Live Laugh Anime

This is my first viewing of the show Hetalia. I found it to be very strange and the comedy was a bit corny. I will discuss the show in the lens of its comedy and allegory to historical events.

Hetalia uses humor and satire to make commentaries on the powers that were present during historical events, the most prominent of which being World War I. Italy, which during the days of ancient Rome was one of the strongest empires in the world, but now was depicted as some pasta-loving goofball, showing how weak of a country Italy was during World War I. I found it weird that the show made humor and made Germany a more likeable character despite the atrocities committed during the war. Germany is portrayed as hard on the outside with a soft heart in his interactions with Italy and other countries. This definitely was not the full story in how Germany is represented in the textbooks. While some of these representations appeared to be stereotypes that were meant to be taken lightly, like how China appeared to talk differently than the rest of the characters, other representations, like when Germany says that Japan had modernized really fast and that was positively conveyed, were shown in a more serious tone. Also, why was Japan the most dripped out country of them all. Seems a little bit biased.

When searching up how others feel about Italy and the representation about Italy, I related to the article by Annette in how she said that the fan base is productive. There were many, many threads dissecting how the fan's cultures interact with the work and different ways of understanding Hetalia in enunciative productivity. The fans are self-aware and can argue and discuss what elements of the show that they find to be inaccurate and what is more relevant to the contexts of the war.

This is the 3rd time I have seen the movie Your Name and it is just as good as I remember it. It is one of my favorite movies I have watched in this class and I highly recommend anyone to watch this movie if they have not already done so. However, for this blog post, I want to talk about the Kizuna in Your Name.

Your Name mainly revolves around a body swap plot. 2 people of 2 different genders and livelihoods swap bodies and experience life through the other one's perspective. In this case, both characters Mitsuha and Taki gain an appreciation for the country and one another. Taki gains this through living Mitsuha's country life and engaging with Mitsuha in their diaries. Mitsuha gains this by living away from the country in the city like she always had wanted and realizing what she lost while also engaging in diaries. This is significant since both characters despite coming from different backgrounds and experiencing life in a city can see the appeal of the country and each other. We see that Mitsuha stops complaining about her life in the country all the time, and instead, she wants to go to the city to see Taki. We also see that Taki becomes obsessed with Mitusha's town and the disaster, he even makes his job revolve around stopping disasters like this which is shown to be unliked since he is not able to find a job. This appreciation they both share for the country along with their body swapping forms Kizuna between them and they cannot stop longing for one another even when they forget their names and experiences.

I can relate to the appreciation of the country. I have a lot of family members living in villages that are even less developed than Mitsuha's which I love and want to keep safe. I would never want them to die in an accident like what happened in the original timeline and I think I would go to great lengths to keep them safe. I also think that shared interests and appreciation can make connections that transcend time like in the movie. There are many people I know that although I do not see often or talk to often I can always find a common ground with some subject that we have talked about before.

This was my first time engaging with the Xenoblade series other than in smash bros, but it was very long. Only watching the cutscenes did not do justice to the story, since we were not able to actually able to engage with the game's combat system or world made it so that we missed out on a lot of the experience. However, for this blog, I intend to talk about the objectification that is present in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

In Xenoblade, there was a great disaster that left the world in the state we see it in the present. The characters we see are living in very distant civilizations. We also know that there is a place that is supposedly untouched by the damages of the rest of the world called Elysium where nature thrives. The characters in the story aim to make it to this mythical place, to find the paradise.

However, when the characters make it to Elysium they find that there is no paradise. No where that is pure and nature. We see Elysium is in ruin, the tree is dead and their are man made structures everywhere. The characters even question if they are in the right place when they make it to Elysium. There they meet the one who destoryed the world: Klaus. He made sure that nature could never repair itself.

We see that the only reason life can even seem to exist is through a solution Klaus devised where he artificially created life again to populate the world. This is done primarily through his genius, the genius of humans, as well as through humans since humans are needed in the process to bond with. In this way we see that the text is contrary to the idea of the objectification of nature. Nature in this case will be a part of humanity since it is humanity who ultimately will bring back nature. This game proposes a solution for ecological issues in which humans are the main providers.

I can relate to this concept of objectification of nature since I often do think of nature as something I can use to help me but not something I am truely a part of. I think the way society has become leans less into nature at least less so obviously. A lot of those processes that used to require direct nature are now made a lot simpler and do not require direct involvement.

This was my first viewing of End of Evangelion and concludes my Evangelion viewing. This movie was a lot. It was very confusing with a lot of imagery, symbolism, and many ideas that were set up in episodes that I did not watch. I think I would need to watch the series over again and watch the movie a couple more times to understand it actually. However, I can point out the masculinity shown in the movie.

We see at the start of the movie with a very disgusting scene Shinji masturbates to Asuka's lifeless body. This act comes off as disgusting, yes, but it also is very out of character for Shinji. He has stated early on in the series that he does not objectify women and does not find true arousal from those parts of a woman. However, here we see him show that he does find arousal from this since he was able to masturbate to it. This act is unimaginable if you think of Shinji as someone of queer masculinity, but if you see this as him accepting or trying to embrace some aspects of hegemonic masculinity it all makes sense. Additionally, we see that he is unable to embrace this masculinity. He finds himself disgusted by what he did and goes back to being an inactive shell. This may indicate that those who try and force a change in their masculinity will only find disappointment in what they have done.

By reverting back to an inactive shell he also reverts back to his queer masculinity and once again becomes a burden. He does not even attempt to save himself and gets Misako killed in the process. This implies that the way he is causes problems and only reinforces his view of himself as someone who is worthless in this society pushing him to be more and more desperate.

This desperation culminates in his dream world (whatever it is) where he is in a room with Asuka. He pleads for her help, but she refuses calling out his faults and pushing him on the floor into a hot pot of coffee. This is an extreme version of Asuka made in Shinji's head that shows Hegemonic masculinity, she is violent and ready to take charge of the situation. In desperation Shinji then snaps and starts to take on aspects of Hegemonic masculinity again by throwing the table and then choking Asuka, symbolically killing off the hegemonic masculinity that has tormented him while also embracing it in another extreme way. This shows once again that the embracing of masculinity not your own has disastrous consequences.

In my life, I can relate to Shinji's lost nature. There have been times when everyone felt like the aspects they demonstrated do not align with everyone else making them want to adopt those traits like he does. Not everyone has done the deplorable acts he has while trying to emulate others but the idea is similar.

Alright Part 2 is where I can actually get to writing. I wrote my part 1 blog almost entirely on Shinji so I'll start off by explaining what I meant by his “character development” that I mentioned in my last post.

Those last 2 episodes were probably super confusing. They probably felt like they came out of nowhere. Some people say it's an amazing ending, while others say it's horrible. Honestly, I don't know how I feel about it. I even needed the help of redditors to get a semi-understanding of what it meant without having the movies spoiled for me. Basically these two episodes are all about Shinji's self hatred and at the very end he comes to finally accept himself. Really, it seems to be that simple. Of course, I haven't watched the movies yet, so if there's more to it, that's probably why.

 Honestly, I knew that Shinji hated piloting the Eva, but I feel that we don't get a true understanding of his self-hatred until these last two episodes. You can say this is dumb, because it may seem like the writers just suddenly had Shinji hate himself, but personally I feel that the story had some obvious hints along the way. When people yelled or even hurt Shinji, he never defended himself. He always avoided problems. Someone who hates themselves, doesn't have the power to protect themselves. 

Alright, I should probably talk about some other characters. Rei still confuses me and I'm betting there's more info In the movies because it seems she has some connection to Shinji's mother. Rei's character development is basically her smiling and shedding a tear. She's attempting to find her humanity and sense of self even though she knows she is different from everyone else. 

Asuka says she's piloting the Eva for herself, but in reality she pilots the Eva as a coping mechanism for her mother. Her mother never cared for her, and the chance to become an Eva pilot meant that people would always care for her, unlike her mother. She believes that if she isn't the best, people will stop giving her attention. She believes that she'll lose any value she has. As of the ending of the series, Asuka is still in a depressive state, but I'm assuming she'll get back on her feet in the movies. 

Finally, I'll talk about Misato Katsuragi. At first, she just seems to be this strong, independent, happy, snobbish, beautiful lady. However, we later find out that she's dealing with some serious trauma of her own. Her dad, who she originally hated, sacrificed his life to save her. It left her confused as to whether she hated her dad or not. She unintentionally sought out things that reminded her of him such as her job and her boyfriend to fill the void left in her heart. At the end of the series, it seems to point out that she is scared of being alone. Her dad leaves her. Her boyfriend leaves her. She just wants anyone's attention and even seemingly makes a move on Shinji.  

I'm writing this after watching the entirety of Evangelion because I didn't wanna ruin it by watching specific episodes. I'm also writing this early so I'm just going to make an educated guess about what part 1 covers.

Okay, so I'm going to mainly talk about Shinji because we don't really dive deep into the other characters until what I assume will be covered in part 2. Shinji is very different from your average anime protagonist. Most anime protagonists are seemingly always good looking and brave. They try to appeal to the watchers' desires. Shinji on the other hand is just a frail and scared young boy who just wants to be loved by his dad. Personally, I love characters like this. They tend to feel more realistic. If you almost died like Shinji did, and had to endure the pain simulated from the Eva, you'd probably be scared shitless too just like Shinji.

Also by starting off as weak, it allows more character development. But, to be honest, Shinji doesn't really have much character development (until literally the last 2 eps). Shinji realizes that he pilots the Eva to please his dad (hopefully this was part of part1 I don't remember). He even returns to his Eva after leaving, but he's still scared. Even though I enjoy character development, I think in certain situations, a lack of it can be just as telling. He's not suddenly just going to become brave and lose his fear of fighting in the Eva, and by this lack of development, it really highlights just how much he desires his dad's admiration.

This was my first time viewing Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and I thought this movie was very enjoyable. I liked the world design and the design of the bugs. I thought the movie had a clear structure and succeeded in telling the story it wanted to tell. Therefore, for this blog, I want to talk about instrumentalism in Nausicaä.

We see instrumentalism a lot in this movie. Mainly from every character other than Nausicaä. Every character sees nature as an instrument of human use and whenever nature becomes a burden or shows that it is not worth what it can be used for, the humans find it so that it is their right to get rid of it. This is in great contrast to Nausicaä who sees nature as something that should be respected and protected. She has a stance that all life is precious whether or not it endangers her. In this way, she is a saint-like figure (will get to this).

The movie functions as a critique of the instrumentalist perspective in society. We see that those who practice instrumentalism are often subject to the wraith of nature in the form of the ohms and their bug armies. The attacks from these bugs leave those who practice instrumentalism in ruin showing that the perspective will only leave people who engage in it in ruin. This is in contrast to Nausicaä who does not practice instrumentalism. She is able to coexist with nature often times being able to stop any of the situations she is in. We even see her regarded as a Christ-like figure for her actions further justifying her perspective.

There is also a contrast between the Tolmekians and the members of the valley. We see that those in the valley use items made from nature that they were able to forage. They coexist with nature and only try, and kill it if absolutely necessary. This contrasts with the Tolmekians who go out of their way to kill nature. Blaming it for their problems. They also avoid it by making all their weapons and machines out of metal which can not be found and have to be made by humans. They also seek to bring out the ancient warrior who uses explosions to singe the earth and destroy nature. Both societies show different stances on nature's involvement with humans. The movie heavily favors the existence of living with nature since it is that stance that saves the people.

I can relate to the instrumentalist perspective. I think I have that perspective. I am not really a nature person and I do favor using the environment to progress. However, I do not wish for nature to be completely destroyed for this purpose. There are limits that needs to be placed on what we can use, but leaving nature alone also does not seem like a good idea to me.

I have never gone to an anime convention before nor have I had any interest in going. I do enjoy anime, manga, video games, etc, but I have never really seen the need to go to an event like these. I am content with enjoying my hobby with the people I have met who I can talk to about it. However, learning about the people who attend conventions and what goes on there was kind of interesting and I could see the appeal.

Conventions like Otakon and Anime USA are events for fans of anime culture to express their enjoyment of the culture with others. It gives fans a public outlet where they will be accepted for who they are and will be surrounded by people who feel the same way. It seems like a great way to meet people in the scene while also being able to engage with the content you love through the panels and the events on the floor. It is where members of the anime, manga, and video game fandoms to engage in all 3 kinds of productivity by talking, expressing their identity through the culture, and by producing texts about the culture they love. It is something that I could see myself going to with a group of friends to hang out at and an event to attend just for the experience.

In the documentary, there were 2 conventions focused on Otakon and Anime USA. Otakon was focused on more so and we got to see the inner workings of a con through people attending it. From this, I was able to see the level of passion that anime fans at cons have. The way they show this is in many ways. At the bare minimum, they can just attend these conventions and engage in the activities present with the anime fans like panels, talking to people with similar interests, and taking pictures with cosplayers. However, at higher levels of engagement, you can participate in activities like cosplaying. Cosplaying is a way for an anime fan to become one with their favorite character in a way by impersonating their appearance and their mannerisms. By doing this they become content because they have been able to become closer with said favorite character. It also is something very common at conventions so anyone partaking in it will feel accepted and will even become something like an icon if their cosplay is any good. Overall, from the footage shown it seems like the convention is a great place for an anime fan to experience at least once.

Cosplaying was a particular focus of the documentary, we were able to see the perspectives of many who attended Otakon. From this, we saw that while fulfilling is also very time-consuming and difficult. We saw that one of the woman cosplayers takes a lot of time in her life dedicated to the craft. She tries to make as much of her costume from scratch as possible which is an impressive feat. This has allowed her to win awards at the conventions for categories like best painted. However, it is not the recognition that gets cosplayers interested it is the very activity of cosplaying. This shows the dedicated part of anime fandoms.

Another focus of the documentary was anime clubs, which are like mini anime conventions in the sense that they give a social setting for fans to meet and talk about what they love. These clubs also do things for their community like charity events where they will bring out guests. For example, the DC Anime Club had an event where they invited the Jedi Guardians to teach their lightsaber fighting techniques to members and had shows where they showcased these skills. This not only provided fun for the club members but also helped out a great cause.

This was my first time viewing this series and it was not something I liked. I can understand Nitori's struggle on a conceptual level, but can not understand it in reality, especially in the setting of a middle school. I also think that the prominence of this issue in the community was also really strange with so many people being shown in the transgender scene. I also found it hard to follow with the genders flip-flopping so much and so many characters looking so similar and being in the same place. For this blog, I want to discuss my interpretation of transgenderism in Wander Son.

From the beginning of the series, it seems gender identification will be a prominent issue in the series as the main character Nitori says she feels uncomfortable in her male uniform. This is symbolic of how she feels restricted in her uniform and unable to express her true gender identification as a female. This is because the uniform itself is a way to make sure that she stays the gender assigned biologically since the uniform indicates gender with different looks for males and females. This in a way represents how the school system in Japan makes it difficult for transgender people to represent themselves which is less of an issue in countries like America where there are many schools without uniforms.

The anime also showcases the increased scrutiny against male transgenders in society. We see that another boy, Yoshino, (biological gender female) is accepted at school as identifying the way he does and even encourages Nitori to express herself since everyone will think she is cute and they already accept Yoshino. This coupled with all her friends telling her that she is cute and will be accepted gives Nitori the confidence to go to school dressed up as a girl like she always wanted to. This does not end well, however, since Nitori gets in trouble and has her parents called. As well as this all the students in the school now find her weird and avoid her. It is made out to be that Nitori has a problem acting the way she wants whereas Yoshino is accepted. This showcases a double standard and maybe a commentary that the acceptance of males trying to perform as females is not something society is ready to accept.

In my life, I have never really had any issues like this. I have accepted my gender and performed my gender attributes readily. I have not had my gender or gender attributes questioned ever. Therefore, I cannot relate to the struggles presented in the series, but I can identify the issue definitely does exist.