Live-action adaptations result in forms of improper cultural appropriation

With the rise of anime has come Hollywood's interest in them. They have set out to make live-action versions of those anime to cash in on the new craze. But when Western studios take over Asian media, they run the risk of improper cultural appropriation and whitewashing their casts. Unfortunately, that fear has become reality multiple times. Scarlett Johansson was famously condemned for taking the role of the Japanese protagonist of Ghost in the Shell. Netflix's adaptation of Death Note was similarly decried by taking the Japanese characters and making them mostly white Americans. And while debate still continues on whether or not it is actually anime, the adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender received similar criticism for having white actors portray what appeared to be Asian or Asian-inspired characters in the original show. All of these egregious examples put a stigma on Western studios, and with how recent Netflix's Death Note was, they don't have the excuse of not knowing better. Western studios getting their hands on Japanese stories has a whole host of problems that comes with it. Not least among these is the danger of improper representation. Representation of all people in media is an important ideal in today's society. But the practices of these studios show that they fail in this regard.