Gatchamania.net - Print: What is Romance?

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Posted by Springie on 14-11-2012 at 04:34:

What is Romance?

I just received a package from a friend on Deviant Art- he gave me his collection of Gatchy stuff- Lucky me! Anyway, one of the things I got is what appears to be a Japanese fan book for Gatchaman. I'm sure some of you may have it...

It goes through each episode and describes it in detail and each page has a graph like this:

So this book got me thinking...what do the Japanese think is romantic?

Here are two different pages:
One from the "Bitter Bird Missile" ep- and I totally get why it registers high on the romance scale-

One from the Jumbo Shakira ep...but does anyone know why it even registers for romance??? (There were a few episodes like this that I wondered why they had it register at all for romance (I'll go through and list them below).

Maybe someone here can clear it up for me? Maybe I just don't get Japanese culture...

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Posted by Springie on 14-11-2012 at 04:54:

Some of the others that registered (albeit low) on the romance part of the scale (and I didn't understand why) were:

#8 The Secret of the Crescent Coral Reef (the Sea Anenome ep)

#11 The Riddle of Red Impulse

#15 The Fearful Jellyfish Lens

#17 The Grand Insect Operation

#19 Hell's Speed Race (maybe they consider it romantic when Ken rides on the back of the bike with Jun?)

#24 The Neon Giant

#29 Gallack X

#38 The Mechanical Jungle (maybe when Jun comforts Ken after he loses his wristband?) They had this one pretty high on the romance scale...up to the third notch

#44 Galactor's Challenge

#57 The Evil White Sea

#58 Hell's Mecha Buddha

#73 Pursue Katse (relatively high- third notch)

#85- That's G 4 (This one doesn't have anything for romance at all- but Ken rides with Jun on the bike again- so maybe that's not romantic??)

#86 Galactor's Plan to Corner the Market (the Sugare episode)

#88- Iron Beast Snake 828

#93 The Underground Torpedo Operation

#95 Giant Devil Men, United Ninjas ( the Jupiter Ninjas Ep)

#97 Leona 3

#98- Grape Bomber

#99- Wounded G2

#100- Gatchaman 20 Years Later (rated high on the romance scale- wth?)

# 102-104- the whole ending- I get the romance in ep 105, but the other episodes???

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Posted by KT1972 on 14-11-2012 at 07:38:

I don't know how the Japanese perceive romance, but it's made me think. If their idea of romance is as high as that in those episodes we consider to be unromantic, then maybe the implication is that Ken and Jun WERE in a relationship?

I've often though that a Ken/Jun pairing was more canon than any other.

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Posted by ChrisW on 14-11-2012 at 09:31:

I wonder if they're using a not quite modern definition of romance. Terms like "comedy" and "tragedy" for example used to be used in very different ways than they are today. Or maybe they count as romance anywhere where it's hinted that Jun likes Ken.

Would love to hear the take from someone more in tune with Japanese culture of the 70s.

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Posted by Lunulet on 14-11-2012 at 11:53:

I love the "human" category on there too. What does that mean?? Maybe it marks episodes where they get more dialogue/interaction. Or maybe episodes with more emotional content?

What about #92 - The End of the Crescent Coral Base? That's gotta be a major Ken/Jun moment!

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Posted by Springie on 14-11-2012 at 14:18:

Yes, #92 was high on the romance scale...I think a 4 or 5 (5 is the highest). I like that they have a "human" part of the graph, too! My guess is that it counts the parts where they are just hanging out together- or interacting on a more personal level.

Let me know if there are any episode pages you'd like to see...I can scan them for you.

This book also does an "Ode to Jun's Panty Shots" and it even shows an early picture of Gatchcon in San Diego! (There's a page on Gatchaman in the US) It looks like there is also a small bit on Wendy Dinsmore (many of you know her as Diinzumo).

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Posted by Springie on 14-11-2012 at 14:20:

KT, I'm with you there...I'm wondering if they count Ken putting his hand on Jun's shoulder as romance...

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Posted by KT1972 on 14-11-2012 at 14:23:

maybe even a glance or smile might count...... animewink

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Posted by amethyst on 14-11-2012 at 17:10:

quote:

Originally posted by ChrisW
I wonder if they're using a not quite modern definition of romance. Terms like "comedy" and "tragedy" for example used to be used in very different ways than they are today. Or maybe they count as romance anywhere where it's hinted that Jun likes Ken.

Would love to hear the take from someone more in tune with Japanese culture of the 70s.

Not in tune with Japanese culture, but very in tune with Literary Analysis, and I would agree that they are using a classical definition of Romance, not a contemporary one.

Elements of Classical Romance that can be seen in Gatchaman:

Courtly Love, in that Ken puts his honor above his physical needs (actually, they all do, but it is most prominent in Ken)

Tribal War

Quest

Main themes: Courarge, Loyalty, Honor, and Mercy

Romantic Period conventions that also apply:

Favoring innovation over traditionalism

Nature as more than theme or imagery

An invitation to identify with the characters

Visionary on multiple levels ("Age of New Beginnings and high Possibilities")

The above has been extrapolated from MH Abrams A Guide to Literary Terms (not my favorite text, but I can't find my HOlMAN).

Dr Hirsch in his Dictionary of Cultural Literacy defines Romance as this:

quote:

In traditional literary terms, a narration of the extraordinary exploits of heroes, often in exotic or mysterious settings. Most of the stories of King Arthur and his Knights are romances.

The term romance has also been used for stories of mysterious adventures, not necessarily of heroes. Like the heroic kind of romance, however, these adventure romances usually are set in distant places. William Shakespeare's play The Tempest is this kind of romance.

Today, a novel concerned mianly with love is often called a romance. Romances are frequently published in paperback series.

The idea has definitely morphed. Though, I suppose that to some degree the traditional elements somewhat remain in what we currently consider romance, if the we consider the idea of falling in love an adventure in itself, and willfully neglect the component of courtly or chivalric love.

IMHO, using the above definitions, they might be rather light on the episodes that favor Romance.

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Posted by Transmute Jun on 14-11-2012 at 17:26:

That looks like a really interesting book, Springie! Thanks for sharing those little charts... that's too funny!

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Posted by jublke on 16-11-2012 at 03:18:

Interesting discussion. :-) Thanks for sharing, Springie.

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Posted by Springie on 16-11-2012 at 05:07:

Glad you like it, guys! I'm still wondering about that Jumbo Shakira ep- where is the romance? All I remember is Ryu angsting about his Dad being lost at sea...I need to go back and look at the episode review for this, I guess.

I need to check those other eps too...and like Amethyst said (nice info, btw, Amethyst!) maybe it is more of a chivalrous type of thing that they are counting as romance.

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Posted by gatchamarie on 16-11-2012 at 08:51:

Thanks for sharing this with us, Springie! It's literally something I've never seen!

And, I wish to also thank Amethyst for her valuable contribution, since I deem the explanation very realistic, and the closest to my own thinking! Not excluding the fact that I'm one who's biased by the wishful relationship between Ken and Jun, I also think that romance, not only during that certain period of time, involves a lot of more and various emotions and goes hand in hand with the same human aspect also inspected. I wonder what the ratings would have been after reviewing Gatch II and Gatch F! IMHO, these other two series would surely have a larger "romance" counting!

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