Mizuki Nana’s most epic costume failure to date
This is what happens when you don’t teach history properly and watch too much animu (especially too much of the pro-Zeon Gundam works) – you think Nazi uniform makes perfect concert dress material. Hey as long as it looks cool right? And Japan wonders why it has issues with its neighbouring countries.
Just for the record, this was one of the costume she wore for her recent Live Fighter concert, sent and I facepalmed when we saw this on stage. I was going to write about it earlier, but pictures are better (or worse, in this case) than my words alone. I’m gonna dread watching this again on Blu-ray that’s for sure.
July 28th, 2008 at 22:25
LOL.
To be honest though it doesn’t look that Nazi from that little picture alone..
July 28th, 2008 at 22:50
It doesn’t seem like a Nazi uniform… it just has a red arm band. Besides, even if it is one, it’s not like she’s the first Japanese idol/celeb who wore Nazi-ish costumes on stage or photos. (IMO it has nothing to do with animu or not teaching proper history – the bad guys always have the best uniforms.)
July 28th, 2008 at 23:09
It may not have the swastika but from a distance it does closely resemble the olde nazi uniform and I guess there will be many people who dun really like the choice of costumes this time ( though a lot of her costumes are questionable in taste to date)
July 28th, 2008 at 23:53
> omo, Kuromitsu
You just haven’t seen her with the stubby whip yet…..
It’s got the shirt, tie, long leather boots etc. Sure it’s not exact, but the imagery is kind of disturbing. It also doesn’t help when there’s a red glow in the stadium from all the red glow sticks and people pumping their arms in the air…..
Also this shows a lack of sensitivity on their part, which is more or less to do with not teaching proper history. What else can you say when a generation of people thinks it’s ok to have a persudo-Nazi uniform just because it looks cool without realising the meaning attached to it?
Maybe it’s just us living in Japan, since it reflects so much on the Japanese’s general lack of understanding of anything beyond their own boarders which is so annoying to us foreigners.
July 29th, 2008 at 00:43
I think Nana in that uniform is fine. Mildly disturbing, but not offensive. Besides, I think she actually looked quite cool in that get-up, so I think its ok.
But I can see where you are coming from, Houkoholic. The red glow in the stadium and the legions of enthusiastic fans pumping their hands in the air to a figure in a Nazi-inspired uniform….it does hark back to the days of the huge Nazi rallies, does it not?
Then again, what’s new about that? One look at the Principality of Zeon from Gundam 0079 would tell you what the creators of Gundam were inspired by. By and large, the Japanese really are insensitive enough about such issues, to the point that they feel comfortable to draw inspiration from Nazi uniforms and perhaps, even some Nazi ideology as can be seen in the case of Zeon.
Of course, that insensitivity in itself, is the cause of so much friction between Japan and her neighbours.
Back to topic….I must admit, I had the irrational urge to scream “SIEG NANA!” when I saw the picture. Heck, if I were at the Live Fighter concert I would probably do it. XD
July 29th, 2008 at 00:57
> Julius Firefocht
Actually if you just look at how Tomino wrote Gundam, he was drawing the parallel between the Nazi/Zeon and criticising their ideology of the superior race as their justification of war, and indirectly also criticising the same mentallity which the Japanese hold during WW2. Thus I have absolutely no problem with Tomino’s Nazi/Zeon imagary in his work, instead that sort of criticism of the ideology behind the Nazi/Zeon is more than welcome. Tomino knows his history, which is why I have a lot of respect for his work in general.
It’s not until recently with the spin-offs that they kept making pro-Zeon work (hence my throw away remark), again, it’s a testimony of the failure to teach history.
July 29th, 2008 at 01:24
Not only Gundam, even Star Wars took clear inspiration from the Nazi stylists for the uniforms of the Empire.
July 29th, 2008 at 01:58
> houkoholic
I see…though I must say that when I watched 0079, all I saw was the resemblance between Zeon and Nazi ideology and appearance. I did not delve deep enough into the series to see any messages that Tomino was attempting to give. Perhaps I must rewatch the show….after all, I watched it when I was too young to make the deeper connections.
Damn, all this talk about Life Fighter only whets my appetite for the Blue-Ray release. I will be getting a PS3 just so that I can watch the thing, that much I can say. :)
July 29th, 2008 at 05:02
> I must admit, I had the irrational urge to scream “SIEG NANA!” when I saw the picture.
..call me an insensitive Asian too, but I had that urge too. xD
Nazi was a dark past in world history, but I kinda understand if Japanese don’t take it as seriously as westerners. I grew up in a very racist Asian country for 18 years before leaving for good to Australia, and I can tell nobody cared that much about a history that didn’t involve them.
So.. give Nana and her insensitive fans a break. :P
Um, what song she was singing in this costume, anyway? (..and she got a whip too? ..damn..)
July 29th, 2008 at 06:21
It’s too bad they did this, even if it’s just similar it is kind of disturbing. One thing is a bad-looking custome, and an entirely different subject is something kind of offensive. I know she didn’t do it on purpose (wouldn’t know about her staff) but it’s something that I definetly didn’t need to see. To make things worse she will be inmortalized in a dvd wearing this, but maybe I’m overreacting. Another artists such as Gackt wore these kind of costumes, or songs like Hakken Kreuz from PIERROT are kind of controversial, but I never expected this from someone like Nana xD.
OF COURSE I like her the same, I just wish she wouldn’t performed in that stupid costume.
July 29th, 2008 at 08:42
Wait. Wasn’t this post supposed to be titled ‘Mizuki Nana SuXX00rs’?
>danie~
Maybe…. ‘WILD’ EYES? or er… ‘Justice’ to Believe? Or er… PRIMAL AFFECTION? Take a shot? [Is totally struggling to think of Nana song titles that might fit the act of whipping]
July 29th, 2008 at 12:04
> j1m0ne
Take A Shot and Justice to Believe got their own dance sequences.. not with that outfit plz. @_@ Seeing how she’s lifting up the mic stand.. I’ll put my money on Secret Ambition or Bring It On!.. not sure about the whipping though.
can’t wait for the bluray~~
July 29th, 2008 at 14:11
The song she sang in this outfit on the second day was “Be Ready”, “Bring it On!”, “Transmigration” and “Orchestral Fantasia”.
July 29th, 2008 at 14:12
>>what song she was singing in this costume
BLUE SIDE: Bring it on!, Pray and Orchestral Fantasia
RED SIDE: Bring it on!, TRANSMIGRATION and Orchestral Fantasia
I discussed this issue with some Japanese Nana fans.
Summary of their opinions:
1. Nazi is not a taboo in Japan.
2. Yes, it may be true that Japanese are less sensitive and less serious than other people to such kind of historical issues.
3. I bet that staff didn’t think too much about the meaning behind the uniform. Maybe they tried to find a costume that creates impact and fits the image they want and it turns out to be one similar to a Nazi uniform.
4. Nazi is a taboo in the western world but not such a serious problem in Japan (or in Asia?). Contrarily it is equally possible that some taboos in Japan are violated somewhere among the western countries.
It all comes down to the values of the people. You may say that Japanese are ignorant on this issue, but it is impossible to force people of all nations and races to have the same sense of values.
July 29th, 2008 at 14:14
>houkoholic
BE READY was before this costume
July 29th, 2008 at 14:48
> ヘイちゃん
I’ve also talked with my Japanese friend about the issue….
1. They said the same thing, but that’s not really an excuse. Since by the same reason, the WW2 Japanese military uniform is a taboo and they stay away from that. It’s sort of like teaching half of the story.
2. This is a problem with the nation in general. Globalization is going to bite Japan in the ass if they carry on with this sort of attitude. And hey, if Mishi P is starting to take note of foreign soils as he had hinted during the FC event 3, he BETTER start thinking about such issues. But I don’t have much hopes for that.
3. That’s what I thought, and it’s exactly the reason why it angers me. Stupidity and ignorance is not an excuse. Also knowing how processes work here, it means the costume had gone through an entire chain of people and they all approved it!
4. “They’re doing it too!” is a non-excuse. Plus the “value” in this case there is no contraversy involved. It’s essentially the same as the Japanese WW2 military uniform except it’s on the other side of the pond. Seriously it would only take 1 minute to explain how this is if you just say “Nazi Germany=Imperial Japan” and anyone with a brain will get it instantly. Again, it just shows that the general Japanese population doesn’t care about anything beyond its borders.
Personally I’m not finding the imagery offensive (hey since I’m part of the “insensitive Asian” group) – I’m just mad at the display of ignorance, especially in light of all these recent talk from the industry of pushing hard to export their cultural products overseas. So on one hand they want to export their stuff, but on the other hand they don’t learn the details of other countries, can you say “does not compute”?
I’m ranting about Japan (I’ve been living and working here way too long), so I better stop before I go insane. :P
July 30th, 2008 at 11:29
Ohhh she did Be Ready again? I like that song and I’ve only seen it once in a 2006 dvd (“birth” I guess).
Orchestral Fantasia and Transmigration are songs that I like, it’s too bad she didn’t use this outfit for songs I can actually skip xD
I hate “bring it on” but I guess anybody has to like it.
July 30th, 2008 at 19:54
You’re right about the WW2 and Nazis being a dark past. However, there is no way we could have changed history, be it ignorance or insensitivity, the costume is clearly not intended to re-open the wounds of those terrorized in the past, so lets just remember this incident and get over with it. I certainly do not mean that anyone should be allowed to put on clothings that are deemed sensitive, but in my opinion, since history is fixed, we , as humans, should continue to move on, not choosing to forget but instead, learn from our mistakes and grow stronger. Learning how to forgive is part of our evolution.
July 30th, 2008 at 20:01
Casting all the history related stuff aside,I would say the costume looks pretty good on her.
August 1st, 2008 at 06:53
Ouch. Although I’ve read the news at ヘイちゃん’s mixi, the picture looks worse than I imagined. I have to fully agree with houkoholic, that ignorance is not an excuse to have done that. Were it to happen in mainland China, her career could have been completely ruined, and even if it were in US, it would have been a disaster for her reputation. Knowing how crazy her hardcore fans are for her, I don’t think this is going to have any long-term effect; but for semi-fans like me, it hurts to imagine her singing Orchestral Fantasia in this costume :(
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:47
I’d think its more of a frame of mind over the costume itself.
Perhaps it is just me, but currently living in Singapore where it used to be a Japanese-occupied territory way back in 1942, such Imperialistic-Ideal based uniforms (like Nazi or Imperialistic Japan) doesn’t create such a big hoo-ha here.
It has been over 60 years since the last major conflict ended, I seriously believe whilst we all should move on instead of letting old wounds fester and history would repeat itself all over again. Hitler & his Nazi thugs capitalized on the very sore & open wound of Germany after WWI to great & devastating impact on the world.
“To forgive the past errors but not forget the events that lead to the error” perhaps.
If anyone could recall, Shimizu Ai also did a photo shoot in one of the older issues of Seiyuu Grand Prix under Love Megane section where she also donned a Pre-1946 Military Uniform as well and I don’t really see a big ruckus kicked over it, so, why now?
I think there wasn’t any malicious intent when the wardrobe team for the concert chose the costume, perhaps it was meant to be just a fashion statement to match the song (of course not singing “Innocent Starter” with this Uniform though) at that moment. If everyone thought it is some extreme insensitivity on the wardrobe team’s part, I think they should simply do a blanket ban on all military-style uniforms.
August 11th, 2008 at 04:02
hm… Is this a big news in Japan?
I didn’t know this at all in HK..
so I suppose this doens’t make any troubles in other countries?
August 22nd, 2008 at 15:39
I’ll just toss this in, since im blog browsing here…
Asian and Middle Eastern countries could care less about Hitler and such. Where problems start is when you bring this type of stuff to the West (ie America, Britain, France, and ESPECIALLY Germany), then it becomes such a major issue that it has reputation damaging effects.
Years ago, a previous owner of the Cincinnati Reds supported Adolf Hitler, and was practically banned from Baseball from that time forth.
In the picture though, it’s not clear if its a Nazi uniform. For all we know, it could be a Chinese army uniform (which it actually more closely resembles), so I wouldn’t go calling it a Nazi uniform yet until I see the Hail Hitler pose and the swastika.
August 23rd, 2008 at 01:26
A late response to Pie:
It’s not a news at all in Japan.
It seems to me that Japanese – at least the 20 or so Nana fans I personally know – are completely not offended by Nazi related issues.
And for those of you who want to see a clearer picture:
http://www.anican.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=163
August 23rd, 2008 at 05:06
> AnimeGamer
No it’s clearly based on the Nazi uniform, since you can see the belt-over-the-jacket design, which is unique to the Nazi uniform design but missing in the Chinese uniform. Also the armband of course will not have the swastika – even the Japanese is not that DUMB to openly advocate this. But even then, the general design is obviously inspired/based on the Nazi uniform.
>ヘイちゃん
Well of course the Japanese fans are not offend – this is why the costume designers think is ok to use it for her concert.
August 23rd, 2008 at 14:56
well I’m waiting for responses outside Japan after DVD release…
January 1st, 2009 at 09:34
[...] suffer from little things which keeps me from enjoying them to the fullest – such as Nana’s horrible wardrobe in Live Fighter or the unsatisfying Minorin Fanclub event. In the end, it is only for the [...]
January 19th, 2009 at 22:07
[...] Not too dodgy and thankfully nothing politically incorrect this time round (or I could just be ignorant and biased). Okay, I could be all Queer Eye for the [...]
March 3rd, 2009 at 19:48
In regards to the people here talking about Zeon/Nazi Ideology, there are a lot of parallels, but please do not mix up Zeon Ideology with Gihren Zabi Ideology. Gihren was the one who believed that spacenoids were superior and everyone was ready to listen to it in the last month of the war. Hell, they didn’t even start saying “Sieg Zeon” until the end of Garma’s funeral two months before War’s end. Zeon Ideology was not “We’re the Superior race” it was not anymore different than when America broke free of British taxation and oppression in the 1770s. They just wanted freedom, and do that, they had to destroy th oppressors holding them down. A lot of so called “Gundam fans” who think they know everything about Gundam history often forget about Char/Casval’s father, Zeon Zum Deikun’s ideology of Contolism, half of which stated “The Colonies should be released and treated as equal, independant nations.” And as such, the second colonial nation to break free from earth was Side 6, who with assistance from a Duchy of Zeon space fleet, became the Reah Republic. (This happened before the OYW.)
Believe me, I’ve had to do some serious research into this subject. xP It’s ultra nerdy, but damnit, I wanted to write a fan fic so I needed my history correct instead of just going about it how ever I wanted like most people. But then again, mine actually tries to seriously tie into the early war from a Zeon perspective….then they came up the MS Igloo 2 series which does essentially the same thing but from a Federation perspective. >_> Great minds think alike, but often on different wave lengths…. Lol
March 3rd, 2009 at 21:22
> History buff/Gundam nerd
Yeah I know all of that you talk about, I know my fair share of Gundam history. The problem with most of the non-Tomino UC works based on the OYW is that it is preciously about Zabi family’s Zeon and their influence on the troops, and the soldiers of Zeon during that period. Tomino obviously modeled the OYW Zeon (post Zeon Deikun/Char is already planning his revenge, troops are rallying behind the Zabi philosophy etc) as a jab at both the Nazi regime as well as Japanese imperial militarism mentality but that image are basically forgotten by a lot of the fans and actively being rewritten by the creators (that are not Tomino) themselves. For almost all of the non-Tomino works you see see loads and loads of honorable soldiers with “pure” ideals (that the Zeon has the right to cleanse not just the Federation but all the Earthnoids) and are avid supporters of Giren (Gundam’s Hilter, Tomino wrote a scene in MSG that specifically references that) in recent OYW works. Case in point, the infamous Gato of 0083, lots of “fans” found him to be cool and hail him as their idol/hero, but completely forgot the fact that he was an avid supporter, a blind follower even, of Gihren as well as his ethnic superior talks, NOT Zeon Deikun’s more pacific ideal, and the creators went to great lengths of making these soliders looking really cool, charming, righteous and powerful as well. This is the kind of pro-Zeon works I’m talking about. And as fans gets absorbed into how powerful these soldiers are, they tend to forget what these soldiers are fighting for, such as in the case of Gato, sure he is a great pilot, but he was fighting for Gihren and Gihren’s ideals! The question worth asking here is – is this the kind of character that people should be idolising? Just because that Gato makes a good soldier (in relative terms – as he follow orders, fights honorably etc), he was *most definitely* fighting for the wrong ideals and shouldn’t be cheered/hailed for for doing so, which most fans of Gato tends to do, and this is the sort of comparison I’m drawing parallels to here.
April 17th, 2009 at 07:00
That is an excellent point, especially when you start referring to Gato. The entire Delaz fleet were essentially terrorists and insurgents. Gato was in essence, no different from the men who piloted civilian aircraft into the World Trade Center. Gato was just a Martyr of a facist ideal. Though still, ya can’t help but love the guy. He’s not just the blind follower, he stated several times what he was fighting for and it was both the greater spacenoid ideal as well as his own misguided Zabist ideas. Everyone has their own reasons for fighting after their side has already lost. Look at some of the “Werewolves” as examples. Those men who fought for Germany as many as four and five years after the war was over. It was shown that many of the ones fighting were so brainwashed by Nazis that they had no hope of normal thoughts anymore. Others fought because they wanted the West to see their plight and help them push the Communist east off their beloved land, others were the opposite, wanting the Communists to continue pushing over Germany. It’s all a matter of what you fight for. Theres no such thing as right or wrong. Ethical or unethical. It’s all in what you believe versus what others believe. Some people’s beliefs work out. Others do not. Hitler. Gihren. Mussolini. Franco. Cromwell. Dictators, Kings and Facists of all types both real and fictional from all points in time will always take their routes. And only if it’s a shared belief will it succeed, but it never is shared enough to last. History says it all. :P
On that note, Obama is going fail miserably no matter how much people blindly love him. I’d bet my life though that McCain would have done worse, but if we could have broken the status quo for a change elected a Libertarian or a Constitutionalist we’d be far better off here in the U.S. >_>