The Blog Project

I thoroughly enjoyed this anime, and I found it to be a pleasant viewing to wrap up this class. The series follows a group of outcast students who are tasked by the government to kill a mysterious and powerful entity who will serve as their teacher for a school year unless they fulfill their mission. The show provides a fun coming of age story that incorporates many relatable feelings towards the rigorous nature of school and the hardships of growing up. Ultimately, the class and their new teacher bond over the experiences and the knowledge and wisdom he imparts to help them complete their assassination, move forward in their education, and succeed in life. Koro Sensei shows his students that no matter how people view you, you have the potential to obtain something valuable by being diligent in your education. 

Throughout the show, there is a conflict between Class E and the rest of the classes at the junior high school. The students in Class E are looked down upon heavily, humiliated for being the outcasts of society and worthless, and painfully discriminated against in their academic existence. The leader of the school makes active attempts in keeping the status quo of inferiority of Class E. In spite of this, Koro Sensei inspires the class to grow beyond their labels of underachievers and instead take pride in what they do. The students use these pieces of wisdom to push themselves in their studies, and develop in their assassination training. I like his message a lot and I think Koro Sensei provides invaluable advice to students who need reassurance in themselves that despite difficult circumstances, they can achieve greatness. Koro Sensei fulfills the teacher’s purpose by giving the children the tools they need to succeed. 

I also appreciated the emphasis on competition and the pressure that students feel to succeed. It's a feeling that many of us as students can relate to, and I found myself invested in the students' successes and failures. Koro Sensei's message about failure being a necessary part of growth was a powerful one, and it's a lesson that I think everyone can benefit from.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners adeptly executes its story in a cyberpunk setting.

We are thrust in media res with a violent scene of a cyberpsycho. It immediately sets the tone of a dark world. Later, David’s walk to school further expands on the world: the degeneracy of society.

Night City is presented as a cruel world once everything starts to come falling down for David. It is an extreme case of money running the world. For example, if you are not a policy holder, then you will not be rescued during a life threatening situation. I cannot help but compare it to the US healthcare system. It really questions when the significance of life is reduced to the same extent in Night City. This further exemplified by David’s impersonal transaction of handling his mother’s remains.

The Arasaka Corporation is an all-encompassing presence throughout Night City. Even David’s mother wants him to climb the corporate ladder because it is supposedly the only path to survive. However, this is refuted when David literally is on top of Arasaka Tower and has no choice but to fall down to his demise with Adam Smasher. Arasaka Corporation can be likened to how capitalism is all-encompassing. There is no exteriority or alternative for capitalism: it is simply an inherent force in the system.

Except, Lucy’s dream to go the moon was a possibility for paradise, but it was nothing without David, unfortunately. The system has snatched away David forever, and by extension, Lucy’s dream.

Cyberpsychosis is an interesting concept, which is creatively depicted. It is a result of the high mental stress of cybernetic implants. This serves as a limit for those trying to make a name for themselves. In short, long-term success can only be attained as a corpo. Also, the only way to deal with cyberpsychosis is to take immunosuppressants; there is no cure, except removing the implants. And in the end, if you fall off the edge, you are targeted for disposal. This could be a critique of a scenario where people with mental disorders do not have access to proper care.

P.S. the music is fire.

The concept of cyberpsychosis is intriguing and adds a layer of complexity to the story. It raises questions about the limits of technology and the toll it can take on one's mental health. The lack of access to proper care for those with mental disorders is a poignant critique of our own healthcare system.

Review: 7.8/10

This was a very interesting watch. I guess I can check off watching a rated R movie for school. The thing about this show besides being very intense, is that all that happened is actually true. Things that happen in this show can and may have happened to many people in the film industry and Hollywood. A lot can be talked about with this show.

First off, the biggest theme that stuck out to me was identity disorder. We first see that Mima is a pop star singer that wears cute dresses. She knows what her job is and what happens outside her job. The rest of the movie Mima changes her job and enters the acting world which is seen by her agents as the "next big thing" for her. In this new world she experiences a lot of new things. I feel like she was questioning whether she should leave the pop star singer role being torn between her old career that she loved and this new acting career. She is also struggling with all the new stuff in the acting world. I think the role to play a rape victim in the show just added to all the stuff she was going through mentally. I think as an actress you need boundaries and going into a role like that right away is just terrible especially if you don't know what the scene entails and if the film makers and other actors have the best intentions for you in general.

I was talking with my friend who knows someone that got sexually abused and it has the victims thinking less of themselves, nicely put. It is much more worse than my words as we saw in the movie. Now going forward, Mima begins to loose touch of reality. The movie begins to cut scenes and transition from dream to reality so much that when you thought it was reality it was a dream and vice versa until you're confused yourself. I think they did this to have the viewer experience what Mima was going through and what people who go through the same things experiences. If this is really the case this movie deserves a higher rating. I do not know the full story but apparently Heath Ledger experienced something like this with his role as the Joker in Batman. He was one of the best if not the best actor to play Joker but he couldn't separate his role as the joker from his own personal life. From what I heard this ultimately lead to his death.

The stalker was super creepy and the fact that her agent tried to kill her at the end and killed others I am assuming was a shocker. I guess she was never on board with Mima's decisions in acting. But to go and kill people around her and someone she was close with. I can't imagine the things Mima was going through.

Can someone please explain the hospital scene and the last scene. I was so confused when it ended like that. Why was she all smiley and happy? Is she good now or what? I would also like to add that there were so many dudes in the audience as a pop singer which kind of concerned me straight from the start. I was on board with her acting if her fan base as a singer is mostly guys. It was a little sus.

The way the movie transitioned from dream to reality was also a clever way to put the viewer in Mima's shoes. It was interesting to learn about Heath Ledger's experience with a similar struggle while playing the Joker, and it's a reminder of how important it is for actors to take care of themselves mentally and emotionally.

Sensōron

I don’t read much manga myself, believe it or not. Besides a few entries here and there that are either best enjoyed through manga or content I’m too anxious to wait for, I often prefer to watch anime. Though I know my way around manga for the most part, I have to say that Sensōron was quite dense. It was quite different from your average read because it felt as if the main character was talking to you directly. There was a very short yet loose narrative about a publication studio but that was only used as an analogy to segway into the real bread and butter of the manga: nationalism.

Each country has nationalism and there are often times when people of a certain country either make up stories or bend the truth to either make themselves look better, or others look worse. This is a main topic of the manga. The idea of false depictions of events are talked about thoroughly in the manga. When Poka-Q, a worker for the boss, takes too long in the bathroom, the boss sprays bug spray in the room to make him leave and justifies his actions by making up white lies about Poka-Q. Through these means, his employees believe him. This action mimics the idea of brainwashing that occurs globally. In the manga, brainwashing in Japan occured by convincing a lot of the youth that Japan was always in the wrong because of WWII’s events and deserved to be demeaned. The boss argues that many of the facts and images used throughout history to justify Japan’s inferiority and the sanctification of places like the US may have been forged or taken out of context. He uses the Nanjing Massacre as a common example of photos taken out of context that justify an event he deems has no real evidence.

Though I won’t comment on the events directly, the argument here can be universally applied. It’s a straightforward message of “don’t believe everything you see and read.” Oftentimes, you must fact check yourself and the sources you find online due to the massive spread of misinformation. With tools such as photoshop, image editors, and other facts, images can be skewed to prevent telling the complete story. Furthermore, like the boss’ example, evidence may be used in situations where they are not directly tied yet are passed off as legit and directly tied to an event. You must be careful what you trust. Furthermore, with artificial intelligence growing rapidly and voice modulations becoming an ever present idea, even voice recording and videos may be the subject of fact checking as any form of “evidence” can be faked in our day and age. The boss also talks about this idea of “evidence” which I found interesting. He critiques the idea that without evidence, you can’t always trust or believe something. However, sometimes the evidence may just be some testimonies or accusations by people who are making things up. The question then becomes, do you trust this form of evidence or not? This is a big problem we face in our society where any form of accusation can have serious consequences on a person’s life, despite the accusations and potential “evidence” being forged or taken out of context.

word count: 355 words 04.14.23

Watching roughly 3 hours of video game cutscenes felt like it took years off my life, but I found the game to actually be pretty entertaining to watch all the way through. Sure, we skipped some cutscenes and I'm missing some of the context, but overall the game had a pretty interesting world and story. I loved the designs of the characters in this game, they were all very distinctive and cool (Jin is MY GOAT).

But enough about my surface level thoughts, let's get into what I thought this game was trying to say. To me, there seemed to be two prevalent themes. The first of which, is destruction of the environment (which is obviously very prevalent to our recent class discussions). We can see that in a similar way to the events of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Neon Genesis Evangelion, the world has become a mess due to the decisions and actions of people in the past. The people living in the present, have to deal with those consequences, but similar to Nausicaa, are fearful of their future (due to the Sea of Decay, and the disappearance of Titans in each series respectively). We see however that in the end (similar to Evangelion), the heroes are able to have a reset of the universe and end up recreating a new world with which they can continue to live their lives. It fosters hope, as well as a new beginning (although they are definitely very different circumstances). I think that this definitely continues the themes we have been touching upon recently in class. The destruction of the Earth is a very relevant and scary danger to us in the world today, and we need to act to protect it.

The other theme that was prevalent in the story was discrimination (which is a topic we also touched upon in this class!). Throughout the story, we learn that some of the Blades feel discriminated against by humans and Drivers. Since they are Blades, they are used as weapons by the Drivers, and are unable to have any real semblance of self since they lose their memories whenever their Driver dies, just for the cycle to continue over and over again. Because they feel that they are inferior, some Blades are angry at society, and therefore decide to rebel against it. To tear the world down with them, if you would. While this is a very dangerous idea, I'd say it's very logical for someone to think this if they feel that they are powerless to break free from this systematic discrimination.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a commentary on environmentalism. The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic society riddled with toxins. Things are so bad that they have to wear (oxygen?) masks during the majority of the movie because the air pollution is terrible. The societies we see in the film (Tolmekian and Pejite) insist on fighting one another instead of working together against the issue. They also void themselves of any responsibility as to why the earth is how it is and blame other things (such as the sea of decay) for why things have gotten so bad. This is an allegory for our current society and how we have treated the earth. Most of the damage has been done by big corporations, but individuals cannot be absolved of all responsibility. In the past, the effects of pollution were still being discovered, but even then it is ignorant to think that actions like dumping garbage and toxins into local water sources have no consequence. Even today, despite the various warnings by scientists and activists, a blind eye is turned as the Earth tells of its suffering (most obviously seen through global warming and climate change)

I think it's telling how Princess Nausicaä, a sixteen-year-old, shows more compassion and determination in helping the Earth than others much older. They look up to her because she is the only one who cares enough about the Ohm and the rest of the insects to talk to them instead of firing at them (which is backward in itself- wouldn’t firing at them provoke more anger???) She even sacrificed her life for the baby Ohm, restoring peace between human society and the ohm. This parallels current society, as much of the younger generation is pressured to speak out against the environmental harm humans have caused to the earth.

While watching the movie, Princess Nausicaä reminded me of Greta Thunberg, a twenty-year-old, Swedish environmental activist. She has spoken on climate change numerous times, but unlike Princess Nausicaä, I don’t know if we will receive a happy ever after. She has faced much criticism for speaking out against climate change and companies and lawmakers alike prefer to push greenwashed alternatives and ignore the greater issue instead of actively trying to make a change.

The comparison between Princess Nausicaä and Greta Thunberg is a valid one, as both have shown tremendous courage and compassion in standing up for the environment. However, it's disheartening to see how little progress has been made despite the warnings and activism of the younger generation. As you mentioned, companies and lawmakers continue to prioritize profit and short-term gains over long-term sustainability, leading to irreversible damage to the environment.

This movie is meant to substitute an alternative ending to the original show’s final episodes. I’m not really sure which ending I liked more, as I felt a need of closure at the end of both, and the plot of the film was just as convoluted as the show’s. The movie shows the carrying out of the Human Instrumentality Project and the raid on Nerv by Seele forces. Despite offering a different version of the ending of the story, it echoed many of the same messages of the human yearning to not be alone, and even expanded its theme to include the struggle for survival in warfare, the ethics of sentient life, and the dynamic between reality, dreams, and truth. 

 Once again, the anime combined many similar elements of other anime we’ve watched. As Nerv realizes their enemy has become their fellow man, who has developed a sort of Grand Narrative to initiate the Third Impact, a brutal battle ensues which sees ruthless attacks on human life through merciless destruction similar to the WWII anime we’ve watched. As the significance of Lilith, the Evas and Angels, and the origin of human life are unraveled, it made me think back to Shin Sekai Yori, in that humanity had to reject beings who were not too far removed from their own species. I also felt some sort of way with the moment in Shinji’s dream sequence in which it is said that reality is where dreams end, and fantasies are a means to get revenge against reality, but it avoids the truth by escaping to the fictional world. This sentiment felt oddly close to a commentary on fan culture, along with the imagery of normal people sitting in the audience of a theater. Finally, the closing moments of Shinji’s dream as he breaks free from Rei’s final form reveals a message that new hearts will change the shape of mankind, and that people must act on their own initiative to take advantage of the opportunities of happiness that are everywhere. I liked this more hopeful ending, and felt it held close resemblance to Eden of the East in which the new generations should take the initiative to improve mankind. 

I found it interesting that you brought up the dynamic between reality, dreams, and truth, as it could be interpreted as a commentary on fan culture. The idea of escaping to a fictional world to avoid the harshness of reality is something that many fans can relate to, but ultimately it is important to confront the truth and deal with the pain of reality.