tinkerpanda
New member
tusconcoyote's comment on gi joe in another thread got me thinking, what is the most realistc portrayal of the military in cartoons?
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Most realistic portrayal of the military in cartoons?
- Thread starter tinkerpanda
- Start date
You know want, I don't think I've ever really seen "realistic" portrayals of militaries in American cartoons. I think it's just too much of a sensitive topic.
So I'd have to go with some anime titles here, although many militaristic anime do revolve around the use of "mechas" in a war-style like setting. So again, I don't know if that counts as "realistic" either. But for the atmosphere of being in a war and stuff like that, most recent title coming to mind being "Flag" (like a documentary war anime) & for oldies Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies comes to mind.
So I'd have to go with some anime titles here, although many militaristic anime do revolve around the use of "mechas" in a war-style like setting. So again, I don't know if that counts as "realistic" either. But for the atmosphere of being in a war and stuff like that, most recent title coming to mind being "Flag" (like a documentary war anime) & for oldies Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies comes to mind.
OMGitsAlexX
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Wow Zorak, My Yo Joe Speech inspired this thread? I'm... flattered... (After all it's true about what I said about G.I. Joe.. (Read this post to see what I'm talking about.) After all when i stated this, I meant it.. After all there's really no portrayal I could see that is so unrealistic as say G.I.Joe.
How Believable is the military? (Heck I even went back over other G.I.Joe Titles including G.I. Joe:Sigma Six, (which makes the G.I. Joe team look like Navy Seals and Army Covert Ops), and none of them even come close to portraying a military unit or miltary being whatsoever.
I tend to agree, Scar came across more as a Stalin rather than a Hitler in my books. He was oppressive tended to be totally in control and gave no respect to his subordinates (in short he's more like Joseph Stalin and the communists of the 1930's and 1940's than Adolf Hitler.. at least Scar didn't pull out the "Genocide" of the prides Card..)
I tend to agree here Samuari, After all I really doubt any cartoon (Be it anime or not), has really pulled a good conveyance of the military per se. In fact I think even shows Like Robotech, couldn't pull it off. and in fact your comment below belies the problem:
well those are good examples, but Like you stated most animes don't even come close (Full Metal Alchemist? Hardly.. What about Gundam? Nope.. And in fact only the two you mention really do come close.. but it's no cigar.. I think in reality, most animation companies don't want to tangle themselves up with the military and it's for good reason.. The reason is that they're not trying to portray the military in a positive light, but rather most animations tend to portray the military in a negative one.
I mean think about G.I. Joe again and what I said, Here you have a show where they destroy tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer's money yet no one gets hurt or even killed? (Heck the closest they came was with Duke being in a coma..) but death? I think a lot of anime companies also tend to get away from this for a good reason.. it's to not show the world what war is really all about.. People don't want to see scenes of death.. they want to see explosions and battles but they don't want the death stigma that goes along with it.
that's probably why we can safely say there's no way in the world that they'll come ever close to putting out an animated show that is militaristic and real (not even Disney's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command comes close.. No real deaths so no realism.. that's the issue i feel that keeps animation comapnies from doing more of these kind of shows. After all War isn't a good thing to think about. Period..
:coyote:
How Believable is the military? (Heck I even went back over other G.I.Joe Titles including G.I. Joe:Sigma Six, (which makes the G.I. Joe team look like Navy Seals and Army Covert Ops), and none of them even come close to portraying a military unit or miltary being whatsoever.
I tend to agree, Scar came across more as a Stalin rather than a Hitler in my books. He was oppressive tended to be totally in control and gave no respect to his subordinates (in short he's more like Joseph Stalin and the communists of the 1930's and 1940's than Adolf Hitler.. at least Scar didn't pull out the "Genocide" of the prides Card..)
I tend to agree here Samuari, After all I really doubt any cartoon (Be it anime or not), has really pulled a good conveyance of the military per se. In fact I think even shows Like Robotech, couldn't pull it off. and in fact your comment below belies the problem:
well those are good examples, but Like you stated most animes don't even come close (Full Metal Alchemist? Hardly.. What about Gundam? Nope.. And in fact only the two you mention really do come close.. but it's no cigar.. I think in reality, most animation companies don't want to tangle themselves up with the military and it's for good reason.. The reason is that they're not trying to portray the military in a positive light, but rather most animations tend to portray the military in a negative one.
I mean think about G.I. Joe again and what I said, Here you have a show where they destroy tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer's money yet no one gets hurt or even killed? (Heck the closest they came was with Duke being in a coma..) but death? I think a lot of anime companies also tend to get away from this for a good reason.. it's to not show the world what war is really all about.. People don't want to see scenes of death.. they want to see explosions and battles but they don't want the death stigma that goes along with it.
that's probably why we can safely say there's no way in the world that they'll come ever close to putting out an animated show that is militaristic and real (not even Disney's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command comes close.. No real deaths so no realism.. that's the issue i feel that keeps animation comapnies from doing more of these kind of shows. After all War isn't a good thing to think about. Period..
:coyote:
Actually, Duke was originally slated to be killed off - the "coma" thing was awkwardly thrown in there at the very last second due to the public backlash against Optimus Prime's death in the Transformers movie. Also, I know there was at least one G.I. Joe writer who made a point of getting someone hurt in his scripts, to get some modicrum of the results of war across; he's made a post on the subject somewhere around here, I think.
And didn't Gundam show quite a bit of death? I saw Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz again not too long ago - they were going out of their way not to kill anybody in that movie (and it nearly cost them the battle), but I'm pretty sure they didn't hold back (except maybe Quatre) during the series.
And didn't Gundam show quite a bit of death? I saw Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz again not too long ago - they were going out of their way not to kill anybody in that movie (and it nearly cost them the battle), but I'm pretty sure they didn't hold back (except maybe Quatre) during the series.
Drummer forever
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What about the army in Godzilla: The Series? ^^;
The Funny Gay Guy
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Sadly, I can only come up with two recent examples of military portrayals. First, the Captain America flashbacks and SHIELD scenes in recent Marvel Animation. While nicely drawn, all of these are rather short, lack substance, and are just there to make the superheros look better... The second instance is in Disney's Atlantis. This deserves special mention for its sheer badness. The crew of the submarine (military, or paramilitary) are there just as props, and are slaughtered with minimal repricussions.
But looking back a little further, a decade or so...
ExoSquad had a pretty thourough depiction of the military. Can't reallyspeak to its accuracy, but it did at least touch on a lot of different things. Screw-ups costing lives, the media making an issue of those screw-ups, a couple really bad commanding officers... Troopers making a distincition between what is short hand for the bad guys, and what is a racial slur on the bad guys. Whole story-arcs devoted to finding, supplying, and organizing on-the-ground resistance groups. And, of course, the massive body count and heavy emphaisis on the collateral damage and civilian suffering. Again, all that is touched on, but I can't really speak to how accurately its done.
But looking back a little further, a decade or so...
ExoSquad had a pretty thourough depiction of the military. Can't reallyspeak to its accuracy, but it did at least touch on a lot of different things. Screw-ups costing lives, the media making an issue of those screw-ups, a couple really bad commanding officers... Troopers making a distincition between what is short hand for the bad guys, and what is a racial slur on the bad guys. Whole story-arcs devoted to finding, supplying, and organizing on-the-ground resistance groups. And, of course, the massive body count and heavy emphaisis on the collateral damage and civilian suffering. Again, all that is touched on, but I can't really speak to how accurately its done.
MUTHA LIKKA!
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Never watched Justice League, have you?
roxygrl141485
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Well, that is certainly a portrayal of the military, but an accurate one? What exactly was accurate about it? Seemed to me that was just an abstraction than anything actually thought out. It didn't have a real name. It was just 'the military' of 'the state' headquartered in a place called 'central.'