But it seems to me that the result of GitS being a success is executives saying "we should get another white woman, they sell movies!"
That is exactly what's going to happen. They hired ScarJo in the first place because she's a "bankable white actress." If the film succeeds, all it's going to do is cement the notion that ScarJo is a safe bet for anime adaptations. Then we'll get another Dragon Ball movie starring her as Bulma or some shit, and we'll still be told that there's somehow no precedent for women in leading action roles, that we should be grateful ScarJo is leading the charge, and that we need to keep testing the waters to make sure it's okay for minority actresses to get their shot one day, forever ignoring the fact that movie stars are becoming less and less relevant to the overall success of any given film because people are more interested in the subject matter than the actors headlining a project.
The only way for minorities to get their due is to put them in starring roles. Relying on white people to be our saviors is only going to create a feedback loop of white creators hiring white stars because that's all who ever gets hired and thus that's all who is ever allowed to succeed.
I'm sorry that you feel that way and I absolutely understand why you feel that way. I think that the success of any woman in an area that is typically dominated by men (in this case an action film carried by a woman) is a win for all, but I also have to acknowledge that it's easier for me to feel that way, because I don't have to deal with racism, on top of sexism. I wish that you could feel that way too and I wish it was true for you. I hope that minority women get more opportunities too. I get really defensive of feminism in general these days, because I feel it's under attack more than I've ever seen in my lifetime. I really hope that women work together, through what it going to be an awful chapter in history.
Feminism being under attack by MRA dipshits and white supremacists has nothing to do with people being critical of feminism whenever its proponents forget that not every woman is a straight, white, able-bodied, cisgendered, and/or middle-class individual on top of it, or worse yet tell us to ignore intersectionality altogether and just be quiet in cases where racism has reared its ugly head, especially in cases that are being put on a pedestal for no discernible reason. Again:
ScarJo has already proven herself as a bankable action star, in an era where female-led action films are bigger and more viable than ever. Her getting yet another movie that plays to that typecasting is just another Tuesday for her. Seriously, no one had a problem when she was playing Lucy.
We have a problem because she's a white woman headlining an inextricably Japanese role.