Aidan Emerick @animatedworld22 - Tumblr Blog

Your Name/ Hetalia: Axis Powers/ Sensōron Blog Post

After watching and reading Your Name, Hetalia: Axis Powers, and Sensōron, we can see that these three have dramatically different approaches to addressing social and political issues. Starting with Your Name, this one I really enjoyed. There is just something so relatable about the pain of disconnection, whether it’s from Mitsuha's perspective of wanting to escape from her trap of rural life or Taki's perspective of city life isolation and loneliness. I can relate on many levels of this, and it actively demonstrates Japan’s shrinking rural towns and overwhelming urban city centers. But it goes so far beyond Japan, I feel like these issues are becoming universal with various others having this tension between tradition and progress. Hetalia: Axis Powers was definitely a more comedic approach, utilizing these national stereotypes to make the topic of international relationships comfortable and “bite-sized”. Hetalia took out the complexity of the situation and instead gave audiences something they are all too familiar with: high school social dynamics. While I think the simplification of the subject is sort of emotionally necessary for audiences due to the heaviness of the history, it can also be seen as Japan just playing their cards right in what we learned a couple of modules ago as “soft power”. I can see why there would be concerns as to how historical events are understood and transmitted across borders, and how it might inadvertently spread oversimplified narratives. Hetalia was fun, but I feel like history is so much more complicated than that. Finally, we have our first manga of the course to switch it up. I enjoyed that aspect of things: the comic-like drawings and how it evokes emotions about things through its visuals since there is no tone. However, the actual framework, while it clearly was channeling real frustrations and anxieties, it was a bit problematic factually. I feel like I just struggled with this one mostly because I’ve never been a big reader or comic person, but the work in general offering this alternative narrative where Japan’s war actions were justified or misunderstood is an interesting concept.

animatedworld22

I also really loved the sense of disconnection from the movie Your Name and how relatable it was. I would have to agree that as society begins to urbanize and progress further technologically speaking it gets harder to hold on to rural communities that in many cases get swallowed up by urban expansion. I also find interesting your take on the manga. It was most definitely problematic during the time considering it had the boldness to declare this narrative that was objective to Japan's war crimes being unjust. I think it's a little frustrating to see someone downplay the Nanking incident that resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people.

I first want to start with talking about Your Name. This is hands down the best anime movie I ever watched. I found it interesting howe it portrays the importance of gender performativity when the main characters are forced to perform like the opposite gender. We see through the imperfect gender performances that they are quickly corrected in some cases, like where Mitsuha is checked by Taki's friends at the cafe, and in other cases it is praised. Like when Mitsuha sews together Mrs. Okudera's skirt while at work, which is a feminine trait performed by a masculine figure.

Hetalia on the other hand was not one of my favorites. It doesn't really have an enticing storyline, but some of the jokes made about the stereotypes from each country were funny. Hetalia is of course highlighting the stereotypical flaws from each country, whether its Britain's awful food and crooked teeth, or America's unhealthy obsession with processed GMO meats. I think that Hetalia is still somewhat relatable, because most of the serious stereotypes (not talking about Britain's teeth) like America's unhealthily processed foods is still relevant in today's society and still contributes to the rates of obesity in the younger generation.

Lastly, Sensoron was a rather interesting manga and was actually the first manga I have ever read so I don't have much to compare it to, but it seemed very radical in its dismissive approach on what was real during the Nanking incident. I think that the argument brought about by the author is significantly weakened by his choice of evidential pictures that were clearly cherry picked to support the argument. Most, if not all, arguments of any kind can be supported with some type of evidence, and for the author to ignore the mounds of pictures that show proof of the Nanking incident shows how idiotic he is.

aidansanimetedworld

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Watching these anime reminded me a lot of the contrasts between nature and technology. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind feels like a warning about the possibilities of environmental destruction. The Sea of Decay is toxic but also symbolically beautiful. It is a reminder that nature regenerates even when poisoned by human carelessness. It reminds me of Avatar in that way, specifically the game Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. The RDA is trying to take over Pandora, the world of the Na'vi, and the planet works to recover after parts of the RDA are taken down. In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Titans and Cloud Sea feel related to parts of the world Nausicaä. Ancient beings that literally carry human civilization on their back. the slowly are dying of exploitation. Both stories exemplify the anxieties that feel not only Japanese but global. Although, Japan, an island rooted in a long history of natural disasters and postwar industrialization, and the atomic bombs. The ideas that our survival hinges on respecting the balance we keep destroying is so painfully relevant in todays world.

Personally, these works made me reflect on how detached my own daily life is from the land I live on. Driving around in a car, use electricity, eat packaged food, etc, all without seeing the real cost it has on our environment. Nausicaä's empathy for every living thing made me question how I could live more gently. In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the theme of inherited mistakes resonated too, how we carry forward problems we didn't create but have to fix anyway.

One connection I keep thinking about is how both stories blur the line between savior and destroyer. The same humans who poison the earth also hold the power to heal it. That contradiction feels very honest, its a very grey area seemingly without heroes or villains and a hope that we change before we lose everything.

animatedworld22

I didn't even think about the way in which we pollute the environment on a daily basis. Like you said, driving around in our cars is enough to contribute to air pollution, which contaminates the atmosphere. But I think that our lives are so normalized around actions that pollute the Earth that it is difficult to branch off into a more environmentally concerned life. I also like your comparison to Avatar, I think that the RDA is easily compared to the Tonikans in Nausicaa's anime in the way that they are looking to destroy the ecosystem or take some sort of control over it to benefit humanity.

I found the post apocalyptic setting of this anime to be very intriguing. I feel as if most pieces of media that critique humanities decisions that lead to environmental disaster are always staged in this post apocalyptic setting to represent what will become of our world if we remain on living as we currently do.

In the case of Nausicaa's world, it is human greed and war that lead to the destruction of nature that results in a world where humans destroy themselves, while nature is forcefully clawing its way back to sustainability. The great warriors seen in the image above are symbols for humanities weapons of mass destruction, and critique nuclear warfare by showing how destructive the result would be to humanity and the earth's environments. Additionally, the Tonikans mindset of nature being their enemy and to destroy the growing jungles they would be in turn saving humanity is the exact same barbaric mindset humans had prior to the destruction of humanity. That is why the anime paints the Tonikans as the antagonists, because it shows that regardless of the time period, living to benefit humanity through harming the environment did not work in the past, and is certainly not working in this post apocalyptic world. We clearly see that every time one of the nations attempt to burn down the forest or kill off the bugs, nature instantaneously attacks back with overwhelming force. Instead the anime advocates for the coexistence between humanity and nature is the only choice there is in restoring the old world. Nausicaa is the prime example of an advocator for this coexistence, because she understands to never hurt or damage bugs or the jungle, and to interfere with the jungle as little as possible is the best route for environmental renewal. Again this is why she is painted as the protagonist, or good guy, and the Tonikans as the bad guys. Similarly, in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 we see Malos, the antagonist, harming the titans that are essentially the environments that all creatures live on. We also see the protagonist, Rex, as the protector of these titans and is looking to restore nature with the help of human action and interference.

gavanalysis

Alright, so I just finished watching quite a bit of Evangelion for my college course and I have a few thoughts.

MAJOR SPOILERS for Neon Genesis Evangelion and The End of Evangelion Below!!!

Though not as much as with other anime like, Sailor Moon and Naruto, I had briefly heard of Evangelion before. Mainly just that it was the inspiration for Peni Parker in Spiderverse and some other media with the giant mech suits, and that the anime was a bit dark (true especially with The End of Evangelion). Apparently like a lot of people, I was not expecting anything of where the story went, namely the endings. For my class I had to watch the beginning, some episodes of the middle, and the last episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion alongside The End of Evangelion, a movie remake of the last two episodes with an alternate ending. From class lectures I learned that The End of Evangelion and its new ending were made after fan reaction to the original ending, and quite frankly, I wasn't too keen on either one.

Both endings followed the ongoing theme of the main character, Shinji, not following in traditional masculine stereotypes, developing a deep self-hatred for himself for being "cowardly, timid, sneaky, and weak", and being implied to be queer through Kaworu. To summarize, the original ending had Shinji eventually come to terms with his self-hatred and queer masculinity as humanity became one organism and congratulates Shinji for finally accepting himself, accepting him to join with society. Then the alternate ending had Shinji try to reaffirm his masculinity and when the symbolic embodiment of masculinity rejected him, his hatred boiled so much he decided that he and society shouldn't get to live anymore, leaving himself and Asuka the last two standing as a new Adam and Eve.

I can see why people weren't fans of the original ending, the final episode completely abandoned reality for Shinji's character growth via very meta images and a brief alternate reality. Yet, I liked that ending much better than the alternate ending. While the movie had a lot more explanation and was more show than tell, the ending still was a (literal) reality check for Shinji with, this time heavy religious symbolism and elements instead of meta ones, but with a more bleak and ambiguous (and at least to me, somewhat confusing) ending.

Overall, I liked Evangelion, but the endings, while alright, stick out like a sore thumb, the second one was iconic, I think the first one was better, but both of them were a bit out there.

animatedworld22

I completely agree with you on the fact that the first ending was a let down, because it was a complete regress for Shinji's character development. It seemed that all the effort he spent trying to fit in was wasted to simply revert back to and accept his queer masculinity. In my case it was some what difficult to follow the second ending, because of how little episodes we watched as a class. I never really understood what the deal was with that big white figure wearing the mask. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think he was what they considered to be source of mankind or almost like a God considering he was nailed to a cross. Besides that I loved your takes on both endings and this was probably one of the best anime we have watched as a class so far.

I love the concept of Pacific Rim and I feel like this anime could not embody it any more than it did. I honestly found it more interesting for the monsters to be angels instead of Kaiju, which added this sense of mystery around the antagonists origins. Sadly, I did end up getting decently lost in the story's plot and the end of the movie seemed a bit unclear.

Disregarding that I think that this anime was so full on displaying the relationships between queer masculinity and hegemonic masculinity. There was constant clashing between characters exhibiting opposite types of masculinities. One of the most frequent that was not mentioned in the lecture video was all the times Shinji's guardian would make some sort of sexually provocative remark to him to, what she probably saw it as, helping him to encourage his love for women and to pursue his sexual desires, which is a common trait for hegemonic masculine men. We see her walking into his room with only a towel wrapped around her waste, we see her make sexual remarks at the dinner table after finishing a few beers, and the most distinguishable was even at the time of her death she kisses Shinji and tells him that she is going to sexually pursue him after the whole ordeal has been settled. She, just like Ikari, are representations of female characters who exhibit hegemonic masculinity, but while Ikari is encouraging Shinji to be more violent, his guardian is pushing him to be more sexually active.

I want to now talk about how the angels are constantly testing Shinji's progression into a more hegemonic masculine individual. We see at the start of the series, Shinji's queer masculinity is keeping him from performing violence on the first angel attack, but as the series continues and he gains confidence in the suit he is able to transcend into the societal norm for a male. But in acting violence on the angels creates a false sense of confidence that Shinji mistakes for him being socially accepted by society, and we see this when he takes the lead to fight an angel with no form. That fight shows that hegemonic masculinity embodies traits that are unintelligent and irrational, because its the hegemonic masculine traits that guide Shinji's actions in this fight that result in his near death experience.

hopefullycompetentmediaanalysis

Anime as pop culture.

The first thing i want to say about True Otaku is “please stop using that font, its ... so bad.”

Despite attending a number of conventions that at least in part focus on anime i decided to watch true Otaku. Im glad i did, it showed me just how much has changed in the roughly 15 years since it was produced. Anime is more commonly accepted, especially on the internet, games and anime are larger parts of popular culture, and cosplay is more accessible, accepted, and encouraged. The internet has fundamentally changed the culture around anime in the united states, streaming services like Netflix have made access to anime more mainstream, in addition generations of people who enjoyed anime as teens now have kids. I mean you can see how mainstream anime has become via looking at American animation. These days you see a lot of American animation in the style of anime. Cosplay is a much larger part of pop culture in general thanks to the internet. Ive been to a multitude of conventions about anime and otherthings, and cosplay is just a more common thing to see. I see cosplay at renaissance fairs. Cosplay is easier then ever to get into, you have thousands of resources about making costumes at your fingertips, something that was just not the case 15 years ago.

Anime as a whole is much less of an “obscure hobby” when compared to 15 years ago. Popular amines are outperforming American television on streaming services. The genre has been becoming progressively more and more mainstream over time. Ive not been to an anime convention, but ive been to a number of pop culture conventions, and anime tend to feature them pretty heavily

. I think another large reason behind this shift is videogames. Videogames globally are the largest entertainment sector. Videogames are mainstream. They are a huge part of culture, especially youth culture. Anime and video games are decently well connected. They can share visual aspects, A large portion of the entire genre of “visual novels” are heavily inspired by anime. Japanese Gatcha games are popular in the united states, and those have close ties to anime. Genshin Impact a Japanese Gatcha game that looks like this

Impact has over 25 million downloads in the united states, its won American game awards. The final fantasy games are some of the bestselling games ever and are heavily inspired by anime (and in a lot of cases final fantasy has heavily inspired anime, its a really old franchise). The popularity of the anime style in games has helped popularize the anime genre and has helped shift animation away from the perception that it’s” for children”. The popularity of games is also probably why coslapy is a much larger part of popular culture.

To get back to anime and my experience with in in relation to youth culture and fandom. I think anime as a whole is more accepted. Being a fan of anime doesn't make you a weird weeb, just like how being a fan of video games no longer gets you labeled as a weird geek. They have entered the mainstream, and yeah, they still have obscure parts. You can still really delve into anime, but no one's going to look at you funny if you mention that you have watched anime. Video games and anime are really important to youth culture and identity formation, but they are no longer the things on the fringe but are rather the predominant pop culture. Youth and pop culture moves fast and it has moved significantly in the past 15 years.

animatedworld22

Love to hear that you got to experience a bunch of conventions before and still watched the documentary to get a full sense of how popular Japanese pop culture has become. One point you made about how videogames were a driving factor to popularizing anime in other countries. Videogames are a big part of youth culture and can be widely contributed to the popularity growth in, not only older generations, but most definitely younger generations of otaku. I'm sure in the next decade, anime and manga popularity will continue to sky rocket in popularity, especially in younger teens.

Otaku Community

Before I begin I want to say that I have never been to an anime convention before. I will be referring to the three videos posted in the assignment, but I was fully aware of what typically happens during these conventions and the type of people who attend. My main source of information regarding anime conventions is streamers who I have seen attend these events to mess with otaku who are simply just trying to express their passion for Japanese pop culture. People like attempt to annoy or bother otaku are simply showing the audience how emotionally passionate some fans are for anime. Even in the documentary we see how intense some people are when it comes to cosplaying. For example, Dustbunny reportedly spends days crafting her own pieces that make up the costume. She devotes her life to the craft, because she is so passionate for it. As we travel through the convention we see how diverse the cosplay selection is, and that in most cases there is never a single anime that does not receive some form of representation. As it was stated by one of the cosplayers, these conventions allow for people to give back to their favorite characters and voice actors by embracing their looks and personalities. Similar to acting, people can dissociate themselves with their lives back at home, whether unsatisfactory or mondain, and live in the shoes of a character they envy. We see in the image above an otaku cosplaying as Naruto (at a convention in Tampa, FL). For some cosplayers, they can dress as characters they not only like, but relate too. Say someone lived a neglected childhood, but related to Naruto, now they can express their relationship with this character in real life. To me, I think that in some cases cosplaying can act as an outlet for therapy to troubled individuals of all ages.

Another key characteristic of anime conventions is overwhelming sense of community. As it was stated in the documentary, many otaku reframe from publicly associating with the anime fan base, because of how the rest of society views "geeks" and "nerds" who enjoy Japanese pop culture. However, it is these conventions that offer an outlet to said people, and not only that but it does it in great scale. The documentary claimed that the anime convention held in Baltimore, Maryland recently had as many as twenty thousand attendees, which is a significant increase from the four thousand attendees only years prior. For some, it is simply knowing that there is that many people like them, which gives them confidence to express their passion regardless of how societal norms view it.

The sense of community is the foundation of anime conventions and specifically its the rich diversity that makes these communities so welcoming and familiar. We see in the documentary that there are people of all races, that cosplay as people who are outside of their own race. We see people of all ages, young and old, who are equally passionate for Japanese pop culture. To me the most heart touching thing was seeing the families there. The documentary featured a mom and her two sons who appeared to be dressed up as Naruto characters. Despite the mom not having an interest in anime, she still gives her sons the opportunity to meet a community that they can relate to. As a young otaku in America, it is hard to fit in with some kids that think "weirdos" watch anime. Furthermore, we see a mother and father who dress up, not because they are otaku, but their daughters really wanted to attend a convention and obtain that sense of community.

sunayk

Sailor Moon, Aggretsuko, and Wandering Son

Sailor Moon:

The art style and quality of the show was what stood out to me at first. It was really nostalgic, and remined me of the old pink panther show and Doraemon, which were some of my most favorite shows when I was younger. I enjoyed watching it, but the show does repeat the same kind of layout for each episode. This is probably because the target audience is for little girls who don't really care about a plot going over multiple episodes. I don't think this anime really addresses any global issues actively, but I think it does passively show the standards for women at the time, and maybe currently in some parts of the world. For example, we see Usagi and a lot of girls in the show try really hard to be skinny, and go to great lengths to keep their body "fit". Other than this, I don't think there are many other angles you can look at it. Its a kids show made to empower young girls, and give them a hero to look up to.

Aggretsuko:

This show was quite a bit different from the other anime's we've watched. I guess I'm starting to understand what Professor Smith was talking about when he said manga and anime doesn't all have the same characteristics. In this show, we have Retsuko, who is working a 9-5 job in accounting, and has a really mean boss. In the first episode, we see her boss Ton tell Retsuko to make him some tea, since thats what women were supposed to do. It's interesting that even in a universe where everyone is an animal, they divide the world based off of gender. Something I thought about after watching the show and the lecture, was about how I could tell each of their genders. Now obviously in the show they use pronouns, which can easily make it clear, but you can also see different characteristics. All of the guys are a lot more aggressive and loud, while we see most of the women as quiet. Retsuko is also pretty quiet at work, but we see her in the afternoons as a loud and aggressive death metal singer. I think we can maybe see it as a sort of rebellion against the norms of society. It reminded me of the book 1984 by George Orwell, where Winston Smith rebels against the heavily controlling Party by doing illegal stuff in secret, like keeping a diary and going to non-surveilled locations.

Wandering Son:

This show was a little tricky for me to understand at first. I had trouble trying to understand who was who, and who did what, but I think I now have a decent understanding of what happened in the show. Nitori is the main character, who wants to dress and explore the world as a girl, but still likes boys. What I found interesting was that everyone seemed to find it alright that Nitori dressed like a girl at home or in private, but when he went to school dressed up, it caused all kinds of problems, and everyone was against it. Along with that, we see some of the other girls dress up as boys, and everyone was fine with it. Some of the kids even found it cool. I guess its probably because girls doing boy stuff has been a pretty normal part of society for a while. I've always heard of a Tomboy growing up, a girl who dresses like a boy and does boy stuff, but I've never heard of an equivalent for boys, which goes to show. Then there's Doi, who i've still yet to understand. He wanted Nitori to dress up for school, and was probably the major reason, then when Nitori did do it, he called her an idiot. At that point, I thought he was just a bully, and had been messing with Nitori just for the kicks, but he comes back later and tries to make up. I think the best explanation for him is just that he's lost. He likes girls, but then there are these guys that look like girls, and he likes them too. Him messing with Nitori was probably him unsure of his feelings.

animatedworld22

I'm right there with you, because I also had a difficult time following the numerous amount of characters in Wandering Son. I agree with you that Doi is simply to young and not able to distinguish what he prefers sexually, which is a common trait for most kids. I think that we do get a taste of both sides of his story, for one he's a bully that represents the way in which society views people that want to transition into the opposite gender, but we also see him being supportive of Nitori and his endeavors. Another thing I wanted to comment on that you said was how supportive people were of Nitori in his private life, but he didn't receive the same response by students and teachers at school. I think its the animators way of depicting how innate and imbedded societal expectations of gender have become in our brains, and that for most people, they simply can't accept people that fall out of that category that people view as normal.

Anime Analysis

I recognize that Sailor Moon is one of the most classic anime's out there, but I really wasn't interested in the plot or the characters. It is most likely because the target audience was teenage girls, but I found that Sailor Moon tendency to cry all the time was a little annoying.

Besides that I found that this anime was full of themes pertaining to social gender expectations. The anime appears to present Sailor Moon with every girly trait possible. She wears a super feminine school outfit, she is docile and overly emotional, and she worries about her figure as most girls typically do. The one thing I found rather interesting is the anime's display of monolithic sexuality and gender. The anime displays characters that fit the societal expectations for both gender and sexuality. For example, we see time and time again that Sailor Moon is attracted to the masked man and that young man that works at the video game store. We also see that the boy with the glasses, who is a male, is attracted to Sailor Moon (female). Considering how old this anime is and how in the past gender and sexuality were so clearly defined and set in stone, it is understandable that all the characters are going to fit into the category of heterosexuality and perform in accordance with the societal expectations for each gender.

Contrarily, Aggreskto and Wandering Son challenge the performance of certain genders inscribed by society. We see that the protagonist in Aggreskto expresses her anger in the form of an activity that is intense and empowering, which would not be considered common feminine characteristics. Similarly, Nitori's very being is a complete objection to societal gender boundaries and performance. His feminine performance of wearing women's clothes is so arbitrary to the gender norms established by society that it causes him to get bullied and ensues a deep anxiety within all the school children that witness him.

eliacker

Genshiken

I found Genshiken very interesting as I did not think to analyze of being such a fan of something might outcast you from society. The animation highlights the oddity of trying to fit into society using what you know.

The club in Genshiken as we know is representative of a group of Otaku sharing their interests with each other. However, many of the scenes portray an awkward feeling as many of the characters do not have the scheme built up to interact with women, or each other sometimes. This causes them to attempt to use the scheme that they are well versed in, or their shadow cultural currency. However, as we learned this cannot be turned into actual value outside of the niche of that community. I have found that many people I know use their pre-developed schema of very popular works of pop-culture to influence their interactions with society and decisions they make in different scenarios to try to fit in.

On the other hand, This anime is able to reflect on how it is difficult to fit in if you are only well versed in specific pop-culture. Much like in real life, it will be much more difficult for someone that is obsessed with anime to fit into society than someone that has knowledge of many things in the world.

Furthermore I think the club itself reflects the groups that people obsessed with a certain pop-culture media are able to form and find meaning with eachother. This is depictive of all the clubs made at a university, and even online clubs made through discord or reddit.

Overall, I think Genshiken does very well at reflecting how otaku interact with the world around them and the safety they feel in their group. However I wish the was more included about people who are well versed in both anime and other pop-culture media.

Mental model in this image stands for a schema developed by what people see in interactions.

animatedworld22

I completely agree with you that, despite otaku being considered as outcasted in society, the anime still offers hope as they mostly follow around a tight knit group of otaku that all share similar interests. As you said this just goes to show that there's always going to be a group out their for every hobby/interest. I also found interesting the diagram you included in your post represents how the social interactions of otaku is built on the foundation of shadow cultural currency.

This is definitely one of those anime that I would not consider watching on my own time. What I did find funny though was how relatable Kanji was when he first joined the anime club. While everyone else was buying pornographic comics he was looking for action fighting comics, which is something that I solely look for when watching anime. Furthermore, I want to note how consuming the life of a otaku is, because of how normalized giving into sexual temptations is in their culture. We see over the episodes how Kanji becomes more interested in the pornographic material and at the same time feeling less shame. I feel as if the anime was trying to highlight how most otaku are extremely obsessive over sexual content.

On a separate note, I found that the characters who did cosplay were always promoting some sexualized version of a character. Again this plays into the criticism and stereotype for otaku to be perverted. They do this especially for the taller American girl who goes out on her first day in Japan wearing practically nothing.

Disregarding the negative aspects that the anime attributed towards the otaku culture, the anime makes it known that otaku are more socially than depicted in most stereotypes. We see throughout the anime all the clubs that people are apart of and all the events that the clubs attend. We see the events have lines that extend for miles, and how frequent these events are. There also seems to be a clear sense of community that give a lot of otaku a place to be themselves with people that share the same interests in certain pop culture media. The characters in this anime spend a lot of time in the meet up room, which they use as an outlet for expressing their opinions on certain media they recently consumed.

hopefullycompetentmediaanalysis

A Silent Voice was really good. Of the anime I've had to watch so far, it's been the best by a considerable margin. I got quite invested into it and found myself really caring about the story. I found it heartbreaking how we learn so little about Shouko beyond her disability. The story shows so little beyond the ways she doesn't fit into majority society. “if you’re here just to make yourself feel better. Please leave”

This is one of the messages that really stuck out to me. it's not the responsibility of the abused to make the abuser feel better just because the abuser is sorry. It puts more work on the person who was abused; it requires the abused to fix the mistakes of the abuser for them. Many of the people who step in to help Shouko don't help Shouko, but instead simply confront the abuser, they don't try to comfort or otherwise help the abused, they simply stop the abuser.

Both A Silent Voice and Wolf Children use a small space outside of majority society where those who are discriminated against can be themselves. I feel like in the modern era a lot of people find those places online, due to the vastness of the internet its easy to find others going through the same problems as you. It might not represent total escape, you might still mostly be trapped in majority society, but even a little escape goes a long way, having people to talk to about problems, having people to commiserate with. All those small things that the internet can provide can go really a long way.

The episodes of Naruto that were selected were selected to show a contrast, and the episodes succeeded in that, although for me that contrast jumped the shark. its hard to imagine how the show got from point A to point B. Also i don't love when stories about discrimination come to the conclusion that the onus is on the individual being abused to stop the discrimination.

animatedworld22

Personally, I totally agree with you about how Shoko's lack of character. It seemed that half the time she spoke up for herself it was to apologize for something instead of voicing her opinion. I think that your opinion that the victimized should not be used as a tool to make the abuser feel any satisfaction, as it should be the abuser who has to change. I also agree on the point that character development in the protagonists of these anime's was a bigger theme that what I think was representative of the negative effects discrimination has on a victim.

I've never watched Naruto, but I was instantly hooked by the characters and the heavy theme of ninja pride. The image above perfectly embodies the effects of the discrimination that Naruto faces. Like most cases, the subjects of discrimination are victimized for reasons that they had no control over. I think in that sense the anime is commenting on how unfair the treatment others endure over things they inherited. I also think the anime is trying to depict the drastic effects of social isolation, and how it can effect the way in which people act. Naruto in this case was almost forced to be super outgoing and spastic just so he would be recognized by the village trying so hard to ignore him.

I think in Wolf Children's case, they were trying to comment more on the relationship between society and the victims of discrimination. As we clearly see, both children are forced to pick between their human and wolf halves, because it is society that isn't able to change so the victims must adapt. In this image, the boys choice to remain living as a wolf is representative of those who are proud of their culture that they are discriminated for and choose to parade their culture through their lifestyle.

Similar to Naruto, I think that the movie, A Silent Voice, is very critical of the effects victims of discrimination experience. In most cases in real life, younger people who experience social isolation are very inclined to kill themselves. I also found it interesting that the discriminated victim has a disability, which is much more relatable to an audience over a nine tailed fox and wolf hybrid children. I also thought the anime was trying to build on the theme of redemption and evolution, as we saw the most change from the protagonist as he grew up to realize his previous bully mindset was unforgivable and unacceptable.

syius1311

Shin Sekai Yori

Shin Sekai Yori reminded me of the Age of Enlightenment a lot. During the Enlightenment period, people reconsidered the relationship between the monarch, the church, and the citizens. The citizens begin to realize that they don’t need the monarch and the church to think for them; they can think for themselves. New philosophical idea, like if the government failed to protect the natural rights of the people, then people had the right to abolish the government and create a new one, starts to reshape the society. Not only did it happen in the Age of Enlightenment, but it also happened in the Queerat society. However, even after the Queerat share equal rights, the queen will still mistreat them, causing the Queerat to rebel and take control over the queen. Then, the Queerat starts to rebel against the humans.

As seen in the anime, Queerrat are humans without telekinetic powers genetically modified with the genes of a mole rat. They are just as smart as humans with telekinetic powers, yet they are dehumanized. This makes me wonder what the meaning of life is to them. If humans without telekinetic power are denied to be human, and the children who failed to pass the exam can be so easily removed, what makes those with telekinetic powers so high up and better than everyone else? Xenophobia does not grant them the right to determine the lives of others. Pathetically, those who live under the name of “human” have no idea of the history of Queerat and mocked Squealer when he claimed to be human. This reminds me of our modern society. History was never told in full. They were either changed up or told in part, causing our understanding of the world to be incomplete. In some way, our society has caused individuals to be both the “human” and the Queerat in the show. Especially seen in social media, one could discriminate against a group of people and praise another group of people in the next second. Shin Sekai Yori allows me to reflect on the societal setup of the modern world and what makes our lives meaningful.

animatedworld22

I love the comparison between the Queerats and the ideologies of how power should be distributed during the Enlightenment era. Both having shared that rebellious wave towards their rulers in their monarchies. Similarly, the theme of dehumanization found in the anime through the discrimination towards the Queerats brings about the question, what does it mean to be human; and if it's not the essence of human DNA, then is it simply based off appearance? Even the telekinetic humans, at what point in history did they begin to lose their sense of humanity?

What I found most interesting about this anime was time period that it took place. Despite the anime having been set in the future after society is built on the foundation of telekinesis, society looks to have regressed as high level technology is rarely if even at all shown throughout the anime. It seems now that society's focus has shifted from advancing technology to now advancing in telekinetic practices.

This anime in particular was chalk full of references of the so called "wild child" case. It was the possibility of fiends that everyone was so obsessed with preventing that drove the human population to kill of any children who did not show signs of telekinetic ability. Throughout Saki's childhood, there was a constant paranoia that she herself would be eliminated if she didn't begin to show signs of telekinetic powers. Despite her parents knowing that Saki is a good child at heart, even they would fear for their safety if Saki was left to live with the ability to kill humans and not be killed for it. Another point I would like to make is in regards to the picture above, the character shown seemed to possess what was at the time the highest and most powerful level of telekinesis exhibited in any of the villagers, which we can make the assumption that he is a master of high status. However, despite his overwhelming strength and ability, he was still obliterated by the fiend as it was his social contract that made it impossible for him to kill another human being. I feel as if the anime is critiquing the way in which society is responding to potential threats in younger kids. That a system of constant surveillance and harsh punishments for children who step out of line is ultimately going to lead to chaos. The adults should be trying to understand what makes children violent and not simply snuff them out, because they are to ignorant to understand.

hopefullycompetentmediaanalysis

Psycho-Pass

A really important principle of psychology is that you cannot know the mind of another. Psycho-Pass presents a world where we do have that power, and its used to oppress. The show reminds me of Minority Report. They have somewhat similar concepts, some technological tool creates a new kind of surveillance, and then the police use that surveillance. In minority report its the ability to see the future, in Psycho-Pass its the ability to know the mind of another.

I found that Psycho-Pass doesnt really have a clear protagonist or antagonist/ good guy or bad guy. makishima is a revolutionary with a callous disregard for the lives of others, they see the people around them as livestock whose lives are meaningless. ... thats bad, that's some evil antagonist stuff. But at the same time he is trying to destroy the system that is doing the oppressing. Makishima has seemingly found the subjectively of power and is set on destroying it. Destroying the system of oppression is a good thing. Makishima is an incredibly grey character, and i love that.

The education system prepares people for work under capitalism. The inciting incident in A Place Further Than the Universe was confronting that fact. In Psycho-Pass the show mainly focuses on how the Sibyl system prevents crime, but to me that doesn't read as why the system exists. Like most things it exists due to capitalism, controlling the thoughts of everyone through surveillance lets you make the perfect workers. I wish the show explored how the Syble system chooses jobs for more people.

As one last note, the dominators are a horrifying thing, it removes all responsibility from the one doing the killing and instead moves that responsibility to a nebulous system that is always correct.

animatedworld22

I totally agree with you on the fact that the dominators are extremely terrifying in the sense that they disassociate the one pulling the trigger with the action of killing their target due to the idea that the Sibyl system couldn't be in the wrong if it were to encourage the operator to fire. I think that this contributes to how the individuality and independence of the public is greatly reduced when it is led by an absolute overseer that seems to contain bottomless knowledge. The system is so trusted that people would abandon their own opinion or choice entirely if the system declared them to do so. I also found it interesting that you pointed out the theme of capitalism and neoliberalism in the system's ability to match any one person up with a job that claims directly correlates to their natural talents and interests. That is something that was super important that I managed to completely overlook.

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