Last Airbender casting and other musings.
It's my journal but though I may be stating the obvious here regarding Last Airbender:
I don't think all the people who support the cast are racist.
(not meant to be ranty but I'm looking at some things)
lol blunt image ganked from racebending:
But it makes them uncomfortable to look at the blatant disregard for original sources so they become very defensive to have to associate real controversies towards treatment of ethnicity in haphazard Hollywoodization having to do with our beloved series we grew with for four(ish) years.
Which is a normal reaction really.
Though talking or bringing up the depiction of color or ethnicity/race does not make you a racist either.
I actually feel it is important to as one person said "put aside negative associations with a characters race (ala Princess Tiana being black), but to not forget the character's ethnicity is something which is a part of them and cannot be ignore either"
TLDR: "Forget that she's black, but don't forget that she's black either" Ironic, I know.
But opening a can of worms or not, it brings up the interesting issues of depicting different ethnicities through the limitations of japanese anime style character design and the unfortunate implications it has when movies decide to adapt stylized animated cartoons into obligatory live action
Another interesting article on the subject: http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html
ALA THE ISSUE OF:
MUKOKUSEKI
or is the use of ambiguous racial features in anime, with characters having wide eyes, light skin, great stature, and unusually colored hair (such as blonde or even blue). It literally means "stateless". And is used stylistically for the sake of character distinction (though personally I'm not a big fan of this style when it's pushed ridiculously)
AMBIGUOUSLY BROWN
and haha, unfortunate implications of such: LOL LIVE ACTION
This is very fascinating to me to see how people see themselves as cartoons and how they interpret the cartoons as being something different from how someone else can see it.
Looking at Aang, anyone not familiar with how Japanese anime influenced/styled cartoons would see DEM BIG EYES and think. "He's a white american kid /like me! " (which is natural too)
I'm going to edit this and draw images later.
Also, as I'm typing this, these are my feelings and observations based on peoples (at times sadly ignorant and at times insightful) reactions t articles about the current Last Airbender. This isn't meant to be ranty but I find it cool to probe into the how and why of thinking this way, it is very interesting.
Serious business over a cartoon or not, the fact that people have such strong feelings about it on both sides shows this is a topic that is interesting for discussion for me as someone who kinda likes learning how to depict characters of different ethnicities whilst retaining animated expressiveness.
ALA character designers/animators like Ruben Aquino are great at it because he draws Captain Li Shang and Tiana's Dad, James, deftly as who they are ethnically, but they don't look like stiff, unexpressive representations of a generic "black" or "asian" man.
They look and express their own emotions and motivations as individual characters (which I love! <3)
But on emphasis on the artform, and not the freshness story is the main focus at times.
which is different from some anime where story IS and distinctive character design is not. (Though Some animu is wonderful with this).
Analysis and some observations, so I may not have the street cred to say what I'm saying but this is still an interesting thing for me to look at. It is not just random bullshitting though, I promise.
PICSPAM But appearances and observations aside, awesome characters attach themselves to our hearts regardless.
( "they're all white americans you guys deal with it" ganked from lulzy youtube comment)
(PATROICIA wut JAPAN lol)
(japanese characters: Seita and Setsuko from "Grave of the Fireflies")
(source from David Kawena fanart of Princess and the Frog,
What I liked how Disney handled the controversy of the early states of planning the film, they were open to crit and responded respectfully and did not dismiss it backhandedly as much as I thought they would)
(Akagi is a Japanese ?? high school student lol, Inoue Takehiko was a giant NBA fanboy and loved Magic Johnson )
Ohey guys did you hear they're making a new "Akira" live action adaptation? :D
lol
and also something weirdly similar happened to the character Ged from Ursula LeGuin's "Wizard of Earthsea"
turning Ged who was described to be ethnically "reddish-brown" like Native American or Middle Eastern:
into this for the SciFi channel adaptation:
ahhh wut
Racebending is real unfortunately, it's not a matter of why they do it (I know why) but being aware of it is half the battle, and we are still free to squee over movies if one should feel to squee. It shouldn't be scary to know about these things. :)
lolol /structureless musing.
My friend said it's best to be observant, aware of issues, open-minded yet good humored no matter how horrible these things turn out. She is wiser than I'll ever be. I hope to learn from her though.
I don't think all the people who support the cast are racist.
(not meant to be ranty but I'm looking at some things)
lol blunt image ganked from racebending:
But it makes them uncomfortable to look at the blatant disregard for original sources so they become very defensive to have to associate real controversies towards treatment of ethnicity in haphazard Hollywoodization having to do with our beloved series we grew with for four(ish) years.
Which is a normal reaction really.
Though talking or bringing up the depiction of color or ethnicity/race does not make you a racist either.
I actually feel it is important to as one person said "put aside negative associations with a characters race (ala Princess Tiana being black), but to not forget the character's ethnicity is something which is a part of them and cannot be ignore either"
TLDR: "Forget that she's black, but don't forget that she's black either" Ironic, I know.
But opening a can of worms or not, it brings up the interesting issues of depicting different ethnicities through the limitations of japanese anime style character design and the unfortunate implications it has when movies decide to adapt stylized animated cartoons into obligatory live action
Another interesting article on the subject: http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html
ALA THE ISSUE OF:
MUKOKUSEKI
or is the use of ambiguous racial features in anime, with characters having wide eyes, light skin, great stature, and unusually colored hair (such as blonde or even blue). It literally means "stateless". And is used stylistically for the sake of character distinction (though personally I'm not a big fan of this style when it's pushed ridiculously)
AMBIGUOUSLY BROWN
and haha, unfortunate implications of such: LOL LIVE ACTION
This is very fascinating to me to see how people see themselves as cartoons and how they interpret the cartoons as being something different from how someone else can see it.
Looking at Aang, anyone not familiar with how Japanese anime influenced/styled cartoons would see DEM BIG EYES and think. "He's a white american kid /like me! " (which is natural too)
I'm going to edit this and draw images later.
Also, as I'm typing this, these are my feelings and observations based on peoples (at times sadly ignorant and at times insightful) reactions t articles about the current Last Airbender. This isn't meant to be ranty but I find it cool to probe into the how and why of thinking this way, it is very interesting.
Serious business over a cartoon or not, the fact that people have such strong feelings about it on both sides shows this is a topic that is interesting for discussion for me as someone who kinda likes learning how to depict characters of different ethnicities whilst retaining animated expressiveness.
ALA character designers/animators like Ruben Aquino are great at it because he draws Captain Li Shang and Tiana's Dad, James, deftly as who they are ethnically, but they don't look like stiff, unexpressive representations of a generic "black" or "asian" man.
They look and express their own emotions and motivations as individual characters (which I love! <3)
But on emphasis on the artform, and not the freshness story is the main focus at times.
which is different from some anime where story IS and distinctive character design is not. (Though Some animu is wonderful with this).
Analysis and some observations, so I may not have the street cred to say what I'm saying but this is still an interesting thing for me to look at. It is not just random bullshitting though, I promise.
PICSPAM But appearances and observations aside, awesome characters attach themselves to our hearts regardless.
( "they're all white americans you guys deal with it" ganked from lulzy youtube comment)
(PATROICIA wut JAPAN lol)
(japanese characters: Seita and Setsuko from "Grave of the Fireflies")
(source from David Kawena fanart of Princess and the Frog,
What I liked how Disney handled the controversy of the early states of planning the film, they were open to crit and responded respectfully and did not dismiss it backhandedly as much as I thought they would)
(Akagi is a Japanese ?? high school student lol, Inoue Takehiko was a giant NBA fanboy and loved Magic Johnson )
Ohey guys did you hear they're making a new "Akira" live action adaptation? :D
lol
and also something weirdly similar happened to the character Ged from Ursula LeGuin's "Wizard of Earthsea"
turning Ged who was described to be ethnically "reddish-brown" like Native American or Middle Eastern:
into this for the SciFi channel adaptation:
ahhh wut
Racebending is real unfortunately, it's not a matter of why they do it (I know why) but being aware of it is half the battle, and we are still free to squee over movies if one should feel to squee. It shouldn't be scary to know about these things. :)
lolol /structureless musing.
My friend said it's best to be observant, aware of issues, open-minded yet good humored no matter how horrible these things turn out. She is wiser than I'll ever be. I hope to learn from her though.