New Anime Netflix Movie Has NO ASIAN Actors?

One of the most famous Japanese anime is getting a Netflix live action movie and there are zero Asian actors in it. Oh, but there are two Asian female actors. Oh, is this a big deal? Let's talk about it. Okay, so the main casting list came out for the new Netflix live action Gundam movie Gundam. Yes, the big monster robot suits that look really cool that every weekend when I went to Chinatown, I go to this Japanese shop. There's essentially Otaku shop because you know, Chinese people love Japanese stuff too. There would be all these Gundam pieces and I would always want one, but then my parents wouldn't let me get it. So I just got Legos, but Legos don't make Gundam. Oh man. There's even a article that said the live action Gundam cast looks like another whitewash anime adaptation. Okay. All right. So this is the top list of people. All right. So this is a Japanese anime. Okay. But there's no Asian actors in the first like 12 people. But let's go to it. Give him a second. Maybe someone pops up as like part Asian. Let's go. Okay. Sidney Sweeney. Not Asian. Noah Centineo. He's not Asian. Jason Isaacs. Definitely not Asian. Jackson White. Ooh, could he be? Could he be? Let's look. Let's look. Okay. He's not Asian. Jovan Walton. Actually kind of looks like my Indonesian friend, Oliver Pross, but let's check on him. Not Asian. Michael Mondo. I'm just going to go ahead and guess not Asian. And if he is Asian, he's not Asian enough. Gemma Chua Tran. Okay. Gemma is a Australian Vietnamese actress, probably with some Chinese heritage because of the Chua. By the way, I'm not just saying that all Vietnamese people are Chinese. Literally, it's in her name. Not to be mixed up with Gemma Chan from, you know, Crazy Rich Asians. Shioli Kutsuna. I'm assuming Japanese. Nanzo Ananzi. Not Asian. Ida Brooke kind of looks like Zendaya. Zendaya kind of looks part Asian. Let's see. Ida Brooke. No evidence that she's Asian. And Oleksandr Rudensky. Yeah. I'm just going to go ahead and say if he is Asian, he's probably Siberian, but no, he's not Asian. So no Asian male actors in a Gundam movie. If you know me and David, we love to travel. In fact, David's traveling right now, but I'll be honest, most of the time when we travel together, I'm the one planning the trip. And if you're like me, you're the person who plans the itinerary, plans the trip, books the flights, sends the Google Doc, then you are a trip planner and you should probably be making some money off of it. And that's what Fora helps you do. Fora is a modern travel agency where when you book other people's trips, you actually make a commission off of it. It's a super legitimate website and it's super easy to sign up. And when you click on be an advisor, they give you everything like training, booking tools, and a whole community so that you're not left around guessing. They give you a lot of resources. Think about it this way. 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Now I know that, you know, at first when I looked at it, first of all, I am still upset, but there's some, I guess if I had to play the devil's advocate and I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll give it to him because I would say that Asian male representation has increased a lot over the years. And we all know this guys on this channel, I've documented it, that there is a lot more Asian representation. I mean, there's characters out there that were not even written as Asian that are being casted as Asian. Some, not a lot, but some. So I'm saying it's getting a lot better. So I'm not here to cry about every single thing. Like, is this a game changer? Is this mean that they're trying to erase us? Let's just go through it because I had to do some research myself on the Gundam series. Okay. And let me tell you this Japanese creators from Japan and Japanese writers and directors from Japan. They're not, let's just say they're not on the same page as Asian Americans or Asians in the West. Okay. They think differently when it comes to their intellectual property. All right. And we know this hang with me now. Now, I just want you to know, I'm not defending Netflix because I don't know what's going on in the background, but I am intellectually honest and I'm gonna be honest here. I would just say overall, the Gundam anime is not the most Asian anime. And what I mean by that is that if you look at the lot of the characters throughout all the shows of Gundam, a lot of them are not depicted to be Asian. Now, as you go know, Japanese anime, although it is made by Japanese people produced in Japan in a Japanese anime style, they write stories about all people. I mean, even Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty itself is not an Asian kitty. That's actually a British girl. It's supposed to be like a British based off a British girl. So even Hello Kitty is technically not even written as Asian. So by God, I hope we never see a live action of Hello Kitty because I just think everybody's gonna be really disappointed. Anyways, let's go into it. First, let's look at a clip of the old Gundam anime and let's see how many characters we think were depicted as Asian in the show. Of course, it was made by Asians, but that doesn't mean they're making something that takes place in an Asian universe or with Asian characters. Those Gundam pilots are desperate. They'll battle even if it means forfeiting their lives. Mission accepted. I'll eliminate all obstacles. Just who are you anyway? Say goodbye. Get all mobile suits ready for combat and watch. Don't die on me. All right. And then there was this Gundam anime series that Netflix actually did two years ago, right? And while it was produced in Japan and featuring a Japanese staff, the script was written in English for the international English audience. So let's play a clip. I don't. Yeah, it was tough. You know, I didn't see a lot of people who look like Brock from Pokemon, you know, black hair, you know, black eyebrows, you know, obviously obvious Asian features, you know, people in anime is obviously they all a lot of them have big eyes, but I guess I can't be honest and say a lot of these characters were Asian. And let's look at this recent Gundam Hathaway series that actually is fairly new. And it was an anime and originally in Japanese and then got dubbed in English. And the original title was Kido Senshi Gundam Senku no Hathaway. Guys like them wouldn't understand our pain looking down on us from their robots. That's why we're overthrowing the Federation government. What? I'm sorry. Sacrifice is sometimes necessary. We're getting crushed by those mobile suits. He had nowhere to run. Has no place on the battlefield. So I have to be honest, one of the things that kind of surprised me and kind of disappointed me at the same time about the whole Gundam series is that there are Asian characters in some of the series. But at least of the recent Gundam stuff that you can find on YouTube that was at least dubbed in English doesn't have a lot of Asian main characters. So what I'm saying is that everything that I just listed might be their excuse. Now, even though the writers of this new Gundam series are Japanese, as we know, Japanese people in Japan, they're not thinking about Asian American representation. That's not their concern. Their art is being picked up and made. And by the way, I don't fully blame them because as a Japanese artist and creative, if you write something that doesn't require any Asian people and it gets picked up by a major American production, which is Netflix, and it gets made, you're probably just honored that it's getting made. You're not out there fighting for Asian faces because in Japan, you have a whole industry full of Asian faces, full of all, but it's really an American issue that we're here battling for representation. Now, I think that is going to be Netflix's reasoning. By the way, I'm putting it out there first. I'm eight miling this. I'm rabbiting this first. I'm putting out the facts that I know what the reasoning is before Netflix even has to talk about it. So there, I came up for the reasoning for you guys. I came up with the excuses, but you want to know something funny? There are no excuses. There are no excuses for this one, Netflix. You've got two Asian female actresses, zero Asian male actors. So clearly Asian people exist in this film. They exist in this universe and you couldn't find one Asian dude to just put in there, even as like a 10th ranking supporting character, not even someone who's half, not even one of the hoppers, not even one of the winter Asians, none of them. You didn't want to put none. You couldn't have fit in one. There's nobody available. There's nobody available. Like no, but you couldn't write one in, even just shove them in there. You could have just done it. Why, why, why'd you want to start this controversy? Don't you look at the casting and be like, yeah, this is a Japanese anime, but Hey Rob, did you notice, uh, we didn't cast any Asian guys and this is an anime. Do you think anybody's going to say anything about that? No, no, I think we're fine. Yeah. Yeah. We're good. We got the, you know, they had the whole beef series. Yeah, we're fine. We don't have to put any Asians in it. Not a good start. Listen. All I know is that when there is a significant controversy about when the casting is announced for a movie, let me tell you this history would tell me that it's not a good sign. And I'm not one of those Asians that's here crying about everything. I don't think Asian guys have to be in everything. I'm not even crying about this per se, but I'm just saying you left us out. And it was the easy one. It was the easy one. It was such an easy one guys. Like literally like, it's just only a net positive if you did it. And now it's a net negative like think of how easy it was. You already had Asian females, like just put in one vaguely looking Asian guy. That's actually Asian. That's all. That's all it took men. But let me know what you guys think about this. I understand that the Gundam series, if you, if you really do your research, it's not the most Asian. It's not like Dragon Ball Z. I think if you whitewash Dragon Ball Z is literally should not ever get made this one. They might get away with it. It's not a huge deal to me, but I think that it was an easy one that they could have done to just avoid it. And plus there's a lot of talented Asian actors out there. Why not just pick one up? It's not like we don't exist. I'm not even talking about me as in we like, I'm just saying we as an Asian guys, it's not like we don't exist on some talent level. You got to thrown in Ronnie Chang, thrown in Jimmy O. Yeah. Throwing in someone funny, at least for a comedic effect. Jeez. It doesn't even have to be the main hero or the hunk or someone. Listen, they might throw in some Asian guy in the trailer. Who's just like, you know, always worrying like the Asian guy who's smart and figures it out and he goes, captain, they're coming. And then the captain who, you know, there's like the white guy or whatever, non-Asian guy who makes all the decision is the hero. That's fine. Captain Kirk. It doesn't have to be Asian, but there's always a smart Asian on the team. Maybe they made them one of the women. So anyways, there's a lot of Netflix stuff out there. I'm sure Asian guys will always have their chances. And there are a lot of Asian guys getting out there, but easy one. This was the easy one. Netflix, super easy. Cause just slipped him in there. Didn't even need to do a lot. He doesn't even need a lot of lines, but just at least on You could have just had them on the, on the main, you know, I don't care. Anyways, guys, let me know what you think in the comments down below and until next time I'm out. Peace.