time, and certainly not a new one every other year. The latest ones are really just continuations of the TMNT 2k3 version anyways.

As for Batman or Superman or Justice League animation etc., there's no "original versions" of them in the first place. Goodness knows there's so many versions of the comics. There's really no original to follow - it's just the nature of the franchise to have different versions; they're not reboots.

Meanwhile, Japan seemingly releases new (mostly) non-canon One Piece movies, Conan movies, Pokemon, Precure, etc. every year for like 10 straight years, so those are kinda reboots.

And to those dissing the Speed Racer movie - STFU. If you think it's a crappy movie what the heck were you expecting from a movie based off Speed Racer? I've never seen a movie try to be as much of a live action anime as Speed Racer was, and I love it for it. Sure the main cast was Caucasian, but John Goodman WAS Pops, Japanese or not.

Charred Knight wrote:

Or you are in fact a fan of animation and simply don't care about such things as "american animation," "anime," or "show aimed at girls". All you're doing is simply claiming that anime blows american animation out of the water without explaining why. There are some talented people working in anime, but the same is true for American animation, Greg Weisman has proven himself to be a genius many times over, and Lauren Faust has shown that she wants to make the best program she can, and doesn't care what anyone thinks.

That's what I mean. It's fine to say you're an animation fan. I am too. I just feel America hasn't made anything worth seeing in years (in terms of television animation). Looking at what some people do say they like, it just seems they're lowering their standards just for the ability to say they like shows from many countries in some attempt to look 'indie' or 'cultured'.

Why do I like anime more? It should be obvious, they have better variety and writing and are more prepared to anime things America would never even dream of.

I have no problem liking shows from other countries (Beast Wars was awesome) but I'm not going to lower my standards to say the stuff on CN or Nick these days is actually quality work.

As for those two people Weisman is really.. bad. It's become more and more obvious over the years; he reuses the same character archetypes in every show and he had terrible pacing problems, and he never gives his shows endings

Lauren Faust, well, her resume is terrible, but she only made one show, not sure why you're listing her.

enurtsol wrote:

There's only been a few TMNT series all-time, and certainly not a new one every other year. The latest ones are really just continuations of the TMNT 2k3 version anyways.

Nickelodeon is also making a new one this year.

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As for Batman or Superman or Justice League animation etc., there's no "original versions" of them in the first place. Goodness knows there's so many versions of the comics. There's really no original to follow - it's just the nature of the franchise to have different versions; they're not reboots.

That's my point, they'll milk the Batman character for 50+ years in dozens of cartoons and live-action movies. I'd say they're reboots since they're almost always the same thing of 'Batman fighting Joker, Penguin, etc'). Spider-Man's getting a reboot movie series, Hulk got one, apparently Daredevil will get one as well pretty soon. Is it really that hard to end the Batman franchise with Nolan's movies? Or just make one Batman cartoon?

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Meanwhile, Japan seemingly releases new (mostly) non-canon One Piece movies, Conan movies, Pokemon, Precure, etc. every year for like 10 straight years, so those are kinda reboots.

They're not reboots, they're just movies, set in the universe of the show as an extension with bigger budgets,

Traditional animation is kind of dead in theaters through,

littlegreenwolf wrote:

And to those dissing the Speed Racer movie - STFU. If you think it's a crappy movie what the heck were you expecting from a movie based off Speed Racer? I've never seen a movie try to be as much of a live action anime as Speed Racer was, and I love it for it. Sure the main cast was Caucasian, but John Goodman WAS Pops, Japanese or not.

Speed Racer is solidified in American pop culture as a fast talking poorly dubbed cartoon.. now, how about Mach Go Go?

If you think it's a crappy movie what the heck were you expecting from a movie based off Speed Racer?

To me there is nothing more ironic than an anime fan claiming all American television animation is crap while at the same time supporting an industry where the majority of stuff their air on television is completely and utterly forgettable – reused and recycled - not to mention sexist - crap.

What could have a live action movie based on such a property have done better?

What we got totally bombed in theaters, but I highly doubt we could have gotten anything better.

Everyone works within some constraints. It's what you do within those constraints that makes it great. For instance, anime could never do a proper current social satire to save its life. You won't see the talents the likes of Colbert Report there.

90% of anything is crap; it's just that that 90% is different to different people. But if you don't watch enough of anything, it'll be harder to find that 10%.

Weisman also directed the 2nd season of W.I.T.C.H., which is the best shoujo series that was on American TV in the last several years.

Not really a fan of Faust, but she was the main one responsible for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and that's pretty good.

Some of them are kinda reboots because some re-tell similar stories in the TV series but as alternate storylines. Think of the movies as a 3-episode season bunched together.

(BTW, anime still can't do proper 3D animation. They can't do in 3D animation what they can do very well in traditional animation. The talent is still not there yet.)

To me there is nothing more ironic than an anime fan claiming all American television animation is crap while at the same time supporting an industry where the majority of stuff their air on television is completely and utterly forgettable – reused and recycled - not to mention sexist - crap.

I also can’t help but find the criticism of American animation using common archetypes pure hilarity when Japan is equally as guilty in using them. You know why? They’re a universal story tool – and the more you look at any character in any type of story – the easier it is to link them to an archetype.

And to suggest on pure assumption that original Japanese Speed Racer animation – I’m sorry, I should call it Mach Go Go because they’re two completely different entities like Robotech is to Macross (they aren’t – the only real edit was toning down some violence) was superior in everything from story to character development, to even setting because it wasn’t dubbed by Americans - this suggestion is obviously coming from some misinformed elitist instinct.

...given Akira is a social reflection of Japan's disaffected youth during the 80s, specifically the effects that a military-industrial complex had. Plus the obvious allegories to the Hiroshima bombings and Japan's overall economical trouble in a post-war environment. Then you have more straightforward stuff like Grave of the Fireflies. For people saying 'Akira is very Western and loses nothing by being set in America' they should probably take a look at those two themes. America never had a couple nukes dropped on them. I'll keep my own thoughts on Colbert to myself, though the Colbert Report isn't animated, so it's not really applicable here.

I can agree with this much. Adapting Akira, but changing the setting, characters, story, and what have you would seem to remove a great deal of what made the work Akira in the first place. From a business POV it may be worth while to carry over the name and create brand recognition, but I don't see why anyone should have to respect that.

Perhaps the adage "just because you can doesn't mean you should" also comes into play. Can you imagine a Japanese take on the Colbert Report? Who wouldn't scratch their heads at that?

enurtsol wrote:

Everyone works within some constraints. It's what you do within those constraints that makes it great. For instance, anime could never do a proper current social satire to save its life. You won't see the talents the likes of Colbert Report there.

That's kind of ironic given Akira is a social reflection of Japan's disaffected youth during the 80s, specifically the effects that a military-industrial complex had. Plus the obvious allegories to the Hiroshima bombings and Japan's overall economical trouble in a post-war environment. Then you have more straightforward stuff like Grave of the Fireflies. For people saying 'Akira is very Western and loses nothing by being set in America' they should probably take a look at those two themes. America never had a couple nukes dropped on them. I'll keep my own thoughts on Colbert to myself, though the Colbert Report isn't animated, so it's not really applicable here..

However, this is an American adaptation which is supposed to take place in the United States, not Japan.

Mr. Takei is old enough to know this and thus he ought to have chosen his words more carefully and made a more mature argument than (to paraphrase) "only Whiteys in this movie."