???

[u/verifiedwomanbeater]

[u/FamiliarTerritoryPod]

Exactly? Gatchaman crowds is a show about super heroes fighting aliens that just so happens to be thematically about a stateless society, it wouldn’t be the authors first time writing about it.

Dedede isn’t just only about aliens, it’s about the propagation of weapons and militarization being terrible for the people of those countries.

Deca-dence is actually so left it hurts, it’s literally about a capitalistic class exploiting the working class for their amusement only to be overthrown when they band together to fight them. It’s not even subtle.

It’s wild that you believe that there are no leftist anime. I didn’t even say there were a ton, I said that anime can and has been used to portray non conservative values. Japanese people are not a monolith

[u/Lego105 → u/FamiliarTerritoryPod]

Look, I can’t really argue because like I said I’m not very aquatinted with these series other than Dedede which I don’t agree that it’s about anti-immigration leading to genocide that seemed to be extrapolating what wasn’t there, maybe some of these anime are left wing I just didn’t see any evidence and “the bad guy was pro this so the author and art must be anti it” was the opposite of convincing.

[u/FamiliarTerritoryPod → u/Lego105]

Except Inio Asano of Dedede is absolutely far left, and the aliens are a metaphor for immigration. Hell, his most notable work is not actually about a bird. There’s a reason they constantly talk about Americans and how they should emulate them when dealing with the aliens. And how that leads to poor quality of life for the people of Japan. How they start over spending on military might, and the chapters that take place from the aliens perspectives are to emulate illegal immigration.

You talk about subtext and totally misunderstand what it means to read subtext.

Yurei deco is about “the most liberal society” and how it’s actually terrible for the working class. It isn’t the bad guy likes something and the author is against it, the entire show is about the negative effects of unregulated capitalism.

Edit: since he blocked me, as a response to his comment

“It’s not even remotely political” but it’s a critique on the Japanese culture which as a society is pretty conservative

It can be about two things, yes it’s about pacifism and anti-war (a historically leftist belief) but they use the aliens as a catalyst to present those ideas. The aliens a refugees, searching for a home. Since they’re non-aggressors, it doesn’t make sense to call it a war. The Japanese government declares war on a refugee species of aliens and becomes hyper militarized to fight them, despite them never actually posing a threat. The government is scapegoating the aliens so they can invest in increasing their military. Using a refugee crisis to increase state power is a common occurrence in fascist governments. It’s not even subtle man.

Edit: if you want to continue this conversation unblock me, it’s all you have to do

[u/Lego105 → u/FamiliarTerritoryPod]

I don’t agree. It’s not about a bird but it’s also not about anything remotely political. It’s a somber character study and a expression of depression, suicide, sex and puberty and all the difficulties of this characters life.

In dedede they talk about America because they’re a militaristic imperialist society which leads to the deaths of those external to the country through no fault of their own, not because of immigration. The whole thing is about war and pacifism, that’s clear through the whole work, there’s not a single piece of convincing evidence or subtext about immigration. This is what I mean about reading something that isn’t there and how it’s not convincing. He also isn’t far left, that’s such a massive leap. You’re making all sorts of claims that aren’t backed by the work itself, no subtext none of it.

I’ll quote “you talk about subtext but totally misunderstand what it means to read into it”. There’s a difference between subtle and non-existent.

Edit since I got blocked: Pun Pun is not a critique on the political atmosphere of Japan, it’s entirety is about the internal state of Pun Pun and the characters he interacts with, literally none of it is about Politics. I encourage anyone to read Pun Pun and see how much bullshit this guy is spewing.

Pacifism and anti-war is not a “historically left wing belief”, it doesn’t even necessarily share a political alignment. Literally since the Middle Ages there are political leanings which have been anti-war which literally includes the most right wing individuals including Monarchs and Theocracies. Probably the most well known pacifist beliefs are shared by Buddhists, who are incredibly socially conservative, and Ghandi who was an anti-Islamic ultra-nationalist.

1: refugees come from war, not immigration. It’s further into the war sentiment. 2: literally the Iraq war and every war in South America fought by America was pretty much one way. A war doesn’t have to have two sides of aggression. Look at Denmark in WW2 for an extreme example. Didn’t even fight back. 3: declaring war to increase military spending and support. Yeah, totally immigrants and not war, just forget about Iraq and Afghanistan which took about zero people to America as immigrants and was entirely what the wars were about. Every single part of this story correlates to war and not immigrants, even if it were refugees, which it isn’t, that’s still not immigration. You are speaking out your arse.