Dr. Stone was a refreshing anime to watch. The animation quality was terrific, the characters were energetic, and the plot was unique. This show was essentially like watching someone play Minecraft IRL. After everyone in humanity was turned to stone, our protagonist manages to escape the stone and start reviving people. Throughout the show, Senku uses his keen knowledge of science to build incredible things.
It makes you think about how useful you would be if you were transported to a prehistoric era. Although, yes, we have accumulated a vast lot of knowledge, most of our knowledge is predicated on access to modern tools. Few people (if any) know how to bootstrap themselves from raw minerals to an advanced piece of technology. Although I know a lot about linear algebra and computer science, those advanced skills are useless without a computer. It is amazing how much humans have achieved scientifically, and how much more we have to learn.
In light of all the controversy surrounding Attack On Titan, it is hard to ignore militarism/fascism in Anime. It is one of those things where it is hard not to notice once it has been pointed out to you. With all that said, people vastly exaggerated it for Attack On Titan, but it is still worth taking a closer look into since it fits a larger pattern within the genre.
Compared to other countries, Japanese Anime has a shocking number of shows dedicated to children serving in the army. Or, if not the army, some other organization like The Demon Slayer Corpse in Demon Slayer, or the Hunter Association in Hunter X Hunter, or the Postal Service in Tegami Bachi. However, if you are looking for directly serving in the army, Attack on Titan, Black Clover, and FullMetal Alchemist are your best examples. You would be hard-pressed to find many examples like this in western media.
Many people draw this as a correlation between imperial Japan and the culture of that time. However, the times have changed, and sub-text is essential to understand. A surface-level plot summary may have people hesitant since there is a trend of literally depicts children fighting in wars. Rather than glorify war and nationalism, these shows often pose philosophical questions that are critical of fascism.
The de facto best example of this would be Fullmetal Alchemist. The country where our protagonists live is based on WW2 era Germany, and the ruler had title Fuhrer. In fact, in a FMA movie, the parallel dimension of their country was Hitler’s Germany. Yet, despite these parallels, nobody would say that the show was pro-fascist. This is because our protagonists were skeptical of authority and refused to cave blind ideology. The Elric brothers ended up changing the country for the better, and not once did they become mindless “military dogs” –a term given towards state Alchemists.
This brings us back to Attack on Titan. The issue with this show is that it put itself into a morally gray zone by mid-season 4. Attack On Titan started as a black and white fight against monsters. But, AOT has evolved into a vast geopolitical dispute where characters on both sides can be viewed in a negative light. This complexity reflects the reality of geopolitics in the real world. Each country has a long and complex history, and balancing everyone’s interests is hard to do. However, Attack on Titan has conveyed this vast story while not glorifying the imperialistic country of Marley, and not praising the violent and rash tendencies of Eric. AOT does an excellent job at depicting the humanity of both sides and the suffering that this conflict has caused.
Shounen titles like Hunter X Hunter, and Demon Slayer, have had great success without invoking strong war imagery. However, I don’t think it is fair to race to the conclusion that something is fascist since it depicts war from the perspective of a country that isn’t a democracy. It is possible to both tell a war story and be critical of war at the same time. People
The subtext is vital to discuss, and it is not just Anime. Several avengers movies have received similar criticism due to their portrayal of the US military. Moreover, if you look at American media at large, you will find an infatuation with law enforcement and the military. But, we can save analyzing American media for another blog post.
Season two of Re:Zero was a treat. It is definitely a lot slower than season one, but this is because it did a lot of character and world-building. Overall I can’t say I enjoyed this season as much as the first season. By now the novelty of the emotional rollercoaster of return by death has worn down and the emotion feels shallower, but it still remains a very emotional show.
The one thread that this season elevates the theme that everyone needs to face and accept the past. During this season, all the main characters had to face their pasts: Subaru, Emilia, Beatrice, Garfield, Otto, and Roswaal. Rather than being an escapist Isekai series where the protagonist is thrown into a fantasy world, Subaru has to face his past as an Otaku shut-in. Subaru and Emilia had to literally face their past in a world created by the witch Echidna in her three trials. Garfield, Beatrice, and Roswaal had to let go of certain parts of their past for them to let go and go on with the future that Subaru is forging. All of the advantages that Subaru gains in this season were his ability to learn of the character’s pasts and then play that to his advantage the next round when he gave a motivational speech or made a deal.
By coming to this world and interacting with these people, it gives Subaru the motivation to do more with his life rather than being an otaku shut-in. Thus, the fantasy world inspired him and gave him encouragement. A meta read on the season could imply that this genre has that effect on people since it provides us with characters and people we can relate to– since in our mundane lives, we often don’t have people we can connect with. Subaru wanted his parents to scold him for skipping school, someone to get mad at him for being incompetent– and Subaru got that in this world. This series also does constant fourth wall breaks with Otaku culture. Subaru is completely aware that he is in an Isikai and makes constant references to the tropes in the genre. Although Subaru starts as that “that guy,” Subaru slowly changes into a more mature adult we root for as the hero.
Death Note is an anime that follows Light Yagami after he acquires a magical notebook that enables him to kill people by just putting their name down in the notebook. Light takes it upon himself to become the arbiter of justice and kill criminals. L, N, and M are kid genius investigators tasked to take down Light Yagami.
As the show went on, it kept getting better and better. There was a twist with each episode that kept you at the edge of your seat. This show is really a battle of wits and intelligence between Light and L; every scene and detail held significance. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys crime and or darker anime.
The philosophical question posed in the show centers around what is Justice. People like Light or his hidden “hero” name “Kira” would argue about a more principle-based approach to Justice. There are criminals in this world that need to pay for what they have done– think old testament. There was even persistent biblical imagery throughout the show. The demon loves to eat apples: like Adom and Eve. There was even a Michelangelo painting at once showing Light and the demon touching each other through the notebook.
L, on the other hand, has a different view on Justice. L viewed justice more as a means of correcting wrongdoings. IE: it is impossible to know what is wrong without first pointing it out. Although this distinction may feel subtle, it is really not because one view is more fixated on punishment/revenge, where the other is focused on reform. This then begs the bigger question of what purpose does justice serves. Is justice solely done to bring revenge and closure to those who have been wronged or is justice enacted to correct the wrong by changing that person and bettering society?
The show doesn’t give hard answers on what Justice is but rather posed moral questions for the audience to ponder along the way. We are persistently posed with the question: is Light Yagami right? What about accidentally killing the innocent? Do the ends justify the means? If crime rates went down, could stricter punishments for a crime actually be justified?
Another question is raised: does justice only matters when others are watching? IE: is justice something we only care about to maintain our reputation and status? What happens when we are given that anonymity. The show touched on this a bit when it said that people would publicly denounce Kira’s executions as cruel, but people supported Kira privately on the internet.
Re:Zero is an emotional roller-coaster to watch. The premise of this anime is that a Japanese teenager named Subaru is teleported into a generic fantasy world where he has to play through it like a video game. When Subaru dies, he is teleported back to a checkpoint, and he is unable to tell anyone else about his condition.
Neither the time loop concept nor the rebirth in a fantasy world is a new concept in anime. However, Re:Zero does a great job at leveraging the time loop to take us on an emotional typhoon. Subaru is faced with the darkest, most disparaging, degrading moments, only to be built back up by characters that fall head over heels for him. Although the character could whimsically die and face no emotional consequences from the viewer, the deaths presented in this show are always very emotional and heartfelt.
Steins Gate is very similar to Re:Zero in terms of the time loop. In Re:Zero it is when Subaru dies, wherein Steins Gate, it was a time machine. Both shows call into question the nature of reality and leave plenty to question. Within Steins Gate, the science is “well” established, but there is the underlying question of why do they have to fight fate/convergence. What other forces are at play? In Stein Gate, the time loop narrative was front and center, wherein Re:Zero, the time loop is comparatively in the back seat. Re:Zero is more focused on the fantasy adventure aspect. After an entire season of Re:Zero we still have no clue why Subaru is in this world, and all we know about the “return by death” is that it has something to do with a wicked witch.
I absolutely loved this show. It was fast-paced, never repetitive, and it was absolutely hilarious. It is a must-watch for the shounen-ai genre.
The show is built on strong character dynamics. Shuuichi, the main character, is very goofy and emotional. Shuuichi is the polar opposite of Yukie, the person he falls in love with.
The show isn’t without flaws. The animation is inconsistent at times, and although the music is great, they constantly re-use the same two songs the entire show.
I’m conflicted as to how I feel about Shuuichi falling in love with Yukie in the show. Yiki is a narcissist who talks down on people and pushes everyone out of his life. However, by the end of the season, with the backstory of Yukie fleshed out, I come to understand why Yukie acts the way he does and he does open up to Shuuichi more.
I can’t say that Gravitation said or did anything unique in it’s show. According to todays standards, it is a typical love story. However, being published in 1999, this was one of the first popular shounen-ai anime, and it opened the floodgates for the genre as we know it today. Despite being 20 years old, the anime still is well worth the watch.
Cowboy Bebop, the movie, definitely lives up to the reputation of the anime. The plot follows the Bebop crew as they foil the plans of a biological terrorist using nano technology developed in secret by the martian government.
The terrorist (Vincent) was an ex-military member used as a Guinea pig for anti-nano technology. The particular nanotechnology that he got infected with completely wiped out his memories. This led Vincent down a dangerous path where he questioned his very nature of being believed that he was trapped in a dream. Vincent believed that the only way to escape this dream would be to be the last one standing: ie kill everyone else with nanotechnology.
The very notion of being in a dream and not “living” is reminiscent of the themes in the rest of the anime. In fact, during the show, Spike said that he and Vincent aren’t all that different since they have both died before — in this case, a spiritual death rather than a physical one. For Spike, he died when he fled the crime Syndicate, leaving behind the love of his life.
More recently, Mugen Train explored dreams in an Inception fashion way. But, all this begs the question of what happens when you can’t trust the very nature of your reality? Do we use dreams as a fantasy, a way of escaping reality since the world is too cruel to accept?
Cowboy Bebop is an anime amalgamation of multiple genres that stands the test of time and still feels fresh over two decades after being produced. There is nothing not to love about this anime.
The action is decent– especially considering the time it was produced. The characters are funny and relatable. The episodic nature of the anime made it a easy show to watch one at a time on lunch break. However, my favorite aspect of this show was how distinctive yet familiar the show felt.
Cowboy Bebop incorporates aspects of the western, sci-fi, and noir genres, making the show feel very fresh. Although the show is sci-fi with space-battles, high science concepts like transplanting your brain into cyberspace, Cowboy Bebop is not a dystopia. In fact, it feels more like a snapshot of the ’90s rather than a dystopian future. At its core, Cowboy Bebop is a story about people, not about science; technology merely serves as a backdrop for the story.
The core story carries strong noir and western themes. The crew of the Bebop are searching for meaning in their lives, yet are shackled by their past. The episodic nature of the show illustrates how easy it is to fall into a slump. The only character progression we get is with the few episodes where people from the characters’ past are brought in.
Jet was holding onto a past relationship that had long gone –literally carrying an old broken pocket watch. It wasn’t until the episode where Jet confronted Allisa and saw that she had moved did he realize that his idealized version of the past never existed in the first place.
Faye was literally frozen, unable to move forward. It wasn’t until Faye regained her memories of the past she was able to move onwards. Returning to her home and realizing that she has nothing to go back to make her realize that she had everything she wanted with the crew of the Bebop.
Spike used to be a member of a powerful crime syndicate called the Red Dragons. Spike later fell in love with Julia and made a plan to leave the syndicate with her. However, in the process, he nearly dies and is plagued by his past the rest of the series. In the final episode after Julia is killed, Spike decides to confront his past and take down his rival Vicious. When leaving the Bebop, he tells this to Fay while she pleads with him to stay:
Look at my eyes, Faye. One of them is fake cause I lost it in an accident. Since then, I’ve been seeing the past in one eye, and the present in the other, so I thought I could only see patches of reality, never the whole picture. I felt like I was watching a dream I’d never wake up from… Hmp. Before I knew it, the dream was all over. I’m not going there to die; I’m going to find out if I’m really alive. I have to do it, Faye.
This is not a happy story. It is not a happy ending. But, by facing his past in a blatant suicide mission, Spike was finally able to get closure and move forward with his life, breaking the monotonous cycle.
Overall, Demon King Diamo is a mediocre anime that doesn’t really hold a candle to more mainstream titles like Attack on Titan or Demon Slayer. However, it does achieve a lot in its short run. I was pretty frustrated with all the “Fan Service” in the show, and I found the characters to be pretty one-dimensional or cliche. With the show only lasting 14 episodes, it isn’t easy to have genuine character development like Killuah in Hunter X Hunter. But, back to the fan service… it was quite intensive. Intensive to the point where I would definitely not recommend this show to anyone new to anime in fear of scaring them away from the genre permanently. Every character, even the male character Hiroshi, swooned for the protagonist Akuto.
What did the show have to say? It touched on topics such as God, creation, and destiny. Along the lines, it talked about what is good. Not extremely different from the themes in Angel Beats. Moreover, this show was heavily influenced greatly by Harry Potter and the Matrix. Harry Potter in terms of the school for magic, the train station…etc. And the matrix in terms of the cycle of anomalies. Neo is analogous to the demon king in this case. IE: an anomaly created by the “system” which is meant to rebel and eventually fail– thus somehow keeping balance.
But, the conundrum faced by both shows is the question of whether it is better to go along with a corrupt system in the name of justice or is it better to destroy the very fabric of the system and rebuild but along the way cause a lot of death and destruction. In the series, the protagonist appeared to be a just character, determined to be a force of good. However, he was fated by a magic hat-like thing (exactly like harry potter) to become the demon king. It isn’t clear if the system ie god is making the prophecy and ensuring it comes true or if it is actually just a really good best guess. However, seeing that the predictions have never been wrong, it suggests that these are actually pre-determined fates. Whether this is because humans have no free will or if it is because the system is enforcing these fates is yet unknown. Nevertheless, it is an interesting shallow dive exploration into this concept.
In the end, the protagonist Akuto defeats his foes and gets to face god. But he didn’t end up killing god. Instead, everyone’s memories are slightly altered after the grandiose grand battle, and they start attending school again. The hat was placed on the protagonist’s head, and guess what: he is fated to be the demon king again. I feel like this illustrates the cyclical nature of human existence. Or maybe he is fated this way because he hasn’t finished his task to change the system he desired to change.
Another interesting thing to note is that although the “system” was a superintelligent AI that protected humans from other species that would kill them if discovered, the AI/system was made out to be a God by humans. People prayed to it. It enforced its will upon the people. And even the representation of it in the final battle made it an actual god-like entity rather than a computer system. If it was actually a computer system, it looked very divine as a white ball of light in a temple-like structure. This makes the parallel to Angel Beats, where purgatory was no more than a computer system that they were in– meaning that they could hack into it. But again, this narrative as God as technology vs. God as something incomprehensible to humans is interesting. Shows like Death Note have a God as a divine being, where Demon King Diamo and Angel Beats have god as a mere technological system. Moreover, there is a distinction between polytheistic and monotheistic beliefs within certain anime. Death Note had polytheistic deities, where Full Metal Alchemist had a singular god. This could also be due to the fact where the shows take place: Death Note taking place in Japan where Fullmetal Alchemist took place a german like country. We could also put the technology into this scale. If God is merely technology created, there is no singular God; in fact, there is no God as we know it in western society. If there are technology ruling humans, there could be other systems ruling other races of people. Or other simulations with their own gods.
But anyhoo, I’ll give that show overall a 6/10. There was way too much fan service. The plot tried to go deep but only scratched the surface. It gleaned over a broad scope of topics regarding God, power, and destiny. But, most of the big picture themes were saved for the last few episodes.
Season 4 was shocking– nearly unidentifiable from season one. Rather than a story about saving humanity from man-eating monsters, Attack on Titan has become a complex geopolitical war thriller that touches on universal concepts of human nature and what it means to be free. There is nothing to not love about season 4. There is a lot to unpack from season 4, part one, and I don’t think a single post could ever do it justice.
No post about season 4 can avoid discussing the character transformation of Eren. Season 4 takes place four years after the conclusion of season three. And in that time Eren changed from a hurt angsty teenager to a cold-blooded war criminal who is willing to sacrifice everything to bring the end of titans.
This shocking change in Erin hurt me. We see the naïve shounen protagonist that we are all cheering for turn into a monster willing to kill civilians and even plans on using his powers to turn all eldians infertile in his euthanasia plan. Unlike the Game of Thrones ending where Daenerys Targaryen changed suddenly, the change of Erin felt natural since it makes sense given the context and it was foreshadowed.
It is prevalent for shounen protagonists to have a tragic back story. Consider Tanjiro in Demon Slayer or the Elric brothers in Fullmetal Alchemist. Despite tragic, painful backstories, the heroes never towards revenge or sinister because of their past. I was expecting the same thing to happen to Erin, he would come out of his funk and become the shounen character this genre expects, but I think it is too late for Erin to change.
Within the first few episodes of the first season, Erin had his home taken from him, watched his mom get eaten by a monster. All he had left were his two friends. But, the world is a cruel place, and Erin suffered more. Driven by the burning desire to kill titans, he joined the military at a young age and watched scores of men die gruesome deaths. These problems only became exacerbated by the fact that he himself inherited the powers of the founder titan from his father. No longer is he just a soldier; he bears the burden of protecting the entire island of Paradis from threats both foreign and domestic. On top of all that, he has faced betrayals from close comrades, and hundreds of people have died to save his life.
Simply put, it makes total sense that Erin would make the drastic change that he did in season 4. That puts the story in an interesting place since we no longer know who is right and who to cheer for. This is commonly known as the Rashomon effect, a story where from the view of each character, they are in the right. From this point of view, the story can discuss issues such as: human nature, genocide, freedom, war. Each of these topics themselves warrants a full blog post. Amazingly, Attack on Titan has managed to build up such a complex story with a vast set of characters while never feeling overbearing or disconnected.
