Diversity and Representation in Media

I think the reason they don't think it's political is because they don't understand Japanese politics.

If they were conservative Japanese, then they would be ranting about how Anime and it's messages are corrupting the youth.

I think nostalgia also plays into it especially w/ regard to 90s OAV anime, especially the gory ones and the black-vs-black morality ones being put on pedestals by rightwingers. For example, Angel Cop's backstory alone is wtf-worthy. And then there are edgelord fests like MD Geist and Kite.

Given a lot of alt right members came from geek fandoms, wouldn't be surprised if they see Japan thru anime lenses and think they'd be top dog there when in reality otaku are seen by Japanese people as bottom-of-the-barrel losers at best and creepy perverts at worst. And the alt righters who are knowledgeable of Japanese politics no doubt see the LDP's long dominance, given the snail's pace of social progress and over-veneration of male elders and tradition in Japanese politics, and wish their rightwing parties would reign jusr as long. Japan is called a silver democracy after all.

Edited by KRider on May 23rd 2022 at 12:06:17 PM

As I understand, much like the west it’s the older generation that tend to be more conservative, with the next generation being more open, and also having to deal with the same kinds of problems as well. Like wages and inflation.

Which isn’t really surprising. It’s a tale as old as time. Just as there was a time where they demonized writing stuff down instead of passing it on orally, or the disdain for the next generation has existed for thousands of years.

Heck MHA villains are literally meant to be the outcasts society failed gathered together by someone who actively exploits the disenfranchise for his own benefit in All For One. Or how the Yakuza who were entrenched in Japans conservatives politics lost their power and became denounced as villains thanks to All Might and the like.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on May 23rd 2022 at 12:04:58 PM

Regarding trans representation in Japanese media, have you guys watched Alice in Borderlands? If you have, what're your opinions on the trans woman character Kuina (played in flashbacks pre-op by Itagaki Rihito, who portrays both straight and gay characters across Japanese media and tends to go out in public in genderless fashion but has been quiet about his actual sexuality, and played post-op by heterosexual actress Asahina Aya)?

Edited by KRider on May 23rd 2022 at 12:06:46 PM

My hot take: if a clown gets booed off state, it’s because they weren’t funny. If someone speaking “truth” gets booed offstage, it’s because their views are being repressed. That, I think, is the mindset for a lot of these guys—they want to shield themselves from criticism by claiming they’re saying important things.

Regarding Japanese politics, are there any particular differences between Japanese progressivism and Western progressivism (or whatever one might call them)?

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on May 23rd 2022 at 3:13:41 PM

What I do know about Japanese progressives is that like American progressives, they're more open to discuss and apologize for the sins of the past (Imperial Japan's atrocities in from the start of the 20th century until their loss in WW 2) as well as support for LGBT communities. What I am not sure of is their stances on support for women, their ethnic minorities (Ainu, Okinawans, Zainichi Koreans, etc) as well as stances regarding foreigners, immigration and most importantly whether to become more proactive or more isolationist on the world stage as well as whether to extend the concept of military self-defense to include their allies or to demilitarize even further (w/c goes hand in hand w/ isolationism).

Super disappointing that Mulany turns out to be a fucking piece of shit, because I used to like him a lot.

Still, at this point, I'm not even surprised. Just disappointed.

What I've seen from other trans folks is that while having a trans actress play the character post-op would've been optimal, having an actor of their target gender is still preferable to other alternatives as it validates their identity more than a cis actor of their assigned gender since the latter would reinforce the stereotype of a man playing at drag.

I see. The reason why I asked, w/c kinda ties to the alt right's fanboyism of Japan, is because after watching it on Netflix I decided to watch a compilation video of Kuina's scenes on youtube. Then I made the mistake of scrolling down to read the comments w/c were mostly praising her for being "representation done right w/o feeling forced". W/c got me suspecting whether this praise is just being disingenous or whether because it's not an American production and therefore it gets a pass. In contrast, any trans roles played by actual trans actresses get bombarded w/ the usual hateful comments about "forced diversity". I stopped reading youtube comments after that outside of wrestling news videos.

Edited by KRider on May 23rd 2022 at 3:24:11 AM

I still vividly remember alt-righters losing their shit when Lily from Zombieland Saga turned out to be a trans girl. Not sure if there were similar reactions in Japan.

Haven't followed that series to know how the Japanese fandom reacted but the trans anime character I'm most familiar w/ is Aoi from You're Under Arrest and there wasn't much of a stink raised over her being trans. Her character was relatively well-written w/ her colleagues being accepting of her. Then again, this was pre-social media so bigots had very limited reach back then compared to the past decade.

>That said, I recall those types of people only supporting Japanese media in a superficial way since one of them couldn't even cite current Japanese media he liked outside of examples from the 2000s and the ones he could cite were Korean or Chinese.

That would be one of The Critical Drinker's biggest Ls, Redhunter.

... I... genuinely can't understand that sentence.

L's is when someone loses or something bad happens to them-Urban dictionary

Sorry, context please?

I'm aware of using the abbreviation "L" to mean loss, but that still doesn't make the sentence any more sensical.

, Drinker was on a interview stream on ZHD's channel. Drinker made the claim that current Japanese media was better than "woke Hollywood" and that Westerners are flocking to the former. The guy asked him what Japanese movies he's seen recently. Drinker shockingly (not really) wasn't able to comeup with an example. He came with was Oldboy and Crouching Tiger. Not only are they decades old, they're not even Japanese. This guy sells himself as a movie buff/authority btw.

TL;DR: Drinker took a big L

Edited by Afrovenator on May 23rd 2022 at 11:31:11 AM

I clicked on the trivia section of his site's trope page and in addition to what Afrovenator said, he also had the wrong impression of why Mulan joined the army, that Squid Game is apolitical despite its obviously anticapitalist message and, if I understand the entry for Critical Research Failure in his site's trope page, that Ms Marvel's superheroics in her upcoming show is incompatible w/ Islam despite charity being one if its Five Pillars. Honestly it's people like him that made me avoid vloggers and youtube critic channels like the plague.

Edited by KRider on May 23rd 2022 at 8:42:59 AM

I wonder why has Japanese media been used as example by the American alt-right. Something I've seen is people treating Japanese animation as if it were a genre restricted to Shounens, which were probably the first animes most of these people first interacted with. Even then, what is with the appropriation? Is it just because some of the forums where the alt-right gained its identity also had relatively big anime communities, like 4chan?

He was one of the inspirations for why I started my Sandbox tracking Youtubers that clearly have an agenda. Guy's a racist, sexist shithead that wants to play it as a joke. Which I get. I did the same thing when I was 12. I grew out of it.

That's 1 of the reasons. Although instead of shounen, the genre that attracts alt righters the most are gory 90s OA Vs and modern isekai given their loud complaints about any modern anime w/ a kawaii design. I definitely would also guess that h-anime is rated higher in their brains

It makes me wonder whether the Mukokusei trope also helps alt righters appropriate anime works and w/c gave them the illusion that Japan is this single ethnicity "paradise".

Although I haven't heard them appropriate tokusatsu the way they appropriated anime.

Edited by KRider on May 23rd 2022 at 9:05:14 AM

Fascists have this obsession with Japan being a supposed one-race wonderland that's preserved its traditions for centuries (reminds me vaguely of how Hitler was fascinated with Mustafa Kemal's policies in Turkey). That, coupled with a general admiration towards Japanese fascism, leads to European and American fascists having their own little fascination with Japanese culture and whatnot.

It's also not helped by anime such as Attack on Titan and Overlord having outright fascist tones.

Yup. That wuxia film.

Edited by KRider on May 23rd 2022 at 9:30:40 AM

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"?

The Chinese Wuxia movie?!

Wait, the one by Ang Lee from 2000?

-cough cough Gundam-

Or so I hear

Edited by Ultimatum on May 23rd 2022 at 4:28:46 PM