Can be anything from any source, movies, books, comics, video games, manga, anime etc.
Pic related is mine, the dragonslayer from berserk. I like it because it's simple. It's just a big fucking sword, no fancy bells and whistles like enchantments or spells.
Second runner-up is sting from lord of the rings, I like that it glows blue when orcs are around and it can be used in the dark as a light source.
Yeah it's honestly really good character design whether or not the show is propaganda. One of my favourites.
I kinda like that the show shows of Japan doing literal imperialist resource theft against lesser technology fantasy kingdoms while dressing it up as "we're the good guys". It's oddly honest in a way that can be watched from the left. Even the building of refugee camps and doing negotiations with medieval kingdoms for things they don't understand the value of is really on-point. You're supposed to walk away from it supporting the JSDF but honestly it takes extremely little criticism to turn the show on its head. Even scenes showing off their power come off as perverted power fantasies. Especially the helicopter scenes.
Small girl, huge axe, ZR, cat ear hair bow, yandere vibe, cutting dudes in half.
I haven't seen GATE but I have heard a lot about the JSDF propaganda angle. The unapologetic colonialism giving a leftist reading is interesting though.
It's just so... Blatant. You know?
Like, yeah sure a kid with no understanding of the subject matter will go "guns vs fantasy knights woooooaw coooooool" and not think further. But it takes the tiniest critique to make it all look kinda sus. They aren't actually helping anyone in this fantasy world they're exploiting and manipulating them while stealing the resources from their land and carefully making sure they don't learn any of your technology because that might enable them to gain power.
It's just so in your face that at some point in a lot of people's lives they'd end up learning a bit of left stuff and being like "hold on a minute" when they think about the show again. Unapologetic colonialism is not a good propaganda angle. From the original author's perspective it's pretty good writing because it's EXACTLY what I'd expect from a modern military dealing with fantasy world people (although a little bit friendlier and lacking the kind of "savages" and racist stuff it should have). The military didn't write the original work I think, they only helped fund the anime as an experiment for new angles to help the military but it's not really a good look. I kind of defend the show from that angle.
Now, Rory is problematic herself because she's supposed to be the 1000 year old loli archetype but I've always found it hard to see her character as a child, she doesn't look that way in design and she behaves like she's an 80 year old sassy lady so it's like... Ok? She's probably the best version of this archetype that exists at least so it makes it somewhat ignorable.
OHHHHHH wait there's actually a JSDF soldier that marries a preteen because there's no laws in fantasy world. I forgot that. That doesn't make the military look good either though????? lmao
Fun show. I give it Junkfood/10
There's a certain kind of right wing freak who is so high on their own supply that they cannot even conceive of the idea of anyone else having a problem with colonialism. There were some thinkpieces during the Bush II regime going "yes we should unironically just straight up fully colonize Iraq and drop this whole nation building excuse."
If the thousand year old loli doesn't behave like a child that really does help.