Oh here we go again...

[ultranos]

Via Metafilter: "Akira" adaptation courts white actors

Akira. Akira. The ground-breaking feature-length cyberpunk anime film. For the love of all the little green apples, the main characters are named Tetsuo and Kaneda. You expect me to believe Twilight-prettyboy Robert Pattinson can pull off someone named Tetsuo. What.

And of course, in the comments of the Metafilter post is the obligatory "but anime characters aren't Asian, they're white" bag of bullshit. Okay, you know what? I am going to write that bloody "History of Anime 101" essay I've been meaning to write for years to debunk this asinine, erroneous, and poisonous arrangement. Because anyone making it quite honestly has no clue about the history of animation and should keep their damn mouths shut.

Comments

[abyssinia]

I'd say that if they want it to crash and burn like The Last Airbender did, they should definitely pick Pattinson, except then all the Twilight diehards would be all over it, and they are not affected by terrible movies.

AUGH. WE HAVE LEARNED NOTHING.

[ultranos]

Well, Pattinson's not the only option. But still. I HOPE IT CRASHES AND BURNS IN A BEAUTIFUL FIRE OF SCHADENFREUDE. Ugh. I'm kind of rage-tastic at this entire thing.

[havocthecat]

I've heard about that and wonder what the fuck they're thinking of. I mean, it's Akira. I think it might be the first anime I ever watched, back in the day. (Don't ask how far back.)

[ultranos]

Yeah, I'm baffled. I mean, it's not like things from Japan don't sell these days.

[havocthecat]

The days where you had to blow $40 or $50 for a VHS tape of dubious quality at your local comics shop for anime (because it was that rare) are deader than dead. Japan makes and sells popular stuff.

Whitewashing it really isn't the way to make it more popular, seriously.

[ultranos]

Dubs these days don't even change the characters names. Long gone are the days of Star Blazers and Sailor Moon even where they changed the names to something more Western. People these days don't blink if someone's named "Hiroshi" instead of "John", really. At least, kids don't.

Whitewashing is really never the answer. This is just one of the more stupid, egregious cases.