Hell, we can't even get bankable female leads anymore outside of dramas.
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Is Hollywood 'whitewashing' Asian roles?
- Thread starter Dram
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Hell, we can't even get bankable female leads anymore outside of dramas.
Japan whitewashes their own stuff.
Goku not even human
sans_pants
avec_pénis
well how many women can do action or comedy roles?? Like 3 or 4
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Most characters in anime look white to me.
Wendel Clark
Member
bitch i look like goku
You know they won't (<- assuming the move gets made at all, naturally). They don't make Dragon Ball or Akira movies because they're in love with the original work, but because they expect people to recognize the title. That's pretty much the entire point.
Read the last page.
Yeah, her name should be KIm Toyoya or some of those weird japanese names.
Whether or not that was the intention by the animators, the end result (in many instances) absolutely looks white to me as well.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
The Last Airbender is a problem because even in the animated style, most of the characters are clearly not caucasian. And there was that great image that went around about how Aang is actually drawn very Asian, but looks "white" to people with a terrible stereotype about Asian appearance.
With anime, it's an old issue that some folks don't know the full story behind. Anime and manga designers started using what is taken to be the "japanese" style to differentiate their characters from one another in a large cast, and manga being mostly black and white caused them to design characters who read best with light complexions.
Plus as observed upthread, anime/manga is simplified and we all read our own race and face into simplified representations. There are a number of common anime facial archtypes that are clearly not caucasian even if their skin is portrayed as being light. The issue is further clouded in that in contemporary times, many Japanese character designers try to blend features of many races together, so that their characters may have international appeal.
But there's also this classic video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8
One of the more interesting examples, I thought, where the photorealistic yet stylized characters in the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children movie. There was interesting racial blending going on there, where the primary cast of light skinned characters are not entirely western, but not entirely Asian either.
Seriously, these are not archetypical white people. (Talking about Reno in the second image, lol.) If most anime characters were rendered photo-real, this is more what the designers would be imagining.
With anime, it's an old issue that some folks don't know the full story behind. Anime and manga designers started using what is taken to be the "japanese" style to differentiate their characters from one another in a large cast, and manga being mostly black and white caused them to design characters who read best with light complexions.
Plus as observed upthread, anime/manga is simplified and we all read our own race and face into simplified representations. There are a number of common anime facial archtypes that are clearly not caucasian even if their skin is portrayed as being light. The issue is further clouded in that in contemporary times, many Japanese character designers try to blend features of many races together, so that their characters may have international appeal.
But there's also this classic video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8
One of the more interesting examples, I thought, where the photorealistic yet stylized characters in the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children movie. There was interesting racial blending going on there, where the primary cast of light skinned characters are not entirely western, but not entirely Asian either.
Seriously, these are not archetypical white people. (Talking about Reno in the second image, lol.) If most anime characters were rendered photo-real, this is more what the designers would be imagining.
Because it perpetuates stereotypes and prevents minority actors and actresses from getting good jobs in the industry.
Cast white people because there are few great minority actors --> few great minority actors because they aren't offered big roles --> Cast white people because there are few great minority actors
Funny you say Americanizing considering two of the three people on that poster are British.
In my opinion Square Enix CG characters always tended to look Asian, or at the very least Asian with Caucasian hair. The most jarring case for me is Final Fantasy X and the difference between the characters' in-game models and their CG designs. I remember Akihiko Yoshida talking about how he designed Ashe for Final Fantasy XII to have features of multiple nationalities like the face and body of a Frenchwoman but the bone structure of a Japanese person.
Basically, Japanese character designers depend on the racial bias of their audiences.
Finaika
Member
British look like Americans.
It's a misconception that Asian artists are going out of their way to make all of their characters white.
1) Draw a stick figure. What race is it? Most people in the west will assume white. How would you draw an Asian stick figure? Most would change the eyes.
Asian people don't see themselves that way. To an Asian person in the east, a stick person would be Asian.
2) Anime characters are also drawn with multi-colored hair and eyes (often blue, green, purple, yellow, orange) to distinguish the characters from each other, and since Asians are not capable of naturally having a hair color other than black or brown westerners will assume that they are not drawing "Asians". White people are also typically the only real-life race with non-brown/black eyes and hair, so they're the race automatically associated with multicolored hair, even though obviously white people cannot have blue/green/purple hair.
3) Anime characters are drawn with exaggerated huge eyes because they are "cuter" and more expressive, which is important in a visual medium like cartoons. What race in the human population is the opposite of this? Asians. So people assume that the characters aren't Asian.
Taking the above into account, you can see why it's a misconception that Asian animators are always drawing white people. They're mostly just drawing cartoon characters. In fact, when they actually ARE drawing specifically white characters, they go out of their way to make it distinct...blond hair coupled with blue eyes, a squarer jaw, or bigger nose, etc ("Don't forget tanned skin, bigger breast/bust, and luscious lips." - Tenchir). Otherwise characters are racially ambiguous or non-specified.
Zoramon089
Banned
Getting some Josh Hartnett vibes from that one.
. . .
Are you serious? Aside from the blue eyes Cloud look pretty asian...
LOST was one of the most multicultural shows that didn't feel forced.
One of the more interesting examples, I thought, where the photorealistic yet stylized characters in the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children movie. There was interesting racial blending going on there, where the primary cast of light skinned characters are not entirely western, but not entirely Asian either.
Seriously, these are not archetypical white people. (Talking about Reno in the second image, lol.) If most anime characters were rendered photo-real, this is more what the designers would be imagining.
They don't look entirely male either.
Don't forget tanned skin, bigger breast/bust, and luscious lips.
Zoramon089
Banned
You haven't seen japanese men nowadays
And then there's also that too.
They'd rather spend their money trying to make some unknown white dude be the new "it" star and watch it fail than even think of trying to do the same with a non-white actor. I wished Hollywood would give non-white actors a chance as leads in movies that weren't just "ethnic/minority/culture based". Hell, even when they do that they still mess that up.
This.
There are more white people in the country, therefore they buy the most tickets. White people are also picky over the people in the movies, because if they are not white, they feel they it's not for them and therefore won't see it. It's sad, but there isn't much we can do.
The Last Airbender was a big budget martial arts movie with a respected brand and an extremely devoted fanbase that would have seen it no matter what. It was the perfect opportunity.
The Last Airbender was a big budget martial arts movie with a respected brand and an extremely devoted fanbase that would have seen it no matter what. It was the perfect opportunity.
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
Tell that to him on Twitter.
les papillons sexuels
Banned
Serious question here, are there any asain actor(s) and actress(es) that are recognizable(and therefore be able to draw in crowds) and fluent in english enough to take on important dramatic leading roles?
The only one I can really think of is lucy liu.
The only one I can really think of is lucy liu.
Yeah it is pretty sad but it's all about the $$ and taking the least risks possible. Asians are definitely the most discriminated demographic in Hollywood. Other than Jackie Chan or Jen Li I can't really think of another actor who was Asian and had a leading role in a movie. I also can't think of a movie that had Asians as the leading actors and that didn't involve stereotypical Asian stuff like Martial Arts.
sans_pants
avec_pénis
Asians are 5% of the country. Blacks and Latinos are the ones getting really screwed
I wrote a paper about this phenomenon and Kill Bill. It's a little different but I basically argued that white actors were getting the common/traditional heroic Asian roles whereas Asian actors were just reduced to playing Asian stereotypes.
Granted it's not a great paper as it was during the beginning of my academic career, but I thought it was interesting.
Granted it's not a great paper as it was during the beginning of my academic career, but I thought it was interesting.
Plenty. Two I can think of off the top of my head are John Cho (Harold and Kumar) and Maggie Q (Nikita). ETA: I gave her the wrong name. Whoops!
sans_pants
avec_pénis
the majority of Americans have never heard of them
and Harold is not a star, he's done well in one comedic role
Devolution
Member
From what I recall the closest an asian actor came to hookin' up with a non-asian actress was Jet Li with Aaliyah in Romeo Must die and they didn't even kiss. Quite depressing no?
Pretty sure a loooot of people know who John Cho is.
Zoramon089
Banned
Uhh, Harold and Kumar is a big movie franchise. The majority of young Americans surely know who John Cho is
I had no idea what his name is. Just as the Asian dude from Harold and Kumar.
sans_pants
avec_pénis
they know him as harold
The majority of Americans haven't heard of many stars. Take Rooney Mara, for example. John and Maggie, in particular, have tons of visibility because they're always in commercials and are always doing TV appearances for their work.
A Pretty Panda
fuckin' called it, man
Don't forget Ken Jeong. I've seen that dude quite often.
And The Departed is a remake of the chinese movie Internal Affairs. Your point?
I think his point was that there's aggravation when Hollywood takes material that originated in the East and adapt it here with white actors but nobody makes a fuss when other countries take Hollywood movies and adapt it with the actors of the majority ethnicity.
jordan0386
Member
A fair amount. People hate Tyler Perry for making movies and tv shows with black leads.
Not buying the argument of his work is not good. Because that isnt true. He is disliked mainly because he is black and putting his money into black people.
shanshan310
Member
Am I the only one who doesn't go to see a movie based on which actors are in it? Or who doesn't feel that I can only relate to white actors?
I'd like to see more diversity in Hollywood actually. Watching the same actors can get really boring.
I'd like to see more diversity in Hollywood actually. Watching the same actors can get really boring.
Is Bollywood 'brownwashing' Caucasian roles?
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