Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! - IMPORTANT SOCIAL ISSUES
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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Nice column Zac. I always admire the man who can talk politics without an obligatory "vote for my favorite politician, convert to my ways!" speech finding it's way into the discussion. Personally, I've always liked how anime doesn't have as many political references or when they do it's either something I don't really get because it's about Japanese politics or it's the general "evil American bad guys" thing. (That doesn't bother me. We've done plenty of bad stuff that seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm a patriot, not an idiot.)
With FMA, the thing that always struck me wasn't the parallels with Iraq or such. I felt like they were there but what I loved was the very, in my opinion, realistic depiction of soldiers. The men and women of the state army in FMA weren't a bunch of fanatics or war-hungry psychos. There were such people but the majority were depicted as just people. I really admired the marked lack of anti-soldier themes with the series. That's something I think our own entertainment industry tends to do wrong most of the time. Racism and xenophobia on anime boards. Yup, morons exist in the anime fan community. People need to remember that people who hate others because they're part of an ethnic group, part of a religion, or a paticular gender, are everywhere. They are in every political party, ever fan base, and every hobby. All you have to do is look. The vast majority of people really don't care, but you will run into people who are morons and think that crap matters. Personally, though, I almost think assuming that using the N word is racist might be a mistake. It's used so much within the African American community now. When I was in highschool, my dark skinned classmates called each other N this and N that near constantly. I think I was more uncomfortable about them using it than they were. (I'm white.) I think the term has lost a lot of it's old impact because it's been adopted by rap culture. As for the Japanese and their problems with Koreans. . . well, they really are superior to them. At least in terms of animation.  (JOKING!)
Ah the eternal George W. Bush is going to ban anime question. He's not. Really. You have my word. Go back home and keep that tinfoil hat on tight so the CIA won't wiretap your mind. 
Haiku original not as good as Zalis's rewrite. Dang, the bunny is at university and the first thing he does is start on the grass. For shame bunny. Interesting, and disturbing, convention stories. Wow, they make my experiences at Dragon Con seem completely and totally nothing. @: Avery Lee McQuiston: I suggest you start going to that club armed, because that guy sounds like a psycho killer just waiting to happen. Or a mental case. Either way, bullets can keep you safe. |
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naruto fan 09812
 Posts: 499 |
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I can believe no one mention Eureka 7 as a anime that deals with politics. Also,I found Trinity Blood to deals with these same issues. And the whole thing about anime fans being racist is a totally joke. I agree with Zac you can't make that totally blanket statement when I know for a fact that not all anime fans aren't racist. That like saying everyone loves pie which is fact that not true. Or that all white people are racist. It's just come off as arogant.
Last edited by naruto fan 09812 on Fri Nov 02, 2007 10:29 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Toshirodragon
 Posts: 166 |
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I would have said Gundam Wing, if anyone asked me about politics, which is in part why I stopped watching (That and the Mack truck sized plot holesspoiler[who the hell thinks a conference of interplanetary leaders would have security so powerless that a hand sized bomb could be thrown thruogh a window to kill the leaders?])
Bad con experiences? OMG, you would have had to be at Yaoi-con for one of the industry panels last weekend. The Publisher representative had a contest to see who could make the best "penetration" sounds in the mic. But that was mild compared to the next contest for "Best Faked Orgasm" noises.. I left at that point figuring there was nothing to be said of importance from this publisher.[/spoiler] |
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The Ramblin' Wreck
 Posts: 924 Location: Teaching Robot Women How To Love |
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There are always wackos at Otakon.
One year, I was with a group of people waiting to cross Pratt St. to get to the BCC. There was this girl in front of me cosplaying as Sugar (from A Tiny Snow Fair Sugar), and she was basically standing in the street. I saw a large Ryder truck coming down and start to get in the lane where she was standing. I reach forward, grab her shoulder and pull her back onto the sidewalk, about 20 seconds before the truck flys by. Now, this was probably asking for it, but I said, "Watch out, or you'll end up a waffle." She turns around and starts shouting "Waffle? Waffle!" "Sugar loves waffles!" "Waffles, Hugs and Kisses!". Then, I was full on glomped as she pushes me back into a telephone poll, jumps onto me with both arms and proceeds to attempt to kiss me full on in the mouth. This all happens in about the span of ~10 seconds. She then jumps off and skips up the sidewalk going "Waffles and kisses! Waffles and kisses!". Now, she wasn't bad looking or anything, but I believe to this day that "Sugar" was insane. How do people feel that they can act this way in public? |
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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I've always found anime to have tons of social & political comments, although a lot of it is on the Japanese culture & government (Wow, why on earth would a cartoon made in another country have joke lines inserted about their OWN culture/politics & not American? Everyone knows we're the only ones that count in the world & if it doesn't reflect American politics & culture, it's just lame)
It's really not even worth mentioning them all. I seem to recall one-liners in Ranma & InuYasha. Problem is American fans who don't recognize the ref don't get it. (Wow, another concept. Fans might actually have to read up on Japan to get more of the refs or maybe bother READING the translator notes/cultural refs whenever they're included in anime or manga) It's interesting so many of the bad con experiences are "adult situations" It's really just the clash of "pure young fan" vs "experienced pro". It's like rock concerts--one may like Band X so one scrapes together one's quarters to buy one's first concert ticket & it's like Soddom & Gommorah-jailbait running around in strategically glued sequins hoping to catch the eye of Bandmember #3 because s/he REALLY relates to that person better than ANYONE on the planet. It's like the real world colliding with the innocence of childhood. (Country Mouse & City Mouse) Guess what. The world is closer to rated R than it is PG. You have tons of people out there who seem to believe sex is the end-all, be-all of existance-Everything adult HAS to be related to sex (isn't that Freud?). I always thought it was so stupid for teens & 20-somethings to get all bent about Barney the Dinosaur--he's not made for you, he made for 7 yr olds. Forget about showing how adult you are beating up a Barney doll or tearing up Beanie Babies, or drawing porn of Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse--there's lots out there for you to enjoy without having to destroy the pure little visions of childhood. I meet so many people who think if a title is rated PG, there's something wrong with it & forget wasting time watching a G-rated film And see, those Voice Actor Stories from a few columns back really are just a part of this "adult" mentality. I see people all the time ask to be directed to a "Good adult (mature story, not porn) anime/manga" Ooo, they're too mature for stuff rated 7+! I never bother looking at the age rating on the back. I don't care if the title I pick up is aimed at the 7+ or 17+ market as long as it;s good. It's really a bias, a prejudice, saying something aimed at children can't be any good. A good show is a good show, be it CCS or Hellsing. The prejudice bitch is the same thing. Anime fans are human, aren't we? So the odds are pretty good we'll have the same percentages of idiots amongst our numbers, maybe more because there is a Llarge under-18 crowd (inexperienced, naive). Just like as an adult who works with addicts, the first thing I noticed about the bunny was the grass...(drug-testing bunnies?) |
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The Shade
 Posts: 36 |
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The worst anime I have watched is Genesis of Aquarion. Oh, there was the usual clichéd story, fan service, and sort of surprise twist at the end. But the worst part of it for me was the utter lack of likeable characters. I honestly cannot look back at this series and say that there was one character I liked. All of them seemed like stereotypes/generic characters with only standard clichéd development.
Lead male character: I'm poor and homeless. I don’t care about your organization to save the world, but I’m going to pilot your machines that I’ve never seen before better than all the other pilots who have been training for years. I also think the lead female character is so snobbish she should be brought down 5 or 6 notches. Lead female character: I’m from a noble family and it’s my destiny to save the world. I also hate the lead male character so much because he’s poor and disgusts me. spoiler[It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they hooked up in the end.] This was the lesson I took home: if you're watching a series and you don't like one character in it, stop right there and watch something else. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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That's timothy hay, not grass. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10421 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Please god no. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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At first glance I was a little taken back by the 'Where are the politics in anime?' question, because a huge portion of anime, be it now or 10-15 years ago, seems to stuff 'politics' into the themes/storylines. In fact, Id say one of the biggest hurdles to wider audience acceptance/personal 'turn-offs' in anime is the 'preachy-cum-nationlistic' aspect of a lot of shows that seems somwhat revisionist/sophomoric to US/Western viewers.
At closer look if a person is pegging politics in a narrowed US sense and inferring an introspective, issue-focused pro-and-con, I can see the point a little more. Anime, and historically Japanese character in general, tends to focus more on broad, almost simplistic 'social themes' (War is Bad!!, Save the Environment!!), as opposed to more nuanced, self-critical examinations. In fairness, most of Asia culturally gravitates to the wide 'social theme' style, and Japan looks like a classical liberal paradise compared to some of it's neighbors, such as South Korea. |
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britannicamoore
 Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
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People were tossing the Nword around like it was a friendly term way before that. I find the Boondocks and Dave Chapelle funny...but at the same time i feel it could be funny without the racial slurs.
Just because African Americans use it doesn't mean that its not stupid. I feel it one of the most stupid and idiotic things my race does on a daily basis. The last time someone used that word with me they caught a nice punch in the face. It'd be different if anyone could say it and it'd be fine. But the moment a white person uses it its suddenly becomes a hate crime. Even if they mean it jokingly- a kid got beat down in my highschool for that- he was talking to one of his friends and others jumped in. Just a word thats "cool" now. Right. I'm sure MLK is rolling in his grave. 
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elsie
Posts: 61 Location: Virginia |
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I'd forgotten about Patlabor. The series is a great example of office politics, and the movies have a lot of political commentary on world situations. |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6203 Location: Houston, TX |
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i love it when people say this. i'm just curious, are you basing this judgement on the ADV version? (which is why they even put this out in the first place), or from the version that Adult Swim showed. not saying it's the greatest thing ever, but there's a HUGE difference. Last edited by v1cious on Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:18 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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MokonaModoki
 Posts: 437 Location: Austin, Texas |
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Aside from the occasional rude bitch who thinks that it is fun to make fun of me for being an older fan, my "bad behavior" con experiences have usually been pretty mundane. All of my worst personal experiences have been related to the inherent ability of con goers to utterly ravage the fuzzy logic that elevators use when they implement one popular con-attending concept:
If you want to go down, hit the up button. Because, you know, there's nothing that helps people in the elevator lobbies on the upper floors appreciate anime fans more than seeing elevatior after elevator arrive full of a bunch of people in costumes who don't get off and laugh at them because they are SOL. The fact that in many cases if you do it enough the elevator logic controller eventually gets so scrambled that it won't function properly again at all until it is rebooted (whether people are actively using it or not) is just icing on the stupidity cake. I'm used to it now, so I know to take the stairs down at certain times no matter what floor I'm on. That just makes me more befuddled taking the elevator up when I see the lardasses who get on at the 5th floor (knowing that it is already full from people from the first floor and will stop a lot on the way), hit the button for the 3rd floor, and then ride the elevator 20 floors up and 22 back down to get where they where they could have been at least 10 times sooner if they had just used their legs. Of course it doesn't have to be a tall building either. I've seen anime fans render the elevators completely disfunctional in a three-story hotel too. In the realm of things that I didn't actually see happen, but just heard about afterward, at the last Oni-con (a couple weeks ago) there was a lot of hotel vandalism (writing on the walls, lobby furniture destroyed) that occurred in the wee hours of the morning after the dance saturday night. The hotel ended up calling in security reinforcements, and at 8:30 AM Sunday when I left for breakfast they were just endiing an overnight curfew that they had to impose on people being being outside their rooms anywhere in the hotel (you could leave your room, but not loiter anywhere, and no matter where you went security would watch you, including riding with you in the elevator). A con staff member I talked to later said that apparently there had been readily available supplies of LSD and ecstasy floating around at the dance that were presumed to have escalated the problems. The last I heard at the end of the day Sunday was that Oni-con might not be welcome to use that hotel again. |
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naruto fan 09812
Posts: 499 |
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Shows like The Boondocks and Dave Chapelle is very demeaning to the race. That why I hate these types of shows is fall into the blacks sterotypes that is not no where near the truth. The N word is demeaning no matter who said the word i.e. black or any other race. Mainly blacks who said this word don't know about the past or struggles the race has went through which is quite sad to be honest.
Last edited by naruto fan 09812 on Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:25 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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v1cious
Posts: 6203 Location: Houston, TX |
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uhh... the boondocks is making fun of stereotypes. notice all the characters who act that way are portrayed in a negative light. |
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