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Interview: Unico: Awakening Writer Samuel Sattin




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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2022 8:46 am Reply with quote
I had seen a lot of buzz about this, and while I've chosen not to donate money to their Kickstarter because...well, Kickstarter announced that they're going to involve themselves with NFTs and I hate NFTs, I'm definitely looking forward to this new take on Unico, if it ever comes out on retail! Also, I really like Gurihiru's design for the West Wind and that piece of art Kamome Shirahama made.
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gridsleep





PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2022 9:22 am Reply with quote
I was watching Astro-Boy and Kimba when i was a kid. Even Aqua Lad. I never heard of Unico before this. This almost feels like some creepy Matrix retcon stuff.
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2488
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2022 10:37 am Reply with quote
gridsleep wrote:
I was watching Astro-Boy and Kimba when i was a kid. Even Aqua Lad. I never heard of Unico before this. This almost feels like some creepy Matrix retcon stuff.


If you can, watch the Unico movies! They're great! They're both streaming for free on RetroCrush (though with ads) and available on home video as well.
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KlarkKentThe3rd



Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 108
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2022 4:49 pm Reply with quote
I definitely love myself a good reboot.

"Good" meaning "the new creator in charge actually cares and has a vision on where the story goes". This could be good. The 2019 Dororo really satisfied me with its attention to the important details (character motivations) and its more or less complete ending.
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KlarkKentThe3rd



Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 108
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2022 6:37 pm Reply with quote
Listened to the Anime Nostalgia podcast. What a horrible take on live action Bebop.

"It's bad because it's not japanese enough."

NO, it is bad because Bebop's director made specific decisions for specific reasons, while the live action version is just a copy, with those original reasons missing. AND the anime was inspired by decades of cinema history. While live action Bebop is inspired by.... Bebop. A hollow copy without the WHYs from Watanabe's mind. Plus, the anime is actually perfect. You do not copy perfection and expect something good to come of it.

But yes, despite saying something this dumb I still hope the new Unico writer could do something good.
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sharpied



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 17
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2022 11:35 pm Reply with quote
I always feel so mixed about Tezuka stuff. Yeah, a lot of great if not dark themed properties like Unico, Wansa-kun, Emperor Leo...but sooo much sexualization of female characters. A lot of his artwork, particularly the yearly New Years Cards (nengajo) he sent out during his lifetime....I really could have lived without seeing a rat/human hybrid fetishized for Year of the Rat. I might be more agreeable to it had his sexualization been applied equally to male characters as well, but it was not. It really just boiled down to creepy old man drawing low key smut.

Anyways, I am not backing this reboot. Owning prints doesn't interest me. Owning a good copy of an original Tezuka page doesn't interest me, especially when the same money needed to buy that tier can easily buy an original sketch from Big Web Auction item on Mandarake.
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KlarkKentThe3rd



Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 108
PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2022 11:17 am Reply with quote
^ it's more than okay not to back, they already have the money

And speaking of sexualizing women (which is always bad because all women are chaste nuns and sex is sinful and you go to Hell, Norway), Tezuka was indeed big into waifus. And once he realized he could just make his own, he never stopped Laughing

Don't take me too seriously (only partially).
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OjaruFan2



Joined: 09 Jul 2018
Posts: 673
PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2022 5:47 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I was lucky enough to be introduced to a colleague who founded Crunchyroll Japan.

Pretty cool that Crunchyroll now has a Japanese division. It seems they aren't actually stremaning any content yet, though I can imagine that if they do then (at least some of) the lineup will consist of titles in which Crunchyroll is a part of the production committee.

Quote:
Yes. It's interesting: the Tezuka book that made the biggest impression on me is MW.

I haven't heard of MW until now. Then again, Tezuka created so many works during his lifetime. It's hard to keep track of all of them! Laughing

Quote:
Also, Unico was oriented towards children when it was created in the 70s, where kids entertainment could be a lot darker and more severe than it is now.

Yeah, I noticed Unico feeling kinda dark and severe when I read some of the manga. There's one part early in the story in which Unico goes through starvation and it feels sad. However, as common in his works, Tezuka tried to offset something so distressing by adding cartoony humor; when some ants refuse to share an apple with Unico, they stick out their tonguage in a comedic way. Then an owl suddenly drops by, eats the ants, and competes with Unico for who gets to eat the apple. The owl starts by swinging a golf club (which appears out of nowhere) at the apple, like a golf ball, and the two characters race each other to the apple.

Quote:
How did artist team Gurihiru get involved with the project?

I was wondering how they got involved, so thanks for asking this!
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1767
PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2022 8:14 pm Reply with quote
KlarkKentThe3rd wrote:
And speaking of sexualizing women (which is always bad because all women are chaste nuns and sex is sinful and you go to Hell, Norway), Tezuka was indeed big into waifus. And once he realized he could just make his own, he never stopped Laughing


The issue is likely more about marketing smut when you also market products and series geared primarily towards children. It would be akin to Walt Disney having created and released a book of porn featuring Snow White, Cinderella, Mickey Mouse, etc. or creating yearly pornographic Christmas cards of said characters and then mass marketing them so that others could send them to friends and family. While an adult might appreciate the humor, many adults have young children who do not have the understanding to process these drawings.
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KlarkKentThe3rd



Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 108
PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2022 10:36 pm Reply with quote
Oh, that's understandable. Understandable that it can confuse people. How can one make erotica and make children's content at the same time? Doesn't baffle me one bit. It's almost like people can be complex and layered.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14889
PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2022 3:48 am Reply with quote
KlarkKentThe3rd wrote:

Oh, that's understandable. Understandable that it can confuse people. How can one make erotica and make children's content at the same time? Doesn't baffle me one bit. It's almost like people can be complex and layered.


People can be complex and layered. Kids, less so
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OjaruFan2



Joined: 09 Jul 2018
Posts: 673
PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2022 8:41 am Reply with quote
Keep in mind that Tezuka's works were made at a different time. It was a lot more common for manga artists to sexualize female characters in works aimed at children back then. Fujiko F. Fujio and Shotaro Ishinomori were also some of the manga artists that loved doing that. Considering that many of these manga artists were male, I think they did the sexualization for the sake of self-satisfaction and drew nude and panty shots to show off the purity and innocence of the young female characters. Since the world has gotten more and more works with young female characters being depicted just as capable and strong as males, sexualizing females in children's works is politically incorrect, creepy, and disgusting by today's standards. Back then, manga artists could easily get away with this because females had less respect than males, and thus female characters often had few characterizations and it was less common to see them in the main protagonist role.

Cutiebunny wrote:
It would be akin to Walt Disney having created and released a book of porn featuring Snow White, Cinderella, Mickey Mouse, etc. or creating yearly pornographic Christmas cards of said characters and then mass marketing them so that others could send them to friends and family. While an adult might appreciate the humor, many adults have young children who do not have the understanding to process these drawings.

The adults could've hidden them somewhere where their children wouldn't be able to find them. I understand that children easily recognize Disney characters, but if their parents freak out because they found their parent's secret stash of pornographic Disney drawings and Christmas cards, then it's the parent's fault for buying that merch in the first place.

Also, what is the understanding that children don't have to process the drawings?
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