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INTEREST: Kodansha's Sam Yoshiba Supports Scarlett Johansson Casting Choice for Live-Action GitS


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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:47 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Japanese manga fans have commented that if viewers wanted a Japanese cast, the film should be made in Japan.


And that should be the end of this controversy. I said should.
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Lostlorn Forest



Joined: 03 Apr 2014
Posts: 544
Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:53 pm Reply with quote
I think the worst case scenario of casting a white actor to play a non-white character is feelings hurt or perhaps a headache. That said, Johansson still looks terrible as the Major.
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OncelostLu



Joined: 14 Mar 2013
Posts: 112
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:05 pm Reply with quote
I'm more concerned that it's Johansson. I can't say I've ever been terribly impressed with anything she has done. Sure she's attractive, but I feel like you could replace her in any of the roles she's been in with someone else and would likely either see an improvement or no change at all. To me she comes off as a consistently average actress. That being said, I don't have a recommendation or desired replacement.
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Sobe



Joined: 04 Jun 2011
Posts: 880
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:06 pm Reply with quote
Lostlorn Forest wrote:
I think the worst case scenario of casting a white actor to play a non-white character is feelings hurt or perhaps a headache. That said, Johansson still looks terrible as the Major.


I'd have to say as far as looks go, they are deceiving and I honestly like their "interpretation" of how the Major looks. It's reality and there's only so much you can do before CGI has to take over. What I'm more interested in is how she plays the part. I'm sure there's going to be a little bit of culture shock but I hope the film has more cultural differences than the studio expects the American audience to deal with. I never liked how the cultural differences are hardly explored when it comes to adaptations of material that originate from another country. That is the part that is always "white washed" and the worst part that just makes it into another DBZ flop.

I have hopes this won't be like that since GITS seriousness is more down to earth with American tastes in action and suspense/thriller. Her Black Widow role and how she played Black Widow is what makes me have hope for this GITS adaption.
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Lostlorn Forest



Joined: 03 Apr 2014
Posts: 544
Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:18 pm Reply with quote
Sobe wrote:
I have hopes this won't be like that since GITS seriousness is more down to earth with American tastes in action and suspense/thriller. Her Black Widow role and how she played Black Widow is what makes me have hope for this GITS adaption.

Her Avenger is the least tasteful and as the other commentor said she's almost always replaceable. I have nothing against her but I feel 80% of the roles she lands are only for her sex symbol status. The casting looks like it's more for commercial success than doing the character any good, since as they might look at this as risk-taking they'll at least hit midway with her or have it be an attempt at making it mainstream.

It really would have been easy to cast someone better for the role. I think an actress like Rooney Mara would have even been decent especially since I stepped into this mess with the lowest expectations. Oh well I guess, what I'm most interested in now is how they'll portray the series's setting.
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ParaChomp



Joined: 10 Dec 2010
Posts: 1018
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:35 pm Reply with quote
It will probably flop but I really couldn't give a damn. She looks the role, all that matters is execution.
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fathergoat



Joined: 10 Mar 2015
Posts: 90
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:50 pm Reply with quote
Does the casting really matter when we know the writing is going to be a train wreck?
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2091
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:51 pm Reply with quote
Worth noting: The aggregate Japanese perspective on this matter may be different from the aggregate Japanese-American perspective.
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Guile



Joined: 18 Jun 2013
Posts: 595
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 7:53 pm Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:

And that should be the end of this controversy. I said should.


Howso? Anytime you see articles that try to generalize a nation's opinions through random internet comments you should take them with a grain of salt because they're always cherry picked to suit a certain narrative. You can find just as many opinions saying the opposite thing. If you wanted to get the opposite you could always pull the comments that say the casting is done by white pig Americans and other hugely hostile anti-American posts.

The comment of Asian Americans offending actual Japanese is a good one though. For one thing Asian-American can include Chinese, Korean, and other non-japanese Asians. Considering them interchangeable can be seen as highly offensive and also touches on the fact a Japanese-American is not the same as a Japanese person. A lot of immigrants have self-loathing about their own heritage in a foreign country. I knew a kid who would get beat if he spoke or watched television in his native tongue instead of English because his father wanted him to learn the language and assimilate into the culture in order to be more successful in life. Obviously people in Japan won't have to deal with that like a Japanese-American would. By extention that's why Sam Yoshiba's opinion doesn't hold much weight, in addition to him having a financial stake in the film. To him he's probably estatic they got an Avengers star as the lead which means more exposure

Japan doesn't care as much because they really don't care or watch American adaptions in the first place and it doesn't affect them. The whole point of these adaptions is to get Americans who wouldn't watch a cartoon to see this property and make it more mainstream. Obviously this isn't a concern in Japan or they can just watch the original anime easily enough. Hollywood adaptions are a bigger concern of Western anime fans than Japanese ones
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Fenrin



Joined: 19 Dec 2015
Posts: 693
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:00 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Japanese manga fans have commented that if viewers wanted a Japanese cast, the film should be made in Japan.

While I somewhat agree with that, how are ____-American actors supposed to get jobs if potential roles are being replaced by white actors? I find it pretty sad that accuracy has to be sacrificed to reach global success.
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2345
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:27 pm Reply with quote
Fenrin wrote:
Quote:
Japanese manga fans have commented that if viewers wanted a Japanese cast, the film should be made in Japan.

While I somewhat agree with that, how are ____-American actors supposed to get jobs if potential roles are being replaced by white actors? I find it pretty sad that accuracy has to be sacrificed to reach global success.

I can understand and agree with this, however I think it is fair to ask, Is there an actress who would do a better job then scarlet, is japanese, and can do it without an accent?

I think that it is right that it would be far more offensive for them to alter scarlet appearance or pass her off as japanese But I think (and hope) that they don't go that route. and it would be even worse for them to call some, non Japanese Asian, Japanese.

I don't think it is good that they cast a non japanese in the role but you know what scarlet johanson is NOT a bad fit if you did cast a white person in the role.
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Nitsugalego





PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:31 pm Reply with quote
Fenrin wrote:
Quote:
Japanese manga fans have commented that if viewers wanted a Japanese cast, the film should be made in Japan.

While I somewhat agree with that, how are ____-American actors supposed to get jobs if potential roles are being replaced by white actors? I find it pretty sad that accuracy has to be sacrificed to reach global success.


Then you should also be offended by the "japanese-washing" of the recent Attack on Titan adaptation. All of the characters (except Mikasa) are of White Germanic descent, yet all the actors were Japanese in the film.
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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2201
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:32 pm Reply with quote
Fenrin wrote:
Quote:
Japanese manga fans have commented that if viewers wanted a Japanese cast, the film should be made in Japan.

While I somewhat agree with that, how are ____-American actors supposed to get jobs if potential roles are being replaced by white actors? I find it pretty sad that accuracy has to be sacrificed to reach global success.


Plus it's a pretty weak argument when you get down to it. And it doesn't excuse the whitewashing or the tepid production team. Plus of COURSE he's going to endorse it because GitS is published by Kodansha and they're not going to engage in bad PR.
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ChaosTheory



Joined: 11 Nov 2010
Posts: 17
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:42 pm Reply with quote
i like how well reasoned the japanese anons are
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MCAL



Joined: 11 Feb 2013
Posts: 182
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:56 pm Reply with quote
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