Bandai fails lit class
Jul. 31st, 2023 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alchemicinkI haven't finished watching G-witch yet (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury), but I've been enjoying all the fan art and such that has been popping up in my Twitter feed lately.
At this point, I think I should probably give up on avoiding spoilers since I've stumbled across so many already. And I must admit, I have already watched bits of the flash forward epilogue from the last episode 😅 (note: this post will be mentioning spoilers for the end of the series too)
Anyway, this past weekend, the G-witch chatter was all about a recent interview in the latest issue of Gundam Ace magazine.
To briefly summarize, people noticed that the digital version differed slightly from the print version. Specifically, the removal of the word "married" in regards to Suletta and Miorine, the protagonists of the show.
Suletta's voice actress, Ichinose Kana, was quoted referring to them as a "married pair." But the digital version scrubs that.
This is honestly an extremely weird thing to choose to cut out, considering that there's really no question that the two of them are married by that final scene. For two characters who have literally been engaged since episode one, the wedding rings on both their fingers (in the traditional spot for wedding rings) seems pretty blatantly obvious that the two ladies have gone from fiancees to wives. Suletta's sister even refers to Miorine as her "sister-in-law" so even if maybe for some reason they're not "legally married," it's clear that they're still together in a way that everyone around them considers married.
So at first glance, it seems like leaving "married" out might just be a simple mistake. And it probably would have been if this were a traditional heterosexual couple. But Suletta and Miorine are both women, so it seems more believable that the removal was actually to cater to homophobes who wish to not acknowledge queer relationships.
Predictably, many fans were not thrilled by this. There was a ton of pushback on Twitter asking for the digital version to be corrected to match the print version. Many people who watched the series (myself included) really enjoyed watching the romance develop Suletta and Miorine. It's not full of grand romantic gestures, but it is quietly compelling to see grow over time. I just recently rewatched episode 11, for example, and I feel like their romantic relationship is integral to the story. (Miorine explains to Suletta that meeting her was what finally stopped her from running away from all the troubles in her life. I think that's one of the best kinds of love portrayals: when the audience is able to see how the relationship affects each person for the better. I'm looking forward to seeing how that will play out over the rest of the episodes too.)
And, of course, when the lgbtq+ community already combats so much discrimination in real life, it is extra disappointing to see people try to erase even adorable little fictional queer love stories.
As I followed the situation, I assumed that Bandai Namco (the overarching Gundam franchise production company) and Kadokawa (the magazine publisher) would make the quick change, sweep the controversy under the rug, and pretend it never happened.
Instead, they inexplicably doubled down!
You can read about the statement and this whole situation in this ANN article, but Bandai's statement is basically summed up as this: the magazine editor made a mistake to assume they're married; it shouldn't have even been mentioned like that in print; and Suletta and Miorine's relationship is open to interpretation by each viewer.
Huh?!
Firstly, I think it's kind of weird to throw the magazine editor under the bus like that. I know quite well how journalism works, so it's stupid to say the editor was just adding random interpretations and words in people's interviews! If they're supposedly adding extra content to one interview, how do you know they're not doing it to every interview?? That's a fun way to lose journalistic credibility quickly.
Secondly, the "open to interpretation" bit is just laughably bad. I think you'd have to be incredibly dense to not interpret the epilogue as the two of them happily married. What got fans so riled up is that, again, it feels like denying the obvious in order to pander to the homophobes. It's censorship at its silliest.
It made me think of literature classes where we'd have to write essays about our interpretation of the text. You could argue for just about anything as long as you could back it up.
But I'm still going to fail if my essay if I try to argue that some other character created Frankenstein's monster or the Great Gatsby never threw any parties. My teacher would know immediately that I hadn't read the text, because obviously, there's no arguing these things happened. They're integral to the text!
Did Bandai Namco fail lit class? Did they watch the show at all?
Lastly, and perhaps the most ridiculous of all, this debacle is happening weeks after the show ended. Over one word in a magazine article. For a series that was so popular, it boosted the company's profits. (See the ANN article linked above for details about that.) Homophobia is truly ridiculous.
No matter how hard you try to plug your ears and bury your head in the sand, queer people are always gonna exist, persist, and persevere.
On the bright side, at least, the fandom jokes about this have been hysterical!
Ultimately, this doesn't change anything in the story. There's a queer relationship at the center of G-witch, and that's pretty hard to overlook.
No matter what your interpretation is.
At this point, I think I should probably give up on avoiding spoilers since I've stumbled across so many already. And I must admit, I have already watched bits of the flash forward epilogue from the last episode 😅 (note: this post will be mentioning spoilers for the end of the series too)
Anyway, this past weekend, the G-witch chatter was all about a recent interview in the latest issue of Gundam Ace magazine.
To briefly summarize, people noticed that the digital version differed slightly from the print version. Specifically, the removal of the word "married" in regards to Suletta and Miorine, the protagonists of the show.
Suletta's voice actress, Ichinose Kana, was quoted referring to them as a "married pair." But the digital version scrubs that.
This is honestly an extremely weird thing to choose to cut out, considering that there's really no question that the two of them are married by that final scene. For two characters who have literally been engaged since episode one, the wedding rings on both their fingers (in the traditional spot for wedding rings) seems pretty blatantly obvious that the two ladies have gone from fiancees to wives. Suletta's sister even refers to Miorine as her "sister-in-law" so even if maybe for some reason they're not "legally married," it's clear that they're still together in a way that everyone around them considers married.
So at first glance, it seems like leaving "married" out might just be a simple mistake. And it probably would have been if this were a traditional heterosexual couple. But Suletta and Miorine are both women, so it seems more believable that the removal was actually to cater to homophobes who wish to not acknowledge queer relationships.
Predictably, many fans were not thrilled by this. There was a ton of pushback on Twitter asking for the digital version to be corrected to match the print version. Many people who watched the series (myself included) really enjoyed watching the romance develop Suletta and Miorine. It's not full of grand romantic gestures, but it is quietly compelling to see grow over time. I just recently rewatched episode 11, for example, and I feel like their romantic relationship is integral to the story. (Miorine explains to Suletta that meeting her was what finally stopped her from running away from all the troubles in her life. I think that's one of the best kinds of love portrayals: when the audience is able to see how the relationship affects each person for the better. I'm looking forward to seeing how that will play out over the rest of the episodes too.)
And, of course, when the lgbtq+ community already combats so much discrimination in real life, it is extra disappointing to see people try to erase even adorable little fictional queer love stories.
As I followed the situation, I assumed that Bandai Namco (the overarching Gundam franchise production company) and Kadokawa (the magazine publisher) would make the quick change, sweep the controversy under the rug, and pretend it never happened.
Instead, they inexplicably doubled down!
You can read about the statement and this whole situation in this ANN article, but Bandai's statement is basically summed up as this: the magazine editor made a mistake to assume they're married; it shouldn't have even been mentioned like that in print; and Suletta and Miorine's relationship is open to interpretation by each viewer.
Huh?!
Firstly, I think it's kind of weird to throw the magazine editor under the bus like that. I know quite well how journalism works, so it's stupid to say the editor was just adding random interpretations and words in people's interviews! If they're supposedly adding extra content to one interview, how do you know they're not doing it to every interview?? That's a fun way to lose journalistic credibility quickly.
Secondly, the "open to interpretation" bit is just laughably bad. I think you'd have to be incredibly dense to not interpret the epilogue as the two of them happily married. What got fans so riled up is that, again, it feels like denying the obvious in order to pander to the homophobes. It's censorship at its silliest.
It made me think of literature classes where we'd have to write essays about our interpretation of the text. You could argue for just about anything as long as you could back it up.
But I'm still going to fail if my essay if I try to argue that some other character created Frankenstein's monster or the Great Gatsby never threw any parties. My teacher would know immediately that I hadn't read the text, because obviously, there's no arguing these things happened. They're integral to the text!
Did Bandai Namco fail lit class? Did they watch the show at all?
Lastly, and perhaps the most ridiculous of all, this debacle is happening weeks after the show ended. Over one word in a magazine article. For a series that was so popular, it boosted the company's profits. (See the ANN article linked above for details about that.) Homophobia is truly ridiculous.
No matter how hard you try to plug your ears and bury your head in the sand, queer people are always gonna exist, persist, and persevere.
On the bright side, at least, the fandom jokes about this have been hysterical!
Ultimately, this doesn't change anything in the story. There's a queer relationship at the center of G-witch, and that's pretty hard to overlook.
No matter what your interpretation is.
