The other night I was looking for DVDs of some old movies and TV shows that I loved. I wanted to find the original Strawberry Shortcake. I found it and it's a rather reasonable price for those movies on 2 disc with shipping but it wasn't from a site I like to buy from.
Side story- Two of the reviews were negative for being stoneage animation and inferior to the current Strawberry Shortcake show. Okay let me repeat that. It's negative because the hand drawn and colored animation of the 1980s was far inferior to the computer generated, drawn, and colored animation of the 2000s. ...yeah.
Anyhow that lead me to a thread begging and telling Hollywood to stop messing up our childhood. That lead me to information on a live action production of Akira.
I had to rub my eyes and check to make sure that my computer wasn't messed up. Did I just read that someone was doing a live action of Akira? The 1988 anime? The legendary phenom of anime that even if you hate it you must admit its impact on the anime world Akira?
Yes. It was that AKIRA.
I held back my rage at reading that they were going to do a live action of it, I mean the Tekken live action was pretty damn good, one of the best in terms of a game being converted to a movie, and well there were plenty of other live action movies based on animes that did well. But the thing is those live actions were done in Japan, China, and well the respected place of origin.
But sadly this wasn't going to be done that way. Nope, all American. And the dread/rage came bubbling up a little. Look at what happened to Dragon Ball Evolution and that horrible horrible you can't unsee it DOA movie. Yeah America can steal remake the horror movies pretty well with a small loss to special effects for a cheap momentary scare (that if you think about it really had no point in the movie).
And again I suppressed that rage and tried to read through the short list of the synopsis and first picks for the cast. That's where the rage peaked. Instead of dear Neo-Tokyo it takes place in New Manhattan.
Great. It takes place in America.
Well New York is a rather diverse state, I've lived there before and on a single ride on the sub I heard about five different languages.
Then we come to the choices for the main characters list.
Tetsuo- Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy...wait what?
Kaneda- Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix...What the ********?!
I actually had tears in my eyes. They were raping Akira! It was happening, it is happening and there's nothing we can do. It's like being stuck on the other side of the locked door knowing what's going on and no matter how hard you bang, kick, and scream you can not stop it.
Those men are completely and utterly wrong for those parts. Why? Well age for one. But the other well they are whitewashing Akira! Can you actually see this happening? One of those guys riding around on a motorcycle shouting "Tetsuooo!". These prettyboy white guys going around with Japanese names? Forgive me for not being PC but I'm pissed. What are they going to say that they are half Japanese? Oh or maybe they will do what one person suggested and give them buck teeth and pull their eyes back with tape.
It might not mean much to some people but to me that's like whitewashing "Roots" with Elijah Wood as Kunta Kinte.
The original creators should have a lot more say and rights in cases like these.
Lady Bern Community Member 
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Community Member
But if they make us sit through another travesty like Dragon Ball: Evolution...
stressed + burning_eyes
I just don't understand what Hollywood is thinking. The people who are most heavily invested in this series are the old-school fans, the over 13 - early 40s crowd, and those people know very well that it is a JAPANESE series.
Culturally, I don't know how they're going to transpose the themes in the manga: government inefficiency, a desire to return to "traditional" ways, strictly enforced conformity and the competing desire to be different, the youth's rising dissatisfaction with society and frustration from being rendered helpless -- see #4, #6, and #8 here. I mean, a lot of that stuff is specific to Japanese culture, and while certainly there are analogous examples of some themes (youth dissatisfaction in US: counter-culture movement of 60s, in UK: punks of early 70s), it still doesn't fit exactly. Not to say that the themes in the manga are unique to Japan, but they are presented in a way that limits re-interpretation if you wish to maintain the essential character of the story.
So basically what I'm saying is that this movie will BS the essential themes of Akira and suck harder as it attempts to over-simplify and white-wash (western-wash?) the plot.
In that way I think it will be WORSE than Dragon Ball: Evolution, though to this day I still refuse to see that film so perhaps I should reserve judgement.
Also, is it just me or is the casting so racist? I mean, yes, okay, current A-list actors are always desirable for a big project, but is it so freakin' hard to find one of Asian descent?! I'm not trying to say that they should fill a quota (pick an Asian cast because they're Asian), but at least they should acknowledge...argh I can't think of how to articulate this. D'you get what I mean, though?
This has left such a bad taste in my mouth. I'm beginning to wish that these films aren't picked up anymore, if they're going to do such a horrid job with them.