Motoko is supposed to look like a common doll. She's a mass production model. If everyone looked like Scarlet Johanson , people couldn't survive with the boners they would have regularly.
A caucasian girl who i actually might be a reasonable choice (within the whitewashing aspect) is Noomi Rapace , which has a very particular face structure. Very round cheeks , and kinda symmetrical. Giver her some dead eyes and she could be good.
Oddly, when I close my eyes and see ScarJo put her hands on her hips and sound assertive and confident. I kinda think she could almost work. But then again my perception is coloured by the great Stand Alone Complex series. In the movie she has a quieter, subdued, more existentially troubled personality to her. It depends on which incarnation they choose to draw from.
But this whole idea is awful.
On the other hand, there are so many different versions of the GitS story/world, another one wouldn't actually hurt. It might just be disappointing. If it really sucks, then we can laugh at and that's always good. I've yet to watch Arise but it looks pretty interesting. Anyway, if either Akira or this absolutely had to be made, I would say this.
You know, I wouldn't mind if these characters where whitefied. I really like these characters but I really wouldn't be offended or anything. That's just not worth my energy.
If it were a mix between Arise and the original film, where we have the protag as a distant, somewhat brooding slightly alien-looking person, Mara wouldn't be so bad. I don't know, they can CG the flesh onto her bones. Heck, after UtS, perhaps just give it to ScarJo and have it done with. Confident and cool Major is preferred though.
