Funky observation.
I love Steiner, from FF9. All of Vivi's absolute perfection aside, Steiner was my very favorite character. I have a real weakness for dorky characters, and brother, Steiner just redefines dorky.
Now, we know what Steiner looks like, right? Big round chin-heavy face, huge round oversized eyes with really incongruous fat eyelashes and relatively tiny pupils, wide mouth. Kind of froggy, almost, except frogs don't have eyelashes in my reality. Okay.
A couple of nights ago, I was watching one of my new Lupin III fansubs. And it struck me: Steiner looks a lot like Zenigata. I mean, a LOT. They both have those big chin-heavy faces and the heavily lashed huge eyes and everything.
And then I mentioned that to Boyfriend, and he brought up Onsen-Mark, from Urusei Yatsura. Same damn thing! Big round face, huge eyes, pronounced eyelashes and everything.
Is this a Japanese Archetype? Does Big Chin-Heavy Face + Huge Round Eyes + Big Froofy Eyelashes = Overzealous But Ineffectual Authority Figure? You know, the big wide eyes with the emphasized eyelashes do make them look kind of naive and clueless, despite their bulky adult figures. I'm starting to think it may well BE some kind of manga shorthand for "I may be a total dork, but I'm damned well serious about my job, which happens to be to stop you from doing anything fun. Good thing for you I'm so bad at my job. Oh, and I like you a lot, but I'm damned well never going to admit that, even to myself. Unless you get killed or something."
Even if it's not an official Archetype, I suppose that Onsen-Mark and Steiner could both be homages to Zenigata. Zenigata came first. Actually, there's an episode of Urusei Yatsura where Ataru and Onsen-Mark pretend to be Lupin and Zenigata... and come to think of it, Zidane IS a dashing thief to Steiner's mostly-useless palace guard...
Dude, I think that's it. Steiner IS Zenigata.
I guess that means Ruby is Fujiko, and Blank is Jigen... RIGHT DOWN TO THE FACT WE NEVER SEE HIS EYES! Marcus is Goemon! Well, okay, that's where the relationship kind of breaks down. Although I guess Freya could be Goemon... hmmm...
Ah, well. Something to think about.
Replies: add your comment: currently 7 comments
Gah! I know someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to him...well save for the eyelashes. ^^; I'd show it off, but I think he'd snipe me.
Posted by Tiffany @ 09/06/2001 08:55 PM EST
There's one flaw to your argument, and that comes from Urusei Yatsura as well.
Kakugari, one of the Lum Stormtroopers, looks exactly like Onsen-Mark. So much so that he can impersonate the teacher in the second movie, which was apparently designed while on crack.
Posted by Nezumi @ 09/06/2001 10:45 PM EST
Ah yes, the stormtrooper whose name I can never remember, and you're right. But shaddap, quit pointing out flaws in my cute little argument!
And I LOVE Beautiful Dreamer! I do! It made anime worthwhile for me all over again! Don't slam the crackhead movie! Plus I got to see my very favorite character (Megane) with a big floofy ponytail, which made me a very happy cow...
Posted by Mooncalf @ 09/06/2001 10:50 PM EST
Nezumi loved Beautiful Dreamer, too. It's his favourite UY movie, in fact, but it's crackrabbit as it gets, especially when you only have it available without subtitles. It was a year before Nezumi actually knew what anyone was saying, and by that point his brain had melted.
So you're a Megane fan, eh? Nezumi likes him a lot, too, in fact he's one of Nezumi's favourites. Mendou and Sakurambo are pretty high up there, and Nezumi's cat is actually named Kotatsu! Nezumi's sure you'll get the joke there. =)
Posted by Nezumi @ 09/06/2001 11:01 PM EST
Beautiful Dreamer is on my "Anime to Watch" list, because I hear it's so good. A friend saw he and told me it's good.
Y'know, I THINK a couple of RARE occurances, it came on the Sci-Fi Channel!! Seriously! Back when SFC was cool and occasionally showed pretty cool anime, I think this was one that was only shown like, once or twice, maybe 3 times. I never saw it because I just...didn't. I don't know. Maybe that wasn't it, but I swear it was...Hmmm....
Posted by Wolf @ 09/07/2001 12:21 PM EST
Gack! The first time I saw Steiner's char design that's exactly what I thought. It's the eyes, man, the eyes.
Posted by Lex @ 09/07/2001 08:08 PM EST
... Jigen-sama...
Posted by Georgia @ 09/10/2001 06:00 AM EST
