[ SECRET POST #737 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #737 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

101.


__________________________________________________



102.


__________________________________________________



103.
[Labyrinth / The Office]


__________________________________________________



104.


__________________________________________________



105.


__________________________________________________



106.


__________________________________________________



107.


__________________________________________________



108.


__________________________________________________



109.


__________________________________________________



110.
[Kumikyoku Niconico Douga, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Version]


__________________________________________________



111.


__________________________________________________



112.


__________________________________________________



113.


__________________________________________________



114.


__________________________________________________



115.


__________________________________________________



116.


__________________________________________________



117.
[FAKE]


__________________________________________________



118.
[Chronicles of Narnia/The Golden Compass]


__________________________________________________



119.
[Batman Beyond]


__________________________________________________



120.


__________________________________________________



121.


__________________________________________________



122.


__________________________________________________



123.
[Twilight/Heroes; Carlisle Cullen/Adam Monroe]


__________________________________________________



124.


__________________________________________________



125.


__________________________________________________



126.
[Danny Phantom]


__________________________________________________



127.


__________________________________________________



128.


__________________________________________________



129.


__________________________________________________



130.


__________________________________________________



131.


__________________________________________________



132.


__________________________________________________



133.


__________________________________________________



134.


__________________________________________________



135.


__________________________________________________



136.


__________________________________________________



137.


__________________________________________________



138.


__________________________________________________



139.


__________________________________________________



140.


__________________________________________________



141.


__________________________________________________



142.


__________________________________________________



143.


__________________________________________________



144.


__________________________________________________



145.


__________________________________________________



146.


__________________________________________________



147.


__________________________________________________



148.
[Bam Margera]


__________________________________________________



149.


__________________________________________________



150.


__________________________________________________



151.


__________________________________________________



152.


__________________________________________________



153.
[Clint Eastwood]


__________________________________________________



154.


__________________________________________________



155.


__________________________________________________



156.


__________________________________________________



157.


__________________________________________________



158.


__________________________________________________



159.


__________________________________________________



160.


__________________________________________________



161.


__________________________________________________



162.


__________________________________________________



163.


__________________________________________________



164.


__________________________________________________



165.


__________________________________________________



166.


__________________________________________________



167.


__________________________________________________



168.


__________________________________________________



169.


__________________________________________________



170.


__________________________________________________



171.


__________________________________________________



172.
[Brad Pitt]


__________________________________________________



173.


__________________________________________________



174.


__________________________________________________



175.
[Resident Evil]


__________________________________________________



176.


__________________________________________________



177.


__________________________________________________



178.


__________________________________________________



179.


__________________________________________________



180.


__________________________________________________



181.


__________________________________________________



182.


__________________________________________________



183.


__________________________________________________



184.


__________________________________________________



185.



Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 20 pages, 476 secrets from Secret Submission Post #106.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 2 3 - broken links ], [ 1 2 3 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - take it to comments ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

For the same reason I'm glad it has no characters for Kongo, etc. It's a gag manga and not a serious commentary on international affairs. Think what you want about its treatment of WWI and II, but the series mostly stays in the realm of military history and random anecdotes and trivia, and tries to be as inoffensive as possible. Yet, the series is controversial enough as all the wank here (and elsewhere) proves, imagine what it would be like with characters for Middle Eastern countries. (Well, actually there's a character for Egypt, but that's all.)

Plus it wasn't that long ago that a Muslim religious leader took offense at an anime showing a random quotation from the Qur'an. I suppose (hope) that the author simply doesn't want any trouble.

(Forgot that there's actually a Tibet character... but he only appeared in one strip set thousands of years ago.)

[zarla.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'd say it tries to be inoffensive... there was that Shinatty thing after all. That was kind of harsh. in b4 lol sensitive/get over it

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

I suppose by Japanese standards it's not. I mean, I'm no Japanese so I can't speak for them, and I'm no expert on Japanese racism (especially since I mostly stopped hanging out at 2chan) but from what I can see nobody regarded it as an ethnic slur. And as I hear from a friend, the Chinese fans he knows simply went "eh? whatever."

I think it's a bit like... in my country we have a popular candy called 'Negro' (because it's all black, obviously). The country being where it is and history being the way it was, at the time the candy was created it probably didn't even occur to people that its name could be regarded as offensive. Now of course people (well, the more enlightened part of the country) know, in theory, that the word is a racist slur but still, but still they're fine with it, mostly because they simply don't perceive it as racist. If you were to point it out to them they would simply say "so what? it's not meant to be racist." (Now imagine the average American strolling into a store and going "WHAT?!" when they see the candy on the shelf.)

[zarla.livejournal.com]

I dunno, it still came off as kinda harsh to me, japanese standards or no. Not just the Shinatty thing, but also the "this thing is so low-quality and cheap, well it must be from china/ineptly trying to imitate japan" kind of thing that went with it. That was kind of :\

I wouldn't really say Hetalia is the same as that candy, since it wasn't created in a time before the things it says would be considered offensive. It's being made right now. And the "it's not meant to be racist" also seems to me to be kind of like saying "well, it's your fault for being offended, so why don't you just stop being offended by it" which seems kind of jerky to me, no offense. how many times can someone use offense in a sentence goooo

I don't really care about Hetalia either way, but I definitely wouldn't say it's inoffensive or tries to be inoffensive. It's offensive to a lot of people, judging by the secrets/comments here and in other places, and I think people should either just accept the fact that it's offensive and like it regardless (I thought it being offensive/based on stereotypes was part of the humor/appeal to its fans?), or not try to defend it as being inoffensive because it's not. If that makes sense. :B

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

Mind you, when I said inoffensive I meant it with regards to the wars and various atrocities that happened during them. As for the rest, I think we misunderstood each other somewhere along the line (or maybe it was just me, it was past 3AM at the time). I can't speak for other people but personally I don't think the series is any more offensive than your average TV show or comic that goes "lol stereotypes!" but for what it's worth I can see why others may not agree with me and I respect their opinion if they find it offensive for whatever reason (as long as they express their opinion in a civilized way). As for the Shinatty thing, true, it's not very nice but it is one of the most prevalent stereotypes about China, and as with most other stereotypes it's hard not to see the truth behind it. (Actually, the Shinatty was based on actual Chinese Hello Kitty bootleg merchandise.) I can see why it could be regarded as offensive but as for me, if the series took a similar shot at my country I wouldn't feel offended unless I knew for sure that a) it was a mean-spirited comment knew or b) there wasn't a grain of truth behind it (maybe not even then).

In any case, I respect people finding it offensive for whatever reason, though as I see most people have problems with it because it deals with WWII (among other things but that tends to go over people's heads). Still, while I'm not saying it's completely innocent or anything, I can't help finding it way less offensive than what it may seem like.

[zarla.livejournal.com]

I dunno, it's really hard to say ANYthing is really inoffensive, I think. Some people I think have mentioned that how Hetalia glosses over or avoids real wars or conflicts offends them. You can't win either way. Although I do think we somehow got off-topic. :B How did we start on this again?

I think when you do something like this, with a volatile timeperiod with a whole bunch of different real world countries, you're stepping into a minefield. I really don't think it's possible to do something like this and NOT offend someone. Although whether or not I personally find it offensive really isn't relevant as to whether or not it itself is offensive. If that makes sense? Even if the Shinatty thing doesn't offend me personally, I can definitely see how that in itself is offensive.

I don't think it's just because it deals with WWII, but that it's a gag strip about WWII and real world countries (with a large slash fanbase), and some of the fandom's response/behavior has been... a bit leery, you know? I think backlash against something like this is totally inevitable, and not entirely unwarranted given the touchyness of the subject material. But that's just my take on it. :B

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

Eh, nations and history and whatnot are serious business for many people, and in any given time period there's going to be an infinite number of reasons why people might be offended by anything that deals with such things. But even so, in the end it's still up to personal interpretation. Many people find it offensive, and many people don't, and there are many shades of grey between, so many opinions. Some of them I can understand/respect, some I can't.

I think that in the end it all comes down to the individual and her own decisions about how she views such things, in this case Hetalia. I mean, you can't really do anything about other people's opinions, can you? Me, I decided on a stance regarding this series that I'm comfortable with, and I'm saddened (even angry sometimes) when I see some reactions and opinions within fandom that I don't agree with and/or feel uncomfortable with. (But then, as everyone here should know, fandom is not a hive mind.) In any case, I understand the backlash, I expected a backlash, even the wank, it's just that, well, the wank was a bit too much. :3

...or something. I'm not quite awake anymore so I hope what I wrote makes sense. o_O *facepalm*

[zarla.livejournal.com]

That's true, but actually thinking about it, I usually give more consideration to someone who says they're offended by something rather than someone who says they aren't. Does that make sense? D: Because feeling offended/hurt by something really can suck.

But there's not really a lot anyone can do about how anyone chooses to react to Hetalia. :B I'm actually surprised it didn't blow up more before now. There's some anime for it coming out or something right? This might just be the tip of the iceberg. :O

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

Sure - as I said, it's not people being offended that I mind, it's when they're wanky about it and insult me, personally. I didn't even react to the anti Hetalia secrets until they started going "IF YOU LIKE THIS SERIES YOU'RE [racist/shallow idiot/not a human being/etc]!!!" I mean, offensive or not, Hetalia is not, y'know, Mein Kampf or anything. (...god, was this a Godwin? hope not...) Just as there are lots of reasons to be offended by it, there are lots of reasons to like it, people are different, fandom is not a hive mind, etcetera etcetera.

I think the reason it didn't blow up earlier was that it was a small fandom. I suppose someone noticed it, posted a secret (or more) to f!s and as they say, the rest is history (HA HA HA *shoots self*). And yeah, the anime is coming out in two weeks... though I hope most people who read f!s have had more than enough of this so there won't be such a loud reaction to the anime.

(To be honest I'm not entirely happy about the anime's existence, because IMO this series works as a webcomic and even as a drama CD but it's just not something that should be animated and aired on TV, even in Japan... but there's not a lot fandom can do about that, is there.)

[zarla.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, IT'S NEVER VERY LONG BEFORE THE AD HOMINEMS COME OUT
especially here :D

It really exploded after that kinkmeme secret, didn't it? That seemed to be the impression I got anyway.

There's a drama CD? :O Although it should be interesting to see the reaction to the anime. I ANTICIPATE SOME DRAMA