The biggest shows last year were: Demon slayer (plz don't confuse, this one is about 1 good boy empathetically killing rich people allegories), Kaguya-sama: love is war, spyxfamily, Lycoris recoil, chainsaw man, bocchi the rock! and Gundam: Witch from Mercury.
Chainsaw man and Gundam have heavy leftist themes. Lycoris recoil is gay, and along with demon slayer are heavily action oriented shows. The rest are cute comedies aimed at normal people. Bocchi was a word-of-mouth smash hit, but the rest of these shows had marketing budgets that probably dwarfed the entire production budget of something like World's end harem.
All the thinly veiled far right isekai stories usually originate from studios desperate to adapt self-published webnovels in the chase for that sweet sweet sword art online money (goblin slayer, shield hero), but they're finding that well to be dry cos those stories only got "popular" because only terminally online Nazi's read them, and the mainstream continues to be dominated by Weekly Shone Jump adaptations because WSJ has editors.
And even in that web novel space there's push-back-we just had an isekai where the protagonist does the radical action of... Killing slavers and emancipating slaves. (reincarnated as a sword) edit: So I wouldn't get all doomer about anime just yet. Until something like goblin slayer gets into WSJ, things haven't gotten that bad.
I sincerely hope you're right and that the incel-pandering trash is just the equivalent of mobile game trash: a cheap buck for the lazy or the desperate.
Captain of the Anime Defense Force reporting for the daily Anime Struggle Session, ready to testify that the treats are progressive, sir!
But seriously, I get how disheartening watching stuff you like inevitably slide right wards under capitalism is, so we gotta take the W's where we can yeah?
Yeah I'm not going to go in depth to defend demon slayer (mostly bcoz I don't have time rn haha, nor does it particularly deserve a defense) but the way it frames demonic power as something hoarded and doled out at the whim of the head demon, elevating those psychopathic enough to be useful, struck me as a decent enough allegory of wealth.
You got me on Nezuko tho, like I get that the design was probably going for "restrained violence" but it's still yikes.
There's an old anime trope dating back to sailor moon where when women undertake violence they are presented as visually becoming more mature for stepping into the adult world, then regressing back to a childish appearance once the violence is done. Sexist brainworms aside (boy protagonists don't have to put up with that) this kinda works as a visual metaphor when your protagonists are all teenagers straddling adulthood, but this particular use with Nezuko... Nah dawg, the rest of your story about :snipes-hesitation: is fire, but Nezuko's the one glaring weak spot. (and zenitzu, but at least he has moments.)
The biggest shows last year were: Demon slayer (plz don't confuse, this one is about 1 good boy empathetically killing rich people allegories), Kaguya-sama: love is war, spyxfamily, Lycoris recoil, chainsaw man, bocchi the rock! and Gundam: Witch from Mercury.
Chainsaw man and Gundam have heavy leftist themes. Lycoris recoil is gay, and along with demon slayer are heavily action oriented shows. The rest are cute comedies aimed at normal people. Bocchi was a word-of-mouth smash hit, but the rest of these shows had marketing budgets that probably dwarfed the entire production budget of something like World's end harem.
All the thinly veiled far right isekai stories usually originate from studios desperate to adapt self-published webnovels in the chase for that sweet sweet sword art online money (goblin slayer, shield hero), but they're finding that well to be dry cos those stories only got "popular" because only terminally online Nazi's read them, and the mainstream continues to be dominated by Weekly Shone Jump adaptations because WSJ has editors.
And even in that web novel space there's push-back-we just had an isekai where the protagonist does the radical action of... Killing slavers and emancipating slaves. (reincarnated as a sword) edit: So I wouldn't get all doomer about anime just yet. Until something like goblin slayer gets into WSJ, things haven't gotten that bad.
I sincerely hope you're right and that the incel-pandering trash is just the equivalent of mobile game trash: a cheap buck for the lazy or the desperate.
Captain of the Anime Defense Force reporting for the daily Anime Struggle Session, ready to testify that the treats are progressive, sir!
But seriously, I get how disheartening watching stuff you like inevitably slide right wards under capitalism is, so we gotta take the W's where we can yeah?
Edit: Why is there no Felix stolen valor emoji
:admiral-biederman:
Fuck yes this website has the best emojis
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Yeah I'm not going to go in depth to defend demon slayer (mostly bcoz I don't have time rn haha, nor does it particularly deserve a defense) but the way it frames demonic power as something hoarded and doled out at the whim of the head demon, elevating those psychopathic enough to be useful, struck me as a decent enough allegory of wealth.
You got me on Nezuko tho, like I get that the design was probably going for "restrained violence" but it's still yikes.
deleted by creator
There's an old anime trope dating back to sailor moon where when women undertake violence they are presented as visually becoming more mature for stepping into the adult world, then regressing back to a childish appearance once the violence is done. Sexist brainworms aside (boy protagonists don't have to put up with that) this kinda works as a visual metaphor when your protagonists are all teenagers straddling adulthood, but this particular use with Nezuko... Nah dawg, the rest of your story about :snipes-hesitation: is fire, but Nezuko's the one glaring weak spot. (and zenitzu, but at least he has moments.)
I really dislike her character design.