JPT1311

Set 31 years after World War III, the plot serves as a commentary on systems of greed, neglect, and lack of ethics by those in power. Tetsuo and Kaneda are two members of a biker gang who become entangled with the government after an accidental collision with a psychic test subject. Tetsuo, in turn, gets taken in and experimented on, resulting in him gaining psychic powers as well. What I found most interesting is the dynamic between Tetsuo and Kaneda and how it triggers many of the events. Before that, I think it is crucial to understand the climate of this time and the pressure exerted on young children. In their high school, all the kids are told that school is their last chance to be able to keep living and that if they cannot adapt to living in a group, it’s the end of the road. Tetsuo, bullied and weak, is frustrated with himself for never being able to fight and always having to be saved by his friend Kaneda. Kaneda, on the other hand, takes pity on him and wants to genuinely be of help to him, not knowing it’s the very thing that triggers Tetsuo. So, now that Tetsuo has gained the power to be able to fight back, he loses control. He feels unstoppable and relishes in his situation, taking many lives. Ironically enough, though, towards the end, as he is transforming due to the uncontrollable power of Akira, he calls out to Kaneda for help once more. He, who rejected his help more than anything, reached out his hand to his savior once more, finally realizing the consequences of being at the top. I really liked this dynamic; however, beyond that, this film really emphasizes the greed of those in power, not just Tetsuo’s, but specifically the government’s. Riots are going on, people are plagued by unemployment, violent biker gangs and protests, lack of educational order, and yet the government is solely focused on trying to keep their experiments undercover and gain control of the power, the very thing they call “the power of God” and the very thing that had triggered World War III. This greed to be above and to be the most powerful sickens society as it crumbles under their direct feet due to a lack of actual implementation of laws and good regulation. Instead, they enforce violence on the protesters to quiet them and, in a way, ignore them too. In my opinion, I feel as though Akira is not just a “weapon” that caused destruction but a direct metaphor for greed and the consequence of treating humans as tools for progress (it may also be a direct reference to the destructive power of the atomic bombs that struck Japan and the effects on its people afterwards). Apart from that, the visuals from the film were so stunning, and I actually love Kaneda’s red motorbike so much, it’s to die for!

Goodbye, mental health. I cried so hard, this is not okay, what was that ending, no, what was this!!! The whole movie was so cruel to me. This was so beautifully written yet so soul-crushing, and I feel broken inside, blurry eyes typing this right now. On a different note, this film talks about the consequences of war, not during it but after it has ended, and how it has affected its soldiers, specifically, this story is about Violet Evergarden. Once, known as the “major’s dog,” she had her humanity stripped from her at a very young age, as she was molded into a soldier who only knew how to follow orders. She was considered more machine than human, an emotionless tool of war that obeyed without question and lived solely to serve her superior, Major Gilber, whom she clung to as her sole anchor of feeling. However, following the war, Violet struggles with her purpose. Without orders to follow and without Major Gilbert, she feels hollow and useless and even asks to be discarded. Instead, Claudia Hodgins gives her a job at his company as a letter writer, where she trains to become an Auto Memories Doll. She is precise and efficient, gaining full marks in grammar and typing, yet she does not manage to graduate due to the lack of emotion in her letters, a crucial aspect of letter writing. As the story progresses, she learns what feelings are at the cost of herself. She finally realizes that she has been burning up inside all along due to the horrors she had to commit and the lives she’s taken while mindlessly following orders. She burns in her guilt and self-hatred, even attempting to commit suicide as she questions whether someone like her has the right to live. Cluadia tells her, “You can’t erase the past, although, just know everything you’ve done as an Auto Memories Doll won’t disappear either.” All the letters she’s written that have helped unite people, all the emotions she conveyed, the “I love you” she dearly wished to learn, it can’t be erased; she can redeem herself, of course, she has the right to live. What really got to me was her job at the end, where the sick mother made her write a letter for her daughter’s upcoming birthdays (50 years, 50 letters), since she knew she wouldn’t be there for her anymore. That part just….why!!! Even thinking about it just makes me cry again, it is so touching, and I really loved this film. The power of letters as memory holders, the learning of emotions and love, the concept of redemption, and the depictions of the horror of war were all so beautifully done that it speaks to the heart... and my tears. 

YAY! Honestly, I'm really hyped to see Jujutsu Kaisen made it on the list as I’m a big fan, especially of this arc, because of the character dynamics displayed. Specifically, the complete switch of ideologies between Geto and Gojo makes this arc so intriguing to analyze. In the beginning, Gojo is incredibly arrogant as he believes his status as the strongest absolves him from any responsibility and wonders why he should save the weak due to how exhausting it is. However, Geto disagrees as he believes that jujutsu sorcery exists to protect non-jujutsu sorcerers. Despite this, as the series progresses, they exchange these ideologies completely. Gojo begins to carry the true weight of his power and chooses to protect others exactly because he’s the strongest. On the other hand, Geto can no longer believe in non-sorcerers due to having witnessed the ugliness of the masses over and over and over until he broke, especially present during the village scene, where two young sorcerers' sisters are deemed as monsters, accused of murder. After killing 112 villagers in a moment of rage, he ultimately decides to create a world of only jujutsu sorcerers; in other words, he declares to wipe out all non-sorcerers completely. In this shift, the weak, whom he once saw as admirable for their perseverance despite needing protection, are now seen as undeserving, cruel, and the direct cause of the cursed energy encompassing their world. On a more globally relevant perspective, the show does comment on the exploitation of youth. Jujutsu sorcerers, no matter how young, are seen as disposable tools thrown into battle without regard for their lives, as their sacrifices are all for the “greater good.” Even the strongest, Gojo, and the most unassuming, Geto, suffer from this cycle of trauma and exploitation, showing how no one is truly safe. I especially really like Gojo’s quote regarding this, “But apparently it's not good enough for just me to be strong. The only ones I can save are those who are already ready to be saved by another.” He is caught in a system that weaponizes their existence until it breaks them apart…All in all, the Gojo and Geto break-up arc is too sad :(

Hetalia: Axis Powers is an extremely satirical anime that personifies the countries as characters, using stereotypes and exaggerated traits to explore international relationships and history. I remember watching a few episodes of this back when it was really popular, but never truly finished. However, from the very first episode, we can already see many stereotypes presented and discourses between the countries explored. America is cheerful and outspoken, not letting anyone disagree with its opinion, yet England is quick to jump in and disagree, causing them to argue, which reflects tense relationships perhaps stemming from the American Revolution. France is in its own world, portrayed in elegance, as it disagrees with everyone on the basis that they are distasteful. Italy is also portrayed to be in its own world as it yells out the iconic line “pasta!” after Germany’s serious order in the courtroom. Japan, on the other hand, is portrayed as polite because it seemingly agrees with everyone always. So, we can see how most of the characters were based on cultural stereotypes which may be harmful to a certain degree because it isn’t just poking fun at these stereotypes but in a way enforcing them as a representation of the country itself, even if it may not be true. As the Axis Powers start forming their alliances, cultural differences emerge, showing overall dysfunctional and chaotic dynamics which drive the comedy of the show, but also give in to underlying messages of cooperation between different countries. While the show does dwell on a mainly historical depiction of the countries, it isn’t exactly accurate and instead exaggerated to drive the comedy of the show forward, which may lead to some misunderstandings from viewers who may not know much about the country depicted. In terms of nationalism, I feel as though the different countries represent different types of nationalism. For instance, America is portrayed as overconfident and obsessed with heroic deeds, which may stem from propaganda and a more patriotic idealism. This portrayal, in a way, critiques feelings of national superiority as it can blind a country to other perspectives and ideas.  On the other side of the scale, Italy represents a more culturally nationalist sentiment as it is more interested in culinary and art ideals. It doesn’t take pride in its military, which contrasts with Germany, who strongly takes nationalist pride in its military. Overall, Hetalia seems to critique the idea that nationalism is a noble thing because, instead, it often leads to conflicts and misunderstandings between countries due to cultural differences and ideologies. Despite this criticism, I feel as though perhaps using historical narratives in a comedic way may feel insensitive to some viewers, as it takes harsh realities from history and simplifies them for comedic effect, but it was a fun and lighthearted watch. I do wish Spain had appeared more in the episodes because I wanted to see how they portrayed my country, haha.

The story centers around two strangers, Mitsuha, a high school girl living in the countryside, and Taki, a high school boy living in Tokyo, who mysteriously begin swapping bodies on random days of the week. Ironically, Mitsuha longed to escape her life filled with traditional rituals and political agendas before the body swap and wished for her to be turned into a hot guy from Tokyo in her next life. Her wish came true when she woke up in Taki’s body. As they learn of the truth of their body swapping, they begin to communicate with one another through notes since their memories of each other fade with each awakening back into their true bodies. As they adjust, they begin to shape one another’s world. Mitsuha helps Taki become more emotionally present (which is perceived as a more feminine trait by the characters in the film) and sets him up with his coworker, while Taki brings Mitsuha’s courage to life (a more masculine trait), making her more approachable to her classmates. However, one day, the body-swapping suddenly stops, and Taki decides to take matters into his own hands by going to visit her in person…only to discover that the town where she was from was destroyed by a comet three years ago and she is dead. The truth then comes to light, they weren’t just separated by space but by time too. He realizes his feelings for her, and his determination drives him to go to the sacred mountain he had gone to when he was in her body. There, he drinks her ritual sake, and the body swaps begin once more, giving Taki the chance to save her before the comet strikes the town. At a certain point in the film, they manage to meet at twilight, where they cry out and reach out desperately, trying to write down each other’s names before fading apart again. But just as Mitsuha is about to finish, she disappears. The action of Taki only writing the words “I love you” in her hand ends up becoming a mishap in which they both forget each other’s names. However, their feelings remain imprinted despite the fading of their memories, and they each carry their duties in the name of this other “someone.”  Years later, it is shown that the disaster was averted thanks to Taki’s intervention and Mitsuha’s determination to carry out the safety procedures, even going as far as to stand up against her father. However, Taki is withdrawn with the feeling that he’s always searching for something, for someone. Yet, he doesn’t know what or who, and it haunts him. That is until he crosses paths with her again in Tokyo. They run towards each other and then begin crying as they ask each other, “What is your name?”   

A detail I loved in the film was the concept of the red string of fate, which is encapsulated by her braided hair band that is later passed onto him. In the scene, where Taki drinks the sake and sees flashbacks of Mitsuha’s life, his wrist is also connected to hers with a long red string, showing how deep their connection is, as it even transcends time and space. I also found it beautiful that there is an emphasis on the value of feelings over a concrete action of connection. In other words, how their names hold little to no value compared to the feelings they share because even after their names are forgotten, they still reach out to each other and build a connection. I’ve always loved watching this film, so having the chance to watch it again was so nice. I thankfully didn’t cry this time while watching it, but trust me…tears were shed the very first time I laid eyes on this film….!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 shares a similar narrative to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind as it reflects on what it means to be human, to hope, and to fight for an uncertain future. The world is dying out, clouds stretch endlessly, and the last offer of safety lands atop titans that are soon crumbling too. However, it wasn’t always like this. Humanity once lived in a paradise called Elysium, with their creator, the Architect. Yet, one day they were cast aside…abandoned. Rex, the main character, is a young boy who lives as a salvager and dreams of going to Elysium and restoring peace. “Could the Elysium really exist? A land of plenty, atop the world tree…if such a place did exist, perhaps we could all live in peace without fighting.” Yet the world seems to laugh at his “childish” ideology of a world where humans can coexist. Instead, they fight over land and resources, sacrificing everyone and everything for more power, more money, and more something. His world reflects ours, except in the far future, after it has already crumbled and will crumble even further until the point of no return. What I found most beautiful was the nature of memories that is discussed in this game. If a blade loses its driver, it winds up temporarily unconscious, waiting for a new driver to resonate with it. However, its memory gets zapped as it is reborn. To this, different characters have different perspectives. Pyra believes it’s a blessing, blades are eternal, and bad memories are picked up, so being able to forget is for the best. However, Jin, one of the main antagonists and personally my favorite :P, says that the accumulation of memories is what allows all of life to grow, change, and evolve. However, blades are fleeting. When they return to being cores, their memories are wiped out, causing their growth to be snatched away forever. "How is that fair? Why are blades merely tools?" This is what drives him to want to erase all of humankind from the world. “Every corner of the world is defiled by such vermin.” He argues. But then, he says something contradictory. That humans haven’t changed a bit in 500 years. If the concept of memories allows for growth and change, how come nobody has changed? How come everyone is still greedy? Still power-hungry? Still destructive? Rex calls his hypocrisy out towards the end, which is a bit hilarious as he tells him, “You lot are the same, aren’t you? Didn’t you say you wanted to destroy the world?” They aren’t that different from the people they so call vermin. On the other hand, Ornelia, Jin’s previous owner, shares a more humane perspective, that for humans, being forgotten is a fate much worse than death, elevating the importance of memories. Humans struggle so hard to make a mark in the world exactly because their lives are fleeting, yet when blades awaken anew, they’ll forget. I just thought the parallels and differences in perspective were so cool to look at.

On another note, the game really emphasizes how, despite the planet being an unseemly place, beauty still exists. It also really resonated with me due to its existentialist questions. “What should people live for? When a person loses something, they cannot help but seek a reason why. Within themselves or in others. They seek a concrete answer to the question of who they are deep inside. Such a lonely existence. But perhaps this is what it is to be human.” Rex, throughout the show, personifies hope. He never gives up, not even when Elysium turns out to be empty, not when Pyra and Mythra vanish, not when Malos is about to destroy the world. Instead, he actually views Malos as someone whom he will befriend after giving him a good beating back to sense. The end draws to a close when we find out that Elysium is not a place in the sky, it’s not “paradise.” It’s the earth they had inhabited all along, except it is one reborn from unity, selflessness, and change. As the titans collapse into one another, creating land, life restarts, and this time with the belief that maybe humanity can do better. So in a way, hope is not the guarantee of paradise he believed in naively at the beginning of the story, but rather the strength to build the “paradise” together. Also, a cool detail is the fact that Myrtha/Prya did not die!! Her core crystal never shattered, so I think her still being alive despite everything really encapsulates the game’s drive for hope. 

About a thousand years after the collapse of industrial civilization, a toxic forest called the Sea of Decay spreads across the earth, releasing polluted spores and seemingly dangerous insect creatures that destroy everything in their path. The people who inhabit this land must cover up because breathing in the toxins will result in death. Despite this, humanity endures and adapts to the hostile environment, yet still retains its ideologies of greed and war against the threatening insects and their own kind. Nausicaa, the main protagonist, is different from all of the other characters in the film in that she is fascinated by the beauty of the forest and is driven to understand it rather than annihilate it. She shows deep empathy with the creatures and plants, even growing a garden inside her base using such species. However, everything changes when a warship crashes near her village, bringing Tolemkian soldiers inside to invade the valley and murder her father as they grab the villagers' hostages with the plan to awaken a giant warrior to fight against the Sea of Decay in the name of “peace” despite their actions contradicting their words. As the film carries on, we learn that the poisonous plants of the Sea of Decay are not inherently toxic; rather, it is the earth itself, polluted by humans, that has corrupted them. In this exchange, we learn that the forest’s real purpose is to cleanse the planet, not destroy it, and the insects/creatures, like the Ohm, are there to protect this process. The film draws to a close when Nausicaa sacrifices herself for her people in the middle of the fierce battle, and the Ohms, a symbolic representation of Earth’s fury, calm down for her and bring her back to life. Society then rebuilds, and nature slowly creeps its way back into the land.

Overall, the film seems to serve as a reminder of the dangers of environmental neglect and war, specifically the consequences of global warming. Nausicaa’s character personifies compassion and functions as an example of what a happy ending would be like if we respect nature as well as one another. A quote that stuck out to me is that “the pollution lies in the Earth itself.” I like the symbolism behind this and how it could serve as both environmental pollution but also human degradation and a lack of empathy towards one another. Despite the inherent danger and a nearly destroyed world, wars keep raging as people brutally kill one another as if they were mere chess pieces just to push personal agendas of grandeur. Kushana, in particular, commits heinous acts while declaring that she is doing so for greater peace; however, is an Earth bedridden with never-ending sacrifices really a peaceful Earth? Once again, the scenery and ingenuity of the film are so beautiful as to be expected of Ghibli movies! I loved Teto so much too, especially when it kept nuzzling around her in care, too cute!

I noticed that a lot of people have a very strong dislike/frustration towards Shinji’s inability to do anything, however, I actually quite liked his character a lot and I feel as though the whole point of the movie was that- the deeply rooted fear and worthlessness of not being able to do anything despite having the complete power to do it. At its core, The End of Evangelion is not about mechs and battles of victory but about the raw, painful reality of human existence. Shinji’s struggle embodies the universal feeling of rejection, the search for meaning, and the difficulty of facing oneself. That, and above all else, he is merely 14 years old, so I find it realistic and almost painfully beautiful that he just sat there collapsing within his mind while the outside world was crumbling. Shinji has been used as a killing machine all for “protection” for the “greater good” of the humans who have been the villains all along and wished for nothing other than to self-destruct. Blood, limbs, corpses. All because of him. I may not be speaking for everyone, but If I was a 14-year-old placed inside a mecha I’ve never touched in the middle of a battlefield and told to fight….incessantly, while I already hate myself…..I’d also lose my mind and freeze on the spot. It’s definitely a breeze of fresh air to escape into a fictional story of overpowered MCS who have plot armor and keep fighting despite the hardship…but Shinji? He encapsulates us. The real us. The real humanity at its core. This is why in the end reality shifts and real people are reflected, not animation. “Do you use a trailer-made fantasy to get revenge against reality? Was that wrong? You were avoiding the truth by escaping into a fictional world.” If Shinji had been the picture-perfect cookie MC who saves the world and springs to action, Evangelion's underlying meaning and biblical reference would have been skewed completely. Moreover, it’s not like Shinji didn’t want to do anything. He physically and mentally couldn’t. Kaworu died, Misato died, Asuka died. If you look at it objectively, yes he technically is at fault because he could have chosen a different course of action. But subjectively, is it really only his fault? Or is it society’s fault that made a 14-year-old kid collapse and shatter in such a way? I absolutely loved this movie so much because it was just so freakishly philosophical and raw. The cycle of destruction and reconstruction was also so beautifully explained and I loved the fact they included the end credits halfway in the middle of the big plot point because it almost left me shell-shocked for a few moments, only adding to the gravity of the situation. The fact that the whole movie revolved around human self-destruction and the quote “man must be the only creature capable of such hatred for its own kind” really tied in with a very morbid and bleak theme, however, it did not lie.  I also really liked that at a certain point, Shinji literally prays with his hands together “No more, no more, no more!” The irony of the situation given the movie is a reenactment of Genesis and a biblical allusion and yet he is praying to a god in a destroyed world, is very chilling. 

On another note, I feel like sex/sexual attraction is used as a metaphor to prove one’s worth in the movie/series. “It’s an easy way to give yourself a sense of self-worth” which may explain why Shinji is so focused on it at times- why he did that in the hospital upon seeing Asuka, why Misato kisses him when he is torn apart by his own despair, and why he keeps imagining and seeing the bodies of the girls around him. Towards the end, a lot of suggestive positions are shown, specifically Shinji and Rei who are lying naked on top of one another. I think these are all metaphors for the instrumentality aspect of the show. It’s a fake world after destruction that should feel good, but ultimately, nothing really happens. It’s empty. They are physically and mentally merged into one, yet it isn’t right. That’s when Shinji realizes that self-worth isn’t all there is to life and for the first time in the whole movie he says “It’s okay.” He’s okay with psychological walls dividing everyone and fear consuming everyone….as long as the world is real, moving, changing. I actually think this movie won my heart and became one of my top favorites of all time. I’ve been meaning to watch the show for a while just never had the opportunity so I’m glad I was able to through this class :)