The eighties was when Japan had really transitioned from producing cheap consumer goods for the US market to producing a lot of high-tech electronics and cars, with the low-tech consumer goods instead being manufactured further down the supply chain. There was a lot of fear-mongering over the threat that Japan's tech industry posed to American tech dominance. I don't know that the CIA was behind that, though, since at least the State Department policy since the 1950s had been to build up Japan as a more privileged client state that would serve as a hub for what was basically a recreation of the old Imperial Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere as an arm of American hegemony and imperial wealth extraction in the Pacific and Asia; Japan's rising prominence and utility to the US market was a problem for some individual capitalists and some sectors of American labor aristocracy, but was actively part of American geopolitical strategy and overall very beneficial to American capitalism (and the same can be said of China opening as a market which broke the stagnation and decay that otherwise could have been the ruin of American capitalism, despite the damage it did to some American capitalists and some sectors of American labor aristocracy).
Oh God you reminded me there was an actual panic in the US over headlight shapes going from round to angular because of the influence of Japanese auto manufacturing
Basically there was a ton of fear mongering between the 70s-90s that Japan would overtake the US technologically, as heavy industry in the USA was suffering and Japan was making major inroads into the US economy through car companies such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi, as well as in electronics with Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba. A lot of Orientalism and "super-humanising" was going on at the time. Practically every second movie basically had American characters working hesitantly under Japanese superiors. I mean Blade Runner is the most obvious example of this on the movie side, it's pretty much Los Angeles under complete Japanese control.
The whole thing peaked in the late 80s when it was revealed that Toshiba sold industrial milling equipment to the Soviet Union, which was a violation of some bs sanction. With the fall of the USSR in the 90s and the rise of the early internet it died down as the media stopped pushing the narratives and the US could present itself as a tech leader with the birth of the internet.
The US absolutely dominates the software sector and the internet being a US invention is one of they key reasons for that.
The PR switched because the Japanese economy crashed (I suspect the US forced it through threat of hard power) and Japan has had demographic problems preventing it from growing in the traditional line chart way again. The CPC is acutely aware they have the same demographic crisis coming soon and is doing everything they can to avoid it with little success especially since the one child policy has left a huge generational gap and a cultural expectation of single child households in the current child rearing generation. If China can overcome this crisis, they become the mono power of the world, but if they can’t they become one of the major powers in a multipolar world.
I was leaving that part out but yes, this is true.
Specifically NGE is part of an ongoing series of seemingly unrelated (but actually interrelated) anime from the Gainax founders as a covert deprogramming operation, the aim of which is to free the victims of MKUltra's Project MONARCH mind control.
Nadia was the first attempt but Amano hadn't yet been trusted with the horrific truth so the results were mixed. That infamous depression he fell into was a direct result of learning the scale of the CIA's child abuse. The lie about the reason for his depression was just the first and it was necessary to protect themselves.
The greatest lie of all about NGE is that they used Christian imagery and mythology just because they thought it was cool. Bullshit. Watch Nadia and tell me that with a straight face.
The reason Christianity needed to be a central theme for these anime has everything to do with the mind control methods used by the CIA. The same can be said for why child abuse has been a central theme in all of these anime.
The two most important anime made for this are Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill. NGE provides the foundation but these two are the real key. Also FLCL.
lol there was a point around the end of fall of the USSR where the movie industrial complex (lol) had to realign their sights for who the baddies where. Somehow Japan and Germany became something of a boogeyman for awhile and I just have to imagine those flicks essentially brain wormed a portion of the country into thinking it was both a real and relevant threat. I only base this off of speculation in all seriousness, but at the same time, whatever the dumbest possible reason people think the way they do about foreign countries is high up there as why it's common.
I mean there are plenty of people who think Saddam Hussein did 9/11 and shit like that, to this day. You have to just assume the most ridiculous shit constantly to even attempt to understand why people may think the way they do.
lol there was a point around the end of fall of the USSR where the movie industrial complex (lol) had to realign their sights for who the baddies where
I just rewatched Goldeneye recently, and they did it in a really interesting way. They make a big point of saying "the USSR fell, nothing is the same anymore", the opening song's visuals has a bunch of women with sledgehammers destroying Lenin statues, and the beginning of the climax of the second act takes place in a statuary park, but one that has the visual appearance of being a junkyard where they're getting rid of all the old Soviet statues. But then they just fall right back into the exact same Cold War anti-USSR tropes without a hint of irony. It's pretty wild
I'd love to sit down and have a talk with one of the people who answered Japan in 2020. Those are some mighty fine brainworms they're cultivating.
Stuck in that 1980s CIA propaganda loop
Wait, that was still a thing in the eighties?
The eighties was when Japan had really transitioned from producing cheap consumer goods for the US market to producing a lot of high-tech electronics and cars, with the low-tech consumer goods instead being manufactured further down the supply chain. There was a lot of fear-mongering over the threat that Japan's tech industry posed to American tech dominance. I don't know that the CIA was behind that, though, since at least the State Department policy since the 1950s had been to build up Japan as a more privileged client state that would serve as a hub for what was basically a recreation of the old Imperial Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere as an arm of American hegemony and imperial wealth extraction in the Pacific and Asia; Japan's rising prominence and utility to the US market was a problem for some individual capitalists and some sectors of American labor aristocracy, but was actively part of American geopolitical strategy and overall very beneficial to American capitalism (and the same can be said of China opening as a market which broke the stagnation and decay that otherwise could have been the ruin of American capitalism, despite the damage it did to some American capitalists and some sectors of American labor aristocracy).
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Oh God you reminded me there was an actual panic in the US over headlight shapes going from round to angular because of the influence of Japanese auto manufacturing
This is a good write up, makes my comment look really basic lol
Might not have been official US policy, but didn't stop racists from murdering Vincent Chin because they thought he was Japanese.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Vincent_Chin
Basically there was a ton of fear mongering between the 70s-90s that Japan would overtake the US technologically, as heavy industry in the USA was suffering and Japan was making major inroads into the US economy through car companies such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi, as well as in electronics with Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba. A lot of Orientalism and "super-humanising" was going on at the time. Practically every second movie basically had American characters working hesitantly under Japanese superiors. I mean Blade Runner is the most obvious example of this on the movie side, it's pretty much Los Angeles under complete Japanese control.
Oh yeah, of course. Slipped my mind.
The whole thing peaked in the late 80s when it was revealed that Toshiba sold industrial milling equipment to the Soviet Union, which was a violation of some bs sanction. With the fall of the USSR in the 90s and the rise of the early internet it died down as the media stopped pushing the narratives and the US could present itself as a tech leader with the birth of the internet.
The US absolutely dominates the software sector and the internet being a US invention is one of they key reasons for that. The PR switched because the Japanese economy crashed (I suspect the US forced it through threat of hard power) and Japan has had demographic problems preventing it from growing in the traditional line chart way again. The CPC is acutely aware they have the same demographic crisis coming soon and is doing everything they can to avoid it with little success especially since the one child policy has left a huge generational gap and a cultural expectation of single child households in the current child rearing generation. If China can overcome this crisis, they become the mono power of the world, but if they can’t they become one of the major powers in a multipolar world.
I remember even in the 90s' my parents complaining about the Japanese taking over.
Japan was going through an economic and technology boom during the 80s' and 90s'
It seems like whenever any nonwhite country starts doing better then America, people see it as a threat.
Why do you think Blade Runner has that weird USA-Japan culture mashup?
A couple other movies that take place in the future also have this as well though the names slip my mind.
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Studio Gainax was created in a top secret pact between the USSR and China.
That's right, the Sino-Soviet split was mended in secret, all to craft the ultimate in anti-CIA agitprop.
:epsteingelion:
watching NGE is MKUltra in reverse
I was leaving that part out but yes, this is true.
Specifically NGE is part of an ongoing series of seemingly unrelated (but actually interrelated) anime from the Gainax founders as a covert deprogramming operation, the aim of which is to free the victims of MKUltra's Project MONARCH mind control.
Nadia was the first attempt but Amano hadn't yet been trusted with the horrific truth so the results were mixed. That infamous depression he fell into was a direct result of learning the scale of the CIA's child abuse. The lie about the reason for his depression was just the first and it was necessary to protect themselves.
The greatest lie of all about NGE is that they used Christian imagery and mythology just because they thought it was cool. Bullshit. Watch Nadia and tell me that with a straight face.
The reason Christianity needed to be a central theme for these anime has everything to do with the mind control methods used by the CIA. The same can be said for why child abuse has been a central theme in all of these anime.
The two most important anime made for this are Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill. NGE provides the foundation but these two are the real key. Also FLCL.
The Best Anime
:shinji-screm:
Some senile 95 year old reliving their teens probably lol
lol there was a point around the end of fall of the USSR where the movie industrial complex (lol) had to realign their sights for who the baddies where. Somehow Japan and Germany became something of a boogeyman for awhile and I just have to imagine those flicks essentially brain wormed a portion of the country into thinking it was both a real and relevant threat. I only base this off of speculation in all seriousness, but at the same time, whatever the dumbest possible reason people think the way they do about foreign countries is high up there as why it's common.
I mean there are plenty of people who think Saddam Hussein did 9/11 and shit like that, to this day. You have to just assume the most ridiculous shit constantly to even attempt to understand why people may think the way they do.
I just rewatched Goldeneye recently, and they did it in a really interesting way. They make a big point of saying "the USSR fell, nothing is the same anymore", the opening song's visuals has a bunch of women with sledgehammers destroying Lenin statues, and the beginning of the climax of the second act takes place in a statuary park, but one that has the visual appearance of being a junkyard where they're getting rid of all the old Soviet statues. But then they just fall right back into the exact same Cold War anti-USSR tropes without a hint of irony. It's pretty wild
dude i haven't watched that movie in a decade at least. holy shit thank you for reminding me lol
Possible ex-Atari employees with a grudge against Nintendo for becoming more popular than them
Probably the one Chinese American they asked, and they'd be right. Any Pacific attack on China would likely be proxied through Japan
I guess it depends on how much anime offends you.