Thanks to HacaTV for this article on the ongoing mess known as Yellow-face and White-washing. I have shortened it for this blog. HacaTV speaks primarily to the issue that Hollywood should be making more animated films and fewer adaptations. I personally don’t mind the idea of the adaptation. What I care about is the fact that the people in charge of “translating” the story do so in a racist and small-minded way and as the author points out below, it is only getting worse. The upcoming film Cowboy Bebop will be Keanu’s SECOND role as an Asian.
charlton heston news: Fund animators, not adaptations
If the response across the web is any indication, fans of Cowboy Bebop are mostly infuriated by the news, with a hopeful few clinging to the notion that Keanu’s anime fandom will translate into a performance along the lines of, well, faithful cosplay.
But add it to news of Leonardo DiCaprio’s live-action Akira, (with Joseph Gordon Levitt playing Tetsuo), and a live-action Ninja Scroll, plus M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action whitewash of Avatar: The Last Airbender,* and we’re looking at a definite trend of live-action anime adaptations, the first of which to hit screens being Dragonball Evolution, which also features white actors playing roles originally created, written, directed, animated, and performed by Japanese people.**
According to Edward Said, one of the principles 
of Orientalism is a belief that Asia cannot speak for herself, and that the West must do it for her, constantly re-interpreting and clarifying the “mysteries of the Orient” for Western audiences, regurgitating the complexities of other cultures into an easily-digestible whole. The trouble with the Orientalist position is that it creates a false discourse that operates on the premise that a whole country and its inhabitants can be reduced to a single brand identity, a cognitive simplification equivalent to saying that “all anime is tentacle porn.” Moreover, it assumes a fundamental incapability of the Western mind to grasp the multi-faceted nature of that which is Other, because “the gaijin won’t get it.”
But as all anime fans know, this is simply not true. However one feels about fansubs and scanlations, they frequently take the time to explain to an eager and intelligent audience the delicate nuance of a Japanese reference or phrase or pun. And if the recent developments at Crunchyroll have proven anything, it’s that anime fans want anime, and they want it animated, and soon, not months or years from now.
*I include Avatar: The Last Airbender on this list because it featured both characters and actors of colour: Katara and Sokka, originally dark-skinned (like all Water Tribe people), are now being played by white actors. And while white voice talents were employed, so were Asians: Mako, George Takei, George Hong, Dante Basco, Tsai Chin, and Sab Shimono all contributed their talents (although frequently as guest stars rather than leads, with the exception of Mr. Iwamatsu and Mr. Basco). Notably in Shyamalan’s live-action cast is the replacement of Mr. Basco (a Filipino-American who has appeared in live-action films and television) with a blond, blue-eyed pop star.
**And Korean people, let us not forget. Korean animation studios frequently do “in-betweener” animation for both Japanese and American productions, and have done so for years now. This is also true of the afore-mentioned Avatar.
***One could also argue that the role of Spike Spiegel is not Japanese — Spike was born on Mars, and we don’t know his ethnicity. But the characters of Akira and Ninja Scroll are definitely Japanese.
Image credit: Slashfilm
