JPT1311 Blog

Death Note is a classic and well known anime that I surprisingly never sat down and watched. I am glad we are discussing it, however, as I have never seen it before, despite understanding the gist of it. These early episodes of Death Note focus up on the dangerous interplays of justice, power, and morals. As Light Yagami goes from a bored, high-achieving student to a self-proclaimed "God of Justice", difficult questions of what it means to have power over life and death are revealed. Light's belief that the world is rotten and needs to be cleansed is not just a personal thought on crime but a deeper reflection of the desire to have order and control in the world.

The first two episodes have Light quickly moving from horror at the sight of what the Death Note can do to using it as a tool to build a new world free of crime, with himself at the center. This complex he has created of himself escalates even more in episode 5, where he manipulates Raye into killing 12 FBI agents who are trying to find who is killing all the criminals, known publicly as Kira, coldly eliminating all 12 and then Raye without a second thought. What makes Light so chilling is not just his intellect, but the way he weaponizes ideals of justice to justify mass murder.

Episode 10 furthers this theme as Light and L engage in a tennis match, both literally and metaphorically. Their rivalry dramatizes how “justice” can mean very different things depending on the person wielding power. In episode 11, the introduction of a second Kira complicates Light’s godly image. Suddenly, his carefully calculated philosophy is threatened by someone who embraces the Death Note’s power even more recklessly.

Overall, this anime is absolutely amazing, and I am definitely excited to finally watch the entire series in full. Truly an excellent anime to end this class (and blog!) with.

From watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I can see one universal theme: the cost of trying to reshape the world and the emotional consequences of facing what's been lost along the way. The underlying trauma facing the main characters sets everything in motion for this anime: the failed resurrection of the Elric brothers’ mother. This failure serves as a metaphor for the dangers of trying to control what we fully don't understand, and this cost isn't just physical. Ed and Al are haunted by the guilt and grief not only for themselves but disturbing a natural order they now know can’t be broken without irreversible consequences. This theme continues with the discovery of how power and ambition can destroy entire lives, like in the Ishvalan genocide.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood resonates far beyond mere fantasy; it interrogates the systems that enable loss and regret. Focusing on the real world, these themes echo in the world from government-led war crimes to the manipulation of truth for control, particularly in societies still wrestling with colonial violence, systemic racism, and unchecked authority.

Yet, even in the darkest moments of these episodes, there's still a part for empathy. Not choosing violence becomes a radical act of resistance against an endless cycle of vengeance.

Akira is a film that I have known for so long, and I feel like a lot have aswell. Not necessarily that they watched the movie, but more specifically witnessed the "Akira bike slide", which is in so many different shows, movies, and video games. Yet, I like to say how Akira is one of the most influential films in history, and not just for its animation, but its grotesque and brutal explorations of power, identity, and control.

At its undeniable core, Akira is about the instability of control, whether that be over one's body, society, or the future. Tetsuo's transformation from a nobody outcast to a godlike figure is both breathtaking and horrifying. His powers are a symbol for unchecked technological and political experimentation, especially if this experimentation becomes way too out of anyone's grasp. This is viscerally represented in the final scenes of Akira, when Tetsuo's body becomes a massive, uncontrollable blob, reflecting what happens when human ambition and power are stretched and unchecked.

This theme of control is emphasized in the portrayal of institutions like the military and the government. In Akira, they oversaw the secret psychological experiments on children to harness psychic powers for national dominance. The irony here is that while the state attempts to create control, it actually creates something uncontrollable. Even the scientists are reduced to spectators by the end of the film. Their awe quickly turns to fear, showing how even the most “rational” systems of knowledge are helpless when confronted with forces they helped unleash but cannot govern.

One last thing I'd like to mention is some comparisons I found with Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion, particularly in Shinji and Tetsuo. Both are teenagers who were forced into roles shaped by adult institutions, with both stories ending in bodily transformation and psychological collapse. Tetsuo's mutation was uncontrollable, a total collapse of his autonomy, consumed by a power never meant to be wielded. Shinji’s absorption into the EVA-01 in End of Evangelion and his near-loss of self during Instrumentality represent his psychological collapse under the burden of expectation, grief, and emotional isolation. In both cases, the protagonists lose control over their own existence, highlighting the terrifying consequences of forcing growth without guidance, care, or consent. However, both endings are different. Akira ends in cosmic rebirth, with Tetsuo becoming something entirely new, very ambiguous but oddly hopeful. Shinji's end results in personal revaluation, left in a world where meaning must be self-created. Yet, both attempt to answer one question: What does it mean to grow up when the world around you is broken, and the systems meant to protect you are the ones doing the damage? Both suggest that this path to maturity involves confronting such chaos, not through violence, but with awareness, reflection, and, sometimes, painful transformation.

Yoshinori Kobayashi’s Sensōron is a particularly weird read, considering how controversial it is. This manga reimagines Japan's role in World War II through a nationalistic and revisionist lens, and the author attempts to position Japan not as a villainous aggressor but as a noble, misunderstood power trying to defend its sovereignty. Although this manga has sparked controversy due to its downplaying of war crimes, such as the Rape of Nanjing, and its squeaky clean version of history, it does offer a very important view of how historical memory, national identity, and war is malleable; it can be shaped and reshaped overtime.

In Ernest Gellner's A Short History of Mankind, it can be seen how Gellner demonstrates that nationalism arises not from ye olden times of a country, but from demands of the modern, industrial society. In that sense, Kobayashi's work is less of a historical analysis and more of a reflection on current cultural anxieties in Japan. Sensōron seeks to shape national identity in the present by bringing a sense of unity during a time when many may feel morally unsure about their nation.

A certain chapter I'd like to bring up is where Kobayashi critiques and attempts to debunk well-known antiwar photographs, where he argues that some of these photos are misleading, edited, or staged. He explains that these images were used as tools to push a masochistic narrative of Japanese history, where Japan is always portrayed as the villains, even in Japanese textbooks. Attempting to question these images, the author of Sensōron tries to break the guilt and shame that many Japanese felt postwar. Tying this with Geller's article, Kobayashi isn’t just challenging specific images; he’s questioning an entire version of history that, in his view, weakens national pride. Kobayashi tries to create a different national story, one where Japan is not just a defeated empire but a misunderstood power that is of high honor.

Globally speaking, this revisionist trend is seen in other countries, even the United States. Various states over the years have softened talks about slavery and overall racism in the United States, omitting many key details about the Jim Crow era of the U.S., Native American genocide and Manifest Destiny, Japanese-American internment camps, and even the Vietnam War. But, that's what this manga is about; it was created to reclaim a version of history that restores pride and meaning to a national story that many feel as if it has been overshadowed by guilt. Kobayashi seeks to replace narratives of victimhood with those of honor and sacrifice. Sensōron really shows a global struggle over memory, where the trauma of those who died and experienced war and other traumatic events are continuously reinterpretended for the sake of the present and the overall presentation of a nation.

Your Name is a stunning film visually. I was amazed by the sheer attention to detail that was put into the movie, especially in the backgrounds. From the streets of Tokyo to Tessie's room, all the little items placed about are so detailed; it's insane. Using Michael Foucault's The History of Sexuality, we can see how this romantic story includes undertones of identity and power structures that shape our desires and bodies.

The main gist of this movie is two teenagers, Mitsuha and Taki, whom body swap every other day and are connected across time and space. Mitsuha yearns to escape the countryside and wishes to be in a big city like Tokyo. She struggles with her prescribed role as a young woman in a conservative town where she is under the authority of her own father, as he is the mayor. She resists, she cuts her hair, prays to break free, wishes she was a boy in Tokyo. This resistance mirrors Foucault's view that power is present even in personal desires, and resistance arises from these very dynamics.

Foucault argues that power is not held by a sole figure but through society, spread out in different relations. This is evident in Your Name through the town’s traditions and gendered expectations, which shape Mitsuha’s experience of her own body. Even in the urban world Taki inhabits, his behavior is shaped by the expectations of masculinity and youth—visible in how his friends perceive and react to Mitsuha’s influence when she controls his body.

The whole body swapping thing, I believe, is a metaphor for how identity can be constructed, deconstructed, and surveilled where we come to know ourselves and others through bodily experience, memory, and social expectation. Thus, this aligns with Foucault’s idea that identity is not repressed but produced and regulated within power relations.

I knew this one was coming. I've always known about Hetalia Axis Powers for the longest time, as I used to see it everywhere while growing up on the internet. I was never into it because of the amount of Yaoi content I've seen on the internet about it and I assumed that was what it was all about. However, I was mostly wrong about that. These first 19 episodes of Hetalia may seem like a light hearted comedy on the surface, but deep below, this show reflects deeper social and cultural dynamics embedded in the anime fandom. Using another reading from this week, World Conflict/World Conference: Axis Powers Hetalia by Sandra Annett, it can be shown how this show of personifying nations as attractive young men is a fantastic way to portray world history and how it manages to open up to a certain audience: young women.

Characters like Italy, with his infamous pasta obsession, or England, with his tsundere disdain for France, are not just historical caricatures; they’re built with "moe elements", designed to inspire an emotional connection. As Annett points out, these traits are very appealing to fujoshi fans, women who enjoy media with romantic relationships between male characters, who often consume this type of media for character dynamics rather than the story. For example, America's flashy "hero" persona contrasts well with Japan's restraint, which is a fan-fiction-creating factory in and of itself. This type of stuff allows for communities to grow and for creativity to flourish.

I'd also like to point out how short these episodes are. The five minutes that each episode lasts perfectly mirrors the idea of database consumption that Annett describes. One episode goes from talking about diet plans and then goes into personifying the Cold War's awkwardness. The idea here is that fans don't need a story; they need points for their favorite parings of characters, jokes, and interpretations.

Outside of the Yaoi and all that, Hetalia Axis Powers does do an excellent job at reimagining political topics in ways that people can better understand, turning history into something deeply personal and global.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a game I have heard about numerous times. One of my friends was obsessed with it a few years after it came out and that's really the only exposure I received from this series, but now after watching the cutscenes I can see how this game has a deeper level beyond the JRPG that it is, filled with fighting, beautiful landscapes, and magical powers.

The world of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is built on the backs of massive living beings called Titans. These Titans quite literally support civilization, and as you continue in the game, it becomes obvious that they are slowly dying, decaying under the weight of industrial progression. This recalls to today's reading of The Drama of the Anthropocene, in which the point in the reading that modern humanity assumes a "transcendence over nature", treating its resources as a thing to be managed or taken over, not a living partner to be respected.

A cutscene I'd like to point out is one with Pyra, pleading with the protagonist, Rex, not to see her simply as a tool of war. This mirrors the reading's critique of the mechanistic worldview: the reduction of beings, even people, into instruments. Pyra's plead isn't just personal, but symbolic as she represents a force of nature asking to not be consumed but to be understood.

Later in the game, Rex and the party reach the ruins of Elysium. Instead of expecting a lively area, it’s a barren wasteland. Like Renaissance scientists in The Drama of the Anthropocene, Rex learns through humility, emotional intelligence, and collaboration—not conquest.

This week, we start on the movie Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, another fantastic Studio Ghibli film. I have never heard of this film before, even knowing many Studio Ghibli films; this one seemed to go under my radar. This very early film in the studio's life introduces a true hero whom isn't rooted in triumphant conquest, but in compassion. Nausicaä, the main heroine, is not radical in terms of fighting, but it's her way of not fighting. In a post-collapsed world, her greatest weapon of choice is empathy.

This film follows Nausicaä's journey through a post-apocalyptic society that is full of toxic jungles. She doesn't fear the big oversized insects but instead studies them to learn from them, and she eventually discovers nature's terrifying turn is not vengeance but healing. Nausicaä doesn't try to dominate her surroundings or enemies, but she listens and changes the world around her through understanding rather than violence.

On a global scale, this movie is about climate change and environmental justice. A key takeaway from this movie is that healing, either that be personal or environmental, comes through empathy and responsibility. Kindness isn't weakness; kindness is a strong revolutionary force that we all have and can use to change the world around us.

Swampcon was the first real convention I went to. I had planned on going to a convention prior, but I wasn't able to make it. This convention lasted two days, March 29th and March 30th. I only went for one day, but I was there for a lot of it. In fact, I volunteered! I signed up to volunteer quite a bit ago because I have been meaning to get involved in Swampcon. I was planning on going the day after as well on Sunday to check more stuff out, but it was pouring down rain, and I didn't want to deal with that. The rain did remind me of Genshiken, with that one episode where it was pouring down rain.

I volunteered from 4 to 8 pm on Saturday in Artist Alley. The Artist Alley was an area at the convention where many artists (mostly local, but some traveled quite a bit to get there) came together to sell their art. I spent my time making sure people had wrist bands on and directing people to where they could get one if they did not have one. I was able to walk around and explore the rooms, and I was surprised at the amount of different types of art! There were stickers, prints, keychains, pins, and so much more. There was a variety of art; I even saw one artist making jewelry and blankets! It was very fun to see so many people come together to express their love for the anime, games, and comics that they enjoy. No other place would I be seeing Miku buying a My Little Pony keychain or Mista from Jojo buying prints of characters from a variety of media standing next to two Deadpools. This experience really helped me see the difference between official cultural capital and shadow cultural capital. Seeing so many people dress up and create art helped me realize how meaningful cultural expression really is. Conventions like these allow people to freely express their love for the media they consume, spending hours on end creating art, making cosplays, or just showing up and walking around.

Yet, I've only scratched the surface. Not only was there art all around, but there were also many panels, ranging from panels about dragons, furries, how to speedrun video games, kpop, lore in video games, quizzes related to video games, a panel about yaoi, and so much more. I sadly wasn't able to go to really any panels, but I met up with some friends on Saturday and they told me about what they experienced. There were also events, such as the maid cafe and Vocaloid concert. I was really hoping to go to the Vocaloid concert, but I sadly couldn't :( It was awesome to see some behind the scenes for it as I got a tour of the convention for training purposes for volunteering, and I was able to see everyone practicing their dance moves and see the stage for what it is. It's so awesome to see how dedicated and creative people are to their favorite series, even taking hobbies such as dance and incorporating them with the media they enjoy.

A little before the end of my shift, before I had to help the artists close up shop, I looked more into the individual items the artists were selling. I saw keychains of characters from Evangelion, prints of Makima and Denji from Chainsawman, and even stickers of Meatwad, Frylock, and Master Shake from Aqua Team Hunger Force, which I thought was really awesome. I didn't expect to find something like that; I mostly assumed it was just anime.

One last thing: I find it awesome that they were playing one of the UF basketball games at the same time in the center part of the Reitz, so seeing two different things happen at once was pretty cool, and a lot of people that came for the game didn't know about Swampcon. Anyways, here's a photo of an awesome cosplay I saw of one of my favorite Five Nights at Freddy's characters, Springtrap.