Having looked at Azuma's periodization against Kaiyodo's history, I would now like to do a case study of a particular Kaiyodo product: Sci-Fi Revoltech Series No. 010 Woody. I will trace the history of the figure through three distinct phases. First, I will briefly examine Woody in Pixar's Toy Story (1995). Second, I will examine Kaiyodo's Sci-Fi Revoltech Series No. 010 Woody, and the Revoltech brand in general. Third, I will examine how international consumer created new narratives using Revoltech Woody by recombining Revolver Joint elements into the so-called “Creepy Woody.”
Pixar’s Woody
Toy Story was first released in 1995, the year of the Aum Shinrikyo
terrorist attacks and the end of Evangelion.
Although the movie was not released in Japan until 1996 and its Japan box
office came in only at 1.5 billion yen, Toy
Story 2 (2010) saw a much higher box office at 3.5 billion yen and Toy Story 3 (2010) would go on to have
the 23rd highest-ranking Japan box office of all time.
Although Toy Story was released well after 1989, the year Azuma gives for
the worldwide rise of the Era of Animalization, it has a surprisingly strong
social narrative. Specifically, it deals with a fictional society of toys and
the morality of play. It deals with the “rules” that govern interactions
between toys and with their owners.
This is not an explicit contract
(a “10 Commandments of Toys”) but rather an underlying set of assumptions that
the fictional toys for granted. Toys have two primary needs: the need for
self-preservation (i.e., to remain alive, to retain their physical integrity)
and the need for recognition by the owner (in the form of “play time”). This
play time is the metric by which toys judge their personal worth. As such, attempting
to artificially increase one’s amount of playtime is viewed as a moral
transgression.
Toys are also expected to hide
their ability to talk and move of their own volition when humans are around,
although they seem to do so instinctively as well as intentionally. The movie
does not explain why toys must hide their secret lives, though the rule against
artificially influencing their owner's opinion of them may be one explanation.
The story follows the adventures
of the toys belonging to a child named “Andy.” Chief among these toys is Andy's
favorite, a cloth cowboy doll named “Sheriff Woody.” Woody functions as the
leader of Andy's toys. As a sheriff, he functions as a sort of
Commander-In-Chief, organizing the toys, enforcing the Grand Narrative moral
concerns, and even commanding the armed forces (in the form of green plastic
army men). Once Andy gets a new toy named “Buzz Lightyear,” a power struggle
ensues in which Woody must deal with Buzz's position as Andy's new favorite and
Woody's resulting loss in social status.
Right from the start, Toy Story feels more like something from
the Era of Fiction. We are given a fictional toy society with a fictional Grand
Narrative that governs morality and a toy's place in the world. While these
rules are not explicitly stated in the form of a constitution or code of laws,
we can gain a sense of the rules by examining deviant behavior.
For example, about midway
through the movie, the conflict between Woody and Buzz Lightyear leads to a
physical altercation in which Woody pushes Buzz out of a window. When Woody
pushes Buzz out of the window, he is committing three crimes: first, he
threatens Buzz's physical integrity (the other toys accuse him of being a
“murderer”); second, he “cheats” by taking independent action to secure Andy's
attention; third, his actions risk exposing the toys' true nature. These crimes
undermine the laws, the social contract, which “Sheriff Woody” is supposed to
enforce.
The actions of users are also
defined in moral terms, most explicitly seen in the contrast between Andy
(Woody's owner) and Sid (the boy next door). Andy's positive behavior allows
for a certain amount of transformative play - he uses a plastic T-Rex as a bank
robber and Slinky Dog as a “force-field.” While this play is partially
transformative in that Andy assigns his toys new roles and personalities (new
identities) during playtime, it leaves their bodies and true identities intact
once playtime is over.
This is parallel to how Andy
manipulates his own identity. During
playtime he dresses up like his favorite toys, temporarily assigning himself a
new identity before returning to the real world of family and friends. In this
way, the relationship between toy and owner is reciprocal: both have fluid
identities during play, both find meaning and enjoyment in play, and both base
elements of their own identities on the other. Andy wears a cowboy hat in
imitation of his toy, Woody finds status and identity in having Andy's name
written on his foot.
Sid's play, however, is highly
unbalanced. He too takes on new identities during play, but these identities
are antagonistic and superior to the identities he assigns his toys. Sid casts
himself as an enemy soldier throwing explosives at an action figure, as a
torturer interrogating Woody, and as a rocket scientist strapping Buzz to “the
Big One.”
While Andy puts up posters of
his toys, identifying himself with them, Sid has posters of rock bands and does
not engage in imitative dress up. In
other words, Andy views his toys as affective objects and engages in a mutual
exchange of affection and recognition, while Sid views his toys as mere objects
to impose his destructive desires upon. Andy upholds the rules of toy society
and Sid breaks them.
The most significant example of
this is Sid's deconstruction and reassembly of his toys. Sid does not
temporarily alter his toys' identity by imaginative play, he uses tools to
physically dissect them and switch their parts with other toys. These hybrid
toys lose the ability to speak, even with other toys. Their communicative
ability is destroyed when Sid physically imposes his own artistic expression on
them. While this is portrayed as a loss of self for the toys, we might also
question whether this also represents a replacement of the corporate narratives
expressed in an unmodified toy with a consumer narrative expressed by a
modified toy.
I would argue, however, that the
loss undergone by Sid's modified toys is not simply the loss of a built-in
corporate narrative. Too-close identification with the designer's message is
seen as Buzz Lightyear's primary character flaw. At first, he truly believes
himself to be the galaxy-protecting Space Ranger described on his packaging
(introducing himself with a verbatim marketing blurb). It is only when he sheds
this packaged identity and takes his “proper place” in a bond of affective
identity with his owner that he finds true happiness as a toy.
So then, a toy's identity has
two aspects. One is a base personality at least partially imprinted by their
manufacturer (Woody acts as a sheriff, Slinky Dog is loyal). The second is an
affective alliance with their owner bestowed by mutual play. Loss of the first
aspect by physical modification removes their ability to speak, to communicate
effectively as individuals. Removing the second aspect reduces them to
clone-like products lacking an individual personality to express. Nature and
nurture are both required to make a fully rounded toy.
Sid's violation of the toy
society's unspoken rules is used by Woody as a justification for a toy
uprising. In order to save Buzz from being blown up by “The Big One,” Woody
breaks the rule against revealing the toys' true nature. He moves under his own
volition and speaks with Sid directly.
Although the modified toys cannot speak, they shuffle, zombie-like
toward Sid, terrifying him and ending his reign of terror. Transgressive play
nullifies the social contract, allowing Woody to take action against a human.
Woody's story is one of fall
from grace and redemption. He starts as Andy's favorite toy, a privileged
position which gives him recognition from both Andy and the other toys. He
enforces the rules of toy society not by physical force or coercion, but by
force of personality. Buzz threatens Woody's privileged position, causing Woody
to break the rules for his own benefit. Woody is then ostracized from toy
society until he saves Buzz both from the physically destructive Sid and Buzz's
own delusions of being a real Space Ranger.
In doing so, Woody restores toy
society to its ideal state: Buzz is saved from physical destruction, learns to
form an affective bond with Andy, and the humans (with the exception of Sid,
who is now cast out of the social contract) are none the wiser. Once again,
this fictional toy society is clearly situated in the Era of Fiction.
Here we see one of the
limitations of Azuma's periodization. While 1989 was an extremely significant
year for Grand Narratives, it was by no means the “end” of Grand Narratives in
general. If anything, the fall of the Berlin Wall strengthened Grand Narratives
in the West, as the fall of Communism was argued to prove the inherent
“correctness” of Capitalism. Similarly, while the Aum Shinrikyo terrorist
attacks of 1995 certainly had a great impact on Japanese society, it did little
to discredit Grand Narratives outside of Japan.
This weakness of Azuma's
periodization should not come as a surprise. After all, Azuma himself admits
that the fall of the Berlin Wall did not end the Grand Narrative in Japan - why
should we be surprised if it survived in other countries as well? Since Otaku focuses on Japanese society, it is
understandable that he did not make an exhaustive list of when the Era of
Animalization began in every country and geographical region. We could debate
just when the Era of Animalization began in America (or indeed if it has begun
at all), but I think it is sufficient to note that a periodization intended
primarily to explain changes of Japanese society requires significant
adjustment when working with other societies.
Let us compare Toy Story with a more recent example. The Lego Movie (2014) also deals with a
toy society, albeit one that is much less aware of the existence of humans. The
villain of this world, President Business (aka Lord Business) has an evil plan
built not around the physical disassembly of toys, but rather placing them in
permanent stasis. By using the power of “Kragle” (Krazy Glue), he plans to
permanently cement all of the inhabitants of this world into a single, perfect
world.
The toys (in this case, Lego
mini-figures) are told to “follow the instructions” not only when building with
blocks, but in their daily lives and interpersonal relations. Central to
defeating President Business' nefarious plot is using the power of imagination
and creativity to create non-standard Lego models which go against the
instructions.
Humans also appear in this film,
but as distant, god-like figures. The two human actors, a father and a son, use
Lego mini-figures to act out the parts of hero and villain. The father, who
wants to build perfect Lego dioramas which are permanently glued into place,
conflicts with the son, who wants to use the Lego pieces for play.
The affective alliances between
these humans and the Lego mini-figures is even stronger than that between Woody
and Andy. President Business is an avatar of the father, and the main character
Emmet is an avatar of the son. At one point, the father and son literally
“speak through” their avatars, as Emmet delivers a speech to President Business
which also functions as the son’s emotional appeal to the father. The day is
saved when the father, impressed by the unusual models his son has built,
accepts the value of modularity as a form of creative self-expression.
While physical destruction is
still a concern for the Lego mini-figures (at one point, Emmet is threatened
with melting), physical modification is viewed as liberating and expressive. Emmet
even attaches a wheel to his head, using his neck as an impromptu axel for a
vehicle. The inability to think creatively, to modify oneself and the world
around the self, is seen as the ultimate horror, not disassembly and
reassembly. Affective alliances are formed strongly with Lego mini-figures, but
their value lies in their modularity, not in creating accurate models of a
“real world.”
These themes would seem to place
The Lego Movie closer to Azuma's Era
of Animalization than Toy Story. But
regardless of when we might place the beginning of the Era of Animalization in
America, it is clear that Toy Story
was produced with Grand Narrative concerns in mind. Polymorphous perversity, in
the form of Sid's physical dismantling of toys, is portrayed as a socially
deviant, immoral act. Social norms, fictional social norms at that, are
portrayed as binding and legitimate. Pixar's Woody is a product of the Era of
Fiction, not the Era of Animalization.
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