WTF Dark Horse.
Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 2:12 amOKAY SO.
Inferior Rodan/Jae loaned me his copy of the Dark Horse AGE OF MONSTERS collection. Firstly, I want to say that a lot of the black and white art in this, especially Art Adams', is AMAZING. Gorgeous work in the Gekido-jin story.
Oh but in this story. In this story there was a problem.
I was reading along, enjoying the story, which wasn't super-special but pretty solid and BEAUTIFULLY rendered (Oh LAWD the hatching! THE TEXTURES!) and then they introduce the priestess of the island the story it takes place on. Her name is "Ookii'mune."
"That's a strange name!" I say to myself, thinking myself well-versed enough in Japanese to recognize names that seem off somehow. "It doesn't even really sound like some ceremonial title or anything. That's really odd."
But whatever. It's an American comic where all the Japanese people look extremely white, so I'm not going to read too much into it.
They say her name a few more times as I read: Ookii'mune. Ookii'mune.
Ookii'mune.
And then. Then I realized something.
My Japanese finally kicked in and I realized something.
Ookii'mune. Ookii. Mune.
大きい胸。
Big tits.
That's right, Art Adams and Randy Stradley chose for their priestess character a name that is not so much a name but a description of anatomy. Anatomy that she doesn't even really have as far as we can tell. What the hell possessed them to put in such a childish joke? I mean, seriously, guys? What the hell? Mind you, I can appreciate childishness when it's clever but here it's just... not. "HURRRR, WE'LL CALL HER BIG TIT-TAYS CUZ DAT'S FUNNY." No, I really don't think it is, guys.
Is it bad that my opinion of this story (which was fantastic otherwise) is fairly soured by this revelation?
Inferior Rodan/Jae loaned me his copy of the Dark Horse AGE OF MONSTERS collection. Firstly, I want to say that a lot of the black and white art in this, especially Art Adams', is AMAZING. Gorgeous work in the Gekido-jin story.
Oh but in this story. In this story there was a problem.
I was reading along, enjoying the story, which wasn't super-special but pretty solid and BEAUTIFULLY rendered (Oh LAWD the hatching! THE TEXTURES!) and then they introduce the priestess of the island the story it takes place on. Her name is "Ookii'mune."
"That's a strange name!" I say to myself, thinking myself well-versed enough in Japanese to recognize names that seem off somehow. "It doesn't even really sound like some ceremonial title or anything. That's really odd."
But whatever. It's an American comic where all the Japanese people look extremely white, so I'm not going to read too much into it.
They say her name a few more times as I read: Ookii'mune. Ookii'mune.
Ookii'mune.
And then. Then I realized something.
My Japanese finally kicked in and I realized something.
Ookii'mune. Ookii. Mune.
大きい胸。
Big tits.
That's right, Art Adams and Randy Stradley chose for their priestess character a name that is not so much a name but a description of anatomy. Anatomy that she doesn't even really have as far as we can tell. What the hell possessed them to put in such a childish joke? I mean, seriously, guys? What the hell? Mind you, I can appreciate childishness when it's clever but here it's just... not. "HURRRR, WE'LL CALL HER BIG TIT-TAYS CUZ DAT'S FUNNY." No, I really don't think it is, guys.
Is it bad that my opinion of this story (which was fantastic otherwise) is fairly soured by this revelation?
