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Paracelsus posted:Now we get to find out whatever terrible system is behind Shinju and the vertexes. My money is on a Bokurano-style elimination game between alternate realities, with the "vertexes" being other worlds' magical girls. That was my suspicion from the start as well, the vertexes had a distorted magical girl motif, and you can tell they are dangerously intelligent. Since this the "era of the gods", my suspicion is that earth has been split into the dominions of many gods (of which Shinju is one, and it and the Taisho are no secrets to the general populace). Some great unravelling has occurred in the past, there is absolutely no mention of foreign countries. The main characters use distinct flower and Shinto visual motifs, to signify how Japanese they are. So there's something uncomfortably nationalist about a show all about Defending the Homeland Against the Foreigners. Bokurano wasn't afraid to make you question yourself. What little I'd seen about Akame ga Kill was that it was deliberately edgy as gently caress. Still waiting for the shoe to drop here.
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Nov 8, 2014 02:42
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 06:31 |
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3/5
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Nov 14, 2014 08:56
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It's a valuable detail because it shows that the place, despite how it's been isolated and twisted by the Taisha, still shows signs of human life. Edit: Rahxephon, which has a "Japanese enclave isolated by otherworldly powers", couldn't adequately portray a fully human city. It had a tendency of making the place look sterile and inhuman. And now that I think about it, YYY doesn't really either. Phobophilia fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Nov 17, 2014 |
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Nov 17, 2014 09:26
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This is not anti-nationalistic in the slightest. Everything is being played completely straight. The Taisha, while shadowy, are being portrayed as having the best interests at heart. Outsiders are completely dehumanised. The show is framed a "defence of the homeland" scenario, which is a mainstay of nationalistic works. Meanwhile, it is impossible to honestly talk about Japan's role in WW2 without noting that they were an imperialistic power waging a war of aggression across the Asia Pacific (and that's not even getting into the casual murder of civilians like they were no longer a post-Enlightenment society). If you want an anime that criticises Japanese nationalism, go watch RahXephon, which starts with a "defence of the homeland", and then immediately transplants the POV to the outsiders.
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Dec 1, 2014 20:58
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Benevolent for the greater society. There are no insinuations that their authority is illegitimate. It's a sacrifice that many people would gladly make.
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Dec 2, 2014 05:55
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There exists alot of magical girl shows out there, and most of them don't use this kind of nationalistic and WW2 imagery. This one does. It's like if the Stargate was used to colonise other worlds, and they started using colonialist or native american imagery in the meantime, and they wholeheartedly took the side of the colonists. Then people would jump the gently caress on them as well. But Stargate was mostly exploratory and diplomatic, so no one comes out of it going Colonialism Is Okay. You can judge American sci fi through the same lens as well. Some don't use these themes at all. Some happily take the side of the oppressor. Some hand wring. These, like YYY, are also worthy of consideration.
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Dec 3, 2014 22:14
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You know, this is finally the suffering payoff that everything had been building towards, and that everyone had been hoping for. It's alot better than what I'd expected from Seiji Kishi (who everyone loves to make fun of). It's quite straightforward, I don't think they will be dropping a reveal that the Taisha's cause isn't worth fighting and sacrificing for. Yes, sealing the Vertexes cause damage to the real world, but there is zero evidence that the Vertexes are benign. Ultimately, it's a "sacrifice of the few for the good of the many" that ticks the right emotional boxes. Of course, we really can't get out of the subtext that this show came out during a particularly... nationalistic period in Japan, but it's not really needed to enjoy the story. It's the same kind of context that many western shows constantly deal with (like 24 or The Dark Knight Returns or Zero Dark Thirty or Red Dawn etc). Finally, I don't think Togo is actually suicidal, but was simply testing the Taisha's enforcement mechanisms.
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Dec 5, 2014 09:55
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Well it was pretty overt, beyond that of the usual "defence of the homeland" scenarios. Of course, they threw a spanner in the works when the most patriotic of all the magical girls decided to burn the place down and spare the suffering of the people. Unless that's a metaphor for Japanese nationalists wanting to destroy the civilian population for their perceived betrayal.
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Dec 12, 2014 12:12
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 06:31 |
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This show really needed a sombre ending, not a completely light-hearted one. If you're going to push a theme of "delaying the inevitable", then you'd better follow up on it with an actual heroic sacrifice buying a bit more time for the land. On the other hand, they did punch a giant sun out, which probably puts to rest my misgivings about Japanese nationalism.
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Dec 26, 2014 03:39
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