Forum - View topicINTEREST: Nogizaka46's Song Continues Wonder Woman Film's Marketing Controversy in Japan
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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Ouch Japan, ouch. Sorry I mean Warner Bros. Japan. You think it would be rather easy to market this movie apparently for them its hard.
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Arale Kurashiki
Posts: 749 |
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I want to dismiss this as just marketing to the idol crowd, but it's so ludicrous that they did that with Wonder Woman of all things.
You know how the western media really badly misinterpreted most anime, especially during the 90s? This is the same thing. They're marketing it as what is popular with young men who spend a lot of money. You'd think this kind of thing wouldn't happen anymore, but here we are. Maybe in a good future when Japanese pop culture gets out of this, people will look back at this and laugh like us westerners do with stuff like Haruka and Michiru being "cousins". |
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DJStarstryker
 Posts: 140 |
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Not really surprised. Most 48/46 group songs are essentially looking at the world from a teenage girl's point of view (lyrically) and so many of them are about falling in love.
They really shouldn't of chosen any 48/46 group for this. Not only is Wonder Woman an adult, but she also isn't preoccupied with falling in love. But putting musical acts that don't fit is becoming more and more of a thing in Japan. The record labels have gotten entwined enough with the entertainment industry that most theme songs nowadays (this includes for anime, actually) are the result of the record label choosing who they want to promote - NOT what song is best fit for the show/movie. |
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Well, I can see where people are getting upset. But the one line about Wonder Woman not knowing much about the world or men is technically true. And that's because she lived a sheltered life on a island of only women. And yes, I did see the movie.
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AiddonValentine
Posts: 2203 |
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yeah, that's pretty tone-deaf marketing considering how the character's concept is incompatible with that song and that narration is kind of at odds with the character (or at least inarticulate, as it's not wrong that Diana in the movie is in fact innocent and ignorant of man). Regardless, WB has not done well marketing her in Japan which is something they're going to have to work on when the sequel comes out
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Hellsoldier
 Posts: 753 Location: Porto,Portugal,Europe,Earth,Sol |
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No offense to idol fans or fans of the group... but the message of the song is poor. Piss poor, may I add. Damsel-in-distress song to promote a heroine movie? Check. Heteronormarive theme for a bisexual character (and women in general)? Possible, but I haven't read the lyrics, so I can't confirm. Also, idol agencies, you have a lot of lesbian and female bisexual fans back in Japan. There's untapped market potential, you know?
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Dontey Griffith
Posts: 10 |
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Nogizka46 song doesn't fit with the movie and kind of ruin the message of the movie. People care about the movie and it isn't about feeling "good", it not about an agenda (well, some of them). I would be upset too if someone did a One Piece opening that didn't fit the tone of the show at that time *cough* One Piece OP 12 *cough*. If this wasn't about Wonder Woman and was about Superman, you would have said nothing and move on with your day.
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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It's basically like when people complained about Wonder Woman being marketed through protein bars in America and people complained it 'fat shames'. Last I checked, Wonder Woman was fit and active, not sure how it sends a contradictory message. Admitted, Gadot looks too twiggy, but we're past Lucy Lawless's prime, sadly. Xena was more or less the ideal Diana. Full disclaimer: I haven't seen the movie, so I'm only going off the 80s and 90s comics. Personally have no issue with the song, but generally when a mainstream product has a woman or minority it gets a lot more scrutiny than usual. If you'll permit me to don a tinfoil hat, given the manufactured controversy in America about the movie, and by simply seeing the Twitter users being quoted having a whopping 6 followers, I have to question how big a deal it really is. I'm taking this as serious as whenever a news article wants to push someone recieved a death threat and it's some random account with 5 posts. -Stuart Smith |
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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That maybe so, but it sounds bad the way it's translated or the way it's said then. |
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Dontey Griffith
Posts: 10 |
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The fat shaming was pretty much nonsense. The image song doesn't really fit, the movie isn't about Diana finding love, it about her trying to stop World War 1. It a tone death song. I guess you miss Tomohiro Machiyama talking about it (who have 255000 followers). Death threats are a different situation than this, a better one would be DoA Extreme Volleyball. |
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Hellsoldier
Posts: 753 Location: Porto,Portugal,Europe,Earth,Sol |
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Granted, it was probably shoe-horned on an already existing character. Rather than creating an interesting character who happens to be LGBT, some just revise a sexual orientation of an existing character. Kinda depressing in a way. Though some bi women enjoy bondage, and to each their own. Kind of depressing how some supposedly liberal people like to clamp down on practices between consenting adults, or videos made by consenting adults... ya get the picture. We still have the whole ''no woman...'' bit though. We all know that idol music is a commercial product (sorry fans), and stats show that over 80% of japanese aged 18-30 are acceptant of same-sex atraction and love. And many women in Japan are fond of women. And millions of women there want independence (there's a interesting BBC piece on it, I believe). You know, untapped market potential? |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Looking back at the "Marvel Future Avengers" thread, it's just more evidence that Japan simply DOES NOT understand US comic-book heroes, period, bold, full-stop: In the comic, Diana is a Greek Amazon, raised on battle and warlike male-bashing, she fights for good in our world, but her romance with Steve Trevor convinces her that there are some other things just as worth defending in the world, and that keeping world peace is just as much about making love, not war. It's what makes her character more complex, self-questioning and two-sided, as every good superhero needs some complexity to their main incentive for hero-ing. The whole "Great responsibilities" thing, you know. In Japan, a woman seeks personal fulfillment through love, and so they instinctively latched onto the whole "Woman with sword, interested in fitness and military history, seeks Air Force guy with similar interests for longterm relationship" subplot, and the more established Greek-Amazon motivations of why she feels a need to fight for justice sort of flew over their heads. And that's even without the fact that the red-white-and-blue "American eagle" design of her costume was toned down in the movie and had its explanation retconned in recent years' comics. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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Considering the amount of posts I just had to remove or edit I'm only going to say this once, keep it civil and on topic. Some of you were bickering back and forth driving this off topic, or just flat out being rude. This is not going to turn into some generalized debate on feminism or other political ideals. So stick to the actual topic and keep it civil please.
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jirg1901
Posts: 150 |
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Even with Aniplex and a couple avex buy-ins it's really not even in the same stratosphere. A mildly interesting example is that ixtl was recently bought by avex and when they were doing their first anime collaboration 5 years ago fans were really caught off guard because the show began with a Koda Kumi song that was totally out of line with the usual core anison JAM Project/Granrodeo/Minami Kuribayashi fare the franchise was associated with, but the song had been picked by the creator, albeit still for more or less cynical promotional reasons. In any event they had enough freedom to have their associated acts still perform in the show despite being on a different label. Of course there is a lot of cases in anime where the show producer, seiyuu office, and theme song singer label are the same but those tend to be an arrangement of convenience that results in minimal creative compromise (very rarely does it result in the casting of someone unqualified or horrendously out of place, and similar things happen with things like agencies also owning recording studios). By comparison when it comes to the movie industry in Japan the things are produced bottom up to promote specific idols as often as not, and anything and everything can be changed to suit. |
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nechronius
 Posts: 275 Location: So Cal, USA |
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<----- (See avatar photo.)
Oh, Japan... |
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