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Is Japan considered to be a post apocalyptic society?

Is it?

  • Yes

    Votes: 17 4.9%

  • No

    Votes: 329 95.1%
  • Total voters
    346
Status
Not open for further replies.
Tomo815

Tomo815

Banned
Jul 19, 2019
1,534
Well that was kind of my point, more people have died in the US because of Corona than soldiers in WW2, but somehow the response to that seems quite muted?

Like, 9/11 was a definitive moment in US history, but somehow corona is like "ah well it could haven been worse"? I dont get it.
 
OP
OP
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,069
Midramble said:
I get where you're coming from OP but at the same time this can feel a bit like an insult to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We have family in the area and a family home and it's a common response from people saying "is that ok? Is it safe there?" People are pretty ignorant of the state of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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I am sorry, No disrespect intended.

Although those 2 were the center, my question was centered around the whole of the country and how it was effected. Specifically how the media there seemed to evolve based on that.


(Not to say that anime and video games tell the story of an entire society, just an observation)
 

Gotchaye

Member
Oct 27, 2017
694
Soapbox Killer said:
I have legit not noticed 1 thread about this subject (that I can remember)


The question is based off of speaking to my son about anime and why many of them have a cataclysmic undertone to them. In no way is this a pro nuke thread, thats a weird thing. Plus, "post-war" didnt seem to have enough context (or so I thought)
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Is Japanese fiction notably apocalyptic? I feel like that's a pretty common theme for serialized stories in violent fantasy settings no matter where they're from. There's just a tendency to quickly escalate to the biggest stakes possible. Like, how many Marvel movies are dealing with "end of the world" type threats? They do some smaller-scale introductory movies and then it's off to the Infinity War. There also might be some selection bias here if you're watching anime that appeals to boys -- this is pretty common in serialized US children's cartoons too.
 
Midramble

Midramble

Force of Habit
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
10,453
San Francisco
Soapbox Killer said:
I have legit not noticed 1 thread about this subject (that I can remember)


The question is based off of speaking to my son about anime and why many of them have a cataclysmic undertone to them. In no way is this a pro nuke thread, thats a weird thing. Plus, "post-war" didnt seem to have enough context (or so I thought)
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Toward the bold, isn't it fair to say a large portion of all media is cataclysmic? The world is always ending in sci-fi and action movies, let alone the entire disaster genre.
 
OP
OP
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,069
Gotchaye said:
Is Japanese fiction notably apocalyptic? I feel like that's a pretty common theme for serialized stories in violent fantasy settings no matter where they're from. There's just a tendency to quickly escalate to the biggest stakes possible. Like, how many Marvel movies are dealing with "end of the world" type threats? They do some smaller-scale introductory movies and then it's off to the Infinity War. There also might be some selection bias here if you're watching anime that appeals to boys -- this is pretty common in serialized US children's cartoons too.
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It was actually Ponyo. My entire family loves that movie but upon out 8th or 9th time watching lt came up that the stakes felt extremely high for a fish out of water. Like the moon was too close to the earth and gravity was all outta wack. This was just the spark of the conversation.

Like a lot of the cartoons I watched as a kid in the 80s (Robotech, Star Blazers etc) kinda had that world ending scale to them that other shows not from Japan didn't or could mimic.
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,888
Japan and Germany were both pretty hellish after WW2 and its a miracle how they recovered.

But society and civilization did not break down entirely.

We would all be dead in a few months tops if that ever happens but the threads created during the first few weeks of apocalypse while we still have internet are going to be pretty crazy.
 
DarthSpider

DarthSpider

The Fallen
Nov 15, 2017
2,954
Hiroshima, Japan
Midramble said:
On a lighter note, more people should visit. The Carp are the best Japanese baseball team (don't care what Giants fans say) and Hiroshima has the best okonomiyaki. Our personal favorite is あとむ Atomu (tongue in cheek "Atom") in the Okonomiyaki village (4th floor).
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Fuck yeah. Not to mention the Carp's stadium is called Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium. But Okonomimura is a tourist trap.

And the answer to OP's question is no.
 
Shodan14

Shodan14

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,410
Tomo815 said:
I thought you were asking for another example - shit that is happening right now (not in the distant past) that could be considered apocalyptic, at least from the point of view of the victims.
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I'm trying to understand how almost every country being post-war makes any sense when WWII ended 75 years ago, but there's countries where war that ended just last year.
 
Yams

Yams

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,841
Shodan14 said:
So like post-soviet states are like double post-war or..?
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no because the Cold War and the collapse are both due to post-war politics. The world started to completely change after WW1 then WW2 cemented those changes.

This Modern era is a post-war world built from ashes. The next major event is more than likely another huge war or the death of the current largest empire or idk post-covid depending on what changes.
GameOver said:
Japan, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, China, The Philippines and more.

I feel like the effects of WW2 get downplayed more and more as time moves forward.
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That's because our education is shit. People don't realize how much has changed since WW2 nor do they realize how much the mishandling of the WW1 aftermath set the tone for the next hundred years.
 
Shodan14

Shodan14

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,410
Yams said:
no because the Cold War and the collapse are both due to post-war politics. The world started to completely change after WW1 then WW2 cemented those changes.

This Modern era is a post-war world built from ashes. The next major event is more than likely another huge war or the death of the current largest empire or idk post-covid depending on what changes.
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So it's more of an (historic) era thing rather than having to do with any actual war? As in we're living in the post-WWII international order?

I'd say the move from a bipolar world to a unipolar to a potentially multipolar one are big enough changes personally.
 
DarthSpider

DarthSpider

The Fallen
Nov 15, 2017
2,954
Hiroshima, Japan
TAJ said:
The damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not nearly as bad as what people imagine. The force of the bombs was largely absorbed by the terrain, especially in Nagasaki.
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Noooooo, this is not true. Hiroshima was flattened. Every building for kilometers aside from the A-Bomb and a single bank were completely decimated in the blast. The school where I teach is 3+km from the epicenter and it was completely destroyed (obviously it's been rebuilt).
 
Tomo815

Tomo815

Banned
Jul 19, 2019
1,534
Shodan14 said:
I'm trying to understand how almost every country being post-war makes any sense when WWII ended 75 years ago, but there's countries where war that ended just last year.
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Sure, it doesent make sense, this is a shit thread. It sometimes feels that the only point of reference for NON-WEST is Japan. Like, Japan has had other shit to deal with since WW2, namely 3/11 and Kobe in 1995, its just that people dont really care about those because its not as sensational as a nuke.

Sometimes it feels like WW2 is so fondly remembered in some parts of the world because it was the last time there was a clear "good guys vs bad guys" narrative,

Like, nobody brings up the Korean was, or the Vietnam war, or the Afghanistan war as examples, cause all those sucked.

So people need to keep going back to WW2 and somehow they think Japan has to do the same?
 
Yams

Yams

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,841
Shodan14 said:
So it's more of an (historic) era thing rather than having to do with any actual war? As in we're living in the post-WWII international order?

I'd say the move from a bipolar world to a unipolar to a potentially multipolar one are big enough changes personally.
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it's like a snow ball rolling down hill.

But yeah a historical era. Things add up
 
KAMI-SAMA

KAMI-SAMA

Banned
Aug 25, 2020
5,496
2 cities out of hundreds that were bombed in Japan? Nah not even close to a post apocalyptic society.
 
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