Some good news and a few reminders

[aang_aint_white]

First of all, we want to announce that the Media Action Network for Asian Americans has spoken out publicly against the casting of The Last Airbender. They've posted an open letter to the producers on their site, offering to help Paramount Pictures steer this project in the right direction. From that letter:

The Asian American community, and the

Comments

[singingsun199]

..This is..um *laughs*. This is amazing! They can't ignore MANAA. If they do, then it will become obvious to everyone what's going with this movie. They may be ignorant, but they're not stupid. This is only gonna go uphill from here.:D

[chaobunny]

I'm glad to hear that the meeting with MANNA went well. This may be our last and only chance. I feel like support for this movement is dwindling. I'm finding that a lot of people on forums are saying, "yeah, you've made your point. But boycotting the movie is only going to prevent paramount from making a future Avatar series." And that makes me feel like a bad Avatar fan.

Paramount might be able to ignore a bunch of people sending them letters, but they can't ignore MANNA. I'm interested to see how this plays out, because frankly we're running out of time.

[aang_aint_white]

While I can understand why people want to support a franchise they care about, I disagree that speaking out against this production in any way makes you a "bad fan."

Part of what many of us loved about the original Avatar series was how respectfully it incorporated different Asian and Native American cultures into its world and themes. It's also clear that the creators and staff put a huge amount of effort and care into creating the characters and setting, and deliberately chose to depart from the typical themes of European-style fantasy and do something different and groundbreaking.

Paramount's handling of this adaptation disrespects the show's themes in countless ways, and your decision not to support a film that goes against the spirit of the original makes you the very best kind of fan, in our opinion anyway. <3

[chaobunny]

Well that makes me feel a little better. Personally, in the state the movie is in right now, I choose to not even associate it with the Avatar I know and love. "The Last Airbender" is an insult to Avatar unless they respect the cultures the show is based on. People are so ignorant. >_

[jedifreac]

What I said at the MANAA meeting on Thursday was something along the lines of this:

To see Avatar corrupted instead into a symbol of discrimination, blocking opportunity to those rarely given any, is incredibly depressing. Especially since this discriminatory casting will be presented to children of all ethnicities as something acceptable, normal, and not a big deal at all

[sapphire_fuego]

ALRIGHT!!! MANNA speaking out is what we've been hoping for. Someone that they just cannot blow off like they have been with us.

I hope they will take this issue seriously now and start recasting those roles into what they should have been in the first place.....ASIAN!

That's great news!

[madbonkers]

Looking forward to hear the outcome. Hope news of it arrive soon :)

And I don't think we have anything to worry about when it comes to boycotting the movie. If Paramount doesn't continue with the sequels, all the movie franchise needs is a reboot ;)

[japantheman]

I realize this blog is mainly about stopping the racist casting of The Last Airbender but I see this as more of a starting point to make the problem so much more public and let people know there are things they can do to stop this.

I don't know how many people here also know about the casting of the live action Akira and Cowboy Beebop but these are also giving the lead roles to white actors in movies that actually are originally Japanese And I just feel if people are disgusted by the actions of the producers of The Last Airbender, they need to start acting against other movies where the same thing is happening. This movie can be our starting point but it can't be our only point.

[japantheman]

Yeah, we know that but at least with animes like Cowboy Bebop, Chrono Crusade, Scrapped Princess, and Fullmetal Alchemist, most of the main characters in those series were already established as caucasians from the beginning and if they were to cast them as such, it would be fine with fans because it's established from the start

[japantheman]

Well, maybe cowboy beebop can get away with it but Keanu Reeves is still a bad choice. Akira ceratiny is going in the wrong direction. It's set in neo-TOKYO characters are named Kaneda, Akira, Tetsuo, etc. Although there's been no news on it for a while the last I heard the main roles were being given to white actors.

I know about King of Fighters and am just as disgusted. It also looks like Street Fighter is getting another adaptation but it looks like now as in the 1994 version they were a little more sensitive to the race of the characters.

[tryxkittie]

Um wow. I'm really not sure how they're going to justify Akira. I mean really, NEO-TOKYO + JAPANESE NAMES = WHITE ACTORS? O rly?

I didn't know about King of Fighters...and please let them leave Street Fighter alone. The Chun Li movie's gonna be bad enough.