| SEGA - A fun fun alternative to KOEI. |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|08:55 pm] |
Alright – so I’m well aware that KOEI can be very disappointing. The latest in a string of annoyances is when I learned that the DW6/SSM5 Empires DLC character leitmotifs were in fact direct rips of the character themes from SM/DW1; ergo the characters who didn’t appear in that game won’t be getting their own themes. As someone who loves character theme music to the point of it being a fetish, this is somewhat disheartening (as I was totally looking forward to a Yue Ying theme).
Thusly, I decided to lick my metaphorical Sangoku wounds by re-acquainting myself with the designs and interpretations from Sangokushi Taisen; a 3K Card siege game developed by SEGA.
Sangokushi Taisen, in terms of the art, is actually a pretty good transition from SSM/DW to see how other artists and franchises depict or interpret these characters. The depth of archetypes they draw from is much more fantastical (and much more visually familiar; often combining typical anime visual tropes as well expanding on traditional Han armor) and they actually go much further in the number of depicted 3K figures. This makes sense, of course – the primary method one sees the character is via the card; since the game is primarily focused on large amounts of foot troops. This lack of designing for an in-game model lets the designers go all out when creating outfits.
The variety in design can be attributed to the fact that there is not a single character designer for the game; rather they ask many famous manga-ka and illustrators to contribute their designs. Often there are multiple artists working on a single character, so you can (and for the most part, do) have multiple character designs for a single character.
And even beyond that, one of the great parts of Sangokushi Taisen is that it actually creates designs for characters not seen in Musou, but don’t have fun high-colour designs elsewhere. For example, Guan Xing & Zhang Bao both have a lovely homoeroticism matching tattoo thing going on. Zhang Fei’s wife and Empress Zhang/Zhang Yi/Xing Cai’s mother is introduced with the name Xiahou Yueji (for those unfamiliar, Zhang Fei’s wife is actually Xiahou Yuan’s daughter – and when I say wife, I mean Zhang Fei kidnapped her when she was gathering wood, but I don’t think they’ll be focusing on that point). Empress Bian (Cao Cao’s wife) is shown as an ehru-playing Cao Cao-heart-melting young woman, and Wu Guotai (Sun Jian’s wife & Sun Ce, Quan, and Shangxiang’s mother) is… well, I’m surprised they actually included her! She looks rather young, compared to how badass and old she should be, but still. Zhang Chunhua, Sima Yi’s wife known for killing a maid who possibly may have heard a secret, looks as cunning and deadly as one would expect. And so, so much more.
Also, Wu and Wei switched up colours! That’s gargantuan!
Sangokushi Taisen is pretty popular with the fanart community – pixiv.net has around 200 pages of fanart. It’s no Sengoku Basara, but it certainly has a following. Plus it’s a great source of detailed, elegant art. SK is far from perfect – the vast majority of the designs of the women involve great deals of sexualization, sexualized archetypes and the male gaze – but I would rather not throw the baby out with the bathwater, because there is some serious potential here. I’d really love to see someone clean up or work with the women’s designs as well – as much as many of the ladies are just sitting there being pretty with no iconography of action (the Qiaos, Wu Guotai, Lady Gan oh my god Lady Gan, Lady Mi, Zhen Luo, Empress Guo Nuwang, Lady Xiangying, Cai Wenji, etc.), there are some really easy ways to further that and actually give them weaponry or some sort of tool.
Furthering upon that point, I’d have to say the masaki design of Sun Shang Xiang and the Kazama Raita design of Huang Yueying ended up being my favourite.
Specifically with Yueying, as much as I loved the CLAMP design she received, other manga-ka working on the same design don’t give it the best charm. Furthermore, they took away a lot of what was cool about the CLAMP design – the various adorable robots and Yueying’s badass wrench and working gloves, for example. As well, even in the CLAMP design – I’ve never really been a fan of interpreting Lady Huang as that young a woman; in that it reeks of the kind of nasty infantalization that happens within Patriarchal Japanese heteronormative sexuality.
And that's not even this scream-inducing one.
Beyond that, the reason that I enjoy the other design is that it emphasizes a factor of Yueying that I enjoy and that chief iconography forgot – that she’s an astrologist. The folktales were the ones that mentioned the machinery and aptitude with invention, but the one description she gets wholeheartedly from Ro3K (courtesy of Kongming’s Archives) is;
His mother, from the house of Huang, had been a woman of undistinguished looks but rare ability who could interpret the constellations and the contours of terrain.
For those unaware, there is a very popular practice known as Astrological Geography. This is most typically manifested in mainstream Western culture via giving each sign cities and countries in which they rule over. However, in both Western and East-Asian practices, Geographical location has a very prominent role in using Astrology for beneficial investigative purposes. Landmass and patterns in the land were understand with the arithmetic created from Astrology. Clearly, one can tell from the passage quoted above that Lady Huang was indeed a practiced Astrologist. And subsequently (given the time period), she would be involved with invention and political advising. But those two skills most likely (again, given the context and the fact that Lady Huang is a woman in said context) were borne of her mastery of Astrology.
What’s also important in the above passage is that she was of undistinguished looks, AKA she was not conventionally attractive. What most designers with her do at this point is make her look Caucasian – in that Caucasian looks are often attributed, traditionally, to vulgarity. This also works in the context of still making her conventionally attractive in a modern sense, because there’s the glorification of whiteness in much of East Asia. Ergo, by giving her a design that’s clearly inspired by count dresses and what-feel-to-be-French fashion before the Revolution, you create a very neat design that’s evocative of both mental deductive prowess and astrological inventiveness. To me, Yueying's looks are evocative of something like being the head of a Salon that focuses on metaphysical phenomenon, using it as a front for the mostly-patriarchal Golden Dawn or something.
This isn’t to say that this design of Yueying’s isn’t problematic, though – I don’t think I even need to utter the word ‘cleavage’ with you recognizing the completely inappropriate cleavage that was shoved in. Specifically in the second rendition of the design, it is so out of place that it’s clearly the biggest detriment to the design. Despite the monstrous boobary, I like the design – but I still consistently grit my teeth at it.
Sun Shangxiang, well – for those who know me, I haven’t made it much of a secret that I abhor the design they gave her in SSM5/DW6. I find it dreadful, and even in terms of it being cute fashion, the part that really ruins it is that god-awful petal dress. Even some awesome argyle kilt or the like would be so much better than blooming-bum-skirt. Sun Shangxiang, in all the literature I’ve read on her, has consistently been presented as enthusiastic, optimistic, snarky, and incredibly competent. Those are positive traits. More importantly, they aren’t inherently childish traits.
I understand KOEI’s rationale of coding her as the youngest of the three featured Sun siblings (especially in the context of what an empowered young woman appears as), but it does her no justice to brand her with that backwards-Pussycat-Dolls-non-feminism and then present her as the primary woman character in the game. If anything, it just serves to make her look ridiculous in the eyes of actual feminists while alienating people who may like her because of her identification with feminism. But before I become sidetracked, that’s a short explanation of why I dislike SSM5/DW6 Shangxiang (and I wasn’t too keen on the previous version, either), but for the most part – it can be summed up as ‘I really appreciate her personality, but I don’t find her visuals very engaging’.
This Shangxiang however? Appears to be both the five traits I listed above and a total fucking badass. She looks like the leader of some back-in-the-day Sentai time! While there is inappropriate cleavage – not as bad as Yueying’s, but still – for the most part, Shangxiang is (bar some fetishistic breast and garter belt happenings, showcased in the ST3 card) reasonably dressed and has this incredible giant snake-eagle-other-badass-animals battle headdress. I just cannot stop looking at that headdress and I cannot get over how freaking awesome it is.
What’s also important is that, again, Shangxiang is energetic about going into battle. She loves physical activity and martial arts (if not the actual killing of people, which I doubt), and this Shangxiang is ready to get in there, show what she’s made of as well as do her job. This Shangxiang has been designed as energetic without necessarily being coded as childish. It’s almost as though a young woman has been depicted as competent and enthusiastic about battle, with little to any of this sexist baggage. The male gaze elements persist (as noted above), but overall, this design is so kickass that I can’t help but really adore it.
In terms of Non-Musou-3K figures being created, I adore the designs of both Guan Xing and Ma Dai.
Ma Dai, for those unaware, is famous for about three things – being the cousin of Ma Chao, escaping Cao Cao’s execution of Ma Teng by disguising himself, and killing Wei Yan. The last factor is generally the most notable; Ma Dai executed Wei Yan when Wei Yan was about to break orders and betray the army. However, there are ongoing debates as to whether Wei Yan was actually betraying them at all – it really is one of the most fluid scenarios in 3K history. In light of such, Ma Dai’s characterization tends to be determined by how Wei Yan is depicted (the reverse is less notable; in that Wei Yan is a higher-ranking general for a longer amount of time and a more dynamic character in the novel, thus he’s often introduced first). This specific Sangokushi Taisen design really feels like it could take advantage of both roles - he looks and carries himself in a manner that's rather ruthless and almost vindictive, but he also appears thoughtful enough to consider what the best decision for a situation is. He's also - despite his thoughtfulness - someone I feel is somewhat hasty; and overall he reminds me of Zhuge Liang without the ethical conviction.
Guan Xing is the son of Guan Yu; younger brother of Gaun Ping - Liu Bei forced him to (oh, Liu Bei) become sworn brothers with Zhang Fei's son Zhang Bao after their fathers were killed (at Fancheng and before Yi Ling, respectively) . The two were always pretty competitive with one another in a friendly manner, and it's been their main defining characteristic as such. Guan Xing also managed to kill the general who stole his father's blade, gaining it for himself. Also, he was greatly favoured by Zhuge Liang, who was pretty upset when he died. At any rate - besides that, Guan Xing was mostly an open slate, and that allowed an artist to create a lovely... tiger-based theme? I know, I was surprised too - does anyone know if there were any Tiger-based monikers for Guan Xing? Either way, Guan Xing's design is one that I feel is an excellent legacy to his father and uncle, in that he's clearly rugged and athletic but at the same time carries himself with a very, very strong sense of grace. Zhang Bao I'm not too fond of - since he... c'mon, he's Zhao Yun - but it is a nice compliment to Guan Xing's design. They're also visual character clones of Sun Ce & Zhou Yu.
See what I mean though? These designs are pretty fun and a great breath of fresh air for the most part (I won't mention Cao Ren). They can definitely inspire you to look at how the Sangoku characters can be interpreted difficulty, and lead to an interpretation that's wholly synthetic of iconography from vary sources. |
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