General Discussion

Remember how I had a WTF Wednesday where I talked about a slightly older manga that I hadn't heard of before, Apocalypse Meow? The Vietnam War, in all its seriousness, but with a cast of anthropomorphic animals as the cast? Originally titled Cat Shit One?

It was a random coincidence that I came upon it then...and now Japan Probe has word that an animated series is in the works and is even being screened at the Tokyo Anime Fair. It's CG, as opposed the anime style we're used to, but holy god do I want to watch it.

“The concept of this work is the development of real and fierce combat by cute and fluffy animals. In these days when people have become too used to seeing people die in movies, we wish to use cute animals as the characters to give viewers a stronger feeling of the misery of the wars that are taking place in this world.”

ETA: As noted in the comments and at the Probe's source, Patrick Macias' blog, it's not a direct adaptation of the original story, but will feature characters who are members of a private military company.

Interesting. What say you, Vicers?

I just heard from a friend that the TV show isn't set in Vietnam, and instead is about the Iran hostage crisis? And uses camels instead of cats, which sounds a bit  - well - potentially racist to me? And disappointing.

Can you confirm whether this is true, Gia?

Some pictures here that seem to back it up...ouch:

http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2009/03/taf-best-of-show-cat-shit-one-the-animated-series.html

Good luck selling that sort of imagery outside Japan ;)

TimMaughan: According to Patrick Macias' blog, it'll revolve around members of a private military company. In his words:  "In the first episode, they intend to come to the assistance of a hostage captured by guerrillas demanding the withdrawal of the US Army, but instead become surrounded by a large number of guerrillas." And yes, he has more pictures, which do include camels anthros in turbans.

As for it being racist, I'd have to see it to decide. Pandas standing in for the Chinese, bears as Russians, and kangaroos/koalas as Australians isn't exactly not-stereotypic, either.

Hah, waited too long to post the comment. ^_^;

Those Russians love their bears. Especially when they're wrestling.

Ahhhh...I didn't know that they used different animals to portray different nationalities (I havn't read the manga, although it has been on my list for a while)...strangely, that in a way makes it a bit more fun and less offensive. However, that imagery above of the turban wearing camels will produce some outrage if it hits the mainstream press over here...there's some very unpleasant racial slurs about Arabs involving camels (which I don't feel the need to repeat here) used in Europe and North Africa that it chimes a little too close to for comfort.

And please understand - I'm not accusing the producers of being intentionally racist - after years of following Japanese culture I understand how their historically isolationist nature has left them unwittingly insensitive to cultural differences, so to speak. The recent controversy over Resident Evil 5 is another possible example...

Hmm I wonder though...what animal will they use to portray us Brits? :-)

Tim: Brits are rats in the original manga. :) Americans are rabbits, the Vietnamese are cats, the French are pigs, the Japanese are monkeys/gorillas, the Koreans are dogs.

All in all, I'd say it's fairly "equal-opportunity racism," as it were =P

Rats! OMG HAHAHAHA! That. Is. Brilliant. You've just made my day, and forced it to the top of my manga shopping list :) Brilliant.