#not maintagging this bc lol. lmao

[svturn-exe]

luis lives au - polar

contains references to canon-typical violence & some very mild reference to a headcanon (leon being referred to with both he/him and she/her)

From so far away, the explosives she’d spent so long lacing the island with sound almost like fireworks. Her body is sore, and she’s definitely got a few bruises underneath her clothing, but watching the island crumble under the force of the heavy duty explosives, Ada finds that the effort was worth it. All things considered… it could’ve been a lot worse. She’ll have to remember to send Leon a fruit basket. Something for her trouble.

A quiet groan pulls Ada from her musing, turning her head to look towards the back of the helicopter. Luis Sera is right where she left him, slumped in the seat Ada manhandled him into. His shirt is open, revealing the bandages wound around his chest, his ornate leather jacket draped over his shoulders. The sight sparks something in Ada’s chest, almost approaching nostalgia. She remembers it fondly - bright-eyed, baby-faced, painfully earnest rookie Leon. So naive and trusting, hanging on her every word, taking a bullet for a woman she didn’t even know. Ada could have left him there to die. She could have let pain and exhaustion catch up to Leon - let him pass out and bleed her life out onto the ground. Ada is a spy, though, not an ingrate. So she had dressed the wound and called them even.

The reason Luis is alive, however, has nothing to do with gratitude. Has little to do with Ada at all, if she’s being honest. Rather, Luis is alive because Ada had been ordered to get him out of there. For reasons Ada can’t even begin to guess at. Albert Wesker, Ada has learned over the years, is made up of contradictions. For all intents and purposes, Luis had failed to uphold his end of the bargain - had been unable to retrieve the Amber, instead taking a ten inch knife to the lung while running around with Leon. Therefore, the deal was off. Yet, when Ada had reported Luis’ mortal injury back to Wesker… Ada remembers falling to what would have certainly been her death, only to have her life mercifully spared, despite not being able to complete her mission - the G-virus sample lost to the yawning depths below. Maybe, she supposes, Wesker is just softer than he looks. Or, maybe, he has some other hidden motive. Whatever it is, she’ll find out eventually.

She looks away from Luis, moving away from the helicopter’s door and settling into an empty seat. The amber nestles into the cushioned case she’d been provided nicely, and she clicks it shut with an air of finality. Ada puts on the headset, leisurely leaning back in her seat. “Patch me through,” she says, and waits until the pilot gives her the thumbs-up. “I’ve obtained the Amber,” she speaks into the mic, gaze drifting to the outside, setting sun glinting off the water. “Serra, as well.” “Excellent,” comes Wesker’s reply, ostensibly pleased with her performance, but there is something in the man’s tone Ada can’t quite place. Albert Wesker is made up of contradictions. “Just one question.” A question Ada had been wanting to ask since she took the job, to be frank. “What do you plan to do with this?” “I do not pay you to ask questions.” Really, Ada should have expected that, but Wesker continues on anyway, as if he hadn’t just rebuked her for prying. “All you need to know, is a new dawn is breaking.”

The words, however ominous, sound oddly rehearsed. Almost imperceptibly stilted in a way few would be able to catch. Ada purses her lips, glancing down at the case, the Amber nestled safely inside. “A hundred will give their lives so that just one may live.” A brief pause. “I am expediting that change.” Wesker rarely gets things like sarcasm - if you want to get anywhere with him, you need to be blunt. “So,” Ada takes a moment to pick her next words. “We’re talking millions of casualties.” She can’t say the idea sits well with her, regardless of her chosen profession. “Billions,” Wesker asserts, an odd thing to emphasize. Wesker rarely gets sarcasm. He also just as rarely ever says what he really means.

There is little to no reason, logically, for Wesker to be telling her this - not if he believes in what he’s saying. He could have simply rejected her attempt to pry, and let Ada believe he simply wants to research the Amber for his own personal gain. Ada has a choice to make. “How ambitious,” she replies, standing before removing the headset and placing it down on her seat. There is only one choice to make, really.

She points a gun at the pilot’s head, finger off the trigger but the threat is clear. “We’re changing course. Now.” The pilot turns their head just enough to see the weapon in Ada’s hand, and obeys without question, the helicopter tilting as they turn to face back the way they’d come. Ada peers down, out the window. Far below, in the water, Ada sees the speedboat, and by extension, Leon. The girl he’d been sent to rescue - Ashley, that’s her name - clings to Leon’s back. A weight Ada didn’t know she’d been carrying lifts off her shoulders. They made it out okay. Leon had saved Ada’s ass again. Her ankles still feel rubbed raw from being strung up, and her shoulder aches from where it hit the ground, but she could be a lot worse off. Watching Leon and Ashley speed off in the boat Ada had given them the keys for… she’ll just call them even again.

Another groan, louder this time, pulls Ada’s attention away from the speedboat, and she glances back towards Luis. He’s moving, struggling to push himself upright, bleary eyes taking in his surroundings. “You’re awake,” Ada greets, and Luis startles, wide eyes flicking up to meet her own. He tries to say something, but a cough stops him, wracking his weakened body. Ada takes a moment to look back outside. They’re approaching the island again, still being ravaged by explosions. Maybe it was a bit overkill, but it’s coming in handy now. Ada slinks back over to the case, popping it open and removing the Amber. Walking over to the door, resting her free hand on the wall, she holds it in her hand, head tilted, studying the small object. To think that something so innocuous has true world-ending potential. She waits until they’re about over the center of the island before tossing it down, leaving the Amber to be buried along with the rest of the accursed cult.

Turning back, Ada sees that Luis has caught his breath, and is looking at her with confusion and incredulity. “So, eh-,” Luis wets his lips, glancing down at where Ada had thrown the Amber. “I am… not ungrateful, señorita, but… why am I here?” Ada understands his confusion. She’d been pretty confused too, when Wesker had decided to save her, despite the mission failure. “Points for effort,” she drawls sarcastically, letting the sardonic statement conceal the fact that she doesn’t know, either. “Consider your life from this point on your consolation prize.” Luis blinks at her, stunned, but relaxes back into the leather seat with a pained grunt. “We were just taking a quick detour,” Ada changes the conversation, raising her voice so the pilot can hear her over the whirring helicopter blades. “We’ll be heading back now.” The helicopter tilts as they about-face once more, setting them on course to their destination. To Wesker.

The rest of the ride passes in relative quiet, save for the occasional noise of pain or discomfort from Luis. For a man who was stabbed in the lung, though, he’s taking it remarkably well. Credit where credit is due. The sun has long since set, the stars a thick blanket over the night sky and the wind a bitter chill, by the time they touch down. Ada is a capable woman, but her strengths definitely lie in speed and discretion. Half-hauling a grown man around with his arm over her shoulders is not something Ada typically does, and she feels a brief flash of annoyance at Krauser for going and dying on her. If nothing else, she could’ve used his muscles right about now. Wesker cuts an imposing silhouette, as always, backlit by a large screen displaying more information than Ada cares to try to glean at the moment. “Lay him down,” Wesker gestures to a gurney, strangely out of place in this room. It takes a bit of effort to get Luis up onto the thing, but he settles down with a groan. Then, Wesker turns his gaze to Ada. As usual, his face gives nothing away, mouth set in a thin line and eyes hidden behind dark lenses. He’s waiting for something. She meets his gaze, unflinching. “I suppose you have made your decision.” Wesker is the first to break the silence of their stare-off. There isn’t any need to elaborate. The fact that Ada came back with Luis and not the Amber says enough. Another beat of silence, and for a moment, Ada worries if she somehow misread. If Wesker is now going to kill her as retribution for failing him once more. He simply turns away, back to his monitor. “Was it the right one?” he muses, gazing up at some graph displaying data Ada has no context for. “There was only one real choice,” Ada asserts, letting the confidence in her voice wash away the moment of unease. Wesker pauses, humming. “I will hold you to that.”

#svturn's writing #ressieposting #not maintagging this bc lol. lmao

[volfoss]

Final version of the Volfoss guide/unit guide download link here (dropbox, if you need an alt download just message me :]).

The guide includes:

Full, line by line, translation/transcription of the story and 5 endings

An in depth character list with image descriptions for each character and the in game gallery descriptions (as well as some of my own for the characters that were either very minor or did not have them in the gallery for spoiler reasons) translated and transcribed

An in depth unit list with image descriptions for each unit as well as the in game gallery description translated and transcribed

Full, in depth descriptions of each menu and battle strategies

Every single side quest (over 50!) with full information and strategies on most of them (the only ones that don't have them are the ones that are very easy and self-explanatory)

A 5 page table of contents that will navigate to any quest, any side quest with ease

A complete list of every item, taken straight from the manual

A complete list of locations with the in game descriptions translated and transcribed, as well as a handy table to show which locations are under which government system

A (very long) gem combination table that makes the otherwise complicated system a lot simpler to use

The unit guide transcribed into a handy spreadsheet from the physical in game format, so it's very easy to see what enemies do what and which units you may want on your team

Misc Links:

Manual and Map scans here (not including the unit guide scans as they scanned in pretty badly)

The .cue/.bin files to run it on Retroarch (or any emulator of your choice, just scroll down to get the files labelled Volfoss (Japan), it's an archive.org link)

#twist rambles #sorry i am not putting this on google docs it fucks the formatting up soo bad lmao #volfoss #<- maintagging this <3 but im finally done lmao #♟ #ok to rb #<- in fact please do :) ill be queueing this for a few days bc well. 2.5 months of work. i want it to be seen lol. and ill ofc make a post #when its all up on gamefaqs. its all the same info just slightly different formatting :) #anyways. god. weird as fuck to be done but my final message 2 the world.. play volfoss 2001 #and if u have any questions on how to emulate/get it set up PLEASE come talk to me. just remember to get a jp bios for the emulator ok :)

[uniquezombiedestiny]

actually fuck it. i need to ramble more

thinks about the snow queen and bella. ive recently delved into her story and some of the of fairytale (dubious from some webbed site but. yknow lmao) and wound up with lots of think of... based on her ruina dialogue + appearance, the queen like to challenge the brave. in the fairytale, kai and gerda's childike hearts are still there at the end. bella is someone with a kind heart and not much bravery. (really, she polarizes, but her bravery is more around the alternate alone. she can be brave!! but usually and - especially as she declines - she loses that aspect, likely trading it for simple anger, red-shoes-y desire, etc.) she was also forced to grow up - she is still that lonely kid she was years ago. she is still in t-589, still in c-127. she has a lot to learn, still, and to discover.

the snow queen is.. an interesting figure to me when it comes to her relationship with bella. she is cold, silent, only watching bella as she simply speaks into basically nothingness. she may, sometimes, give her a cruel smile. what a childlike, brave little soul; one who chose to bear the cold. one who enjoys her presence.

"kai saw things he didn't need or want to see." / "he felt like what he knew amounted to so little."

to bella, the queen is a respite. friendcorp has shown her so many new things, good and bad. on the bad side, her mental issues have been unraveling. her unhealthy mindset isn't going to work indefinitely like it used to. but, with the snow queen, it's familiar. it's not even that cold anymore, you know? she's long been used to cold, quiet, endless hallways. talking into the silence - like her words are simply carried away by the wind - is a relief, because noone can hear them. for once, she can speak, and there will be no consequences. and if the queen does hear, well, that's alright. she trusts her, now.

the cold isn't so bitter anymore. it's homely. familiar. it's lively, biting into her skin, sending shivers down her spine. she feels real.

and, ofc, i'll talk about her suicide attempt too. especially her own views on it... eventually, it becomes like a knightly duty to her. she must do this to save everyone else - surely, we'll all be happier this way. yes, you'll have to face this loss. but beyond it is a better ending for everyone here. this is the most logical choice... isn't it?

the snow queen gave kai a kiss - one to no longer feel the cold, and one to forget everything. his family, friends, etc etc. that way, he would stay with the snow queen. she would show him the truth of the world - the shattered mirror shards, his knowledge being so little, the mirror of reason.

"what a shame... all your friends who could help you are gone." really, it's like she pities bella and her kind, lonely heart. she pitites most people, i think, like when she laughed at lee during their duel, or gave merry a sickening smile shortly before being frozen. where her heart should be is empty - she is a cold and calculating being.

in ruina, the mirror is surrounded with frozen people, with the throne being the head of the circle. really, both her and bella have done this time and time again. bella has endured loss after loss, leaving entire worlds behind. the snow queen has killed person after person, snuffing flame after flame. her suicidd isn't much different. it's just, this time. it's a calm, slow end. bella puts up no fight or front of bravery, now. she just wants to return to her dreams of a better world. the queen will gladly show her this, in a place made only for themselves, where bella can finally be completely and utterly herself, in all it's flaws, without consequence. with all of her emotions overtaken by freezing cold, she can finally smile.

and she'll be preserved as an angel. she'll look beautiful, perfect, in this ice, like a bug in amber. she will always be the perfect kid.

also, in the og story, the shattered mirror wound up being made into things like glasses and windows. that fits well with bella's glasses. when kai's eye gets a tiny, tiny shard in it, he sees everything as distorted and ugly. but he sees perfection in snowflakes. the snow queen is made of them, the queen to the "snow bees" that are snowflakes. (they're actually described as snow bees in the story!)

#fc!bella #okay to reblog #anyways if anyone wants to add stuff or anything feel free id be super happy to hear it! #lobotomy corporation #the snow queen #ill maintag since i am talking about the snow queen some #shes inch resting now... motherly figure and all but shes really just a mirage #cruel and cunning but through the mirror shard you only see perfection #i could even delve into motherlyness; love; and bellas perception of love #also how others view the queen and their disconnect towards bella bc of it #and how she deals with their differing views #< but her suicide mindset does kinda do that too #maybe another post :3c #lc ocs #forgot that ine lol #one* #writing #that too lmao

[swiss-army-fangirl-art]

making a RARE facepost on this site to show y’all i didn’t forget about my yearly starlight redraw, but that this year, i did a makeup look to match the fact that i got the 2022 version tattooed back in september ~ not sure how to top that in 2024 !

[2022] [2021] [2020, signed]

#god i’m abt to maintag a selfie. y’all i’m so sorry - LOL #starset #vessels #starlight #tattoo design #bc i did. it’s on me LOL #yearly redraw #<- new tag after 3 years LMAO

[luminecho]

alright so with the sequel trilogy it's gonna be a little experimental because i'm not positive that the games will work on my current device? they downloaded successfully and they all opened but i have not tested to see if they run smoothly for longer than like 10 seconds bc i didn't want to see the opening cutscenes yet lol. so!! we'll see how it goes with those. fingers crossed that they'll work!

other than that, i will be starting apollo justice :3c so!!! new tag will be #echo plays aa4. not gonna call it apollo justice cause i dont want it showing up in any character maintags on accident lmao

#otherwise i can switch to a diff device #// #echo's aa liveblog #echo plays aa4

[vermillionbones]

also i dont even know if ppl still watch them but i'm currently making one of those madcom as vines videos jcKGBNK

#i fucking ADORE those videos so im like. legally obligated to make one lmao #im gonna maintag this bc fuck it lol #madness combat #gel.txt

[blockgamepirate]

Here you go.

To make matters worse (or funnier) it is under an animatic of Techno mocking 5 years old philosophy majors for calling Syndicate a government.

Oh boy, I honestly don't even know what to say to that lol

I mean... okay so this person seems to have figured out that the thing anarchists care about is coercive power / power over others, but what they haven't seem to have figured out is that not every form of power or influence constitutes a "government". Governments are a SPECIFIC form of coercive power. Big name fans, Twitch mods and such aren't "governments".

Also I mean.. I guess this is an interesting topic for a debate but I don't actually know if any of these really count since having lots of followers, while it does undeniably give you power and influence, I don't know if it's actually the kind of power and influence that could reasonably be abolished. Or even if it should be, because while it IS often harmful and should be critiqued, I don't think it's actually comparable to systemic power.

As for mods, I'm up for debate on this but IMO Twitch chats are the personal property of the streamer and I do think people have the right to have an enforce rules on their personal property, like if the worst punishment is just that you get banned, that's just revoking your access to something that wasn't a public good in the first place. You're not being deprived of anything essential or anything you have a right to. Nobody has the obligation to let other people ruin their chat. That's not to say that mods can't abuse their power or that it's not worth being critical of, but again: not comparable to systemic power. Then again the streamer might exploit mods for labour, because the mods help the streamer gain wealth, but often aren't paid themselves from what I understand?

The wiki stuff I'm not gonna comment on bc I don't think I know enough about that topic.

Oh yeah and fandoms in general are just way too decentralised to be considered in anyway comparable to states with "governments". IMO fandoms are in fact pretty damn anarchic actually. And even when someone tries to take over a fandom it generally doesn't go all that well for them because people resent that kind of thing and if they don't want to engage with a specific fandom community they can always go elsewhere. And while people might be able to control a wiki or a subreddit or whatever, NOBODY can control Tumblr or Twitter lmao

I dunno if I'm making any sense here, I just woke up from a nap and I haven't exactly thought about these topic all that hard. Don't take any of this too seriously. And I'm definitely not maintagging this nonsense lol

#asks #petrenocka #sorry this really wasn't a very funny response lol

[wasflypaw]

Hey genuine (but maybe dumb lol) question that one of your asks made me think of: does it matter if you maintag a reblog that’s mildly critical of a character (of course also including the usual c!critical tags for anyone it triggers)? Like for instance if I reblogged a meta post, and tagged both “technoblade” and “c!techno critical,” would that be rude? I assumed that only the original poster’s tags would matter, so I’ve been maintagging them to make sorting through my blog easier, but maybe that’s wrong? I’m new-ish to tumblr so I’m not sure if this is a known etiquette thing and I haven’t been able to find an answer anywhere. Idk if this even makes sense lmao, so don’t feel like you have to answer, I was just wondering if you knew. Thanks!! :]

In my opinion I think tagging critical posts w "Dream SMP" is fine as long as you tag it with x character critical but it seems more frowned upon to tag your critical posts with the CC name

Like I wouldnt be too pleased to see c!Tommy critical posts in the Tommyinnit tag bc that's not just for DSMP content

But if I'm looking through the Dream SMP tag I'm expecting all types of content from fanart to analysis to memes to critical posts etc

I'm not really too sure of the etiquette myself I'll be honest, ppl have different opinions, it always boils down to "at least tag ur post with X Character Critical if ur gonna maintag it"

[nerdepic]

twitter art meme doodle !! 

#im so sleepy lmao #my art tag #this was fun !!! #not maintagging bc one of their pr team is online reblogging things lol

[volfoss]

MT-001->MT-003: Jungle Emperor/Kimba (1950-1954)

TW: Discussion of racism (specifically anti-black racism)

Before I get into the plot and well. everything bad about this, I want to quickly explain that this is the first out of 400 volumes of Tezuka's that I will be reading/reviewing. This is absolutely the worst of his works by far and I need to very much emphasize that for anyone who wants to read the 5.5 pages of notes I took (that are under the cut, due to length).

Summary of Plot: A white male lion is known for terrorizing an African village, and they make plans to hunt and kill him. These plans end up succeeding, and his mate, who is pregnant with his son, is captured and taken onto a ship. She gives birth on the ship and pleads with her newborn son, Kimba, to escape and become the king of the jungle, like his father was. The story follows Kimba as he tries to follow in his father’s footsteps, but in his own special way.

Characters: Kimba/Jungle Emperor is a mixed bag when it comes to characters. On one hand, Kimba and his family manage to be entertaining without speech. Their motives are very clear and they are written sympathetically. Jacques the rat is a really good addition to the cast and adds a lot to Kimba as a character. The animal characters have a pretty interesting dynamic with each other, and I feel the little screen-time the villain got was pretty decent. I’m not normally a very big fan of stories centered around animals in the specific way that this does it, so the aspects of the charming animals could be better for someone who enjoys that sort of thing more.

On the other hand, the humans are not written in a super in depth manner (at least not compared to his later works that I’ve read). The protagonists quite honestly fall flat most of the time and don’t lend a ton to the story. The worst of the badly written humans are the African characters. They are horrifically reduced to the worst stereotypes possible, given how Tezuka wants to portray them as “tribes-people”. They are portrayed as stupid and are shown as rather backwards. The best example of the latter is early on, when the leader offers “the best hut” to one of the white characters and when he goes to investigate it, all the promised amenities are either broken or just there for props. They are also portrayed as overly violent and also docile towards the white characters. I cannot express enough how this ticks every single anti-black stereotype in media box.

Another horrific part of this is their treatment of Merry. Merry is one of the two children, and in Volume 1, is kidnapped by the “Jungula Tribe” (as that is what this group is referred to) and by Volume 2, has formed an alter ego (or something along those lines, it’s not really made clear but it is handled badly) named, and I kid you not, Conga (or Konga, depending on the translation) and has taken over the tribe as their leader. She does this by creating electricity (which is pretty clearly implied as something that the tribe she now leads had never seen before, and treat it as something mystical and magical) by rubbing her pen against a cheetah pelt. Her taking over the group is seen as a sad thing but only specifically in the way that the other child that was her friend, feels very disconnected to her and cannot relate to her (and not the frustration that Tezuka was leaning into yet another trope of the white person having to lead the black tribe because they just know better. This is handled in that specific manner with her being pretty abusive towards the other characters, and is only really refuted in the manner of now there’s “good” people to lead them (who are white/Japanese) and the only big difference in the leadership is it is less abusive).

There is also ritual sacrifice, regarding the Pygmy (the specific group is not specified (otherwise I would be referring to them as such, as Pygmy is seen as a derogatory term) and this is how they’re referred to in canon) and many jokes about their short stature. They are shown trying to ritually sacrifice one of the white characters, and it is treated as horrific (but also with tones of comedy, as Tezuka constantly uses slapstick to show dumb the Africans in his work are), which from as far as I could find, was not something factual for the actual groups mentioned. Most of the groups mentioned seem to either be slightly made up (Jungula is one that I could not find any proof of anything similarly named existing) or slightly spelled off (but wouldn’t make any sense geographically, such as Gura (literal translation used here, the fan translation I’m using here just refers to this group as Donga, despite the katakana being “グラ”). This detail doesn’t really factor in with the already HEINOUS amount of racism but it is very interesting to me, as I feel it’s just another excuse for him to be using many stereotypes and mash them together, instead of portraying a nuanced version of any of the groups mentioned. Quite literally, they check off every single way to NOT treat African characters and there is no way around this part of Kimba, as these characters appear in pretty much every chapter. They are absent in Chapter 1 and 2, and I state this solely to make it very clear that in 21 chapters, the racism is present in nearly every single one. Genuinely and sincerely, there is no reason to read Jungle Emperor/Kimba for the characters (or really anything other than reading all of his works, like I’m doing) as they are all pretty flat and the very obvious issues are present throughout the entire work.

Art: As always, Tezuka excels at drawing animals in a very specifically stylized way that still lends to how they would appear realistically. Kimba as a character has an instantly charming design and is drawn in such a way that all of his movements exude a lot of character. But unfortunately, the elephant in the room for the entire read through was how he chose to depict Africans. With the setting (and it being written in 1950), I did not expect it to be good but it is unfortunately a topic that is often ignored in mainstream discussions of Kimba/Jungle Emperor (often, I find what is most discussed is using Kimba/Jungle Emperor as a punchline to talk about Disney stealing the Lion King’s concept from this), and is one that I’d like to discuss in the review. They are a very prominent part of the story (given the setting) and to put it very lightly, this is the worst instance of this in his work. It appears again in (given this is the first thing I’m reading in this chronology, I’m sure that there will be more instances, but this is just from what I’ve read going into it) Black Jack and lesser known works such as Hungry Blues, but this is by far the closest to minstrelsy (with how the Black characters are drawn and portrayed, it very much leans into how older media (Hollywood specifically) tended to derive Black characters down to simple and offensive tropes). It absolutely does ruin any enjoyment, as it is VERY glaring vile and present in nearly every chapter.

Ending: The ending is very bad with how Tezuka clearly viewed Africa as a place to be mystified, with how the final words are. I feel that again, a lot of the messaging in this is stuff that appears in his later works but they are a lot more clumsily handled here (for many reasons). It was a very frustrating ending with how most of the Black characters died, and after that, the white and Japanese (implied) characters from different countries realized their differences (with no mourning for the dead, which happened when ANYTHING tragic happened to any of the non-black characters).

Misc: This was the work I was dreading the most, and reading it first has really just been a very frustrating experience due to just HOW blatantly vile it is. To get into the Lion King comparisons (as that is the typical mainstream knowledge of this manga), there are certainly some similarities. Kimba/Jungle Emperor focuses a bit more on the human side of things (in terms of being pretty blatantly anti-zoo (with the second chapter focusing a couple pages on Kimba’s mother telling him how living in a zoo would be no good life for them, and how zoos are discussed on Chapter 3 of Volume 1) and anti-poaching (most clear in the entirety of the first chapter) instead of animal life and drama there, like the Lion King covers. Honestly, a lot of the plot isn’t super similar unless you’re looking at it from a VERY broad lens (I know I see the scene of the stars forming the dead parent’s face cited a lot here, the fact he has an animal companion that watches over him (even a bird for a bit of the plot) a bit is similar (again broadly), there being an evil lion, and the dead parent plot point), as it really does just focus on different subject matter. It is more of a generational tale than Lion King.

Honestly, I think how Kimba discusses the difficulty for him to grow up for a bit in a normal household (with humans feeding and clothing him) and then having to return to the jungle is really interesting. It gets into his struggle with how he wants to be innately kind (and more “human”/domesticated) but he obviously still has those animal urges built in (a scene that really exemplifies this is in Chapter 5 of Volume 1, where the villain taunts him about the fact that Kimba is upset by a gazelle dying and won’t eat from it, like a normal lion would). It tackles a lot of topics related to how humans can be bad (specifically, the way that one of the humans (who is pretty clearly exploiting the African characters) was a guard at a Nazi camp and you are very clearly not supposed to like this character) and even how, in Chapter 5, Kimba bringing “civilization” to the jungle (he gets the animals that listen to him to build paved roads, restaurants and set up farming practices similar to what humans do) is something that makes some of the animals suffer. There is unfortunately also a lot of really poorly handled colonialism (specifically, in chapter 10, where the “good guys” take over the Jungula tribe and dress them in traditionally European clothing and it is seen as a good thing, as they are no longer under control of Conga. The way that it is handled in this is very muddled, and the way that Kimba bringing “civilization” to the jungle animals is a net positive is a very odd thing to me). It does have some of Tezuka’s trademark anti-war messaging but it honestly just really does not work well here given the rest of the topics. There are definitely glimmers of what COULD be a better manga in this but unfortunately it is buried under far far too much racism.

I want to take a small moment to analyze a section of this essay written on Kimba, as I think there is a lot to unpack.

From the section covering The Roles of Africans in Kimba:

“Fans of Kimba may have wondered why there are no Africans to be seen in Kimba’s jungle; or for that matter, why no English version of Jungle Emperor is available. The problem is ironic and must have struck hard at Tezuka: the depiction of the African tribes in Leo can only be viewed by any modern person as racist.

This takes a moment to process and absorb because so much of Tezuka’s work explores (and attacks) the tenants of racism. Indeed, works as early as Astroboy seem to focus on racism-as-an-evil with such a deliberate ferocity that we can (and must) conclude that any such accusations regarding Tezuka are false. Let’s also not forget his own slogan: “Love all creatures! Love everything that has life!”

We might then wonder how it is that Tezuka has produced these images which offend modern sensibilities and which necessitated the replacement of African natives in Kimba with white hunters and ultimately prevented the publication of Jungle Emperor in English. It must first be said that very few of Tezuka’s human caricatures are particularly flattering–even of himself. What we find offensive in these drawings however is their stereotypical nature.

It is my opinion that the resources that Tezuka first drew from for the creation of his native characters are in fact the problem. More than likely Disney is the culprit here; though one might also consider the depiction of natives in the 1933 feature film King Kong. Most telling however are the now deleted sequences involving a black centaur in Fantasia. Other works by Disney from this period along with this sequence were clearly not meant as racist, but we can only judge from the perspective of the 21st century.

One possible source for Jungle Emperor’s Africans: a censored scene from Fantasia 1940. Though this type of depiction of Africans was common in US comics and animation in this period, we know Tezuka was particularly interested in the works of Walt Disney…”

To get into my thoughts on this part of the essay, we first have to discuss the material mentioned as potential inspirations for how badly these characters are drawn, mainly Fantasia. Fantasia was released in 1940, a decade before Jungle Emperor came out, and the racism was about as bad as in Jungle Emperor. It had many racist scenes in the specific Pastoral Symphony scene of the film, that were then removed in 1969 (source). I do also want to cite a slightly lesser known Disney work from 1925 that is nearly exact to how the Africans are drawn in Jungle Emperor: Alice Cans the Cannibals. I am not saying that this is where he got the inspiration from, simply to bring up the point that there was a lot of media that would treat Africans as cannibals and prone to human sacrifice. This essay gets into a lot of the early Disney racism in a very in depth way that might be of interest in regards to this point.

In a similar way to Fantasia, Jungle Emperor also had to be redone, given how the original pages were nearly lost during the making of the anime in 1965. This led Tezuka to have to redraw a lot of it (which you can most certainly tell which parts of it were redrawn, given it was done in 1977 (for the collected Kodansha volumes)) and unfortunately, the racial caricatures are still present in this updated version. (source) I did want to make this comparison solely for media that is viewed somewhat similarly in the mainstream media (with not much discussion around the racism) that got revised later on. This is a thing however, that Tezuka would improve on in some of his works, but that fact does not even remotely begin to erase what he put in the Jungle Emperor. Even if the art was not as blatantly racist as it was, the way these characters are written is still drenched in stereotypes that obviously do still harm Africans now. In comparison to Disney doing all that they can to erase the existence of the material (and how, even in the modern day, they very clearly struggle to hold themselves accountable (specifically referring to Song of the South)), I’m not sure that I prefer the approach here with there being clearly enough fans of Kimba to fan translate it (as the version I’m reading had two different teams) and to praise it while doing so.

I feel that the insistence that it was just caricatures and not blatantly racist really falls flat when you consider how the characters in Kimba are treated. As I mentioned in the personality section, they are really just very flat stereotypes (with no names, as far as I remember, outside of the Chief) and do pretty blatantly fall into what is racist media. The various groups portrayed in Kimba are not done so with much compassion for them as characters and they are quite honestly just used as slapstick or to boost up other characters (whether by being villainous, and driving the heroes to oppose them or by, in a large panel depicting most of them dying (relatively graphically for this manga as well, with one character being shown in the jaws of an animal), which then brings the heroes together (not due to their death but because, seemingly, with them gone, the other characters realized that they (as the characters were from two unnamed countries) are not so different after all)). They are not even remotely given any compassion or depth compared to every other character and it really just falls into the old tropes of refusing to see Black characters as deserving of that depth (which quite honestly does feel like what happened here). They are shown more as a group and never really focused on them as individual people (as EVERY other character is given that).

There isn’t really a good way to handle the presence of very blatantly racist material in media, but I do think the repeated insistence of a lot of fans to insist that it wasn’t intentionally bad (or that it was just of its time) is not the way to go. Even if at that point, he had experienced the war (bringing this point up for a reason, stick with me), there are later examples of his work that deal with depicting Black characters in a caricatured way, most notably Hungry Blues. That was published in 1977 and still used similar caricatures (although the character in question leaned a lot less into stereotypes personality wise, as it was based off a real person he had met during the war). It is a very inexcusable part of his works and is something that is objectively the most prominent in Kimba (which is part of his early works). Even if a lot of his other works DO have very well handled anti-racist messages (Message to Adolf is one I can think of off the top of my head, Astro Boy also handles similar topics), this one objectively does not and I think it’s important to examine this in a critical way, instead of just brushing it under the rug. If you want to read one of his works that handles racism, anti-war, and the other messages he is known for, there are MANY that handle them better and not like this.

As a white person, I’m aware that my viewpoints on this matter may not hold as much weight as someone who would be affected by how these characters are drawn but I do believe with how little discussion of the very very blatant racism in this there is online, it is something that needs to be brought up. For further reading on the topics of stereotypes of Black characters in media, I found Donald Bogle’s book on the matter to be a very interesting read (although it does focus on Hollywood throughout the ages, some of the things in here did also apply to this) (link) and Henry T. Sampson’s book focusing on animated portrayals of Black characters (specifically, Chapter 3: Way Down in the Jungle: The Animated Safari) (link) to be very related to the topic at hand and be very excellent companions to reading about the topic of how anti-black tropes in media can be impactful and were very much part of the time period.

Overall Thoughts: I clearly had a lot to say on this one, as it is a topic that I do sincerely believe should be getting more coverage in regards to discussing this media. As a manga, it truly was one of the worst ones I’ve ever read, as the plot was pretty rough and the very obvious racism was well, obvious. On one hand, I do wish it was better and that when it was revised in the 70’s, that Tezuka took the time to show that he had grown from the mindset he pretty clearly had in 1950. On the other hand, the only value this has (in my opinion) is a very good case study on what not to do when writing African characters, as it truly fits every stereotype in different ways. I would not recommend this to a single person, it is easily by far the weakest of his works that I have read so far. The characters felt pretty flat and a lot of the moments clearly meant to be tragic fell pretty flat for me. The generational aspect was interesting but due to every other weakness of the work, just did not work for me.

#twist rambles #tzkposting #kimba the white lion #i guess i am maintagging this one. sure. for organization lol #racism #<- for blacklist bc well. fucking clearly lmao.