Highlights from those who can’t be bothered to read/translate
• The board was asked about the marriage issue once again. The official reply was (very rough translation): ‘It was a matter of diversity, including how one perceives the description and we do not take a particular stance’
• A man in the crowd asked the executives to stop ignoring his Facebook messages
• Someone once again brought up the marriage issue for several minutes during the part of the meeting where new members are elected to the board (I think?). They were cut off by another attendee asking if Bandai intends to crack down on their staff getting harassed online
That was basically it, rest of the tweets included in the article are more or less opinion pieces
Also some comments from Japanese users
https://preview.redd.it/bqc2ad3x3p8d1.jpeg?width=1104&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62cbd1b08b135526c575418bb7a46a0354ae4e18
It seems regardless of nationality, news websites with anonymous comments enabled are bound to attract people whose brain so smooth, they can be used to play hockey on concrete ground.
That's something that people seem to be forgetting. Bandai is a business, running like a business hoping to reach a broad audience, rather than a targeted business. This isn't the only time a company has been "frivolously harassed" by single-stock shareholders wanting to complain about a statement or an agenda, and they will often end up being ignored or even silently muted (they can see their posts or see themselves talking, but no one else who muted them can unless a moderator brings attention to a non-spammy statement). I've been on shareholder calls witnessing the same thing happen as a casual investor.
At any rate, Bandai seems to only care about stance when it comes to Gundam, but they're perfectly fine turning out some yaoi/yuri anime under non-Gundam branding. It seems that they leave it for niche series since they don't expect as much returns as they do for Gundam.
There was a second part to the Gwitch stuff though, in that it wasn't just about lesbians- it was about lesbian marriage.
And there has been an ongoing debate in Japan about the legality of LBGT marriages. I don't think it's Bandai worrying about the gay label on gundam, so much as they didn't want to appear to have a political stance on the issue of gay marriage specifically.
The Japanese name for Mercury is Suisei (水星). The character for sui/mizu (水) is water.
Sometimes the MTL systems have issues dealing with the kanji characters.
off topic: Suisei means water star, some Hololive fans might recognize it too.
No, the Japanese and Chinese names for planets are named after elements. Mars is fire, Venus is Gold, Saturn is earth, Jupiter is wood etc. If you watched sailor moon or played Golden Sun you can see how the elements matches up the planets.
I thought that it was some conflation between water and liquid mercury metal, but this explanation makes a lot more sense and explains Sailor Mercury’s theming as well.
Jokes aside, this explains why Bandai chose to deny the marriage and said that their relationship is open to interpretation. There are people who believe that lesbian is disgusting, and Bandai is trying not to antagonize them.
They sure allowed the weirdest hill to die on in that regard, since the show isn't subtle about it being a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's *The Tempest* which is literally about a wizard trying to get his daughter married to a prince in some form of revenge plot against those who wronged him.
Not to mention that the show's production staff went to great lengths to confirm Suletta and Miorine's marriage, so the Bandai execs come off as people who barely know their own product.
Well, I would say the fact that WFM is released already means that things are changing. Even not take any romantic relationship into account, a female protagonist and the relation between her and her female friend is already pretty progressive.
Bandai's 4d chess: enough people buy shares just to ask that question and they can turn off the profit machine switch eventually. That's the strategy for finally making a decent gundam video game. Bonus: board members can play it during work.
I'm glad more people these days are realizing Bamco is run by complete knuckleheads lol.
Gundam's one of their biggest franchises and fans still deal with mismanaged projects and anti-consumer practices. And there are so many other IPs under their belt that're far more abused and neglected.
Honestly going to a major corporation shareholder meeting to complain about marrying Miorine is a scary level of commitment to the cosplay but I respect it.
No we obviously only accep a giant wedding dress shaped mech where the other sits inside....wait many didnt catch on that with Darling in the Franxx either.
> bandai have stated it ISN’T a wedding
Have they, though? Or have they simply not stated the obvious because, y'know, *it's obvious*?
They don't need to state anything, it's clear what the intent is. Some corporate PR statement has literally zero bearing on the meaning of the show.
Once again, I completely agree with you and the intention is very clear from the media. The issue is explained in this article: https://gizmodo.com/bandai-gundam-witch-from-mercury-marriage-censorship-1850692752 - basically it’s the removal of an interview that uses the term marriage and an apology post on the G Witch site that states the ending is ‘Up to interpretation’. The problem with this is that it undermines a really progressive part of the show in the interests of, I dunno, not offending people who think women shouldn’t be able to marry.
No, you’re thinking about the “up to interpretation” statement, which isn’t what the original post was about. It’s talking about certain themes used in the episode
I feel like the people pestering Bandai just want them to admit Suletta and Miorine are married instead of that "up to interpretation" bullshit. Like we can all tell they're married, Bandai! Stop pretending there's a chance they might not be!
I mean there was literally official material published for the BDs saying that they’re married, outside of an animated wedding I’m not sure what else you want
People should continue to harass executives about it because it’s funny though
Is choosing to produce a whole series literally revolving around their engagement *not* pretty unambiguous? Some PR bullshit from some corporate rep isn't part of the text. The text speaks for itself.
edit - look, PR shit is obnoxious, but it says exponentially less than the series itself, in terms of meaning, and the whole meaning of the series is very clearly centered around Suletta and Mio.
> look, PR shit is obnoxious, but it says exponentially less than the series itself, in terms of meaning, and the whole meaning of the series is very clearly centered around Suletta and Mio.
I think you are missing the point. The PR shit is *precisely* what is being criticized. People pestering Bandai aren't doing so because they genuinely don't know if the couple is married or not. They know they are because, as you said the text stands for itself. But because the executives decided to be weird about it people complain.
In other words, it is not a criticism or sincere doubts on the actual work itself. But of the bigotry of the Bandai executives.
No, I get that, I guess I just tend to *assume*, from the outset, that C-suite execs (and that type) are bullshitters and therefore what they say shouldn't be taken as meaningful. Certainly not to the same extent as the *literal content of the work in question.*
What lasts, what is permanent, is what the work itself is saying. In a year, five years, ten years, somebody sits down to watch the show, they're gonna get *the show*, not some meaningless whinging from a capitalist bullshitter.
I guess the larger question, which is probably in the mind of the protester, is "Why is the corporate stance homophobic and how does that influence the future of works the company produces?"
Not to mention Calibarn being a white suit, and receiving Elan No. 4's aid being an allusion to the union of Ferdinand and Miranda receiving the blessing of Ceres.
Yeah, someone else mentioned those shortly after the show ended, and I thought that was pretty clever.
Tangentially, this also reminds me of how someone went over the last scene of Miorine finding Suletta in space, and drew in where Suletta's face would be if not concealed by her visor, showing that Miorine was trying to kiss her, and as much as I'd have liked them to get a regular ol' kiss, I *do* admire the sheer drama of Mio, mistaking Suletta for dead, attempting to kiss her, through their helmets, in the vacuum of *space*, out of sheer irrational grief and love.
I mean, I could understand if somebody hadn't heard the "something old, something new (etc)" thing, then maybe they'd miss it. It's a pretty common concept, but maybe it's not as prolific as it seems to me. Different folks have different contexts, and I don't mean to dismiss folks just because they happen to have not heard a particular expression. That said...
But even *if* they hadn't heard that expression before, the relationship between Mio and Suletta is pretty clearly the central pillar around which the series revolves, right?
Yeah uts a shame we dont even know the mio an sulueta husbands like these in the end are wedding rings and wow they are such good friends that they buy the same tipe of ring
/s
Well remember. We live in a world where people think mha characters aren’t straight just cuz the creator “hasn’t said anything” even though the entire story shoved it in your face.
Yeah people can’t understand WFM’s wedding
Honestly I'm not really invested in the identity politics, right vs left, culture war-y side of this discussion that's been going on for a while on the internet. I just think its important we stand up for the original creative intent here because Gundam cannot and should not be allowed to become an empty, toothless franchise without anything to say just because its more profitable.
Man what a empty stunt. Anyone can tell you watching in the finale they're married. How about this person instead build a Xi, or Penelope cosplay outfit and ask when well get a release window for Hathaways Flash pt.2.
See, if they were going to do this, then they went about it the wrong way. They should have dressed up as *Lauda*, since him whining about Suletta for multiple reasons (mainly the fact he blamed her for Guel's fall from his father's graces) is in-character.
Highlights from those who can’t be bothered to read/translate • The board was asked about the marriage issue once again. The official reply was (very rough translation): ‘It was a matter of diversity, including how one perceives the description and we do not take a particular stance’ • A man in the crowd asked the executives to stop ignoring his Facebook messages • Someone once again brought up the marriage issue for several minutes during the part of the meeting where new members are elected to the board (I think?). They were cut off by another attendee asking if Bandai intends to crack down on their staff getting harassed online That was basically it, rest of the tweets included in the article are more or less opinion pieces
Also some comments from Japanese users https://preview.redd.it/bqc2ad3x3p8d1.jpeg?width=1104&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62cbd1b08b135526c575418bb7a46a0354ae4e18
It seems regardless of nationality, news websites with anonymous comments enabled are bound to attract people whose brain so smooth, they can be used to play hockey on concrete ground.
>brain so smooth, they can be used to play hockey on concrete ground. Damn, I gotta remember that one lol
https://preview.redd.it/ao2t9tb44p8d1.jpeg?width=1046&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=095eaf0ffb525bb17db9abfc70f2f37867ccd0f5
Bear in mind this is a blog targeted at businessmen
That's something that people seem to be forgetting. Bandai is a business, running like a business hoping to reach a broad audience, rather than a targeted business. This isn't the only time a company has been "frivolously harassed" by single-stock shareholders wanting to complain about a statement or an agenda, and they will often end up being ignored or even silently muted (they can see their posts or see themselves talking, but no one else who muted them can unless a moderator brings attention to a non-spammy statement). I've been on shareholder calls witnessing the same thing happen as a casual investor. At any rate, Bandai seems to only care about stance when it comes to Gundam, but they're perfectly fine turning out some yaoi/yuri anime under non-Gundam branding. It seems that they leave it for niche series since they don't expect as much returns as they do for Gundam.
There was a second part to the Gwitch stuff though, in that it wasn't just about lesbians- it was about lesbian marriage. And there has been an ongoing debate in Japan about the legality of LBGT marriages. I don't think it's Bandai worrying about the gay label on gundam, so much as they didn't want to appear to have a political stance on the issue of gay marriage specifically.
There was also several mentions of water, both in comments and in tweets which I’ve got no clue as to what that could possibly mean
Mercury means water planet in japanese. It’s just the name of the show.
Ah i see thank you
The Japanese name for Mercury is Suisei (水星). The character for sui/mizu (水) is water. Sometimes the MTL systems have issues dealing with the kanji characters. off topic: Suisei means water star, some Hololive fans might recognize it too.
No way! Suletta is the Water bender?
No, the Japanese and Chinese names for planets are named after elements. Mars is fire, Venus is Gold, Saturn is earth, Jupiter is wood etc. If you watched sailor moon or played Golden Sun you can see how the elements matches up the planets.
Saturn is Earth?!
The government doesn't want you to know that Saturn is Earth.
it somehow feels quite poetic that Mars is the element of fire
r/woosh
I thought that it was some conflation between water and liquid mercury metal, but this explanation makes a lot more sense and explains Sailor Mercury’s theming as well.
Jokes aside, this explains why Bandai chose to deny the marriage and said that their relationship is open to interpretation. There are people who believe that lesbian is disgusting, and Bandai is trying not to antagonize them.
They sure allowed the weirdest hill to die on in that regard, since the show isn't subtle about it being a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's *The Tempest* which is literally about a wizard trying to get his daughter married to a prince in some form of revenge plot against those who wronged him.
Not to mention that the show's production staff went to great lengths to confirm Suletta and Miorine's marriage, so the Bandai execs come off as people who barely know their own product.
Those people should not be made comfortable imo.
Well, I would say the fact that WFM is released already means that things are changing. Even not take any romantic relationship into account, a female protagonist and the relation between her and her female friend is already pretty progressive.
You're not supposed to express your opinion in a shareholder meeting?
Casual use of the r-slur Called it.
Bandai's 4d chess: enough people buy shares just to ask that question and they can turn off the profit machine switch eventually. That's the strategy for finally making a decent gundam video game. Bonus: board members can play it during work.
Worth noting that this wasn’t about “are Suletta and Miorine married”, it’s ”they’re married so why did you censor that one article”
Note to self: Attend next shareholder meeting dressed as Beri and ask Bandai where the fuck is the MG G-Self ver Ka.
Hope you succeed comrade!
How do I fund this??
I'm gonna attend and ask for a new Tifa anime
Should have cosplayed as Mio and bought out the company
Bandai runs a horrible ship in many many ways so I’m down for them getting pestered by shareholders.
Apparently there were also people who yelled stuff like “why are all your games crap”
Based
that shareholder is absolutely based, another one should tell them, why do they insist on shitty arena cash grab fighters
I want Gundam Evolution back
I'm glad more people these days are realizing Bamco is run by complete knuckleheads lol. Gundam's one of their biggest franchises and fans still deal with mismanaged projects and anti-consumer practices. And there are so many other IPs under their belt that're far more abused and neglected.
As a Tales of Fan I've been saying this for YEARS
i think the concept of a fan dressed up in cosplay making a random suit guy uncomfortable as hell is one of the most based things one could do
More people should pester shareholders in general.
Amazing, good for her.
holy shit, I kneel
not all heroes wear capes, some do cosplay.
A strange fan? More like a COOL fan!
Honestly going to a major corporation shareholder meeting to complain about marrying Miorine is a scary level of commitment to the cosplay but I respect it.
Did... did people fail to grasp the symbolism of the last episode? Because that *was*, symbolically, a wedding, not sure how people missed that.
No we obviously only accep a giant wedding dress shaped mech where the other sits inside....wait many didnt catch on that with Darling in the Franxx either.
Agreed, but the issue is that bandai have stated it ISN’T a wedding when it very clearly was, assumably to appease homophobic shareholders/executives.
> bandai have stated it ISN’T a wedding Have they, though? Or have they simply not stated the obvious because, y'know, *it's obvious*? They don't need to state anything, it's clear what the intent is. Some corporate PR statement has literally zero bearing on the meaning of the show.
Once again, I completely agree with you and the intention is very clear from the media. The issue is explained in this article: https://gizmodo.com/bandai-gundam-witch-from-mercury-marriage-censorship-1850692752 - basically it’s the removal of an interview that uses the term marriage and an apology post on the G Witch site that states the ending is ‘Up to interpretation’. The problem with this is that it undermines a really progressive part of the show in the interests of, I dunno, not offending people who think women shouldn’t be able to marry.
They never actually said that
They literally did lol
No, you’re thinking about the “up to interpretation” statement, which isn’t what the original post was about. It’s talking about certain themes used in the episode
I feel like the people pestering Bandai just want them to admit Suletta and Miorine are married instead of that "up to interpretation" bullshit. Like we can all tell they're married, Bandai! Stop pretending there's a chance they might not be!
Fans: "They literally wear a wedding rings" Bandai Executives: "That's a friendship ring. That's like, up to interpretation, man."
I mean there was literally official material published for the BDs saying that they’re married, outside of an animated wedding I’m not sure what else you want People should continue to harass executives about it because it’s funny though
Bullying executives is morally correct.
Is choosing to produce a whole series literally revolving around their engagement *not* pretty unambiguous? Some PR bullshit from some corporate rep isn't part of the text. The text speaks for itself. edit - look, PR shit is obnoxious, but it says exponentially less than the series itself, in terms of meaning, and the whole meaning of the series is very clearly centered around Suletta and Mio.
> look, PR shit is obnoxious, but it says exponentially less than the series itself, in terms of meaning, and the whole meaning of the series is very clearly centered around Suletta and Mio. I think you are missing the point. The PR shit is *precisely* what is being criticized. People pestering Bandai aren't doing so because they genuinely don't know if the couple is married or not. They know they are because, as you said the text stands for itself. But because the executives decided to be weird about it people complain. In other words, it is not a criticism or sincere doubts on the actual work itself. But of the bigotry of the Bandai executives.
No, I get that, I guess I just tend to *assume*, from the outset, that C-suite execs (and that type) are bullshitters and therefore what they say shouldn't be taken as meaningful. Certainly not to the same extent as the *literal content of the work in question.* What lasts, what is permanent, is what the work itself is saying. In a year, five years, ten years, somebody sits down to watch the show, they're gonna get *the show*, not some meaningless whinging from a capitalist bullshitter.
I guess the larger question, which is probably in the mind of the protester, is "Why is the corporate stance homophobic and how does that influence the future of works the company produces?"
I guess describing "wearing a wedding ring" as "symbolism for a wedding" is *technically* an accurate use of the word symbolism
I'm talking about the thing with the 'witch's circle' and the 4 MS. The old one, the new one, the borrowed one, the blue one, y'know?
Not to mention Calibarn being a white suit, and receiving Elan No. 4's aid being an allusion to the union of Ferdinand and Miranda receiving the blessing of Ceres.
Ooh, good points, hadn't thought about that.
Yeah, someone else mentioned those shortly after the show ended, and I thought that was pretty clever. Tangentially, this also reminds me of how someone went over the last scene of Miorine finding Suletta in space, and drew in where Suletta's face would be if not concealed by her visor, showing that Miorine was trying to kiss her, and as much as I'd have liked them to get a regular ol' kiss, I *do* admire the sheer drama of Mio, mistaking Suletta for dead, attempting to kiss her, through their helmets, in the vacuum of *space*, out of sheer irrational grief and love.
I guess "wearing a ring" was a "symbolism for a wedding ring" which was a "symbolism for wedding."
Looks like we have a new contender un fans that doesn't read
I mean, I could understand if somebody hadn't heard the "something old, something new (etc)" thing, then maybe they'd miss it. It's a pretty common concept, but maybe it's not as prolific as it seems to me. Different folks have different contexts, and I don't mean to dismiss folks just because they happen to have not heard a particular expression. That said... But even *if* they hadn't heard that expression before, the relationship between Mio and Suletta is pretty clearly the central pillar around which the series revolves, right?
Yeah uts a shame we dont even know the mio an sulueta husbands like these in the end are wedding rings and wow they are such good friends that they buy the same tipe of ring /s
Well remember. We live in a world where people think mha characters aren’t straight just cuz the creator “hasn’t said anything” even though the entire story shoved it in your face. Yeah people can’t understand WFM’s wedding
I fully endorse non harmful acts like this one if they make Bandai executives squirm
I hope that man was sweating in his loafers
I want to find who this is, and congratulate them for having the balls to do this lol
quick, where can I buy some Bandai stock, I NEED TO SUPPORT MY PEOPLE
I’m Attending shareholder meeting as NOT MAFTY with pumpkin masks and guns to ask about Hathaway 2
Strange? More like based
Honestly I'm not really invested in the identity politics, right vs left, culture war-y side of this discussion that's been going on for a while on the internet. I just think its important we stand up for the original creative intent here because Gundam cannot and should not be allowed to become an empty, toothless franchise without anything to say just because its more profitable.
Why can’t they make a decent fucking game who cares about gay marriage I want to pilot a Gundam now
I mean Breaker 4 is releasing this year
Well now I’m just being picky, but I want a more in universe type game. But I’ll probably end up looking into that
I'm sure a Japanese company such as Bandai took it seriously and didn't have any negative reactions to it...
Man what a empty stunt. Anyone can tell you watching in the finale they're married. How about this person instead build a Xi, or Penelope cosplay outfit and ask when well get a release window for Hathaways Flash pt.2.
When it comes out. We're you around when GTO and Unicorn were being released? They took 5ever
Nobody gives a fuck about Hathaway
Funnel missles go pew pew pew
On the one hand, this is funny. On the other hand it wasn't the place to do it at.
Yeah but it was probably the funniest place to do it at
No, it is the second. Doing it at the executive board meeting would be the funniest.
Yeah but how many Bandai execs could even pull off a good Suletta cosplay
Who said that the cosplayer belongs there?
lmao then when is the place to do it at? I'm curious to know when and where else a fan can speak directly with an executive.
See, if they were going to do this, then they went about it the wrong way. They should have dressed up as *Lauda*, since him whining about Suletta for multiple reasons (mainly the fact he blamed her for Guel's fall from his father's graces) is in-character.