Overview
Barbenheimer (キルミーベイベー) is an internet meme derived from the coincidental July 21, 2023 release date of Barbie, a live-action movie about Mattel's Barbie doll, and Oppenheimer, a biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, who led the development of the atomic bomb.
By a rather coincidental coincidence, the scenes in the neighborhood of "Barbie Land" in the movie Barbie and the area where nuclear bomb tests were conducted in the U.S. during the period in which the movie Oppenheimer was set were very similar, which may have contributed to the creation of this meme.
The fact that films with opposite styles were released at the same time became a topic of conversation, and it was hoped that they would drive each other to increase box-office revenues and become a sign of revival in the film industry, which had been in a difficult situation since the Corona disaster.
The hashtag #Barbenheimer became a global Internet meme, not only for viewers of both films and fan art, but also for other topics ranging from cut-and-paste collages of poster images of both films to the sale of shirts featuring Barbenheimer. However, things changed when the official Barbie movie account began to be recognized by Japanese people for its favorable replies to the Birbenheimer image.
- Barbie Movie on Twitter: "@DiscussingFilm @stevereevesart It's going to be a summer to remember 😘💕" / Twitter (archive of the official Barbie movie account)
Not only this one time, the official Barbie movie account has been actively involved and replying to multiple tweets related to Barbenheimer.
Incidentally, Oppenheimer, which is being amused as a set piece, is also an anti-nuclear film in which Oppenheimer, after witnessing the excessive destructive power of the atomic bomb, makes an effort to limit nuclear arms.
One wonders how the director feels when he sees the audience amused by the colorfully dyed mushroom clouds.
Japanese Reaction
As the only country to have suffered atomic bombings in war, Japan has a very different perception of atomic bombs from other countries.
The fact that the U.S., the main author of the atomic bombing of Japan, used the atomic bomb as a story, and the official movie account recognized it but did not condemn it, upset many Japanese people.
There has also been a significant backlash against political correctness in recent Hollywood films.
The appearance of Westerners making a fool of themselves without any consideration for the victims of the atomic bombings, while making a number of films that push political correctness, was, from the Japanese point of view, a double standard itself.
The official account was inundated with accusations from Japanese, and the hashtag #Barbenheimer was used to repeatedly post shock images of hibakusha and their victims, as well as a gruesome atomic bomb scene from the anime version of Barefoot Gen. In addition, as a counter, a meme image was created on the subject of 9/11, resulting in a firestorm rarely seen in recent years.
The fact that the scheduled Japanese release date of the movie Barbie was August 11, close to the dates of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, may have been another reason for the uproar.
Protests spread with the tag #Nobarbenheimer, but the initial U.S. officials decided to ignore it, and Warner Bros. Japan issued a statement 10 days after the official U.S. response.
Warner Bros. Japan issued a statement claiming that the movie had nothing to do with the meme, but with the official U.S. behavior as described above, few were convinced.
Although things are getting better, with successive U.S. presidents visiting Hiroshima, the opinion that the atomic bombing was a beacon of justice that ended the war still persists in the United States. If they had not mentioned it from the beginning, but to withdraw a favorable reference to it would be an act of publicly condemning the American people's belief in the justice of the United States.
Even if Japanese people were to be slightly less apprehensive, it was unlikely that a company would make that choice, as it would cause a huge commercial loss if it were to be frowned upon by the American public in exchange.
On August 1, 2023, Warner showed a tentative apology to the press. However, no apology was posted on the social networking site where it originated, and the majority of the postings are still in place, with only the most criticized ones deleted.
Before the Japan premiere screening of Barbie on August 2, 2023, Mitsuki Takahata, who plays the role of Barbie in the Japanese dubbed version, made comments such as "I am really sorry" (本当に残念) and "I thought about withdrawing from the movie" (登壇を辞退することも考えた) when she learned of the commotion.
On August 8, 2023, James Gibbons, an executive at Warner Brothers Discovery, the parent company of Warner Bros. of America, visited Japan to expand the partnership with JCOM.
In an interview with the The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, he apologized, stating that he had "feelings of regret and apology" (後悔とおわびの気持ちを持っている) for having downplayed the damage caused by the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The uproar, which unintentionally highlighted the difference in perception between Japan and the U.S., gradually calmed down after the official stance of apology was shown.
At one point, there were calls for the release of Barbie to be suspended and for people to refuse to watch it, but the majority believed that it was too early to determine the value of the film without having seen it, and it was safely released on August 11, 2023.
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