Petition to boycott Netflix adaptation of 'Death Note' reaches Japan

[Tennis]

TOKYO —

On March 22, Netflix released a teaser trailer of its upcoming film “Death Note,” an adaptation based on the popular manga by Tsugumi Oba and Takeshi Obata.

Fans were quick to reignite the outrage regarding the whitewashing of the main character Light that arose when the casting was first announced. In the entire cast, only a few non-white actors have significant roles, with Masi Oka being the only Japanese-born cast member announced so far.

A petition on Care2 Petition urging people to boycott Netflix’s “Death Note” has almost reached its 15,000-signature goal, citing the lack of Asian-American actors in a story that is “full of Japanese culture, history, and identity” as another example of whitewashing by the entertainment industry.

The petition has garnered enough attention in the West that Japanese netizens have made note of the story and are offering their comments. Perhaps unsurprisingly though, similar to the “Ghost in the Shell” casting controversy, some of them have posted that the casting of a Hollywood adaptation featuring a predominantly white cast isn’t a problem.

However, despite the mostly laissez-faire attitude on that issue, there were comments by some questioning the casting of Keith Stanfield, a black actor, as L. While the character of Light is likely fully Japanese, it’s rumored that L is only a quarter Japanese at most meaning the character could be played by basically anyone. However, that’s not how some netizens saw it with comments like:

“The thing that’s out of place is L being black.”
“Going by the original manga, L being black is by far stranger.”
“It just doesn’t feel like it fits his character.”

Also, while the online petition asks that Asian-Americans be given their place in main character roles, Japanese people felt different. One point that was repeated over and over is that if producers were going to hire Asian actors for the roles, they should be Japanese actors:

“I think all of this is way less of a problem than when the actor for the main character in Speed Racer was switched from Japanese to Korean.”
“As a Japanese person, I’d be much more offended if a non-Japanese Asian person were playing a Japanese role.”
“Honestly I’d much rather have a white or black actor in an American setting than a Korean or Chinese actor pretending to be Japanese.”

Oddly enough, it seems that the two sides differ on this point. While those behind the petition are calling for a boycott because of Netflix not hiring Asian-American actors such as Edward Zo, it seems that many Japanese netizens would be more upset if if they had hired Asian actors who weren’t Japanese.

In the end though, arguably the most important part of “Death Note” is the story, and with only a teaser trailer, we haven’t seen enough to judge this version yet. The main thrust behind “Death Note’s” compelling story is how it strives to answer the question, “is it ever okay to kill people?” It’s a psychological thriller at its core, and whether this version will live up to the source material will largely depend on the script and the acting chops of the cast.

https://www.japantoday.com/category/...-reaches-japan

People taking live action adaptations really seriously these days.

[Deleted]

Death Note as anime already ended after Ls death. I don't know why anyone would try do make more out of it?! Just bleeding it dry.

[breadisfunny]

Death Note as anime already ended after Ls death. I don't know why anyone would try do make more out of it?! Just bleeding it dry.

but yet dbz just keeps on going....

[NED funded]

Do Japanese people even care? Also this is a remake it could take place wherever they want and not be whitewashing.

[Manabomb]

White washing? Did any of those fans actually watch the anime or read the manga? Light Yagami looks far more akin to a caucasian teenager than he does a Japanese/Asian teenager.

Not to mention, I saw what Japan did to the Death Note movie and frankly? I'd take white washing compared to that sub-par piece of crap. It isn't even worth mentioning in the same sentence as the anime.

L being black is something I could see working, but generally speaking the reason why L and Kira/Light got along so well is because they were so similar in their personalities and their odd habits. If they play L like this, I could see it working. And since it's netflix, it probably could work.

Unless they pull the plug on the whole thing because angry fans have no idea what they want.

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but yet dbz just keeps on going....

That's actually to DBZ's detriment, as they have to constantly reuse characters and replay out old story arcs to oblivion. Sort of the formula to go with that type of anime, though.

Death Note actually had a story to tell and wasn't just a sandbox pit where you could mash people together with lazer effects and 'wooshing' noises. Not that DBZ is bad, there is just a clear distinction between them.

[Video Games]

Why do people care avout this series? Yes it was amazing till episode 17 and then it just peters out and becomes eh.

[Super Kami Dende]

Japanese people have mostly given zero shits about this whole "OMFG WHITEWASHING" retardation that spastics align themselves with.

The most I've heard of Japanese people being angry about was that it's a live action adaption.

[Tennis]

Why do people care avout this series? Yes it was amazing till episode 17 and then it just peters out and becomes eh.

It's one of the greatest animes ever. A true classic.

[Kallisto]

White washing? Did any of those fans actually watch the anime or read the manga? Light Yagami looks far more akin to a caucasian teenager than he does a Japanese/Asian teenager.

That's because default animation to us makes animated characters that are not clearly darker skinned seem as white to us in the west. When people talk about how certain Anime characters look white, to someone from Japan their clearly Japanese. Here is a good article. http://kotaku.com/5627268/why-do-jap...ers-look-white

Now that being said.

Do Japanese people even care? Also this is a remake it could take place wherever they want and not be whitewashing.

People from Japan couldn't care less if their characters are played by people of other races. White, African, whatever. They simply don't care (there is a video out there asking Japanese people about Scarlet Johanson (sp) playing Motoko and most thought she was a good choice.). In fact when they talk about things like cultural appropriation and white washing. In the far east they treat is as people in the west liking their culture and trying to pay homage to it.

[dextersmith]

lol at L's wtf affirmative action casting. Blm will be hysterical with L's death.

[Kallisto]

but yet dbz just keeps on going....

Yeah that's not actually a good thing tbh. The writer of it essentially is forcing himself to create more Dragonball because the studios won't let it die. He wanted to end it as Goku making the sacrifice against Cell, Cell doing that return and Gohan achieving his destiny as the strongest warrior with that massive Kamehameha on Cell at the end of Cellgames.

Then the studio said it was going to continue either way. We had Buu sagas in both Manga and Anime. Ended again with a finish. Then we had GT which was done by studio only. Which let's face it should never be mentioned again. Which pushed the original creator back into making super because the studio once again wanted to milk the series and the creator didn't want it going down the toilet.

[Tennis]

lol at L's wtf affirmative action casting. Blm will be hysterical with L's death.

What a racist comment. Nothing wrong with casting a minority.

[Zan15]

didn't they have 2 movies already with Asians....lol

[Mister Cheese]

It just looks bad. I could care less about it. This is giving me DMC devil may cry vibes when I watch it. Which isn't good.

Also why the hell is Light making out with Misa? When it was shown multiple times in the anime that he had no feelings for her. He just used her.

[the game]

nobody is going to boycott netflix. If people did that they would have nothing to do on their xbox one or their playstation 4

[Zeek Daniels]

heres the thing. Theres already multiple asian live adaptations of the manga/anime. So its fine for there to be an american interpretation. If these petitioners really want asian casting maybe go buy those asian versions and give those companies your support instead of whining about american companies casting american actors.

[dextersmith]

L's supposed to be pale AF.

[Flurryfang]

It fun to see that the japanese don't really care about what race the cast is, aslong as there are no other asians then japanese, because fuck them! xD I don't know if it is full racism-ish, but most asians don't really like other asians ><''

On topic, i don't think it matters whether the character is played by asian, white or black person, aslong as their race is not part of their character, and from what i have seen, Death Note have little focus on race.... So you go girl!

[Deleted]

but yet dbz just keeps on going....

DB also ended after Buu. Not sure what you are watching but it ended there. 100%. absolutely. Don't dare to say otherwise.

[Wyrt]

Japanese people don't seem to care about it. It's all the weeaboos in the US that flip their shit when everything isn't perfect.