Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Gatchaman Crowds insight
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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I think episode shows why direct democracy (or at least a populist dictatorship that is disguised as a direct democracy) doesn't work well. Just look at the policies enacted. Doubling pension payments, cutting sales tax from the current 8% (and soon to be 10% in October) to 2 percent, increasing spending on child care and offering it for free, increasing availability of doctors on remote islands. All worthy causes but all of them cost money, quite a lot of money actually. Even the money you get from getting rid of legislators isn't close to enough. They said the diet members are paid 20 million yen which is like $161,000, and there are 722 members of the diet so getting rid of all of them only saves around 100 million dollars, which while a lot for an individual, compared to their latest 800 billion dollar budget is a drop in the bucket
Last edited by zrnzle500 on Sun Aug 09, 2015 4:56 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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exukvera
Posts: 8 |
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Was I the only person who recognized the four guys from "Tsuritama" (and their duck) on the beach?
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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Nope! I loved that little cameo. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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These continue to be good reviews that look at the undertones which are the problems in what deceptively does not say outright.
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I am really, really, REALLY anxious to see that one play out. Too many keyboard warriors already like to trot that one out as how to fix the American budget. "just stop paying all the fat cat politicians" when that's not even close to realistic or a truly coherent way of handling various fiscal issues. So, I'm curious to see what tack Gatchaman Crowds takes with handling this. At the moment it's playing on the outskirts with "its all more complicated than you think", and even if THAT is just the final message, its definitely one worth sharing. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Don't blame me; I would've voted for the panda!
This whole arc tickles my funny bone. Most (all?) countries wouldn't elect a human foreigner, let alone an alien. An alien who can spontaneously age and read people's moods? This show isn't striving for realism at all. Which is not the point, but it's still funny, especially since the US just started it's own election fever. Budget wise, Gel is cutting the defense and military budget, so perhaps that's how he can afford all those reforms. Not sure that encouraging people to vote on issues directly is such a bad idea. American states do it all the time through direct referendums and propositions. It's how marijuana was legalized in Colorado and Washington State! Of course, voting on everything directly via smartphone isn't the smartest idea, but hey, is it really all that worse than potentially corrupt, and possibly just as ignorant (because who reads every bill?) politicians voting based on political criteria rather than their constituents' best interests? |
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AholePony
 Posts: 330 Location: Arizona |
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I've really been enjoying Insight. As with everyone else, I'm excited to see where they take this.
The writing has been extremely smart so far. I personally hope the writers take the "grey" stance, and point out that there are no right answers when dealing with the themes of justice, politics, selfish desires, and selfless sacrifices that they have touched. Each Gatchaman team member has ideas that are "correct" but also flawed. |
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DRosencraft
Posts: 665 |
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At this point I'm not expecting Gel to do the heel flip everyone is expecting. Call it paranoia, but so much tension has been built up on the prospect of that outcome, it almost feels too well telegraphed; like it's too obvious and expected at this point.
The budget matters are interesting in that they didn't, for instance, just drop the tax rate to 2%. Or promise everyone free universal healthcare. They did seem to include nuggets to suggest that they don't intend the budget matters to be an issue (cutting defense spending, cutting pay for politicians, near 100% employment). At the same time, like with the heel turn for Gel, it's almost impossible to see how the story advances without that tidbit. I think that this show is doing an admirable job at outlining these two extreme positions in thought on social fabric, but many shows have done that in the past too. Direct democracies tend not to work on a large scale in part for the absolute breadth of issues that have to be decided on regularly, the eventual malaise of the voting public, and the potential for a dictatorial majority. Trying to manage these potential issues while allowing minority opinions to be expressed is how you end up with the messy situation that is modern democracy. Several series have addressed these issues in one way or another. I'm more interested at this point in seeing what answer they come to, what middle ground. That is how Insight will separate itself from the rest for me. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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Thematically, I really like what the show is doing right now, and Tsubasa's confrontation with her grandfather was a really nice sum-up of everything that's wrong with her current ideals. However, emotionally, this episode pissed me off so much because the amount of people stupidity happening was way beyond my bearing. I realize that is kind of the point, people taking national politics as a "game" and making decisions based on "Tsubassa is cute" or "CROWDS is so out", but it's just so infuriatingly stupid...
I actually found this scene to be extremely un-funny. For one, the diet members were acting like children, just insulting Gel with stupid things like his red skin or his being an alien, when they could've put him in a tighter spot tackling his political projects and the susteinability of, say, making everything free and reducing taxes so drastically. The Diet members just looked like a bunch of immature idiots and their attempts at insults felt very artificial and not something grown men would actually say.
Considering many Japanese wouldn't even acknowledge this year's Miss Japan winner who "didn't look Japanese" just because she has darker skin, that they actually chose an alien to be prime minister really defies suspension of disbelief. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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I think you are hugely overestimating "grown men"...judging by frequent news of diet brawls in several countries, this scene didn't seem to be that far from reality. Also i don't think it really matters whether or not it's "realistic" that an alien becomes prime minister, it's more about the different ideologies/philosophies the characters represent than the characters themselves. I am still very much enjoying this show, it's one of my ab solute faves this season. |
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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^I mean, yeah, I'm not saying real life politicians or adults are perfect -heck, I'm all for portraying politicians in their full horribleness- but, like I said, I found their attempts at making fun of Gelsadra very dumb, immature and really artificial, not something real people would say in that situation. If they wanted to ridicule Gel or question his platform, there were a thousand ways to do it that didn't involve a dude yelling "Your face is red lol"
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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^I mean, yeah, I'm not saying real life politicians or adults are perfect -heck, I'm all for portraying politicians in their full horribleness- but, like I said, I found their attempts at making fun of Gelsadra very dumb, immature and really artificial, not something real people would say in that situation. If they wanted to ridicule Gel or question his platform, there were a thousand ways to do it that didn't involve a dude yelling "Your face is red lol", it felt the scriptwriters were trying a little too hard to emphasize how dumb these politicians are.
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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That happened afterwards, though. There wasn't much to heckle Gel with when he was just elected, his platform was basically "I'll unite everyone, also I don't like CROWDS. Geruru!" |
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3767 |
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Considering the defense budget of Japan is only $42 billion out of a total budget of $800 billion, I would suspect that they will run out of money soon. Also, I'm no hawk but getting rid of the defense budget seems unwise to me, even with the Gatchaman and Gelsadra. In terms of being catastrophically fiscally irresponsible, I think direct democracy would be worse. Though they could stand to be a little less austere in the budget. As for reading bills, that's what congressional staff (and lobbyists, unfortunately) are for (more should probably be spent on congressional staff so legislators don't need to rely on lobbyists for knowledge of what the bill says and how they should vote on it). While the politicians don't have the constituents' best interests at heart enough, constituents tend to be shortsighted and parochial. Though in the politicians defense, there is some legitimate ideological differences over what is ultimately best for their constituents, or so they believe. |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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It wasn't infantile, though. It was racism, basically, especially coming from Japan. "You look different!" "You don't belong here!" For most people those are heavier "charges" than anything involving actual politics and stances.
But in real life there are no aliens, so... Obviously the show is asking viewers to substitute X for Y, and suspend their disbelief on certain issues, otherwise they'd need a hundred episodes just to get through this plot point. Gel is as much of an embodiment of a concept (much like Katze, Hajime, Jou, Rui, etc.) as he is a character playing his part in a story. He's a red-faced, blue-haired alien because it's fun and because it's a fantasy, but otherwise that's not really the crux of what he is.
In my country a few years back the current government managed to win (with an incredible landslide) without a manifesto or a programme, just a bunch of slogans that was basically "we'll do things differently (we don't say how and btw we refuse to go on public debates), also we hate liberals and socialists. NATIONALISM!" No hecklers, either. |
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