imagine if you learned that japanese twitter was full of baffling memes about jfk that required a specific context that doesn't exist anywhere in america

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    • Cromalin [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      10 months ago

      ok so shinzo abe, the former prime minister of japan had a reputation in some english speaking anime circles as a man obsessed with japan's birthrate (which is obviously a very fascist thing to be obsessed with) that started when wild stuff like darling in the franxx got made. there were a couple shows that had major plot threads about people learning the great power of heterosexual marriage and sex and procreation. so people made memes about him secretly sponsoring anime to try and get the youth to fuck without birth control. he was a conservative politician who definitely cared about the birthrate but this became his defining trait among some weebs, and every time an anime came out that had a cute kid in it people accused him of having his fingers on it.

      when he died people had a field day with it as it related to this, and the pictured meme is a reference to cowboy bebop. it's like an in memoriam thing for him, where he's telling the viewer to have sex in reference to the popular perception of him. naturally if you aren't in western anime spaces that were constantly making jokes about "imma be real with you 57th prime minister of japan shinzo abe, this will not solve japan's declining birth rate" every new anime season when a show showed a happy family it would make no sense. this does include japanese people, who seem very confused by this long trail of memes about the former prime minister of japan

      • Dessa [she/her]
        ·
        10 months ago

        This was already funny without the explanation, but it's nice to understand what I'm laughing about

      • flan [they/them]
        ·
        10 months ago

        i mean darling in the franxx is so absurdly horny what other conclusion can you draw other than it being a government conspiracy

        • Florn [they/them]
          ·
          10 months ago

          And not just horny to an absurd degree, but horny in the most absurd ways.

          Mecha are piloted doggy style

        • silent_water [she/her]
          ·
          10 months ago

          it also went from a plot that was clearly headed for revolution to something weird and nonsensical really abruptly, like the studio got told no you can't air that, around episode 15 or so

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        obsessed with japan's birthrate (which is obviously a very fascist thing to be obsessed with)

        White people try not to be obsessed with East Asian birth rates challenge (Impossible).

      • tactical_trans_karen [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        10 months ago

        Ha! Thanks for tying it together for me! I get a lot of the stuff surrounding it. But the space cowboy piece sent my mind to Steve Miller Band's Joker! 🤣

        Also, rest in piss, bozo.

      • ashinadash [she/her]
        ·
        10 months ago

        that started when wild stuff like darling in the franxx got made.

        I remember seein' Shinzo Abe birth rate memes as far back as 2014 when this slap banger dropped comfy-cool

      • TheLepidopterists [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        Shinzo Abe sucked and was a piece of shit for a ton of reasons, but if you're running a country with declining, non-replacement birth rates, being concerned about it isn't "very fascist."

        • Gay_Tomato [they/them, it/its]
          ·
          10 months ago

          It is when you are doing literally anything possible to avoid even considering immigration as a possible solution.

          • TheLepidopterists [he/him]
            ·
            10 months ago

            The CPC isn't fascist, has looked into various methods of encouraging higher birth rates, while PRC has low immigration levels. I hate that you're making me defendjapan-cool here, but on its own trying to bolster birth rates, even with minimal immigration, doesn't make a country fascist.

    • Barabas [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      Abe had raising the birthrate from 1.4 per woman to 1.8 as one of his policies.