Showtime, Shuichi!
Oct. 23rd, 2005 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousapelliI was chatting with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
1anonymous1 about how i used to love cartoons before I discovered anime, and Jem and the Holograms came up. When she said she didn't remember it, I launched into a description about pink-haired rockers and angry boyfriends, and rival bands with ridiculous hair...
...and realized that I was essentially describing Gravitation.
so i started cataloguing ways in which the series were similar...
Firstly, there's the lead singer, the hero, both flamboyant and with a bad case of very, very pink hair. It all works out, because all of Jem's action figures make her look like a man, and nobody is really sure what gender anybody in Gravitation is (except for maybe Hiro and Yuki).
And Jem looks a little pissed that Shuichi is ripping off her outfits.
They both have very grumpy boyfriends.
And i was going to say something about sexy earrings here, but this was so just plain freaky, that I will simply let it stand.
They both have a band with utterly questionable fashion choices. I don't care if it was the 80s/early 90s, THERE IS NO EXCUSE.
Which includes a Red-haired, guitar-hauling, hardcore best friend from their youth! Kimber doesn't own a badass motorcycle, though. The closest she comes is a snowmobile, the once.
And a chick with weird purple hair who quits the band after a little while. This is just getting messed up, yo. Shana and Noriko both totally have secret husbands!
And the token Asian bandmate. (admittedly, Suguru is a little less token than Aja, but still).
Then there is a rival band who makes even MORE questionable fashion choices, if that is even possible.
And what the hell, throw in a second rival band for good measure. Also to be noted is that the lead singer of the second rival band wants to have an utterly non-PG relationship with our pink-haired hero, but Taki is the only one who actually succeeds. And takes pictures. But then Yuki nearly beats him to death, and Rio probably can't even kill spiders, so it's probably good the similarity ends there.
The lead singers of the first rival band also both have pets. Pizzaz's is named Clash, and Ryuichi's is Kumagoro. Both have similiar hair. Both are possibly animate objects which move without the will of their master ocasionally.
Furthermore, both the Holograms and Bad Luck have a besuited and quickly-fired manager (although Eric takes it a hell of a lot better than Sakano).
The inspiration for both bands' hit singles come from some form of higher technology. Yuki's is not purple. At least, not last he checked, but if shuichi's been left home alone for more than ten minutes, who knows.
Both music companies are run by a blond, gender ambiguous boss with a questionable taste in hats (who coincidentally both fired the be-suited managers mentioned above in about the second episode). Both of them furthermore have trouble with pink-haired rock singers stealing away the object of their affections (dude, i TOLD you this shit was freaky)
Both Pink-haired rock singers have trouble with blond foreigners with bad accents wanting to 'fire their guns' if you know what i mean, and i think that you do.
And as a final note, both pink-haired rock singers have pimped out rides at their service (although Jem actually gets to drive hers while Shuichi just nearly gets killed by his)
I don't know about you, but i suspect some Japanese anime drawer/managaka was hitting the american saturday morning time slot for inspiration while working their shit out.
1anonymous1 about how i used to love cartoons before I discovered anime, and Jem and the Holograms came up. When she said she didn't remember it, I launched into a description about pink-haired rockers and angry boyfriends, and rival bands with ridiculous hair......and realized that I was essentially describing Gravitation.
so i started cataloguing ways in which the series were similar...
Firstly, there's the lead singer, the hero, both flamboyant and with a bad case of very, very pink hair. It all works out, because all of Jem's action figures make her look like a man, and nobody is really sure what gender anybody in Gravitation is (except for maybe Hiro and Yuki).
And Jem looks a little pissed that Shuichi is ripping off her outfits.
They both have very grumpy boyfriends.
And i was going to say something about sexy earrings here, but this was so just plain freaky, that I will simply let it stand.
They both have a band with utterly questionable fashion choices. I don't care if it was the 80s/early 90s, THERE IS NO EXCUSE.
Which includes a Red-haired, guitar-hauling, hardcore best friend from their youth! Kimber doesn't own a badass motorcycle, though. The closest she comes is a snowmobile, the once.
And a chick with weird purple hair who quits the band after a little while. This is just getting messed up, yo. Shana and Noriko both totally have secret husbands!
And the token Asian bandmate. (admittedly, Suguru is a little less token than Aja, but still).
Then there is a rival band who makes even MORE questionable fashion choices, if that is even possible.
And what the hell, throw in a second rival band for good measure. Also to be noted is that the lead singer of the second rival band wants to have an utterly non-PG relationship with our pink-haired hero, but Taki is the only one who actually succeeds. And takes pictures. But then Yuki nearly beats him to death, and Rio probably can't even kill spiders, so it's probably good the similarity ends there.
The lead singers of the first rival band also both have pets. Pizzaz's is named Clash, and Ryuichi's is Kumagoro. Both have similiar hair. Both are possibly animate objects which move without the will of their master ocasionally.
Furthermore, both the Holograms and Bad Luck have a besuited and quickly-fired manager (although Eric takes it a hell of a lot better than Sakano).
The inspiration for both bands' hit singles come from some form of higher technology. Yuki's is not purple. At least, not last he checked, but if shuichi's been left home alone for more than ten minutes, who knows.
Both music companies are run by a blond, gender ambiguous boss with a questionable taste in hats (who coincidentally both fired the be-suited managers mentioned above in about the second episode). Both of them furthermore have trouble with pink-haired rock singers stealing away the object of their affections (dude, i TOLD you this shit was freaky)
Both Pink-haired rock singers have trouble with blond foreigners with bad accents wanting to 'fire their guns' if you know what i mean, and i think that you do.
And as a final note, both pink-haired rock singers have pimped out rides at their service (although Jem actually gets to drive hers while Shuichi just nearly gets killed by his)
I don't know about you, but i suspect some Japanese anime drawer/managaka was hitting the american saturday morning time slot for inspiration while working their shit out.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 01:06 am (UTC)LOL! omg, this is so funny!
I don't care if it was the 80s/early 90s, THERE IS NO EXCUSE.
*nods* I love Gravitation, but dude, the leopard print has got to go.
I own the whole Gravitation manga series (and a Hiro mousepad, yay!) but I've never heard of Jem and the Holograms. Perhaps this is for the best. :)
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Date: 2005-10-24 01:07 am (UTC):D
:D
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Date: 2005-10-24 01:40 am (UTC)LOL and i so totally love JEM during my time
OOOOOOOH!
Date: 2005-10-24 02:04 am (UTC)I feel that I should defend the choice of leopard print though...you see, it takes a TRULY COOL rocker to wear something as ridiculous as leopard print. For example, Rolly, the vocalist of the Yokosuka band, Saver Tiger, wore leopard print in 1986. He looked absurd, but everyone knew he was COOL (ok, the coolness factor may have been entirely contributed by the godlike guitarist of the band, hidesama, who was later canonized by crazed fangirls worldwide......) I think I lost my point...oh yes, at least the leopardprint isn't that wretched starprint or flowerprint?
PS.
Date: 2005-10-24 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 11:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 11:57 am (UTC)Actually, given the mannishness of most of the official Jem art, Hiro and Kimber are disturbingly comparable.