Anime & Manga News

Japan offers to solve 'Union Jack problem'

by Crisu
Nov 30, 2007 7:27 PM | 50 Comments
Regarding the debate in the United Kingdom to redesign their flag, commonly known as the Union Jack, Japanese citizens, specifically those on 2ch.net, have decided to help out.

"Telegraph" said:
Earlier this week a Labour MP called for the Union flag to be redesigned to include the Welsh Dragon.

Following an invitation for Telegraph readers to submit their designs, a broad range of interesting suggestions were sent in. At first most of the readers' flags were sent from within the UK, but then a Japanese website offered to help.

"We heard the news of the Union Jack problem," they wrote. "We believe that our new ideas will help."

The designs ranged from the sober and sensible to the frankly comic.
Some submissions contained anime references, such as Zero no Tsukaima and Gurren Lagann.

Source: Telegraph

20 of 50 Comments Recent Comments

make it a green dragon and both thumbs up!

Dec 21, 2007 7:37 AM by Coatlicue

"i am happy with this design.
i hope that it will SPIRAL into the pages of history" - Oh God *laughs*.

And I can't believe they thought it was a dragon too.

Dec 17, 2007 5:31 PM by SpiritofDarkness

Just a small update to the story.
Turns out the Gurren-Lagann Flag won the poll with 55% of the votes. Hmm I wonder if the site accepted votes from outside of the UK or if maybe there were a few zealous TTGL fans in the UK?

And +1 for "It represents shouting "UNION!" and joining together; kicking reason to the curb and doing the impossible; fighting the power, and piercing the heavens".

Given the few "BELIEVE IN YOU WHO BELIEVES IN ME" comments, the thought crossed my mind to ask, when is the official TTGL religion/philosophy starting?

Dec 12, 2007 11:53 PM by kio

For those of you who dont want to read through the whole article you can just view the videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_OCTf_eFE8
and
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GFKxiWDt8Kk&feature=related

Dec 7, 2007 6:00 PM by removed-user

laik your wai missin tha pownt its laik the red represents wales even though it officially dosent laik fa realz

Dec 7, 2007 4:39 AM by NATASENO

No, it doesn't. The St. George's Cross flag was established before Wales became a principality - it's entirely English, and not at all Welsh. Welsh nationalists might even argue that saying the English flag represents Wales too completely denies Wales even the possibility to express its own distinct national identity or character; it's an attempt to subsume Welshness into Englishness. You could arguably say the Union Jack represents Wales, in the same way it represents the Falkland Islands now, or it represented India when it was part of the British empire, but nothing on the flag actually reflects anywhere other than England, Scotland and NI. Unlike the falklands, though, there's millions of people in Wales with their own distinct language and culture and history.

Dec 7, 2007 4:34 AM by YourMessageHere

yeah yeah i know that im fringing engrish ya knwo bloody hell but like a disscusion i had tha over doi was loik the red of st gearge awso represents wales since they are principality

Dec 7, 2007 3:09 AM by NATASENO

yuuko said:
hounddog said:
YourMessageHere said:
hounddog said:
If the UK adopted that flag and then didn't have a fire-breathing-dragon battalion in their army I would be so, so disappointed...


Don't worry, just skip straight to being so, so disappointed; works for me. They'll fail to learn from the fact that the Welsh flag is one of the best, most interesting looking flags in the world, and keep the tedious Union Jack, because it's traditional and it would get people's backs up something chronic if they went round doing anything as unreasonable as making our national emblem relevant and appropriate.

Just like the national anthem; it's tedious and dreary, unremittingly monarchist in a time when royalty means less and less every day, it can be argued to be insulting to Scots, and I read somewhere that 80% of people polled wanted it changed to the much better Jerusalem (words by William Blake) in which case even I might be interested in it. But that's not a good enough reason, it seems.

It's how we do things here =/


But...but I thought in the UK everyone is happy and kind and they all have such cute accents...


don't believe him. we are all happy and kind and have cute accents. he lies. And i think we should use the britannian flag from code geass from now on. that would make me happy! :D


On the contrary, she has been sent to decieve you. Few people in the UK are happy or kind, especially not at the same time. However, we DO have better accents than you. However, I forgive your ignorance (this is 'kind, but not happy' mode); you are only an ignorant American after all.

=P


Shin, the red cross (the +) is the st. George's Cross, as in the English flag. The blue background and white X is from the Scottish St. Andrew's Cross, and the red X comes from the St. Patrick's Cross which symbolises Northern Ireland. The Union Jack contains no Welsh element whatsoever. Scotland and NI have AFAIK the same legal status as Wales - yet they're represented on the national flag and Wales isn't. Hence the row. St. George killed a dragon, not the Welsh Dragon, and to hear Wikipedia tell it, the look of the flag is more down to its use in the crusades than any blood symbolism.

So, y'know, glorifying religious genocide FTW ('happy, but not kind' mode? you decide).

Dec 6, 2007 9:13 PM by YourMessageHere

this is dumb wales is a principality and so they are represented by the red cross as well i mean the cross is red because of the dragon

BUT

code gease flag has my vote

Dec 6, 2007 3:51 PM by NATASENO

hounddog said:
YourMessageHere said:
hounddog said:
If the UK adopted that flag and then didn't have a fire-breathing-dragon battalion in their army I would be so, so disappointed...


Don't worry, just skip straight to being so, so disappointed; works for me. They'll fail to learn from the fact that the Welsh flag is one of the best, most interesting looking flags in the world, and keep the tedious Union Jack, because it's traditional and it would get people's backs up something chronic if they went round doing anything as unreasonable as making our national emblem relevant and appropriate.

Just like the national anthem; it's tedious and dreary, unremittingly monarchist in a time when royalty means less and less every day, it can be argued to be insulting to Scots, and I read somewhere that 80% of people polled wanted it changed to the much better Jerusalem (words by William Blake) in which case even I might be interested in it. But that's not a good enough reason, it seems.

It's how we do things here =/


But...but I thought in the UK everyone is happy and kind and they all have such cute accents...


don't believe him. we are all happy and kind and have cute accents. he lies. And i think we should use the britannian flag from code geass from now on. that would make me happy! :D

Dec 5, 2007 5:09 AM by yuuko

YourMessageHere said:
hounddog said:
If the UK adopted that flag and then didn't have a fire-breathing-dragon battalion in their army I would be so, so disappointed...


Don't worry, just skip straight to being so, so disappointed; works for me. They'll fail to learn from the fact that the Welsh flag is one of the best, most interesting looking flags in the world, and keep the tedious Union Jack, because it's traditional and it would get people's backs up something chronic if they went round doing anything as unreasonable as making our national emblem relevant and appropriate.

Just like the national anthem; it's tedious and dreary, unremittingly monarchist in a time when royalty means less and less every day, it can be argued to be insulting to Scots, and I read somewhere that 80% of people polled wanted it changed to the much better Jerusalem (words by William Blake) in which case even I might be interested in it. But that's not a good enough reason, it seems.

It's how we do things here =/


But...but I thought in the UK everyone is happy and kind and they all have such cute accents...

Dec 3, 2007 8:30 PM by hounddog

OmegaRFox said:
pdv2506 said:
OmegaRFox said:
Or do what most people do... ask people who watch Blue Peter to design it

Then get people to vote on their favourite! Oh shi-

Leuconoe said:
Actually, as a UK citizen I'd be quite happy with this one:

It's quite striking.

Amen to that. Looks awesome!


Yeah... cool looking dragon...


I want to live in the country with this flag.

Dec 3, 2007 7:08 PM by asandari

hounddog said:
If the UK adopted that flag and then didn't have a fire-breathing-dragon battalion in their army I would be so, so disappointed...


Don't worry, just skip straight to being so, so disappointed; works for me. They'll fail to learn from the fact that the Welsh flag is one of the best, most interesting looking flags in the world, and keep the tedious Union Jack, because it's traditional and it would get people's backs up something chronic if they went round doing anything as unreasonable as making our national emblem relevant and appropriate.

Just like the national anthem; it's tedious and dreary, unremittingly monarchist in a time when royalty means less and less every day, it can be argued to be insulting to Scots, and I read somewhere that 80% of people polled wanted it changed to the much better Jerusalem (words by William Blake) in which case even I might be interested in it. But that's not a good enough reason, it seems.

It's how we do things here =/

Dec 3, 2007 3:26 PM by YourMessageHere

Leuconoe said:
Actually, as a UK citizen I'd be quite happy with this one:


If the UK adopted that flag and then didn't have a fire-breathing-dragon battalion in their army I would be so, so disappointed...

Dec 3, 2007 10:38 AM by hounddog

I still really doubt their gonna change it, we are so underrated here in wales!
I doubt they'd change it just for us... how irratating

Dec 3, 2007 9:44 AM by daiev

OmegaRFox said:
YukiLi said:
Booo, Wales isn't a real country! :P


Own Parliment, Language...

Probably because they dont appear on the flag


Well, it's not a Parliament, it's an Assembly, but hey, some delegated power is better than none! I think it would be a good idea to include some element of Wales on the flag, but I think you'll find it very hard to convince the British public to accept the new design...Still, we can try!

Edit: Looks like I was beaten to it by the previous post!

Dec 3, 2007 5:17 AM by OranSolus

OmegaRFox said:
YukiLi said:
Booo, Wales isn't a real country! :P


Own Parliment, Language...

Probably because they dont appear on the flag


It's a principality and it has an assembly, not a parliament btw

Dec 3, 2007 1:56 AM by removed-user

DragonsWhip said:

I prefer this one the most, since it has an dragon on it ~dragonfan~. But an flag with an anime character would be too cool xD

i love this design

Dec 2, 2007 3:33 PM by kkyarrick

Iri said:
Do it UK, you know you want to:


HAHAHAHA! xD I would vote for that flag!

Dec 2, 2007 12:09 PM by magentaanbu

I like our UK flag the way it is, but i wouldnt mind the one with the dragon thingy

Dec 2, 2007 11:25 AM by MarijaLovesJapan

It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login