Re: Euro-Japan or DNAngel's Setting



elsie wrote:


Yes! I noticed this too when I watched DNAngel for the first time.

At first I paid little attention to the setting of DNAngel
because it was a very
entertaining show. However, as I began to watch more of it and think
about, I thought
the setting was very odd and not in a good way. DNAngel is a fun
series but the setting causes problems for me,
it would be easier for me to watch if it really was set in Europe and
the characters had European names. The town is too
Mediteranean looking for me. It reminded me of a lecture I attended at
the Big Apple Anime Festival about the presentation
of non-Japanese cultures, places, and people in anime. Kiki's
Delivery Service was used as an example of how the Japanese view
Europe, romantic and enchanting.*

*I agreed with most of the conclusions of the presenter, who was a
friend of my brother, but I disagreed with his conclusion on China in
Anime.
He said that the Japanese view China the same way Americans view
Mexico. I think the relationship between China and Japan is more like
the relationship between 19th century Europe and Africa, China is
Japan's dark continent or in this case country. That is, its an
antiquated land filled with mysterious things to the Japanese rather
than the reality of the PRC or ROC.



Exactly. I found it very disorienting myself.

I found it jarring, then again, I'm not the targert audience for
the show.
I'm sure the target audience, Japanese kids in elementary and middle
school, found
the setting magical and charming and fun. To me it caused a
disconnect. I could not imagine
all the Japanese people living in such a European place even if its
only theme-park European. If I
created DNAngel, I'd probably have set it in Europe and given the
characters European names.




CCS is more a modern Japan story. Yukito for instance lives in a
Japanese style house, and Miss Mizuki is a miko.

I thought I was wrong, I'm basing my thoughts on CCS on vague
memories of
the show, I haven't watched an episode in years.

I think I would put Utena in that category.

To qualify for a Euro-Japan setting, there must be some obvious
sign that the the show takes
place in Japan despite all the Europeaness. In DNAngel, the
characters have European names, you see a lot of writing in
Japanese, and Mio is said to have returned from the states,
presumably to Japan. In Utena, the characters have Japanese names
but the setting is to weird and surreal to count as Euro-Japan. Thing
of DNAngel as an ideal for which all other Euro-Japan settings must be
compared to . I well admit, that Utena does have strong influences
from what a Japanese persons view of certain European things might be.

Princess Tutu and Ouran have
strong European influences, but Tutu is more clearly meant to have a
European setting, while Ouran is Japanese with a jet set, global
attitude. Snow Fairy Sugar is actually set in Germany.

I've never scene Princess Tutu or Ouran, so I'll take your word
for it. Snow Fairy
Sugar does not count because the human characters are actual
Europeans. Euro-Japan requires
a nearly entire ethnically Japanese cast in a setting that is very
inspired by Europe. The Wallflower might count
in this regard as a Euro-Japan setting.

But your raising the issue does remind me of a question I've had. Is Fai
Flowright the only wholly Caucasian major character in a CLAMP
manga/anime? I can't think of any others.

If Fai Flowright counts as a completely white character, than most
of the cast of MKR besides
the three heroines should count as completely white. I'm also not
sure if the Sakura of Tsubasa counts
as Japanese or even Asian in any meaningful way. If anything the
Sakura of Tsubasa is a fantasy Arab princess
with a Japanese name.
.

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