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NEWS: Guillermo del Toro Develops Monster Manga as Possible HBO Show

I've said as much elsewhere, but if Del Toro's willing to trim the fat on the series, I might give this a go. (I personally think 74 episodes for the anime series was too long for what it was trying to do.)

Beside, this being an American adaptation, I highly doubt it will be anything near a 100% accurate adaptation, partially because American television and cinema just don't do that (I can't think of a time when they did, anyway). Still, with Del Toro in the chair, this thing could go anywhere.

Also, while I may not be a fan of the series, I do hope, for the sake of the fans, that this does inspire Viz to release the rest of it. I know how much it sucks to have a series you love get left hanging like that (KODOCHA!).

So why don't they just air the show that exists already?

What would the "fat" be?
What would you skip?

^I suppose you mean re-print, right? Why would they re-do it when it's already perfect as it is?

OT, this could be really interesting and, ignoring the casting that could always be a problem, I'm very excited about this news. Though, as has been said, Del Toro has a million projects on the work atm -I think the filming of Beauty and the Beast should start in the coming months- I hope this can pick up quickly and doesn't get left behind now that I've gotten all pumped-up about it.

mrsticky005 wrote:

What would the "fat" be? What would you skip?

It has been a while since I've seen it, so all of the details are pretty fuzzy, but I seemed to remember, when I was watching it, that it was dragging pretty badly in the second half. I remember just slugging through the 50-70 stretch, with the possibility that Johann would die being my only motivation for finishing.

I also remember being sort of frustrated that we would spend time with characters going over what the viewer already knew only to watch Johann kill them, as if their only purpose was to show how awful he was. I already know Johann is a creep; let's kill him already! It's one thing to have slow pacing to build tension, it's another thing to drag stuff out, offering only a few nuggets per episode.

I think the main reason I felt this way was because I watched the anime without reading the manga, so I'm sure all of the info-dumps flow better in print. However, it's obvious that the anime was rigidly dedicated to recreating the manga, panel-for-panel, and I don't know if that was such a wise idea for this series. I'm not saying it needed more dynamic action scenes or special effects, just more attention to the idea that they were switching mediums and how that changes things.

That'd be crazy, no one can take a cartoon seriously.

America isn't purely white, and hasn't been since...forever. We also have Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Native Indians, and far far more. That's why whitewashing in America is looked down upon, because competent actors (who speak English) who aren't just white also exist, and they're almost always excluded for the sake of choosing whites. It'll be far less common in more homogenous societies like Japan that you will encounter non-Japanese who can speak fluently and ACT in Japanese. If you can't act in Japanese, and they're sure as hell not going to subtitle your lines when you're supposed to be speaking Japanese, then what use are you?

They are not equivalent practices. This HBO Monster could easily pick any Japanese American (or hell, any Asian American because they know general TV audiences won't care to know the difference) to be cast in the lead role. There's got to be some really strong actor out there who fits the bill, and thousands of times more likely than you'll find a competent white actor who speaks Japanese. And yet, we fear that they won't do that, but opt for a white guy instead.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

America isn't purely white, and hasn't been since...forever. We also have Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Native Indians, and far far more. That's why whitewashing in America is looked down upon, because competent actors (who speak English) who aren't just white also exist, and they're almost always excluded for the sake of choosing whites. It'll be far less common in more homogenous societies like Japan that you will encounter non-Japanese who can speak fluently and ACT in Japanese. If you can't act in Japanese, and they're sure as hell not going to subtitle your lines when you're supposed to be speaking Japanese, then what use are you? They are not equivalent practices. This HBO Monster could easily pick any Japanese American (or hell, any Asian American because they know general TV audiences won't care to know the difference) to be cast in the lead role. There's got to be some really strong actor out there who fits the bill, and thousands of times more likely than you'll find a competent white actor who speaks Japanese. And yet, we fear that they won't do that, but opt for a white guy instead.

Complete cop out and no longer relevant in this modern inter-connected world. You either apply the standard or don't, but there's no excuse at this point to play favorites towards one and give them free passes for actions you ridicule others for aside from your own bias. Nobody is buying it anymore, and in this world that is so interconnected where you have actors and actresses working on shows regularly on the opposite ends of the world, there is simply no excuse no matter how much you want there to be one to justify your own double standards. It's prejudice, whether you choose to admit it or not, making you every bit as bad as the ones you point your finger at. Just sad.

I don't think Japan is that diverse in population, regardless of interconnectedness, and neither is Japanese a global language. Your actor will need to speak Japanese, much like we'd expect actors to speak English in Hollywood films unless they're a bit part or side character, which is what most non-Japanese actors in Japan are. Maybe it does come down the same thing we always talk about: selling the most amount of tickets. Whites make up the majority of the US's population, so maybe whitewashing has proven to be more lucrative. Maybe whites don't want to see Asians in leading roles. There, I brought America down to Japan's level, no more double standard. They're both equally at fault.