anim(e)ted blog

I had to rewatch Assassination Classroom because it has been a while. However, this time I actually paid attention to the social issue in this anime. Before, I start ranting on about this anime. Can we agree that most of us voted on Assassination Classroom because we figure out it was banned in Florida schools? 

This anime shows the separation of the “lost cause community”, aka class E. The school moved Class E into an off-site campus building in the mountains because to them Class E is a lost cause and not worth the resources. Even Karasuma-sensei and bitch-sensei realize how can Class- E is able to work in a classroom without proper air-conditioning and when Karasuma tried to request air-conditioning it was denied to “lack of funds”. The principal and teachers on the main campus use and encourages the degrading of Class E to influence the students to work hard to prevent going to Class E. They typically use the school assembly to make this point. Even the government had similar attitudes towards Class E, they choose Class E to learn assassination techniques and pressure to kill Koro-sensei. I think Ryoma had told Nagisa that both the school and government had labeled them a lost cause with the potential to commit murder. Hence, why they were chosen to kill Koro-sensei.

It was kinda nice that Koro-sensei, Karasuma-sensei, and bitch-sensei were the only ones to see the potential of Class E. They put all of their efforts to get Class- E to beat the top students in the main class. It was sad that they had to kill Koro-sensei, the main person that help them realize their true potential, for the greater good. 

The last episode had show Class- E as Adults was a nice message that a lost cause will always have the potential to grow. Most of Class E has grown to have a successful life. Nagisa had chosen to become a teacher to a class of misfits, taking a page from Koro-sensei’s book. He wants to be that person that shows the “lost cause” students that they have the potential and do not let others put a label on them.

This show highlights the social problem of division of the social classes. The first episode shows the treatment of the lower class in a night city. The show opens up with David trying to wash his academy uniform, but the washer was not able to continue washing his clothes due to insufficient funds. He tried to use a bootleg version of the software that was needed for his class. His mother is seen as tired from working hard to get David a good future in the academy. However, most children of the wealthy are able to afford to go to the academy so David was sticking out like a sore thumb. When David and his mother were in a car crash, the ambulance came they had to scan both David and his mom to see if they were important customers. Once they pronounce them as not important customers, they left them injured at the scene. Everything in this show is ruled by money. Even the doctor's decision was dependent on how much money David paid to save his mother's life. It is sad to see everything in the night city is dependent on money, even medicine. It shows that the poor are not able to climb their financial status as they are consistently challenged by society. Hence, the appeal of committing crimes for easy money is appealing. David becoming a cyberpunk was a bit sad. His mother, a former cyberpunk, had tried her best to give David a better life than hers. But, in the end, he became a cyberpunk. He had learned to steal, fight, and even kill from Maine and the crew. From Maine's words, he was becoming a man, especially after sleeping with Lucy. When Maine turned into a cyber psycho, he told David that this was his end and he should leave the scene. David had tried to become the new Maine with his new body and tech ware. In saving Lucy, he risks his psychosis and died saving Lucy. Well, at least Lucy got a chance to go to the moon.

This anime portrays the dark side of fame. The overwhelming anxiety the celebrities feel to maintain their fame and please their fans. Mime had to choose from being a singer or actress. Even though she loved singing as a pop star, her manager convinced her that she will become more famous as an actress. You can see that is struggling with her decision to expand her fame as an actress. For example, she didn’t want to do the rape scene but she did it anyways because she couldn’t say no to the screenwriters. Even her former team members stated that Mime would pose nude to get more attention and that photographers will easily convince her to take off her clothes. However, she was surprised and distraught that the photographer had released her nudes. She constantly has illusions of her chasing her old self and questioning who is her true self, the singer or actress. 

I think it is crazy that an obsessed fan that follows mime everywhere. He crosses the boundaries of a fan and he thinks that he knows her better than herself. He literally kills anyone that “wrong” Mime. This reminds me of sasaeng fans, a term given to an obsessive fan who stalks or engages in other behavior constituting an invasion of the privacy of the artist. The obsessive fan is seen protecting Mime's image and is responsible for the deaths.

I think the confusing part of this anime is trying to figure out what is real or acting. I think this is the same difficulty for Mime, she cannot tell what is acting or not. Honestly, for a second, I thought that she was actually the “obsessive fan” and she was the one killing the screenwriter and photographer. I feel that stress on Mime made her develop dissociative identity disorder. She frequently questions who she is and her actions. She questions if she Mime the actress, Mime the singer, or Mime the killer. She has a hardcore identity crisis. I think that she tried so hard to become the perfect actress that she lost sight of reality. 

Wait, did Mime or Rumi have an identity crisis? Was this crazy past Mime and Killer actually  Rumi? Was Rumi driving the real Mime crazy? I mean in the end, the real Mime visited Rumi at the psych ward when Rumi was still in a dissociated state.

This manga was a very conservative and nationalistic view of Japan. The first conservative message was how the Japanese people had adopted individuality instead of the collective good of the nation. This manga harshly criticizes the Tokyo War Crimes Trial that was to “program” in still guilt upon Japan from the Americans and brainwash Japan to consume an anti-war perspective. I could understand that America is not free of horrific war actions. I agree that the two atomic bombings killed nearly 300,000 people and the U.S. also had concentration camps holding the Japanese descendants. However, I was disgusted by how this manga tried to minimize Japan’s war crimes against Chinese and Korean people. The manga had a panel that stated that China and Korea were satisfied with Japan’s attitude in punishing the war criminals since their nationalism had focused on “anti-Japanese”. I am not gonna lie, I agree that some of these War crimes actually still cause some resentment toward Japan. I know that my roommate, Korean born, has extremely negative feelings towards Japan because of the conflicting history. 

Can we talk about these “fake war pictures”? I have personally seen the pictures of the Nanking Massacre and know some details about these actions seen the picture. The manga tries hard to prove the Nanking Massacre photos as non-credible and false photos to brainwash the “youth” about Japan’s actions in war. The second photo that the manga had tried to falsifiable that this wasn’t the part of Nanking massacre but was a result of an air raid gone wrong that people were tramped in panic. First of all, I call bullshit on this! If you search the real picture you can see that most of the corpses were women and children. The women in the picture were pantless while they were “trampled”. The massacre of Nanking is also known as the rape of Nanking because of the rape and murder of women and the killing of children. The agenda of the Manga is to twist the narrative of these brainwashing photos to minimize the actions of Japan in the war.

Another selection of this manga was to state that the testimonial of these war victims should not always be believed only because they cry and point fingering. The manga tries to undermine the testimonial of these battlefields' comfort women (mainly Chinese and Korean women) that they captured by Japanese solider and were forced to pleasure the soldiers. However, the manga tries to say how can we believe these testimonials without true physical evidence. The manga stated why these comfort women waited so long to come forward to tell their “story” and not immediately after the war. However, I am pretty sure many of the women had tried to overcome the trauma and were scared to disclose their stories for fear of being criticized or shamed.

I gotta say this is one of the best films that we watched that I truly enjoyed. My inner fangirl came out to hardcore shipping Mitsuha and Taki. The plot twist of Taki not being able to switch with Mitsuha because she died. Dude! A meteor literally killed her. When Taki discovered that she had died was truly heartbreaking. The fact that he went to the shrine to reconnect with Mitsuha once again. I think the red ribbon that connected both Taki and Mitsuha could’ve been seen as her fate intertwined with the red string theory of soulmates. OK, no more shipping. 

At first, I compared the lives of Mitsuha and Taki in how they may contribute to their personality and way of living. Mitsuha lives in a rural environment and religion plays a huge part in her way of living. However, she had wished to be reborn as a male in Tokyo. She had the belief that boys in the big city are able to be carefree and enjoy the city whenever they want. When she switches lives with a teen boy living in Toyko, Taki, his life is not as carefree in the city as it seems. Taki is consistently working to afford to live in the city and scolds Mitsuha for wasting his money in cafes. It seems that when Taki takes over Mitsuha's life, he makes her act more carefree and stand up to those who criticized her for being the mayor’s daughter. 

I think that religion is the main focus of this anime. One thing that stood out to me was that Mitsuha’s father left the priesthood to pursue politics. Her grandma kicks him out and raises Mitsuha on religion and teaches her about the shrine temple. We learned that females of her religious family have been able to have these weird dreams that switch lives with another person. When Taki went to the shrine as “Mitsuha” to give her saki as an offering was that last switch before the meteor hits her village. He visits back to the shrine to reconnect with Mitsuha to prevent her death. The concept of the magical hour or golden hour was mentioned in the classroom and by the grandma. 

I gotta say that this anime is quite comedic at first but watching 19 episodes in a roll kinda made watching this show annoying. The opening of the first episode was a U.N type of setting with all the countries in the room to discuss something. Ironically, when Germany was the one that called order to the meeting was a bit funny because of the historic context. 

This show makes historic wars seem unserious and childish. This shows main focus was the Axis power countries of World War 2. As we know, there were a lot of war crimes, and nuclear bombing, genocide, etc. But, this show fails to acknowledge this for comedic purposes. One scene that I remember was Italy was kidnapped and returned many times back to Germany. And the scene where Britain tries Black magic for a secret weapon but ends up conjuring Russia. I was definitely laughing at the chant, I am pretty sure that Dumbledore was in there.

 It also highlights stereotypes of each country. Italia was depicted as pasta obsession and being cowardly. Britain is known for bad bland food and bad teeth. America is stuffing burgers and self-centered, thinking that they are the best country. I don’t agree that Italy should have been depicted as weak all the time because I know in history at one time Italy was becoming a strong emerging country that actually influence Germany’s dictator. I get that the stereotype is meant for comedic purposes but sometimes it was overused.

Honestly, I strongly dislike watching this video game-style story. Not gonna lie I probably zoned out watching some of the episodes. From what I got from the first videos was that people used to live in Elysium or Alrest created by the Architect and they used to have power over the land. That the people are forced to leave by the creator but were provided Titans to live on. The Titans are supposed to be made by the world tree and the Titans are slowly disappearing as well. Gramps told Rex if only people can get along they can live in Elysium. I interpret it as people doing harm to the land in terms of destroying land and others that eventually cities will sink like the Titians. Correct me if I am wrong. 

When Rex died, he met a blade (Aegis) she said that even after so long it hasn’t stopped and she wants to go to the real Elysium. But, once again the greed of wanting power (aka Aegis) is the reason who much chaos and violence. I guess what she meant is that people continue to use violence and destroy innocent lives for selfish reasons like to power themselves. Indoline had tried to find Elysium and the Architect but only gain Melos and Pyra/Mathra. He had used Melos for his own power! I think that low-key what made Rex different is that he is trying to help drivers and blades live in peace like how Elysium should be. 

The relationship between drivers and blades. I think in one of the episodes Jin states the blades for slaves to drivers and when they die that is when they become free. I think it is necessary to point out the blades are depicted as people but they only exist because of the drivers. 

I feel like missed the whole point of the show.

This film was great to watch! This is a commentary on how mankind continues to be selfish. The Talmekians continue to cause more pollution and destruction. Their presence was the catalyst of the “Valley of the Wind” destruction and enraging the Ohms insects. Princess Kushana's goal was to relieve the warrior to burn down the toxic forest because the insects had taken her arm. However, her army continues to use aircraft ships, and tanks that continue to release pollution. She and some of the Pejitei didn’t care about the consequence of burning the forest and they were only kind about gaining power. 

Princess Nausicca from the very begging has so much regard for the toxic jungle and the ohms. She had so much appreciation for the shedding of the Ohm shell, the same ohms that are a “threat” to humankind. When saving Yupa, her first thought was to reason with the Ohm and redirect the insect back to the jungle. She doesn’t like to hurt the insect and apologized for the actions of humankind. When she discovers that the Ohms are here to protect the purified water, soil, air, and plant under the toxic jungle from humans from polluting it again. She understand that it was the human fault for the toxic jungle. For some reason, she kinda represents mother nature to me. She has an earthy connection with the Ohms, trees, and other animals. She also proves that nature and humans can cohabit if they don’t harm each other. 

This reminds how countries built nuclear power plants that when if something goes bad then it will pollute the surrounding air, water, animals, and flora. It saddens me that even knowing this, we continue polluting the environment. Current events, we had chemicals in Ohio that may pollute the environment, Pennsylvania has contaminated water and the approval of the willow project. Humankind continues to harm nature and it is understandable that nature will become angry like the Ohms.

This was my first convention ever! Personally, I didn’t really enjoy the experience at swapcon. It wasn’t the convention itself or anything. My social anxiety and going solo had made my experience less enjoyable. If I had gone in with my friends, then I would be less anxious and be able to enjoy the convention more. Moving along, I went Sunday morning for like 2 hours.  

One of the first things that I went to was the vendor booths. I wanted to see the different types of fandom merchandise. There was a booth that sold furries things, like tails and ears. That was not my cup of tea. There was a Pokemon focus table but it didn’t only sell pokemon merchandise. I was attempted to buy some small naruto figurines but the price was worth it. Most of the vendors displayed jewelry, pins, and stickers that were based on anime, memes, and cute items. The only thing that I bought was some stickers of the Supernatural character, Dean Winchester, from the small obsession booth. Honestly, I was surprised to find supernatural merchandise here. Next, I went to the art room. This is where independent artists made fan art through pins, jewelry, keychains, t-shirts, prints, and posters based on anime or moe elements. This definitely reminds me of the otaku culture of buying and selling fan derivatives. I found it interesting that some art displayed the usage of that database of moe elements, not artists based their art on anime characters. I knew that some had spent a lot of money to obtain these fan derivatives like what we saw in Genshiken representation of the Otaku at conventions. 

One of the ways that Otaku is able to make fiction their own was in the form of cosplay. On way to the convention, I saw many in cosplay. Most of the cosplay I did not recognize. I saw a lot of elves and furries. It was fun to see a group of friends planning a group cosplay. One of the group cosplay that I recognize was team rocket, Jessie and James. Only if they had a third friend that could’ve cosplayed Meowth. I saw the commitment in the elaborate cosplay that enter the contest. They had handmade costumes and accessories that put some online stores to shame. I saw a couple of cosplayers that were very uncomfortable shoes that cause them to limp when walking. However, they didn’t care about the pain and cared more about the cosplay. This had remind me of the episode in Genshiken when Madarame had hurt his wrist and refused to acknowledge the pain until he had his doujinshi. I am shocked and impressed by their dedication to their cosplaying. 

I decided to go to the maid cafe because, in high school animes, they had an episode that had a maid cafe theme for their school festival. I gotta say the people that dressed in maid and butler costumes were really dedicated. Near the end of the event, the maids put on a dance performance. It was a good performance. I overheard one of the maids saying to one of their friends that she put a lot of effort into making her maid costume. 

I saw a lot of otaku culture at this convention through the repossession of fiction through cosplaying and fan derivatives. I saw the dedication of the cosplayers. They made elaborate costumes and cosplayed through the pain. 

Hopefully, I can experience more of the otaku culture at a bigger anime convention that I planned to attend with my sister.