Saturday, January 19, 2008

Afganis-tan

Um...

Am I the only one who finds this just a mite distasteful?

Especially this part here?

I mean, I think it's great and all that someone's trying to educate people about Central Asia's tumultuous history, but there's got to be a better way...

4 comments:

RuthieA said...

I don't know. When I read through it, I couldn't tell if it was kind of clever or horribly, terribly offensive. Maybe it was just fifty years too soon. I'd also hazard a guess that the writer was not American. The art's cute, though (which is probably really inappropriate for the subject matter)

Will Staples said...

Yeah, I think it's too soon, which is what bugs me. If it had been about Pearl Harbor, say, it wouldn't have bothered me as much, even if it hadn't portrayed America in a positive light.

There's also the matter of the sheer scale of the event they're depicting. I just think it's equivalent of portraying Hiroshima as one cute little girl hitting another with a water balloon.

Anonymous said...

Maybe. It's probably how other countries feel about Axis Powers Hetalia.

Will Staples said...

I get what you're saying, but the events of APH are 60 years or more in the past, and it doesn't touch on many real atrocities. But in the case of Afganis-tan, families are still grieving loved ones lost on 9/11, and the way it's portrayed in the comic feels totally inappropriate.