Is 'Ghost in the Shell' Really a 'Japanese' Story?

But what if the white actor REALLY wants to do it? #chrisgrace #dropoutpresents #improv

[schlibbity]

Oh my god Scarlett Johansson doing a show on Dropout?? 😍

[SeveralGhost]

It's a Mira-cle that they even got that movie off the ground lmao

[rw]

As a Japanese person, I didn’t have any issue with Major Kusanagi being played by Scarlett Johansson. In fact, people around me were happy about it and no one was angry about it being "whitewashed". After all, Kusanagi is a cyborg with a designed body, and her appearance already looks somewhat Western. It was a good marketing decision imo.
What really bothered me more was that the film failed to capture the aesthetic, the cool visual, and the atmosphere of the original 1995 anime. Some of the camerawork was off, and there was no use of "ma(間)" (the meaningful pauses that allow the audience to immerse themselves in the world). What frustrated me the most was the bizarre design of the geisha robots. Seriously, what was that?

[Xgo]

motoko kusanagi died and had a brain transplant into a robot body. He hasn't seen the original show, i guess. Because she changed bodies like 3 times.

[erictalaria]

I have to re watch now. I do not remember seeing a man in a skin tight onesie

[beastmaster]

Everyone that cried about the race swap completely missed that that's not the original body and that's kind of the point of the existentialism of the meaning of being human and having a soul. A Ghost in the Shell.

[D.O.E._LLC]

😂 he looks better in the suit than the actress who played the major.😂

[FirstNameLastName-okayyoutube]

I didn't get it. The last point just sounded like they changed the name to some Scottish thing and therefore it's okay to cast a white person. It's just a lot of going on

[ayhcenkard]

What i hate about the live actuon is the cut off the profound moment of the anime movies the serious question of existence and beliefs and the action is just suck cuz u know.... live action limits

[DjoneForever-ge]

She might have Japanese name, but she's definitely white in the Anime

[Heakz]

The changing her name says its all. You can't make the argument that its about the themes of transhumanism and identity when they changed her name because well Scarlett is a white woman and how can a white women have a Japanese sounding name? I mean, white people have white names and Japanese people have Japanese ones. Oh then Motoko Kusanagi is for sure a Japanese person.

Even the point about being a cyborg. Ok, so why does she need to have a white chicks name now? She is still Motoko Kusanagi. What, if she changes into a white person body she becomes a white person? If that is the case then this means changing the ethnicity of the main fucking character does matter. Then the Ghost in The Shell movie isn't really a faithful adaptation and is become some completely different chick. Why? Because you wanted someone more famous? Well that explains your priorities. Which ISN'T the movie.

[melissachase]

But hey they also did a garbage remake of Aeon Flux too. Not the same people but whatever. You took something i loved and pissed all over it. I dont even care about race. They picked shitty actresses to play them because theyre physically close 🙄🙄🙄 are they going to get Carl from the walking dead to play shin chan next 🤦‍♀️

[ActionBob]

Makoto was put in a cyber body that is a 100% replacement form. It is without race or origin other than its factory and its appearance is deliberately ambiguous, her eyes aren't asian and her jawline isn't Caucasian she never blinks and has the physique of an Olympic gymnast.

It's silly to call it whitewashed to have scarlet play the major.

[MikaeruDaiTenshi]

Its worth mentioning that while Major's name is japanese, she is also a full-body cyborg, meaning she can have any appearance.

Second to this, if you look into history of the Japanese and Asians, is that they see beauty in whiteness. Nobles, royals, geisha, they all usually portray themselves as white as possible, because only the lesser people, workers snd soldiers are tanned by the sun.
You could say, in a way, "whitewashing" is part of their culture. So it's not car-fetched if the Major doesn't exactly look asian.
Also, there are many comics in which she doesn't really look asian as well.