ohohoho that's loaded!

are remakes of foreign films or books only allowed to use characters from the same country as the original's? Would you call 'The Departed' racist for not casting Asian actors (much less Asian-Americans) in it? of course not, because its a remake rewritten for the US market.... so the question is, is this "Akira" remake going to have Justin Timberlake running around Neo-Tokyo as a character named Kaneda? (If so, that's pretty lame and no one will watch it anyway). so long story short... It all depends on how they're making it.

If they must cast one white actor, they should cast Alexandra Wallace as Akira's nemesis.

true, if nothing changes then nothing changes. Bankable and prior to unbanked Asians need love too.

Look at DragonBalls and King of Fighters and, I am sure, Akira: They will leave the names and everything else the same, just foist some white douchebag into the middle of it. It is not inherently racist, but it is very driven by race and has a ton of racist implications. I would gladly dust off my credentials for a panel discussion about this, as it was my area of research. The Departed was, according to Scorsese, not a remake, but inspired by IA. I'm not kidding, I can provide citations. What a knob.

Who is he talking to? dun dun dun dun.

i am on the fence. I understand hollywood's take on the situation. I think true akira fans are a small minority and asians may even be a smaller minority. African americans make up a huge perccentage of the US population. That's why remaking boondocks with white people would not work. But....with asians, and the small minority of us out there, does it really matter? I'm torn on this topic. I guess if I were a bigger fan of akira or if I were a better Asian then I would side with this dude. But you just look at king of fighters and airbender, and isn't that an inclination of where this film is going? I would understand if there weren't any good asian actors, but c'mon. anyway, still good food for thought and stimulating conversations. @sean, sorry I used the word stimulating as I am sure you are playing with wood as you read this....

Patrick, that is EXACTLY the problem. They simply drop a white face into an Asian context and expect us to either not notice or not say anything. Like the Bangkok Dangerous remake...