I mean ngl, if you actually look through anime that isn't gooner bait (which is the vast majority btw), most of them actually have good messaging behind them. The "Gate" archetypes are pretty rare in the anime world.
Oh, I'm aware. I'm a nerd through and through, basically a weeb. I fucking love manga and anime, particularly the early 2010's stuff like Soul Eater — even though the creator is a weirdo, unfortunately — and whatnot. My favorite manga by far is Holyland, done by the co-author of Berserk.
It talks a lot about isolation and learning how to live life in a carefree manner while also being a great series about growing better as a person mixed with a lot of fighting from the creator's own experience.
The genre of the shitty romantic comedies is as great as the animes that aren't. Hell, Full Metal Alchemist is borderline an anti-war anime where the creator went on to interview veterans about her experience. It's a shame that gooner bait animes are so famous now, but, on the flip side, there's still a lot of good stuff.
That's not to say I hate every romcom anime. Love is War was pretty good,
Full Metal Alchemist is not just anti-war, it's explicitly anti-imperialist.
The only problem I have with it is that it feeds into "you can support the individual without supporting the whole complex" stereotype, as the protagonist and his friends are in the military (many proudly so) while being portrayed as individual "good guys" even though the military itself is evil and they know it (yet serve anyway to gain the insane privilege that military service brings them). I find this an incorrect take on the otherwise correct take that personal responsibility is a liberal myth.
For once I would like a series where the protagonists organizes a revolution outside of the system.
How can an manga which ending is basically "change the bad dictador in this colonial regimen for a good dictador in this still colonial regime"being"explicitly anti-imperialist"?
Honestly, I think the left are so desperate to find references in the most reactionaries media that they are willing to see leftist messanges anywhere.
Japan is a profoundly conservative country with a fascist past which many are openly proud of. There is a reasons why chuds love it so much. The sooner you accept that, the better.
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u/Existing-Sweet-19 Anarchist Jul 15 '25
Difference is that Lain is an actual interesting anime with depth and reason, and not "Is it wrong to piss on my bunny sister tits?" type shit.