I've been really enjoying Sousou no Frieren and by enjoying I mean feeling like I want to cry.

I'll need to find something more upbeat next.

  • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    10 months ago

    Unfortunately, Gundam kinda does that a lot where they'll toe the line and then not really go anywhere with it. As per someone around here talking about it, I recently watched Dallos and found it pretty interesting. It's full on about class struggle from the POV of space colonies. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend it. It's older, but holds up.

    • Cromalin [she/her]
      ·
      10 months ago

      i'm like 90% certain the one talking about dallos was me lmao. it's good!

      and yeah, gundam has a problem with this in general. i mentioned that i had a bigger problem with it here because i watched iron blooded orphans (which does not have this problem*) but i also think in general 00 is worse about it than say, any of the tomino uc stuff for example. it helps that the newtype stuff is connected to the politics in a way that the innovators just aren't. it's also that season 1 seemed really clear eyed about the political landscape and just drops all of it, which is worse than if it was a more gradual shift from politics to arguing about scifi concepts

      *ibo never advocates for revolution or anything, but it never loses sight of the actual things happening that matter. it doesn't introduce the illuminati at the end of season 1 and then stop caring about gjallerhorn beyond how the illuminati is controlling gjallerhorn

      • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        10 months ago

        lmao, my apologies, it totally was you. data-laughing chomsky-yes-honey

        That all sounds like fair criticism, I'd say. Sadly, as I've given away, my memory is shit. And I watched all these series at much different places in my life, politically. I think I watched IBO as per someone recommending it on r/cth when it first came out. So at the time all these shows seemed radical, and now 7-20 years down the line I'm like, those fucking LIB s.

        • Cromalin [she/her]
          ·
          10 months ago

          now you've probably seen me talk about this before, but you should read unjust depths

          it's a mecha web novel that's just straight up by a marxist leninist about a postcolonial soviet state called the union in a post apocalyptic earth, where the main characters are on a mission to support revolutionaries in the empire the union revolted from, it's got the high concept scifi stuff but it never forgets that the core of the story is about colonialism and the evils of capitalism. i cannot recommend it enough

          • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            10 months ago

            Ah, I have. But while I read plenty of webcomics, i have an aversion to web novels for some reason. Is there an end in sight? Because it does sound pretty cool.

            • Cromalin [she/her]
              ·
              10 months ago

              there's an end in sight but it's going to be a while before it's reached. i personally really like getting a new thing to read every two weeks but i get it if that's not your speed. i can't make that work with manga, but i can with unjust depths

              • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                10 months ago

                Hmm, I'll add it to my calendar to check on the progress this summer. Thanks for the heads up, it definitely sounds cool.

                • Cromalin [she/her]
                  ·
                  10 months ago

                  my gut says that it's probably 2/3rds of the way through things, but i can't say for certain and updates have been coming out slower lately