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A live action adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell anime and manga series is currently being produced, with Scarlett Johansen as the Lead role of Major Motoko Kusanagi.

The casting has garnered quite a bit of controversy, with people decrying the casting as white washing and demanding the film be recast with an Asian actress in the lead role.

So, how do you guys feel about it?

I kind of view whitewashing as a sign of a lack of respect and/or faith for source material. I think this is a dumb move that never really proves to work out. Time and time again we seen movies that whitewash yet always flop critically and financially. You'd think the loss of money that happens every time they cast these roles would stop them from doing it, but no.

That's what I was thinking.

Moved to Moving Images.

Seems like usual blockbuster bullshit. I'll expect critics to pan it, but I'm pretty confident it'll be a box office success. We'll see.

I dunno about you, but to me a "live action version of a beloved anime series" doesn't scream box office success. I don't really think that many people in the mainstream audience would know what Ghost in the Shell is.

Hold on a second.
Okay, so having just looked it up (although there was a pretty good chance of it in the first place), the original did indeed take place in Japan. What about this adaptation? They're shooting in New Zealand at the moment, but of course that doesn't say anything more about where they're supposed to be than shooting in Vancouver BC means they won't tell you it's Seattle. Plus, one of the major side characters is played by a Japanese actor, but two others aren't.
If the setting is the same as the original, then I could at least understand raising eyebrows. But if they shifted it somewhere else or removed specific references to location entirely… well… can you blame them? The only way that I could reasonably see a film getting enough Japanese people to fill up an entire cast for what appears to be a pretty epic story is if it was actually being produced there, in their language. But it's not- it's Hollywood, and in English. Not only are we talking about a fairly small minority in the US, but if I remember correctly they're not even represented proportionally in this particular career.
Plus, they obviously wanted to put a well-known name in huge letters on the poster. So there's that.

To be honest regardless of whitewashing putting Scarlett Johansson in everything is bad on its own personally. And .9999 made a good point that maybe they're not trying to make it take place in Japan. I'm not sure how integral to the plot happening in Japan was however since I know hardly anything about the show. It's pretty obvious no matter what it's going to be bad for several reasons and this choice might be one of many.

However, I don't think the excuse of not enough Japanese actors is valid. I've seen it done before a prime example I can think of is the 2nd (and good at least to me) Wolverine movie that I think was shot in Japan pretty much entirely and they used some Japanese actors but a few they compromised and got other actors of Asian descent (I think one major supporting character was Korean) who could reasonably pass off as Japanese for the story. It entirely depends on if they decide to make the setting in Japan or not that makes this choice matter.

As I said though no matter what happens there's going to be plenty of disrespect towards the source as well as laziness. This choice from how it looks is probably one of them, but oh ho ho it's not going to be the only one.

Of all the anime they could have adapted into a live action movie, this is probably one of the worst ones they could have chosen. The information density of the original is simply far too high to be converted into a Hollywood blockbuster. At best I'm predicting this will be a hilarious failure of an adaptation.

Oh sure it's whitewashing when a white person plays an originally PoC character but when a black character plays an originally white character it's progressive and innovative.

Whitewashing is such a garbage argument. I can understand not wanting a triple-A celeb to do a role since it makes it seem more "actor portraying character" rather than "character played by actor", but the whitewashing argument holds no weight. If we can be comfortable with a black Nick Fury then I think we can be comfortable with a white Motoko.

It is it bad that I often don't care or mind at all when anime characters are portrayed by white people because they look just white people to me anyway? Even if they really are Japanese in the story.

What Wisehowl said. The only problem here is that awful wig.

I just hate that it's such an over-used (if good) actor.

Seriously they had the chance to cast someone new and they didn't fucking take it, that's the part that pisses me off. Ideally she'd be Asian yeah, but the main thing would be a face that I don't already associate with lots of other things.

The meat & bones of Ghost in the Shell is in its world & atmosphere, but you still need the character to feel an organic part of that.

Hollywood is filled with the same 10 faces over and over. Whether they're good performers matters for shit if I'm seeing the actor instead of the character.

Crimeariver also had a good point about the fact that it's such an explanation- and idea-based thing yet this is likely to be an action film. Any action film.

I think the problem is that it's a bit hard to swallow having a white actor playing someone with such an obviously Japanese name. It hurts all immersion when a moviegoer sees a character that's supposed to be Japanese and the actor is white for some reason.

Honestly I'm hoping it's not as bad as Dragonball Evolution but you can never know with Hollywood.

The Major's race generally isn't seen as a large part of her character, so while I find the casting choice disappointing (God damn, use someone else every once in a while), I'll let it slide as I don't think it's the biggest issue with the movie. The things I've read about the script (to be fair, mostly rumors) do not instill any kind of confidence.

Oh, and one thing to note, this is an adaptation specifically of Stand Alone Complex, just so that's clear.

Yummines is correct in that it matters where she is from, and if they change the setting that probably is more of a blow to the original than anything racial. The thing with characters such as Nick Fury is it doesn't matter what race he is because he's American and fits within the American demographic. Now if you realistically want to set something in Japan there's such a small amount of non-Asian people who are Japanese and even less who hold Japanese names.

And I 100% agree with eglamore in that she's so overused and overused actors on many things that try to be unique just serve to ruin the immersion. If it's something that makes sense for them to play in or something trying to be more popcorn it's fine. Like often you don't think of the character a lot of the time with these actors you find yourself calling them by their real name instead of the character. For an adaptation of something classic like this trying to get someone so overused and in my opinion not even that good is straight up criminal.

This is what I posted in a separate site before I realized this one was up:

How can you whitewash a white woman? She's Japanese out of name alone. In the original anime in 1996 before any live action movie was cast, she had white skin and blue eyes.

If in other movies based on other media Hollywood decided to turn a previously different race and cast with another race, that would be something different. However, you have two white women playing the same role. One is an American white woman, the other is a Japanese white woman. What's the issue here? We have a live-action Japanese movie of Mikoto who is actually Japanese, but the 1996 original Anime film depicted her as Caucasian. So one could argue that they Asian-washed her.

But does it really matter? I don't think so. I'm of the slight opinion that the idea that actors must be the race of the depicted character pretty fucking Authoritarian.

"and if they change the setting that probably is more of a blow to the original than anything racial." – Slutty Sam

Yeah, i can't argue against that, especially once you consider that the US split into three different countries by the time that SAC takes place, so that really wouldn't work if they tried to change the setting to somewhere in the US.

To be fair, it's not like having a Japanese cast would guarantee it being good. Parasyte got adapted into a two part live action movie with an all Japanese cast since the movie was made in Japan (Toho produced it), but fans of Parasyte generally agree the movies are mediocre adaptations and you're better off either reading the manga or watching the anime adaptation.

Obviously the most important thing is whether the actor can convincingly play the character. Visual appearance of course affects how we view a character, so having an actor play a character visually different can pose problems (for example, having a short actor play a tall character can alter how we interpret a character if not filmed correctly). However, in a case like this, where the character in question has such an unnatural appearance (going off OP's post), I think the casting can work. Visually this casting is not as blatantly off as in Dragonball Evolution for example. I'm not super familiar with Ghost in the Shell though, so I don't have that same fan investment. Maybe to fans Scarlett Johansen is just too hard to imagine as Motoko in general?

{ I think the problem is that it’s a bit hard to swallow having a white actor playing someone with such an obviously Japanese name. }

Do you know how many characters in Japanese media have obviously white/black names yet are voiced/acted by Japanese people? Why don't they take the opportunity to hire some minority English-speakers when they need English in an anime? Racism?! Oppression?! We're the only country where shit like this even gets brought up, and as a result we now have trouble exporting our TV shows to the rest of the world, which has historically been a multi-billion dollar industry for us that is now in the low single digits – International audiences don't seem to be embracing the industry's move to be more inclusive (and we're talking about Canada and the UK and Australia here).

It always comes down to money: they're marketing this to the white people who still bother going to movie theaters instead of downloading it two days after it's released in theaters, and those people really like Scarlett Johansson. A minority would have had a better chance being cast in an expected blockbuster with an original script, which we might see more of if they'd write them instead of depending on white Hollywood and then complaining it's not right.

Why? Of all people…why a cacasian woman? When Motoko is obviously Japanese?

Voice acting is completely different. No race has a definitive voice, so it really doesn't matter who does it. Not to mention, Japan is very reclusive and I don't think there are that many white or black people in Japan; much less ones that speak perfect Japanese.

What I'm talking about is not racism or whatever, but immersion. If a character is supposed to be Japanese, then them not looking Japanese just seems really off. I know she's supposed to be a cyborg, but even then it breaks immersion. All comics are generally highly stylized (especially anime and manga) so usually you can only tell race if it's pointed out or if it's some obvious stereotype.

For those who say that her having blue eyes makes her look white, you have to remember that anime is fiction. Her having blue eyes is never brought up, and neither is the purple hair in the tv series so it's just a style choice. Characters having weird hair colors or eye color is pretty much just for variety. Might as well say that Tsukamoto Tenma( School Rumble) and Shinichi Kudo (Detective Conan) are white as well, since they have blue eyes.

{ Voice acting is completely different. }

Nice cherry picking, that was one example, how about addressing the mentioned dramas and very popular stage plays in Japan too? I can't think of one that features anybody other than an Asian but I can think of a hell of a lot of non-Asian characters being portrayed by Asians with stage makeup and costuming to change their appearance. It would be horribly racist to do such a thing here, they're not even trying to make Scarlett Johansson look Asian, can you fuckin' imagine the outrage if they had? What even is "looking Asian"? Why do you think she doesn't look Asian in the preview? Eyes not slanted enough for ya? Skin not yellow enough? Now we're opening up a debate about stereotypes and the whole conversation is becoming very microaggressive!

The bottom line is that she was cast for her name and the money she'll bring in from white people who still pay for $15 movie tickets, and there's nothing wrong with that decision. From a business perspective, there's a shit ton wrong with casting an Asian D-lister who doesn't bring anything but her race to an adaption of foreign source material that most people here think is for children or perverts.

{ Japan is very reclusive and I don’t think there are that many white or black people in Japan }

It's about the same number of Japanese people that are in the USA, a little over a million.

They're not reclusive or xenophobic or whatever other adjectives the left wants to sling at any country who doesn't support flinging open their borders to the multiculturalist global agenda, they're Japanese and they want to see people who look like themselves, just like every other living thing on the planet.

>expecting Hollywood to actually faithfully adapt a beloved IP

From my perspective, Motoko is obviously Caucasian, which was first.

Just so we're clear, when you say first, are you referring to the 1995 film, or the original 1989 Manga? Not that it matters much, there's like, 4 (if not more) different continuities for Ghost in the Shell.

The Manga's continuity

The Mamoru Oshii Film's continuity

Stand Alone Complex's continuity (Again, I must point out that SAC is specifically what the film is being based off of.)

And Arise's continuity

What concerns me more, is I'm reading conflicting reports over whether the antagonist is supposed to be The Laughing Man, or Kuze. Or god forbid, they amalgamate them into one character…

Also, it just started filming and is set to be released next year, that kind of production time is a red flag to me.

Rebutting your example is not "cherry-picking" because you're the one that brought it up in the first place. If you're going to complain about me refuting your example, then pick a better one next time. I'm not bringing up dramas or whatever because that response was geared towards your example. If I wanted to talk about other people's posts, I would've mentioned them in it.

I'm trying to talk about how a character that is supposed to be Japanese is played by someone white breaks immersion, and you're on a tangent about "looking Asian" and stereotypes. I brought up that there are characters that have odd hair and eye color in anime and manga, but are supposed to be Japanese so eye and hair color has little bearing on the character unless it's plot relevant (such as when a character is "half-Japanese"). Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin) has red hair and blue eyes, but it makes zero sense for him to since he's a Japanese samurai and it's never brought up if he's part European or not. It's not even a historically accurate depiction of the character he's based on.

Also there have been websites claiming that they were attempting to use CGI to make her look more Asian, but it hasn't been confirmed so it's likely a rumor.

I'm not here trying to argue that it's the "wrong" decision. I'm trying to argue that it's a questionable one, and that it can cause some problems with moviegoers in the long run. Especially for those who are fans of the series since the series is supposed to take place in Japan. Having a white woman being the captain of a Japanese police force raises a couple of eyebrows wouldn't you think? If they couldn't find a good Asian actor for the role, then why even use the Japanese setting in the first place? They could have just changed the setting (much like The Grudge or The Magnificent 7) and just state it's an adaption and people would generally be fine with it. Hell, Oldboy was based off a manga but the movie took place in Korea (since it was a Korean movie) and nobody really complained since it was a good movie. Keeping the Japanese setting and using a well-known actor not even the same race as the main character just seems like it's lazy, which is not a good sign for a movie that is supposed to be an adaption of a beloved series (cough Dragonball Evolution cough).

Also, I dunno about you but 98.5% (as of a 2015 CIA report) Japanese in a country with over 126 million people is still a little ridiculous to me. I'm probably just biased since I'm looking at it from an American point of view, but it has nothing to do with the casting decision so I'm not going to get into an argument about that.

Guys, Motoko is a brain in a robot, we dont even know if she's a woman let alone asian. We can easily hand wave it away as her choosing a caucasian body because she feels like it.

Oh really?

I dunno about this Ghost in the Shell remake myself, but what I do know is that classic Sci-fi anime being turned into high-budget blockbusters have been turning up pretty well recently.

Pacific Rim was inspired by Japanese mechs, and surprised everyone by being a huge hit (pun intended).

And The Edge of Tomorrow -- inspired by All You Need is Kill -- was also praised by critics and was fairly commercially successful, which technically is a whitewashed movie since the main stars are white people unlike the source material.

The only thing here is that this upcoming movie is going to be redoing the story of Ghost in the Shell, not just borrowing from it, and I highly doubt you can put the whole story of the manga into one movie. That's always the problem.

I'm less concerned about the lead role's race, and more concerned about whether or not it'll be any good. Hopefully it is a competent adaption faithful to the spirit of the original manga and anime.

Ah, who am I kidding? It'll probably be shit.

Vid related:

If it's ok to turn this:

Into this:

Then it must be ok to cast a white person in Ghost in the shell.

Bit late *(though this news is old anyway), but I thought i'd post this so you can get someone who works in the industries opinion.