But see now you projected your own stereotypes on it. You can be as true to the source while still adapting it culturally to another setting. There's going to be changes anyway from adapting it from different mediums.
Rum Punch is an Elmore Leonard novel that Tarantino adapted and changed the lead character from a White woman named Jackie Burke to a Black woman named Jackie Brown, set it in Los Angeles instead of Florida, and entrenched it in Blaxploitation influences with the tone, characters, dialogue and music to create something that was still faithful to the source material but stylistically his own.
Another example is Tony Scott's Man on Fire which they adapted from a novel where Creasy was a White American and former member of the French Foreign legion and it's completely set in Italy with Italian characters and names, Italian cities and culture, and the Italian Mafia and changed it to a Black American who's an ex-United States Special Operations soldier completely set in Mexico with Mexican characters and names, Mexican cities and culture as well as American culture, and a Mexican Criminal Organization named "La Hermandad". Even the Italian character of Pinta is paid homage to and changed to the Spanish name of Lupita, Pita for short.
My point is anything can be adapted and changed to a different culture and setting and still remain faithful to the spirit of the story. The only difference is how well it's done and it's overall execution.
There's no reason an American adaptation of Akira can't be done well.
