Meaning Behind Anime

The Plot Of The Anime

Hetalia: Axis Powers is a anime that takes on nationalistic and political topics and turn it into a satirical animation. In each short episodes, we can see that the nations and political groups are represented as human characters (anthropomorphized countries), where we can see the interactions of each nation through their stereotypical personalities and status, which I personally believe is genius way of retelling stories of historical events towards the broad and younger audience without incorporating much distressing or graphical content. Moreover, each short episodes are commonly themed around major world events like WWI and WWII, however it does expand into minor or fictional interactions between the characters.

The Issue In Question

Visual media, especially these anime episodes, represent a powerful narrative regarding nationalism and the cultural identities for each nation, as seen reflected from our real world's history and events. However, they are mainly expressed through stereotypes, which may not represent the nation or can differ from other nation's perspective as stereotypes are very subjective. Like I said, visual media itself is a very powerful medium to persuade (rhetoric) or bring in knowledge to their targeted audience (knowledge = power), through exaggerated expressions and art style choices. In this anime, the stereotypes are represented in a very exaggerated way, while making the show comedically and entertaining, can misrepresent the entire nation and its people in the real world. For example, Italy the character is represented as very sensitive, while Germany is represented as serious and aggressive. While an average viewer relates to these stereotypes, it doesn't actually represent all of the nation's population and can further push those stereotypical standards. The visual rhetoric element additionally can be powerful in ways to persuade people in a way propaganda does, using exaggerated elements to falsely favor people in serious real world situations.

The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond

Visual rhetorics and media have long been used to convince people to support or participate in nationalistic goals, however through creativity and exaggeration, it can also leak some misinformation of traits from specific nations or political groups to pull more power in from the people to those organizations or nations sending these media. One notable example is from Germany during WWII, where they would hand out visual rhetorics in forms of cartoons, portraying other countries like the United States as "corrupt" while displaying themselves as the more powerful and trustable nation. The visuals in propaganda are usually fantasized through body proportions and special added effects to bring in additional meanings, often for exaggeration.

On the other hand, visual media such as Hetalia can be beneficial to teach people in the real world about each country and culture, as well as the interactions in a less graphic way. However, the false representations and stereotypes are still relativity common in order to persuade the audience about what the country's identity is and their reason for their motives in historical events.

My Personal Takes

The Plot Of The Anime

We first see that the land is filled with dangerous fungi releasing fumes of lethal gas; the world is all moldy and wrenched. People and their animals are wearing gasmasks to protect themselves from breathing in spores. We also learn that villages and the people in them are being consumed in the Sea of Decay, a jungle of toxic fungi and plants that slowly encroach the open land, filling everything in its path with mold; this happened starting after 1,000 years of industrial development.

We also get introduced to a woman named Nausicaä, who flies using her Mehve gadget. She is the princess of Valley of the Wind, a small country where salty wind protects them from corruption. Nausicaä, intelligent and adventurous, gathers powerful resources for her village and wants to learn more about the toxic world and the origins. She has a skill of knowing how to keep any creatures docile. Nausicaä also made companions with Teto, a wild fox-squirrel, gifted by Lord Yupa, their region's greatest swordsmen and a close friend of King Jhil of Valley of the Wind (Nausicaä's father).

The Issue In Question

The anime takes place in a post-apocalypse futuristic world (with medieval aspects). The Seven Days of Fire incident, caused by powerful humans, created suffering to the world, destroying most of the life that civilians depend on. Now, these civilians have deep care for clean crops, water, and air. The world is devastated by the spreading toxic, war, and famine. Crops are hard to grow due to fungi and when nature is threatened, massive invertebrate creatures like the Ohmu can go in a rampage, which can cause destruction and civilian deaths. Torumekia, a aggressive nation, have goals of destroying the fungi and insects but that seems to be a bad idea as the insects will all fight back. Moreover, Nausicaä discovered it is the land itself, not the plants and insects, making the world poisonous, and the underground water is only clean because of the trees under the Sea of Decay, which Torumekia affiliates fail to understand.

The issue that this anime addresses is the environmental damage that the humans, corporates, and other organizations are creating. However, the corporates nor the governments seems to understand the environmental-impacting situation so this anime is a way for people to spread awareness to ensure nature is treated carefully. We can see WWII nuclear themes like when the U.S. government bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, destroying life and causing famine, which the government doesn't feel remorse for those innocent civilians, which represents the Seven Days of Fire. Torumekia and its affiliates are basically like those organizations who contribute to the environmental negligence and also blame the Sea of Decay (even though the sea provides the clean resources) and the insects for the deaths it creates.

The anime also reveals the consequences when nature is abused. When the Torumekia affiliate, the Kurotowa army, used a baby Ohmu to bait the adult Ohmus, this created a wave of angry Ohmus that has the ability to destroy villages. This resembles the impact of global warming when plants are killed by smog from industries, much like when global warming is the revenge against the consequences of humanity's actions, is the same as when the Ohmus create a genocide for what the feared humans are doing.

The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond

In Japan, we can connect the damage created by industries that affected humans like the Fukushima incident. Fukushima was constructed to serve energy as Japan is becoming a heavily industrialized nation after WWII. This disaster leaked radioactive waste into the water, creating contamination, potentially caused radioactive deaths from civilians affected by it.

While Japan's industrial plants contributes a part of the environment impact, we can broaden the scope as well as discuss the most relevant issue connected with this anime's themes. We can see that almost all the nations are emitting potential toxic chemicals into the air due to the rise of industrialization. We have power plants releasing smog, nuclear reactors releasing radioactive waste, and even the manufacture of plastics release their own deadly chemicals.

This is a global issue, the harmful waste the industries are leaving can create consequences such as environmental destruction, killing off plants and animals that serve oxygen as well as food, which can directly affect us humans as a consequence. Global warming is also another impact due to CO2 emissions from industries, leading to warmer climate, increased hurricanes, frequent storms, and even rising sea levels.

My Personal Takes

I could be affected by the impact of humans and groups associated with industrialization as I am living in Florida, where hurricanes are rather very common and destructive. When I was living in Tampa, we started to have hurricanes as early as June, which is the first one I've seen that early. I also experienced frequent and heavy rainstorms as well as last year's winter being not as cold as in the past.

The Plot Of The Anime

The story begins with highschool students female protagonist Mitsuha Miyamizu and male protagonist Taki Tachibana. Mitsuha Miyamizu lives in a rural location called Itomori where she performs rituals on the family shrine, while Taki Tachibana lives in a busy location where he works a part-time job and has future job goals. However, both lives change as they start to swap bodies (a dream at first thought, but it's actually real). This is due to Miyamizu's wishes of living as a handsome boy in Tokyo as she has poor relationships with her strict family, which some supernatural powers swapped her with a random guy. After confusion over their new identities, they would start understanding their situations and know about each other's lives by leaving notes every swap. A crucial note is that Tachibana lives 3 years into the future and the swap takes him back and Miyamizu foward, where Tachibana saves Miyamizu, her family, and Itomori residents from the comet Tiamat, and then reality alters so they get to meet in-person. Throughout the film, we see ongoing themes of love and destiny between the two characters (like they are meant to be together).

The Issue In Question

This anime addresses multiple themes and issues seen in our society, but I want to name only two. We see that there is a divide between the rural and urban communities. In the anime, we can see the life Miyamizu is living: a rural small isolated town. She desires to want to move to more urbanized cities like Tokyo, which can lead to shrinking of those rural populations and the extinction of the traditions in it.

We can also acknowledge the themes of preparedness, especially in a natural disaster. In the anime, the TV forecasters did not expect the Tiamat comet to split off in its orbit, which eventually became too late, leading to the extinction of the Itomori town.

The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond

In our world, we can see government projects by Japan to boast tourism in more local areas and create an economy there. This is why Japan is one of the most popular tourist locations and is known for many of its cultures and traditions. This basically helps revitalize or slow down the rural town's extinction as people are flocking to more urban cities like Tokyo to get good income and be close to services and jobs. This can also be seen in other nations like United States, where the many rural areas struggle to maintain its population, like theres even a named town with only one person living.

For forecast-related themes, Japan's 2011 Tōhoku earthquake led to massive deaths and a tsunami as the forecasters put their faith in a faulty seismic device, which could've prevented deaths when evacuations would be announced. Same situations worldwide like hurricane forecasts would've prevented more deaths if the experts were careful about the dangers of these storms as they can suddenly ramp up in categories.

My Personal Takes

Honestly, this anime felt like a true masterpiece. I used to watch anime films as a child but I never got to watch newer ones like this as the thoughts of watching anime have long been gone, until recently.

The Plot Of The Anime

This is quite of a different medium (a whole ass video game) but it does share similarities to the anime art style. Although there seems to be a lot of narrative arcs, I will be finding and focusing on the relevant ones that can be turned into an "eco-text" narrative with a theme to it, as well as referencing it from the lectures from the Japanese course professor. So this means I am going to focus on the cutscenes and look for themes of environmental issues.

In the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a disaster has swiped the world, making most of the areas inhabitable. The humans have to live in small but constraint spaces in the world which is now a vast wasteland. Similarity to Nausicaä in the anime Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, who thrives in the Valley of the Wind, while Xenoblade characters thrive on the backs of the giant Titan species functioning as land. However, the world becomes a vast wasteland as the Titans dies and nature starts deteriorating and sinks into the Cloud Sea, which becomes a threat (basically the Sea of Decay but with clouds and ocean, which is similar to worst man-made disasters like nuclear winter and rising sea levels due to climate change).

Thus, the main element of both stories are basically most of the world turning into a wasteland. Theres also a vision of a heaven-like place thats supposed to come at the end, where the wasteland is no more and nature fills the world (similar to most endings of ecological disaster media or films). However when the characters finally went there, they find that it's all dead and only an artificial space station is left. They went inside and met Klaus, who said his experiment accidentally destroyed his world, to the point nature cannot restore itself anymore (all humans, plants, animals, etc.). This is like how a thousand years ago in Nausicaä where there was war that destroyed nature, however in Xenoblade, there was no life left.

We also learn that nano-machines make up the Cloud Sea and they collect genetic lifeforms for Titans to grow and give new life. This leads to nature being restored artificially to bring back nature, which humans can now thrive on now.

The Issue In Question

Here is the point I want to mention regarding how nature is restored: it is purely artificial. The nanotechnologies are created by Klaus, a human, to restore nature on his own. Originally, philosophies tell us that nature will only restore on its own will without human interference or contributions. However, the destruction we see in the game is so bad that nature cannot restore itself and that humans need to actually do something to restore nature. This basically shows a debate on human reliance on nature and nature reliance on humans, that if one is gone, the other will also slowly die out.

The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond

Now we do not have nano-machines capable of recreating life just like in the game, however this theory can be applied worldwide and we can see attempts made by environmentalists and scientists in trying to actually help nature. Conservational places are crucial in preventing a species from going extinct so when there is no more of a important species left to keep a habitat going, conservation areas already created backups (artificially using human interventions) to release it back to the wild. Additionally, we have scientists creating breakthrough DNA manipulation to revive a species, so indeed it proves the existence of a debate of whether nature needs human's reliance and vice versa, or nature and humanity are and will always be separate.

My Personal Takes

Honestly, I thought humans are part of nature since they branched from other animals through evolution, however I can see why in most cases humans are treated as a different force, rather than being part of the force of nature itself. I am a human, and I'm pretty sure you and the audience are all humans (correct me if I'm wrong?), so as a human, I can see how we branch out of the force of nature due to our developments like technologies and exploiting or manipulating nature, something nature itself cannot do (we feel like gods and animals are inferior).

The Plot Of The Anime

After the massive destruction and near human extinction, traumatic flashbacks of Asuka Langley Soryu's mother committing suicide, as well as the defeat of her beloved Evangelion Unit-002, we can see that Asuka is comatose, and Shinji Ikari is trying to wake her up, but eventually goes desolate and not responding.

All the Angels have been defeated and there isn't much to do with the Evangelions now. We also get an insight into the Human Instrumentality Project, which Gendo Ikari and SEELE (a secret organization) proposed to force evolve humanity. They believe that humanity reached its evolutionary limits (as we can see Angel species dominate in power) and calls humans and living beings weak and flawed. They thought that merging the existence of everyone into one whole, super-entity, instead of making the beings independent, would make them stronger and comparable to entities like the Angels, as well as solving independent struggles and hating of their own kind. Gendo, personally pushes the project just to see his dead wife again. SEELE, however is hacking NERV's Magi super computers so they can do their agenda before Gendo can, eventually turning into all-out war.

In the near end, Shinji goes hysterical as he witnesses the awakening of the angels (Lilith), a part of SEELE's master plan towards instrumentality.

The Issue In Question

Honestly, this movie took on a very weird and disorienting storyline, so finding themes were quite hard to do so. However, I want to talk about individualism in the space of reality. In the end, the anime talks about reality and the fact the composition went from anime to cinematography. Reality is reality, and you cannot escape it. Dreams and fantasy are where you can find happiness, but it is temporary, and reality will always come for you in the end. Individual-wise, if there was no individuality, and if all entities merged into one, you will be everyone but also nobody. There will be no pain, no suffering, no individual thinking. The concept of fear is lost, there is nothing good in this new combined reality. We see that there is a 5 billion year cycle between individual humans and a single god, and neither can coexist at one period (humans probably messed up injecting angelic remains into individual beings). We can only have individual humans, or all the humans merging into a one supreme being.

So what can I obtain from this? I personally don't have a clear answer. Also, watching this movie quite damaged my mentality in some way. However, I might suggest that what an individual must find is happiness, by facing the fears of society, and suffering through pain. Society and the individual must understand each and they are humans and humans are humans, separated by individualism and scattered from a spectrum whole. But who knows, the movie seems interpretive anyways.

The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond

Our world is reality, the place we live and the place we are conscious in. In our world, there is no escaping. Dreams and fantasy are inside our reality and are temporary means of happiness, whether that is sleeping or diving into fiction. It is important for an individual to find happiness in their life and there are no shortcuts. Pain, fear, and suffering are all part of the cycle of living, especially you, and one must suffer through it while maintaining your individualism (be like yourself), which is a good thing as other people can understand who you are in reality and you will find some good helpful people. Our reality does not have a single being just like how all the souls merged in the anime, we have to cope living in this reality.

My Personal Takes

I don't know. My previous statement is what I think about my reality. The movie itself felt like a fever dream, and I writing like I am going through that phase in this blog. My reality is shared among everyone but it is the individual that isn't shared. My individual, my body, my control. By being an individual, I have my own will to shape and bend reality how I want (however in small local bits and if I am confident enough with no pain, fear, nor suffering blocking my path). How I perceive myself and the forgoing reality is destined to becoming my future. I had this kind of thinking and it applies especially in college. If I have a strategic path through reality and have the confidence to execute it, the future will eventually bring me happiness and success.

The Plot Of The Anime

We skip to the later episodes starting with the 8th episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion. After Shinji Ikari (Third Child), the main character, finally meets Rei Ayanami (First Child), he will also meet Asuka Langley Soryu (Second Child), who unlike Rei, who is obedient, quiet, and mysterious, Asuka is more violence-orientated and talkative who can control her Evangelion Unit-02 very well in combat. He does get some confidence from Asuka, leading to improved results when he decided to give another try controlling Evangelion Unit-01. However, his confidence is lost when he faces an Angel on his own, which creates a void that sucks him in, unable to escape but panic. Shinji would contemplate about his life and who he is, turning his mech violent and shredding the Angel.

After a few episodes later, on episode 24, we see Asuka's mental health being deteriorated because of her childhood, turning her from a violent and competitive child to a desolate one. Shinji also lost his friends and the city is left of its remains. But, Shinji finds another person who also felt the same as him, Kaworu Nagisa (Fifth Child). Rei and Kaworu are from similar origins, both being half human and half Angel and Rei is found to be a clone that can be replaced for every death. Kaworu is quite affectionate towards Shinji even though both are male, but also complex as he is half-angel whose purpose is to end humanity, eventually letting Shinji decide humanity. Finally, on episode 26, we see the characters contemplating about their struggles. Eventually, Shinji finds himself in his reality and he comes to accept who he is, that he isn't actually alone and it's because of how he perceives it. At the end, he is congratulated by the people he knows.

The Issue In Question

We can discuss about how one would come to hate themselves, especially who they are in their own perception. Shinji, for example, has traits that make him different from most men, having queer masculinity traits (although he is straight), meaning he does not possess the traits of hegemony masculinity. After understanding his so called flaw, he started to hate himself. At the end, he became convinced that it is ok for who he is and there are supporters who congratulate him because of his newfound understanding.

The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond

In our world, there are people with personalities, not just the fixed personality of a male for male and a female for female, but one's gender could intertwin with another biological sex or an unidentified identity. Specifically focusing on biological males, this queer masculinity is a unique type of masculinity compared hegemony masculinity, as it challenges that traditional hegemonic norms. This is especially common for men who is associated with LGBTQ+, although it is also widely seen in straight men.

The issue is that there are men who believe they are in a state of aloneness because they believe their personality, or "masculinity" do not fit the preferred ones in society that make one a socially ideal person. What they can do is to rethink their approaches about themselves and think of those who care about them (families, relatives, closer friends, etc.), or find social spaces that they feel comfortable in finding new people that they can relate to. This is basically like when Shinji met Kaworu and realized their similarities where both do not fit in the category of hegemonic masculinity.

My Personal Takes

The Plot Of The Anime

Violent enemies, called Angels, roam the planet Earth and cause havoc on the human created infrastructure. A young boy named Shinji Ikari is forced to join the NERV (a secret organization under the United Nations who battles against the Angels) by his father Gendo Ikari, who is a commander of the organization, with complex relationships with him. Gendo is also the director of the construction of the top-secret Evangelion weapon project. Shinji eventually is tasked to control Evangelion Unit-01 to battle against the Angels with his group, which Evangelion Unit-01, being a powerful giant biological mech, much like what you see in Mobile Suit Gundam (I should stop making references to that dumb anime).

The Issue In Question

In episode 1, we can clearly see themes of masculinity crossed with themes of war. Gendo is the director and has a powerful position in the United Nation's secret initiative, NERV, who was also chosen by his authorities to do what he wants in control. We see that this reflects the male hegemony system, where males dominate over females in crucial positions or missions. Additionally, we can see the father wants his son, Shinji to be the one to pilot the mech and engage in war, which also shows this pattern of passing that male hegemony system down as society expects men to be mentally strong and discipline, even though Shinji is a child. However, Shinji is more of a different person, showing a presence of a female's gender performance (according our society), refusing to pilot the mech and go to war, which subverts the social norms in the anime. This is also one of the reasons why the son-father relationship is poor as the father is seen more as a masculine figure while the son has a more feminine figurine side, but I will probably discuss more on that on another blog as the focus for this blog is male hegemony.

The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond

Male hegemony is very present in our modern world and even has been the same historically. Men are more likely to take on very powerful positions such as being a president of a wealthy nation, a general of a powerful military, or even a CEO of a large company. In Japan for example, there hasn't been a female prime minister yet, nor in the United States, has there been a female president. Most if not all CEOs of the most valued companies around the world are occupied by males. of In the This leaves women to take on less powerful positions, specifically roles that meet what society expects in gender performance like nurturing or housework for women. However, this situation has been improving as a result of awareness for gender equality and the laws passed with it. Females started rising in importance in society and are praised for taking more powerful roles males formally took on.

My Personal Takes

I want to talk about my personality and my physiques as a male and how it doesn't really reflect how society imagines a true male looks. Men tend to look tall, muscular, and handsome as those are physical traits that make of masculinity (sounds like muscular). I do not possess most of those traits as I am a lean person who often loses in arm wrestling. However, I am tall, but not as tall as some of the more masculine dudes out there, and also I did not win the genetics of having a handsome facial features like a diamond-edged jawline.

The Plot Of The Anime

Violent enemies, called Angels, roam the planet Earth and cause havoc on the human created infrastructure. A young boy named Shinji Ikari is forced to join the NERV (a secret organization under the United Nations who battles against the Angels) by his father Gendo Ikari, who is a commander of the organization, with complex relationships with him. Gendo is also the director of the construction of the top-secret Evangelion weapon project. Shinji eventually is tasked to control Evangelion Unit-01 to battle against the Angels with his group, which Evangelion Unit-01, being a powerful giant biological mech, much like what you see in Mobile Suit Gundam (I should stop making references to that dumb anime).

The Issue In Question

In episode 1, we can clearly see themes of masculinity crossed with themes of war. Gendo is the director and has a powerful position in the United Nation's secret initiative, NERV, who was also chosen by his authorities to do what he wants in control. We see that this reflects the male hegemony system, where males dominate over females in crucial positions or missions. Additionally, we can see the father wants his son, Shinji to be the one to pilot the mech and engage in war, which also shows this pattern of passing that male hegemony system down as society expects men to be mentally strong and discipline, even though Shinji is a child. However, Shinji is more of a different person, showing a presence of a female's gender performance (according our society), refusing to pilot the mech and go to war, which subverts the social norms in the anime. This is also one of the reasons why the son-father relationship is poor as the father is seen more as a masculine figure while the son has a more feminine figurine side, but I will probably discuss more on that on another blog as the focus for this blog is male hegemony.

The Issue Addressed In Japan & Beyond

Male hegemony is very present in our modern world and even has been the same historically. Men are more likely to take on very powerful positions such as being a president of a wealthy nation, a general of a powerful military, or even a CEO of a large company. In Japan for example, there hasn't been a female prime minister yet, nor in the United States, has there been a female president. Most if not all CEOs of the most valued companies around the world are occupied by males. of In the This leaves women to take on less powerful positions, specifically roles that meet what society expects in gender performance like nurturing or housework for women. However, this situation has been improving as a result of awareness for gender equality and the laws passed with it. Females started rising in importance in society and are praised for taking more powerful roles males formally took on.

My Personal Takes

I want to talk about my personality and my physiques as a male and how it doesn't really reflect how society imagines a true male looks. Men tend to look tall, muscular, and handsome as those are physical traits that make of masculinity (sounds like muscular). I do not possess most of those traits as I am a lean person who often loses in arm wrestling. However, I am tall, but not as tall as some of the more masculine dudes out there, and also I did not win the genetics of having a handsome facial features like a diamond-edged jawline.

The Plot of the Anime

The anime takes place in the first year of middle school. We are introduced with Nitori Shuichi, who identifies as female while assigned male during birth, which they wear a woman wig and woman uniform. The second main character, Takatsuki Yoshino, is introduced, who identities as a male while assigned female during birth, who has short hair and male uniform. The characters see that students are more mature and are settling into their classes. When the students are introduced, we can notice some have gender non-conforming traits (e.g. having no preferences wearing gender-matching uniforms), which shows how gender-fluid their world is. It also appears that Shuichi has affection towards Yoshino at one point, but Shuichi doesn't understand what love is.

The Issue In Question

As the two main characters are transgender, each faced some discrimination due to their identity. We have Shuichi who was made fun of at school calling them by "tranny" as well as locking them outside of class. We also see people looking at Shuichi in a weird way in public as well as girls being surprised and angry at Shuichi trying to express their female gender identity. Shuichi is also resisting to dress up as their female-self because they feel like they could be discriminated.

We also see a scene where Saori Chiba, who initially confessed her love to Shuichi, angry and bullies Yoshino because Chiba found out Shuichi expressed their love to Yoshino, effectively breakikg Chiba's hopes of having a relationship with Shuichi. When Yoshino wore men clothing to school, the school staff questioned them and Yoshino had to clarify the situation.

From these observations, the takeaway issue is that for someone who feels like they are another gender (transgender people or any LGBTQIA+ members), it is more difficult for them to adapt to society due to discrimination and perceptions.

The Issue Addressed in Japan & Beyond

Japan is a pretty friendly nation towards queer or LGBTQIA+ members, however in certain situations or in nations worldwide, there comes to be discrimination towards and the inability to adapt to society for any gender non-conforming people.

Discrimination-wise, there are a lot of scenarios of discrimination towards queer people in schools and even online. In schools or other professional institution, there have been cases where they would ban any queer education or identities, restricting them from exercising their identity in those spaces. There are a lot of people online who are sending hate messages towards queer people.

We can see that just like in the anime, we see the same issues in our real world where queer people are often called out as "weird" and also are not respected or thought of as unusual.

My Personal Takes

While I do not identify as queer nor is part of the LGBTQIA+ community, I have personally seen a lot of acts of discrimination and bullying towards these members, however the worse cases I've seen is on social media like Instagram. Note that I am a straight person and I do not have the full picture of the LGBTQIA+ community, so please take my observations lightly. So like, there are people calling these groups, especially online in comments or posts, as "insane" and "mentally unjust", as well as hearing them talk about wanting the community to be banished.

The Synopsis

The following documentary, "True Otaku" looks into the foreign fans of Japanese popular culture, specifically in the United States, where Japan's export of culture has been widely successful. The fans in the U.S. make up the true otaku community of the Americans, and this documentary explores that diversity and subcultures that consists of youth pop-culture, fandom, cosplay, and cultural identity of this massive Japanese-orientated group.

For me personally, I wanted to experience what a true anime convention is like, however, due to the inability to schedule time as well as family-related disagreements, this wasn't possible. Fortunately, this documentary will deep dive into what being a otaku is like, and also gives a tour into an anime convention in America.

The Japanese Pop-culture

Japanese pop-culture, also referred to as "cool Japan" is commonly defined as anime, manga, video games, music, and fashion that is originating from Japan. Otakus are typically associated with people with obsession with Japanese pop-culture, but it can be any other pop-culture such as the Star Wars franchise as widely seen in the U.S..

I can try to connect with the influence of pop-culture with a concept called "Grand narrative". Grand narrative is a societal concept relating to a story of the past to future that a group of people (typically a nation whole) is journeying through in order to reach a goal they see as the utopian finale (e.g. Americans goal of spreading democracy to the entire world). Grand narratives are the way to shift history and give individual's life meaning: individuals contribute to change to create history.

Today, we have abandoned the grand narrative concept due to it having consequences in society, thus we can see the "Animalization" term come to place, where there is no longer a possible story or a grand narrative to be created. Animalization describes that people's life can become meaningless and nothing in their life changes, just like animals' lives. Thus, the rise of pop-culture fills in the emptiness of animalization by creating smaller narratives people can follow and give their life meaning to. Japan's grand narrative was to build an empire, which has fallen, but with influence from America's pop-culture, the Japanese built their own pop-culture, which exploded in popularity. This circumstances associated with pop-culture encouraged devoters and massive fandoms to exist around it (the people run their own small narratives).

Now, if these fans from world wide want to meet, there are conventions around the world where people with similar interests can meet and share their subcultural beliefs with other members. Anime (otaku) conventions are among the popular ones, and this documentary will explore the effects these conventions have and what they offer.

The Virtual Tour - Observations & Thoughts

The first part takes place in Baltimore, Maryland and we get a glimpse into the Baltimore Convention Center, where Otakon, a group where otakus and anime fans meet every year, since the 1999s, basically becoming some sort of tradition for both hardcore and casual anime fans and otakus. I am surprised with how big the otaku community is, and the rate it's growing. The narrator showed that Baltimore's attendance multiplied over five times!

I can see how much diversity there is, from gender to race to interests. There are a lot of cosplayers as well which shows their dedication to the fandom as their own little story. I also notice how common the shadow cultural economy is in any fandom meetup, where people sell unofficial culture and we can see plenty of people purchasing them as they believe they hold a value.

We get to see how the American fandom defines otaku and well, there are a lot of different answers, which I believe is due to the diversity and origins of different fans as they came from internationally, and they seemingly created their own definitions, however the most common answer is "people obsessed with anime and other Japanese-culture", as I think is due to where the word originates. However, people expanded the term to represent all pop-culture.

Conventions are just a perfect place to meet people with the same interests and obsessions and it is that perfect because there are a ton of activities to do (which could be overwhelming too) such as playing games, dancing to music, showing off cosplay, creating art, buying merch, and even befriend people from around the world. Personally, it feels like heaven for people into Japanese pop-culture, but also any pop-culture in general, as there are many types of conventions. In the documentary, people also say that it is fun to act like the character you're cosplaying, and we also see how people design their costumes, which shows the degree of creativity freedom one can go in a convention.

The cosplayers said that ordinary people would look at them and other cosplayers as "weird", however I would believe that it's because they aren't used to seeing people showing their pride in their subcultures. In a convention, everyone in that familiar space will see it as normal as they are part of that same culture.

The Plot of the Anime

Sailor Moon is a pretty popular franchise, much like Mobile Suit Gundam but for girls. The classic version of this franchise is kind of repetitive and boring. In the beginning episodes, this anime introduces Usagi Tsukino, a lazy young girl who seems to be living in an average family, a normal life, and goes to high school (and failing). She looks up to Sailor V, a powerful hero and wants to be like her. Then, a black talking cat with a crescent called Luna finds Tsukino and thanks her for saving the cat from a prank. The cat then gives Tsukino moon powers and now she is Sailor Moon, and her duty is to save the city as a hero.

The Issue In Question

Sailor Moon is a product of women heroism and dominance. This anime sends a message that females can also present as a dominant figure just like males. Yet, society still sees men as the sole dominant figure, and I agree men are built to be stronger by nature, but people would think women are weak both physically and mentally based on loose observations or stereotypes. Jennifer Newsom's "Miss Representation" ("Girl Power") discusses the issue of negative potrayal on women, which hinders women's leadership aspirations and spreads the belief across society to become a norm. However, this does not mean society should expect men to take certain roles that females are able to do as well. In the anime, we are able to see Tsukino, the main character, take actions in order to save humanity from bad acts. She is the figure of a hero and an inspiration for many women, however we will discuss the limitations society imposed that slows down women dominance.

The Issue Addressed in Japan & Beyond

In Japan and beyond, we can see the impact of a male-dominated society. Japan is one notable example, as it is a highly male-dominated society in culture. Males take the dominant positions like making income to supply the family, while females take the house-work positions, just like most family as we perceive it. This way of thinking can also impact how females operate, especially in roles meant to help society like workplaces or even government. We tend to associate higher and powerful roles as being more dominant, thus the men should take the spot.

We can see this impact outside Japan such as in United States. In that country, which shares many of those societal norms as in male-dominated Japan, we only had male presidents so far. Regarding jobs, we can also see a wage gap between men and women where men has a higher pay-rate, which shows this division and belief that men deserves higher payment for their dominant position and work culture.

My Personal Takes

The Plot of the Anime

Aggretsuko is widely known as "Aggressive Retsuko", and it perfectly describes the main character Retsuko the red panda, who is a new female employee as an accountant and also a heavy metal performer. The workplace is full of diverse people, however they are under the authority of a strict and stress-making boss Mr. Ton, a large pig. Retsuko has a very aggressive and chaotic persona who is mostly quite against social expectations, especially in the gender category. Throughout the episodes, we will see Retsuko interact with the working conditions as well as fellow co-workers under her identity in her society, as well as challenge the social norms and expectations.

The Issue In Question

This anime contains elements related to the issue of gender and societal expectations related to working at a workplace. Judith Butler’s essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” discusses a concept that gender is not just one's identity but also one's doings, meaning gender also revolves around labor. Additionally, gender is the basis for one's role in society and can change as humans beliefs and society changes; this is like a "living ideology" where for example, a female's societal roles and expectations are not fixed but can change, even overlapping male's societal roles and expectations. In episode one we see Mr. Ton, the workplace boss, ask Retsuko to perform a very specific task (decorating his table and making him tea), which he says because its a female's task, which shows society expects females to do the supportive (minor) tasks rather than being equal with the males.

Retsuko is an example of someone who goes against gendered norms. Her interest in hardcore metal in that period is something only certain guys would be interested in, yet here is a female with the same interests as those guys.

The Issue Addressed in Japan & Beyond

This issue is predominant in our society, Japan and beyond. Japan is said to have strict traditions on women being housewives after marriage. However, we can also see this pattern worldwide. People can expect females to do less intensive tasks like dishwashing or even having a taste in less intensive culture (as that is what we usually grow up experiencing). We can see this issue especially in workplace and family culture, where females end up in the kitchen whereas males end up working at the job making income. This belief has been embedded into what we expect an average family looks like. Even though if a female decides to work at a job, people would expect them to be the one doing the work similar to household work like making tea. This shows that people's belief in gender roles are fixed and they believe they stay relatively constant.

However, there is a rise of a group that breaks gender expectations in society such as the LGBT+ group (this group has spread internationally), which consists of members who have a fluid identity and also have interests that do not align with the "fixed" interests amongst gendered people. Other groups include feminists groups who breaks this norm.

My Personal Takes

In my life, especially when I became more conscious about my world and the diversity in it, I can see an increased number of people with interests and beliefs that is seen from the opposite gender.

In my high school, there are guys who like hardcore rock and metal, however I also see girls who also like the same area of interest. I tend to associate rock and metal with guy's stuff, but it is because I am too adapted to the societal expectations in my world. I also see guys having tastes in shows or music that I expect only the girls to have those tastes.