Shogun is perhaps as far from science fiction as you can get. The incredible FX series explores the political power plays of 17th century Japan and the crossroads of cultures as other nations find their way to the East. But given war of stars‘ own long relationship with Japanese media and cultureit’s perhaps a little fitting that this time it’s the one who wields the influence.
Naturally, Shogun it won’t suddenly happen a wandering Ithorian in the background, or have a CG facsimile of Luke Skywalker appear and talk to Hiroyuki Sanada as is a particularly bad consequence from The Book of Boba Fett. No it is war of stars The inspiration is much more unclear, and yet you see it in every single episode of the series, in almost every other scene: the font of the subtitles.
“‘Let’s take a look at science fiction,'” co-showrunner Justin Marks said recently Polygon about the show’s approach to subtitle design. “And in the 1977 original there was a font war of stars That was used for a few lines, and we found this font…that seemed somewhat similar to it, that was also large enough to be readable – which was probably Lucas’ intention to make sure it could be read by young Europeans. So it just felt more inviting.”
Marks refers to the infamous edited and re-edited scene out of A new hopewhere the unfortunate bounty hunter Greedo confronts Han Solo in the cantina, having just completed his mission with Luke and Obi-Wan. It’s one of the rare moments in the film series where we actually get subtitled, alien dialogue – but the retro yet clear font apparently gave way Shogun exactly what it needed.
Given the nature of the story and setting, subtitling is an important consideration Shogun– and given the fact that for many viewers there is still a perceived hurdle when it comes to this mainly subtitled content, everything about his decisions when presenting had to be precise. From the coloring and positioning on the screen, to the careful editing to ensure that certain lines are correctly placed over certain moments of a performance, to the font: everything had to be taken into account to create a series, at least in the grand scheme of things Partially in Japanese to appeal to an audience that would otherwise not watch foreign language media. Given the huge response to the series, it seems to have worked – secretly taking people back to the galaxy far, far away, even if they didn’t realize it.
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