Comments on: Studio Ghibli’s Tales from Earthsea

By: Colour in Earthsea | Acid for Blood

Colour in Earthsea | Acid for Blood — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:53:30 +0000

[...] how Hollywood had changed the race of the cast of characters. In the show, they are white. Koster notes that Goro Miyazaki's film, Tales From Earthsea, also features an all-white cast. In the books by [...]

By: Dexter

Dexter — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 03:22:41 +0000

I’m just obsessed with the Hayao Miyazaki Films and I heard about Goro Miyazaki is directing a new film basedon a book called “Tales from Earthsea”. What exactly is it about?

By: Raph

Raph — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 05:17:07 +0000

There are actually several books -- six by now, I think. You want to start with the original trilogy: A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) The Tombs of Atuan (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 2) The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 3) These three are later additions: Tehanu (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 4) Tales from Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 5) The Other Wind (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 6) I haven't even read the last one yet.

By: Oogami

Oogami — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 02:22:01 +0000

Ah, in that case, the question is very very valid.
Maybe I’ll go seek out the book too.

By: Damijin

Damijin — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 10:57:21 +0000

Perhaps the skin color was conciously changed to make the invading race appear more similar to the natives? Im not sure of the metaphors implied in Earthsea, but there are racial tensions in asia between races that don’t look so different from each other.

I’ve never read Earthsea (although I might now), but I just thought I’d throw an idea out there

By: Raph

Raph — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 16:03:00 +0000

Oogami, in the case of the Earthsea stuff, it’s because the original books were all set in a semi-tropical island archipelago and the author specifically portrayed the principal characters as dark-skinned (a wide array of dark colors, actually). It was the invading empire that was light-skinned. It was a bold step and regrettably, still unusual today.

To have the screen adaptations choose to change that is unfortunate, to my mind; it changes a lot about the books. If you read the linked essay, you’ll see that many have significant emotional attachment to the books and the way they portrayed race.

Trucegore, yes, they did leave one black character. However, in the original, Ged isn’t blond and blue-eyed. He’s “nut-brown.”

By: Faith

Faith — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 09:02:00 +0000

[...] Comments [...]

By: Oogami

Oogami — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:58:48 +0000

I have been wondering about this “why is there no ‘race X’ in this movie/game/series/etc.” line of thought.

I have been watching plenty of animations up till now, both western and eastern (that would be mostly Japanese, plus some Korean) and it has never, occurred to me to ask: “Where are the Japanese/Chinese/Asian characters in this production?” when watching things like The Little Mermaid. And I am not bothered by it either.

Although I did ask myself: “Why are all the geishas in this show Chinese?” (Memoirs of a Geisha)

By: Trucegore

Trucegore — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 20:52:46 +0000

wate, i thought that one uber mage guy was black. (in the si-fi miniseries)

/ponders

By: Acid for Blood » Blog Archive » Colour in Earthsea

Acid for Blood » Blog Archive » Colour in Earthsea — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 18:56:08 +0000

[...] Via Raph Koster’s blog, I came across an essay about minority racial representation in science fiction and fantasy, specifically regarding The Legend of Earthsea series for the SciFi channel and how Hollywood had changed the race of the cast of characters. In the show, they are white. Koster notes that Goro Miyazaki’s film, Tales From Earthsea, also features an all-white cast. In the books by Ursula K. Le Guin, the heroes are black, and the baddies are white. [...]