Monster update--my new favorite song, and a book and movie/s review of sorts. ^_^

[irian]

Ummm, could somebody please enlighten me as to how Daite Senorita managed to make it into the Oricon lists last month? That song's crazy... solidark (yes, I finally managed to download the songs in your mp3 update). *edit* But I do like it, craziness notwithstanding. ^0

Comments

[lynnonpointe]

:D!

Blond haired, blue-eyed . . . ummm . . . I wasn't happy to say the least. Just the general portrayal of the characters, I guess, like making Lebannen and Tehanu (presumably) the same age. To me, although I doubt they'd have used the one scene anyways, that sort of messes up what I think LeGuin wanted to show their relationship as. Point in case - the scenes on Dolphin and how that establishes his relationship with both Tenar and Tehanu. And Ged with facial hair beyond his Tombs scruffies? :/ ::shrug:: Perhaps personal preference.

And Tenar? Hmmm . . . I'm so torn on that, because it really takes away from her character, I think. I mean, her appearance was so symbolic (in the books) of her position at the Tombs and the struggles of her past in general. However, I *think* I'd rather have her not looking as she should, but being distinctly different from the rest of the cast. I don't watch much anime, but from what I've seen (from Ghibli at least) it's very hard to differentiate between ethnicity (correct me if I'm wrong). And the way they've got her is much the 'stereotypical' Karg, and there's no-one else in the trailers with those features. I don't know if that's what they intended, or just me being hopeful.

What did you think about it?

[irian]

Just the general portrayal of the characters, I guess, like making Lebannen and Tehanu (presumably) the same age.

Here's my opinion on that: A lot Studio Ghibli movies feature a pre-adolescent/early adolescent couple as the main characters. At any rate, there's *always* a pairing among the main characters, adolescent or not (Totoro was an exception, but then, that's because the main characters are siblings). And since their primary source is The Farthest Shore, that makes Arren the main character. Of course, he has Sesserakh later on, but considering the plot and Arren's standing at this point, making Tehanu the same age as him was probably the easiest way to give him a somewhat believable "female counterpart" as opposed to inserting Sesserakh or a random female OC (the former would have messed up the timeline/history of the world even more than adding a few years to Tehanu's age, and the latter would probably have had fans of the books crying Mary-Sue in no time).

I don't watch much anime, but from what I've seen (from Ghibli at least) it's very hard to differentiate between ethnicity (correct me if I'm wrong). And the way they've got her is much the 'stereotypical' Karg, and there's no-one else in the trailers with those features.

This has a lot to do with the history of anime and manga in general, as well as the Japanese people's acceptance of their conventions (such as obviously *Japanese* female characters having blond hair and blue eyes in shojo manga). Bottom line is, the readers/viewers *know* that the characters are Japanese, so just because they have blond hair doesn't necessarily make them Caucasian, nor does it express some hidden desire to be white on the part of the Japanese.

Studio Ghibli has an immediately recognizable house style which they use in all of their movies. And as you mentioned, there's not much difference between their supposedly Asian characters (like Ashitaka and San in Mononoke Hime) and their Caucasian characters (like Nausicaa). But because of the previously mentioned anime/manga conventions, the fact that the characters aren't dark-skinned here won't make this a "whitewashed Earthsea" (and a conscious decsion on the part of the producers to make all the characters white) like that horrible white trash Sci-Fi Channel version.

Studio Ghibli rarely animates blond characters, in fact, the first time I ever saw a blond Ghibli character was Howl from Howl's Moving Castle. So yes, I do believe that their character design for Tenar is their nod to the fact that they understand what the character's actual skin colors are supposed to be.

[lynnonpointe]

Yeah, I sort of saw the pairing coming with them from the first trailer. I understand *why* they'd do it, although I'm still wary of it. Their relationship is so precious in both Tehanu and The Other Wind. I suppose you could say I have a soft spot for them (like Heather's wishful thinking of them getting married, and Ged's sad smile as he says he doubts that will ever be) and I'm worried what people new to the storyline are going to perceive them as. But I definitely see that adding in Seserakh and Alder (although not her lover or even close, at least her companion) would screw everything up. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how it all works out in the end, won't we?

What do you think about how little we've seen of Tenar so far? Do you expect her to play the role she does in Tehanu, or something different altogether?

[irian]

I always thought of Lebannen as seeing Tehanu as more of a little sister that he needs to protect because she's been hurt too much already. Of course, this is tempered with a bit of awe/respect for her because of her relationship with the dragons.

From what I saw of Tenar's house in the trailers, I'd say that she still serves as Tehanu's guardian in the movie, because the scenes with Tehanu tending to her flock of sheep (weren't those supposed to be goats?) showed a similar house in the background. But then, since neither of the trailers showed a scene with both of them together, it's hard to be definite at this point. Still, Tenar is featured in the preliminary cast list, and they never do that unless the character plays an important role in the plot, whether as a major character or just a supporting one.

[lynnonpointe]

Yes, a sibling relationship, although a bit more complex with both their histories, however it makes sense with her being Tenar's adopted daughter and Tenar seeing him as the 'son who never lets you down'.

Yes, goats - 'trust a goat to ruin anything'. And Sippy the goat. And yeah, I was curious about that, because they put her in the preliminary cast list, but we only see her for an instant, and in that instant she simply opens her door to Ged (I'm assuming now he won't ride to Gont near-death on Kalessin's back).

In other words, I'm interested to see how they work the two books together.

What do you think of this interpretation of Cob, by the way?

[irian]

Well, the Cob from synopsis from the movie that Ursula Le Guin posted in her site doesn't seem to stray very far from the book, but the actual trailer clips... Is that a *woman* I see there? And who the hell is Kumo (cloud?) supposed to be, and why does she have a bumbling henchman named usagi (rabbit)? If Kumo is supposed to be Cob, I'm wondering why they turned him into a woman. Was it because they wanted to show some spectacular confrontation scene between Ged (a wizard) and Kumo/Cob (a witch), like true magic vs. woman's magic?

[lynnonpointe]

I'm almost positive Kumo is Cob (I don't speak Japanese but then some site referred to him/her as Spider, which is canonical as a second use-name), and I really don't know about the henchman - it seems it's supposed to be some sort of OC for (probably) comedic relief? And Kumo is a woman - I was looking through some scans and things, and it had the castlist and pictures of the voice actors; definitely a woman. I don't know why they'd have done this, perhaps the true magic vs. woman's magic, or (a stretch) as they've worked in Tehanu which is almost too feminist for its own good (oh, how I love it!), perhaps they're trying to level the playing field by showing an evil woman. Or perhaps both. Oh, do you know what's with the King and Queen in the castlist? When, canonically, there should be no king in Havnor until the end-ish of this movie (depending on where they choose to end it).

[irian]

Oh, do you know what's with the King and Queen in the castlist? When, canonically, there should be no king in Havnor until the end-ish of this movie (depending on where they choose to end it).

They decided to give Arren more visible parents? My guess is that since the books (the thus the movie) have Arren as a prince, and the movie has Arren as a boy with a shadow chasing after him *coughyoungGedcough*, they had to show somebody sending him off on his mission to meet Ged, thus the parents. Or maybe they just assumed that because Arren is a prince, then his parents must be a king and queen (when they can just as easily be prince and princess, if my knowledge of titles holds true)?

We aren't sure that Arren's dad in this movie was made to sit on the great seat of Havnor though. For all we know, that might just be some generic court/throne room designed to bring home Arren's princely origins to viewers who might not be familiar with the books.

[lynnonpointe]

Thanks. I sort of assumed they were Arren's parents, too, I was just curious to see if they were messing with canon there, as (I believe) in the books, there are no kings and queens, and everyone is ruled by separate lords and princes. Perhaps lost in translation (which way, I don't know) or perhaps a way to specify they are his parents and not perhaps an older brother and a sister-in-law.

Never thought of that before. ;)

Well, our questions will be answered soon enough. The movie releases tomorrow in Japan, yes? (Unfortunately I'll be headed for the UK the following day for two weeks without my computer and limited access to the internet, so then I won't be able to see what the final verdict is from some Japanese fans who get to see it).

I'm really looking forward to this - I love both Ghibli and Earthsea; it'll be interesting to see how they combine.

[irian]

Apparently the early reviews on Yahoo Japan gave it a really low rating. Something like 2.3 stars out of 5. But then, most of the complaints seem to revolve around 2 things:

a)it's different from the books (Of course, we've established that already since Goro & co. sort of mishmashed and entire series of books into one movie. At any rate, based on the trailer alone we can already confirm that this will be closer to the spirit of Earthsea than the Sci-Fi version, so I guess we can't complain too much...), and

b)it was too scary for a Ghiblie movie and it made my kids cry (WTF? So what do they call Princess Mononoke then?).

[irian]

On the blond Ghibli characters again. There were a few in Kiki's Delivery Service, and a blond German woman in Whispers of the Heart, but none of them were featured main characters.