Clickbait title? Riding the coattails of a hugely successful franchise?
Yeah.
So, Wonder Woman has been insanely successful. It had some cool stuff going on but was not my favorite movie. I had several problems with it, mostly happening after Diana leaves Themyscira. But I'm going to put most of them aside to talk about why Wonder Woman was actually an anime, despite being live action, full of white people, and made by 'Merica.
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Anime style poster used to promote the Wonder Woman movie in Chinese
Flickering Myth |
YEAH.
I'm working on the assumption that you've seen anime before in a quantity sufficient to familiarize yourself with its tropes, so I'm not going to go into detail about why these are tropes and how long they've been around. Also going to assume you've seen Wonder Woman and not going to worry about whether I'm spoiling anything for you.
Blessed From Birth
From birth Diana is special. She's the only child on her island and basically does whatever she wants.
Like lots of chosen ones.
Accidental Boob Grab
Okay, that's not what's happening here, but it basically looks EXACTLY like it.
Bath Scene >:[
This gets a mad face because if it was a guy walking in on a girl it would be super rapey (looking at you Dishonored) and never fly for comedy, which is what this was played for.
Despite how powerful we've just seen Diana be, this is supposed to be a funny scene because "a woman isn't capable of forcing herself on a man". Or that "it's physically impossible for a man to be raped". Or that "he wouldn't refuse Diana because of the way she looks". And friends, that's not funny, that's
terrible. And it's still rapey.
But it does check the block for bath scenes, which are often just as problematic in animes and just as often played for comedy as well as fanservice.
Outfit
Awkward Bed Sharing
No, they're not in a bed, but they talk about whether Steve sleeps with women and that whole conversation.
Shopping
Because why would we have a movie about a woman without shopping.
Trying New Foods
Yummy foods are yummy.
FOODGASM!
Harem
Don't even try to tell me that's not a harem.
Learn How To Dance
Yerp, we're going there too.
Never Seen Snow
Because why stop when you're on a roll.
Magical Girl
Just in time to fight the final battle with Ares, Diana learns that
she's the Godkiller.
Granted, not every magical girl anime waits until the very end to tell the main character how special they are.
Not Hearing the Important Last Words, Hearing in Reverie
I about lost it when the movie did this. And not in a happy way.
For the most part, these aren't problems I have with the Wonder Woman movie. But if it had actually been an anime, I know I would have been more forgiving of some stuff. And I'm not sure if that's a problem with me or with anime or live action movies or me again.
And I don't hate the movie. I loved Themyscira, and I felt like the movie tried to highlight the diversity of the allied forces that typically gets glossed over. But those elements aren't strong enough to carry it for me. But I'm glad it's doing so well, because it means we'll get the chance for even better movies in the future.
Interesting! There are a lot of reasons that it could be amongst it. I liked this post a lot and the way everything has been explained. I still have to watch this movie but now I am going to compare a lot. Just as the shows by Andrew Yeatman are over, I will start with this movie.
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