I have never been into anime, though I enjoyed some of it when I was younger. I watched this trailer and it looks somewhat intriguing. But what I worry about is that the quirkier aspects feel VERY Japanese, and to cast white actors in the key roles just feels off to me. Specifically, the character L seems EXTREMELY Japanese--that he's an investigator and loner who prefers not to wear shoes, for instance--and recasting him as a young black man just feels weird as hell. That role feels like it was designed for a middle-aged Japanese man, perhaps slightly overweight and quiet, almost like a Japanese Columbo. (What's funny is that after I typed that, I looked up the character and he's clearly a young man although he's voiced by a slightly shlubby, middle-aged Japanese man. LOL!)

In the end, it'll be all about the execution. I have similar doubts about the Ghost in the Shell movie, which is also accused of white-washing, so we'll have to see how both are perceived in the end. I ended my subscription to Netflix months ago, and this isn't really spurring me to resubscribe, but I hope that for those that are interested it turns out better than the trailer suggests. At least they got the right guy to voice the bad guy (Dafoe.)

Gotta admit that this tweet I found was quite clever, though.

https://twitter.com/serinide/status/844582333667774464/photo/1