i can see why! it’s early yet but i am finding myself continually impressed with it. i just cannot stress enough how not dated it feels. it sucks that it’s so notable but even the number of prominent brown people and women who actually get to do stuff is very not of its time. it almost feels like it fell out of a portal to a better world tbh.
spoiler
certain parts feel so authentic to the trans experience that i genuinely want to know how it happened. the bit where laura has eye shadow applied for the first time and she and khiel bust out laughing had such massive “trans girl figuring out what she does/does not like with the help of her cis friend” energy. there are just so many bits that dovetail so well with actual experiences i’ve either had or heard about from other trans folk, it’s great.
i’m def glad to hear there’s more to come! and lmao the only cis explanation i see is “uhhhh crossdressing for…reasons??” but like…c’mon. anime crossdressing is literally never handled or presented this way. also yeah i feel you. i wish this had aired in the west when i was a kid but i can practically taste the homophobic/crossdresser jokes the dub would have undoubtedly crammed in. as you say, perhaps it’s for the best that never happened.
re: guin, i didn’t make the connection until just now (i’ve lived a blessedly chaser-free existence) but good god does it track now that you mention it.
anyway suffice it to say i’ll be taking your recommendations any time i see them
YEAH that bit is so good. it really feels like they’re both figuring it out at they go in a really good way, and it makes me love them so much. they have a good dynamic. that whole montage of them figuring out how to best make her appropriate for the dance rules.
there’s a crossdressing plotline in a prior gundam series by yoshiyuki tomino (who created gundam and came back after a bunch of non-tomino series to direct turn a) that sucks major shit! they have to crossdress to infiltrate the harem of some skeevy dude who runs a colony and it doesn’t have all the jokes you might expect from that but that’s only because they didn’t have time to fit them all into one episode. so it’s not like tomino wasn’t capable of writing a really bad dumb anime crossdressing episode
on the other hand he also did zeta gundam which has a transmasc main character. i mean, idk that tomino knew that. but his name is kamille, and when a cop says “kamille? isn’t that a girl’s name?” kamille shouts “kamille is a man’s name. and i’m a man!” and punches the cop. also in the novel the school bullies call him and his girlfriend lesbians (not the word they used). there’s no cisgender explanation for this, but idk what tomino thinks there. i don’t really care what he thinks though
imagine if there had been a dub that handled it well though. the number of people who cite that as a turning point in their lives would be so high. i wonder if there’s anyone talking about that stuff in japan, like how i know some people (including me) talk about over here. and guin’s vibes become so much more rancid once you go 'oh that’s a chaser, it’s impressive
also (since i watched a bit of episode 7 again) i love keith, all the side characters in this are so good! episode 8 was where i went “oh, i think this might be my favorite gundam.” if you continue to have thoughts i would love to hear them! feel free to just dm me if you want, i’m always happy to talk about turn a. though obviously don’t feel obligated
i really adored that scene in and of itself but i also really liked that she notably isn’t wearing the eye shadow during the party. it didn’t make her feel good so she didn’t wear it, and she’s no less feminine for it. and even the bit with the corset! it resonated immediately with me as a depiction of the frankly painful shit women sometimes have to do to appear feminine. i just, ugh. cannot lavish enough praise on that entire sequence. i’m not shocked that it’s a standout exception in tomino’s works but it does make it more remarkable that it happened like this. i’m honestly so curious as to how it came about (even though i agree with your “death of the author” standpoint here for obvious reasons).
we can dream of a world where this got a faithful, cowboy bebop-level dub. i honestly think you’re spot on that it would have cracked hella eggs, ESPECIALLY given the utter lack of comedic tone that almost all genderbending anime included as a standard (though ofc stuff like ranma still cracked more eggs than an omelet factory). i’m also curious as to whether or not it made a splash on early japanese fora/message boards or something, but trying to find out is well beyond my abilities sadly.
and yeah guin at first came off in a totally different way than he does post-realization. when he just abruptly decided to start calling her laura i thought his explanation was genuinely kind of amusing (“i just think it’s more suitable!”) but in retrospect his need to force aspects of her identity to suit him feel vile. i’m looking forward to episode 8 now, i have been p busy and i’ve got a few hectic days coming up but i can’t wait for when i have some time to sit down with it again. :3 also yes keith is a precious lil bread boy, it’s kind of adorable that he’s just like “hmmm war is brewing? i think i’m gonna bake bread. people gotta eat!” i also liked that fran was the only person to recognize laura. even harry who was like four feet away from her just an episode or two ago was totally oblivious. that one little moment really helped expand on why she chose journalism, she’s obviously got a highly discerning eye.
i’ll definitely DM you as i get further into it! i can’t promise anything insightful or profound but i have enjoyed enthusing about this with you. plus it’s just cool to see people talk about something they have a clear passion for/knowledge of.
i can see why! it’s early yet but i am finding myself continually impressed with it. i just cannot stress enough how not dated it feels. it sucks that it’s so notable but even the number of prominent brown people and women who actually get to do stuff is very not of its time. it almost feels like it fell out of a portal to a better world tbh.
spoiler
certain parts feel so authentic to the trans experience that i genuinely want to know how it happened. the bit where laura has eye shadow applied for the first time and she and khiel bust out laughing had such massive “trans girl figuring out what she does/does not like with the help of her cis friend” energy. there are just so many bits that dovetail so well with actual experiences i’ve either had or heard about from other trans folk, it’s great.
i’m def glad to hear there’s more to come! and lmao the only cis explanation i see is “uhhhh crossdressing for…reasons??” but like…c’mon. anime crossdressing is literally never handled or presented this way. also yeah i feel you. i wish this had aired in the west when i was a kid but i can practically taste the homophobic/crossdresser jokes the dub would have undoubtedly crammed in. as you say, perhaps it’s for the best that never happened.
re: guin, i didn’t make the connection until just now (i’ve lived a blessedly chaser-free existence) but good god does it track now that you mention it.
anyway suffice it to say i’ll be taking your recommendations any time i see them
spoiler
YEAH that bit is so good. it really feels like they’re both figuring it out at they go in a really good way, and it makes me love them so much. they have a good dynamic. that whole montage of them figuring out how to best make her appropriate for the dance rules.
there’s a crossdressing plotline in a prior gundam series by yoshiyuki tomino (who created gundam and came back after a bunch of non-tomino series to direct turn a) that sucks major shit! they have to crossdress to infiltrate the harem of some skeevy dude who runs a colony and it doesn’t have all the jokes you might expect from that but that’s only because they didn’t have time to fit them all into one episode. so it’s not like tomino wasn’t capable of writing a really bad dumb anime crossdressing episode
on the other hand he also did zeta gundam which has a transmasc main character. i mean, idk that tomino knew that. but his name is kamille, and when a cop says “kamille? isn’t that a girl’s name?” kamille shouts “kamille is a man’s name. and i’m a man!” and punches the cop. also in the novel the school bullies call him and his girlfriend lesbians (not the word they used). there’s no cisgender explanation for this, but idk what tomino thinks there. i don’t really care what he thinks though
imagine if there had been a dub that handled it well though. the number of people who cite that as a turning point in their lives would be so high. i wonder if there’s anyone talking about that stuff in japan, like how i know some people (including me) talk about
over here. and guin’s vibes become so much more rancid once you go 'oh that’s a chaser, it’s impressive
also (since i watched a bit of episode 7 again) i love keith, all the side characters in this are so good! episode 8 was where i went “oh, i think this might be my favorite gundam.” if you continue to have thoughts i would love to hear them! feel free to just dm me if you want, i’m always happy to talk about turn a. though obviously don’t feel obligated
spoiler
i really adored that scene in and of itself but i also really liked that she notably isn’t wearing the eye shadow during the party. it didn’t make her feel good so she didn’t wear it, and she’s no less feminine for it. and even the bit with the corset! it resonated immediately with me as a depiction of the frankly painful shit women sometimes have to do to appear feminine. i just, ugh. cannot lavish enough praise on that entire sequence. i’m not shocked that it’s a standout exception in tomino’s works but it does make it more remarkable that it happened like this. i’m honestly so curious as to how it came about (even though i agree with your “death of the author” standpoint here for obvious reasons).
we can dream of a world where this got a faithful, cowboy bebop-level dub.
i honestly think you’re spot on that it would have cracked hella eggs, ESPECIALLY given the utter lack of comedic tone that almost all genderbending anime included as a standard (though ofc stuff like ranma still cracked more eggs than an omelet factory). i’m also curious as to whether or not it made a splash on early japanese fora/message boards or something, but trying to find out is well beyond my abilities sadly.
and yeah guin at first came off in a totally different way than he does post-realization. when he just abruptly decided to start calling her laura i thought his explanation was genuinely kind of amusing (“i just think it’s more suitable!”) but in retrospect his need to force aspects of her identity to suit him feel vile. i’m looking forward to episode 8 now, i have been p busy and i’ve got a few hectic days coming up but i can’t wait for when i have some time to sit down with it again. :3 also yes keith is a precious lil bread boy, it’s kind of adorable that he’s just like “hmmm war is brewing? i think i’m gonna bake bread. people gotta eat!” i also liked that fran was the only person to recognize laura. even harry who was like four feet away from her just an episode or two ago was totally oblivious. that one little moment really helped expand on why she chose journalism, she’s obviously got a highly discerning eye.
i’ll definitely DM you as i get further into it! i can’t promise anything insightful or profound but i have enjoyed enthusing about this with you. plus it’s just cool to see people talk about something they have a clear passion for/knowledge of.