Forum - View topicREVIEW: Yurikuma Arashi BD+DVD
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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My personal problem with Yurikuma Arashi is that the show is constantly trying to pass itself off as a more sophisticated take on the subject matter than anything that came before it, but there's a lot of great LGBTQ stuff out there that handles the subject with much more meaning and nuance. It wouldn't have bothered me so much if the show hadn't aired the season directly prior to Sound Euphonium, which was almost functionally interchangeable with Ikuhara's strawman depiction of yuri.
The wealth of visual references and homages to 70s, 80s, and 90s anime and manga in Utena prove that Ikuhara read a lot of yuri before becoming a director. That's great, but where's the commentary on more recent series like Plica, Bodacious Space Pirates, or Wife & Wife? It's clear that the people working on this show were (perhaps overly) familiar with yuri shows designed to titillate male audiences, but what about genuinely feminist shoujo ai works? It's a shame, because Utena is one of my all-time favorite shows, probably in my top three along with Simoun and Maria-sama ga Miteru. I enjoyed Penguindrum a lot, too, despite catching maybe one out of every ten literary references (seriously, how am I supposed to know what "Super Frog Saves Tokyo" was about without looking it up?). Yurikuma Arashi definitely has the same artistry, and I don't regret buying it on Bluray, but it just seems so... hollow, I guess. It felt as though anyone who would be willing to watch 12 more episodes of an Ikuhara series and come out feeling like they hadn't wasted their time probably already knew - and agreed with - every single piece of information the show was trying to impart. |
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Naera
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You didn't understand. Indeed Jacob (I'll excuse myself to refer to him with a name only) doesn't seem to have a problem with specifically Ikuhara telling stories with non-heteronormative characters. Nevertheless he acknowledges as valid concerns raised against "lesbian shows" made by non-lesbians. What's more he admits that the fact who made that show might be a sole and only reason for some people to eschew the anime. Problem is, by the logic of these concerns and his explanation, the very fact he is a male reviewing "lesbian show" could be a big red flag for some and he should totally expect that those people will drop his review without reading it, or at least ignore what he has to say on the subject altogether. In other words, if some people have problem with Ikuhara show, only because he is a male, they shouldn't take Jacob's words vouching for it, since he is also a male.
The fact it's a common complaint doesn't make it any less ridiculous. While it may be the case that stories about X-people written by X-people might have a slightly better chance to be more authentic, it's absurd to hold against anything an objection from the very start and solely based on the fact that "story about X" isn't written specifically by an X. story about Germans should be written by a German, story about tall people should be written by a tall person, story about redhead should be written by a red-head, story about space invaders from the 7th dimension should be written by a space invader from the 7th dimension - It is all unreasonable and people usually realize that. It just nowadays became fashionable to bash a) stories about women only because they are not made by a woman b) stories about lesbians not made by a lesbian. Somehow objections against yaoi or similar stories made by BL creators aren't raised as frequently - e.g. I haven't met a single complaint against Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu based on the fact the mangaka is a woman. How should she know anything about male friendships, eh? And doesn't she come from the background well known for fetishizing males and pandering to the lowest and most conservative female instincts? Additionally I don't believe Yuri Kuma Arashi is a story about specifically lesbians, like they are called in the West. So even according to this ridiculous fashion, demanding Ikuhara was a Western lesbian seems a little misguided. |
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Shay Guy
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And how do they do that? By affecting the audience's emotions, making them feel and think things. How do they do that? By exploiting all sorts of facets of the human mind, including the way we draw parallels between different things, or have one thing represent/suggest another thing. This is how metaphor and symbols work.
But do you acknowledge that it is possible to discern intent, albeit imperfectly, from analysis of the work? As surely as one can look at two dots, a circle, and a couple lines and identify a face?
Yeah, I just took a look at that thread, and... yeah. DuelGundam2099, I don't think we'll be able to reach any kind of mutual understanding in this thread, so I'll try to close this up and leave you with a suggestion. There's a book called Invisible Ink, by a writer/consultant named Brian McDonald. The people at Pixar swear by it, and if anyone's proven they know how to reach audiences it's them. I didn't agree with everything I saw in it, but I recommend you give it a read-through -- if you can't find it for sale at a reasonable price, try your local library, or inter-library loan. Think about what you read there. You just might find another way to appreciate the stories you love.
Let's take as a given for the moment that there's a pattern of male writers and directors representing queer women poorly, and that many queer women might therefore be wary of an anime about queer women with a male director. That said, I can think of reasons why such a woman might be willing to respect his judgment. One is the fact that he acknowledges the problem's existence (instead of dismissing her perspective like many would) and can point to differences between Ikuhara's work and others'. She might also seek to understand the critic's perspective better and look up what else he's written and said, thereby learning something about where he's coming from and why he might know more than the average man about women's perspectives and LGBT issues.
This particular reviewer has, in fact, criticized some of the ways fujoshi objectify gay men. Though I've mostly seen him talking about that on Twitter.
Elaborate? |
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Lord Oink
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There's still sexual stuff all throughout the series including the grand finale which is basically two girls getting it on. Yeah, it's not on the same level as a typical fanservice anime but yuri anime tends to be pretty tame by comparison, like Yuru Yuri isn't that explicit either. Doubt it was some kind of trap though. I was satisfied, and there's plenty of merchandise for people looking for that kind of content like nekkid body pillows and posters. There's also pewter merchandise like the bear forms. I guess it's just me but if the show was trying to have some grandiose statement how lesbians shouldnt be objectified then all the explicit stuff and merchandise kind of goes against whatever it was saying. 
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Seif
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What I don't understand is how DuelGundam2099 can reject metaphorical interpretation so unequivocally but be such a big fan of End of Evangelion. And Haibane Renmei. And The Big O. All three of them deal heavily in allegory.
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Top Gun
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Not to be too off-topic, but I hope that if Jacob happens to read this, he gets a good chuckle out of the irony dripping from it. 
That aside, I'd somewhat forgotten about this series, but reading Jacob's review puts it right on the top of my list. My only experience with Ikuhara thus far was Penguindrum, which left my brain tied in delightful knots while also delivering a masterful emotional roller-coaster. (Also adorable penguin antics!) Utena is definitely a watch-this-before-you-die work too. The man is an absolute master at what he does, and even when he misses, it's still far more interesting than the majority of what's out there. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Oh yeah, I'm getting a kick out of it. Guess I finally got my male privilege card stamped!* To be honest, identity politics as the end-all-be-all of who's allowed to talk about a thing are pretty tiring and arbitrary, and I'm glad that progressive discourse seems to be moving past this to some extent. *spoiler[I'm a transgender man, and I lived as a woman for over 20 years, so the question of whether I'm too male to review Yurikuma Arashi is sort of a big confusing ??? that everybody kinda has to decide on for themselves.] |
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Naera
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That doesn't have to do with anything. It will be equivalent if they complained specifically about Rakugo's mangaka (she is a woman, she knows jack shit about male romances. Actually it's even worse, she is BL writer. Rakugo must be therefore inauthentic). It would be unwise to hold such an opinion, but it's a good approximation of any person who seriously considers not giving Yuri Kuma a chance only because Ikuhara is male.
It's just an interpretation, but the way I see it Yuri Kuma Arashi is about two different pre-existing and relatively well-defined narratives, in which women loving other women are framed by the society (or by storytelling industry). Those narratives seem to me to a significant extent peculiar to Japanese culture. And one of the point Ikuhara is in my opinion trying to make is those are only narratives, not objective truths, and that while not inherently evil they are damaging to the freedom and expression of the individual. I don't want to spoil the ending, but the show IMO ends with certain characters embracing rejection of societal narratives, and not embracing their being a 'lesbian' - because 'act of being lesbian' would be also nothing more than an expression of narrative, this time Western one and even if kinda more pleasant, only another restriction box. If we had Ikuhara in the West, I strongly believe he wouldn't do a show about how LGBT community is unjustly oppressed by thickheaded Republicans. And I personally lament we don't have anyone like that. spoiler[As for reviewer's self-labeling I had zero means to know that and I don't think I want to debate it]. And it renders part of my objections moot. While I still stand by the opinion that disqualifying anything on the grounds of the gender of the creator is deliberately anti-intellectual sexist idiocy, and that appeasing people doing such things in the review is dangerously legitimatizing their society damaging worldview, I must clearly devise a different way to attack this particular, slightly misleadingly named, reviewer. I would be really obliged however if said reviewer told us why they think Blue is the Warmest Color 'pedestalizes, fetishizes, or otherwises alienates the love stories between its female characters'. |
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Shay Guy
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I'm not going to blame anyone for being once burned, twice shy when there's an identifiable pattern. And wariness is not the same as dismissal.
So what does the word "lesbian" mean to you? What narrative do you think it represents?
??? |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Naera's unpleasant transphobia aside, for anyone genuinely confused about my criticism of Blue is the Warmest Color, I would go into detail, but I actually used that movie as a shorthand example in the review because it's been called out extremely frequently for its problems by many different female and queer viewers already. If you haven't heard these perspectives already, you can read about it from the NY Times's senior female critic, the feminist outlet Bitch Media, everyday lesbians reaction to the movie's sex scenes, and a goodie bag of all these different perspectives conglomerated in a brief Indiewire article. So there you go.
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noriah
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I think it's less "completely mistranslating for dub reasons*" as much as "dialogue that had 2+ meanings in one line, and 1+ of those meanings is lost because of fast turnover adaptation reasons**. " This idea is fleshed out more in one of the episode reviews. *like changing wording to match lip flaps, or using the wrong homonym, wanting to add gratuitous swearing, etc. **like a Japanese word is more multi-meaning than an English equivalent, or without the whole work in hand before translating, and as a result missing another layer of additional meaning in a line as a result, etc
Ikuhara specifically had a yuri mangaka, Akiko Morishima, involved in early development, in addition to having other women on staff
It is interesting to read the YuriKuma manga since the anime and manga were developed to be separate works, and Morishima prefers romance with older women, and doesn’t like to rely on metaphors or fantasy elements in her work. Like a alternative universe with the same characters. http://softkakumei.tumblr.com/post/108899102728/im-skimming-through-the-starting-guide-the |
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Animegomaniac
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Maybe you'll be shocked to know that I mentioned Simoun because it is anti-homosexual? Not homophobic but definitely part of the "This is a phase you'll grow out of" camp. It's unfortunate that all of immature people in that world are depicted as maturing females but until they go through the ceremony, they are in effect children. But it's pretty telling that two people who were in love prior to the ceremony had to hide their feelings for each other when they both became men. And then there's the ending... I referenced it as an anti-metaphor because most people just assume that "girls kissing= homosexuality"... still there in the show's themes here... while in context, it's entirely unisex and the premise actively frowns upon same sex adult couples. But people will take away what they want and that's even without the "what do you think it means?" option invoked by the creator of Yurikuma Arashi. Also, I mention it any chance I get because it's a really great series that needs more attention. But bringing that back to Yuri Bear Storm, if there's no option presented and disagreement apart from those who are patriarchal and judgemental;...Series could have benefited from a little subtlety, here and there... then why hide your message and the act itself? Does it make it cool or is it because its the idea itself of it being "forbidden" is what enticed the creator to it in the first place? From a PM:
It's either this or Lucky Star and I've been complaining about that one for years so must be this one. The phrase you're looking for is not comprehend or appreciate but "enjoy nebulous artistic expression" and that's a point I've yet to mention; This is supposed to be entertainment, not overwrought life lessons from a man who's so far removed from the subject that he can only ever look at it... like if female homosexuality itself was a work of art. Oh dear... that's the point, his point, isn't it? Is the subject matter important? Yes. Does it have to hide under so much treacle and misspeak? I don't know, I'm not Japanese. Full marks for spelling and punctuation however. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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Not all that shocked, I've heard the argument before. I completely understand where you're coming from, but it's not how I interpret the series. To me, the "adults have to hide same-sex affection" thing was consistently depicted as a negative aspect of a society spoiler[who was ultimately defeated by its neighboring countries and forced to abandon its fundamentalist conservative views in favor of the societal practices of its conquerors. The country's treatment of homosexuality felt just as unjust as its rejection of non-religious female authority.] I also think that one of Simoun's strengths is that, unlike most Japanese LGBTQ media, it isn't a commentary on homosexuality, but rather a commentary on transsexuality, which is often underrepresented or mocked in anime. Whether that explanation sounds like BS or not is totally up to you, but that's anime. 
Very interesting. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18219 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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While I can definitely see the anti-homosexuality interpretation of Simoun described by Animegomaniac, my own original view of it was much more in line with yours: that it's an examination of gender identity and the thought processes that go into deciding whether or not to stick with your birth gender. And boy, in retrospect that is a series that I would have loved to have seen done in episode reviews! Always thought that it was worthy of far more attention and discussion than it ever got, as there are so many other topics the series looks at, too. Sadly, its original run sold so poorly (from what I've heard) that it's unlikely to ever get a rerelease. |
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Lemonchest
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I recall enjoying Yuri Kuma, though I'd say it is my least favourite of Ikuhara's anime trio. Thing that I remember thinking most, though, is that it seemed needlessly abstract & surreal in presentation for what was in essence a pretty simple & straight forward story. Was left wondering if it was a result of Ikuhara feeling he had/wanted to make an "Ikuhara" story (weird, symbolic, generates a mountain of think pieces because it's about something "provocative" yet open to interpretation) or if anime has gone backwards in it's presentation of lesbians/homosexuality in the last couple of years.
In his interviews he looked like he might finally have crawled all the way up his arse & back out his mouth, but then again he always seemed a bit like that, so you never know it it's just part of the act. Last edited by Lemonchest on Sat Aug 13, 2016 9:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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