"Dear Hollywood" regarding the AKIRA movie
Dear Hollywood:
Please stop whitewashing my movies.
For those of you who have never heard of AKIRA, it is a science fiction manga and 1988 animated film. The series explores the impact of a massive nuclear explosion that begins World War Three on Japanese society. The film is set in Neo-Tokyo, and follows the conflict between Shortaro Kaneda and Tetsuo Shima over Akira, the government test subject whose loss of control resulted in the destruction of Tokyo.
Akira had a massive impact on the style and popularity of anime and manga. It affected how characters were drawn, the aesthetics of fight scenes. It was the first experience with Japanese anime/manga that many people here in North America got to experience.
Here are the actors currently being courted with the script of the reboot coming out in 2013:
Notice something? Yeah.
Apparently it is not enough that East Asian actors only get to play 2% of lead roles in the North American film industry. Even when focusing on a series where Japanese culture and history was so important to the plot, feel, and attitude, Hollywood needs to whitewash those Asian faces. Because apparently North Americans "can only relate to white actors".
Also, the new film? Is being set in "Neo-Manhatten".
I just... I do not know what to say. You would have thought that Paramount's experience with "The Last Airbender" would have taught the industry something about whitewashing characters from an Asian-inspired cult media to be exclusively white: fans are not going to go see this movie.
(Seriously, did anyone in the film industry learn anything at all from that movie?)
Not only does Warner Bros.' actions contribute to the marginalization of People of Colour in the North American film industry, but it also straight-up announces to fans that this movie is going to be crap. Why bother going? The studio has already displayed their utter disregard for the source material they are adapting. If they can't bother to give a shit about casting, what on earth would make fans believe that they will successfully adapt this material? Purely on an economic level, Warner Bros. are just screwing themselves over. They are going to be losing masses of revenue from the people who will boycott this movie --- because, oh yes, people are going to boycott this movie.
What is even more devastating is that this is not an isolated incident. People of Colour are genuinely not represented within North American television and film; despite the fact that 40% of movie tickets in the US and Canada are purchased by people of colour, 90% of films released by Warner Brothers from 2000-2009 featured a white lead. Here in BC, we have a massive East and South Asian population; it boggles my mind that studios still cling to the antiquated notion that "average people" will only go to see a movie if it has white leads. It is utter, racist bullshit.
If you want more information about the situation, please check out racebending.com. They'll be updating on the situation as it progresses as well as massing support and sending letters.
We need to blog about this, guys. And talk and tell friends and EXPLAIN why this casting and setting change is so entirely reprehensible and unacceptable.
Arghhhh. Just... argghhhhh.