OK, so I'm doing a panel at Otakon on Japanese politics as represented in anime. I'm a little short on stuff covering domestic issues in Japan. Does anyone have some good examples, just any ideas to throw out? Anything is appreciated. I figured this would be better than /anime/.
Mmm, you're gonna be short on material. Politics just isn't as much of a discussion point in Japan (or most other places in the world, for that matter) as it is in the US...
You already know about the movie Silent Service, yes? Other than that, I've got nothing.
Uh... Barefoot Gen for criticism of military WW2 Japan and the maltreatment of Koreans?
Apparently Blood - The Last Vampire 2000 anime was fairly political. I personally didn't see the political slant, but the manga had a section at the end that went into it in depth.
GITS:SAC is incredibly political, but of course it's mainly made-up future politics, but it does link back into the present in various ways.
You could argue that Arjuna is political, on the more general level of social criticism.
I'm sure there is politics in Paranoia Agent, but it's just not very accessible.
Well, I'm including video games, manga, and manhwa. I'm going into detail on The First President of Japan (I'm glad Raijin put all of this out before they went under) and Nambul: War Stories, but >>2 made a good point about Silent Service. That one slipped below my radar. I need to see Barefoot Gen, too, but there may not be enough time before Otakon.
>>5, don't forget that the Laughing Man arc dealt primarily with how the government handled an emerging medical treatment and was basically influenced by private interests, thus denying sick people the treatment they needed in the name of an abusive bureaucracy. Echoes of Vioxx, anyone?
I haven't seen Arjuna and can't acquire an entire series... if there's some decent information on it, I can toss it in as a comment, but right now it ain't happening as a main discussion topic. :-/
Where would the politics be in Paranoia Agent? There's the whole pressure to capture Shounen Bat angle, but I don't see that as overly political... and Paranoia Agent could fill a panel in itself with all the angles it has... o_o
Barefoot Gen, Arjuna, Paranoia Agent: political: no, IMO.
SAC: political: yes, but as mentionned it's semi-fiction.
Kenshin has parts dealing with politics, but old politics from the Meijin times.
For modern politics "Sanctuary" (manga) is quite connected to politics, but I don't know how accurate it is. It's the story of the rise of a yakuza guy who is out to conquer the world.
Another interesting item is that mangaka who makes manga promoting that Japan didn't lose the war, I forgot his name. Of course, this one is widely inaccurate.
If you're including manga in your analysis, then there's also Shamo. It might be considered more a commentary on certain current social trends (although I think it's more an excuse for a violent manga).
If GiTS is considered political, I suppose Pluto might be as well.
There's also Akumetsu, but saying it contains anything worth pondering is like claiming mustard is intelligent.
I'm kinda limited to the English language, which is a shame, because I know there's gotta be a ton of stuff out there that doesn't touch North American shores ever.
I'm planning to talk a great deal about Kuni ga Moeru and the controversy that erupted over it. I see the entire situation as nothing less than a broad-spectrum duplication of Holocaust denial. If anyone has scans of the disputed photo and the manga page that caused it, you'll receive personal credit in my presentation if you can E-mail it to me.
Sling: from what I've heard (and this is only heard) Barefoot Gen is one giant protest against the atom bomb as a weapon, and that in itself is a political statement. As it was during the war, the A-bomb was more of a strategic warfighting decision, but when nuclear weapons began to proliferate, they became completely political in nature.
I thought about dealing with the Meiji era, but after really looking at everything, I see Meiji Japan as semi-democratic. The only real involvement in politics is in an illiberal context. Call me culturally insensetive, but I'm dealing with Japan where democracy is law, if not culture, and how people react to that through pop culture.
It has been a while since I saw Barefoot Gen, my recall is that it was merely an account of the bombing as seen from the eyes of a child on the ground. Maybe you mean the manga? I haven't read the manga.
> Maybe you mean the manga? I haven't read the manga.
I wouldn't know, I just have read the manga, never seen the anime.
But in the manga, there is a Korean friend of Gen's family that gets treated pretty badly all throughout the war but after it returns wealthy to the city of Hiroshima. Those scenes get posted pretty often to Futaba Channel and other Japanese image boards, as the comic is a definite classic of manga literature and Koreans are always a target of Japanese online tomfoolery.
>>2
The US is... More political than the rest of the world?
Some people say FLCL is about the relation between USA and Japan.
One person suspects Melody of Oblivion is the same.
I think FLCL could be worth mentioning, though.
Oh yeah, there's also the huge WWII aspect to the original Gunbuster series. Generally Gainax stuff seems to be a bit more political/real life, even in stuff like Kare Kano where a weird narration about the depression is the only politics involved.
Ah, yes, I've heard that theory. It goes that Haruko symbolizes America; loud and obnoxious, but strong; whereas Naota symbolizes Japan; shy, indifferent and weak. America had to help Japan grow up and even find its own identity, just as Haruko does the same to Naota in the series.
I don't think it's an "official" interpretation, but it's interesting nonetheless.
>>13: Look at the participation percentages in elections in America and in other parts of the world. Some European and Asian countries rarely get over 40% of the electorate bothering to vote. And I met a Canadian friend who bought the whole "Canadians are more intelligent and worldly" line, but couldn't even tell me how many provinces Canada has.
>>17
Not to defend that Canadian, but Canada has been doing some strange rearranging of its territories recently. While Nunavut has been in process for over a decade, I suspect most Canadians hadn't heard of it until ~2000.
Popotan of all things has some commentary on people moving from the countryside and the construction of amusement parks - not much too work with probably though (the whole amusement park thing was touched upon on Spirited Away too, but again this probably isn't worth much).
Damnit, it says quite a lot about the amount of politics in anime when Excel Saga almost seems worth mentioning in this discussion. : I
I need to delve through the Oubliettes again for detailed info, but I'll hold firm that Excel Saga is one of the shining examples of true satire in Japanese pop culture. There's plenty of parody and fun-poking, but a real satire in the Western context? That's few and far between, IMHO.
I recently picked up volume 3 of the Excel Saga manga, and I read it just now. Either my memories of the anime are dulled (long time since I saw it), or the manga has a lot more political satire. It really seems like good material for you.
Got every volume of the manga to date. Like I said, I'm delving back into the oubliettes, but I'll skip right to v. 3. I don't have the time, as much as I'd like it, to read every single volume in the free time I have left. ;-;
It is now time to raise this thread up and mention Kamichu.
>>15
Could you explain that?
i think ORB in Gundam SEED is what japan wants to be ; a country that don't engage in war , but have a huge army to defend itself when attacked.
What about Zipang?
Kamichu takes place in a world where the gods are real, which is commentary on how secular and soulless modern Japanese are I guess.
>>26
Aren't there many weird references to Japanese military history later on in Kamichu?
The only other political anime I know that hasn't been mentioned already is Gasaraki. As for mangas, Eden is faily political, not specifically japaneese, but political.
I forgot. Try to look for any anime/ modern Japanese narrative that portrays Oda Nobunanga.
Soryuden - Lot's of Political Commentary, 4 dragon gods, born as humans. A former soldier in the WWII invasion of Japan is interested in convincing them to "protect japan's national interests", while 4 American Megacorps also have their eyes on their power. It's *extremely critical of Japan's activities during the war.
*Battle Royale - Social Commentary. I suspect you already know about this one.
*Tokyo Godfathers - Social Commentary. 3 homeless people find a baby, and attempt to locate her parents. In the process, a lot of social issues are tackled, ranging from abanding children, to abusive spouses.
*GTO - Social Commentary. 22 year old teacher, who was formerly the leader of a biker gang, cuts through a lot of bs that goes on in hs, with a pretty blunt outlook.
There is also a bit plitics , or infact a huge deal in Stand alone complex.
There is also the American/Japan deal like in blood/blood+.
How about Akira?
Shitty thread Wasshoi！！
＼＼ Shitty thread Wasshoi！ ／／
+ + ＼＼Shitty thread Wasshoi！／+
∬ ∬ ∬ ∬ ∬ ∬ +
+ 人 人 人 +
（＿） （＿） （＿_）
+ （＿＿） （＿＿） （＿＿） +
. + （ ＿＿ ） （ ＿＿ ） （ ＿＿ ） +
（ ´∀｀∩ （´∀｀∩） （ ´∀｀）
+ （( （つ ノ （つ 丿 （つ つ )） +
ヽ （ ノ （ ヽノ ） ） ）
（＿）し' し（＿） （＿）＿）
I want to do some research the contact some historians in Japan and ask them about manga from the 60ties. At lot of manga were produced by the socialist and communist parties. Manga was very much a working-class phenoma in the during it's first years.
Ofcourse this can be related to the general left-wing wave in Japan during the 60ties.
Serial Experiments Lain, is, some say, about Americanization of Japanese culture.
I know there is no famous anime about it.(´･ω･`)
But we have Shousetsu Yoshida Gakko written by Isamu Togawa.
That was a very famous political half-nonfiction and was screened. We also have comic version of it.
Does Grave of the Fireflies count as political anime?
it's about world war 2.
The author of Grave of the Fireflies, Akiyuki Nosaka, was
a senetor for a while.
Seita was Nosaka and Setsuko was his younger sisters.
The Patlabor movies and JinRoh have some political content too.