#It’s kinda shaping up to be a stereotypical Netflix adaptation

[gremoria411]

The following post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance

Alright, I figured I’d give Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance a shot, and if I had any opinions after the first two episodes, I’d do a small post as a first impressions sorta thing.

Ah, just before I get into it, I should note that I’ve been somewhat looking forward to Requiem for Vengeance for a while now.

I’m gonna be using bullet points, mostly because I really don’t want to spend a whole lotta time on this, but in a nutshell; Consider me unimpressed.

The character animation and voice work is really bad. The lip-synch is terrible (likely for ease of dubbing into other languages), and so many of the characters just move so stiffly. It’s not like, all-over bad - there’s some really good scenes (like where three characters are chatting in the Zaku Tank) where they either managed to make it work or were able to put the effort in. I’d guess that they put most of the budget into the mobile suits and didn’t care too much about the human characters (or they didn’t have anyone on staff that could animate humans convincingly).

The battle scene that takes up the second half of episode 1 just kinda feels bad. Iria survives because she is the protagonist, there’s no moment that made me feel like she was in genuine danger, since every time something has a bead on her there’s always this dramatic pause, then something distracts them. This happens something like five times.

The actual models for the characters and mobile suits are genuinely gorgeous, they’re just dripping with personality. Unfortunately, this only throws the bad voice work into even sharper relief.

Reid “chubs” Ghela dies about seven minutes in, to show off the power of the gundam’s new beam weapon. Now, I wouldn’t mind, if he wasn’t the only character with any semblance of a personality. He’s also the sole exception to the bad voice work, so it’s really annoying that he gets killed off so soon.

Relatedly, there’s so many odd pronunciations here. It really takes you out of things, because it would’ve been so easy to check this stuff.

I complained previously about the “my girlfriend, in space” line, but it’s weird, because there’s a scene later that actually stresses how odd it is for the Zeon Mobile Suit Pilots to find themselves on earth. It’s really quite well-done and it’s a nice character moment.

The opening’s absolutely gorgeous, it’s really good.

Some of the music choices make me think of studio ghibli. Fairly neutral on that.

I have two really petty complaints that I’m only mentioning because they’re fresh in my mind - the Gundam’s beam saber seems really stiff here, it should have at least a little bend and, JUST USE THE NEWTYPE CHIME SOUND. WE ALL KNOW WHAT A NEWTYPE SOUNDS LIKE JUST USE THAT. It’s really irritating me for some reason.

My main issue is that it feels like they made a Gundam series, without watching any other Gundam series first. They had the designs, they had the themes, they had cliff notes, they just didn’t watch any other show first. There’s the shape of good ideas here, the execution’s just bad.

It feels like that line that always gets trotted out when someone tries to launch a new mecha property - “unlike those other shows, this one’s actually about the mecha”. Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance feels like an example of why actually doing that is a bad idea, because it’s so obvious that’s where the budget went, but the show can’t be mech fights 24/7, so we just don’t really spend any time with the characters.

I will follow this up later.

[ageeksnerdyworld]

I can’t fucking stand when somebody claims whitewashing when nothing of the sort happened. I literally just saw a series of posts where somebody did this and they might’ve been also claiming that it was racist but I’m not sure.

Bitch listen up!

LISTEN THE FUCK UP!!

Whitewashing is when a non-white ie Black, Asian, Hispanic, etc, etc character is portrayed by a white actor. Or when a non-white character is drawn & colored to be white. That is indeed whitewashing and should be complained about.

BUT!!!

Whitewashing is not, I repeat is not, when a character is drawn and colored exactly the same way they are in canon JUST BECAUSE IT DOESN’T FIT YOUR FUCKING HEADCANNON!!

I saw a post calling out a specific comicbook company, no names shall be named for either parties involved, for whitewashing a character in their animated films. But the character in question has the exact same skin color, hair color, and eye color that they do in the comics. Skin is slightly tan in the comics. And? Slightly tan in the film. Eyes are green in the comics. And? Green in the film. Hair is black in the comics. And? Black in the film.

Where is the whitewashing?

Oh I forgot to mention… The character is part Arab. (Technically speaking Arabic people are in fact Caucasian, white for some of y'all, since there’s actually only three races. Caucasian, Negroid and Mongoloid. But I digress.)

Arabic and Middle Eastern people can fit that above description. Many of them do actually. My uncle, his wife and kids, on my dad’s side do; they’re all tan with light eyes. Even though there’s this image of Arabs as all being tan, brown-eyed, and black haired we don’t all fit that description. I’m half-Arab and half-Italian and I kinda fit the stereotype; hair’s medium brown. But my point still stands. Not everybody fits the stereotypes, ok?

Also this character’s father and mother have blue and green eyes respectively. Both genes are recessive but the color green is more dominate than blue. The way DNA works green eyes would win out every time. Every. Fucking. Time. And thus it makes sense that the character in question has green eyes.

And yet this person chose to claim that the character was whitewashed in the animated film. This person even went so far as to edit screenshots from scenes from the animated films that included the character in question to prove their point.

Newsflash, buddy! That doesn’t mean it’s whitewashing.

Making a black character white is whitewashing. Making a Native American character white is whitewashing. So is making an Asian character white. So is making a Mexican character white. It’s called whitewashing for a reason dude. But…

IT’S NOT WHITEWASHING JUST BECAUSE IT DOESN’T FIT YOUR HEADCANON!!

Let me repeat that real quick.

IT’S NOT WHITEWASHING JUST BECAUSE IT DOESN’T FIT YOUR HEADCANON!!

Some real examples of whitewashing:

The Harry Potter films

J.K. Rowling explicitly describes Hermione Granger as having brown eyes and frizzy hair. Something that is very common amongst black people. The author herself even confirmed this via tweet when a black woman was cast as Hermione in the stage production of The Cursed Child:

“Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair, and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione.”

Explicitly stating that she wasn’t white, and saying that she loves a black version of the character, kinda solidifies it. The films whitewashed her.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Mr. Yunioshi was portrayed by white actor Mickey Rooney.

Mickey Rooney does not only play an Asian man. Rooney wears yellow face for his portrayal and does an overdone accent. He plays a racist stereotype of an Asian man.

So not only is that white-washing but it’s also racist.

21

The movie about card counting was actually based on a real life event. A group of Asian-American students from MIT, Harvard, and Princeton among others, rip off casinos by counting cards. This happened in the 70sThere were a lot of changes from real-life to movie as there always is but the most important is the race changes.

Our lead characters are Jeff Ma, Mike Aponte, and John Chang. Who played the leads in this film?

Jim Sturgess. Jacob Pitts. Kevin Spacey.

Not a single Asian actor played a lead role.

30 Days of Night

That vampire horror flick set in Alaska. This movie is based off a comic mini series btw. Inuit sheriff, who is Inuit in the comic, Eben Oleson is our main character. He’s the sherrif of the town that gets over run by vamps during it’s month-long polar night.

Wait. What was that?

The main character is Inuit.

And who plays him in the movie? Josh Hartnett.

Aloha!

The Hawaiian set rom-com has virtually no Hawaiian people. But the island state has a population that’s 70% non-white. Funny right?

But Emma Stone plays the main character.

A main character who is described as being one-third Hawaiian, one-third Chinese and half Swedish. And Emma Stone? Fits just the Swedish part of that and only by one-fifth.

Death Note

The 2017 upcoming live-action Netflix adaptation of the manga of the same name. (Not an adaptation of the anime… if that makes any difference.) The entire cast of this movie is made up of white actors. All of the characters are Japanese!!

But that’s not all…

The setting is moved to goddamn Seattle, Washington. The main character’s name is changed. In the manga his name is Light Yagami. His last name is one of the most white last names ever; Turner.

That just a few by the way.

And each of those aforementioned movies do in fact whitewash thier characters. But the character I spoke of was never whitewashed. Never once in continuity was this character paled in complexion. His hair was never lightened to be more white. The shape of his eyes was never changed to fit the shape of eyes that white people have. Neither was the shape of his face.

IT’S NOT WHITEWASHING JUST BECAUSE IT DOESN’T FIT YOUR HEADCANON!!

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga 12 (FINAL)| Classicaloid 25 (FINAL)| Boku no Hero Academia 14 | Kado 0 - 1 | Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine 1 | Sagrada Reset 1

Update: I apologise for all my updates within the spring 2017 debuts. I had stuff due prior to the spring season and so I’ve gone all out in compiling my thoughts and then comparing my thoughts to ANN’s.

(Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga 12)

“Monkey”? I thought it had to do with Todo (whose first name is Saburota, remember, and so could be mangled to become saru or monkey) but I guess…not…?

I thought Shiemi was gonna do a love confession! Where’d Nemu go while all the action was happening though? Plus, Nemu reminds me of Yuji Yata (Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service) and vice versa.

Super Coke and Panta, LOL.

I can’t believe they’re so willing! I remembered this happened but now that I see it animated, it seems a little too fast!

Anmitsu is a red bean dessert – you hear about it for the Kashuu/Yasusada ship in Touken Ranbu (it’s what the ship is called, due to kanji readings). Kuzukiri though…I haven’t heard of it, so here you go.

I never knew you could use the fact Rin is the son of Satan for humour. I never knew it could work, either.

If kemono = pickles…then what are Kemono Friends?! *gasps* (LOL, I kid, I kid…)

Okay, now the “son of Satan’s gonna torch you” gag is tired. That was fast.

What’s a Tawawa? Isn’t that “Tawawa on Monday”?...No? I guess it’s the name of the tower’s mascot then.

Yukio with his straight face, LOL.

Is it “quality brother time” or “brother quality time”? I think it’s the former.

I can finally read Rin’s shirt now. It says “teriyaki” in katakana.

Well, that’s the end of Blue Exorcist for now. See you some other time.

(Classicaloid 25)

Oh, that’s why there are aliens in this show…

It’s interesting to note they used the Bird’s Nest for Beijing rather than Tiananmen Square or the Fobidden City.

So Kyougo was in China. Geez, these stereotypes are a bit hackneyed…

Tchaiko’s so depressed when Bach appears. It makes sense though.

“It just doesn’t strike a chord.” – Perfect phrase for a Classicaloid.

Disco Bach. Now that’s something you don’t see every day.

I haven’t noticed there were white musical notes on the eyecatch until now.

I was wondering why Hasshie, Pad-kun, Kanae and Sousuke were rigged up like how they were in one of the s2 visuals. The reason…let’s just say, I LOVE IT! I’m not entirely a fan of 6th rangers in general, but I love transformations, remember? Rare transformations are all the better to watch again and again!

Doot-doo-doo-doot-doo-doo-doo-doo-doot-doot-doo-doo-doot-doo-doo. It’s Ode to Joy!

Like, look at it. The October airing was definitively confirmed! See you again in October, then.

(Boku no Hero Academia 14)

I skipped the simulcast commentary on the recap episode, as I always do. Disclaimer: I wander around the BnHA wiki a bit so expect to see “I knew that already”s all over the place.

Dang, Deku looks eeeeeeevil in that one intro scene where he’s all lit up.

Those taiyaki (fish-shaped buns) look tasty…

I’ve seen some spoilers so I know Toshinori Yagi is All Might’s real name and All Might’s predecessor (who I thought was the recipient of the letter) was a woman named Nana. Thus, beard man must be Gran Torino, All Might’s mentor.

Katsu, LOL. Ever since YoI, I can’t stop thinking about Yuri K after seeing a pork cutlet.

Best Jeanist (1st person in background), some guy I don’t know…and Endeavour. Spoilers can be annoying like that.

I knew why Ochako became a hero too, but...her name means “carefree”? Never heard that one before.

They say that if there’s a leaf sticking up in your tea, it’s good luck…I think that’s how it goes with green tea, anyways.

I don’t think I’ve seen BnHA go and do a fanservice thing with its girls until now, which 1) is odd for a show with a teacher called “18+ Only Hero Midnight” and 2) simultaneously makes sense as an all ages hero anime. The emphasis in this show is on the action and on Deku, not just the girls, but going to the girls for fanservice only now does kinda show how the audience has grown up enough for this ED trope to be ued.

(Kado 0)

I’ve been hyped for this ever since I found out it was coming. I do have my doubts about the CGI, but somehow I know this work will be good. Besides, it’s my first fully CGI work in the simulcast commentary – I can’t really let that sort of chance go while I can still do it (because most 3D CG anime are Netflix exclusive). Update: Why have I covered an episode 0? This one seems important to the plot, that’s why. (Well, admittedly...they had to have an episode 0 for a reason, right?)

Ooh, that OP’s real pretty and the language (the one “Ninovo” is written in) intrigues me.

I knew I’d be fine with the CG – if there’s CG everywhere one instance of CG doesn’t stand out – but I wasn’t expecting to be dipping my toes in something so…adult.I was expecting the government affairs, but land restitution? If it weren’t for Shizuna-whatshisname and what came before this, I’d be gone, y’know? (Come to think of it though, anime can make even adult things like taxes engaging, so if you gave me an engaging anime about taxes, I’d take it. After SGRS, I’m more open to this sort of mature content, too.)

There’s been a picture on ANN of Dantalian no Shoka and the dude in it looks like Masayoshi (Samurai Flamenco). When Hanamori is shocked and leaning to the side, he looks like Masayoshi too…

I’d like to know how to make those pleated tail birds.

Strangely, this anime is more flat than I thought a 3D CG anime would look. Update: I raised my eyebrow at the part where Shindo pulls the suit pants off Hanamori, but it kinda made sense to me since Hanamori was drunk...at least it’s better than lucky underwear (Marginal #4).

What could be bigger than a land reform project? Oh, I dunno, aliens? (clearly sarcastic)

It’s not even Google, it’s Setten, LOL.

Chicken nanban. Seems tasty. I also didn’t question this until now, but this is MLIT.

Mac laptop! Dangit!

Hanamori is such a shonen protag, I swear he is basically Masayoshi in disguise as a Cabinet worker.

Hanamori’s face in the commemorative photo, LOL.

Uh-oh. Things are starting to look more CG now…

The ED is kind of a disappointment after the wonderful showing I got from the OP and the episode…plus Hanamori is kinda annoying with his “Shindo-kun!” “Shindo-kun!”…one thing’s for sure, this is one show to keep an eye on…for the moment, at the very least.

(Kado ep 1)

UN?! Wow, Shindo’s crazy good at his job…

Sometimes opening sequences of shows (not the OP, but rather the opening few minutes of the show) can be recap-heavy, but at least Kado doesn’t do that.

Interesting to note CR chose metres as opposed to miles, as I have huge gripes about Detective Conan getting all its measurements turned into miles and inches…

Tokyo Netro and NNK, LOL.

“Have there been any casualties so far?” By the way, the government uses Windows. I wonder if any Japanese people use Linux? Update: I did find Kanata Shinawa at odds with how she lead the government, but at least she knew what she was doing.

Ferrofluid.

Overtechnology – it doesn’t seem to be a dictionary word, but it seems to exist in Macross. To quote this page: “Many of the technologies of Overtechnology are stables of Science Fiction, such as Hyperspace and Artificial/Anti-Gravity.”

AP rounds. The AP stands for “armour piercing”.

Yay! Finally whatshisname appears! (I’ll just call him Shunina for now, since I can’t keep typing out his name or “whatshisname” all the time…) Update: I knew Shindo was the protag, but if you went in without that knowledge, you’d mistake Hanamori to be it. Huh. It’s sort of a good twist, but if they could do without Hanamori, that would make the show even better.

(Haine 1)

Why am I interested in this? It’s obvious from the key visual…

Nice use of perspective/camera tricks to fool the viewer, eh? The show really is kinda charming in a Kuroshitsuji-type way, actually.

Leonhard gives the burn straight! Ow!

Leonhard is basically the twins from Boueibu…? Especially Haru.

Licchie? Or Licchan? (did not use volume) I wonder if CR’s getting in on making English equivalents of Japanese nicknames now, too. Update: Licht is ri-hi-to, so it might not actually be CR’s fault there…

Playboy??? *thinks about the magazine* Ew.

Strangely, Kai’s was the funniest introduction out of all 4. (Or was that not strange…?)

Basically Nanny McPhee but with a teacher and students…LOL. Actually, it’s more Denpa Kyoushi, but Denpa Kyoushi doesn’t seem to have this atmosphere.

Come to think of it, maybe this was adapted because of the popularity of Osomatsu-san?

Tschuss.

This is…actually pretty funny, but it seems a tad lackluster because of the dulled shoujo-esque colour scheme. On the other hand, Leo really is both twins from Boueibu in one!

Sachertorte. I’ve heard of it before but I forgot what it was. Also, I didn’t think Japanese people would’ve heard of sachertorte. Witness the mighty skill of the internet to connect the world!

I had a vague suspicion that the reason Leo didn’t like teachers was because of how they treated him (specifically put him on a pedestal) because he was a prince, but there was always this sad feeling lingering since the interview began, as if I understood him.

I have the feeling the word for “language” specifically was kokugo, but since they speak Japanese and don’t confirm their setting is German in any way, shape or form (even though there are hints to the contrary), let’s go with “Japanese” as the national language.

Wiener melange? Or just a melange? By the way, tagebuch.

It turns out I do understand Leo…”I’m not good at socialising” is me to a tee.

Notice Leo called the tutor “Heine”, meaning this may not run off Japanese honorific standards.

GDI, priest guy (Bruno, since his reading a book there makes him look like a priest).

Ooh, the Alphonse Mucha style ending really does the show a favour, although Heine singing makes this a lil’ cliched in a weird way you just don’t expect from this show. Apart from that, I’d never think people would idolise Germany the same way they do Japan…unless 1) they have a person related to them who is/speaks German, 2) they like German food or 3) they like German technology (which is top-notch, to my knowledge). I’m kinda neutral on German stuff myself, so if I follow this I wonder what’ll become of me. Update: Oh yes, no. 4) They are German themselves.

Carrot, bell peppers and sachertorte? Ew.

Well, I’m keeping this show on. It better not let me down even though I only narrowly decided not to pick it for the ANN streaming stuff. It’s not a groundbreaker, but it’ll definitely be nice to have around…

Update: I forgot to mention I was vaguely disturbed by Heine’s reading of Leonhardt’s diary (mostly by the fact Heine found the diary in the first place - who puts an unsecured diary in a place that’s a little too accessible?), but since it didn’t do much damage to anyone but Leo and it was entirely played for comedy, I wrote it off. If it were a serious show, I may have had to bail.

(Sagrada Reset 1)

I dunno why the English translation is Sagrada when the Japanese is Sakurada. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Didn’t the character descriptions say Sumire was gonna die???

David Production – those Jojo’s guys? I don’t think I’ve seen anything from them until now.

Ugly CG cars, ick.

Haruki’s power reminds me of Erased except this exposition dump here makes her sound pretentious.

I would expect Haruki to be the android.

Was the “please let go” meant to be funny? I almost laughed before realising how serious Sakurada Reset is.

(without volume) Haruki’s so lifeless I expect her to disappear any moment now whenever Kei looks to the side. (with volume) I still think she’s lifeless…

Well, at least they explain why she’s so lifeless…by the way, I seem to remember I wrote a story like this: Next to Me.

August 14th, the day of Kagerou Project, LOL. I watch too many time travel shows.

No one rides swings.You sit on the swing!

Even though I can tell this show will go through some themes very thoroughly and the animation is consistent, it’s a bit of a chore to watch. I was waiting for the end of the episode about 17 minutes in, so I’ll put this on hold (because of the Mari twist near the end – that at least shows promise). The Sumire part doesn’t seem as convincing animation-wise though, which is disappointing as that’s the main plot of the show, right? Update: The reason why I label it a chore is because it’s hard to read the subs on this sometimes, the animation is limited and because it’s easy to miss Haruki’s resets - I actually missed the first one.

Update: Just a note on my preferences - the reason why I think such a show is a chore to watch is because I prefer shows with a distinct personality and/or charisma. Sagrada seems to have a personality, but it hasn’t become fleshed out yet because of all the potential under the surface, and it lacks charisma because of how serious it is.