This thread's purpose is to discuss politics in works of fiction/media. Please do not use this thread to talk about politics or media in isolation from each other.
I was thinking of asking what people thought were the most interesting post-election Trump related media.
The Good Fight on CBS Access devoted their entire second season to dealing with the subject.
Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 13th 2023 at 3:23:38 PM
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Pro Slavedy isekai is a niche within the Isekai
It usually started with a "Desesperate MC buys a slave once and they befriend each other and MC becomes a abolitionist".
Then it slowly evolved into "yeah, slaves are nice" within the subgenre of really fucked up isekai like Redo of Healer which is literally a revenge rape fantasy
Watch me destroying my country
State of Mind
Is that one an isekai, or just shares all the worst isekai traits?
"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Not really, at this point Isekai has become a shortcount for "Fantasy anime with very anime tropes".
Like SAO gets called Isekai even on the GGO arc.
Watch me destroying my country
Like reflections in the glass!
Lets be frank the best (or most notable) isekai stories either mock the genre (Konosuba), deconstruct it (Re:Zero), Predate it (Digimon Adventure, Inuyasha) or are not technically anime (Amphibia and arguably Fire Emblem Heroes). And they amount for 10% of the genre at most!
It is otherwise the genre that has the most appeal among adherents of the forbidden hashtag and incels, as in the men that think women only exist to have sex with men and make babies. It is a genre that is as problematic as the Western and only different in how blatant the problems are.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I'd charitably interpest the genre as being about an everyman self-insert that winds up in a fantasy world. My inner cynic would then add "and proceeds to be an overpowered asshole that amasses a harem and does several questionable things that make you wonder if identifying with him reflects poorly on you".
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jan 17th 2021 at 8:43:53 AM
It's complicated. SAO is an isekai anime in the literal sense (traveling to another world), following the tradition of older series like .hack, but so many of the cheap cookie cutter isekais started to do the whole "JRPG fantasy world with character levels and cheat skills" thing that it started to take over the whole sword-and-sorcery genre. Even ones where the main character is a native of the world and there's no reincarnation at all are basically cribbing off the "gamelike" isekais now.
It's been fun.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Konosuba is the father of a lot of the worst tropes of isekai tbh. And the definition of Indecisive Deconstruction
Watch me destroying my country
Like reflections in the glass!
I remember Danmachi as one case.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Yeah, full fantasy worlds with rpg mechanics like Level up.
Watch me destroying my country
That's not what I got from that interview at all. Padalecki is very clearly taking a stance:
In case of example that set me off, I haven't read the manga much(because it seemed pretty boring and generic, so I only check it once a while when I'm in mood for my hobby of checking out isekais) but in this case I was extra baffled that the moment came up 40 chapters in :P Aka they are treating it as new character's intro arc as if this was regular good old fashioned manga cliche you have to follow step by step without any changes what so ever.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Light Novel schedules are insane, its basically the whole Popularity Power of Shonen Manga Up To Eleven. Only really sucessful authors can get away with planning complete Story Arcs
Watch me destroying my country
That "let's be formulaic as hell" isn't the problem, its that they are treating "slave girl who wants to be bought by MC and then there is group of self righteous heroes thinking MC is horrible slave owner" in same manner as any other form of harem cliche
Most of pro slavery fetish isekai START that way, its quite rare to see it being introduced several arcs in as just another harem member
Edited by SpookyMask on Jan 17th 2021 at 8:34:11 PM
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Oh, I agree. What I mean is that a reason why this happens is because Light Novels have really strange schedules which leads to writers doing all sorts of strange stuff to keep the audience interested.
The Unknown Unknown
Sounds like they should fix the schedules.
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
I think I read that Reki Kawahara (who writes SAO) had to do what, 2-3 books a year or something? Kind of an insane schedule.
Surrounded by weirdoes
Manga is similar in that respect. Ask people like Oda or Kubo.
Wake me up at your own risk.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
You know what is worse?
He's having a easier time that many other authors.
Many LN series publish Multiple books per year. In fact, Reki apologizes that he has series that are annual (or even bi-anual, his The Isolator actually takes like 2 or 3 years to get a new volume and its considered to going really slow).
Kamachin(famous for the Index series) actually is even more insane. I think he already is over 80 volumes across all his series. That's why a common joke is to say he's a bot.
Edited by KazuyaProta on Jan 17th 2021 at 3:40:41 PM
Watch me destroying my country
He's published over 100 volumes, releasing at least 3 a year. He wrote the second volume of Index in just 17 days. His writing output is insane, he basically wrote a short story once just because of some merch of a character iirc.
Edited by doineedaname on Jan 17th 2021 at 8:23:20 AM
Like reflections in the glass!
Kinda makes me glad LN fans have a small if any overlap with those of George RR Martin's works, the contrast would give them whiplash.
But seriously though, this is basically the literary version of crunch. How are publishers able to get away with that?
Surrounded by weirdoes
Japanese laboral ethics and probably a couple of laws are majorly fucked.
Edited by Blueace on Jan 17th 2021 at 10:24:47 AM
Wake me up at your own risk.
Well, in Kamachi's case his writing output is just insane. To the point that supposedly he writes multiple series because his publisher won't publish next entries in his main one faster.
Edited by doineedaname on Jan 17th 2021 at 8:27:16 AM
The Unknown Unknown
I imagine executives tacitly encourage that, and because of the culture of harmony preservation, most don't speak out. Can't say if actual laws do that; I'll leave that confirmation to people more informed than me.
Edited by erazor0707 on Jan 17th 2021 at 8:47:03 AM
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
Over in the US thread we discussed the best way to portray cops in the future, pointing out that you could go with Lawful Good cops who work within the system or Cowboy Cop who is fighting against a corrupt system.
The new Walker one being the cop who WON'T turn over immigrants to the DHS.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jan 17th 2021 at 6:03:35 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
The Unknown Unknown
What does "work within the system" entail? I imagine showing some or all of the pitfalls.
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
I presume its due to the power fantasy element (for people with no moral compass, like say the Confederacy, owning slaves is the ultimate form of dominance over their serfs). In a way its much like rape, its not about attraction or beauty, but power and control.
Also worth noting that (I'd hope) nothing could top "The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar" in this regard. for reasons best explained by youtuber Mother's Basement
.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jan 17th 2021 at 8:19:07 AM