Someone pointed out to me recently that most Japanese anti-war pop media engages in a kind of convenient nihilism where the author makes a statement that all war is bad, so there's no point trying to figure out if one side is justified or better than the other.
SPOILERS FOR GUNDAM AND ZETA GUNDAM:
You can see it in Gundam and Zeta Gundam where in the first series Zeon was committing war crimes of unprecedented destructiveness and barbarity but in Zeta they both-sides it by showing that the Earth Federation is also pretty shitty. I don't recall they ever address the implication that being kinda totalitarian and shady justifies having cities wiped out by falling orbital colonies.
When you overlay this over Japan's own modern past, you can see how convenient this is for avoiding grappling with difficult questions. It's like a murderer talking about how "all crime is bad, whether it's shoplifting or whatever I did..."
Your larger point is true (especially in more modern shows, post 70's sci-fi anime boom) but I think that's being a bit unfair to Gundam and Zeta- as much as Zeon is definitely commentary on Imperial Japan and fascism in general, the Titans and the corruption within the Earth Federation was commentary on how much it sucks to live under Post-War American Imperialism. I don't think he was trying to both-sides it.
Someone pointed out to me recently that most Japanese anti-war pop media engages in a kind of convenient nihilism where the author makes a statement that all war is bad, so there's no point trying to figure out if one side is justified or better than the other.
I sometimes wondered if a lot of that was because of the cultural sting of losing WW2, at least from the "all war bad" types that seemed to be suspiciously fond/nostalgic for Imperial Japan.
Someone pointed out to me recently that most Japanese anti-war pop media engages in a kind of convenient nihilism where the author makes a statement that all war is bad, so there's no point trying to figure out if one side is justified or better than the other.
SPOILERS FOR GUNDAM AND ZETA GUNDAM:
You can see it in Gundam and Zeta Gundam where in the first series Zeon was committing war crimes of unprecedented destructiveness and barbarity but in Zeta they both-sides it by showing that the Earth Federation is also pretty shitty. I don't recall they ever address the implication that being kinda totalitarian and shady justifies having cities wiped out by falling orbital colonies.
When you overlay this over Japan's own modern past, you can see how convenient this is for avoiding grappling with difficult questions. It's like a murderer talking about how "all crime is bad, whether it's shoplifting or whatever I did..."
Your larger point is true (especially in more modern shows, post 70's sci-fi anime boom) but I think that's being a bit unfair to Gundam and Zeta- as much as Zeon is definitely commentary on Imperial Japan and fascism in general, the Titans and the corruption within the Earth Federation was commentary on how much it sucks to live under Post-War American Imperialism. I don't think he was trying to both-sides it.
I sometimes wondered if a lot of that was
because of the cultural sting of losing WW2, at least from the "all war bad" types that seemed to be suspiciously fond/nostalgic for Imperial Japan. 