Yeah, I can't imagine we would be offended if the situation were reversed, like if the Japanese film industry cast Japanese actors in an adaptation of Shakespeare, that would be expected.

Plus, it's difficult to make the case that Motoko even has a race any more. She is the brain of a Japanese woman in a prosthetic body. One she didn't choose to look Japanese, rather a sort of ostentatious athlete/sex doll look with red eyes and blue hair. Basically no one looks like that, but Scarlet Johnson pulls it off as well as anyone could.

Now if they had gone with the ARISE timeline, an Asian actress would embody that incarnation perfectly.

Japanese people don't care that the actress is not Japanese. The original creators don't care that the actress is not Japanese. Does no one else see the terrible irony that the people complaining loudest about Scarlett Johansson being cast in this role are mostly privileged white people?

I'd be curious if these same people complained about Tom Cruise being the lead in Edge of Tomorrow or Justin Chatwin playing Goku in the 2009 Dragonball movie. And I'd be more curious to hear what Asian box office star should have been cast in these roles to attract the audiences these movies needed to recoup their production costs.

Sure, Mr. and Ms. educated liberal-progressive might go to see these movies even if they are cast with relatively unknown Asian actors but would that be enough to justify production of the movie in the first place?

This movie is an ADAPTATION. Adaptations are not supposed to be literal translations of the source material. What would be the point in that? I don't think a lot of people who watched the Lord of the Rings films, for instance, could have stomached being bombarded for minutes at a time with bad poetry by Tom Bombadil.

They made the right decision on this film. In this case, people who know nothing about anime are going to show up for this movie just to watch Johansson kick ass. And if they like it a lot they are going to be interested in learning more about the original source material, in which case they'll obtain a lot more Japanese cultural knowledge than they would if some "Asian-looking" person had been cast in the role in the first place.

Whether this movie will actually be any good or not... it's really impossible to tell from this trailer.

Are you implying that white people are shitty to everyone else because they are white? Or is it less about skin color and more about how a dominant culture/race treats and mistreats others?
No matter which group is currently dominant, power always corrupts.

@Jinx
I'm not sure you could call this cultural misappropriation, I'm pretty sure GITS is owned by a Japanese company and sold the movie rights to Hollywood. And the credits will still feature the name of GITS's creator, Masamune Shirow, a Japanese man. So white people are not taking credit for something they didn't create.

People say they want to see more cultural diversity but they start throwing fits whenever someone uses a cultural element in their work and they themselves are not from that culture.
I see a world where older cultures are gradually going to mix together and become newer ones, this to me, is inevitable; and I look forward to the day where we can simply enjoy good works without all the moral hand wringing.

As for the trailer itself, I think it looks better than what little I've seen before. Although I am not sure I like some of the turns they are taking in the story that this trailer seems to imply. The first of her kind? I seem to recall there were lots of people like her in the mangas and the anime.

What I find interesting is that modern manga evolved post WW2 and took a lot of influence from American comics brought to Japan by GIs . Characters in manga often don't really look asian, their faces are, if anything, exaggerations of western beauty ideals. If you did see flatter faces and almond shaped eyes it was often the face of a villain or fool. That said, Motoko is unquestionably Japanese, I think its a shame they didn't cast an Asian actress for the roll... but I guess in the end this is a western movie, made predominantly by westerners in English. It's cultural appropriation. Is it theft or flattery? Does Ghost in the Shell belong first to the Japanese, or does it belong as much to its western fans?

I just hope it doesn't suck

also Scarlett is nice to look at regardless.

That is a super fascinating youtube channel right there. Thanks, dude!
I love to hear the opinion of japanese people on this. It's very unexpected and interesting. Really changed my perspective a bit.

Japanese opinions on "white washing" the character https://youtu.be/2DhoBuU1Dtc

Different cultural values. Alright then, @SDGundamX

The claim is that these places are examples of islamic countries 'filled with nice people'. I'm suggesting that @StukaFox's list of vicious police-states is perhaps not best chosen to illustrate this view.

There's a difference in category, isn't there, between being muslim and being japanese or american. It would be absurd to say, "I am japanese because I believe..." just as it would, "I am a muslim because I happened to be born..."

Now, we can actually make sweeping and not the less factual statements about people on the basis of their shared characteristics. Japanese people are born within such a set of geographical coordinates, or to parents who hold citizenship with the state of japan, or have naturalised following a particular procedure. Millions of people lumped together in a single sentence, and without assuming they're all alike.

Muslims, like rats or serial killers, aren't all alike and they don't all believe exactly the same things. Nevertheless by definition there really are certain specific beliefs to which they must all hew. Or show me the muslim who doesn't believe that there's a god, or that muhammed received its doctrine.

If you find basic, universal islamic beliefs repugnant (as every decent person must) then it is correct, objectively correct, to generalise your antipathy to all muslims, however many millions there may be, however widely spread. The apology from number and diversity fails completely.

@gorillaman

It's almost as if some countries have different cultural values than the United States. For example:

Japan:
--Distributing pornography is illegal and punishable by up to two years in prison and a $25,000 fine (under Article 175 of the Penal Code, which defines pornography as showing the naughty parts of a man or woman, hence mosaics on all Japanese porn)
--Domestic violence and rape laws are often unenforceable
--LGBT community has almost no legal recourse in the face of discrimination of virtually any kind (housing, work, banking, etc.)

America itself has its share of bat-shit insane laws (from the rest of the world's perspective at least) such as legalized death penalty, and "well-intentioned" Christians are still fighting to deny gay people the right to marry in court at this very moment.

Should we come to the conclusion that Americans and Japanese people are "bad people" because these laws exist? Or maybe, as Ahmed Ahmed suggested, we should stop lumping huge groups of people (in the case of Muslims literally millions of people from an extremely culturally diverse group of countries) together and assuming they're all alike and believe exactly the same things?

Congratulations! Your video, People on a Japanese Gameshow Try to Say Massachusetts, has reached the #1 spot in the current Top 15 New Videos listing. This is a very difficult thing to accomplish but you managed to pull it off. For your contribution you have been awarded 2 Power Points.

This achievement has earned you your "Golden One" Level 13 Badge!

Congratulations! Your video, Japanese Hakone Marquetry, has reached the #1 spot in the current Top 15 New Videos listing. This is a very difficult thing to accomplish but you managed to pull it off. For your contribution you have been awarded 2 Power Points.

This achievement has earned you your "Golden One" Level 1 Badge!

A friend once explained to me why Sushi was Japanese. He said that because they lived on Islands that tree's were limited and precious and so fuel for cooking was limited. I guess that's what lead to them being woodworking masters - that deep respect for tree's. Origami too!

Your video, Japanese Hakone Marquetry, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Your video, People on a Japanese Gameshow Try to Say Massachusetts, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 8 Badge!

Go China, go China go! Go China, go China go! Wait, no, ninjas are from Japan -- are there ninjas in China? Hmmm...

No, I think those are called assassins. But Europe has assassins... what are Chinese ninjas called? Now I'm confused. But that's okay -- the experts at Yahoo Answers to the rescue:

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100203020944AA8ZKHv

"Ninjas are Japanese, In China there're kung fu masters."

Muslims are already killing Americas on our soil while the Japanese interned were not killing Americans on our soil.

Why do we need 15 gov agencies ?

France keeps letting these not compatible citizens into its own country at its own peril.

Just say no to Muslims!