One of the few problems I’d probably like to write about is (the lack of) or current POC representation in media, specifically entertainment media like movies, shows, and cartoons. As of recent years, there have been better attempts of POC representation in movies and series but if you look at certain companies like Netflix, there’s a common pattern of them hiring only light skinned black girls. There has been a recent adaptation from Netflix, called Winx the Fate Saga where they do cast a dark-skinned black girl but in the same show, they proceeded to whitewash 2 characters who were originally POC. As for one of the main black characters, instead of sticking to their personality from the original show, they made her the supporting mom-like bestfriend which is another trope Netflix resorted to. Out of the main cast, everyone got a love interest (out of 5) except her. Another failed example is Netflix’s adaptation of Death Note, where the director had decided to completely rewrite the story to take place in an American setting to appeal to a Western audience, they had even rewritten original characters to fit this setting ( white washing the main lead, and love interest) and while doing that, the adaption had failed to captured the original’s essence and story elements. In my opinion there was no need to change the setting of this particular story when there was no problem with it in the first place, if Netflix had just originally kept the story’s setting in Japan it would still appeal to an American audience. I have one more example, that being Disney’s recent adaptation, Mulan, it had market itself as a more “mature” and accurate representation of Mulan but the movie turned out not to be that. While the whole cast was POC, the story written for this movie is historically and culturally inaccurate. The whole introduction of “Chi” which was not in the original animated feature, was used as some kind of tool like the “Force” in Star Wars, making Mulan this super human instead of this regular woman using her wits to save China. And culturally, chi is not like how the new Mulan makes it out to be, it’s actually described to be “air,breath, or lifeforce” and everyone has it. The new Mulan had just inaccurately represented Chinese culture.

All these examples tie to one another problem I’d like to talk about is Hollywood’s dire need of live-action adaptations. There has been so many remakes being produced these days, at this point they’re being made for nostalgic cash-grab. They make these movies giving impressions as if the original were too childish because they were animated, when really that’s not the case. Movies like the original Mulan, or shows like Death Note were already solid pieces themselves and can be enjoyed by adults. I can further explain in my actual article, but these are the two problems I would like to write about.