マックスのブログ

[alvint555]

Perfect Blue - 4/22/2020

     Well Perfect Blue was certainly an interesting anime to experience. I got pretty confused halfway through the anime, and I’m still not sure if I understand it or not. The anime has a very clear message about the pressures associated with being an idol singer or actress and how they can push people to do things that they don’t want to do. In order to succeed in the field of acting, Mima had to agree to a rape scene in a drama and revealing photo shoots. Since she was doing things which she normally wouldn’t have agreed to doing, she began to have a split personality where she saw her actress self and her idol singer self as two different people. She even began using the fan blog as a way of seeing what she did in a day as an idol singer rather than enjoying her life as an actress. Apparently Rumi felt the same way and dressed up as Mima, the idol singer, in an attempt to make Mima go back to “normal” and not act anymore.

     I’m still not sure who murdered who in this movie. It became confusing as illusion and real life began to merge. At the end, however, Mima seemed to have grown accustomed to her life as an actress after being almost murdered by her old manager. Rumi seemed to be the one who placed the most pressure on Mima to return to being an idol singer which was the cause of illusion and reality merging together. Now that she was in the psychiatric hospital, Mima could come back to reality and was able to succeed as an actress. She was also being pressured by the stalker who wrote the blog, but he seemed to be dead in reality, and I’m still not sure if it was Mima who killed him.

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I agree that this movie was quite interesting and I too was quite confused for most of the duration of it. However, I definitely saw some things that could be taken away. The first was that the idol industry is extremely pressuring and requires a certain amount of strength to compose yourself and distinguish life as an idol(the person your portraying on the stage) and as a person(who you are aside from idol life) separately. I also saw it as a commentary on fan/otaku’s being obsessive and thinking that the idol portrayed on stage is the same as the real person behind that idol. We see that not being able to distinguish that difference is the biggest problem for an otaku/fan and one should be idolizing the idol not the person behind that idol mask.

[yin-huang]

Death Parade

I have watched the entire Death Parade before. My favorite one is undoubtedly the story of episodes 8 and 9. I have to express that the anime performance at the end of episode 9 is amazing and breathtaking, which has even become one of the most impressive ending scenes of the anime in my heart. The young man stabs the coin that represents the organs of the policeman, and at this time the ending music sounds, interspersing with memories of the young man and his sister. Finally the man who destroys all the coins laughs and says, “Brother can protect you this time”. It is heart wrenching.

The interesting part of this anime is the process of the inspector testing humans’ hearts. By using different death games, the inspector can forcibly find out the dark side of the detected person. Episode 1 and 2 expose the psychological state of couples in society. One of the themes in episode 8 and 9 is about the huge damage to individuals and society caused by violence and sexual assault. They also expose the psychological state of the police and crime. In addition, what made me feel interesting is the story of another inspector who tests a male idol and his female fan. The female fan thought that she can sacrifice her life to save the idol, while the idol always thinks about creating an “accident” and makes the girl fall into the abyss. However, these activities have downsides. As the heroine says, such an approach is insufficient and inappropriate. The people’s hearts are complicated and everyone has various persona. Forcibly taking out the dark side is unable to fully understand this person.

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I agree that I found that the first two episodes focused on violence and sexual assault but I also think it played into something about the the human psyche. In situations like these games humans revert to their feral instincts. I think that the way decim judged them played into how society is unfair and doesn’t view all individuals equally especially dependent on education and career. We see the doctor get the favorable outcome regardless of his spouses good intentions.

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Death Parade

I watched the first episode of death parade a few years ago and I kind of abandoned it after that because it didn’t intrigue me in the first place. And honestly this time around I couldn’t really say that my mind has completely changed. I still think one of the only things that I really enjoy about this anime is the opening because it is so damn catchy. 

However, I think the anime provides a useful commentary on society and how people are perceived. From the first two episodes alone we saw how judgement is very subjective even in a situation where it seems like Decim will always make the proper judgement. In my opinion Decim was representative of how society judges individuals, especially, those within Japanese society. The couple we saw at the beginning was the perfect example of this. Machinko clearly had good intentions in her actions. She did cheat on her husband but it was something that she obviously showed regret for. In the game she was the victor but she snapped at him in order to keep him at ease in the situation. We see that she gets judged to get her soul put into the void and her husband gets his reincarnated. Decim bases his decisions on who he thinks have led a fulfilled life. Despite Machinko’s attempt to requiem for her actions Decim(society) ignores her and still puts her at fault for them. However, for the doctor who has led a fulfilled life he provides him with reincarnation. It kind of made me think about how many idols and celebrities in Japan can fall out of the life they have achieved with just one slip up. For example, if an actor gets caught of smoking weed they have essentially sabotaged their career and I think it is representative of how Japanese society judges individuals. One mistake and your out no matter how safe you thought you were. And you always get praised and rewarded for following the status cuo and living a life that is deemed socially acceptable(and that’s one that is usually rid of any major faults).

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Violet Evergarden

Because Violet Evergarden was on my list to watch, I binged the series. I really didn’t know what to expect, only from people who said “ the feels”, and yes, there were the feels. 

Since I watched the whole series, I found different themes then the ones that were presented in the select episodes we were assigned. However, for the episodes that were chosen, the main idea was presented on how people react to the lost of their loves. For episode 9, we learn that Major Gilbert was someone who Violet treasured dearly  (and if you watched the whole series, you realize how dependent she was to him) that was missing in action after the war. In episode 10, we follow the story of a young girl who is about to lose her mother. Her mother, knowing her end is near, hires Violet to write letters to her daughter for the next 50 years of her life, showing that she is still with her. In the OVA, we follow an opera singer who lost her lover and the conductor who lost his son in the war. The opera singer is obsessed with presenting the perfect song to convey her feelings bout the matter, as she wants to touch many hearts who have suffered the same situation due to the terrible war. The theme that I got, as cliche as it is, is that the people who you lost will still forever be in your heart. As in episode 9, Violet comes to peace when she talks to Gilbert’s mother and the both say “ Gilbert will always be in our hearts”. In episode 10, the message is conveyed through the letters that the daughter will receive for the next 50 years. Even though her mother has passed away, her letters show how precious her daughter is and thinking of her future, resulting in the daughter not feeling as lonely as she thought she would be. Lastly, in the OVA, the song lyrics really conveyed how even though you may have passed away, “Love is always”. Even though all us may not have experienced a love one pass away, all of us will experience sooner or later because we are humans. Regardless of the circumstances, grieving for our loved ones and moving on is a very difficult and emotional time, and I think this Violet Evergarden presented this topic in a delicate and beautiful way. 

Watching the beginning, it was clear how robotic Violet was. She had to act based on orders given by Major Gilbert. In addition, how she was very blunt to the Evergarden family about sensitive topic like their dead son. As this anime was about the growth of Violet, one of the main conflicts was Violet’s purpose in life. Violet had deemed herself a tool for war, so when the war was basically over, her purpose in life was challenged. Furthermore, it is more impacted by the fact that doesn’t understand emotions and living for herself, as she dedicated herself as a tool for Major Gilbert. As we know Gilbert did not think of her as a tool but as girl who he loved and wanted the best, his last words to Violet, “I love you”, propelled her to try and understand these human emotions; thus, resulting in finding her meaning in life. I feel like all of us has dealt with this kind of problem, where finding our purpose is uncertain. I know for me that I haven’t truly found my purpose in life and I am just going with the flow with a vague idea of what I think I want to do, so watching this made me feel happy for Violet, as she found her place and meaning in her world. 

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I agree that to some extent this anime was about grieving with loss but I think that discovered your inner emotions was also a theme. The entire story Violet seems to not even be bottling up her emotions but rather acting like a robot. However she isn’t a doll as Ann suggested and she isn’t a robot either she is a human and regardless of how dead inside you feel emotions will have an impact. Eventually Violet breaks down at the end of Episode 10 and I think that went to show that emotions can penetrate through everyone especially when coping with loss.

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Violet Evergarden

After watching Violet Evergarden I was blessed with the beautiful animation and soundtrack that accompanied it and the nice story progression. However, the thing that stood out to me most were the themes regarding the military and the importance of communication.

Throughout the episodes we see Violet barely progress socially. From the start she acts like a robot and teaches everyone like a total stranger and that’s because that’s what she has been conditioned to to her whole life. She has been a dog to the military and has had no real life outside of it ever since the age of 10 which is why when the military ends she retains her cold and shut off personality. However, we do see some emotions affect her in episode 10 when she finally comes to her realization over Gilbert and the words “I love you”. It is in this episode that we see the frustration of Ann coming to a heap and we see Violet making strides in her own emotional context.

Overall, I think this anime came here to discuss emotions and how we handle our pasts. Whether it be a child or a girl that has grown numb because of the military we all must reconcile the past.

[cyang2000]

4/13 Sensoron

I’ve read a lot of manga, but none have really taken such an inflammatory tone as Kobayashi’s Sensoron. Not just manga, but this is one of the most controversial texts that I’ve read on the subject. Kobayashi holds views that would be heavily frowned upon today, or even when he wrote this manga. It challenges a status quo of “peace” and it seems to want to recite the Japanese national sentiment that led to their imperial conquest pre WWII. 

One thing I agree with Kobayashi upon is how information and evidence is used by those in power to manipulate narratives. Kobayashi does the same thing in Sensoron. By pointing out the “fake” narratives crafted by the US and China during post-war Japan’s reconstruction, he wants to enforce his own narrative that empowers Japanese national sentiment. Whether or not the evidence he tries to point out the Nanjing Massacre as fake really is fake, I think it’s almost certain that some of the gruesome events described by witnesses firsthand occurred. Of course China is going to exaggerate the severity the event to try to control the narrative and gain some power over Japan. Kobayashi takes this to the extreme with his takes on events that occurred. Despite being born in the post-war generation, he desperately tries to cling to this narrative of war that empowers the Japanese people. Perhaps he feels disillusioned with the “brainwashed” postwar generation now that Japan is no longer a major imperial power. Sensoron is an attempt to give power back to Japan following the collapse of the grand narrative of war. Kobayashi himself seems to be personally burdened with the Aum cult which could lead to his fixation of brainwashing techniques. Today, I do think information is manipulated and used by governments to influence the population, but not to the extent that Kobayashi posits. Nevertheless, history is written by the victors, and that is an issue that Kobayashi brings up that the public has to deal with in our modern era.

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I agree with the sentiment that manipulating narratives is wrong and other countries must have contributed to this as well. However, it was quite hypocritical of him to point that out and then use that manipulated narrative in order to support his manipulated narrative.

[maxs-animoo]

Sensoron

This manga sure knows how to be quite controversial. From the second the whole pooping fiasco finished it was clear the direction this manga was going to take. And that direction would be the radical nationalistic one.

For a manga published in 1998 it portrays an extremely dated viewpoint on wartime Japan and on the events that occured during WWII. Kobayashi rants about how Japan has been brainwashed by America and this brainwashing is still instilled in them to this day. He claims that America and other nations unrightfully took Japanese generals and such to court after the war and they framed all of the bad actions on Japan. I think that this topic in and of itself is very debatable and even though I have learned about all of the history before I don’t really know what conclusion I should come to. On one hand it is true that Japanese generals took a big hit from the war, however, on the other hand these generals had done horrible things regardless of whether or not Kobayashi wants to admit it. Both Korea and China were abused by Japan whether it be comfort women or the rape of Nanking there is clear history to tell us this. Kobayashi attempts to deny the severity of Nanking as well as put down the victims of Japanese occupation with his trivial evidence. I think that Kobayashi is trying to stir even more hate for China and Korea within Japanese society by putting these ideas out there. 

Also back to the brainwashing thing. I think that regardless of whether or not America impacted Japan with their politics and occupation following WWII, America did good for Japan. The Japanese Government were the ones perpetuating the war longer than it needed to be. The likelihood of success continually diminished yet they dragged on the war and inflicted suffering upon the average citizen. They literally brought their country down just an attempt to keep their pride. Obviously America utilized a very severe end game in order to put an end to the war. I don’t know if I can say that this was justified simply because we don’t know how many more lives would’ve been lost if the war continued.

 I don’t want to say that America is directly responsible for how Japan has become today. Our occupation (in my humble opinion) benefited Japanese society because we changed their governmental structure. If Japan had kept its previous militarinistic(idk how to spell that) structure I think that their society may have progressed to become something similar to North Korea today. Which is why I think it was positive, however, this topic is too hard to debate without introducing opinion into the mix honestly. I just think that if everyone owned up for what was done and stopped pointing fingers it would be better for everyone in the end.

[elliekimono]

Your Name

This was my first time watching Your Name and I really liked it. It had some really beautiful scenes and animation, and I definitely cried. Many times, I wondered why no one really noticed the changes between the two, but analyzing plot holes isn’t quite productive. However, I’m still going to question it anyways. First, there’s a interesting fact that it seems both Mitsuha and Taki has nontraditional family structures. We never see Taki’s other parent so we can assume that Taki only has a single father. And as a single father in the city, he’s clearly busy working as he only shortly appears when Mitsuha is in Taki’s body, therefore it makes sense he doesn’t notice the change in Taki. However, its strange that his friends don’t question the change in behavior beyond the shallow questioning. Mitsuha’s family is also much more involved in her life aside from her father. It can easily be disregarded though considering the setting of the world and the ability of time to twist and change memories even on technical devices. However, like in Wolf Children, we see the difference between urban and rural settings. Although the people in the rural setting complain about the lack of entertainment, there is a distinct lack of family in the urban setting. Even with the bad relationship between Mitsuha and her father, he realizes that Mitsuha isn’t Mitsuha. Along with her grandmother, those are the only people that realize that Mitsuha is someone else. Everyone also seems to know everyone in her town. However, in the city, many people seem pretty distant to Taki aside from his few friends and his coworkers. 

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For one, I don’t think their family structures are that nontraditional. Obviously they deviate from what the society deems as the norm but I think that they appear quite often in society as the ideal family is(as we previously discussed) a simulation/simulacra of reality. I also thought that it related to the wolf children themes because of the countryside vs city setting.

[maxs-animoo]

君の名は。

I watched this movie for the first time in 2017 and it was my first real anime movie(after I had become conscious of the anime I was watching). And honestly its still probably in my top 5 anime I have watched and it keeps holding that spot in spite of the anime I am continuously watching and adding to my list. The first time I watched I couldn’t help but cry when Taki and Mitsuha had their fleeting meeting on the hill and rather than right his name he wrote I love you. 

Regardless of the emotional content the show holds a lot of different messages regarding gender roles and how society perceives people. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was how Taki and all of his coworkers are flustered and seemingly in love with Okudera, however, it only when Mitsuha is in Taki’s body that he is able to actually make a move on her. Although the relationship ultimately goes nowhere it shows that acting as macho buff masculine guy doesn’t always get you the girl. In fact, displaying more feminine traits and breaking the typical gender roles actually proves to be useful. Similarly, when Taki is in Mitsuha’s body he sticks up for Mitsuha being bad mouthed by her classmates. 

The anime also showed us the difference between traditional and modern Japan. Taki lives in the city and Mitsuha lives in the countryside and her family owns the local shrine. We see how both of them almost long for each other’s live and I think this might speak to the themes we discussed in wolf children. But also I think the anime teases with everyone wanting what they don’t have. ‘The grass is always greener on the other side’ sort of thing.

[animezoomer]

Hetalia is problematic

Hetalia at it’s core is a political satire, but its tendency to simplify complex issues results in the promotion of problematic ideologies. This web series is a carefree illustration of international relations from all eras of history. A lot of the issues stem from it mainly focusing on WWII, in which Hetalia portrays the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan, as the main protagonists. The show deliberately ignores fascist Germany and Italy, as well as Imperial Japan. This web series demonstrates Japan’s penchant of erasing history in regard to it’s actions during WWII. In the 1990s, their were several controversies regarding history textbooks downplaying Japanese war crimes and Japanese imperialism. Even today, there is a lot of pressure to discuss Japan’s actions during WWII with politicians and media not even willing to start a conversation. It’s only when victims of Japanese imperialism speak up does the government acknowledge it’s previous regimes actions.

Remnants of Japan’s imperialistic mindset still exist within Hetalia. In the article, “World Conflict”, Sandra Annet elaborates upon the South Korean criticism towards Hetalia. She states, “Though Japan’s colonization of Korea is not directly shown in Hetalia, the diminishment of Korea’s concerns and the infantilization of his character are consistent with more general depictions of colonized nations throughout the web comic and anime.” This portrayal of South Korea as colonized is problematic as portrays Korea in a an offensive manner. Annet also discusses how Himaruya disputes South Korean sovereignty for Dokdo in his interpretation of Japan South Korea relations. This particular comic ended up harming Japan’s reputation in Korea rather than spreading a message of cooperation. Overall, I feel that Himaruya had nothing but positive intentions when writing this series, but the simplification of history makes the illustrated imagery problematic in nature.

[maxs-animoo]

I agree that the portrayal may have been problematic in nature but I think that media like this should be taken with a grain of salt. For god’s sake its literally a satirical anime and people get so butt hurt over everything. A lot of the time its clear how Japan intends to cover up its past, however, i think that there is no reason to portray Japan’s horrible actions in an anime series purposefully made to make fun of history. Pretty sure that if this anime was made in Germany they wouldn’t just go around flashing images about the holocaust and joking about it. Obviously there are certain topics that should and shouldn’t be discussed in situations like these. 

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Hetalia

I didn’t know what to expect from this anime considering I had never watched it before. I’ve overheard my friends mention the name in passing but for some reason I just thought that it was an actual historical rendition of world events. To my surprise I was greeted with a light-hearted(almost satirical) anime that had a lot to offer in terms of the history it presented and the way it represented the other countries. 

To start off Hetalia basically went through certain historical events(many related to WWI and WWII) and showed all of the different characters(representing the different countries) either re-enacting events or discussing/arguing over them. Many of the characters, within representing their countries, perpetuated certain stereotypes in order to fit their role. In my opinion because this is anime, I really don’t think that these stereotypes are that harmful if the audience watching is already educated on the topics. However, I understand where the author in ‘Anime Conflict’ was going in their argument about these stereotypes. Because of the way the anime downplayed the events and represented certain countries as acting in certain ways I could see how that would be harmful(especially for the people from the countries being represented in a bad light). 

HOWEVER, THIS IS AN ANIME...... Why do people get so triggered over media that they don’t need to consume if they don’t have to consume it. Yes they may be under-representing certain countries or portraying war events incorrectly but this is media that isn’t intended to be used for educational purposes. If you want to learn about history go read a textbook or research. There is popular media from literally every country that probably promotes that country’s nationalistic views and such. The Japanese treated many of their inhabited countries unfairly during their occupation especially Korea and certain areas of China during the wars. This is common information and although its misrepresented in media and in other places if you research properly or take a class this becomes basic information. If you want to complain about an anime or cartoon show go do it and have fun. I personally think if you want to take an anime like this seriously then its your problem.

[tuzzler]

xenoblade chronicles 2!

I have absolutely no prior knowledge on the xenoblade franchise so it’s interesting on first watch. As far as thematic issues, we are examining the same problems of environmental difficulties that we saw in Nausicaa but of course with a different enough plot to examine different issues. People begin fighting for land as it starts becoming more scarce due to the worlds “Titans” dying and the land disappearing and this is something that we always see as scarcity breeds competition but what is highlighted in the game is the fact that in these people fighting they aren’t really solving any issues on a large scale. Humanity has had a lot of influence but with this big issue at hand there is a lot at stake because it is not like the Titans are something that humanity can keep alive it seems and Rex begins looking for an alternative which we find out is Elysium. This sort of thing just for a moment reminds me of the fact that in our own world there have been talks of populating other planets within our solar system to finding some sort of sister planet similar to earth which just avoids the entire issue of fixing all the problems that we have caused. Elysium is that sort of place that has been unaffected by everything and a blank slate for humanity to restart on but at the end of it all we find out that there really is no sort of alternative that avoids the problems that we’re dealing with. So if there is nothing to do that will keep humanity from perishing as a result of all the things that have affected the world around us, then the Age of the Anthropocene will be no more. As far as how all these issues are represented in the characters in the game it’s sort of done by showing how all these people have been also affected by the world around them and their own decisions are shaped by those things. There are many inherent flaws that everyone shows, some more than others.

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I agree that this did in fact mirror some other events in the real world. But something that I think we could reference this game’s cut-scenes to was a grand narrative. Rex doesn’t really have any other solution besides “getting to Elysium” and if they get there everything will be all beautiful and there will be no problems. And I think this is relateable to how some governments that pushed grand narratives just were trying to reach a place or time that resembled something perfect in the past or in their memory. This was Elysium to Rex, some mystical land that he thinks will solve everyone’s problems.

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Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Before I dive into a little more about this anime I just want to say that I enjoyed it much more than I thought I was going to before watching. Normally I am quick to judge an anime by visual elements and despite this being quite beautiful for a game I didn’t have high expectations. 

Regardless it was kind of a crazy ride. We start out the cut scenes with Rex scavenging for treasure in the depths of the ocean. We see his character as someone who is quite optimistic and happy go lucky. We see that this behavior leads him to quickly accept any position given to him from a person of power. When he is initially offered the job from the chairman with the whopping 200,000 gold payout he instantly accepts it without even inquiring further into the mission(although this could just be stupidity I also thing it was playing into the capitalistic themes we have talked extensively about throughout the semester). His stupidity leads to his swift death and betrayal from one of his allies and he eventually ends up in the Elysium of his memories/dreams?? where Pyra revives him and makes him into her driver. Pyra is what is known as the Aegis and I think that her existence is representative of some sort of symbol of power. However, after reading some of my classmates blogs I actually started to like the idea that she was in someway related to the environment and her relationship with Rex was somewhat symbolic of the ideal relationship with nature. This relationship is that humans should use nature as they please, however, with good intent and in moderation. Additionally, Rex keeps talking about how if humans are able to reach the Elysium they will be able to have unlimited resources and the world will be void of conflict because everyone will be fulfilled. However, we see that it takes the death of Mythra(/Pyra) in order to reach the Elysium which to me made me think that there was a different message the story was trying to get at. Possibly we must use the resources we have now and make sure to not waste them because we see time and time again humans sacrificing nature just to reach their greedy end goal. 

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Otakumentary

Watching the 'True Otaku’ really opened my eyes more to fan culture around Anime and other Cool Japan concepts in America. The documentary is quite old but I don’t really think that the concept of the fandom has changed that much overtime and therefore the documentary still remains quite relevant 8 years later. Some things the documentary talked about that I found interesting were: establishing a community through hobbies, the passion in cosplaying, comparing the term otaku in America to Japan, and how anime has become an international phenomenon(the interview with the Japanese guy about culture).

To start, I think that the way the documentary discussed fan culture as a way to establish a community and embrace your hobbies really resonated with me. A lot of the anime goers and the people at the convention were enthusiastic because they normally find it difficult to find people that share their hobbies and don’t mock them for it. At a convention they are able to connect with people of all walks of life who just share their interest in otaku culture. One of the best examples of this was the girl who was cosplaying as peach who stated that she has a passion in anime yet has a completely different career path(something with the airforce). Basically what I am getting at here is how the convention lets people meet others with the same hobbies. In my own experience, I have never been to a convention but I have been to gaming tournaments. I used to play DOTA 2 a lot and went to a tournament in New York. Prior to having gone I thought that those events were kind of cringey but I still wanted to go and my friend did as well. Upon going I realized how nice it is to be surrounded by people with all of the same hobbies and passion about a game. Similarly, in every day life I tend to make friends more easily with those who share my hobbies. I listen to a lot of Korean and Japanese music and dabble in anime and video games and I think its easier to click with people you can share your interests with. 

Another thing I noticed was the sheer compassion that many of the people put into cosplay. We saw DustBunny who initially got into it as a hobby but became engrossed in it and really found it fun to compete with her cosplays. A lot of the people seemed that they liked taking the role of that character, getting attention, and just submerging themselves in the fictional worlds that they consume to the best of their ability. This submergence is what we discussed in class when we discussed Otaku and how they can’t consume the fiction worlds they idolize so they rather attempt to replicate it in the real world. Cosplay, Doujinshis, and other fan art are forms of this otaku-based consumption that we can see are abundantly present at these conventions. 

The documentary also briefly discussed the word Otaku and how its usage dependent on country differs. In America, Otaku refers to someone who enjoys consuming Japanese pop culture through anime, manga, and games. Whereas in Japan, Otaku is a general term that refers to a ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’ what I mean here is someone who has any sort of obsession/ large interest in a specific thing. 

Lastly, the documentary discussed anime becoming a global phenomenon and how that there are so many different languages and cultures but anime is something that can be consumed in so many places and therefore almost be a bridge between cultures by establishing some sort of common ground. The culture representative stated that when he was in Italy he met students and asked them if they liked anime and they responded with “like anime?? we grew up of with it of course we like it”. This also surprised me a little because that means that anime has been localized into so many different languages and therefore has casted a huge net across the world. Moreover we can relate this to our soft power debate we had in the beginning of the semester. If this many people consume anime all over the world that means that Japan is developing a name for itself, which formerly used to be in electronics and just car companies, and now it is in its popular culture because it is probably consumed at a greater rate than Japanese electronics and car companies at this point. 

Overall I think that the documentary could’ve dived deeper into the history of ‘Otaku’ but I think it was interesting the path they went by showing the audience a sneak peak of a lot of the different current aspects of Otaku culture in America.

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Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Miyazaki always puts out pieces of art and this film was no different than his usual film. The music, the art, and just every little detail he put into it is one of the reasons so many people love Ghibli films. Their beauty always creates enchantment for the audience and their (sometimes)vague yet distinct story telling techniques do the same.

In this film we see war between humans, as well as, a war between humans and the environment. We see the humans constantly polluting and disrespecting the earth whilst simultaneously pitting their selfish desires against each other and therefore ensue a war. The humans initially believe the jungle itself to be a poisonous and harmful entity but after the princess begins growing the jungle plants in her isolated space they are not harmless. I think that this was representative of how nature is pure unless it is polluted by humans or outside forces. In our world there are parts of the world that are extremely clean and beautiful and those that are not so clean. In certain areas in South America the jungle is pristine because no one touches it, however, in other places such as certain overpopulated areas in cities we see rivers and water systems that become so polluted and toxic that they are unable to support any life forms. And the problem at the root(haha like a tree) of it all are humans. Humans selfish intent and hunger to be better than one another always have repercussions on the world around them. Currently some political leaders(not going to name names) believe that global warming is a hoax created by China. This is beneficial to no one literally. It just causes more competition and makes the environment even worse.

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Wandering Son

In Wandering Son, this anime was about the issue of transgender people. We have the main protagonist, Nitori, and the sub-protagonist, Yoshino. In addition, we have another character named Chi, who is a girl who just likes to dress like a “boy”. In this anime, we see the reaction of both genders wearing the opposite clothes of what society deems appropriate. I have never really given much thought about the transgender issues in terms of the difference between a trans-male and a trans-female. When watching this anime, you can clearly see how prejudice the school was when Nitori dressed as a girl. When the other two biological girls, dressed in traditional male uniforms, everyone reacted positively. They called them cool, and Yoshino even got a confession because the kid was like, “you were cool as both”. On the other hand, people who were in support of the girls dressing as boys called Nitori a pervert and weird. For instance, the friend of Chi commented on how Chi isn’t weird like Nitori, even though she is doing the exact thing as him.  This shows the double standards for the genders when they want to break through their given gender roles.  I have never really thought about the nuances of society’s acceptance of transgender people. I knew that our society isn’t as progressive as I would want it to be, but I have never thought about how trans-women reactive more criticism compared to trans-male.

Another thing that I would like to point out is Nitori’s support. Even though the people around Nitori were supportive, I felt like they were also hypocritical. They all supported him, which I believe is the right thing to do, but also didn’t expect him to fully embrace his identity to society. I felt like maybe they were protecting him from society but at the same time, I do not think they were. We saw the comments about how, oh I didn’t think he would actually do it, he is cute I understand why he would want to dress like a girl. These comments to me show that they really didn’t fully understand his position.  I feel like they would have stood up for him and brace him for the harsh criticism. I think they knew that he wouldn’t have a smooth transition like the trans-males because they all were not surprised.

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I think it was really interesting as well. Seeing how Nitori was treated as compared to how the other people on the show were treated when they cross-dressed was kind of eye-opening in regards to how society views gender. I also agree that the comments she was receiving seemed more downgrading sometimes then they did uplifting but it was nice to see that she had a support group to lean in and protect her from people like her teachers and others in society.

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Wandering Son

I think that this is the only piece of media I've consumed from Japan that has approached trans topics and it was quite interesting but kinda refreshing to watch. First off I almost had a heart attack when Nitori dressed in her sister’s clothes and then she walked back in after she forgot her cell phone. Something about the scene just made me really anxious. This scene specifically provoked that emotion because I’m gay and I hadn’t told my parents or anyone up until last summer and honestly even though I can’t relate to wearing girls clothes I could just feel the anxiety of her private side being comprised like that. When people are alone they are more likely to represent themselves as they please but its when other people are around that people start caring about their image and getting judged. Beyond this I just liked how the anime represented the Japanese image towards trans people and how they treated Nitori specifically. Although Nitori’s sister called her disgusting we could still see that she cared for Nitori despite her finding the crossdressing disgusting. However, others in this anime are clearly not as accepting and are much more prone on looking down upon Nitori. The thing that intrigued me the most was probably the difference in treatment between Nitori and Takatsuki and Sarashina. Nitori was ostracized and sent to the nurses office by his teacher whereas whenever the other two would dress up they would get comments on how cool they looked and no one really had a problem. I think that this specific problem provides a good commentary on Japanese society and American for that matter. Men(or those who are born biologically male but actually don’t identify as male) are expected to act masculine and dress like the stereotypically man. As soon as they start dressing a little feminine its a problem. However, when Girls do the same thing society finds it empowering or just cool that they are trying to be different.