The Canadian one would need to be altered a bit – I can hear the cultural appropriation analyses already.
Overall though, an anime Olympics would truly be a Revenge of the Nerds moment, and maybe even unifying? We could use some unifying right now.
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I do like how the top is essentially a hockey jersey, though.
Two things we did well: an anthem simple enough to sing a capela with minimal singing skill, and a flag that is simple but instantly recognizable, confused with no other, with great design capacity. Not saying no one else has done the same, but it is something I feel we got right.
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I have this recorded from the Disney Channel on VHS! My son loved it as a kid! I liked it. I should watch it again.
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Which culture? Remember, it’s for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, so of course there’s going to be influence on each costume from Japanese culture.
My son says they look like Fire Emblem characters from a video game.
The furs, for one. Given Canada’s track record towards Indigenous people, I can see blowback on that.
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Yeah, it looks like they’re deliberately trying to evoke First Nations fancy-dance regalia with the lower half of the garment (furs, tassels, metal loops, and that part sticking out in the back).
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But they’re a part of Canada…
That’s a tetchy subject, especially when you consider the large swathes of unceded territory.
It’s like if a bunch of people invaded your house, then everybody said you’re one of them.
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Yup, that’s exactly what I noticed – that and the whole “warrior” vibe would cause an absolute unholy uproar.
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Uggh. As a white dude, I am probably completely unqualified to talk about this, but, I’ll give it a shot.
I was watching a video about Star Trek today, about times that it had failed to live up to its progressive ideals. One example given was the third episode of the first season of TNG, “Code of Honor,” where the aliens of the week were basically “Africans as written by white people who have nothing than stereotypes to work with.”
Picard claims a kind of kinship with them, saying that they remind him of a culture back on Earth, but doesn’t name a specific culture, so, again, that culture appears to be “generic stereotypical African.”
The actual Africa, on the other hand, is a rich tapestry of dozens, if not hundreds, of cultures, and the same can be said about indigenous American cultures.
So, this episode is a cultural artifact, designed by a bunch of white dudes, which reduces a panoply of non-white cultures to a single, simplistic stereotype, and attempts to claim ownership of that culture by virtue of sharing the same patch of land as the people from those cultures. The episode is widely panned as racist and was called, in the video I mentioned above, “a low point for the entire Star Trek franchise.”
So, to imagine a (probably) non-indigenous person, marching into the Olympics wearing a faux-tribal outfit designed by another (probably) non-indigenous person, based on a caricature of the indigenous peoples of Canada, which is then mashed up with other Canadiana as an attempt to claim a shared identity with them…
I agree that “absolute unholy uproar” would probably be the response.
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This is a good explanation.
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Thanks!
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I just wish they weren’t all carrying weapons.
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This is a side of Canada that is not often spoken of in the US; but then again, we were worse or just as bad.
I was merely speaking out of thinking, wow occasion for national unity, however brief!
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It’s ANIME. Isn’t that a requirement? And the Swiss one - straight out of the Papal Guard, eh?
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That occurred to me as well. It’s sort of like:
Japan: yes they’ll have swords! Swords are cool.
Rwanda: um, not so fast, context is everything
Like why not Macross pilots?
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Thank you for clarifying it for me. See my other response, as well, pls.
I suppose I’m being child-like in my vision - big costume parade, shiny, lots of swirly fabric, colorful, people happy and proud to be representing their countries and paying homage to the host country, everybody getting along for five minutes at the very least.
I don’t suppose some of it could be seen as a form of inclusion? What if he/she were dressed as a anime Mountie, with no hint of First Nations’ existence at all?
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Mounties have issues too, sort of like cops do for Black Lives Matter.
If I got to design it, I’d go with the strong points @MalevolentPixy pointed out: the hockey jersey and flag motif. Practically everyone acknowledges ice hockey, even if it’s not their favourite sport, and practically everyone acknowledges it is our flag, even if it’s less popular in some places like Quebec.
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I just realized that he’s packing a bow and arrow. Yeeeah, that’s definitely moving it further into problematic territory.
I mean, it’s fitting, in a way: extremely European dude coming in to take all the good stuff from the Indigenous and First Nations. But I don’t think that was the artist’s intent, and most people wouldn’t see that.
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