Deutsch: Ghost in the Shell Schriftzug (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Masamune Shirow‘s Ghost In The Shell is a manga that takes place in a fictional Japanese city of a future cyberpunk world. I have not read the manga (although I saw part of it in a Dark Horse sampler once) or seen the two animated movies that came from it. However, Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex is one of my favorite animated TV shows to come out of Japan. So I do have some idea what I’m talking about here.
It was recently announced that Scarlett Johansson would be taking on the role of the main character, Major Motoko Kusanagi (usually referred to as “The Major”, which is how I’ll refer to her for the rest of the article). The Major works for Public Security Section 9, and gets involved with cybernetic crimes in a world where cybernetics isn’t just something that exists, it’s taken over almost everybody’s lives. As you can tell by the name, she is also Japanese, which shouldn’t be surprising because the franchise takes place in Japan.
Naturally, fans are up in arms about the casting of a white person as an Asian character. This does instill in me a few questions of my own, and a few defenses. And then more questions because that’s how I roll.
