A recent announcement revealed that Scarlett Johansson would be starring as Major Kusanagi in the "Ghost in the Shell" adaptation by Paramount Pictures. While my initial reaction was that of pure bliss, I saw that much of the internet did not seem to have the same reaction. Articles like this flooded my Facebook news feed with accusations of whitewashing in Hollywood. These articles questioned why a white woman was playing the role of someone named Motoko Kusanagi. These are fair concerns, especially to an uninitiated viewer who knows little about what Ghost in the Shell actually is.

As someone who is a major (get it?) fan of the original Japanese animated movie, I’ll try to clear the air a little on why this casting choice is actually a brilliant move on the part of Paramount Pictures.

"Ghost in the Shell" was originally a Japanese animated movie, released in 1995. The movie was set in a future with advanced cybernetics: artificial human augmentation through computerized body parts. In this world, cybernetics had advanced to such a dramatic point that the line between human and machine became blurred, almost beyond distinction. The movie centers around a high-level crime-fighting team that is simply called Section 9. Nearly every character in the film has robotically enhanced eyes, arms, feet, anything you can imagine, really. The main character, dubbed "the Major" by her crime-fighting team, does not have any of her original body left and has become a government owned crime-fighting cyborg. The plot of the movie focuses on Section 9’s pursuit of a high-level hacker known as the “Puppet Master,” and in the process delves into philosophical discourse about the difference between man and machine, what it means to be human, and so on.

The context of the movie is important when discussing Johansson 's casting choice as a part of the overall production. Other than the fact that the characters have Japanese names, and that the movie is set in Japan, there is nothing specifically Japanese about the movie's plot or its characters. "Ghost in the Shell" is an exploration of advancing technology and humanity’s relationship with it, not an exploration of futuristic Japan specifically. In fact, a very central theme of "Ghost in the Shell" is the fact that the movie could take place anywhere, and its characters could look and sound like anything, since nearly all of the main characters are cyborgs or at least heavily modified humans.

Context is just as relevant when discussing the Major's character specifically. Part of the reason that the Major is mostly referred to simply as “the Major,” and not by her real name, is because “Major” represents the most important segment of her identity. The very name of the movie "Ghost in the Shell" comes from the movie’s central theme that all of the characters are nothing more than “ghosts” (a term the movie uses for something similar to a soul) living in “shells.” Since the Major is a cyborg who lives in a completely synthetic body, the Major was actually purposefully designed to look ethnically neutral. In fact, one point in the original movie saw Major's main companion Batou suggest that Major switch to a male shell. This shows how the characters' appearances were insignificant, mattering little even to themselves.

In addition to all these thematic elements, which support the notion that the characters appearance does not matter in the slightest, complaints about casting Johansson as the Major ignore a much more obvious truth. This movie would not even be getting made without the support of Johansson. Ultimately, movie studios are in the business of making money. What better way to ensure that your movie will make money than singing on an A-list actor like Johansson, who can virtually carry a movie at the box office all by herself?

It is telling that most of the people who have complained about this casting choice know little to nothing about the original movie, and are not a part of the anime community. As an avid anime fan and a fan of the original movie, I am beyond ecstatic that anime is gaining recognition in Hollywood and that this movie is being made at all. Casting Johansson was a brilliant move that got much of the anime community fired up. The community saw this casting choice as an enthusiastic sign: it showed that the studio would sink a large amount of money into the adaptation and take the movie seriously.

Let us not forget the fact that this move is ultimately an American production, produced by an American studio. Foreign studios constantly make adaptations of American movies that change the ethnicities of characters, as does Hollywood, the other way around. While Hollywood whitewashing is major problem in the movie making industry, social justice warriors have not picked their battles well with this "Ghost in the Shell." The themes of "Ghost in the Shell" are so universal that the movie has already inspired imitators all across the world, the most famous of all being "The Matrix Trilogy," whose creators frequently cited "Ghost in the Shell" as their driving influence.

In the end, Scarlett Johansson is a fine choice for the Major. The original movie was very literally designed to be adaptable to any country - a designed heightened by the movie's focus on an ethnically neutral main character. The very name of the movie "Ghost in the Shell" is meant to reinforce how characters' outward appearances do not matter, as they are nothing more than “shells” for the much more important “ghosts” inside of the characters. Casting Johansson makes sense from the perspective of both the studio, who can be ensured of a solid return on its investment, and the fans, who can go in assured that the studio is taking this adaptation seriously. In the end, shouldn't this casting choice epitomize the ultimate goal of these social justice warriors? Wouldn't it be great if we lived in a world where, when people saw Scarlett Johansson cast as someone named Matoko Kusanagi, the labels of ethnicity and race fell away, and all that was left was a great actress, playing a role that she was practically made for, and that the studio and fans alike were excited for?

If you are still concerned about injustice being done here, I encourage you to go check out the original 1995 animated movie made in Japan. Maybe it will spark your interest and encourage you to watch the Japanese sequel movies or the television anime series adaptations, all of which are fantastic and that I highly encourage you to go see. If you are interested in hearing more on this subject, many of the ideas in this article are much better summarized and presented in anime commentators Gigguk’s commentary, which can be found here.