Chanel

I've been dying to watch this show since I was a kid but never got around to watching it, so I'm glad that I was able to get a taste of it in these 4 episodes. I'm taking a film analysis class as well on top of this class, and both of these classes have taught me how to analyze works of media better. If I were to have watched, for this case Assassination Classroom, before I took these two classes, I would have never thought about the different types of topics we learned and how it applies to the show or movie. I would've probably watched the show and enjoyed it at face value, a fun action packed show of kids trying to kill their teacher. Usually, anime is seen as a "fun/childish cartoon" that people watch for entertainment but a lot of the shows and films that encompass anime include many analyzable topics that relate to society. I think this show was a pretty good pick to end off with because it has multiple topics that were covered in class.

The show shows the ideas of a social class. The principal is very adamant about classes within classes. The school already has what is called classes (obviously), but he also instills social classes in the structure. Class E is the lowest of all and is treated extremely bad by others in the school. An example is that they can’t be on campus or be a part of school activities. At one point the principal states, "Assassination can wait, my priority is status quo", after seeing that Nagisa stood up to higher-class boys. This furthers the idea of trying to protect the social class in place and puts more importance on social classes than killing the impending danger of society (the teacher creature). The principal sees lower-class people as more “danger” to society than a creature that will kill and destroy society.

Also we can see the importance of money and capitalism in the show. In the very beginning it's established that if the teacher is killed, they get 10 billion. “It's only fair. Kill him, save the Earth. If that doesn’t deserve a life on easy street, what are we fighting for?” From this statement, it is inquired that the character who stated this thinks that these kids should fight and kill to get the life on "easy street". He is targeting the fact that these kids are so low level in society and manipulating them with money as throughout the show there is a message that money kind of just fixes every problem. Relating to this message, its shown that 3 boys in class E would kill Nagisa to kill the teacher by exploiting his low self-esteem to get the money. He goes even further to say that he’ll pitch in on his medical bills after looking at his seemingly damaged/dead body. The boys looked at money as a source of fixing everything. They put money over another human, specifically, their classmate's life. This shows how humans will go to the extreme when money is involved and shows the total control money has over our society. Also, some other money-related parts of the show were in epsiode 5, "My question’s why a super organism has to live on a teacher's salary in the first place?" This line was added for comedic effect but it is a genuine question when thinking about it logically. But the show itself is all fiction so you can't really think of it in that way. Also, I believe in the same episode it is stated, “Can’t be helped it's how things are here” in regards to no funding for AC. This also emphasizes the vitality of money and when no money is possessed, then things that should be a necessity become unattainable and is forced to not be a necessity anymore.

Overall the show itself is pretty interesting but I'll have to watch the whole show to form an opinion. This class was really engaging and eye-opening to things my mind would never even think of or correlate to certain things and I'm glad I was able to get a chance to watch some of the shows I've been wanting to for a while. A little bittersweet but happy bc I need a good break from school and anime 💀. Also, this page is probably going to be dead after I post this bc I don't use Tumblr lmao.

Bye everyone! 🥸

I saw an article titled that Crunchyroll named this the best anime of 2022 so I would obviously have high expectations for this (plus the good ratings from google reviews) and thought it would be amazing, but as much as I want to deny this, it fell short. This show really could've been a masterpiece but the story was honestly really rushed and David and Lucy's relationship was also rushed and not developed well. Like I really want to force myself to love this show, but I just can't. It wasn't completely bad, but it's not perfect.

We see David and Cyberpsychos depict what addiction is in the real world and the effects it causes. We also see the theme of greed in the show. Kiwi's character stood out to me because she told Lucy not to trust anyone in this world because people will turn on you, and she ends up doing that exact same thing. Pretty interesting action her character did that makes you think about how society functions in the real world. Humans are self-centered creatures in the end.

Lucy shows what escapism is. She sees the world for what it truly is and her choice of not going back to be with David's gang solidifies that. She escapes this world through her fascination of the moon and David not being able to go with her further proves how she stated that they are from two different worlds, they are completely different. David also lives through others and lives through what other people want for him and Lucy's will to live is the complete opposite; to make her own choices. David dying in the end shows the extreme of not just addiction but losing one's self and instead living through others causing something like this.

The show also depicts social classes. David grew up poor yet his mother wanted a good life for him and worked as hard as she could to almost "fake" a higher class life that they couldn't afford. The higher class people such as that one boy, bullied David because of it. David shows rejection of that societal construct by fighting the boy in the school and getting expelled. He knows what the consequences are and chose to do it anyways and later is seen not regretting his actions.

Overall the show wasn't horrible and I did enjoy it. It kept my attention for all 10 episodes and is interesting enough for it to be a recommendation but the actual story and narrative fell short.

Ah, the beloved Perfect Blue. Probably my favorite anime film of all time. Watching this is truly an experience one could never forget. This is my second time watching this, but nothing will hit the same as the first watch of this film. I already knew what would happen in the film so this second watch was a little bland, but the only word that could describe my first time watching this movie is, insane. Satoshi Kon (RIP 😔) is really a master of his craft at depicting raw psychology, especially noticed by viewing his other works.

Perfect Blue quite literally makes you question, as a viewer, is what you're seeing a reality or a dream? The film almost puts you in the mind of Mima as she herself questions her surroundings. The film most certainly addresses the themes of simulation and simulacra and touches on fan culture.

Perfect Blue touches on a lot of psychological themes such as mental disorders, delusions, delirium, etc. I think I love NGE so much because of what Perfect Blue is based upon. Those two works are very similar as they tap into the human psyche on a deeper unseen level, which is what makes them so interesting.

Another one of my favorites by Kon is "Millennium Actress"; highly recommend and I also decided to write my essay on it (tbh I would've done my essay on Perfect Blue but Millennium Actress is definitely more simpler to talk about). Kon also directed "Paprika", another psychological thriller that I've been dying to watch as well but haven't gotten the chance to as yet. Even the American film "Black Swan" is kind of "based off" of Perfect Blue. Overall, Kon's work proves time and time again how amazing he is. Everyone talks about Miyazaki but I feel like Kon doesn't get the flowers that he deserves.

This movie has been on my watchlist for a while and I'm glad I was able to watch it for the class. Right after I watched the movie, I honestly looked at other reviews to see if I anyone agreed with mines. To start, this truly is a good movie, the cinematography is amazing and beautiful and the way certain scenes played out were almost perfect and left me feeling a certain way that is indescribable, but after watching the movie I felt as though it lacked in something. I don't know what to pinpoint but I feel like if the movie was tweaked a little more, it would be almost perfect, which is why I don't know if I could say this could be one of my favorites. I think people online can make better criticism on the movie than me that is well articulated without trashing the movie, because it really is a good movie, but overall I just felt like it was missing something.

I read the assigned article (mostly read some parts and skimmed through others) and I see it talks about the relation of power and sexuality. At first I had a little trouble with comparing it to the movie, but after thinking I think it could mean the power you can get from different sexualities/genders. When Mitsuha takes over Taki's body, Taki develops some advantages that helps him with his life that he couldn't get before which was creating Miki's attraction to Taki and landing him a date with her. I believe Miki, or at least another character, says that Taki has become more "feminine". When Taki takes over Mitsuha's body, he causes her to be more "strong" and stand up for herself in class as well as do well in sports, etc. This shows that both gender/sexuality expressions both have their advantages and there's truly no "correct" way of expressing your sex. Also this shows that gender/sexuality is a mental thing rather than a physical one. They both still act the same way even though they are in a different gender body; they both still retain their masculinity and femininity and express it through the different body even though its a different gender.

Also I really loved the red string element added to the movie. I won't do an in depth analysis on it but the symbolization is extremely meaningful and the way it flows is beautiful to watch as well.

I've honestly never heard of this anime and I'm really shocked that it's that popular, but honestly, this show is really weird. Like it's so (this word is a little too opinionated but I'll still use it) dumb that it's funny but I don't see the crazy appeal to it, but I could see how it could for younger girls. This show basically just feeds off of the country's stereotypes as entertainment.  I wish I could’ve remembered my knowledge about WW1 and 2 because I’m not sure if this show is even historically accurate. The show itself is too random and confusing, and the characters talk too fast to actually learn something from this. The only thing I managed to pinpoint was that the tripartite pact includes Germany, Italy, and Japan. Also Italy is made to seem weak and a follower in the show; maybe that could relate to how Italy was in the World Wars but I have no knowledge of it.

Overall the show's banter is immaturely (partially) funny but this could raise a concern about where we draw the line between playfully making fun of stereotypes to racism. Also another concern is the show having a gay subtext to further add to the comedy of the show. I genuinly don't understand why people like this show but, I'm going to stop judging people's interests.

For some reason, I just could not pay attention to the movie and kept getting distracted but that probably my fault so I won't say it was a bad movie because it was actually a good movie but idk I just couldn't get into it, but I did love the wonderful visuals, the music was nice, and the message of the movie was the most important. (Also I watched this dubbed and I actually really enjoyed Nausicaa's voice actor, I felt she brought a lot of emotion to her which helped me fall in love with her character)

The movie's main theme is environmentalism. It was more of a metaphor as how humans treat nature, and the consequences of it. Nausicaa was found in some chamber where she stated that she irrigated the chamber of plants and spores using water and soil drawn deep underground. She found that with clean water and soil, the plants aren’t poisonous. All the soil is actually poisoned. This scene was most evident that as long as you take care of nature, it will produce good effects. Also, there was one scene where Nausicaa stated that they can’t use guns in the jungle and if they do the insects will descend upon them. The gun represents a man made, violent thing intruding on nature itself. The gun is the opposite of nature entirely, and bringing something like that into nature will disrupt the environment.

To add, the one specific scene of her with Tito was my favorite and how she related that back to another scene of her and Kushana was interesting. This scene with Tito really showed how wonderful Nausicaa really is. Overall, Nausicaa treated things that weren't human with love and respect even when they caused hurt and damage to her and her people. I feel like we could all take something from her character into us.

Also, this movie did remind me of NGE as the insects kind of resembled Angels and had kind of the same function as Angels since both humans and insects lived together but fought with each other for keeping their own humanity/race. Nausicaa evidently represents hegemonic masculinity with the way she fights for her people and even her clothes, and could be compared to Asuka due to that. But through that hegemonic masculinity she maintains her feminineness of being a loving and caring girl.

Not gonna lie, I went to one part of swamp con and left. Hopefully that is enough lmaoo as honestly I don't like conventions and didn't feel comfortable staying but I went specifically for the vendors section because I love spending money unfortunately. I thought it was fun to walk around and see all the merchandise, even of some of the anime's we've watched (I only remember noticing NGE tbh) and I noticed specific shops were targeting specific people. Such as soon as you enter inside the room there's a vendor on the left selling a bunch of pokemon and even disney princess things and, not surprisingly, there were mostly little children and parents surrounding it. I mostly looked at the vendors selling figurines and was debating on getting a Rei figure as I've never collected figurines before and I thought that if I wanted to start, I'd get a Rei one but ngl they were taxing and I decided to be financially smart and not get it.

As I was walking through the Reitz, it honestly just reminded me of Genshiken and the otaku culture. The vendor part specifically reminded me of one of the assigned readings by Azuma where it talked about simulacrum and derivative works. "The market, where copies produced by the media are where professional authors get their start, is what really formed the otaku culture. Even best-selling authors sell and produce derivatives of their own work, and in that case, there is not much distinction between the original and its copy." Just seeing the merchandise there that is all derived from an original source of media makes it a copy.

After watching, I actually do like this ending more than the show's original, but I do feel like the original's ending was still needed and hopefully it could've been merged with this ending but unfortunately the director turned it into two alternative endings.

The first scene is a definite shock at first watch and some people freak out about it but was put in the movie on purpose and I wanted to analyze it because it's one of the most important scenes in the movie. I've done some research into it and formed an explanation that makes the best sense to me. Shinji actually tries to kill himself before turning to Asuka in the beginning scene but obviously doesn't because he's a "coward". Asuka would usually be the last person he would run to but out of desperation, turns to her and even begs her to call him an idiot like she always does which is something Shinji never liked but is doing this out of desperation. Shinji masturbates to Asuka, because simply put, he cannot make decisions for himself. Throughout the whole show he could not make decisions for his own and just did what other people told him to do. Shinji doesn’t act on his free will and his drive for doing things comes from others. Shinji at that exact moment had no one to turn to. He’s afraid of Misato and Rei and his father definitely doesn’t care about him. In that moment he realizes he needs to make decisions for himself but he doesn’t know how to and when he exposes Asuka, the only thing he can rely on is his sexual instincts. On top of that, Shinji is chronically depressed and like I said before, desperate. Not only does he rely on instincts in that action, but also at the same time, he wanted to desperately feel good for the moment, therefore he masturbates.  After he does this action, he realizes the horrible thing he has done and is riddled with guilt which further emphasizes the fact that he is so depressed and messed up, it causes him to do something like that. (Note: I wrote this part before the professors explanation of this movie but posting this now bc I didn't have time to watch it completely before class] and hegemonic masculinity also comes into play in this scene too which I didn't look at it in that way, but i'm still going to leave this explanation up as well because it makes sense too)

Some other scenes in the movie I noted were Gendo speaking before the LCL got him. Gendo says he left Shinji alone on purpose and would only hurt him if he was with him and leaving him alone was the best thing to do. He also says "I do not deserve to be loved or feel love." Kaworu tells Gendo that Gendo rejected the world before it could hurt him. This scene was really interesting because it showed even though both the son and father were almost completely detached from each other, they were so detached that they, in the end, were just like one another. This also just shows how humans will push others away in fear of pain and hurting others, but it actually in reality, does the opposite.

Also, the professor noted that hands were really important in the show as there are a lot of close up shots of hands. There's the obvious one scene in the show of the close up of Shinji's hands opening and closing into a fist before he gets laughed at by the children, but in the movie there is also a close up shot of Shinji holding Rei’s hand with his right hand and says thank you. There is some definite importance of hands and maybe even specifically right hands, which will require further research.

Shinji also says in the movie that only bad things happened from the past world which is why he easily chooses to run away but says running doesn’t solve anything because it means that he won’t be there anymore which is the same as no one being there. This is almost a comparison to the world he is in now. Shinji was basically was already living in the new world even before everyone merged, but now he cannot run away anymore in this new world like he once knew before. He also can't run or push away the hegemonic masculinity and then in turn, makes a partial effort to strangle Asuka.

It is also stated in the movie that humanity won’t change unless people act on their own initiative. This also is comparison to criticism of Shinji. Shinji cannot change unless he acts on it through his own efforts. It is also stated that if there is a will to live, you can turn any place into a paradise.This hints to Shinji that his bleak outlook on life can change through how you envision reality. In this new world, he can make it paradise if he wants to, but he needs to want to live to do so. I believe Shinji and Asuka become the new Adam and Eve but I'm not sure if the other people affected by the Instrumentality project could come back if they wanted to as well.

I was wondering why was it only Asuka that accompanied him in the new world and no one else. At first I thought, because Shinji was technically God in that moment, he wished for everything to be back how it was and the Instrumentality project to stop, but if that was the case, I would think he would wish for everyone he knew to come back but he didn’t so I was still confused. I did some research again and found two things that make sense but I don't know which one is right. I had originally stated  before that a character (i forgot who) stated, “ if there is a will to live, you can turn any place into a paradise”. The explanation I read said that it was also stated that if someone has the will to live, they can and will return. Asuka showed that the best. She died trying to live and fighting off the angels, so therefore she accompanies Shinji in this new world. The other explanation I read, someone said that I guess Shinji was told that humans can return to their physical form since Instrumentality stops, but most people haven’t done so yet at the end scene. So in that case, would Shinji and Asuka still be Adam and Eve since there technically is still a human population? Honestly idk and this is hurting my brain.

Anyways, NGE is an almost 10/10, will be one of my favorites for a while. (and yes this post is long asf but there's just way too much stuff in NGE to talk about)

Watching these episodes now has me just as confused as when I watched it for the first time. This show honestly requires extensive research to really understand the whole plot line but that doesn't take away from how good the show really is (maybe a little, but I'll be biased).

These episodes focus more on the character of Shinji and his development. Maybe the creator of the show wanted in the end to focus more on Shinji's character development and thought that was more important than what was happening around him, such as the specifics with the angels, Eva's, Adam, Lilith, and the next fate of humanity. But with EoE (the movie), I believe that is an alternate ending to the show which focuses more on the actual original plot but I'll have to watch it again to remember everything. For this post, I'll just focus on talking about Shinji's character development because I literally don't even understand the actual plot and couldn't even talk about it if I tried.

We actually understand Shinji mostly through what other people say about him / relationships with others. Shinji isn't a completely reliable source for others to understand who he really is, because in reality, he doesn't even know himself. He doesn't even realize his own potential and identity which is why we understand Shinji through other characters, which can also relate to the show showing us that Shinji, or people in general, are made up of other people as well (our experiences and relationships with others form us).

Some specific points I jotted down as I watched these episodes about what people tell or ask Shinji was: Asuka says Shinji apologizes too easily and fast to avoid criticism, Rei questions Asuka,” Do u pilot the Eva to be praised by others?” and Shinji is also questioned in ep 26, both of them have the same answers (basically yes), Misato says that Shinji is quick to obey others to make life easier, and if he doesn’t he will be abandoned, and basically the whole of episode 26 is just other people he knows telling him that the way he thinks of himself isn't true and dead set. Shinji actually says himself that everyone goes on and keeps living life through deceiving themselves.

In episode 16, an extremely important scene occurs where just when Shinji feels happy and proud of himself on the train for his successes with the Eva (and proud of his own masculinity in terms of hegemonic masculinity), he gets reminded and sucked back into being self conscious on his queer masculinity and hate for himself when the little children laugh at him. This scene can be taken literally (little children literally laughing at him in real time) or figuratively where this shows how Shinji view his own environment and feels that in his environment, its always something stopping him from being or staying happy with himself, basically his environment is an obstacle to him. In the last episode, someone tells Shinji that with a change on your reality and how you see your world, what inside your heart will change. Basically, if people are stuck seeing the world as one thing or always having this horrible outlook on life, that way of thinking will manifest your reality. But if you change how you see things, your reality can change as well.

Overall Shinji's problems all stem from the simple fear of being alone. Shinji suffers from loneliness, but pushes other people away and avoids interactions with others to prevent suffering but it only continues the cycle of loneliness. Also it was talked about in the last episode that people who hate themselves project their hate onto others, therefore Shinji thinks because he hates himself, others hate him as well, and episode 26 is everyone basically telling him that this is simply not true and life is worth living only if you make it. Shinji comes to a realization that life can be good and is motivated to make it as such, and everyone claps and congratulates him.

I'm looking forward to watching EoE again because unfortunately like others, (not that I hate the ending) but I'm not completely content with it.

Extremely happy when I first looked at the syllabus to see this show on there. I don't usually have a favorite anything but if I had to pick a favorite anime show, it would be this one. It's surprising because this anime looks as something catered to little boys and males at face value because of the action, robots, and mecha genre and at first when I watched it a couple years ago I thought I might not have liked it because of that reason (which is exactly why I don't really like Mobile Suit Gundam) but it is so much more complex, psychologically, which makes this show so thought provoking and wonderful. NGE is honestly not a show to watch for fun, it's extremely depressing, and a lot of people don't really get this show, but if anything could be called a masterpiece, it's this.

To focus on how this show relates to this article, Shinji's character really questions and goes against the norm and social constructs of what it means to be a man in society. Shinji obviously takes on the powerful role of controlling the eva to take down angels which is seen as a "manly" thing, but the characteristics of Shinji doesn't really fit into what is considered a "man". He is very submissive and not confident, even calls himself a coward and weakling. Other people around him play into the male social constructs, furthering Shinji's declining mental state such as when Misato says "Grow a spine, be a big boy for once" because she got mad at him for the repetitive use of ma'am towards her. Also Shinji's loss of a father figure is important to the make up of Shinji's character, as usually father's are supposed to teach their son how to "be a man" and because his father was so detached from his own son (even stated that in the ikari family it’s normal to live and be apart from each other) has led to Shinji being de-masculinized. Shinji further strays from patriarchal masculinity with Kaworu which is a character later in the show, which then questions Shinji's sexuality as well. Men are seen as supposed to be heterosexual and get scrutinized for being the opposite. Shinji to me, represent queerness. Shinji's character basically rejects masculinity itself, not entirely, but the social construction of masculinity and instead represents "queer masculinity". Many viewers also look at Shinji as gay because of his characteristics, but that just shows how people really view masculinity. This also kind of relates to Wandering Son and how Nitori was actually more scrutinized for being transgender than Yoshino simply because she was originally a male.

Also in terms of "sissy boys", these are males who cannot "do" straight masculinity and present to others as queer even though that is not his identity at all. There are also males that live in the "shadow" of masculinity, but I don't think Shinji is either because he doesn't reject these things, but kind of embraces it.

Overall, Shinji himself is extremely complicated to analyze but an interesting character, nonetheless.