A leaked image of a poster for Hollywood’s upcoming “Wolverine” X-Men film has been accused of desecrating the glorious national flag of Japan, with the sacred “hi-no-maru” being clawed most viciously by a dishonourable barbarian.
The leaked poster shows the Wolverine’s trademark claws tearing through the hi-no-maru emblem featured on the Japanese flag, along with a pun on “rising sun.” Whether the poster itself is genuine is not clear.
The choice of design doubtless refers to the fact that the film, due in mid-2013, is set in Japan and reportedly covers Wolverine’s marriage to a yakuza princess (or in other words is a good excuse to ram gratuitous yakuza, ninja and samurai action into the story).
The immediate online reaction amongst Japanese with nothing better to do (i.e. Twitter and 2ch) was to energetically denounce the poster as a clear example of yet more anti-Japanese sentiment on the part of the wicked Americans, or else to denounce the denouncers:
“This is unforgivable!”
“The Japanese-American Alliance isn’t an equal one! Real friends wouldn’t do this to a flag!”
“I’m not net-uyo by any means, but I find this disgusting.”
“This is sure to aggravate the right-wing types.”
“Come on, only people like us are going to care!”
“It’s actually quite an elegant, simple design. Sorry.”
“Isn’t this just an excuse to get their ‘Rising Soon’ pun in?”
“I smiled at the pun. But how much do they hate Japan to go to all this trouble?”
“Doubtless the work of some Chinese or Korean scum.”
“A lot of people seem to think it’s a fake in any case. Looks good though.”
“It’s pretty sad if it turns out to be true. To think America has to stoop to this to enhance its ruined national prestige.”
“What would you expect from a nation so base as to burn the Koran! I understand how all the Muslims feel now.”
“Oh come on, what is anti-Japanese about this? It’s no worse than splitting a hi-no-maru bento amongst four people.”
“Destroying the hi-no-maru, that’s on the same level as something a dirty Korean would do. Americans are always doing this to people’s flags.”
“American comics are so behind the times…”
“Another retarded excuse to trot out ninja and samurai in a film.”
“I laughed at the stuff about them dressing up as samurai for Mariko’s wedding, and then her getting poisoned with fugu by a rival syndicate. What is this, a comedy?”
“Disrespecting another nation’s flag is just repugnant.”
“This is the true nature of Americans. They still fear Japan and Germany.”
“They must be pretty stupid not to realise some people would take it this way.”
“What kind of imbecile gets upset over a shredded hi-no-maru, honestly.”
“What does anyone expect of the Yanks, they love war and provoking people.”
“Only Japanese would let them get away with this. It would be a big issue with any other nation.”
“The film looks like another one of those sleazy pulp Japanese settings whites love so much. They even have the random Japanese wife/girlfriend thing going.”
“Wait, this is set in Japan? They love Japan don’t they!”
“You guys are too easy to troll with this hi-no-maru stuff…”
I don’t understand the outrange. If, for example, that crappy Godzilla movie that came out back in 2000 which had Godzilla rampaging through New York had a movie poster showing a trampled American flag at the bottom of a giant Godzilla footprint, I wouldn’t take it as “OMG Japan is insulting America!” My reaction would be “Oh, s♥♥t. That’s a cool way of showing that Godzilla has come to America.”
In Wolverine’s comic series, he frequently travels to Japan and deals with Yakuza, Ninja, and Samurai. Japan is like his second home, away from professor Xavier and the institute. I’m intrigued to see how this film turns out.
for people that too offended with this kind of poster … then don’t watch it … its solves all problems right? 😀
What I find funny about this is how the actions of a single fictional character as depicted by a tiny handful of concept artists are treated as some kind of statement about the opinions and beliefs of an entire nation. I hate that collectivist mentality humans have.
Wolverine’s an individual, man. What he chooses to do with his claws in his spare time ain’t up to any of us.
Okay, ACTUALLY desecrating any nation’s flag is inappropriate and dumb.
Here’s my final thoughts on this, though: What’s the point in this? Why is Wolverine slicing the Japanese flag? There’s no point in it, and that’s where the real problem lies. Wolverine isn’t attacking Japan in the movie, I’m sure. Now, if it was some baddie character doing something bad to a flag, it’s be understandable, but Wolverine… Obviously, the artist was just trying to be witty about the upcoming movie and failed.
I’ll tell you this: if Wolverine was ripping up America’s flag, I’d be offended…
HOWEVER, if some dickhole baddie character was ripping an American flag I’d be all, “FFFF dumb ho better get what’s coming to him!” because he’s a bad guy.
Wolverine always ends up “being the good guy”… so Why would he rip a flag?
In the end: why are they even making another one of these movies?