Thread: Cowboy Bebop Netflix producer is talking about whitewashing

I know that practically every sane person knows that a confirmation of wokeness in entertainment is a confirmation of a looming commercial failure and poor audience reception... in most cases. I am not gonna lie and I know I'm not alone here, but this shit does get on my nerves. Article in question.

Originally Posted by Marty Adelstein

...we have gone out of our way, because of all these anime movies that have come out and been accused of being whitewashed, we have really gone out of our way. We have the original composer, Yoko Kanno, doing music. The characters are all sort of multiethnic, and it’s a great cast. And the two episodes I have seen are so much fun. It’s really fun.

Look, I know that having this opinion automatically makes me a white supremacist, but I do think there is absolutely nothing wrong with having white people or a largely white cast in anime film adaptations. All of those who shares Marty's sentiments shouldn't take it from me. They should take it from the Japanese. A lot of Japanese people do not understand why westerners (particularly white people, ho ho) are so aggravated by this "whitewashing" non-issue.

I know I've talked about the Ghost in the Shell adaptation a few times before and I'm going to talk about it again because I do love it. It was a commercial flop, but that is largely thanks to vocal minorities who influenced media outlets into slamming it, and white critics decrying this horrifying whitewashing in unison. Oh the humanity.

I watched it in 3D a few days back which was incredible but I'm not (only) mentioning GitS to sing its praises. I'm doing so because GitS's anime director enjoyed the adaptation and so did the Japanese. An argument doesn't really hold much water when the people you're "fighting for" don't agree with you and enjoy seeing a mostly white cast. Not only this, but the director also said that he found the accusations ridiculous, saying that Major (protagonist, played by Scarlett Johansson) doesn't actually have an ethnicity.


How embarrassing...

I'm also going to talk about Alita: Battle Angel that I thoroughly enjoyed last year. (Perhaps something for a get-together?) Once again, similar circumstances. It faced a lot of backlash because of this nonsensical accusation. There are parallels here. Believe it or not, this is even stupider. While I don't know the general Japanese audience's reception, the original manga's author has called this adaptation, and I quote, "the greatest movie in the world". But here's the stupid part. Here you can see the director of the adaptation defending it. Fair enough, but there's just one teeny weeny fact that blows those accusations out of the water: the original manga was set in Kansas. Yup, this outrage mob was arguing in support of something that was entirely untrue anyway, but that's hardly a surprise, is it? The original manga was intentionally an imitation of the United States.

So now we're back to Cowboy Bebop and that Marty guy. So, he's been bending the knee (I guess John Cho already bent his knee but that's neither here nor there) to progressive types because he felt threatened by the aforementioned (and others) examples. The thing is, Netflix was kind of already doing this. They tried to make the fact that Death Note was "diverse" (I mean black L, most of the cast was white) a selling point of sorts. Here's the difference between following an artistic vision and spoiling that by shoehorning an agenda. (Pay attention to the user scores because the critics tend to be on the same wavelength in politics.)





They are decent scores.



When will Netflix realise they're doing it wrong? (Rhetorical question I know.) I honestly don't like to say it but I just know that Cowboy Bebop will crash and burn because this director is correlating "all sort of multiethnic" and "really fun". I have nothing against having minorities in a cast when it's because they're well suited to the role (not only on the shallow basis of skin colour) but when it's done to appease a progressive phantom audience it's basically a death sentence.

Good. I hope it loses a lot of money and they stop making live-action adaptations. While I didn't come at it from a white-washing perspective, it was initially jarring to me when i saw the GitS movie trailer with ScarJo. It janked up the vibe for me and made me even less interested. When I thought about it for a few minutes, it became really funny to me that this white lady was named Motoko Kusanagi. The ultimate weeb! That's like if I introduced myself to people as Ichigo Kurosaki with a straight face It's the type of cringe material that I really love in a twisted way.

Let's keep in mind that Asian studios adapt a lot of Western material as well with all-Korean, Japanese, Chinese, ect. casts. There's Chinese Star Wars, Aladdin and many more. They also have Asian seasons of various TV shows with locally-sourced contestants/actors. It doesn't matter, even IF the original Japanese staff hated it. Once they sold the license to a Western studio I feel they lost all right to complain, so I'm glad they wound up liking it but I wouldn't have felt anything otherwise. The odd part about this is that Spike Spiegel and Faye Valentine....those names don't sound very ethnic, now do they? What's up with this brown-washing and yellow-washing? Very bigoted, in my opinion.

In the end, this looks to me like another "get woke go broke" scenario. Even if it's not, I'm not the intended audience here so if I were to complain about it I'd just be an asshole. I'll leave it to the live-action purist and WOKE factions to sort out, once they put a 3DPD human being on screen it isn't worth getting mad about.

My favourite live action show. You know it. Korin knows it, Starwind55 knows it, and no doubt some others do too: 24. The best show from the United States. Hell, maybe even the world. Jack Bauer, biggest idol of the right-wing. He was kicking ass since 2001 and was the reason why Donald Trump vowed to make America great again after the show had its conclusion. Heaven forbid, if you love this show you will make some friends, but you'll also make many enemies from the left. It is the embodiment of the conservative straight white male's dream.

Or so that was implied when the show has received backlash over the years. Regardless, it is a fucking incredible show and you're all not getting Christmas presents from me for not watching it. But why am I so in love with an uber-Murican show, you ask? Well, it was really, really popular in the UK, almost as much as the USA. And it wasn't just greatly popular in those two countries.

Fuck the actual what?! What in the name of God is this? Are you fucking kidding me? Are those fuckin' Japs stealing my Bauers? Are they stealing my Bauers and twisting that beautiful American story? Because I swear to God, if they are, I will shove a USP down their throats and blast the yellow out of them before they can say "CTU". Yellow-washing my favourite show? Disgusting!

Turns out, 24 was incredibly popular in Japan. So much so that despite the show not being active in any real capacity in the last six years, they're more than happy to license it for an adaptation knowing that it will do very well. (Fun fact: Japan is the only place a 24 Blu-ray was released.) And honestly, I cannot wait for this adaptation. They can make it as Japanese as they want. They can even take the setting out of the US and place this Jaku Balu in Tokyo if they want. Because guess what? I don't give a fuck about this "washing" bullshit, despite the fact that they are completely modifying the storyline, unlike Ghost in the Shell. Because apparently it is A-OK as long as it isn't white people who are doing this sinful deed.

And let's not forget Kiefer Sutherland's more important role:



That's right! The time he played David Hayter.

As much as you mentioned how American the character is, isn't Sutherland from England?
Hayter is Canadian-American so he's not a real American either. I'm getting REALLY sick of this Brit-washing of American characters. Jack Bauer and Snake are AMERICANS. I will NOT be purchasing the upcoming "Metal Gear Solid 6: Commonwealth"

Originally Posted by Zemekis

As much as you mentioned how American the character is, isn't Sutherland from England?
Hayter is Canadian-American so he's not a real American either. I'm getting REALLY sick of this Brit-washing of American characters. Jack Bauer and Snake are AMERICANS. I will NOT be purchasing the upcoming "Metal Gear Solid 6: Commonwealth"

Actually, not really. He's only really in a manner of speaking. Kiefer doesn't even remember living in England because he was moved to Corona, California when he was two years old. (Yeah, no wonder Jack Bauer's so good at handling epidemics.) Kiefer did pretty well as ol' Snakey, but remember that you're fighting against the majority here. 99% of the toxic Metal Gear fanbase would rip you to shreds for that.

Well what did their hero bring us? Death Stranding with an all-new protagonist, Norman Reedus. (My god, there must have been some serious difficulty for you in processing that mashup of complete fiction and complete reality. "This is a game? But they're all real people? What's going on?! ") Technically he is English, Irish, Scottish and Italian.

Originally Posted by Zemekis

That's right! The time he played David Hayter.

Originally Posted by Mantis

Kiefer did pretty well as ol' Snakey, but remember that you're fighting against the majority here. 99% of the toxic Metal Gear fanbase would rip you to shreds for that.

Looks like you missed my hidden jab at Kiefer. He did a good job, but I'm a Hayter kinda guy. I don't get into the flame wars or care too deeply though. Imo, nobody should be ripping one-another to pieces about video games and even less so about voice actors.

Phrases like "whitewashing" and forcing characters to be anything other than white or straight for the sole perpose of having a more diverse cast is like shooting yourself in the foot. Plenty of gay men are even sick of seeing gay characters who's whole depth and persoanlity is "oh look, I am the gay guy!". Netflix has a way of making everything about sexual prefrence, indentity and race to the point where it is like a slap into everyone's face who watches.

Mr Robot is a good example of a diverse cast done well. They didn't throw it in your face and shove it down your throat. I love Cowboy Beebop but this is going to be a dumpster fire and I refuse to watch it.

Originally Posted by KorinKitty

I love Cowboy Beebop but this is going to be a dumpster fire and I refuse to watch it.

I'm with you on that. Now cancel the Netflix subscription & we'll be in business!

Edit: got my photo deleted because I was being bad i suppose. It was just from Google Images though ;D

Originally Posted by Zemekis

-snip-

...Amazon Prime is still cool, right?

This isn't 4chan, Zemekis.