i saw RAYA trailer and... Honestly.... If its the Southeast Asian vibe that theyre aiming for? Its... Not hitting it.

The first few seconds of the trailer, visual design choice immediately made me think 'why does this feels more like Chinese/Japanese but with darker skin asian'

i mean i dont exactly know WHICH part of Southeast Asia they're referencing from, but.. Im gonna drop a few of my thoughts regarding this movie.

MUH THOUGHTS as a kid who grew up in Indonesia:

1. the buildings.

(since im currently working on a game project that involves A LOT of SEA buildings), the first time i see the architectures here REAAAALLY creams East Asia rather than SEA. SEA tend to have TONS of decorations and carvings. the temples here looks so..clean

the carvings on the door looks more chinese than SEA... i know there are some SEA parts that are heavily influenced by China (by looking at the 'clouds' shapes)

SEA ones tend to have 'fatter lines' and if it has any living creatures depicted on it, they would look funny xD

ALSO WORTH NOTING:

SEA TEMPLES ARE V ER RY
RARELY
ROUND

they build them EITHER by square rocks piled on top of each other (WITH NO cement or GLUE whatsoever)

OR

THEY CARVE OUT CLIFFS AND BIGASS ROCKS AND LIVEIN IT. Circles are ok but theyre,,, moslt chinese aesthetics

again, i said OK bcus i dont know which part of SEA are they referencing so i may be the dumb egg here, who knows

2. THE CLOTHES.... OH MY GOD

if they were depicting modern ones I'D SAY IM OK WITH IT BUT... AGAIN, SEA IS L I T T E R E D with highly decorated things!! Details and decorations are EVERYWHERE, in buildings and even in clothes!!

its not as simple as 'ok they wear drapes'

gonna give a few suggestions here if anyone wanna design SEA tribes!! (tho i can only help in Indo's side. If any of you wanna drop in your culture to, it would be amazing!!)

if youre looking for 'fierce warriors', may i suggest going for these visual references

if youre looking for..... i dont know what theyre looking for for this tribe kjasdhaksjd (WHAT IS THAT LOGO AT THE bACK oh dear gods) errrr.. a more-refined-tribe-but-still-(what you londos see as)-tribes....???

i think theyre tryign to give the 'edgy/cold warrior tribe' on this one (idk i love edgy stuff so this guys are my fav) BUT! it can be improved. cmon give these characters more decoration and AT LEAST let audience know WHICH one of them is their leader!!

at least on this one i know whos the leader but isnt that cloth she wearing looks a bit too modern? i mean, thats fine, again, i dont know which SEA theyre referenceing from so i might miss. But my suggestions; Indo (Bali. again, BALI IS NOT A COUNTRY FFS) and Thailand might help

i see the elephants. why not give them Thai warrior clothes too?

3. the mural?

this was only a glimpse BUT! i do like how they draw the dragon's face!! its close to how theyre depicted on SEA wayang. However... other than the face (the cloud swirls, composition, colors) screams chinese/japanese to me :(
(see the difference?)

!!! the patters turned out to look similar to these! (thanks so much for the pointers!) https://twitter.com/janissbrs/status/1319221335617273862

and more from janissbrs (thank u!)
for the similarity on the guys' mask!
(i totes hoped they go with the actual shape like these than went with the one looking like Oni mask;; ) https://twitter.com/janissbrs/status/1319221927953666048