Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Isn't There Political Anime?
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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The deeper aspects of the "hawk/dove" will still fly past most US viewers. Here in the US, pretty much everyone takes it for granted that we have a military and that it will occasionally be used aggressively. The main debate is over when or whether that threshold has been crossed. In Japan, it's part of a deeper debate over Article 9 of their Constitution, what constitutes self defense, as well as whether they should have a military with any significant aggressive capability at all. |
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writerpatrick
 Posts: 671 Location: Canada |
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Hetalia comes to mind, although that deals more with international politics.
There is a sense of respect in Japan so stories about Japanese politicians could be seen as being disrespectful. And of course TV stations wouldn't want to get in trouble so they're less likely to air a political anime. In America they don't care about disrespecting their leaders. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Anime rarely portrays politicians or the mechanisms of electoral politics except as targets of humor. It also avoids controversial subjects unless they are reconstituted in the form or fantasy or sci-fi. Much of this, I believe, is the confluence of political and commercial interests both of whom prefer not rocking the boat. Underpinning it all is the rather "deferential" Japanese political culture where decision-making is left to elites.
That doesn't mean there aren't politically-themed anime though. Two shows from Nakashima Kazuki, his screenplay for Imaishi Hiroyuki's Kill la Kill, and his stage play that was adapted by Mizushima Seiji into Oh! Edo Rocket, have explicitly political themes. Kill la Kill puts its cards on the table by opening with a classroom discussion about Nazism. Oh! Edo Rocket satirizes the hubris of a Shogunate that believes it can and should ban fireworks displays. Kawamori Shouji and Okada Mari's script for AKB0048 also harkens back to the Reforms, with galactic organizations intent on stopping young girls from singing and dancing before an audience. Both installments of Nakamura Kenji's Gatchaman Crowds, but especially Insight, touch on similar themes. Insight presents a type of "soft" fascism where people cede their decision-making power to a friendly alien. The show is deeply concerned with the social and political effects of social media and instant communication. The Legend of Koizumi is amusing, but not, I think, really a "political" show unless you consider its fundamentally right-wing view as intrinsically political. I don't like the strongman model of political leadership that show presents. Nevertheless it is pretty funny. I've always been a bit surprised that the 1960's uprisings in Japan don't get some play in anime. There's a brief allusion to them in Sakamichi no Apollon, but that's about the only show I've seen that makes mention of that period. You'd think for a medium that targets adolescents and young adults that a show which portrays young people in the streets fighting for justice might have some resonance. I'm guessing this is one area where that confluence of interests I spoke about applies with a vengeance. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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Well, Concrete Revolutio did cover those events. And just like many other politically-themed anime, it comes in the guise of a superhero show. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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In Japan (unlike in America) the youth uprisings were a failure - they lost. There was no Summer of Love or Woodstock to romanticize. No Civil Rights act to celebrate. No successes in spawning the environmental protection movement to look upon with pride. The main target of the their protests (the existence of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan) remains in force. Thus the resonance that many young people feel in the West for youth protest and uprisings doesn't exist. Japan also doesn't celebrate adolescent excess or even tacitly encourage it they we do in the West (and especially in America). In a culture that's generally still quite conformist, adolescence and young adulthood aren't generally seen as times for exploration and finding oneself. |
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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Agreed. I can't really stand to watch political shows or comics because they're almost always either stawmen or grandstanding, which doesn't really engage in a real conversation so much as its people patting themselves on the back and surrounding themselves in an echo chamber. Presumably because people don't care about writing a story so much as they want to push their views on the people. -Stuart Smith |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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@ Stuart Smith
How do you have a conversation with a tv show or movie? You watch it (or choose not to), accept its ideas, reject them or mull over what's said, and refine your own opinion. How is expressing a viewpoint in a venue people can choose to not see "pushing their views on people"? It sounds to me like you get defensive when someone expresses a view that's contrary to your chosen echo chamber, but maybe you were being intentionally ironic and I missed it. If people don't express different views in media for you to hear, how do you avoid living in an echo chamber? |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2419 Location: Germany |
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@leafy Not comic related but sure, The Great Dictator is... great
 . Even Donald Duck went to war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzH1iaKVsBM
Here is DC´s Calvin Ellis, aka. Super-Obama. He was even the protagonist of a line wide event! 
He is coming back in 2017, as America may now need him more than ever...  .
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5920 |
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Satire and snark are't propaganda. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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I just felt the need to point out there is a difference between a show with political dealings or aspects to it, and a show that is ABOUT politics or sending a real specific political message. Plenty of shows have political points to it, such as Gundam since people keep mentioning it, but that does not mean that show is designed to be a political anime in itself. That doesn't mean politics (real world politics - not just politics within that show's universe) IS the main plot and point. There are a decent amount with the former but very few aimed at the latter.
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Stuart Smith
Posts: 1298 |
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You can express your views without resorting to demonizing the opposition or using strawman tactics. A good piece about politics would inform the viewer on a stance, both sides, and ultimately let them decide. Most don't do that though, and instead choose a propaganda approach. -Stuart Smith |
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NGK
Posts: 244 |
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That's mostly under the cover of liberal smug-laced "political comedy". Thank god Japan ink triangle (manga/anime/game) is free and untainted from that crap 
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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Then they wouldn't be expressing their views (and I wouldn't classify it as entertainment). You might as well watch the news, assuming you can find a source that isn't slanted (hint: you can't). Nobody would've watched Dragnet past the first episode had it truly been "just the facts" of the cases with no clue as to how Friday felt about anything. Nobody wants to see a movie about politics that has no point of view, from either side. And nobody wants to make one. Why would they? Even documentaries have a point of view. Everything does, except maybe some school educational films about Newton's Laws or The Story of Salmon. We all sure loved those, didn't we! And the viewer ultimately decides anyway, don't they? I really don't get this complaint - unless you're required to watch it, are going to be tested on it and will fail if your answers don't follow the party line, who's forcing you to adopt someone else's views? Who's preventing you from voicing criticism of media you disagree with? Who's keeping you from learning about the other side? Who's even making you watch it? |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5920 |
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This pretends as if the axe doesn't cut both ways. "Smug-laced" comedy isn't something exclusive to liberal comedians or comedy writers. Last edited by BadNewsBlues on Tue Nov 29, 2016 10:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9839 Location: Virginia |
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@yuna49
The Japanese student unrest of the 1960s tends to show up in odd places. The opponent in the Philippines in Black Lagoon is supposed to be a student demonstrator turned international terrorist. In the first arc of The Twelve Kingdoms, Yoko and her classmates run into a former student demonstrator that crawled under a desk to escape the police and found himself on a different world. Oshii wrote a novel as a sequel to Blood the Last Vampire which has as a viewpoint character a student demonstrator. If I remember correctly there is a section by Oshii where he talks about having participated himself. |
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