Crimea's Attorney-General Inspires Anime-Style Fan-Art

[Steven Bogos]

"I wonder if the Premier will notice me..." Oh, wait...

 

[Augustine]

"Oh my God there are Russian troops in the Crimea! The Ukraine's sovereignty is threatened! WW3 IS COMING!!!"

"Oh my God you're right! Quick: get the artists together and create a wacky manga based on fan-art of the major players in this crisis! WE'LL MAKE MILLIONS!!!"

Must feature many a tentacle and copious amounts of moe! Our very way of life depends on it, naturally...

Mostly tentacles, though...

 

[The_Echo]

I wasn't expecting this kind of a response from the Escapist. Huh.

Plenty of people aren't politically inclined so that cute face is going to be a bigger focus point than the context in which she's placed. Coupled with her voice and general mannerisms, yeah, I can definitely see why people are latching onto her. She's a total qt3.14.

I've seen some people drawing parallels between her and Lana Skye from Phoenix Wright.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Please make a correction to this article.

She isn't the "Governor-General", her equivalent position is Chief Prosecutor/Attorney-General.

On a lesser note, I would debate describing the Crimean seperatists as "Pro-Soviet", when the Soviet Union no longer exists.
Pro-Russian would be more accurate.

Thanks for the tip, i've updated the article

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Just to make things a bit clear (since people appear to not be noticing this in the article), these were generally drawn by Japanese artists, who made these drawings after watching a video posted in Japanese on Youtube. The fact that they are drawn in an anime influenced style should not be a surprise.

OT- I find this all hilarious, because I exist at a safe distance from all significant consequences of this political situation and the idea that a bunch of random people on the internet have fallen in love with a random Attorney-General is pretty absurd really. I like to imagine that she's like a lady Putin, and that the two of them secretly share a forbidden love. Also, go read her wikipedia page. I think they might still have her position be "waifu general."

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

You know you're getting older when all the ex Soviet block attorney-general's start to look like children.

"Ilsa She Wolf Of The S.S." who was actually based very loosely on a real person (one who was actually never convicted of the war crimes she was accused of)

Could have sworn she was hung, though I suppose there were probably other "inspirations": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irma_Grese

 

[HellbirdIV]

I'm a little bit disgusted, 'cause it highlights the sexism in these online communities when a political figure who happens to be a young attractive woman gets drawn as a big-breasted anime stereotype with her boobs clearly pronounced under her uniform or even exposed cleavage. Or even worse, the Moe shit.

It's honestly rather pathetic people seem to accept "she's cute" as an excuse for objectification.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

The situation in Ukraine has got relations between Russia and the west in turmoil not seen since the Cold War, talks of war are going all around, speculation of what Russia will do next is everywhere, none of it good, and the economic sanctions based on Russia will have worldwide effects whose impact on global economy will likely be massively negative.

What do some creeps on the Internet focus on?

"Oh, there's a pretty lady. Let's make anime fan art out of her." Of all the things about the situation in Ukraine, you guys chose to post this?

 

[Therumancer]

You know you're getting older when all the ex Soviet block attorney-general's start to look like children.

"Ilsa She Wolf Of The S.S." who was actually based very loosely on a real person (one who was actually never convicted of the war crimes she was accused of)

Could have sworn she was hung, though I suppose there were probably other "inspirations": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irma_Grese

Your correct actually I was getting Ilse Koch confused with someone else. She hung herself according to Wikipedia. There were indeed several of these ladies among the Nazis.

 

[Balimaar]

She looks like Lana Skye from the Phoenix Wright games

 

[CriticalMiss]

"chemical ali" was made governor of Kuwait by saddam...pity he wasn't a "cute" she i guess...

i dunno what to think...how does this fit in with this sites "feminism" ?...she's a despot...and a 12 veteran of a public prosecutor...but ye still a despot...none of which is "cute"...

/facepalm

How is she a despot? according to the EU observer's of the Crimean vote they were free and fair.

Free and fair? Last time I read the news the referendum was being considered illegal and the results being ignored. Plus observers didn't go because they thought the process was illegal. Maybe there has been a full u-turn since then.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26546133

 

[metagaia]

Free and fair? Last time I read the news the referendum was being considered illegal and the results being ignored. Plus observers didn't go because they thought the process was illegal. Maybe there has been a full u-turn since then.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26546133

"Free and fair" and "illegal" are too entirely different things. The American declaration of independence was illegal, as was the French resistance during WWII, that does not make either of them unfair or unjust.

(Not that I am saying the election was free and fair, but one does not follow from the other)

 

[yamy]

Yeah I agree, I would classify the current situation in Russia/Crimea as being more nationalist than Soviet. The whole "Crimea is almost entirely Russian so it should be part of Russia" is more of a nationalist ideal than one based in old Soviet-era rhetoric (when nationality supposedly didn't matter as much as the glorious worker's struggle). That's why you have various foreign policy experts comparing the whole conflict more to the old Russian Empire to the Soviets. It was the Soviet government that gave Crimea to the Ukraine as some sort of symbolic anniversary present, after all.

Anyway I find this to be adorable in some way. The ability to just take some random thing, no matter how horrible, and make it some sort of cute is quite admirable. Like some of the drawings and depictions that came out post-tsunami and nuclear power plant problems. The memes that tend to catch on there seem to be quite random, though. A younger female pop starlet in the US doesn't get any attention, but a cute Attorney General in the middle of a heated conflict inspires them.

I think the main thing is not the fact that she is cute (there are many many cute women out there in the world), but rather that it's completely surprisingly and unexpected that an Attorney General of a state would be a cute looking women, as normally they are overweight middle age men who looked like they've never seen the sun.

The fact that she appeared in framework of such a tense political situation even more so.

It is also an anime trope that people in power are often somehow also young/pretty looking, despite that the majority of people in power usually aren't.

 

[Candidus]

Free and fair? Last time I read the news the referendum was being considered illegal and the results being ignored. Plus observers didn't go because they thought the process was illegal. Maybe there has been a full u-turn since then.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26546133

Considered illegal by whom? The West? The US? They've got a short memory.

When the Eastern Bloc offered a NATO-like logistical and military support relationship to Cuba during the Cold War, the US threw an identical wobbly to the wobbly that Russia is throwing today. They wouldn't have it; and they'd have gone as far as invasion if that was what it took.

So what do we see today? The Ukrainian government collapses, and glorified picketeers (some of whom are right wing nationalists) form a coalition that talks about joining the EU and inviting NATO. Russia has had a deal with Ukraine regarding Crimea for many years; not only is Crimea literally on their doorstep, but it's their only military installation on the Mediterranean sea AND more than half its population is Russian while most of the rest are pro-Russian. No dialogue is offered to Russia prior to their sudden military involvement whatsoever.

What did anybody think was going to happen?!

NATO is to modern Russia what the Eastern Bloc was to the Cold War United States. Why is it a surprise that Russia won't accept today what the US wouldn't accept in the reverse position? OF COURSE they're going to stop that shit. And I don't see what it matters if the US and Europe choose to ignore the referendum. As of right now Crimea is (as I understand it) a Russian state with some devolution (like Scotland to the UK), and denial of that fact doesn't seem meaningful to me.

Edit: While I might add that I'm sympathetic to Russia's right to protect its interests in Crimea and to stand up for Russian citizens living in Crimea, I DO NOT actually agree with what they've done. I'm just not a bit surprised. By the same token, I find the US in particular to be hypocritical and the west overall to be arrogant and knee-jerk in their reaction.

Edit 2: Those pictures are pretty cute. I don't like the catwoman, but the rest are decent-- although not as good as the Moe dictators from a year or so ago.

Edit 3: If you want to attack Russia for a better reason, why not focus on their intention to offer Russian passports to the Estonians and Latvians? That's far more alarming than the positively predictable outcome at Crimea.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

For anyone curious, Natalia actually responded to the art-fad and complimented it on twitter.

http://i.gyazo.com/fb5c5159359a59ee06896fac5468e730.png

EDIT: though it appears the account has not been verified.

That is some reckless and cavalier use of the term top-notch. The only one that even resembles the actual person is a straight up copy job from a screen grab. I really don't understand the fascination, she just looks like some ordinary woman.

I'm not sure how you, a character artist, is criticizing an artistic depiction for not resembling the actual person.

I'm a little bit disgusted, 'cause it highlights the sexism in these online communities when a political figure who happens to be a young attractive woman gets drawn as a big-breasted anime stereotype with her boobs clearly pronounced under her uniform or even exposed cleavage. Or even worse, the Moe shit.

It's honestly rather pathetic people seem to accept "she's cute" as an excuse for objectification.

I also don't understand how stylized interpretations of people is instantly equated to sexism and objectification.

 

[A'tuin]

To be fair, while there aren't any 'moe' pictures of Chemical Ali that I could find, I can tell you that Japanese artists have done 'moe' pictures of land masses and weather patterns. While I love the art, this is really nothing compared to other 'moe-ifications'.

Gender isn't even an issue. They could just as easily make a gender-bent version (and have, with other infamous people).

At first I was about to ask "what's moe?", but realizing it has something to do with Japanese cartoons I'm going to be a happier person by thinking you're just talking about Moe Szyslak.

 

[Blue_vision]

Don't know how I feel about the fanart. In one way its inappropriate, in another, it clearly characterizes a situation that some people may or may not have a full grasp of. In a way, it changes the situation into clearer narrative, changing one of the random politicians involved into someone that people have empathy for.

Interesting. I was all for the "this is inappropriate" tag, but this is a different take on it.

I'm still a little uncomfortable that this person, who's clearly put in a lot of work to get the position she's in, is only becoming known in these circles because of the way she looks. I guess it's a novelty, if nothing else.

 

[Poppy JR.]

Dear Internet:

You don't surprise me much anymore. Except now.
Sincerely,
Poppy JR.