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NEWS: Live-Action Sword Art Online Producer: Series Sold to Netflix, Will Have Asian Lead Actors

But in SAO's case, it is intended to titillate as incest because they've grown up and see each other as siblings. Suguha calls Kirito "onii-chan". It's the full fantasy of getting to shag your little sister (a younger girl who idolizes you and depends on you), and it's not even "morally reproachable" because she's not really your sister. Just like all those "but actually we're not related by blood, so it's perfectly fine"

Why isn't the live-action adaptation just being handled by a Japanese studio? Why, if it's not going to be adapted for a worldwide audience, and the characters are to remain Japanese, isn't a Japanese movie studio handling all the responsibilities?

If they substitute real Japanese people with Chinese, Koreans, and mixed-race actors, they might as well give up, because Japanese audiences won't go for it. Asians aren't interchangeable. I know Hollywood thinks skin tones are more important than nationality. I've seen everyone from Aussies, English, Irish, Scottish, Welch, Canadian, French, German, etc play Americans on screen, but the same does not hold true for the Japanese.

They didn't mind when ScarJo was cast to play the Major in GitS, because Japanese people understood the film was going to be played in theaters worldwide, and ScarJo is a huge star. But, casting Asians from outside Japan as international look-a-likes is just plain insulting.

NervClaX wrote:

Why isn't the live-action adaptation just being handled by a Japanese studio? Why, if it's not going to be adapted for a worldwide audience, and the characters are to remain Japanese, isn't a Japanese movie studio handling all the responsibilities? If they substitute real Japanese people with Chinese, Koreans, and mixed-race actors, they might as well give up, because Japanese audiences won't go for it. Asians aren't interchangeable. I know Hollywood thinks skin tones are more important than nationality. I've seen everyone from Aussies, English, Irish, Scottish, Welch, Canadian, French, German, etc play Americans on screen, but the same does not hold true for the Japanese. They didn't mind when ScarJo was cast to play the Major in GitS, because Japanese people understood the film was going to be played in theaters worldwide, and ScarJo is a huge star. But, casting Asians from outside Japan as international look-a-likes is just plain insulting.

Well, for the first one, the Japanese studios weren't going to do it, which left it open for an American one to do so. For the second, if it holds true for white people, why wouldn't it hold true for Asians?

You must not watch much anime. White characters are drawn distinctively different from Japanese characters. Race is extremely easy to tell in anime.

It's ironic you're saying keeping Japanese characters as Japanese is virtue signalling, because that's the kind of logic people use when they cite tanned Japanese anime characters as being black. How about both of you people stop trying to project yourselves onto our culture

In terms of the secondary characters, because the game is meant to be global, the way it's presented in the anime and in the light novels, there are secondary characters that clearly are from other parts of the world, like Klein and Agil.

Frankly, there's almost nothing inherently Japanese about the series or the story it tells except for the character names. The only detail I can think of where country of origin might matter is that Suguha does kendo, and that could be easily changed out for something else since it specifically being kendo only matters once or twice that I can think of. 99% of the story could be done in another country without fundamentally changing anything.

People hauling out the same tired old SAO bashing.

SAO is a great series with plenty of fans but the main issue is that it is Hollywood that is trying to make this adaptation. The idea of the traditional male hero is legitimately hard for people in modern Hollywood to understand even though that idea has existed for thousands of years.

They didn't mind when ScarJo was cast to play the Major in GitS, because Japanese people understood the film was going to be played in theaters worldwide, and ScarJo is a huge star. But, casting Asians from outside Japan as international look-a-likes is just plain insulting.

Japanese people rejected Memoirs of a Geisha at the box office because the studio used Chinese actresses in the leading roles.

Why would a Western studio attempt to make a Japanese movie? IDK, maybe because they'll be completely out of their element? Because it would be easier to finance a Japanese studio?

White people are not interchangeable despite what Hollywood thinks. Broken/inconsistent accents break immersion and hurt authenticity.

Hopefully the people making this won't be listening to any of you. Listening to the haters, and making the sorts of changes they want is a bad idea when you want to capture the audience of actual fans of the series who make it worth adapting in the first place.

In all fairness to Hollywood, that's at least partially a reflection of a portion of their audience having difficulty with traditional heroes. Protagonists that are powerful, or even just competent get accused of of being a Mary Sue or Gary Stu. The audience is too used to heroes that are underdogs or are "unlikely" heroes, that they can have trouble with heroes that are prepared for the challenges they'll be facing, or are otherwise "likely" heroes.

I think the whole whitewashing thing is a whole bunch of stupid. How about you cast the best actor for the job regardless of race or color.

This is just my opinion, but since Netflix is a global company they should make this a global adaption. As in make all the characters come from different places all over the globe. Some would complain about not staying perfectly with the source material but as an adaption they need to make some changes. They can make Kirito and Asuna Asian and live in Japan. That way they can keep their subplot as close to the source as possible. As we know they would still have to live close to together. The rest of the characters should be any race or anywhere globally. Since SAO is a virtual world the players can be anywhere in the world. They don' t have to limit themselves to just Japan. As an adaption this would make most sense. These are just examples and they can really do whatever they want. They can make Klein Caucasian because with his red hair he looks the most white to be honest. He can be American, English, Australian, or even European. It doesn't matter. Then Agil can stay Black. They can have him be from anywhere as well. Then side characters like Silica, Lizbeth, and even Yui if they go that route can be any race or nationality. If this was me they would throw out their individual love story plots with Kirito, so that way their relationships with him would just be platonic ones. That would already fix many of SAO source material problems right there if you know what i mean. This way they can still avoid whitewashing by casting Asian actors as the main leads. They can still diversify the cast and draw in viewers from many different countries to be successful. They are not going to just do an adaption without thinking about making the show for the most broadest audience. This isn't going to be for just fans. its going to be for everyone. Many of you may disagree with this, but its probably the direction they are going to in. The interview may have even hinted as such when she incorrectly mention Klein wasn't Japanese.

If any of you actually read this what do you think? Do you agree with me that this is the direction they would go in? If not what direction do you think they should do.? And direction they will most likely go in? I actually do want to hear your thought.

I think the whole whitewashing thing is a whole bunch of stupid. How about you cast the best actor for the job regardless of race or color.

This is just my opinion, but since Netflix is a global company they should make this a global adaption. As in make all the characters come from different places all over the globe. Some would complain about not staying perfectly with the source material but as an adaption they need to make some changes. They can make Kirito and Asuna Asian and live in Japan. That way they can keep their subplot as close to the source as possible. As we know they would still have to live close to together. The rest of the characters should be any race or anywhere globally. Since SAO is a virtual world the players can be anywhere in the world. They don' t have to limit themselves to just Japan. As an adaption this would make most sense. These are just examples and they can really do whatever they want. They can make Klein Caucasian because with his red hair he looks the most white to be honest. He can be American, English, Australian, or even European. It doesn't matter. Then Agil can stay Black. They can have him be from anywhere as well. Then side characters like Silica, Lizbeth, and even Yui if they go that route can be any race or nationality. If this was me they would throw out their individual love story plots with Kirito, so that way their relationships with him would just be platonic ones. That would already fix many of SAO source material problems right there if you know what i mean. This way they can still avoid whitewashing by casting Asian actors as the main leads. They can still diversify the cast and draw in viewers from many different countries to be successful. They are not going to just do an adaption without thinking about making the show for the most broadest audience. This isn't going to be for just fans. its going to be for everyone. Many of you may disagree with this, but its probably the direction they are going to in. The interview may have even hinted as such when she incorrectly mention Klein wasn't Japanese.

If any of you actually read this what do you think? Do you agree with me that this is the direction they would go in? If not what direction do you think they should do.? And direction they will most likely go in? I actually do want to hear your thought.

Such as?

My point was you see plenty of anime characters who are Japanese with features like blonde hair or blue eyes, who aren't very discernible from White ones. Also, is this something to argue about when characters also have pink, green, or blue hair?