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INTEREST: Utena, Penguindrum Director Ikuhara Announces Name Change


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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 14216
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 12:51 pm Reply with quote
Well, it's a very Ikuhara thing to do.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5524
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 1:25 pm Reply with quote
This is very disappointing. Why did he not go with a symbol, that way he could be called 'The Director Formally Known as Kunihiko Ikuhara'.
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danpmss



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 784
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 1:34 pm Reply with quote
I mean, most people just refer to him as Ikuhara, I guess that's not particularly big of a name change overall.

inb4 it's the "prelude" for his announcement of an Oyasumi Punpun anime adaptation lol
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1759
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 3:14 pm Reply with quote
And people in the weirder corner of his fandom are already being 100% certain that this means he just came out as trans. (Trans man? Trans woman? Non-binary? No-one seems to think that far!)

Disclaimer before anyone comes at me (oh who am I kidding), no, I wouldn't have a problem if he did come out as trans, but... he didn't. And yet I bet you'll see that narrative everywhere.
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Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 3:45 pm Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
And people in the weirder corner of his fandom are already being 100% certain that this means he just came out as trans. (Trans man? Trans woman? Non-binary? No-one seems to think that far!)

Disclaimer before anyone comes at me (oh who am I kidding), no, I wouldn't have a problem if he did come out as trans, but... he didn't. And yet I bet you'll see that narrative everywhere.


The article states that the announcement includes wording that is often associated with coming out. That invites speculation.

Also Ikuhara's works are so infused with queerness that honestly, him actually being queer probably wouldn't be that big of a surprise to a lot of people.
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garfield15



Joined: 06 Apr 2009
Posts: 1535
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 3:51 pm Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
And people in the weirder corner of his fandom are already being 100% certain that this means he just came out as trans. (Trans man? Trans woman? Non-binary? No-one seems to think that far!)

Disclaimer before anyone comes at me (oh who am I kidding), no, I wouldn't have a problem if he did come out as trans, but... he didn't. And yet I bet you'll see that narrative everywhere.

I think it was the other way around, the way he was leading up to it made it sound like he was doing that (Saying stuff like, 'doing this may cast me out of society/create hardship/etc.') so that's what people were saying was gonna happen. Which honestly would have been the least surprising reveal ever but then it ended up being this troll.

Such an Ikuni thing to do.
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livin_large



Joined: 10 Nov 2021
Posts: 107
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 4:00 pm Reply with quote
garfield15 wrote:
I think it was the other way around, the way he was leading up to it made it sound like he was doing that (Saying stuff like, 'doing this may cast me out of society/create hardship/etc.') so that's what people were saying was gonna happen. Which honestly would have been the least surprising reveal ever but then it ended up being this troll.

Such an Ikuni thing to do.


That's what I assumed. It's like the X-Men movie when they joked about people "coming out" as a mutant to their parents. It seems like an obvious bait and switch.
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Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
Posts: 1098
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 4:12 pm Reply with quote
garfield15 wrote:
I think it was the other way around, the way he was leading up to it made it sound like he was doing that (Saying stuff like, 'doing this may cast me out of society/create hardship/etc.') so that's what people were saying was gonna happen. Which honestly would have been the least surprising reveal ever but then it ended up being this troll.

Such an Ikuni thing to do.


Yeah, with Ikuhara, you can never be entirely sure that this isn't an elaborate joke he is pulling on you. (See Miki's stopwatch contains the secrets of the universe, He wanted to kill Tuxedo Mask, The Penguindrum is a washing machine, etc) But I'm more than willingly to go all with it serious or not and call him Bonsoir from now on if that is his wish.
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Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1525
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 4:14 pm Reply with quote
livin_large wrote:
garfield15 wrote:
I think it was the other way around, the way he was leading up to it made it sound like he was doing that (Saying stuff like, 'doing this may cast me out of society/create hardship/etc.') so that's what people were saying was gonna happen. Which honestly would have been the least surprising reveal ever but then it ended up being this troll.

Such an Ikuni thing to do.


That's what I assumed. It's like the X-Men movie when they joked about people "coming out" as a mutant to their parents. It seems like an obvious bait and switch.


That scene was conceived by the director and one of the actors, who are both gay. It wasn't a joke, it was an intended metaphor.
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Hellfish



Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 394
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:23 pm Reply with quote
This is on brand with Ikuhara, by this point if news came out of Bonsoir Ikuhara being X gender like Yu Watase, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Anyways, Bonsoir Bonsoir Ikuhara.

And I want to see the penguindr films
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HoshizoranoUtage



Joined: 20 Jul 2020
Posts: 53
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 6:17 pm Reply with quote
This feels like an early April Fool's joke...Then again, I don't know much about him himself but his anime series are quirky enough that I might see him saying something like this...or just trolling people for fun. Either way I'm glad Ikuhara found a new name he likes.
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FunkyDude88



Joined: 01 Oct 2021
Posts: 108
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 6:54 pm Reply with quote
Shenl742 wrote:
The article states that the announcement includes wording that is often associated with coming out. That invites speculation.


Doing that to fictional characters is one thing, but head-canoning real life people is deeply creepy and invasive.
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Dayraven



Joined: 21 Jul 2021
Posts: 184
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 3:12 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Also Ikuhara's works are so infused with queerness that honestly, him actually being queer probably wouldn't be that big of a surprise to a lot of people.

And then there’s announcing it on Trans Day of Visibility, too.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5524
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 4:15 am Reply with quote
Shenl742 wrote:
Also Ikuhara's works are so infused with queerness
If we are honest most Anime is queer, even ones that take themselves seriously are still often strange. In comparison to some of the stuff Gainax put out, his work in comparison is quite normal. FLCL for example was really queer, with robots coming out of peoples heads and a giant iron in the middle of the town.


Last edited by MarshalBanana on Thu Mar 31, 2022 5:28 am; edited 2 times in total
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1759
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 4:21 am Reply with quote
Dayraven wrote:
Quote:
Also Ikuhara's works are so infused with queerness that honestly, him actually being queer probably wouldn't be that big of a surprise to a lot of people.

And then there’s announcing it on Trans Day of Visibility, too.

Still, he didn't come out as trans but as Bonsoir Ikuhara. If he knows that Trans Day of Visibility is a thing (I didn't, until last year) this looks more like a "har har coming out getit" joke than anything. If he doesn't, it just looks like what it does, him assuming a new name for whatever reason, with a jokey garnish.

Quote:
Also Ikuhara's works are so infused with queerness that honestly, him actually being queer probably wouldn't be that big of a surprise to a lot of people.

I think it's more like some people really want to claim him as their "own", and claiming to know intimate things about about a real person that he never actually disclosed or insinuated, just because they really want them to be true, is frankly quite creepy to me. (And that's beside my own problems with people worshipping Ikuhara as a queer icon.)


Last edited by SHD on Thu Mar 31, 2022 4:31 am; edited 1 time in total
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