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INTEREST: Star Trek Actor Petitions Against Akira 'Whitewashing'

I found the article particularly interesting.

I sympathize with Mr. Takei's view that a Japanese masterpiece such as Akira would feel more authentic with an ALL Japanese cast.

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

Therefore, it is wrong for Mr. Takei (or anyone else) to assume that the lead roles absolutely be Japanese actors (or Americans of Japanese descent).

Hollywood is hardly the bastion of Aryan white supremacy, thus I trust the producers of this film are actually looking at the people most qualified to fill the roles of Kaneda and Tetsuo for an American audience.

It is also interesting that Mr. Takei (and others) are using a term I find quite racist.
That term being "whitewashing."
If it's okay to use such a term for a movie that happens to have a cast of actors who are all Caucasian, does that mean a movie with an all black cast is a "Black Out?" or an all Asian cast is a "rice bowl."
Racism cuts both ways.
It's no more acceptable to call an all white cast a "whitewash" than it is to use the other two terms I conjured up for this post.

That said, I take great offense as a mixed-blood American (part native American part Canadian French) to the term "whitewashing" and thus see Mr. Takei's comments as racist in and of themselves.
Had he made the argument that the movie should take place in Japan and thus star Japanese actors to preserve the authenticity of the story, that would be another matter entirely.
But that's not what he said.

I don't judge actors on the color of their skin, I judge them on their abilities as actors and could care less what race they are.

If Kaneda ends up being a Native American and Tetsuo a Black guy, I wouldn't even notice so long as they're great actors.

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."

Quote:

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

The changing of the setting was also an issue Mr.Takei and others made note of before the rumors about casting.

Quote:

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."

He did chose his words carefully but that does not stop people like you taking whatever he says and straw-manning it to fit your needs of "equality".

Akira epic fail--all actors up for Kaneda & Tetsuo are white? Sign & RT the petition here...

The thing is why is taking place in America in the first place? I grew up with the Akira that took place in Japan, that's what I would want to see. Takei's point is that its pretty hard for Asians to get leading roles in Hollywood in general, so taking stories that feature an Asian cast and changing their race means Asians don't get to star in their own stories in Hollywood, let alone get new roles created for them. That seems pretty unfair.

His complaint is about white people as used as a racial description, American is not a race. Some of the actors on the shortlist are not even American so if Mr. Takei made a statement about having a problem with an All-American lead it would not even fit.

I didn't link to the petition because I don't support the petition.
Besides that, Mr. Takei's comments are no different on the advocate website.
They're more strung out, and detailed, but his meaning is not any different than what is in the tweet.

His use of a specific racial description is still racism.
He's saying that only an Asian actor(s) can make this film succeed whereas white actors will make it flop.

Therefore, by specifically singling out whites from the diverse group of Americans Mr. Takei's statement becomes racist.

It's because Warner Bros. is butting heads with director Albert Hughes.
Warner obviously wants this film to make money, thus they're demanding that the new crop of "hot" young actors be scouted for the lead roles (whose names are going to be changed according to the article).
What race the actors are, and whether they're Japanese or not, clearly isn't even a consideration for Warner.
What matters is will they draw the ticket buyers to make money off this project.

Therefore, for Mr. Takei to make the racist comments he did shows just how crass he was being when he tweeted them.
To me it also makes Mr. Takei look like a washed up has-been of an actor, and that's sad because I do (or did) actually like him.

The Overlord wrote:

The thing is why is taking place in America in the first place? I grew up with the Akira that took place in Japan, that's what I would want to see. Takei's point is that its pretty hard for Asians to get leading roles in Hollywood in general, so taking stories that feature an Asian cast and changing their race means Asians don't get to star in their own stories in Hollywood, let alone get new roles created for them. That seems pretty unfair.

I agree with you that the story of Akira should be taking place in Neo-Tokyo, and the cast should be Japanese (never mind Americans of Japanese descent).
However, that said, I'm not the one paying for this production and the people that are have chosen the USA as the setting and American actors to fill the roles.
Since the producers for the US film are fronting the money, they get the say on how the film will be produced and who will act in it.
They have to turn a profit and I assume they know how.
It doesn't matter what we want.
What matters is what will make the most amount of money.

I also grew up with Akira (the manga), and I don't particularly like that this film is set in the United States, but unfortunately it is.

It may not be fair, but since when is business ever fair?

Then don't sign the petition, don't hide information because proves your stance wrong.

Can you name one bankable Asian-American star? No. There isn’t.

He did not do that. He clearly cites the mistakes and past failures that match what is being done to Akira now.

The same thing happened with M. Night Shyamalan. He cast his project [The Last Airbender] with non-Asians and it’s an Asian story, and the film flopped.

Well if Asian-American actors were on the list of prospective leads then this issue would not even exist in the first place.
It is the list of candidates that has specifically singled out those actors, not Mr.Takei. The issue he is talking about is one of race not nationality.

Given Hollywood's history with anime properties the steps being taken by WB is going to assure failure, regardless the reasons behind them.

It sucks being an activist as people like you will disregard past achievements and sully a person's name just because their stance on a topic disagrees with yours.

Also Sukiyaki Western Django is inspired by Westerns and is not an adaption of any one story. Now if WB wants to do a movie that is inspired by Akira they will get more leeway than an adaption.

Considering what an unprofitable mess Dragon Ball Evolution turned out to be, I doubt Hollywood knows how to make an adaption like this profitable. I'm of the opinion when you are adapting something, you should make as close to the source material as reasonably possible. Now somethings that worked in a comic or cartoon may not work on the silver screen and almost every adaption has to make some changes to work in a different medium, but it should always be true to the spirit of the original work, rather then being a word for word adaption. It seems to me these changes are not true to the spirit of the original work. Almost all successful adaption are true to the spirit of the original work.

Please go back and re-read the advocate interview.
Mr. Takei said this:

Quote:

The same thing happened with M. Night Shyamalan. He cast his project [The Last Airbender] with non-Asians and it’s an Asian story, and the film flopped.

The film was a massive critical failure, for sure, and is widely considered (and rightfully so) to be one of the worst movies ever made, but it did just fine in theaters.

Why should it matter what race the actors are?
If the only criteria is that the actor's performance be one of high quality, then the race of the actor/actress shouldn't matter.
Clearly there are no actors/actresses capable of getting Warner Bros. attention enough for them to approve casting them.
If there were, they'd get top billing since Warner makes it's decisions based on profit not prejudice.

If this new Akira movie fails it will be because it's being Americanized into a cheap ripp-off of the original story with the setting now in Manhattan Island/New York City rather than Neo-Tokyo.
The race of the actors won't matter one iota.

Mr. Takei whining about the race of the lead actors in this Americanized version of Akira is racist--end of story.
I can only point this out in so many ways as it should be crystal clear to anyone reading the man's comments.

I'm going to ignore that comment.
There's no need to make this more personal than it has become already.

That's nonsense.
We don't know whether it will or will not fail.
A great cast of actors (irregardless of race), a well written script, high-quality special effects/CG, a great musical score, and proper marketing will determine whether this film sinks or swims.
Not some ideologically driven activist drivel.

Again you're wrong.
Sukiyaki Western Django is based on the Italian movie Django.

There are clearly no other actors capable? Complete bull -
James Kyson Lee, Daniel Dae Kim, Masi Oka, John Cho, Will Yun Lee, Sung Kang, and my personal favorite Rick Yune are all ahead of Justin Timberlake in terms of acting ability and are only behind Joaquin Phoenix in general fame. But hey believe what you want to believe, of course the only actors capable of meeting WB's expectations happen to be on that shortlist and just happen to all be white.

The Hollywood creative process that is slowly inking out the Akira from Akira. Changing the race of the characters part of the issue along with the setting and possible name changes(rumor from cinemablend).

His actions are no more racist than WB's treatment of Akira. Framing WBs actions as what is best for profits doesn't make their decisions any less racist.

All I did was say what you did by calling Mr. Takei a washed up has-been who you no longer like. This conversation is only as personal as you made it.

It is not nonsense. It is a harsh history lesson about anime adaptions in Hollywood.
If that is all that's needed then why bother using Akira as the base? Make up a totally new story structured around New York and tailored for white actors. Putting the name of Akira onto an adaption project attaches an already established fanbase and sets an expectation of the project being an adaption, not a story loosely based on Katsuhiro Otomo's novel. Sorry you can't want to take the existing fans money as a positive and hand-wave their expectations, the two are fused together.

It has the name as a subtitle and contains some references to story but it is not adapted or based on Django. There is a world of difference between works that are inspired by other stories and stories that are adaptions of a single story.