Quote Originally Posted by Animeniax View Post
That's because you're only a casual fan of Asian culture/anime, Sapphire.

Look at it this way, imagine if they remade Roots with white actors, but kept the African names and slavery back story. How would you feel about that mini-series?
Quote Originally Posted by shinta|hikari View Post
Why did they keep the names? Is it not weird how the names are Japanese if the actors are not? They should have just adapted the plot and theme of Akira and renamed it into something else.
That was the analogy I was thinking. And yes, it is ridiculous that they retained the names, yet are casting white people. It is pretty blatant whitewashing, probably because the producers figure that Americans would not flock in droves to see a movie about a bunch of Asian kids (although apparently, they are making everyone adults [ugh]). Maybe it was based on ability, but I don't know...if you saw those The Last Airbender, for the leads the casting call was for "Caucasian people, then everyone else", I don't know what the casting call looked like, so I can't say.


I would also liken this to if someone made a documentary about Eminem starring Morgan Freeman as "Marshall Mathers" and it is set in Toronto (or a Manny Pacquiao movie starring Joseph Gordon-Leavitt).