Forum - View topicPeasant rebellions in anime?
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Boomerang Flash
 Posts: 1021 |
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You know how this goes: a bad and most likely hereditary ruler ruler--king, nobleman, hierophant, etc--oppresses the masses to the breaking point. Then a leader, preferably with grass roots origins, lead the people in a uprising to overthrow the bad ruler, establishing a new government that may or may not use a hereditary ruler.
Utawarerumono gives us a very straightforward example: The local ruler doesn't know how to govern. He sends his relatives to oppress the villagers. spoiler[They kill a respected village elder, then Hakuro leads the village in an uprising, which slowly gains momentum until it overthrows the ruler of the country.] There are variations to this theme. Guin Saga doesn't use a ruler, but it uses an oppressive empire that is out to conquer little villages. The titular character then lead villages of monkey people to fight the empire. Code Geass updates the rebellion to a modern day setting and gives us giant robots. We also see a rebel leader who doesn't have grassroots beginnings--he is a prince of the empire--, and he's merely using the rebels for his benefit. Lelouch gets something of a parody in Disgaea 4, where the rebel leader Valvatorez is overthrowing the government because the government isn't oppressing people in the correct way. Sometimes you see opportunists taking advantage of the common malcontent. Lelouch of Code Geass above is one example. The issue is examined from another angle in Tactics Ogre, where other leaders in the rebellions spoiler[realized how the nobles are playing the racial tensions to their benefit, which eventually turned an ethnic war into a true peasant rebellion.] You can see the influence of peasant rebellions even if an actual rebellion doesn't occur. In Princess Mononoke, the iron working town defies the Emperor's rule, but it doesn't attempt to overthrow the Emperor. The tension there is similar. And then, of course, there are peasant rebellions based on historical events. Shin Koihime Musou gives us a rebellion very loosely based on the Yellow Turban Rebellion preceding the Three Kingdoms era. Incidentally, it also features a group of people exploiting peasant malcontent, though the anime gives very different reasons than the history. Any other works of note that prominently features peasant rebellions or the elements of one? On a related note, correct me if I am wrong, but the English version of the bad ruler is usually an usurper. You have the White Witch in Chronicles of Narnia oppressing its residents, while the destined rulers from Earth come to oust her and take their rightful place as the kings and queens of Narnia. You have Richard returning from the Crusades to oust John. This is by no means unseen in Japanese works: Wild Arms XF features a villainous senate usurping the power of the King. Any relationship to the history of the countries involved? |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I would say that Now and Then, Here and There would qualify as a sort of 'peasant rebellion'. Except the dictator in that show uses the 'kill all who are not under your control' strategy.
While the rebellion isn't the central focus of Kaiba, there are definitely anti-government with protests and movements and the repercussions of them are made known as the series progresses. Such rebellions are quite commonplace with Legend of the Galactic Heroes which deals with multiple organizations/governments and particularly the space battles between the Earth Alliance and the Imperials. |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3652 |
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As for your last issue, the concept of the English king was one ordained by God, so in order for a rebellion against oppression to not be a rebellion against God, the oppressor must be a usurper without a rightful claim.
Though along those lines, rebellion against an oppressive god or group of angels is a metaphysical variant of the peasant rebellion, and shows up all the time in anime and especially JRPGs. (Tears to Tiara, Aquarion, Evangelion, almost every Final Fantasy, etc.) The oppressor has power simply by virtue of its existence, and is far stronger than the "peasants," but Japan's history has never been as filled with by-right claims as European history has, and its deities were not generally bringers of absolute morality, so it just makes more cultural sense this way. Gurren Lagann is a kind of peasant rebellion, at least in the start. It later turns into one of the more metaphysical ones, though. Glass Fleet and Tytania might fit what you're thinking of, though I don't recall enough plot from those shows to be sure. |
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Wintermoot
 Posts: 16 Location: Zutphen |
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to extent Side 3 / Zeon in Gundam 0079, Instead of a King it's the Federation.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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Samurai 7 for sure (currently on adult swim I think). In this case, the peasants know they can't stand up to mechanized machines who steal their rice (I forget what stupid reason they give for the mecha needing rice), so they pool their resources to go hire some badass samurai who will work for food from the big city. Yes, the samurai are incredibly badass, but they also train the villagers to try to defend themselves and help with the fortification set ups, etc, so it was kinda like they hired help from outside (most of the uprisings I see in series don't tend to do that, though they may use the village newcomer), but they really did plenty of work themselves too.
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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The Tears to Tiara anime is mostly about a rebellion by people who are considered by the Empire to be barbarians.
There are supernatural beings involved in various ways, but the ordinary humans are fighting for freedom from an oppressive Empire ruled by a human. |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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Does this count?
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gsilver
Posts: 615 |
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Shiki
That was one hell of a peasant revolt. Not exactly against an authority figure, but an oppressor nonetheless. |
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