Fun with 'Wikipedia'

[Flyvåpnet]

Holy haystacks, Batman!  Curiosity got the better of me today and went to see what I assumed would be the restored damage to Yoko's tiny allotment at Wikipedia.  Lo and behold, all that had been changed was "Ritona" back to "Littner"!  All the narrative changes I'd made were still intact.  I'm amazed.  Whomever came in there and re-edited that section also took out the irrelevant and silly "Yoko's motorcycle and occupation were homages to Somebody-Or-Other" references, which I'd edited by inserting "it is thought by some" in front of those references.  I'll give them their stupid "Littner" fixation in return for my narrative corrections and will leave well enough alone for now.  But if they come in there and put all that anti-Yoko crap back in, then I'll have to don war paint and launch another commando raid.

This is how the minuscule "Yoko" section looked earlier today:

Click on the image to see a readable size.



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[0235]

is it littner or ritona, because i know the japanese cant say littner

[Hikaru]

this has already been discussed. Japanese people can't pronounce so it's one and the same.

[0235]

so both are kind of accepted?

[Flyvåpnet]

In brief, 0235, Yoko's surname was "Ritona" from the moment the anime series was released.  It remained "Ritona" for a year and a half, when somebody at either Gainax or Bandai (the North American distributor) decided to change it to "Littner" for the officially-subtitled English-language version.  Gainax, via Bandai, asserted people in North America would not be able to pronounce "Ritona"!  LOL!



So a number of English-language anime-related Web-site administrators of (shall we say) a certain bias decided to change Yoko's surname from "Ritona" to "Littner," even though "Ritona" is the Japanese pronunciation of her name and all English-language information on the Web had been using "Ritona" for 18 months at that point.  "Littner" is quite a harsh name, compared to "Ritona," so it makes no sense from either a character-personality standpoint or an etymological one.

Yoko's surname will always be "Ritona" as far as I'm concerned.  That's what it was from the get-go; and so it shall remain.  It's a much nicer name than "Littner," too.



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[Flyvåpnet]

I said I wouldn't do this sort of thing anymore, but I spontaneously decided to edit Wikipedia's front page of what they refer to as Gurren Lagann.  I stuck to the entry for "Yoko Littner" and am leaving that misnomer alone for now, since -- like some other Web sites -- they've got a religious-like fixation on "Littner."

Click the image for a larger, readable view.

Again, as on the character page, they refer to Yoko as a "girl."  I changed it to "young woman."  When you go into combat and fight a war of liberation, you're not a "girl" anymore.  It's interesting they've referred to Yoko's village, properly, as "Ritona."  Yet, they still insist on using "Littner" for her surname.

Predictably, they denigrate Yoko by saying she "assists" Kamina and Simon "from afar."  That bullshit is gone, replaced by a general statement about her advancing the war of liberation.  Also, they confined her weaponry expertise to "firearms," when in fact she's also expert with edged weapons; so I've replaced "firearms" with "weapons."  They also stated she wears "extremely tight shorts" or words to that effect, which I changed to the more accurate term "short shorts."

Following the usual anti-Yoko fad amongst Tengan Toppa Gurren-Lagann "experts," the Wikipedia editors then added a sentence along the lines of "modesty is not one of her top priorities."  That subjective bullshit is gone, for now.  Then they stated "it is not known" whether Yoko wears such clothing to simply show off her body or to avoid the confinement of restrictive clothing.  Well, she states in episode 5 that it's the latter reason.  I guess these editors don't know as much as they think they do.  Sure, Yoko has a cute figure and she's not ashamed of it; but as it happens her pragmatic reason for wearing such attire in the combat zone is known:  she explains that herself!

Who knows how long these edits of mine will last?  I'm just one guy, whereas the anti-Yoko mob is many.  But at least I gave accuracy and fairness a shot.



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[0235]

wow, i was just looking at that before it was changed, i was even going to change it myself!

[Flyvåpnet]

It just drives me up the wall when I encounter Web-site descriptions of Yoko which fail to credit her accomplishments; or else they mention Kamina, Nia and Simon more than Yoko -- in her own section; or else they go on and on about her clothing and the size of her breasts.  My latest non-favorite find in a wiki:  when Yoko attacked and disabled the enemy mecha in episode 1 -- saving the lives of Kamina, Simon and countless villagers -- she "interrupted" Kamina during his sword "attack" on the machine.  How discourteous of Yoko, to "interrupt" Kamina as he was about to be killed!

Anyway, 0235, please let me know if you happen to notice Wikipedia changing its miniscule coverage of Yoko back to what it was -- or to something even worse.  Thanks!



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[0235]

hell, the Nia page says she is the lead femail character, i don't even know who the hell she is! iv only read the manga from this site, so i have no other knowledge (except for some huge spoilers that i read, dam it) so im up to the most recent one, and she still hasn't appeared!

[Vertigo]

hell, the Nia page says she is the lead femail character, i don't even know who the hell she is! iv only read the manga from this site, so i have no other knowledge (except for some huge spoilers that i read, dam it) so im up to the most recent one, and she still hasn't appeared!

she plays a big role, but lead female? No

[Flyvåpnet]

Yes, 0235, you've discovered the reach of the anti-Yoko crowd at Wikipedia.  Nia is no more the lead female character than you and I are billionaires; and, indeed, Yoko is the lead female character.  But Nia fascists can't abide such a fact:  their pweshus widdle Neeums is just so wonderful!

Thanks to the Nia-worshipers' clumsy and loudmouthed propaganda campaign, Yoko has become the only major Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann character without a separate page at Wikipedia.  Even minor characters have separate pages there now, whilst Yoko is consigned to a few paragraphs.

I don't underestimate the stultifying ignorance of those who hate Yoko or the power that ignorance represents -- not since my first encounter with the anti-Yoko mob, at LiveJournal's unmaintained gurren_lagann community.  Let me quote from one of my favorite authors, Albert Camus:

When a war breaks out, people say:  "It's too stupid; it can't last long."  But though a war may well be "too stupid," that doesn't prevent its lasting.  Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.

--La Peste (Paris:  Librairie Gallimard, 1947)

So even though the war on Yoko is amazingly stupid, it's probably going to last a while longer.  There have always been and will ever be people who love to hate.



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[0235]

isnt shee the firts character you see, she is in the manga!