I hope this is just a bad BN joke. A moe-fied anime mascot of a byelection in Malaysia...

I mean seriously?

Kaze Tachinu is Miyazaki's criticism against resurgent Japanese nationalistic past.

Kaze Tachinu, latest movie from maestro, Hayao Miyazaki has generated controversy for lack of cuteness and very somber tone - in fact some people felt it is a veiled criticism of current Japanese crawl back to nationalism that cost the nation so dearly in World War 2. In fact some quarters in Japan hit back at the film maker, asking him to stay away from politics.

"Right after you see the first successful Zero flight there's a scene where the ground is littered with smashed planes, which is his message right there." - a poignant statement to me.

I haven't watch the movie yet but this views have gave me a lot of pause for thought and needless to say, makes me more intrigued about it than ever.

anime

Manga publisher backlash against new censorship law has gone global

As predicted, the backlash is getting global coverage from top newspapers. I wonder how long the right wing Tokyo Governor can hold on before he buckle under the pressure. It won't be long in my opinion. I don't think he expected this kind of coverage and indirect complaint from Premier of Japan, Naoto Kan. While he is no Aso, he nevertheless deplored the new law as he feared it will reduce Japanese economic competitiveness in global market. Not to mention the often overlooked softpower aspect. What a lot of people including the Governor of Tokyo did not realise is, one of the mainstay of Japanese global power is its ability to influence world audience thru softpower.


Wall Street Journal

AFP

BBC

ABC

Daily Telegraph

anime

Bill 156. What does it mean?

Someone asked what does the bill mean. This is what I understand so far.

Well for starters, DPJ has agreed to support the bill that specifically aimed to tackle the perceived otaku social issues. Why DPJ counts? Because they still have clout in political Japan and if they willing to support any Bill, it most probably will pass the voting. The formal process to stamp the Bill to be in effect is on Wednesday. The one who proposed this Bill is Tokyo Metropolitan Government which led by notorious right winger Governor Ishihara.

Stuffs like underage characters in explicit situations, yaoi or yuri stories or anything that is seemed to impede desirable youth development in Japan by suggestive content that glorifies anti social stuff. Problem is the Bill is very subjective and almost everything under the sun can be censored or banned. It is so easy to abuse this interpretation: "unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate" certain sexual or pseudo sexual acts". The word "pseudo" is giving me heebie jeebies. What does it qualify as "pseudo" then? (slaps head in confusion)

This one too: “rape and other sexual acts which violate societal norms”. Fine, rape is bad. But "other sexual acts?" Another big hole here.

What is more intriguing that this law is very specific on anime, manga and games. Why they do not examine films, tv series or novels especially those from "pinku genre"? Some otakus are enraged by this very specific targeting by lawmakers.

What does it mean for anime fans around the world?

Well beginning next year June or even earlier, no more panty shots, no more hot springs scene, no more beach scenes, no more stumbling into female changing clothes scene, no more males or females engage in intimate behaviour and possibly most interesting is no more school life scenes. There is even reports of publishers already banning depictions of school uniform in light of the Bill. Pretty extreme.

The famous Japanese school girl phenomenon will probably die with the wider adoption of this Bill.

Some titles like popular Love-Ru or School Days might be banned, needless to say stuffs like Sekirei or Rosario might in danger of being cancelled too. Seinen stuff like Index or ToraDora! might not survive this Bill too. Even mega popular stories like Evangelion or Fate/Stay Night could be in hot soup too.

Maybe games like Love Plus or those countless eroge VN will be in trouble since they emphasize a lot on romantic encounter with school girls.

Another scenario is there will be less anime or manga output since most of them will be branded adult which means higher cost of production since market is smaller for them. Less anime content in Japan, even lesser for rest of the world. Less anime means less stuff for subbers to translate too. So every anime fans around the world, legit or not, will suffer from this law.

No more glorious years of 2002-2006. Or even worse, anime stories will be more stale since it is gonna be so kosher/clean.

Am I too pessimistic?

I don't know but looking at the wordings of the Bill 156 certainly very open to interpretation. The word "pseudo" is very worrying and too convenient for anyone to ban any works without much examination. Not helping when anime/manga industry in Japan is declining and now have to face this bizzare law that further squeeze their market from usual demographic.

I will be hard pressed to see how any mangaka or animators going to make a living with this law in force soon. Not surprising when 10 major manga publisher companies decided to withdraw support from Tokyo Anime Fair 2010 which is chaired by Ishihara.

Dark days indeed for anime and manga.

Source

anime

Who will be Koizumi next nemesis?

The anime shorts Legend of Koizumi is hilarious series based on this manga. I noticed that the OP sequence have hints as to who will be next opponent of the intrepid hero from land of Rising Sun. Now let's see....




Looking at the OP montage, the silhouette matches a famous portrait of Shi Huang Ti. I did not speculate, I am pretty confident it was him. It is hard to miss Great Wall of China at the background too.






The OP also shows Adolf Hitler as the next nemesis. His arm raised in Nazi salute in front of the Nazi Eagle is pretty clear.




Napoleon Bonaparte with his most famous portrait, this drawing is based on him during spectacular Italian campaign.




Augustus Caesar, 1st Emperor of Imperial Rome. The pose looks the same with background of the famous Colosseum.



Now this one is a big question mark for me. The sequence of the OP montage suggests that he will be next opponent of Koizumi after Shih Huang Ti, the First Emperor of China,. The background is Chinese and my speculation is this enemy will be wisest man of China after Koizumi won against the best warrior king of China. My pick will be 3: Sun Tzu, Zhuge Liang or Kung Fu Tze or Confucius.

Let's see if I was right. LOL!

anime

LDP anime political ad, part 2

Taro Aso is counting on anime softpower to stave off defeat in upcoming election this end of August. This is part 2, showing the opposition leader promising impossible stuff to customers with unrealistic manifestos.

Does it work? No idea. But Taro Aso future as Premier of Japan looks pretty gloomy.

Chinese anime music video; Super VC.

MV version



Story version

Pretty interesting music vid from Chinese rocker band Super VC. All latest Chinese military hardware is on show here and it is very patriotic. Top notch animation too. So yeah, Chinese hate Japanese but still consume the cultural memes from Land of Rising Sun. Heh.

Cheers.

LDP's anime against DPJ

First time I see an anime specifically done on behest of political party to criticize opponent, this clip shows DPJ leader lookalike is giving false promises to his date. It is an allusion that DPJ leader only capable of honey words but not action.

Cheers.

Soft Power Discussion no 7: The End of Rozen Aso?

With impending fall of Premier Taro Aso, his stimulus program for Japanese softpower which including establishment of pop art center/"anime palace" that will showcase manga and anime is now very much in doubt. DPJ, opposition party already mounting offensive on Taro Aso's plan to strengthen Japanese softpower (164 billion USD right now), citing it is non sustainable and export reliance will not guarantee Japanese economy revival. DPJ argued for trimming budget and more cuts on domestic front to ease the fiscal pressure instead of Keynesian economics practiced by Taro Aso.



Taro Aso popularity slid into red zone prompting his own party seniors to ask him step down to prevent LDP complete defeat in upcoming snap election scheduled on August 2009. His approval rating is 18.6 percent, polled on 15th July 2009 by local media which pretty much nailed the end of his era as Japanese premiership.

Even domestic anime industry did not really embrace Aso's vision and setting up of anime palace plan (called National Center for Media Arts), citing it has no real goal and inadequate budget to help the ailing industry in meaningful manner. Some even feared possible censorship from the proposed body, stomping on freedom of expression.

Only a miracle can save his doomed government.

Obama's Story in manga

No, not the doujin with Aso and Clinton but this is new manwha from Korea. A new venture centered on biopics of famous people by Korea publisher, Kasan. They are cashing on Obama's appeal to penetrate US market with this, I believe. A good idea but some people are not taking this seriously. Obama looks too cute, judging from the cover.

However it is an interesting attempt. I might read it out of sheer curiosity factor.

Source

Sino-Japanese soft power war part 2

Recently, Premier Wu Jiabao complained about lack of quality Chinese anime and kid series to counter the pervasive and odious influence from Land of Rising Sun. Apparently he was watching tv with his grandkid and much to his patriotic dismay, there is no quality Chinese cartoon or anime to entertain, instead he has to settle to watch Japanese tainted Ultraman. After the complaint, citizens of China rise up and in chorus agreed with him. They start online campaigning (same method on how Moot was chosen as Time's Most Influential Person) with fiery slogans like "Destroy Japanese Anime!" or other appropriate socialist inspired Chinese battlecry.

Chinese may outproduced Japan in terms of quantity (duh) but even the citizens of Motherland has to settle with foreigner goods for consumption as there is a lot of room for improvement for Chinese produced shows. Ironically, the premier wondered where does all talented Chinese go when this is the country that regularly suppressed free expression at the same time. Go figure.



Another irony is, Taro Aso trying to use anime as bridging tool for diplomacy at the same time.

Manga as tool of political propoganda

The rise of Japanese manga as political commentary medium advancing sets of political beliefs that bears some reminiscent to Yukio Mishima's attempt to indoctrinate post war Japan into old Imperial mold of rightist thinking again using his literature power (which he failed and commits a very public suicide in Japanese Self Defense Force HQ). This time though, mangas like Spirit of the Sun (the author here appealing to Japanese youth to have pride to be Japanese again in national crisis), Rideback (this manga talks about fears of globalization destroying local political culture specifically Japan) and even seemingly every seinen manga published by Kodansha which I can recall, don't have much socialist or left wing slanted titles.

Most famous political manga in Japan is Silent Service which even got debated in Japanese Diet (parliament). This remarkable manga which still in top 10 of best seinen manga in Japan readership (2006) talks about a rogue Japanese submarine XO who hijack the submarine and declared his ship as independent neutral entity "Yamato" despite it is built as joint US-Japanese SSBN (nuclear submarine). 2.2 million copies were sold by 1992 and still enjoys massive popularity even today in Japan. In the end, he sailed to UN HQ in New York to appeal to the world that everyone should dismantle their nuclear arsenal or to be destroyed. Predictably, the US Navy is the baddies here, they tried to stop the Yamato from accomplishing the objective. To many readers it seems very naive politically but as ideologue on pacifism, it is remarkable poster boy in backhand manner.

However a discussion of politcal manga cannot be complete without talking about controversial Yoshinori Kobayashi. Famous for his Gomanism Shingen / ゴーマニズム宣言 and his more infamous statements were like for example, total veneration of Kamikaze Corps, denial of Nanking Massacre and comfort women issue is a fabrication of anti Japanese propaganda. He is the darling of Japanese media and often appear in morning shows to give opinions on current events. His rise to international fame is when 2 major liberal newspapers known in Western world; NY Times and Le Monde wrote a scathing article on him for his neo fascist stand. To the end, he still defiant and his latest manga "On Taiwan" is published outside of Japan despite angry retorts from Chinese.

Stay tuned for more later, as I will discuss what I think of Eagle, a manga of Japanese-American become US President advocating pacifism.

Hetalia Axis Powers/ ヘタリア Axis Powers sequel is on

An update that bound to upset some Korean zealots, season 2 of Hetalia is on and will be 26 episodes like 1st season. However it will limited to web streaming, no major TV broadcast thanks to effective protest by Republic of South Korea who protested demeaning portrayal of Korea in Hetalia. Despite Season 1 has zero appearance of Korea, the national anger even went up the highest office in South Korea's politics for discussion.

What's more, some Korea anime fans even attacking websites that were critical of them like Sankaku Complex.

Cheers.

Source

Soft Power Discussion no 6, Taro Aso plan to revive Japanese economy

Highly unpopular and wrangling with massive economic crisis in Japan (worst in 30 years memory), Premier of Japan Taro Aso pledged to make 120 trillion Yen (that's 1.2 trillion plus USD, folks) by 2020 CE by promoting Japanese remaining asset, softpower. Where Honda or Toyota falters in their quest to make money for Japan Inc, now Taro Aso is turning to moe schoolgirls and hot blooded sentai heroes to take the lead.

Another eyebrow raising statement he made is he will create 500,000 jobs using anime and Japanese fashion to fight off unemployment. I don't know how is he going to do it since Japanese animators were possibly one of the lowest in food chain in job market of Japan. He stated that in 3 years time, 1.4 jobs will be created with this new economic plan that for first time in history; stressing softpower to be leading factor of national economy. He is in fact, still promoting Japan Cool campaign that he initiated years ago under Junchiro Koizumi adminstration.

I don't know if I should take him seriously or not but time will tell. Miyazaki is not amused by him. The overseas anime market, notably USA is struggling too so I kinda doubt his pledge here. A tad too optimistic, perhaps?

Source News

Code Geass and Malaysian Politics? Marcos and Voltes 5?

It was indeed surprising and relieving to hear Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announcing the release of 13 Hindraf detainees and lifting the temporary ban on opposition newspapers.
This move is somewhat parallel to ex-prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s promising speech for reforms when he entered office in 2003, only that PM Najib’s move was one of ‘action speaks louder than words’.



Najib’s action reminds me of Code Geass, a Japanese anime about the struggle of Japan against Britannia, a powerful nation that had colonised Japan and renamed that nation to ‘Area 11’.

In one scene the opposition, Order of the Black Knights, had gained substantial popularity in Area 11, especially amongst the Japanese because of their ability to win many battles against Britannia in their revolt. They are seen to be the messiahs for the Japanese and many threw their support behind the Order of the Black Knights.

This situation is synonymous to the opposition in Malaysia. The Order of the Black Knights has a reason to revolt – Britannia’s unjust treatment against the Japanese, which includes discrimination, deletion of their national identity, et cetera.



Pakatan Rakyat has a reason to strive – the ruling government’s unjust implementation of policies, corruption, discrimination, draconian laws, etc.

At the peak of the story, a new Britannia governor for Area 11 was sworn in and made her first speech – in which she reestablished Japan’s name and identity, Britannians and Japanese were now equal. This speech’s impact was far reaching.

The Britannians, who were comfortable with being of a higher status were not happy. The Order of the Black Knights, meanwhile, lost their cause to fight, because what they were fighting for had been fulfilled.



Therefore, it is no surprise that after PM Najib’s speech of releasing the Hindraf detainees and lifting the ban on opposition newspapers has somewhat diminished temporarily the purpose of PR.

If PM Najib were to go all the way and erase every single reason for Pakatan’s establishment, BN will definitely regain the confidence of the people. However, just like in the anime, it might come with a price in that perhaps the comfortable cronies would lose out.

In any case, PM Najib must not use this affirmative action for reforms as a veil over allegations of his alleged involvement in the murder of Altantuya.

He must indeed be cleared of any involvement through court proceedings. PM Najib, your good deeds will not even out or cover the serious allegations against you. The truth will.

Article in question



Amusing article from Malaysia Kini using anime as analogy to explain political situation. Last time it is the story of Philippine's Marcos and Voltes 5. In this historical case study, President Marcos known for his kleptocracy and corrupted regime, abetted by his greedy wife Imelda banned Voltes 5 anime series after rebels rally around this superobot series to chastise his administration indirectly.

When Voltes was rebroadcast again after the revolution (1986) that brought down Marcos regime, it was greeted with cheers by hard suffering Filipinos as symbolic victory just like how Voltes bring down the evil oppressive regime of Horned Humans in the anime series.

The History of Marcos and Voltes 5

Cheers.

Japanese "moe" diplomats

Hilarious but not too surprising to me.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Ever seen an ambassador dressed from head to foot in pastel frills? How about a diplomatic envoy in a mini-skirted school uniform?

In a bid to raise its international profile, Tokyo has appointed three young women as cultural envoys because they represent Japan's long-running craze for all things cute.

Source
Source no 2

With current economic downturn, Japan tries to appeal to the world with ready made "moe" image. How logical.

Rideback and Korea.....another Hetalia incident?

Apparently a mysterious plate number on a car resembled some message that says "Lee Myung-bak OUT" appeared in Rideback which might potentially caused another political storm like Hetalia did 2 months ago.

Who is Lee Myung-bak? He is current President of South Korea and known for his hardline policies. The studio plead ignorance and protested innocence on this matter. Speculation is abound though.

I wonder if the Koreans will discuss this in the highest office again?
Oh brother.


Source

More on Hetalia Axis Powers - Korean Saga

The madness continues when some Korean netizens actually advocating cyberwar on Japanese sites that is promoting Hetalia-Axis Powers. Not content with successful attempt to stop broadcast of the anime series, the zealous patriots now targetting Internet streams and channels to distrupt the anime. It is unprecendented that an act of war is mulled in response to an anime backlash, this has to be first example of serious byproduct in negative light from soft war ever. Frankly speaking, I don't know if I should cry or laugh about this.

Even famous Sankaku Complex which is very critical of Koreans in this affair did not escape the wrath of Korean netizens.

It once said that Korea is like a dagger pointing straight at Japan's heart.

Source.

A poster asked me to post this one too. I guess the street did not go one way here. Personally, I find the marketing distasteful and it is ironic if the real Nazis were there, these people would be put straight into gas chamber(s). Heh.

Japanese reaction to South Korea-Hetalia Axis Powers Uproar

Kids Station satellite TV channel announced Jan. 16 that it had cancelled its plans to run the animation Hetalia--Axis Powers, which would have premiered on Jan. 24.

The Hetalia production committee said the sudden cancellation was decided at the "convenience of the broadcaster," and the animation channel said the decision was made "due to various circumstances," giving no detailed explanation. But according to prevailing views on the Internet, the decision was made in consideration of protests against the content of Hetalia.

Hetalia is based on a comedic manga by Hidekazu Himaruya, a Japanese student in New York. In the manga, countries are represented by anthropomorphic characters and their international relations are depicted as their human relations.

Main characters include Italy, depicted as a nation that is weak in war but is bright and adorable and loves food and women. Germany is a serious man who loves rules, while Japan is infatuated with European nations. The United States is a country who likes to always be No. 1 and Britain is a snobbish man.

"Hetalia" is a made-up word combining the Japanese word hetare, meaning a sense of helplessness or uselessness, and Italia.

The gag manga portrays the characters' relations with the historical events of the Middle Ages, early modern age, early 20th century and other eras as the background.

As soon as the adaptation of the manga into an animation was announced, a number of South Korean Internet users strongly called for the cancellation of the broadcast, as they felt the manga offers an insulting portrayal of the South Korean character. In the manga, South Korea is depicted as a man who "is weak before the United States, calls China his elder brother and hates Japan."

Net signatures for a petition opposing the broadcast were also collected. The cancellation of the broadcast was announced immediately after these moves started to be reported in Japan.

Turning the national character of one's own or another country into a joke in casual conversation, novels and other settings can happen in any country.

Himaruya himself said in his book that he came across a Web site of ethnic jokes while studying various national characters.

There also is a tradition in Japan's otaku culture that even such things as trains or computer operating systems can be changed into cute characters in a way that turns inanimate subjects into characters meant to inspire a "moe" (fondly adoring) response. Hetalia should be viewed as one of these expressions.

No matter how lightly or harmlessly it may be intended, however, depicting a nation or ethnic group in a manga or animation inevitably is undertaken at great risk. The manga happened to have attracted protests from South Korean Internet users, but there is no guarantee that it will not receive similar protests from other countries.

Such jokes may not develop into a serious matter as long as they are enjoyed in private. But we have to think of what reactions they may cause when they clash with the "justice" called for by various national or religious causes.

On a different level, but still fresh in our memory, a Danish newspaper caused a global uproar in 2005 when its cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed offended Muslim states. Islamic traditions prohibit the publication of any images of the prophet.

As a result, massive protests swept the Muslim world, and many people fell victim to violent demonstrations and other incidents the following year.

I personally cannot deny the attractions of Hetalia. In fact, the character Chibitalia (Little Italy), in particular, is irresistibly cute. But it may be better for world peace to limit the pleasure of such characters to this small Far Eastern island nation--even if such an act might be called "hetare."

Source.

Basically the summary of whole article is "WHY SO SERIOUS?"

Earlier entry on this seemingly amusing but actually a deep issue of Korean-Japanese unresolved relationship, a baggage from old Japanese Imperial era. It is also another good indicator of soft power conflict that many social scientist(s) begin to study lately.

Sino-Japanese soft power war in comics

This paper was based upon a study of a Hong Kong-based comic enterprise entering the PRC comics market. By taking the advantages of cross-border production in Suzhou and Shenzhen, the enterprise is supposed to produce comic content related to Chinese mythic stories in the direction of the mainland cultural authority.

PDF link to the article.

An interesting look at soft power war between Japan and China over creation of content based on Chinese mythos like Romance of 3 Kingdoms or Legend of Condor Heroes. Under increasingly assertive China, there is a push against Japanese style manga on same content lately. This is a byproduct of increasingly uneasy geopolitical relationship between 2 Asian giants in shadow of increasing US withdrawal from active protection of Japan after World War 2.

Hong Kong has their own dyanamic comics industry that has soulful influence from Japan in storytelling and character archetype styles; some of them become famous enough like Storm Riders which is vastly popular with Overseas Chinese in South East Asia. But it is not entirely 100 percent carbon copy has it has own unique Chinese penchant for melodrama and vision of values.

Some MMORPGs like Perfect World is also an interesting synthesis of this, many promotions of this title is drawn in anime/manga style with notable character designs like Werefox (kitsune 狐 in Japanese folklore or Chinese 狐狸精) despite it is created by Chinese company. It is a backhand acknowledgement that Japanese soft power is immensely strong in a way.