Attack on Titan is definitely supposed to be an anti-fascist manga. Unfortunately, the author did not know that he is a fascist, and so it ends up being pro-fascist and pro-genocide
It's basically, "what if the Nazis chose The Madagascar Plan and Jewish people always had nukes and were the real genociders all along?"
Their world map is just Africa + Europe with flipped north-south.
Also "what if Jews were actually legitimately a threat to humanity and could turn into monsters". Just gross barely concealed fascism
I think the story is actually a lot more fascist if you think of it as "the eldians (race of the protags) is what fascists see themselves as", because
- Eldians are natural ubermensch with divine biological powers and are connected to each other across time and space by blood
- Eldians are the underdogs in the story fighting against a world where literally every country hates them to an unreasonable degree
- Eldians are forced to live in stagnation and humility (versailles treaty) because they lost a war when their king betrayed them (back stab myth)
- The eldians used to rule large parts of the world for thousands of years (return to past greatness)
Also the protagonist is a war veteran who gains mass popularity and takes over the government, the government which had previously overthrown the monarchy. It is actually amazing how much the story parallels nazi/italian fascist mythology.
Eldians are forced to live in stagnation and humility (versailles treaty) because they lost a war when their king betrayed them (back stab myth)
The eldians used to rule large parts of the world for thousands of years (return to past greatness)
These two parts also apply directly to Japan. The Japanese Empire, its fall from grace, and being trapped on a small island. You can read the story as a story about how the Japanese should forge out of their island and re-stake their rightful claim to the world, which is entirely against them and keeping them trapped there.
That show is the most overrated bullshit anime in existence. I've ranted about it before here one CubeDog.com, so of course some bazonga brain thinks it's the GOAT.
I won't argue for it on moral grounds (it paints a right wing view of the world) but I personally enjoyed it cause I like violent animes, I like monsters, and I like earnestly played out negative personality traits in protagonists (I liked re:zero for example back when the main character was genuinely selfish and cruel at times, but when he grew as a person and became more selfless I kind of got bored). Also I've never seen a story where the protagonist went from being the heroic guy you rooted for who struggled so thoroughly for every victory into a horrific monster you could no longer empathize with at the end; a monstrous antagonist and the villain of the story (trying to make him human at the end there kind of ruined the impact).
Again, not gonna argue it on moral grounds and it's definitely very reactionary, but there's already a lot of really good positive happy-go-lucky stories like one piece, dragon ball, etc, and I wanted monsters, violence, despair and inhumanity (inhumanity done interestingly, not inhumanity just for the sake of it).
I'm a horror movie fan; I like horrific stories and I also like violence in anime (and my favorite horror movies are ones with actual creatures and gore, and by creatures I mean stuff like the thing, not werewolves).
Goblin slayer on the other hand is NOT what I'm looking for; from the always evil goblins, to the mostly lacking personality of the protagonist, to the anime just basically being murder porn, this anime is not for me and violence alone was not gonna do it for me.
Tomino already did NGE better with Space Runaway Ideon, but westerners ain't ready to hear that.
Space Runaway Ideon
Just looked this up and it's older than NGE; can't blame people for not being crazy about the old animation style. Does it really do the whole theme of children mentally broken because of being turned into soldiers well? I'm not personally turned off so much by older animation and might give it a shot.
A lot of people think it's a goat, it's a really popular show. I watched the first couple seasons and I'd say it was pretty good!
Funnily enough the whole story narrative of AoT ends up being the mythology of fascism, especially German fascism.
Besides the obvious elements, like the fight against the inhuman enemies, race struggle being the natural state of humanity, there are also other elements of fascist mythology that neatly fit into the story (without being rejected)
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The main cast's race is ruled by a monarchic line of god king who can rewrite the biology of millions of people with a thought, but rarely ever use it for good (they do use to create super soldiers though). Basically, race is real in the series, and the protagonists are actual ubermensch.
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The main character is a Hitler like figure in that he is a war veteran who gains mass popularity sometime after the monarchy is overthrown, but is still in with the elites and secures their rule.
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Everyone in the outside world persecuted the main character's race. Everyone. There is not a single country except the Japan stand in that sides with the protagonists. They imposed brutal conditions upon the main characters' country keeping it under developed (the AoT world's version of the treaty of versailles).
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The main characters' race used to be super powerful in the past, but was betrayed by one of their god kings and thus lost a war, leading to their current humiliation.
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The main characters' enemy is a continent sized naval power and the protagonists have to cross the water to reach them. Also the protagonists do a kind of pearl harbor on their enemy, destroying a massive fleet. This one is just funny in my opinion.
The exile island is Madagascar and it's for a "chosen people". They were exiled there due to conflict with the European stand-in. So, basically the Nazis' scuttled Madagascar Plan.
The author just also made the exiles fashy, too. And magic.
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genuinely the most fascist piece of media i've ever had the displeasure of witnessing, the author should be thrown in a cell
I watched the first season and thought it was alright. "First season and done" is the main way I watch anime now, and I stand by it. Get out before it has a chance to lose the premise and start sucking ass.
My friend thought an interesting anti-fascist theme would be if Eren ends up winning and comes back to Mikasa and Armin being miserable - perchance less safe than they had been before. The message would be to the effect of "retaliatory violence is not the solution you think it is."
https://yorozuya-gin-chan.tumblr.com/post/64283661133/zankyo-isayama-hajime-apparently-said-on
"Anti-hate", lmao.
