You know, with that description, I'm reminded of the idea of the New Soviet Man.
From wikipedia:
a New Man and New Woman would develop with qualities reflecting surrounding circumstances of post-scarcity and unprecedented scientific development.[3] For example, Leon Trotsky wrote in 1924 in Literature and Revolution about the "Communist man", "man of the future":[4]
Man will make it his purpose to master his own feelings, to raise his instincts to the heights of consciousness, to make them transparent, to extend the wires of his will into hidden recesses, and thereby to raise himself to a new plane, to create a higher social biologic type, or, if you please, a superman.
Of course, Tomino's take is kind of in reverse. He has this idea that the awakened people will lead us to revolution rather than revolution leading to awakened people.
Right, exactly! And this is a rather common theme of sci-fi of the preceding era, so of course it'll get this particular spin from survivors of a scattered leftist movement. And then as you follow Tomino's work you kinda get to see in realtime his disillusionment with both this particular conception (as the youth failed to take up the mantle of social change and instead turned their struggles inwards e.g. Evangelion) and socialism in general, until you get to Turn A Gundam which is a work about the question of whether or not humanity can ever move past the need for violence.
You know, with that description, I'm reminded of the idea of the New Soviet Man.
From wikipedia:
Of course, Tomino's take is kind of in reverse. He has this idea that the awakened people will lead us to revolution rather than revolution leading to awakened people.
Right, exactly! And this is a rather common theme of sci-fi of the preceding era, so of course it'll get this particular spin from survivors of a scattered leftist movement. And then as you follow Tomino's work you kinda get to see in realtime his disillusionment with both this particular conception (as the youth failed to take up the mantle of social change and instead turned their struggles inwards e.g. Evangelion) and socialism in general, until you get to Turn A Gundam which is a work about the question of whether or not humanity can ever move past the need for violence.