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Fall 2012 Anime |OT| Meet the new world, same as the old world

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J

jman2050

Member
darkside31337 said:
If Joe Nathan was an anime character:

EwFhC.jpg


thanks for nothing texas
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This is excellent.
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
9 down, 3 to go guys. Home stretch. I honestly think that the plot has made very little real forward progress yet. It moves a big jump every few episodes, than just sidesteps for a while. It's weird.
 
K

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
yami4ct said:
9 down, 3 to go guys. Home stretch. I honestly think that the plot has made very little real forward progress yet. It moves a big jump every few episodes, than just sidesteps for a while. It's weird.
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Omg... are they making you watch School Days? WHY?!
 
S

Soma

Member
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun Episode 01

ibrLsaeAVembZ.jpg


Saving this for the next End Of Thread Food Spam.

That was pretty fun. This wasn't even on my radar until I saw the positive reactions from this thread. Pretty enjoyable stuff here. While I don't find that the character designs are particularly noteworthy, they do complement the art direction of the show pretty well. Personally, I got a very tsuritama or Humanity Has Declined vibe with a lot of the background art, though probably not as detailed as the former. The subtle textures and wide range of colors made this very enjoyable to watch. The off-key humor and character interactions were pretty great and caught me completely off guard a few times. The brisk pacing was appreciated, especially in a Shoujo anime, however by the end of the episode I'm kind of left with this unsure feeling of where this show will go next and how it strong it will continue through to the end. I'm hoping there's enough in the source material to keep the story between these two interesting through-out the show because there's definitely a lot of potential here.
 
K

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
yami4ct said:
But in Accel World I want the protagonist to die, and that's obviously not going to happen. At least here I get the catharsis of seeing these people horribly murdered.
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He gets better and at least he's not complete scum in BB.
 
R

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
duckroll said:
You can see that this is untrue by simply observing how they treat different characters in the show. Leila is also an exile, in fact her family was exiled from Britannia, a noble family from the enemy empire itself. They should be treated with even more fear. But no, they are welcomed, their children adopted into power families, they've viewed with interest and not disgust, and they can grow up holding leadership roles in the military.

Meanwhile the Japanese? They looked down upon, rejected, used as canon fodder, and even military drivers don't like them. Commanding Officers make comments about how their lives are useless, talk shit about how they're only good as KAMIKAZE, and nobles see them as brutes who know SCARY ASIAN NINJA SKILLZ. The displaced refugees are fenced off, they're not well looked after, and they all have this sad resigned look on their faces.

And all this is set in a world where the Japanese were never at war with anyone, there is no America, there was no Pearl Harbor, and there is zero reason for anyone outside of Japan to have this ultra xenophobic racist viewpoint of the Japanese people.

So how do we explain it? Is it really just bad writing? I don't think so. In fact, I find the refugee situation in Akito very familiar. I've seen it before. In anime even. Where? Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The story, especially in the second season, depicts a future Japan with a refugee problem due to conflict in the surrounding Asian region. Refugees are displaced into Japan, and the people in Japan hate it. This is natural and realistic because Japan by nature is a xenophobic closed nation. Foreigners are viewed differently, and refugees are foreigners who have no "good" reason to be in the country. This becomes a social problem.

Since Akito is a Japanese anime production intended for a Japanese audience, created by Japanese staff, it is not really that surprising that their viewpoint would be extremely Japanese in nature. So even when they are dealing with a story which supposedly takes place in Europe, and the refugees are Japanese, while the country in question are filled with Europeans (which in this case seems to basically be Generic White People), their perspective of how refugees of a different ethnic group would be treated is based on their personal view of how a situation like this would play out in Japan.

That's how I see it. Seems to make sense to me.
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While I agree with most of this, the problem is that there's no real in-universe explanation given so far as to why they are treated this way beyond "people are jerks to the Japanese".

Okay so I guess racism is the word to go for here.
 
I

Instro

Member
duckroll said:
You can see that this is untrue by simply observing how they treat different characters in the show. Leila is also an exile, in fact her family was exiled from Britannia, a noble family from the enemy empire itself. They should be treated with even more fear. But no, they are welcomed, their children adopted into power families, they've viewed with interest and not disgust, and they can grow up holding leadership roles in the military.

Meanwhile the Japanese? They looked down upon, rejected, used as canon fodder, and even military drivers don't like them. Commanding Officers make comments about how their lives are useless, talk shit about how they're only good as KAMIKAZE, and nobles see them as brutes who know SCARY ASIAN NINJA SKILLZ. The displaced refugees are fenced off, they're not well looked after, and they all have this sad resigned look on their faces.

And all this is set in a world where the Japanese were never at war with anyone, there is no America, there was no Pearl Harbor, and there is zero reason for anyone outside of Japan to have this ultra xenophobic racist viewpoint of the Japanese people.

So how do we explain it? Is it really just bad writing? I don't think so. In fact, I find the refugee situation in Akito very familiar. I've seen it before. In anime even. Where? Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The story, especially in the second season, depicts a future Japan with a refugee problem due to conflict in the surrounding Asian region. Refugees are displaced into Japan, and the people in Japan hate it. This is natural and realistic because Japan by nature is a xenophobic closed nation. Foreigners are viewed differently, and refugees are foreigners who have no "good" reason to be in the country. This becomes a social problem.

Since Akito is a Japanese anime production intended for a Japanese audience, created by Japanese staff, it is not really that surprising that their viewpoint would be extremely Japanese in nature. So even when they are dealing with a story which supposedly takes place in Europe, and the refugees are Japanese, while the country in question are filled with Europeans (which in this case seems to basically be Generic White People), their perspective of how refugees of a different ethnic group would be treated is based on their personal view of how a situation like this would play out in Japan.

That's how I see it. Seems to make sense to me.
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Although, the lack of conflict with anyone would also mean that Japan remained relatively isolated from the world and seen as a completely foreign culture in western eyes. These people come flooding into other countries, after being treated like animals by Brittania between the war and propaganda so its not hard to imagine that sentiment would carry over to the host nations in the EU. And really its not like refugees are treated particularly well in many countries to begin with, resources are scarce and exploitation is common.

It is certainly overstated though, I imagine you are right about it playing into the japanese way of thinking with regards to xenophobia and such. In the end I don't think its something that requires much back story on, it serves its purpose within the show to provide that sense of isolation for Akito.
 
K

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Regulus Tera said:
While I agree with most of this, the problem is that there's no real in-universe explanation given so far as to why they are treated this way beyond "people are jerks to the Japanese".

Okay so I guess racism is the word to go for here.
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Because they're unwanted?
 
R

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
kayos90 said:
Because they're unwanted?
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Akito 01 doesn't try to show why the Japanese would not be liked by the Europeans is what Jexhius and I are saying. It might be something explained in following movies.
Instro said:
It is certainly overstated though, I imagine you are right about it playing into the japanese way of thinking with regards to xenophobia and such. In the end I don't think its something that requires much back story on, it serves its purpose within the show to provide that sense of isolation for Akito.
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Yeah, pretty much. It doesn't feel like it's an issue particularly important to the narrative beyond building the setting.
 
K

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Regulus Tera said:
Akito 01 doesn't try to show why the Japanese would not be liked by the Europeans is what Jexhius and I are saying. It might be something explained in following movies.
Click to expand...

They're not liked because they're unwanted. The EU don't want them there but they are and as a result EU don't like them. Unless I'm missing something, I don't think there needs to be a long and deep explanation, imo.
 
Y

yn-neko hates a cat

Banned
kayos90 said:
I don't like Light because he has no redeemable human qualities imo. Lelouch is more likeable. People like characters in two different ways. If they would like them if they were people in real lives. Or they like the character because of the portrayal.
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Lelouch was much better written character in that sense because you knew he was evil and you were also able to follow his redemption to the point you knew he had to pay for his crimes even if you felt sympathy for him. Like the punk in school days, I actually clapped in my dark room when Light died... man it was good! The only props I'll give the Light character over the school days male trash discharge was that Light was intelligently written and didn't make me stop watching his series. Makoto… Seriously, fuck that guy!
 
Y

yami4ct

Member
10's done. 11+12 are queued up. No stopping this train now. Next time you see me, this will all be over. See you on the other side!
 
S

Steroyd

Member
firehawk12 said:
My only worry is that Haru seems to be yet another perfect-guy-who-is-better-than-the-girl-so-that's-why-she-loves-him love interest since he happens to be the smart kid in school. I hope that it doesn't become another Special A or Maid-sama or whatever, but that's just a fear based on that one scene.

I hope the other two shoujo shows turn out to be just as good!
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Fear struck through my heart when I saw that, but the mid-terms had shown that the guy doesn't get the best grade just because, and his violent tendancies make him far from perfect, if the girl is going to fall for the guy it's because he's reading a shoujo guide and acting accordingly in a clueless manner.
 
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