In the last year I can recommend:
Megalo Box
SSSS.Gridman
The Promised Neverland
Recovery of an MMO Junkie
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The Anti-Anime "Left" is Garbage and Here's Why (Don't Let the Alt-right Claim Anime +Stuff About Orientalism)
- Thread starter Iloelemen
- Start date
In the last year I can recommend:
Megalo Box
SSSS.Gridman
The Promised Neverland
Recovery of an MMO Junkie
I sat in a packed movie theatre watching a Dragon Ball movie last week. Lets not lose something special.
What I'm unsure of is if her fate is supposed to be more cruel irony or if it is supposed to turn rape-fetishists on.
That last one's complicated for me to recommend. MMO Junkie was one of the very few series I watched in the past year and I enjoyed it a lot.
But soon after I watched it, it came to light that its director was a literal Nazi.
I don't think any of that was a visible influence on the work, and so I would recommend it still, but... some people may not want to support it with that in mind.
It was the anime director only. Not the writer or the rest of the staff that made the series. I'm willing to overlook his involvement much like how I play Dragon Quest games with alternative music.
Start putting out great anime like Jin Roh and Patlabor 2 again and I will help reclaim anime for the left.
For now, I just have a hard time caring about it outside of the periodic Gundam releases, and the odd stand out like SSSS Gridman.
For now, I just have a hard time caring about it outside of the periodic Gundam releases, and the odd stand out like SSSS Gridman.
Been watching Megalo Box on Toonami, but haven't found it particularly interesting in respect to its story or its characters. It's not terrible so much as just rather "blah". Plus,
building up that whole gear boxing premise only to have the lead disregard it by fighting in the ring without it and not only stay alive but keep winning hasn't worked for me either.
And to an extent, it works. But it also goes with what that other person was saying earlier...
Because it's absolutely true. If you've been on the internet long enough, at least until the end of first decade of the 2000's. Usually an indicator of a person being a progressive was that they had an Anime Avatar. Then after 2010, The Extremist Left with the Anime Communist/Socialist memes popped up, continuing to use anime avatars by proxy of being on more or less the same "side" of the political aisle. But up until 2014ish there was no, or hardly any right wing anime presence.
Hell, even /a/ on 4chan wasn't the cesspool that it is today. That whole transformation was around the 2008 mark. So the right doing it because it pisses us off is entirely valid since they get a kick out of turning symbols inside out.
Have you ever seen the series Megalo Box was based on, Ashita no Joe?
Are you talking about the guro, pig whatever stuff? Is it from the web novel? I'm missing the context of the scene but if it's close to what it seems then yeah it's really from left field and seems excessive.
I didn't get that far in the web novel. From what I understand the light novel and manga tone down a lot of the questionable stuff (and they've also deviated quite a bit from the original source in terms of plot).
It's like how Gate's author is a huge nationalist and editors forced him to tone the rhetoric down (although the shadow of it is still there in the manga and anime).
It's different like how Slam Dunk and Kuroko no Basket are different. They're both good but for different reasons.
it's better imo, but that depends on what you look for... hajime is more on action and good visuals, ashita is more on the story and the characters
Sorry, I'm not really understanding what you're trying to say here.
Dororo 2019 is a great show imo. It's ongoing but the 4 episodes I watched won me over.
Wow y'all defending shield hero are fucked up.
Sounds good to me!
This premise has a lot of potential for drama. I hope it's not ultra gory tho.
Ah cheers was looking for this after 12 minutes of smug condescension, unsourced claims about how big the problem is and really fucking bad audio/video quality and editing.
The link in the OP gives a transcript (also here). I'd say the thesis is "Leftists unintentionally engage in Orientalism by writing off anime as weird, whacky, or regressive which plays into the hands of the right." But that's just my read since there's no clear thesis statement with the intro being entirely too broad. As I said in an earlier post, there's interesting bits in there, but the video lacks focus. I don't really recommend anyone watch all the way through and the transcript doesn't read well either. Honestly the concept and quotes in the OP are a better springboard for discussion than trying to watch the whole thing.
Edit: Well, I guess you found my earlier post while I was typing. Hope it answered your question.
In terms of animation, does Japan have anything that is equivalent to America's adult prime time animated shows? Shows like F is for Family, Bojack Horseman, The Simpsons, Archer, and others?
I don't follow Japanese culture all that much. But I feel that if America's attitude toward what animation can be were as insular as Japan's, we'd still be stuck in the Hanna Barbara mindset of presentation and story telling.
Akira, Princess Mononoke, and The Cat Returns are probably the full extent of my anime viewing. I've also seen various clips of Sailor Moon and Pokemon but never got into them.
Usually, it was the bad dubbing and recycled plots that kept me from getting into anime stuff in general.
For anyone on Era who has keen insight into the minds of anime dorks, to how deep of an extent are they absorbed in anime, and what factors set them apart from others who watch say... Bob's Burgers or Futurama, but are otherwise immune in that they're fandom is not eclipsing their perception or desire of the reality around them.
I guess what I'm saying is that no one who watches The Simpsons is wishing to be transported to Springfield, and that's the impression I'm getting whenever I read articles like these.
I don't follow Japanese culture all that much. But I feel that if America's attitude toward what animation can be were as insular as Japan's, we'd still be stuck in the Hanna Barbara mindset of presentation and story telling.
Akira, Princess Mononoke, and The Cat Returns are probably the full extent of my anime viewing. I've also seen various clips of Sailor Moon and Pokemon but never got into them.
Usually, it was the bad dubbing and recycled plots that kept me from getting into anime stuff in general.
For anyone on Era who has keen insight into the minds of anime dorks, to how deep of an extent are they absorbed in anime, and what factors set them apart from others who watch say... Bob's Burgers or Futurama, but are otherwise immune in that they're fandom is not eclipsing their perception or desire of the reality around them.
I guess what I'm saying is that no one who watches The Simpsons is wishing to be transported to Springfield, and that's the impression I'm getting whenever I read articles like these.
As someone who watches very little anime these days, the ones that always seem to break out and come into visibility tend to always share common traits such as an overpowered male hero, his harem of anime ladies and edgy violence against women
Stuff like Sword Art Online, Overlord, Goblin Slayer, Shield Hero etc. Like it's hard for me to believe these shitty elements aren't exactly what broad swathes of the anime audience are looking for when they are consistently the shows that seem to resonate with fans
Compare with stuff like the Promised Neverland, which is essentially a feminist shonen, which has enjoyed tremendous manga success in Japan, but seems to have had a comparatively quieter reaction in the West
Stuff like Sword Art Online, Overlord, Goblin Slayer, Shield Hero etc. Like it's hard for me to believe these shitty elements aren't exactly what broad swathes of the anime audience are looking for when they are consistently the shows that seem to resonate with fans
Compare with stuff like the Promised Neverland, which is essentially a feminist shonen, which has enjoyed tremendous manga success in Japan, but seems to have had a comparatively quieter reaction in the West
The violence is pretty tame from what I watched and it's not outlandishly gory. If you have Amazon Prime you can check it out
Please take a look into other Ghibli classics like Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso and Nausicaa. I also recommend Satoshi Kon's works like Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress and Paranoia Agent. Last but not least, some of Masaaki Yuasa's stuff have been great, like Kaiba and Tatami Galaxy.
...Glossing over the lowkey racist and colonialist undercurrent of the orientalism this video is trying to address...
No... just saying that shit products attract the desperate on one side, and the absolute shit people on the other. No one can claim anything as being higher culture, because it's mostly crap now.
Yes, but what about the acting? The performance of the VO's can make or break my interest in films. A common trope in english dubbed anime are long, ponderous cries of anguish by the characters. Or horribly dubbed angry monologues that only make sense in a Japanese context, I suppose.
For that, I could never take anime seriously. They just talk in a way that no one does in real life. And it often sounds really corny. When I worked at a movie theather many years ago, one of the concessionists was a huge Sailor Moon fan. I had seen a few episodes back when it aired and I could never wrap my mind around its appeal.
Boy does this author undermine their entire attempt to create a leftist space for (presumably largely marxist) analysis of your Problematic Faves by dumping the terms 'anti-anime left is garbage' into their clickbait, and then completely fumbling the drive to a reasonable spot in two critical spots.
1. Where exactly the anime production side of things actually stands on progressive political points. So far the jury's out that they're even making progress. Too many shows still get made that expose grim realities about the standing of gender and racial minorities in a still 99% culturally homogenized population. It's been a while since we had the unmasked racism of productions like Terra Formars but there alone is a strong reason to say it did actual damage and they need to make up for that.
2. Where exactly the preponderance of this 'anime watching left' actually lives. The author immediately dumpsters them for surrendering to alt-right talking points about how regressive Japan is but if your only counterpoint is 'look at all the yuri anime!' that comprises the overwhelming bulk of this author's youtube content then we're just standing on a foundation of sand.
Absent genuine academic study into those points just about everything this youtuber says reeks of hollow rhetoric on a 'gut feeling' that there's a winnable war out there because we, the anime-watching left, are the 'good guys' and we have good moral standing to claim. Convince me, Internet. Stop claiming most anime isn't garbage without evidence because last I checked we're still running at about 2-3 trashy isekai and between 5-6 sexist tropefests per season.
1. Where exactly the anime production side of things actually stands on progressive political points. So far the jury's out that they're even making progress. Too many shows still get made that expose grim realities about the standing of gender and racial minorities in a still 99% culturally homogenized population. It's been a while since we had the unmasked racism of productions like Terra Formars but there alone is a strong reason to say it did actual damage and they need to make up for that.
2. Where exactly the preponderance of this 'anime watching left' actually lives. The author immediately dumpsters them for surrendering to alt-right talking points about how regressive Japan is but if your only counterpoint is 'look at all the yuri anime!' that comprises the overwhelming bulk of this author's youtube content then we're just standing on a foundation of sand.
Absent genuine academic study into those points just about everything this youtuber says reeks of hollow rhetoric on a 'gut feeling' that there's a winnable war out there because we, the anime-watching left, are the 'good guys' and we have good moral standing to claim. Convince me, Internet. Stop claiming most anime isn't garbage without evidence because last I checked we're still running at about 2-3 trashy isekai and between 5-6 sexist tropefests per season.
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that it had to be the dubbed version... In that case I can't really say if the english VO's are good for the works I recommended... But man it would be such a shame to miss them for that reason, because they're works of incredibly artistry and sensibility imo. Please consider watching the sub version!
I don't know if I count as "anti-anime" - I certainly dislike anime and I'm vocal about it. I find it generally weird, dumb, and exaggerated. Do I "hate all that could be considered otaku culture"? I do think idol culture is beyond horrible I guess, but I love video games (many of them from Japan), so I'm not sure about that.
But anyway, disregarding my views as "wacky orientalism" would be absurd since I live in Japan, I speak Japanese, and the reason I'm here is because part of my family is Japanese. It simply can't be repeated enough that otaku stuff =/= Japanese culture.
So you didn't watch the video, read the transcript, didn't take the time to read through the topic, and don't care about anime or the people who watch it. You just wanna cast judgement on a topic you don't have any investment in.
Another aspect where Konosuba bucks the trend. Actually getting back to the 'normal' world is the end goal of the protagonists, and it goes out of its way to point out that, in many ways, medieval society was kinda terrible. The series enjoys smacking down Kazuma's pretensions of becoming an ultra-badass. And the cute girls he's surrounded with are so hilariously inept, specialised or have such severe issues that while Kazuma is friends with them, he sometimes wishes they weren't his party members.
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Yup. One of my friends recommended Sword Art Online to me and two of my other friends, was SUPER excited about it, and it's just...why. Why is stuff like this popular? Are people really interested in shows about dweeby guys being surrounded by women who completely sacrifice their individuality to crowd around said guys like they're human gravity wells?
Is this a good place for me to recommend Utena? Because I'll shill the fuck out of that show like I do for Ace Combat
If most anime can't find a way to appeal to me without shoving shitty racist/sexist/regressive tropes into it that I have to excuse every 5-10 minutes of airtime then the alt-right can fucking keep it. I'll take the 1-2 shows every calendar year that are actually devoid of it and move on to the fights I feel give more return for energy invested.
Remember Gerstmann's law.
Of course, the funny part of that gif is that he then immediately contradicts himeself in the very next sentence. And anime is for everybody, it's just a nother form of television. There is good anime, bad anime, mediocre anime, and fucked up anime like whatever the hell you guys were describing. Anime avatars are no different than K-pop avatars. They are just avatars. Oh, and bring back the girls generation gif avatars you cowards!
Well that's cause for the audience, home is Japanese adult life. It's a depressing, oppressive hellhole for everyone but the lucky or privileged.
I did all of that. I just don't agree with any of the points presented. It's like looking for a fight for validation. The industry isn't going to back this, so who is this about? You should be clear on how you tell people what they are and aren't invested in. No need to take what other people produce that you consume as personal as if your own work was being critiqued.
Labeling people who watch anime as leaning a particular direction politically is dumb. Might as well arbitrarily decide that people who read lots of books are leftists and people who watch lots of TV are on the right.
If you are familiar enough with the medium then perhaps you can make a judgment call based on support for certain genres/productions.
If you are familiar enough with the medium then perhaps you can make a judgment call based on support for certain genres/productions.
It's more the fact that whenever anime productions jump on a hot bandwagon they don't think twice about bringing all their worst baggage along for the ride. Isekai is just the latest in the ongoing cycle.
Well, that's kinda because Isekai has a bigger tendency to produce badly-written stuff that becomes inexplicably popular, because it's very appealing to a lot of people who can both do it well and also hacks who can't write for shit.