VIDEO: Kaiketsu Zorro

by · June 8, 2014

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Zorro de Mayo goes Japanese with the first and probably only anime based on Zorro. Also, the main character is blonde!

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Tag: Film Renegado's Zorro de Mayo

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  • Sofie Liv

    Well the funny thing about Garzia/Mendoza what-ever we like to call him.
    Fat second in command in the army, is that yeah.. yes he always presented as comedy relief initially, but otherwise he also always fill out that same much more intriquing and kind of depth felt function in all Zorro shows as well.

    He is a good man, caught up in a bad situation and can only attempt to do his job which is handed to him, even if he didn’t appear in the original book or movie, but first showed up in Disneys adventures of Zorro, it’s a role I appreciate a lot and I am happy he is there.

    It’s a really intriquing position for this character, it’s always established that he is Diegos and Alejandros friend, because they recognise him as a good man.
    Diego some-times uses him to either bribe information out of him, or manipulate him and the arm to where he wants, but it’s not even that Diego looks down at him or wants to use him like that, he genuinely likes the man. And it’s even indicated that Diego maybe deliberately used the sergeant at first without thinking about it, but it’s that connection that made them develop a genuine friendship and appreciation for each other.
    And Garzia actually genuinly want justice for the people, he is a good man. He just works for an ass-hole.
    And some-times, he gets fed up to and directly helps Zorro, whom is a figure he has come to admire and secretly root for, even though they are technically enemies and he has to hunt him down.

    I love this character, and I like when he’s done well, I think my favourite version of him is in “Family Channels Zorro.” where he comes across as just this genuinly very very nice, and a little naive, man.
    He just looks so nice, it’s a bit heart breaking when he’s caught up in the middle of all these things and has to suffer for it -_-;

    Oh yeah the Japaneese and the blonds, this is in fact very true, and might have been an influence, who knows.

    And oh man, Genneration Z next time… oh joy… yeaah… urhm… i’m going to suffer for this one aren’t I?

    • danbreunig

      It took some time before I got back into the Zorro legacy and really understood Mendoza’s role in the whole thing, as well as those of the other major players. Someone told me the Miguel/Amigo character in the Filmation version was Zorro’s brother and would take Zorro’s place after his eventual death according to legend. That’s actually a decent fan theory for a one-show character.

      “i’m going to suffer for this one aren’t I?”

      It’s called the Agony Booth, dear.

      • Sofie Liv

        You don’t understand, he wants me IN the video.
        It’s over man, just over :C

        • Muthsarah

          So do it. And insist on wearing the mask. Make your eyes look even biiiiiigger.

        • danbreunig

          But then you can be Scarlet Defender once again! ;)

  • Guest

    The whitest Zorro you’ve ever seen? Hate to contradict you/ bring it up again but… have you met Bunny Wigglesworth?

    • Guest

      I have now xD Twice apparently!

  • Guest

    The whitest Zorro you have ever seen?

    Hate to contradict you/ bring this up again but… have you met Bunny Wigglesworth?

    • Sofie Liv

      I love Zorro the Gay blade :D

      But well you know, that’s actually a parody and he makes an afford into kind of looking like a lation when he dons the costume.

      Also I believe the comedian wrote this part for himself by himself, so it’s not really a case of the creators making a poor decision this time around, here it’s his project and he happens to be white.

      In Kaiketsu Zorro it was bloody animated and they could have made him what-ever colour by the snap of a finger, they could have given him blue hair if they wanted.. not that I suggest that, but they could have.

      Who knows it might have worked, that Zoro with green hair rules X)

      • Jerry Nava

        This. The animators could have made him look like however they wanted, and they decided to make him white xD

        I don’t see One Piece, does the Zoro character have any references to Zorro?

        • Sofie Liv

          Urhm… He’s a swords master.. he aims to become the greatest swordsman in the world. And I guess you can say both are lowless since Zoro is a pirate and so on, with a huge bounty on his head and every-thing.
          But except for that.. no.. not really.

          One Piece Zoro is just the ultimate stoic bad-ass faced by NOTHING! he will walk head-first into battle no matter how ridicoulus it looks, and yes.. it kind of makes him an idiot, and yes.. the manga acknowledges that fully.. he is kind of an idiot following an even bigger idiot, which is kind of why we like him that much.
          And well, all around he is just mr. Badass and Mr. Manly man of One Piece.

          Hell! He is to cool for just two swords, he needs three! And bonus that up with the manga admitting he is kind of an idiot some-times, spends his entire day either training or sleeping some-where on the deck snorring loudly, drinking barrels of alcohold and have a terrible sense of direction. (As in really terrible, the house he needs to reach can be three blocks away and he would still get lost.)
          He is a very fun character and for good reasons a high favourite among one piece fans.

          He’s the guy every-one would kind of want to be, he’s just that badass X)

        • Muthsarah

          I wouldn’t attribute that to simple racism or anything like that. I’m not an expert on Japanese perceptions of Westerners, but I do know that it’s very common for Westerners to be portrayed as blonde (and with women, frequently redhead) BECAUSE it’s part of a Western exoticism, much as there are certain images we Westerners tend to have about Japan or China or anywhere else really, such that we tend to feature these stereotypical traits/images a LOT when we have stories set in these countries. And, yeah, there are stylistic reasons too; for the same reason color theory is so popular nowadays, having characters with distinct looks helps them to stand out. What artist doesn’t want their creations to be really noticeable?

          Think about it – if a manga or anime creator were to portray Zorro as a more-or-less-typical Mexican (loaded term!), how would he look? Medium complexion maybe, but dark hair definitely. Combine that with typical/expected anime visual tropes common to any character – large eyes, wavy hair, that same type of anime facial structure….kinda looks similar to the way a Japanese character would be portrayed, doesn’t it? So…how to distinguish that the character of Zorro is foreign and/or exotic, different from more “local” heroic characters? Light hair is one thing. It’s very, very stereotypically “Western”.

          It’s been reported (maybe here too, I don’t recall) that the types of big-budget Hollywood films that do best overseas these days, especially in Asia, the largest and fastest-growing market, are ones with white leads. Because lots of international audiences expect to see white Americans/Brits (there’s so much overlap these days, not that I’m complaining) in these movies, and even WANT to see these types of characters. If they want to see their own countrymen/women, they’ll see local movies. If they wanna see Americans/Brits, they’ll see a big Hollywood movie. Same reason that lots of people I knew growing up preferred Jackie Chan, Jet Li, or Chow Yun Fat movies on principal to Van Damme or Seagal or Statham movies. To them, martial arts movies felt more “authentic” and interesting if they’re starring people that seem exotic to them. I suspect there’s a certain audience appeal factor to why so many Westerners in manga/anime are depicted with stereotypically Western traits. It may not be conscious, and it may not be racist.

          • Jerry Nava

            I understand your argument all right, but there is just one little detail.

            I never implied I thought this was racist.
            As I said in the video, there’s probably not a specific reason why they chose to make him blonde other than the “He stands out” reasoning.

            All I was commenting is the fact that to me, a guy used to Zorro looking (vaguely) hispanic (I realize half of the actors portraying him weren’t to begin with xD), the look was just odd.

          • Muthsarah

            Oh. Sorry, I guess I mis-remembered. There was a gap between watching and commenting. Musta been mixed up somehow. Confused it with one of the 54 other reviews I read online that featured accusations of racism. :p

    • Jerry Nava

      Oh my god!! I completely forgot about Zorro the gay blade! I stand corrected, my apologies.

  • Animikean

    garrr sorry,I did not mean to double comment and it won’t let me delete!

  • danbreunig

    Blonde Tuxedo Mask Zorro? Somewhere out there there’s a manga where they made the life and times of Christ into an action superhero story. So seeing anime Zorro as such didn’t entirely shock me. Like so many animes, this looks to be guaranteed fun should I find a few episodes. Thanks for the tip, Renegado.

    Just want to give a shout-out and virtual hug to Nycea for using the PGSMs to introduce me to the Sailor Moon universe to justify my “hey, it’s Tuxedo Mask!” reaction.

    And man, now I want to see both this show and a potential Mortal Kombat themed Renegado fight.

    • Jerry Nava

      Don’t forget Santo!

      • danbreunig

        Tag Team!!

  • Richard Eriksson Hjelm

    That dub it physically hurts to listen to

  • Bryan McNamara

    I don’t know. I think this anime looks kind of awesome.

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