Forum - View topicNEWS: Live-Action Sword Art Online Producer: Series Sold to Netflix, Will Have Asian Lead Actors
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ChrissyC
Posts: 549 |
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Asian-American leads are like looking for a needle in a haystack and the needle is usually not good. Let`s hope this is good, keyword: good, atleast.
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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She calls him "onii-chan" because he is older than she is. IT would be disrespectful to refer to him by his name. @Psycho 101: Actually it is not. Otherwise relations between second cousins would be illegal since "they share the same blood". Check this link out, would you? https://www.cousincouples.com/?page=facts In that same post, Psycho requested that discussion on incest stop. I won't remove this post, but no more comments on the subject in this thread. --willag |
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NervClaX
Posts: 42 Location: New Jersey |
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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. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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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? |
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NervClaX
Posts: 42 Location: New Jersey |
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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. Japanese people rejected Memoirs of a Geisha at the box office because the studio used Chinese actresses in the leading roles. Simply put, if Kirito and Asuna aren't played by Japanese actors, the film will not succeed in its home country of Japan. Are we making this movie for a GLOBAL audience or for a JAPANESE audience? If we're going for the GLOBAL market, it's not important for Kirito and Asuna to be Asian at all. Out of curiosity, how "Asian" must Kirito and Asuna be for it to be okay? Could they use actors from Bollywood? Could they use Russians? Could they use Filipinos? All are Asian. No, you're thinking about Chinese or Korean people who could PASS for Japanese in the eyes of a Westerner. |
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Compelled to Reply
Posts: 358 |
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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? Of course black characters are discernible, and frankly other East Asians (Chinese, Korean, etc.). However, I was arguing in relation to the topic. If white characters were played by Asians who aren't Japanese, virtue signalers would be REEEEEing about it less. |
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GrayArchon
Posts: 393 |
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I'm not one to worry about whitewashing, but this is kind of concerning. The game is very explicitly not global, all it's players live in Japan. None of it's secondary characters are from other parts of the world. Klein is most definitely Japanese. Agil is the only notable character who isn't Japanese by ethnicity, but to the best of our knowledge he not only lives there, but was born and raised there as well. It's one thing to change things to work better for your audience when you're adapting a story into a different medium for a different country or market. It's another thing to not even know what is and isn't a change. If you want to make good changes that work well, you need to know what constitutes a change. If you make changes, while claiming they aren't changes for whatever reason, that's just asking for disaster.
I disagree that the kendo could easily be changed out for something else. It's not just some sport that Suguha does, it's something important to the background of both Kirito and Suguha. Grandpa being a slave driver about Kirito learning it to the point that Suguha felt the need to "protect" Kirito from it by doing it herself is part of the reason for their estrangement, and that's something that wouldn't make sense for many other sports. It's also a reason why they take to sword fighting in VR so well, particularly for Suguha. The scenes you're likely thinking of where you say kendo matters aren't scenes that would work with something else. All in all, you can remove it if you're willing to accept some degradation of the backstory for Kirito and Suguha, but you can't really replace it with something else and have it serve any meaningful purpose beyond establishing Suguha as athletic.
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. |
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Stuart Smith
Posts: 1298 |
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-Stuart Smith |
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jtstellar
Posts: 94 |
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do we care about racial accuracy more than we care about passion accuracy? if you had to pick between someone who is passionate about anime or manga in general and especially SOA, versus someone from japan who depises anime and manga and looks down on sub cultures in general and those like that are plenty, but is racially accurate? how would you choose? this mental exercise is hilarious.
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Well, you got Studio Ghibli, a Japanese studio that would adapt western stories all the time. There are also official manga, made by Japanese people, of RWBY, Frozen, and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. There's never been any rule that adaptations of a work has to be done in the country in which the work originated. All that matters is 1) if the adaptation is any good, and 2) how much money it will make. Also, I think I see what you mean now. I thought you meant that white actors playing each other's nationalities is okay, but if I have this right, you believe that it isn't and that it's Hollywood that's been doing it for decades and you don't like it. What if the accents aren't broken/inconsistent? Patrick Stewart pulled it off perfectly playing Jean-Luc Picard, as did Bob Hoskins playing Eddie Valiant. And what if the characters being white have been thoroughly ingrained into popular culture, like stories taken from the Bible? Passion of the Christ got criticism not because Jesus was white, for instance, but because of the alleged anti-Semitism.
I didn't get the impression they're making this TV show for the fans. I thought they're making them for general audiences (who are not going to be into the same things as the fans and rarely are).
Well, that's the thing: Powerful heroes with few to no weaknesses are boring and predictable. It's why they had to invent kryptonite for Superman while Batman had remained largely the same in his skills ever since he was first conceived. It's not just limited to Hollywood, or the United States, or even the modern world. Go back to old folktales and early literature, and you'll find plenty of underdog stories, from Homer's Odyssey to Aladdin in 1001 Arabian Nights. (Heck, with the latter, it's almost nothing but underdog stories, in which normal humans face either supernatural beings, humans who have gained mighty supernatural power, or humans much more prepared than the heroes.) Anime is full of it too. Almost every shonen series ever made stars a plucky underdog who prevails over villains played up to be way stronger than they are, enough that One-Punch Man can be a parody by having the protagonist be the overwhelmingly strong one. Kirito is actually less common as a protagonist with the advantage; he falls into the "self-insert character" role. In order to buy into Sword Art Online, you have to think of yourself as Kirito, rather than rooting for him. This can be a pretty difficult task considering his intimate knowledge of the game that the viewer will not have, and his dismissive attitude (at least at the beginning) that the viewer might not necessarily have. Regardless of self-insert or not though, the protagonist of a story has to be likable and relatable for an audience member to like the story, and Kirito is hit-or-miss in this regard, depending very much on how much he or she agrees with Kirito. |
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xchampion
Posts: 370 Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho |
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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. I think they put themselves in too much of a tiny box to be honest just to avoid controversy. No matter whether they cast all Asian actors or some there will be complainers anyway.
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. |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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See my post--I agree, whitewashing wouldn't be a problem if Hollywood would hire the best actor for the job regardless of race or color. But Hollywood usually sorts auditions by race. In any other American industry, only allowing white people apply for a job would be illegal. In Hollywood, that's just the way things are.
I agree with you here, too--use Netflix's global reach to hire an international cast. |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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See my post--I agree, whitewashing wouldn't be a problem if Hollywood would hire the best actor for the job regardless of race or color. But Hollywood usually sorts auditions by race. In any other American industry, only allowing white people apply for a job would be illegal. In Hollywood, that's just the way things are.
I agree with you here, too--use Netflix's global reach to hire an international cast. |
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Kadmos1
Posts: 13596 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Sessue Hayakawa (6/10/1889-11/23/1973) and wife, Tsuru Aoki (9/9/1892-10/18/1961) are sometimes considered the first leading Asian or Asian-American stars in the Hollywood film industry. If you look Look at p. 77 of Daisuke Miyao's 400-page book Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom (published on 3/282007 by Duke University Press Books), you'll see that the race-bending thing in the Hollywood film industry goes back over a century ago. On that page, "While Hayakawa played some Native American roles in Ince's films, some Sioux Indians played Japanese villagers in such films as The Wrath of the Gods."*.
*bit.ly/2o1W8kN shows this page on its Google Books entry. Note: Thomas H. Ince (11/16/1880-11/19/1924) was a silent film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter that specialized in early Western films. Though his death certificate said heart failure, there are conspiracies he was murdered. One story is that famed media mogul William Randolph Hearst, Sr. (4/29/1863-8/14/1951) shot Ince in the head after mistaking Ince for Charlie Chaplin (4/16/1889-12/25/1977).[/i] |
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Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
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American blondes have generally paler skin and have a lighter shade of blonde hair. But the biggest and most common trait is Americans are drawn with bigger noses. It's a distinct feature Asians notice about westerners, like how a lot of black characters are drawn with bigger lips.
Hair dye is a thing, as are contact leses. It's actually a common trope a school kid with blonde hair is a delinquent, because Japanese teens who want to be rebelious dye their hair blonde. Or a chuuni wears colored contact lenses and is found out to have fake colored eyes. Just because people are ignorant about basic anime tropes doesn't give leverage to their statements. |
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