CW:
discussion of rape
This was a brutally direct and comprehensive analysis of some of the worst sociopolitical and economic propaganda messages in contemporary anime. I learned a few things, and to my surprise I hate "Shield Hero" more than I previously thought possible. :guts-rage:
Speaking of, what is it with Isekai and just saying the quiet part loud nowadays.
It used to be that keeping a submissive and subservient woman was done through contrived story beats. Now they're literally just fucking slaves. The Jobless Tensei nonsense just went straight pedophile without even doing the cop-out "800 year old dragon" shit. It's like anime has given up even the mask of being anything but the scummiest shit imaginable.
It's cos of the falling rate of profit.
All this Isekai light novel stuff is self-published by weirdo right wingers onto free online publishing sites like syosetsu. Light novel publishers, looking for the next big hit in an oversaturated market they themselves oversaturated chasing trends, trawl these sites and publish the most popular.
We don't have to imagine what's most popular with weirdo online right wingers, they're called Rising of the Shield Hero and Goblin Slayer.
Don't ya just love capitalism? :kumagawa-jokerfied:
What I don't get is why exactly Goblin Slayer and Rising of the Shield Hero are so damn popular in general. Leaving out the shocking aspects, they're not even interesting stories. Does being a fash just completely decimate someone's ability to enjoy anything other than the most bland slop, as long as it contains pro-chud elements??
I think (hope) most people watching these show's are just consuming it uncritically, and are attracted either to the shock factor or the underlying power fantasy. A lot of people will tell you they're fans of Bezerk and Goblin Slayer, but not be able to articulate why the one is especially problematic and the other not if you bring it up. "I mean, there's sexual assault in both shows, right?" And like, sure there's some red flags there but sometimes they're not too far gone and you can talk it out (especially irl. Online you're better off screaming at a wall, that's a more productive use of your time). And, I mean, for a long time Sword Art Online was really popular, so I've kinda learnt not to discount the power of middling power fantasies.
But there's definitely that core group of fascists who understand all the dog-whistles and are getting off on it. Not to compare us to the chuds too much, but the way we :isaac-pog: out over Disco Elysium or SW: Andor is probably the same- here's a piece of media that represents us and our values, and as members of a consumerist society where what we consume is tied to our identity they serve as useful rallying points to identify "our" people.
Does being a fash just completely decimate someone’s ability to enjoy anything other than the most bland slop, as long as it contains pro-chud elements??
I think they just go online, get mad and complain about Woke(tm) Disney nowadays. Edit: Also they have the most amazing ability to intentionally misread stories and/or discard anything that contradicts their worldview, so there's that.
There was pandering shit like "ninja high school girls" and all that in the 90s and before, but yeah, it generally had to come up with contrivances to make hikkikomori and otaku watch while getting off to it.
The product's been refined, cut, processed, and concentrated the way that honey gave way to sugarcane gave way to refined sugar gave way to corn syrup gave way to HFCS.
It went from "wow this cartoon has naked ladies" to increasingly pandering and hedonic treadmill accelerating wish fulfillment power fantasies. "Oops, that ego insert fell into a video game world where metagame manipulation makes him a captain of industry and a god among NPCs that receives infinite slave sex and is praised for it!" :pathetic:
There's something deeply fucked up and fascistic about the power fantasy itself even in its sexual indulgences: at no point do the modern fantasies even want a woman to consciously fall in love with a man. They want a less-than-human easily manipulable "NPC" that superficially "loves" them but without even the benefit of being as conscious or self-determined as the ego-insert protagonist. It's bleak and empty as a fantasy, even within the context of a fantasy, seemingly intentionally, and they're fine with it. :kombucha-disgust:
Good post, everything they says tracks. Tho the article does spoil a lot of Welcome to the N.H.K., a show that everyone here should watch.
All my Chainsaw Man homies, there's an article from the same author going over CSM and anarchist theory. Big spoilers for the manga tho!
Edit: This banger of a line from the CSM article
Is Chainsaw Man a deep exploration into the cycles of trauma and poverty caused by a society based on domination and social hierarchy? Or is it an electrifying tale by a very horny man who really should just get stepped on by a woman in a suit already?
Y’know.
Who’s to tell?
Is Chainsaw Man a deep exploration into the cycles of trauma and poverty caused by a society based on domination and social hierarchy? Or is it an electrifying tale by a very horny man who really should just get stepped on by a woman in a suit already?
Definitely both.
Tho the article does spoil a lot of Welcome to the N.H.K., a show that everyone here should watch.
For real, that show is a masterpiece. Ironically, I disliked the arc the author wrote about in this essay, but only because the main characters feel somewhat OOC gullible in it.
Honestly, I still haven't finished the show because it hits me a bit too hard.
Gonna have to read the full thing later.
Guessing the TLDR is that nerds and otakus are conditioned by anime to fear women with seperate autonomy from themselves or some other horrid shit like that?
and how those feelings feed into the profit machine of the industry by selling them toys and stuff to make them feel less lonely.
What happened with them again? I remember that there was a lot of drama
If you mean Peter, IIRC they joined up with Caleb Maupin's patsocs.
If you mean BMF, they were BMF.
