Isle of Dogs Opens Up an Interesting Conversation About Cultural Appreciation
By Mar 22nd, 2018, 1:28 pm
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From the moment I saw the first trailer for Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, I’d been waiting for the conversation about cultural appreciation and appropriation to be brought up. Not in a trolling way, but I think when it comes to media, especially Asia media, there is this constant desire to remove the “Asian-ness” from the work.
Film critic, Justin Cheng writes in his review of the Isle of Dogs for the L.A. Times, about how some of the choices Anderson makes in the film, like having the citizens speak in Japanese and the main dog cast speak in English ends up making the Japanese citizens an “other” in a story about their culture.
Anderson, a stickler for verisimilitude even in the weirdest situations, has the human residents of Megasaki City speak their native Japanese, a choice that would seem respectful enough except for the conspicuous absence of English subtitles. Much of the Japanese dialogue, especially Atari’s, has been pared down to simple statements that non-speakers can figure out based on context and facial expressions; longer, more complicated exchanges are translated aloud by a handy on-screen English interpreter (Frances McDormand).
The dogs, for their part, all speak clear American English, which is ridiculous, charming and a little revealing. You can understand why a writer as distinctive as Anderson wouldn’t want his droll way with the English language to get lost in translation. But all these coy linguistic layers amount to their own form of marginalization, effectively reducing the hapless, unsuspecting people of Megasaki to foreigners in their own city. Their assumed passivity is further underscored by the singularly unfortunate character of Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig), an American foreign-exchange student who becomes the angry, heroic voice of Megasaki’s pro-dog resistance. At one point, she even smacks down a scientist voiced by Yoko Ono. (Yoko Ono!)
Voice-acting in animation is a tricky issue since most voice-actors are white. Even shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra which feature non-white Asian-inspired characters are mostly voiced by white voice actors. For me, I never questioned the fact that it didn’t matter that Katara or Azula or Sokka were voiced by white voice actors, the characters on the screen were Asian and the story was rooted so much in Asian folklore.
Then The Last Airbender came out and I began to hear fans claim that it was fine that Katara and Sokka were played by white actors because “they weren’t really Asian or Inuit.” Which, yeah, they aren’t perfectly Inuit or East Asian because it is a fictional universe … but that is what they would be.
This debate came up with most anime-to-American Live Action adaptations, where I would have fans of anime tell me, to my actual face, that because Saiyan’s hair and eye color go from black to blonde hair and blue eyes it indicates whiteness. Nevermind that the series was inspired by Journey To the West and the fictional culture of Saiyans is an alien expy of the samurai. Nope, we have to be that obtuse. In fact, I found that most “die-hard fans” of anime were quick to tell me that these characters weren’t “really Japanese” because of eye color, hair color, or other designs. Nevermind the names, nevermind that there are whole articles on how manga and anime artist show non-Japanese features and that in Japan, the default is Japanese.
That doesn’t just apply to whitewashing, it also applies to race-bending. One of the things that bothered me about Death Note casting L as a black man amongst a hella-white cast, like the upcoming Alita: Battle Angel movie which has Latinx and black characters in the cast, is that it turns the conversation from whitewashing a Japanese product to “oh look how diverse we made it.” Which only pits Asian-Americans and other POC people against each other.
Is it awesome that a Latina actress is going to be headlining a major action movie? Yes. Does that negate the fact that we need to talk about the fact that we erase Japanese culture from Japanese media? No.
Those are not the same conversation and by mixing them together we remove the core reality of the issue and the reason why cultural appropriation is a problem. We love anime, we spend money on it, make fan-art, enamel pins, etc. Hell, I plan on getting a Sailor Moon tattoo for my birthday next month, but we have to ensure that we aren’t just taking something that’s Japanese and erase it’s culture so that it’s easier for us to consume it.
Because yes, Sailor Moon has blue eyes and blonde hair, but her name is Usagi Tsukino (Princess Serenity if you’re nasty) and she was born in Tokyo. Usagi is a character is rooted in Japanese values, culture, and mythology. One of the things that drew me to anime and manga as a black viewer was because it was a different kind of entertainment than just white media. Peach Girl by Miwa Ueda, was one of the first manga I’d read that discussed colorism is a non-Western context in a way that really spoke to me.
On the podcast “Whiting Wongs” hosted by Rick and Morty writers Dan Harmon and Jessica Gao, in Episode 13-“Big Japanese Dreams with Andrew Ti and Ify Nwadiwe,” Gao and Ti talk about how growing up, Asian men would listen to rap and Asian women would listen to R’n’B because it was non-white music that spoke more to their experience as minorities than traditional pop.
That exchange is beautiful and part of what makes it exciting to live in an age where we can exchange culture so easily. But that doesn’t take away the fact that, each of those art forms is based on something specific to itself. So it’s fine that there are black artists inspired by the manga that want to make art inspired by it: Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, InuYasha and Princess TuTu inspire everything I do. Just like I enjoy Japenese and Korean artists like BoA and Nami Amuro who take elements of hip-hop into their music. Even Tite Kubo incorporated a lot of Spanish into his work through the character of Chad, who was Mexican and Japanese, and the Espadas.
So it’s great that we as fans and creators like Wes Anderson are inspired by Japanese film, art, and aesthetic, but we always have to make sure that the ownership of that aesthetic is at the forefront, that we are not other or erasing the people that art comes from.
As Chang says at the end of his review: “I can hear your indignant protests already: This isn’t really Japan, stupid. It’s Wes Anderson Land, and everyone here ultimately speaks his language and his language alone. I get it. I like Wes Anderson Land; it’s always a fun place to visit. But some parts are less fun than others, and what we see of it in “Isle of Dogs” is finally ugly in ways beyond what even its maker could have intended.”
Which is not to say that Isle of Dogs isn’t a good movie or that it does not have good intentions, but it is something to be aware of as you watch.
Princess (she/her-bisexual) is a Brooklyn born Megan Fox truther, who loves Sailor Moon, mythology, and diversity within sci-fi/fantasy. Still lives in Brooklyn with her over 500 Pokémon that she has Eevee trained into a mighty army. Team Zutara forever.
