How Anime Deals With History (My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Gundam Wing) – Wisecrack Edition
How Anime Deals With History (My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Gundam Wing) – Wisecrack Edition
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Have you ever wondered why so many animes focus on children being trained to fight wars? Just to name a few: My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Black Clover, Gundam Wing, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Beelzebub, Cromartie, Angel Densetsu, Girls Und Panzer, Mahouka Koukou no Rettouse, Kill La Kill… the list goes on. In this Wisecrack Edition, we’ll dive in to Japanese History to discover how the country’s imperial past still influences anime.
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Citations:
Japanese Students at Morning Assembly: https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/kindergarten-students-learn-pre-war-ideals-japan-school
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/legalcode
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Research by: Chris Rinthalukay
Written by: Thomas Ambrosini
Directed by: Michael Luxemburg
Hosted by: Jared Bauer
Edited by: Andrew Nishimura
Motion Graphics by: Drew Levin
Produced by: Evan Yee and Emily Dunbar
© 2019 Wisecrack
September 6, 2019 @ 4:10 am
I think you see echos because you dont make myths like the ones that Empires used to use without a hint of truth, Im libertarian and Im sure youve heard the phrases collectivist and individualist play out quite often- these are parts of human society with advantages and disadvantages. They dont always meet each other morally in fun ways but id say to make a society wholly obsessed with one or the other is uncomfortable for everyone. this is why Ive always considered myself a "moderate" or republican-libertarian. because I cant imagine true objectivity being wholly good. Objectivism plays well with rights and constitution and of course self-actualization. but its opposites tend to handle Law, community cohesion and teamwork better. I played hockey as a young kid and while Im all about freedom and not being controlled sometimes you should just listen to others to get better results. usually this plays out better when you both want the same goals- A job, sports, projects.
my capitalist dreams dont happen without other people investing their time and labor into what I do- You cant forget that. in which case you should always feel like you owe them, which many others have failed to do as they climbed the wealth ranks.the irony of them is that they all eventually become the worst socialists as corporate heads. A tragedy of always imagining the world as dog eat dog- is you never truly credit the people who got you where you are. and I think that makes the self-actualization of capitalists a hollow one. the trumps of the world got to the pinnacle of what capitalism can do and wasted it on their ego. fueling the black and white viewing of collectivism and individualism. Im not gonna be a centrist brat and say both are bad, cause I still think individualism is the realm of morality after all- its where consent, rights and all of those useful moral tools center; I think perception however is exactly why something can go wrong-
think onthe bioshock 2 vid- Im pretty sure many would agree that your assessment of the villain is rather typical of socialist regimes- a contrarian who is either llying about her philosophy or appropriates it. I think this is true of many people who simply falsely accredit the system for their success, rather than the people. and the same happens to the critics as they attack capitalism rather than the misuse of capital for these things. If you can say; the USSR wasnt true socialism- than you can say the same about corporate interest not being true capitalism; as theyre being used in ways that only restrict access to them- and do not properly spread to people.
under corperations wealth doesnt trickle down- under socialism rights and security dont equalize. is it really cause the systems are wrong inherently- or rather that theyre being used by people who dont believe in the good of man- but feel they must enforce good? if thats the problem- can any system truly account for this? I think the answer is no- for all the goods of capitalism people will still misinterpret their place in it. because people are fallible and a good tool misused- is waste.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:11 am
Animorphs
September 6, 2019 @ 4:12 am
I recommend looking up Ground Defense Force! Mao-chan. Three elementary school girls fight for the Japanese military in a bizarre parody of the kid-in-military premise.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:12 am
Please make videos on good funny animes
September 6, 2019 @ 4:13 am
I think you guys fucked up with this one.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:16 am
ok… half those anime you listed about school aged children going to war were a bit of a stretch. I’d call a few of those more like domestic conflicts or random weirdos picking fights
Keep going with My hero… things change. Lately we’ve hardly seen any chapters of the heroes and been instead getting full story from league of villains perspective. From their training and growth to their back stories and what their actual motivations/goals are. Spoiler most of them I wouldn’t even necessarily call bad let alone evil. I’d even call a couple of them good people. Even Shigaraki is… well complicated and hard to really put into any kind of box but lets say you start to understand where he’s coming from at least
Speaking of deconstructing take a look at bleach. On the surface it’s heavily all those themes you speak of… but the more it goes on the more you start to question if the authorities are actually the baddies. Or more like you start to wonder if every antagonist that fought them because they thought they were the baddies could all really be wrong… especially when the points they bring up are right and you see some of the shady stuff they do/did
September 6, 2019 @ 4:20 am
Except that some of the show mentioned (Gundam, AoT) have a profoundly anti-war message. And IRE was clearly an attempt to manipulate long-standing cultural values into militaristic propaganda.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:22 am
Power rangers aren’t japanese they are originaly from Izrael
September 6, 2019 @ 4:22 am
Uhm actually girlz un panzer are not fighting in a war. In their universe the Art of the Tank is merely a sport to train girls to be a strong woman
Also My hero acedamia is not in any sort of official war. Their universe and training is more on the scale of cops and robbers type of heroism.
If we are vaguely defining war like that, well then we can include much of american superhero media. Sure maybe not always teens, but nearly always young adults entering the heroes journey that centers around fighting and force.
Also this is just shonen anime (mostly) that you mentioned. I expected better from this channel, propogating the generalization that all anime is shonen, FOR SHAME
September 6, 2019 @ 4:23 am
This video was fucking AWESOME
September 6, 2019 @ 4:23 am
Awesome Thank you very much ?
September 6, 2019 @ 4:25 am
For Americans thinking our films and media don’t do this – you should know the US military funds the creation of videogames like Call of Duty and movies about war knowing full well they further the myth of US exceptionalism – of being the "good" guys – and that they will improve the recruitment of poor and vulnerable young men and women into the war machine.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:25 am
Wait… so we are watching #JapanesePropaganda or #AsianCollectivistPropaganda of loving and defending the state… and all the other bullshit! Jeezus! ?
Good deconstruction of this somewhat cultural programming!
Oh yeah… I #Confucianism might related to this one.
I’m Asian… Southeast Asian… we don’t these cultural programming bullshit like Japan or China has.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:26 am
also makes me wonder why a shitty hero like endeavour is seemingly redeemable and a mentally ill, ill-treated villain like twice is seemingly iredeemable in my hero academia
September 6, 2019 @ 4:29 am
What can I say, fam? Another great video essay. I’ve been trying to understand the underlying meanings of anime ever since I read "Robotech Art 1" and that "Starlog" magazine article, both back in the ’80s
As an enthusiast of both Japanese animation & Chinese martial arts, I try to know at least something about the histories and culture nehind them, but this is my first time learning about the I.R.E.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:29 am
The question is why does anime endorse this mentality?
September 6, 2019 @ 4:29 am
I’m surprised you didn’t go into Gundam Wing’s being a commentary on European colonialism, specifically that of Leopold II and the Dutch in the Congo.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:29 am
Naruto and Boruto do deconstruct this by focusing the struggle into a struggle for lasting peace.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:30 am
7:20 the actual fun part is that the East EU is in the west and the West EU is in the east ???
September 6, 2019 @ 4:34 am
I dare you to take on jojo! It’s bizarre!
September 6, 2019 @ 4:35 am
Theory: Dudes in hentai always cum inside so Japanese men develop impregnation fetishes to help with the declining birth rate. Milf hentai is also such a popular hentai category so women over 25 have another chance to get pregnant by younger males for the same reason.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:37 am
World trigger was pretty militarised too
September 6, 2019 @ 4:38 am
this is interesting imo. i’d love to see a similar analysis on how the US military has infiltrated American media with their own propaganda. things like the pentagon having a direct influence on hundreds of movies being made in hollywood etc.
@ ppl in the comments: while i do think the title is misleading (as this rly should be about how shounen anime deals with history as these are shounen tropes), it’s good to be critical of the media you enjoy every once in awhile. does this mean you can’t enjoy shounen anime? no.. and nowhere in this video does it say that.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:39 am
Sub > Dub.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:41 am
i do not agree and here’s why:
all the examples you put in tge video was about kids in highschool fighting but if you take a look to other anime genres like sports anime you’ll see that 90% of them about highschool sports and not college or professional like : kuroko no basket, hikyuu, slam dunk…and the list goes on
also the romance genre alot of them is romance in highschool
like: au haru ride, your lie in april, clannad.
so in my opinion the anime target audience is tennagers so most of anime stories about teenagers even the action ones and not because the government or anything like that
September 6, 2019 @ 4:42 am
We have 30 seasons of a the Simpson, because a Sub-culture that is a counter-culture to the American Paradigm, have used "Springfield" as a form of coded communication, dog whistling initiatives before they occur.
Hidden in the open.
———————————————————————–
And how does recognizing cultural history which influences Fiction seen as a "Conspiracy theory".
Is it an "Conspiracy theory" that modern Japanese often represent the Ainu in their fiction too?
Stop brow beating your audience with subtle psychological tactics that you’ve PROVEN to comprehend and use, or prepare to lose them. History is DEFINE by conspiracy. Stop being dishonest with the token "CIA" mind warping of perceptions.
"Tin foil hats". How low brow.
———————————————————————-
Why did you leave out MARVEL content, which is now all Paramilitary, Intelligence organization and clandestine operations?
Pretty sure Spiderman has been turned into a recruit for Marvel’s version of the CIA and Oligarchs, and he recruits other Minors to join them – The Ultimate Spiderman cartoon.
An American suggesting that American fiction isn’t heavily housed or influenced by the military and CIA worship lol who are you kidding???????
Its pretty much ALL American video games.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:43 am
"The list of anime about fighting wars is endless"
*rattles off a list of mainly series with fighting, but not wars* is he just conflating action with war?
September 6, 2019 @ 4:45 am
how is angel densetsu about fighting wars?
September 6, 2019 @ 4:47 am
15:08 I’m not sure about that. The nationalists are a constant, vocal element of Japanese society.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:48 am
Psycho pass has an interest point of view about this theme
September 6, 2019 @ 4:49 am
Observation. Not to get into the whole dubs vs subs argument, but as someone who likes to put these analysis videos on in the background while I work, it’s a lot harder to consume the anime topics with Japanese dialogue. Have you guys considered using any of the English dubs for your viewers who like to listen to your videos?
September 6, 2019 @ 4:49 am
Maybe wayyyyyy too much My Hero Academia and Attack of Titan, there’s thousands of other anime material you could’ve referenced besides the latter.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:53 am
When kids fight in Western fiction, they fight against the system. When kids fight in Eastern fiction, they fight on behalf of the system. Katnis fights against the system, but when she becomes part of another system she ends up fighting that system as well, to a lesser degree. As a Westerner who grew up on a lot of anime, it’s hard to reconcile.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:53 am
the basement changed the fucking genre of the anime 😀 aot s3 part 2 FTW ..
September 6, 2019 @ 4:54 am
If you think about it, Saint Seya plays on the same themes: becoming a powerfull warrior to protect the reincarnation of a goddess on earth… I love it, but… You know…
September 6, 2019 @ 4:55 am
all these comments so triggered and whining like "not this anime… not that…" but y’all….. if you want to be that SURE about what kind of anime industry is trying to say, at least dig deeper. Look at Japanese politics, the country history. at least READ Japanese literature classics, and think a little how Japanese culture has been coping with wartime Japaense wartime. You will KNOW they HAVEN’T ACCEPTED that facsism and racism are bad, how they’ve been coping is to look at their own citizens, their own kinds, and grieve on how much damage THEY’ve taken. yall gotta remember it was japanese EMPIRE, not a COLONY.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:55 am
How come this only have 200k views
September 6, 2019 @ 4:56 am
I don’t think Zordon Counts for this analysis. Since you know he didn’t even appear in the Japanese version of the show only in the American version.
September 6, 2019 @ 4:56 am
well you can’t put it all on just that, there is no doubt it contributes to thevway anime is made but therevis something deeper, you start with a childish and weak character that grows to become wiser and stronger in order to face the ultimate struggle, this narrative structure is pretty natural and deep in us because we project the characters on ourselves, and we have a deep need to grow
September 6, 2019 @ 4:57 am
If you only watch shonen
September 6, 2019 @ 4:59 am
Aren’t the cast of AoT all 20 ?
September 6, 2019 @ 5:00 am
*_Or Japan knows they can sell Americans the same show a dozen times over_*
September 6, 2019 @ 5:00 am
Can you explain this one main question: is anime really anti-American?
September 6, 2019 @ 5:03 am
Ppl think FMA is an exception but the idea behind it is literally individuality is an illusion
You’re wrong, simple, it’s just another one
September 6, 2019 @ 5:04 am
I don’t think it’s the case that shounens are reflecting imperialistic ideals per se. Imperialism was basically fascism (simplistic dichotomy of good/evil, resolution through power/fighting, respect for hierarchies, uniforms, etc). Kids generally think in fascist terms by lacking abstract thinking and grey area thinking, and by unquestioning hierarchies like the state and schools. So shounens, by catering to kids, naturally shares the same ideals and themes as fascism. It’s not so much that Japan’s fascist past is influencing modern shounen but that both fascism and shounen themes come from the same source which is "simplistic storytelling that resonates with naive unsophisticated people".
September 6, 2019 @ 5:05 am
The main reason why Japanese teenagers are fighting for the world is because of all the Japanese adult is too busy fighting in bad making Japanese AV
September 6, 2019 @ 5:06 am
wait, why you dont said that in the majority of shounen anime in the end all these structures are revelead to be rotten and the protagonist bring them down?
like the message is exactly the contrary, no?
September 6, 2019 @ 5:06 am
7:16 that map tho
"The Federal Republic of Soviet"
"The Great Union of Asian"
got me good tbh
September 6, 2019 @ 5:07 am
Jared, I dont how you keep outdoing yourself with each video topic and analysis. Great job!
September 6, 2019 @ 5:08 am
Most anime world-building is kinda cringy at best, fascist at worst…