cksjptblog

[cksjptblog]

I completely agree with you, first time watching the movie but it was amazing, loved every second of it. I also agree with you about the movie being focused on destiny, their fate was tied together via the body swapping but they changed the future they changed destiny via working together.

Your Name

One of my all time favorite anime films for sure. Every time someone who doesn't watch anime asks me for a recc I always say "Your Name" which has also led me to watch this film like 4 different times. I was going to watch it again for this class, but honestly I can remember most of the movie by now from memory except, ironically, their names apparently because I'm sooo bad at remembering names😭. Also this movie definetly has the best plot twist of all time, gives me chills. Alright time to stop yapping about my love for this film and get to analyzing!

Some interesting information is that Makoto Shinkai was largely inspired by the events of the 2011 earthquake in Japan. Many people suffered and lost there lives. Makoto felt completely powerless and felt as if there was no way he could help these people. This led to him starting to portray disasters in his films such as Your Name, Weathering Away With You, and Suzume. Disasters seem to happen more frequently than ever and he wanted to do his best to "explore and face disasters that are only possible through anime and entertainment".

Okay the next theme people often think about when watching this movie is the red thread of fate which is a reference to old Asian Myth. Basically two people are fated to be together no matter what. Even though the main characters are seperated by time and space they are still pulled towards one another. But I'm going to hard disagree even if theres some obvious references to the thread of fate (I mean Mitsuha literally wears the red string of fate😭).

I think the movie is about destiny rather than fate. Now you may be asking "arent destiny and fate synonymous?" In contemporary english they might as well be but if you're as picky as me technically they aren't. Fate implies a predetermined outcome while destiny implies personal contribution to the outcome. The word "fate" originates from the latin word "fatum" which means "has been spoken". It implies an outside force predeterming an event. Destiny comes from the latin word "destinare" which means to "establishing or make firm". You pave the way to your own destiny. I say "Your Name" is a movie about destiny rather than fate because even though they are seperated by space and time, they both put in effort into reaching the movie's outcome. Quite literally they changed Mitsuha's destiny. Honestly, I'm definetly putting way too much thought into this movie and y'all probably think I'm just yapping, but I love this movie so please just give me a pass🙏.

Oh yeah, the movie also has a somewhat romantic theme (tying in with the red string of fate), but honestly I think this movie is so much more than just romance, so I'll spare you and myself from any more writing.

[cksjptblog]

On Your Name and Dynamics

The anime movie Your Name follows two protagonists Mitsuha and Taki who find themselves swapping bodies and the consequences of it as well as the tie of fate this brings to each of them.

Very early on in the anime its made clear that power and power dynamics are a large part of the anime, showing how the different dynamics in relationships affect people, Mitsuha has a demanding father but wants to go to Tokyo, her friend also has a father demanding on him pushing him into the family business.

 The protagonists get the chance to live a different life temporarily as well as experience entirely different dynamics. Mitsuha in Taki’s body learns how differently the dynamic of a male student in Tokyo is and how she must act and learns about an alternative dynamic with the female coworker who likes the softer side of “Taki”. Meanwhile Taki in Mitsuha’s body holds onto his normal dynamic throughout the day refusing to follow the dynamic instilled in Mitsuha’s life.

In addition to power dynamics in general as mentioned above it deals with the dynamics of gender and what each gender’s experience is like through the eyes of the other.

The anime also shows symbolism in the repeating form of threads explaining that they tie people together fitting in with the reading before the anime explaining the complex relationships people have with each other and the constantly shifting dynamics between them.

The second half of the movie occurs after the peak of the comet where they realize their time is out of sync and the comet crashed into Mitsuha’s town and she and many others died, Taki relies on the threads that bind them together through fate to re-awaken as Mitsuha and attempt to save the towns people.

They do so but when back in their own bodies forget the other person’s name and thus have nearly impossible time finding eachother, only meeting again due to circumstance and the meaning of the title becoming clear when the last line of the movie is asking each other their names.

This was a very enjoyable anime to watch, very touching but also rather deep symbolically, they see each other’s lives and the different dynamics each person has and that forms a new connection and dynamic between the two of them that only becomes realized several years afterwards.

[cksjptblog]

I completely agree with your take on the ideal of the movie. It heavily promotes living with nature instead of working against it as well as showing the harm our constant polluting the planet does. Though I disagree about the pesticides thing, I think a better example would be cutting down forests to make land for building on or destroying things like marshlands. Pesticides are unfortunately a necessity of life, the only options really are the type of pesticides we use and what works. Destroying marshlands and forests however are avoidable, either replanting or recreating that which we displace to keep nature in balance with our need for creation.

Coexisting (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind)

‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ was a really fun, watch but if I’m being honest it wasn’t my favorite studio ghibli film ever. I liked the messages it had, the characters were fun, the world was cool, but to me it felt like this was a slightly worse Princess Mononoke. However, I can’t blame the film for this, but rather the era in which it was created. This was Studio Ghibli’s EARLIEST film and was created before they even recognized themselves under that name, so most of my criticisms come from the fact that the movie shows its age. However, one aspect of the movie that remains timeless is its commentary on the environment and human intervention.

So in the world of Nausicaa we’re introduced to the toxic jungle, an ever-growing mass of poisonous plants and deadly animals that threatens a post-apocalyptic society. However, we learn through Nausicaa that the plants themselves are not poisonous, but rather the soil in which they grow. This was caused by the selfish actions of the humans of the past and their disregard for the environment. Not only that, but the toxic jungle is inhabited by gigantic animals and bugs that are known to attack human settlements. Once again though, we see Nausicaa consistently tame many of these creatures, advocating for our coexistence with them.

So it's through these ideas that we find the core theme of Nausicaa, that being that Humans must take responsibility for the poor environmental conditions we have caused and we must take responsibility properly. This is show in the response to these threats that most humans have which is violence. They aim to kill much of the life, eliminate the toxic jungle with brute force, which in reality only causes more harm. This is true to real life, where often our response to environmental issues are harmful chemicals like pesticides rather than learning to live with our environment and the issues we caused within. We refuse to acknowledge our role in our own problems with the environment and as a result, we only make things worse. Nausicaa spreads the message that we must coexist with the environment, not fight against it. If we can’t learn to coexist, what chance do we have at existing at all?

[cksjptblog]

On Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and environmentalism

Nausicaa of the valley of the wind tells the story of a humanity post societal collapse 1000 years in the future where a toxic jungle spreads to consume the world. It follows Nausicaa a young woman who is the princess of the titular valley of the wind

The movie starts on a bleak scene, a poisonous jungle where just about everything in it wants to kill you and Nausicaa inside the shell of what was clearly a giant robot built for war alongside several other robots, a long since past warzone.

This contrasts heavily with the peaceful scene of the valley itself, looking like a modern day peaceful forest and valley.

There is a incongruent sadness in the scene though, a mishmash of technology and buildings, from mud buildings to medieval style buildings, chests and shields but also firearms and gliders. The kind of society only possibly born from a collapse of a prior society scavenging different parts and pieces of what was before and having to re-build the rest.

The story is inherently about the environment and war and climate change. We destroyed the world with war and the world fights back against humanity now, the jungle being toxic could be a stand in for a number of different things, repentance for war and climate change being a few. The repentance for war representing a dying society drowned by war, climate change being a more realized version of how our constant pumping of chemicals into the air poisons the land and will make it toxic for us, the forest growing representing our continuing environmental failure and pumping more chemicals into the air polluting more and more of the planet.

It is later revealed that Nausicaa planted some of the most toxic plants from the jungle using deep soil and clean water and found out that they don’t become poisonous when this happens, proving that the jungle itself isn’t toxic merely that the entire land is polluted and the jungle uproots that pollution.

The secondary conflict of the anime shows itself when a foreign kingdom invades the valley kills the king and takes Nausicaa hostage with their intent being to revive one of the giant robots and burn the toxic forest to the ground. The hostage taking is interrupted however by another foreign kingdom intervening to take down the ships which results in Nausicaa landing in the forest and learning of its true nature, the forest was natures way of cleansing the planet and the insects protectors of the forest so human’s won’t interrupt its work.

The movie’s conflict is only resolved by Nausicaa risking her life to protect one of the baby Ohm, the protectors of the forest. And in turn is healed by them. It tells a powerful tale of caring for nature and how doing so ensures nature will care for you.

Overall I really really enjoyed the movie, it was beautiful and touching at times as well as sending a powerful message about caring for the environment.

[cksjptblog]

I disagree on why he chokes Asuka at the end, looking for more details on the movie after watching it the common accepted explanation is that he strangled her out of fear of her representation during the impact where she represented rejection from others. And its her action choosing to accept Shinji that stops him. (even though she says disgusting at the end, which is still weird)

The End of Evangelion

The pain of existence is an ever-present thing in this world but one that only exists momentarily. Shinji in this film seemed to have given up though, just like his father and the radical members of SEELE. After everything he has gone through throughout the course of NGE has completely exited reality, insisting that because he can't be the man the world wants him to be expects help from the world. That's why in the second half of the film (after the 3rd impact) Asuka not only represents the masculinity expected of Shinji but partially the world itself. Asuka finds Shinji disgusting, worthless, pathetic, but is she wrong to describe a wimpy fearful man who chooses to end the world because nobody will give him free handouts for being the way he is. Luckily though, after seeing the world of no pain by removing all human reaction, Shinji still chooses life and returns all human souls back to their bodies. The important part is that he does this despite having no solution to his problems; as long as the world is turning, he can find this happiness, he can make the world better, and his pain will come to an end. He still isn't happy (which is why he chokes Asuka again), nor is he completely changed, but he made the right decision for humanity. That's why Asuka reaches out to him and finally recognizes him, this is the affirmation that his pain can end even if the world hasn't fully accepted him yet which is why he lets go of Asuka despite her overall feelings towards him not changing. While it still has its less savory moments, like Shinji's sexual assault of Asuka or Misato's kiss to a 14-year-old, I still think that this is a much better end to the series compared to episodes 25 and 26 are they are overall more boring and less profound even though they have the same message. Glad I got to watch one of my favorite shows again and would highly recommend those who found this show interesting to finish NGE even though they know the ending or at least watch the spinoff movies (as I think those are pretty good too).

[cksjptblog]

On The end of Evangelion Self Identity and Individuality

The movie “The End of Evangelion” follows Shinji after the defeat of the final Angel while a plot to bring about the Instrumentality project brews.

The opening to the movie cover’s Shinji’s sense of self as he visits Asuka in a coma in the hospital where after shaking her and trying to awaken her in his despair he turns her over revealing her breasts which then cuts away and back revealing I think ejaculate on his hand and him calling himself the worst. Which has one of two meanings, either he masturbated to her semi-nude form or just seeing her like that caused him to ejaculate both interpretations not great for Shinji.

Shortly after we see Misato I think breaking into files regarding the second impact and briefly see a screen supposedly containing the truth behind second impact, but I think the text shown is an easter-egg as it references real life events regarding anime and sci-fi experiences even commenting on Bandai.

The movie’s main conflict is the implementation of the human Instrumentality project through Rei, in doing so every human is joined together removing pain suffering and rejection. However Rei leaves the final decision to complete or reject instrumentality to Shinji as he was the only person to ever treat her properly.

This leads back into episode 26 of Evangelion the anime where Shinji is discovering his identity and what he wishes to be. As seen in that episode Shinji rejects the idea of instrumentality deciding that despite the possibility of rejection the ability to have real connections is more important and as such cancels Instrumentality.

This in a way sums up Evangelion as a whole, it’s a show that deals with one’s self identity, accepting that you are you and that you don’t have to always worry about what others think and that regardless if you display traditional traits or not you have your place in the world and its up to you to see yourself and find it.

Of course there is also the rather blatant alternative interpretation of NGE taking this through the lens of sex rather than identity but that is another interpretation for another day.

[cksjptblog]

I completely agree with your take regarding Asuka she is like a mirror or a foil for Shinji showing the same behavior but on opposite sides, I also think that Asuka's behavior towards Shinji can be semi explained as her disliking a reflection of herself.

Today for class I was able to watch part of the second half of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I thought I had understood what was going on, but now that I rewatched it again, I can say that I am still confused at the ending.

The episodes in the second part of NGE continued to discuss masculinity. The introduction of Asuka really showcased the difference between her and Shinji. Asuka displays traits of hegemonic masculinity like assertiveness, confidence, and pride. Shinji, on the other hand, displays traits of queer masculinity like timidness, being accommodating, and being passive. Asuka seems to be the complete opposite of Shinji. The idea of gender roles are also prominent in these episodes of NGE. Asuka often yells at Shinji because of his queer masculinity. Although Asuka has hegemonic masculinity, she uses it to hide her insecurities. Shinji and Asuka are more alike than they know. Both of them lack attention from a parental figure and both of them do not feel like they are enough. Asuka is jealous of Shinji’s ability to perfectly sync with the EVA and wants to get closer to him, while Shinji doesn’t care. 

After he meets Asuka, Shinji tries to get more hegemonic masculinity by leading the EVAs to defeat the Angel. In the process he gets swallowed and trapped by the Angel. This leads him to spiral and reflect on himself. The EVA ends up saving him, because he was unable to do it himself. This leads him to meet Kaworu, who displays similar traits to Shinji, but is treated differently. Once Kaworu is revealed to be an angel and dies, Shinji slowly comes to terms with his queer masculinity and no longer hates himself. 

I feel as if Shinji can relate to many people in the world. There are many people who display traits that go against that of their gender role, which makes people feel like they don’t fit into society. 

In the end, I think Neon Genesis Evangelion was a great show and I’m really happy I got to watch it again. 

[cksjptblog]

On Evangelion Part 2

Evangelion part 2 continues following Shinji as he pilots Evangelion in protection of humanity.

The trend of other female characters showing more traditional masculine traits than Shinji continues with the newest Evangelion pilots arrival Asuka who immediately presents herself as brash and unkind calling Shinji an oaf without even knowing him at all.

At this point it seems like every other character introduced puts down Shinji and I can’t tell anymore if it’s trying to drive home the queer masculinity point or if it’s just playing to anime tropes and putting the main character down because its “humorous”.

Episode 8 heavily deals with power dynamics and control and I suppose their relation to masculinity. The captain is brash and rude towards the nerv squad for stepping within their bounds which Misato later accounts to the captain being a prideful man. During the angel attack they fight for control to launch the Evangelion and Asuka tries to show some control over Shinji as well as prove her superiority.

Episode 16 immediately makes the queer masculinity of Shinji front and center as he starts the episode fulfilling duties often associated with a “housewife” cooking, and apparently drawing a hot bath for Asuka? And once more Shinji is criticized for this trait. This episode also makes me appreciate Rei more for not taking any of Asuka’s crap.

Shinji during this episode also directly comments on masculinity after being provoked by Asuka “After all Fightings the man’s job” it was said jokingly I’m fairly certain but still highlights the undertones about masculinity in the show.

Also Episode 16 is a bit confusing, they give Shinji point on the mission, he sets up to pin down the enemy with suppressive fire and then later people complain that he went off on his own but that didn’t happen? Pinning down the enemy (as he DIRECTLY said he was doing) is inherently so other units can finish them off, he was acting like a team lead taking point on the mission, against other Angels we’ve seen during the anime it would’ve been a good plan, it only went wrong because of its “teleportation” abilities.

It also dive a bit further into the mystery that is the evangelion, what are they is shaping up to be the main mystery alongside the other details sprinkled in.

The main conflict of the episode is Shinji’s internal struggle about not wanting to be hurt and in doing so he runs from his problems. With a secondary conflict about rescuing him.

The mystery builds as despite being out of power Shinji’s Ava/Evangelion breaks out of the angel after he has a vision of his mother. Supposedly the Ava’s are also replicas of the first angel but Misato doesn’t quite believe this.

Episode 24 shows a wholly different tone than the previous episodes Asukas depressed, Rei’s depressed over dying once I think? The jump in episodes is confusing.

There is also a new group whos motives I don’t fully understand. The new 5th child also shows himself to be an angel, more specifically adam implanted with human dna I think. It also dives into the underlying understanding regarding the Avas and the at field they have, representing the natural walls people put up.

The episode is very confusing and episode 26 is no less confusing. The human instrumentality project is revealed to be joining humanity together through instrumentality.

I think the final episode deals with feelings of self-worth and how defining yourself on an action you take is self-destructive.

It focuses on finding yourself, your identity and your self-worth and your connection to reality. I also feel like I’m missing context for this ending which hopefully the movie we watch next will solve.

Overall Part 2 of evangelion continues the themes of masculinity but also dives into the idea of the self, self-worth and self identity

[cksjptblog]

I really quite like your interpretations of the evangelion mechas being similar to wearing a masculine identity to fit into society! I hadn't even thought about that in my analysis, however I would like to argue that the show at least for part 1 does deal with masculinity more than war, its not just that shinji doesn't display traditional masculinity he displays queer masculinity, the nerv organization can fill the role of society judging him for this behavior you can see in episode 1 Misato telling shinji to "Man up" demanding him to display traditional masculine traits and continually all through until episode 5 this is a front and center focus, it's only at the end of episode 4 when Misato learns to connect with Shinji instead of demanding he be someone else that things improve.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Part 1)

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a giant robot anime that takes place in a dystopian world where we are at war with beings (or robots, I’m not sure) called Angels. For the sake of this lesson, Im going to focus on the character Shinji and how he is presented different in terms of masculinity.

Shinjo is much more reserved than most main characters in these types of anime. He does not want to fight in the war or pilot the Evangelion. Right off the bat, we can see that Shinji is not inline with the societal expectations of masculinity. His classmates love to play war games and a very interested in girls, all traditionally masculine traits that Shinji doesn’t have. He’s looked down on by his father for not being enough. Some of the women even have more masculine traits that Shinji, particularly Misato who is a slob compared to Shinji’s clean nature.

Shinji is forced to pilot the Evangelion, a very masculine weapon attributed with bravery and relentless destruction. This is similar to the pressure to perform in a very masculine way. Shinji essentially wears Evangelion as one would wear a masculine identity to fit into the world around us.

It’s worth mentioning that Shinji and his peers are all children. It’s natural that he wouldn’t want to pilot a war machine. Who would? It’s terrifying and deadly. Still, he is thrown into it. This could be an allegory for men being thrown into hypermasculine roles and being expected to meet this.

Overall, I thought this show was a little boring, although the Angles were pretty cool in terms of character design. I found Neon Genesis Evangelion not completely applicable to masculinity, if anything it was more related to themes of war. Nonetheless, I hope you got something out of my analysis.

[cksjptblog]

On Evangelion Part 1 and Queer Masculinity

Evangelion starts following Shinji Ikari a young boy who is forcefully thrust into piloting a mecha called Evangelion unit-01 with the weight of saving the world on his shoulders.

Immediately the opening reminds me of the anime we watched prior “Gundam” it shows striking similarities, Shinji and Gundam’s protagonist are both thrust into the position of defending their home, their fathers’ work in the groups defending said home. But outside the surface similarities they are very different.

While Amuro adores both the Gundam and his father and displays normative masculine traits Shinji declines the call to heroics asked of him and is uncomfortable with his father, which at least to me seems somewhat warranted, father gone for three years and the first time Shinji meets him again its to force Shinji to attempt to pilot a military vehicle to fight a seemingly invincible foe.

There Shinji as mentioned before displays queer masculinity, he shows his emotions often, expresses his hurt at other’s words and other non-traditional masculine traits often associated with femineity.

He only accepts becoming the pilot due to empathy and sympathy he feels for the heavily injured girl who would have to pilot the unit in his stead, which can be both hegemonic or queer masculinity depending on how its viewed. Desire to protect and be the “Protector” is hegemonic masculinity in today’s society however if viewed through the lens of empathy with Shinji’s other apparent traits it could also be seen as more feminine.

As a side but interesting note, the “flooded Cabin” with oxygenated liquid has been done in real life before, its called “Liquid Breathing” and the results were not great. Humans CAN breathe air in liquid form but it poses several issues, firstly it trips the body’s drowning sense which means that even while getting air it will feel like you are perpetually drowning and depending on the person it can be quite strenuous to breathe this way resulting in bruised ribs or similar. In addition, it can be hard to remove the liquid from the lungs afterwards, one such patient developing pneumonia due to the inability to remove all the liquid.

In addition to Shinji’s queer masculinity Misato a female character displays several traits of hegemonic Masculinity, she’s strong, outspoken about their desires and has a very “Man Up” attitude all of which are traits society deems masculine.

In episode 2 we see that Shinji’s father isn’t the only one to treat him like an object to be used, even Misato despite being kind admits to seeing him that way. Near the end of the episode we see what really happened during the battle Shinji participated in, where the Ava went rogue and decimated the Angel and Shinji saw its true nature, that of a living creature.

Episode 4 shows the world’s cruelty to those who don’t display hegemonic masculinity, Shinji despite working as their pilot, which is a traumatic experience for him at this point is continually treated with nothing but disrespect and harshness with the other adults especially Misato showing very little empathy towards him.

It’s the other school kids that show him the understanding and empathy of his situation that is needed for him to understand his own feelings on the matter and for him to fully accept being an evangelion pilot.

Episode 5 deals with Rei, the other evangelion pilot. It also demonstrates a different side to Shinji’s father than previously seen showing that he does actually care about people as he burns himself to unlock Rei’s escape capsule to check on her.

It focuses on the difference in view on the commander (or Shinji’s father) between Rei and Shinji and Rei’s unapproachability. Rei appears to quite like the commander due to her experiences with him while Shinji dislikes him for the same reasons.

Overall the start of Evangelion deals with the conflict between queer masculinity and society, expressed through Shinji’s experience piloting the evangelion, and his treatment by those in charge while doing so.

[cksjptblog]

I completely agree with your take on discrimination, as seen in the show and often in real life people who are LGBTQIA+ often face discrimination that makes it hard to adapt to society, thankfully this is changing over time but in many places in the world it is still outright illegal to be part of the LGBTQIA+ and as such piece of media that fight this discrimination like wandering son are highly important.

Wandering Son | Themes of

The Plot of the Anime

The anime takes place in the first year of middle school. We are introduced with Nitori Shuichi, who identifies as female while assigned male during birth, which they wear a woman wig and woman uniform. The second main character, Takatsuki Yoshino, is introduced, who identities as a male while assigned female during birth, who has short hair and male uniform. The characters see that students are more mature and are settling into their classes. When the students are introduced, we can notice some have gender non-conforming traits (e.g. having no preferences wearing gender-matching uniforms), which shows how gender-fluid their world is. It also appears that Shuichi has affection towards Yoshino at one point, but Shuichi doesn't understand what love is.

The Issue In Question

As the two main characters are transgender, each faced some discrimination due to their identity. We have Shuichi who was made fun of at school calling them by "tranny" as well as locking them outside of class. We also see people looking at Shuichi in a weird way in public as well as girls being surprised and angry at Shuichi trying to express their female gender identity. Shuichi is also resisting to dress up as their female-self because they feel like they could be discriminated.

We also see a scene where Saori Chiba, who initially confessed her love to Shuichi, angry and bullies Yoshino because Chiba found out Shuichi expressed their love to Yoshino, effectively breakikg Chiba's hopes of having a relationship with Shuichi. When Yoshino wore men clothing to school, the school staff questioned them and Yoshino had to clarify the situation.

From these observations, the takeaway issue is that for someone who feels like they are another gender (transgender people or any LGBTQIA+ members), it is more difficult for them to adapt to society due to discrimination and perceptions.

The Issue Addressed in Japan & Beyond

Japan is a pretty friendly nation towards queer or LGBTQIA+ members, however in certain situations or in nations worldwide, there comes to be discrimination towards and the inability to adapt to society for any gender non-conforming people.

Discrimination-wise, there are a lot of scenarios of discrimination towards queer people in schools and even online. In schools or other professional institution, there have been cases where they would ban any queer education or identities, restricting them from exercising their identity in those spaces. There are a lot of people online who are sending hate messages towards queer people.

We can see that just like in the anime, we see the same issues in our real world where queer people are often called out as "weird" and also are not respected or thought of as unusual.

My Personal Takes

While I do not identify as queer nor is part of the LGBTQIA+ community, I have personally seen a lot of acts of discrimination and bullying towards these members, however the worse cases I've seen is on social media like Instagram. Note that I am a straight person and I do not have the full picture of the LGBTQIA+ community, so please take my observations lightly. So like, there are people calling these groups, especially online in comments or posts, as "insane" and "mentally unjust", as well as hearing them talk about wanting the community to be banished.

I am not affiliated with these negative discussions but I do believe they are discriminatory and give an unfair perspective on these communities and people. Again, please do not actively criticize me in a personal level, like beyond this blog post, but you are free to drop your perspective within this blogpost. Please be positively minded.

[cksjptblog]

On Wandering Son and Gender non-conformity

Wandering son follows Shuuichi Nitori as they explore feelings of non-gender conformity and transgenderism as well as attempting to both form new connections in middle school and hang onto old connections. Alongside this is Yoshino Takatsuki who has similar feelings of non-conformity who although born as a girl does not identify as one.

The anime at least for me was very hard to follow due to many characters looking and sounding similar, half the time I had to struggle to remember which specific character was talking, and I think the anime would have benefited from making each character a bit more unique looking.

Overall however the plot is relatively straightforward, the anime revolves around Nitori and Takatsuki exploring their gender identities and the struggles that come with non conformity such as scrutiny from their peers and strained relationships.

I personally am not transgender or non-gender conforming however I have had several friends who are and I can somewhat see some of their struggles reflected in the anime. Luckily however for my friends and I the school we attended when they started exploring their sexuality and gender identities was both small and very accepting of non-conforming gender identities as well as all sexualities, often at school it was a joke that straight cisgender students were the minority and certainly amongst my year mates at least it was true.

I think Wandering Son is an important piece of media, it quite realistically depicts several struggles those who are transgender or otherwise gender non-conforming such as those who are nonbinary can face. It also shows this in the context of those just starting puberty which I feel is also important in the face of modern discussion because it shows that people can start to understand who they are before adulthood and be relatively sure of it, which is a heated debate in today’s world.

[cksjptblog]

I 100% agree with your analysis of how Aggretsuko fits into an exploration of gender roles and expectations, I'd like to expand on your take on expectations with Mr Ton, not only does the show explore expectations but also how one Performs gender via actions directly we see the two executives walking past Retsuko who identifies them as confident women who have it all put together through this action they take and we see that the performative side of gender is inherently public as when they are alone one complains that walking in the way they do hurts her back but they do so to "show no weakness" and to keep up the aspect of their gender they essentuate.

Aggretsuko | Themes of Gender & Societal Expectations

The Plot of the Anime

Aggretsuko is widely known as "Aggressive Retsuko", and it perfectly describes the main character Retsuko the red panda, who is a new female employee as an accountant and also a heavy metal performer. The workplace is full of diverse people, however they are under the authority of a strict and stress-making boss Mr. Ton, a large pig. Retsuko has a very aggressive and chaotic persona who is mostly quite against social expectations, especially in the gender category. Throughout the episodes, we will see Retsuko interact with the working conditions as well as fellow co-workers under her identity in her society, as well as challenge the social norms and expectations.

The Issue In Question

This anime contains elements related to the issue of gender and societal expectations related to working at a workplace. Judith Butler’s essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” discusses a concept that gender is not just one's identity but also one's doings, meaning gender also revolves around labor. Additionally, gender is the basis for one's role in society and can change as humans beliefs and society changes; this is like a "living ideology" where for example, a female's societal roles and expectations are not fixed but can change, even overlapping male's societal roles and expectations. In episode one we see Mr. Ton, the workplace boss, ask Retsuko to perform a very specific task (decorating his table and making him tea), which he says because its a female's task, which shows society expects females to do the supportive (minor) tasks rather than being equal with the males.

Retsuko is an example of someone who goes against gendered norms. Her interest in hardcore metal in that period is something only certain guys would be interested in, yet here is a female with the same interests as those guys.

The Issue Addressed in Japan & Beyond

This issue is predominant in our society, Japan and beyond. Japan is said to have strict traditions on women being housewives after marriage. However, we can also see this pattern worldwide. People can expect females to do less intensive tasks like dishwashing or even having a taste in less intensive culture (as that is what we usually grow up experiencing). We can see this issue especially in workplace and family culture, where females end up in the kitchen whereas males end up working at the job making income. This belief has been embedded into what we expect an average family looks like. Even though if a female decides to work at a job, people would expect them to be the one doing the work similar to household work like making tea. This shows that people's belief in gender roles are fixed and they believe they stay relatively constant.

However, there is a rise of a group that breaks gender expectations in society such as the LGBT+ group (this group has spread internationally), which consists of members who have a fluid identity and also have interests that do not align with the "fixed" interests amongst gendered people. Other groups include feminists groups who breaks this norm.

My Personal Takes

In my life, especially when I became more conscious about my world and the diversity in it, I can see an increased number of people with interests and beliefs that is seen from the opposite gender.

In my high school, there are guys who like hardcore rock and metal, however I also see girls who also like the same area of interest. I tend to associate rock and metal with guy's stuff, but it is because I am too adapted to the societal expectations in my world. I also see guys having tastes in shows or music that I expect only the girls to have those tastes.

This fits Butler's statement of that there is not one fixed role for an identity. Gender roles and interests can change and we as a society should not always think gender is fixed all the time.

[cksjptblog]

On Aggretsuko and Gender as a Performative Art

Aggretsuko follows Retsuko a red panda in her life in the office and her escape from daily stresses at a karaoke bar.

Relating the anime to the reading Gender as a performative art comes into play within the first few minutes of episode one, Retsuko is worried about having put the “bad” shoes on, her co-worker is being a snob about it, another co-worker is hyper obsessed with celebrities and showing off her nephew, and another female co-worker is stalking the first co-worker’s page analyzing her gender displays and making judgements on them.

Her boss also shows casual sexism with his remark on Retsuko making a poor cup of tea being incompetent women are cute, better than the competent ones.

Shortly after Retsuko sees two of the female bigwigs who show with their walk that they have confidence and don’t take crap from anyone, and then when they’re alone one remarks on how the walk hurts their back showing that the walk was a performative act.

Episode 5 explores gender as a performative art through yoga, Retsuko in her mind lamenting she is doing it to get “Cute” so she can get married, she is performing gender through yoga to change her appearance. It also deals with the struggles of power dynamics, Retsuko turning down dinner with the two friends at yoga due to them being significantly higher in the company order than her.

This ultimately leads to her taking them to karaoke where she is able to let go of the performance and just be herself for awhile with her friends.

Episode 7 continues dealing with the boss Mr Ton, showing how he is a product of his environment, dishing out what he got in his past performing his role not in a gender sense but what he has been conditioned is how the boss acts. He is also still shown to be sexist however despising women.

Season two discusses a few ideas, the roles as a part of marriage, performative niceties vs actual personality with the new hire anai as well as the role of kindness in society (anai only was able to perform well when kindness and encouragement was shown to him).

Overall I didn’t enjoy Aggretsuko its way too close to real life and real world superficiality. Characters are generally just terrible people shrouded in a performative art that makes them “fit” into society (or more specifically here their workplace).

[cksjptblog]

I thoroughly agree with your analysis on societal problems portrayed in Sailor Moon, each episode the villains tackle an aspect of society that can be fine when there isn't too much pressure on it, like exercising and staying healthy is good but they show how these issues in society are pushed too far through an extreme lens of the villains plot, women weren't just supposed to be thin they literally were wasting away due to their reliance on the villains plot. And I also agree on your take on Japan's society, Japan is very normative to the point where anyone who isn't part of the norm is often seen as strange or weird as compared to a place like the United States where you can see people expressing who they are in many different ways and while some are still seen as strange or weird many are seen as perfectly fine even if they do break away from the norm.

Sailor Moon

Not gonna lie, I actually enjoyed watching this show more than I thought I would and I'm a guy. I went into this thinking it was going to be as boring as the gundam anime, but Sailor Moon was a pretty interesting watch. The villains kinda reminded me of team rocket and how every episode they'd show up with a different plan.

Anyways, Sailor Moon is obviously big on girl power. I bet it's not an accident that we recently in the course read about Bishoujo. Sailor Moon is probably the most iconic Bishoujo after all. I wasn't alive in the 1990’s so don't know for sure what it was like, but I bet narratives portraying strong independent women were not as common as they are today.

Japan especially is a place where people don't tend to go outside the norm. That just makes it harder for societal views to change. In Japan, although it's getting better, it's still very common for women to be solely in charge of home duties while the man goes to work. Even in Sailor Moon, the mom is depicted as a housewife while the dad seems to be a salaryman. Sailor Moon, herself, however isn't good at sticking to society's expectations. She's not good at school, she's always late, and she eats a lot. Yet, she doesn't let that stop her from saving the world.

Sailor Moon also has a lot of comments on societal problems. The enemy often makes use of these problems in order to gain energy for their lord. Some of the biggest problems they pointed out were the expectation of women to always be thin and beautiful, the problem of kids being pressured too much over studying, and consumerism. These issues have even continued to persist until today. Sailor Moon, although disguised as a children's show, made a lot of comments on society. Society is hard to change, but the easiest way to do it is through new generations. Media such as Sailor Moon paved the way for progress.

[cksjptblog]

On Sailor Moon, Girl Power and Societal Issues

Sailor Moon follows Usagi Tsukino after she saves a special cat from some children bullying it which turns her into Sailor Moon a “Magical Girl” or a girl with superpowers that stops crime.

In relation to the reading on “Girl Power” the shows attachment to traditional femineity is shown directly from the start with Usagi and her friend showing great excitement over jewelry. This thought clashes with the immediately preceding conversation about a costumed girl stopping a jewelry thief, an entirely untraditionally feminine act and immediately strikes to the heart of the reading’s take on sailor moon. Sailor Moon greatly embraces the idea of “Girl Power” powerful women who do traditionally unfeminine things but are tied down to traditionally feminine looks and ideals. It both breaks away from the patriarchal ideals and strictly adheres to it at the same time dampening the potential message it’s attempting to send. However I personally feel differently compared to the reading author, we can see now in recent times a form of the true “Girl Power” the author wants, both showing women entirely breaking away from traditional femineity and traditional beauty standards and the almost universal response to this new wave of media is that everyone dislikes it, with the main counterpoint being that people like traditionally beautiful things, both men and women (there are also arguments to be made that many of these media are also not “strong characters that are also female” but instead “Female character whose main personality trait is that she is a “strong female character”” but even beyond this this media is heavily disliked). And I think personally Sailor Moon strikes a very good balance on what message it sends, both that it is okay to be not traditionally feminine but also that in that non traditionality its okay to have traditional feminine traits too. I think the author of the article tries to boil down that everything relating to the patriarchy is bad and must be pushed away from but that generally isn’t true, a bad system can still have ideas that are okay, not everyone has to be part of those ideas but wholly rejecting them because they are related to a bad system is foolish. In short Sailor Moons message isn’t “Reject the Patriarchy” the message appears to be “Be who you want to be, regardless of what others think” with a side message of “Breaking away from forced traditionality is okay”.

The first episode mainly sets up her alternative sailor moon persona as well as establishing that gaining this power hasn’t changed who she is as she goes to confront a monster siphoning energy from those who were buying jewelry but is scared to fight.

Episode 2 centers around fortune telling and a side character, Naru’s feelings for Usagi. So far each episodes central negative theme, where the villains attack and thus associate negatively, have been these hyperstereotypical feminine places like a jewelry shop and a fortune telling house. Though I would also like to point out an interaction Usagi has with her father, her father is out picking up groceries to help her mother out and he states it’s the least he can do since she takes care of the house, this also sends in an anti-patriarchal message though on the other side of the table, showing a positive male role model experience. This episode unlike the previous episode of just showing people as zombies after the villains get a hand on them shows a more sinister take, showing that when under their control they show no care to other’s feelings, a jab at the values of the time by taking the disregard for others to the extreme.

Each episode going forth seems to follow a similar format, a traditionally feminine construct is taken and used by the villains to portray an exaggerated version of why the construct is harmful. The 4th episode shows this as well, both saying that one should strive to be healthy but an obsession with thinness is unhealthy and wrong, as that is what the villains are doing to drain their energy, abusing their wrong ideals of fitness to cause them to waste away.

Episode 8 is a small spin on this however, instead of a feminist issue it points out a general societal issue of parently overly pushing their children into studying as much as possible trying to push them into a high end school. The show shows both sides of this with the girl genius and Usagi who both doesn’t study and isn’t very book smart, showing that being on either extreme is bad, one should study (as shown by the genius girl saying “studying should be done on your own” (though it was in direct reference to the disk being cheating it also shows she believes one SHOULD study)) but also that studying shouldn’t be ones entire motivation both of the student and the parent.

[cksjptblog]

I like your ideas on pop culture relating to "Grand Narrative", I think though it can be considered less extreme than the idea of the grand narrative, generally pop culture doesn't try and imply this is where their society is going but it takes a core aspect of the Grand Narrative, essentialism. Pop culture is inherently an essentialist view of a culture showing only the most popular (and thus "core") aspect of a culture which often loses nuance due to it. I also 100% agree with you on conventions being safe spaces, its a group of people who like the same items as you which allows you to more openly express that part of yourself.

True Otaku | A Deep Dive Into Fandom

The Synopsis

The following documentary, "True Otaku" looks into the foreign fans of Japanese popular culture, specifically in the United States, where Japan's export of culture has been widely successful. The fans in the U.S. make up the true otaku community of the Americans, and this documentary explores that diversity and subcultures that consists of youth pop-culture, fandom, cosplay, and cultural identity of this massive Japanese-orientated group.

For me personally, I wanted to experience what a true anime convention is like, however, due to the inability to schedule time as well as family-related disagreements, this wasn't possible. Fortunately, this documentary will deep dive into what being a otaku is like, and also gives a tour into an anime convention in America.

The Japanese Pop-culture

Japanese pop-culture, also referred to as "cool Japan" is commonly defined as anime, manga, video games, music, and fashion that is originating from Japan. Otakus are typically associated with people with obsession with Japanese pop-culture, but it can be any other pop-culture such as the Star Wars franchise as widely seen in the U.S..

I can try to connect with the influence of pop-culture with a concept called "Grand narrative". Grand narrative is a societal concept relating to a story of the past to future that a group of people (typically a nation whole) is journeying through in order to reach a goal they see as the utopian finale (e.g. Americans goal of spreading democracy to the entire world). Grand narratives are the way to shift history and give individual's life meaning: individuals contribute to change to create history.

Today, we have abandoned the grand narrative concept due to it having consequences in society, thus we can see the "Animalization" term come to place, where there is no longer a possible story or a grand narrative to be created. Animalization describes that people's life can become meaningless and nothing in their life changes, just like animals' lives. Thus, the rise of pop-culture fills in the emptiness of animalization by creating smaller narratives people can follow and give their life meaning to. Japan's grand narrative was to build an empire, which has fallen, but with influence from America's pop-culture, the Japanese built their own pop-culture, which exploded in popularity. This circumstances associated with pop-culture encouraged devoters and massive fandoms to exist around it (the people run their own small narratives).

Now, if these fans from world wide want to meet, there are conventions around the world where people with similar interests can meet and share their subcultural beliefs with other members. Anime (otaku) conventions are among the popular ones, and this documentary will explore the effects these conventions have and what they offer.

The Virtual Tour - Observations & Thoughts

The first part takes place in Baltimore, Maryland and we get a glimpse into the Baltimore Convention Center, where Otakon, a group where otakus and anime fans meet every year, since the 1999s, basically becoming some sort of tradition for both hardcore and casual anime fans and otakus. I am surprised with how big the otaku community is, and the rate it's growing. The narrator showed that Baltimore's attendance multiplied over five times!

I can see how much diversity there is, from gender to race to interests. There are a lot of cosplayers as well which shows their dedication to the fandom as their own little story. I also notice how common the shadow cultural economy is in any fandom meetup, where people sell unofficial culture and we can see plenty of people purchasing them as they believe they hold a value.

We get to see how the American fandom defines otaku and well, there are a lot of different answers, which I believe is due to the diversity and origins of different fans as they came from internationally, and they seemingly created their own definitions, however the most common answer is "people obsessed with anime and other Japanese-culture", as I think is due to where the word originates. However, people expanded the term to represent all pop-culture.

Conventions are just a perfect place to meet people with the same interests and obsessions and it is that perfect because there are a ton of activities to do (which could be overwhelming too) such as playing games, dancing to music, showing off cosplay, creating art, buying merch, and even befriend people from around the world. Personally, it feels like heaven for people into Japanese pop-culture, but also any pop-culture in general, as there are many types of conventions. In the documentary, people also say that it is fun to act like the character you're cosplaying, and we also see how people design their costumes, which shows the degree of creativity freedom one can go in a convention.

The cosplayers said that ordinary people would look at them and other cosplayers as "weird", however I would believe that it's because they aren't used to seeing people showing their pride in their subcultures. In a convention, everyone in that familiar space will see it as normal as they are part of that same culture.

Overall, conventions are just very fascinating. The place acts like some safe and familiar zone for people devoted to subculture like otakus to express themselves and connect with new people of similar interests. There is a lot of things to do as well and the diversity is also immense. I believe people in fandoms tend to be extremely creative, but there is still diversity, and we can still see these creative people showoff their creativeness in an accepting area where normal people would see as weird.