We told you about the anime Princess Robot Bubblegum in The Ballad of Gay Tony, the latest part of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Well, Destructoid's Conrad Zimmerman was kind enough to record the entire thing so that we could take a moment to enjoy and discuss the piece. Clocking in at around 11 minutes, the show does what GTA has been known for in its more recent iterations: lampooning culture.
Except, in the case of Princess Robot Bubblegum, it's about fifteen years late, when it comes to the tropes in anime itself.
It's all the things people tend to think of anime when they have no real concept of it, and all these jokes have a strong basis in the series from the 80s and 90s, but for the most part, a lot of these jokes really don't apply to a lot of the modern stuff. Ignoring the flying panties, of course.
They nailed some of the culture stuff down, though, especially at the end -- the heavy merchandising, the types of products (Queens Blade and figures, anyone?), and whatnot. Oh, and weeaboos. So, they got a few things right that still apply, but I can't say I'm really happy about them picking on outdated jokes. People throw a hissyfit when they say games are "just for kids" or "all about that Mario stuff," so why can't I get huffy over some tentacle rape?
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I feel that their outdated references are understandable, but I'm less willing to say that it's excusable.
I can see that they do have knowledge of modern anime and manga, but it seems like they are restricted by their target audience, who are very likely to be aware of anime past than of present. It's probably because of the little overlap between this medium and that specific genre of video games. I mean, it was more in Rockstar's interest to generate a quick laugh for those playing than educating them.
I mean, if they made references to NicoNico Douga, the moe boom, Akiba and what have you, it would fly over most people's heads.
But that's not to say they couldn't strike some sort of balance. I mean, they really focused on tentacle rape and transformations, but there was a sore amount of references to weaboos and modern stuff lacking. I mean, they did make me chuckle at the point about the handheld game, that made me instantly think of Dissidia. Why not have more of those kind of up-to-date humour? Yes, it's a parody, but I'm not going to make constant references to Married with Children if I'm going to do the something similar with sitcoms. Heck, a simple nod to Naruto would be a massive step forward.
It is much like watching a show on television where people play video games by slamming on EVERY BUTTON while saying they're 'blasting evil space mutants from the planet Zorg'. You can see why they would do that given their target audience, but it's so frustrating.
Jeez, dont' get too worked up guys, it's a game that makes fun of EVERYTHING. Drugs? Black culture? Jack Thompson? Themselves? You can bet they've poked fun at it.
I bet most of the people who work at Rockstar know that anime is more than what they showed in the parody, but that's the thing, it's PARODY. Sure, if they included references to moe blobs, NicoNico Douga, and fansubbers, we would've thought it was hilarious, but GTA's target market would've probably just been confused. When you create a product, you design it to appeal to your target market, that's basic business.
Besides, last time I checked, tentacle rape, emo dudes with huge swords, scantily clad women, heavy merchandising, and pathetic weaboos are still modern aspects of anime culture. ;D
There were some okay jokes in there, but it feels awkward when we make fun of other countries for merchandising too much.
And can we stop with the "it's PARODY" defense for all mediocre comedy? People criticize Friedberg and Seltzer for a reason. The whole point was it could have been a lot funnier and came off as a lost opportunity.
When was tentacle rape EVER a part of mainstream anime? It's a common enough hentai genre to be sure but I can't think of a single legitimate anime where it featured.
The fact that even the most casual anime fans know about it definitely says something about its unfortunate widespread notriety. Oh, and anime and hentai are related to a certain extent, to try and completely segregate the two would be rather redundant.
There's a point where exaggeration and parody becomes "THIS IS WHAT I THINK OF IT POINTED OUT BLUNTLY BY THE THING ITSELF." That's about where this is. It wasn't as insulting as the preview seemed, at least.
For the people who play GTA and giggle whenever the characters swear, or for the ignorant players who think this is actually true of all otaku and all anime, I'm sure it's hilarious. But for me it was just dull and repetitive.
Having played plenty of hours into GTA 4, I can say they've done much better than this.
I chuckled. They tried to pull the tropes and themes a little too long, though. There were many scenes (such as the transformation scene) when the parody was SPOT ON perfect.
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