Seen enough marvel shlock, want something that isn't subversive within a system but directly fights against it and loudly

Keep your negative takes out please I've had it with the irony poisoned doomerism of late

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    In anime there are a few I can name but I can only think of a couple movies which I'll bold.

    Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

    Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

    Kill la Kill

    Promare (movie)

    Little Witch Academia also has the backdrop of class struggle but doesn't truly venture into being revolutionary.

    Deca-Dence is explicitly revolutionary and explicitly marxist in its themes, but ends in a way I was unsatisfied with. Still enjoyable though in my opinion.

    Ghost in the Shell might tick this box as another movie for explicitly fighting the system too.

    Psycho-Pass isn't revolutionary but explores being part of the oppressive system that NEEDS a revolution in a fascinating way. Only season 1 is really good though, I would recommend pretending nothing else exists.

    I think some Gundam fits into this too but I personally haven't watched any Gundam so can't say which would be the right suggestion.

    • grossmeat [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      To add to this list, Eureka 7’s protagonist group are straight up revolutionaries. Both aesthetically and through their willingness to take violent direct action against the state. This becomes a major plot point over the couse of the series as the main character naively takes part in and then attempts to reject the violence inherent to revolutionary struggle.

      • Awoo [she/her]
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        edit-2
        3 years ago

        I have not seen Eureka 7. I'll add it to my to-watch

    • Cromalin [she/her]
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      3 years ago

      Fullmetal Alchemist is a liberal revolution against a facist state. Definitely an improvement, but not necessarily leftist.

      • Awoo [she/her]
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        edit-2
        3 years ago

        It's revolutionary and it's good though. OP didn't say anything about being communist. I would post any feudal revolutions too that I could think of if we had any, Liberals were cool when they were killing monarchs.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        At least they solve their problems by killing people, mostly.

        But yeah, FMA has some issues. The core premise of the story is "Actually the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces felt very bad about committing atrocities in China". The whole thing is sort of a soft apologia for Japan's wartime atrocities.

        • Cromalin [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I'd be more sympathetic to the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces if they led a coup with the goal of being prosecuted for their war crimes, at least. Which totally proves your point, though I don't know if it was as intentional as you make it sound

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Intent is a slippery thing. FMA is, at the textual level, a story about Axis power analogues using super-weapons made from mass human murder to win a war. Then, later, the people who used the super-weapons regret what they did and stage a coup against the fuhrur.

            That's just the textual level, basic story.

            It's not very hard at all to say that the Japanese author, consciously or not, is writing an apologia for the conduct of his nation during WWII.

            • Cromalin [she/her]
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              edit-2
              3 years ago

              I mean, I think that's a valid reading. And if in our world the Japanese military had been ordered by the emperor to do the Rape of Nanking and afterwords overthrew the government as a reaction against that, it would definitely read like that. But though it definitely isn't as critical as it should have been, it's still a far cry from all of the actual WWII military apologia you can find in anime. There are a whole lot of writers out there who are open about thinking Japan has never done anything wrong, and I really don't think she's even close to being that. Though like I said, it's definitely way more sympathetic to the soldiers than I think is fair. (Also, the author has said that she views the series as being more about the genocide carried out by Japan against the Ainu people indigenous to Hokkaido.)

    • Owl [he/him]
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      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Only season 1 is really good though, I would recommend pretending nothing else exists.

      I think season 2 of Psycho-Pass is underrated. It's not as good as the first, but if you like the first season enough that "The same thing, but just not as good" sounds like a good time, I'd still watch it.

      Probably would've been better if they were in the other order, since the first season has the more philosophically interesting villain.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah I'll accept that.

        Season 1 is the best. Season 2 is ehh by comparison. The movie tries to make up for this and does a better job than season 2 but still doesn't quite get back to season 1.

        Then it goes completely off the deep end.