#relating to character's experiences can go beyond relating and end up in territory where you're superimposing your experiences onto their | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hadesknockedupintheunderworld · 8 months ago

Text

The world if people stopped applying their understanding of "conservatism" and "religion/christianity" through a very modern, deeply American view onto Death Note (a manga from the Early-mid 2000s which is very much set in the cultural and societal context of early-mid 2000s Japan and all that entails):

#death note #fandom wank #i just be ramblin #listen I get it there's christian imagery #it's not bad to go over what that entails and whatnot. fun even #but beyond some potential parallels and symbols you have to understand that this is a japanese story set in japan in the early-mid 2000s #(and later an imagined 'future' from there)#you are not understanding the story if you're placing the characters on a political spectrum of beliefs based on what conservatism looks #like to you #you're superimposing your personal modern experiences and your country's societal/cultural state onto Death Note and it's characters and #calling it 'a reading'#I genuinely don't know how many more times I can endure people acting like Soichiro Yagami and Teru Mikami have the exact same set of #beliefs and religion and standards as a Southern USA republican/ultra conservative super christian #Or hell. People assuming that Light Yagami can't ever be relatable because someone like Light looks to them like a teacher's wet dream of a #perfect student who is always working hard and studying #when the truth is that while Light is the top student in Japan at one point‚ everything he is doing is within the realm of expectation for #'good' Japanese students. Not exceptional or supernatural or beyond dedicated. Good.#This is a manga where the time period and the setting and society at the time are deeply important #And you will never hope to have an understanding by forcing it to conform to what 'normal' society looks like to you #relating to character's experiences can go beyond relating and end up in territory where you're superimposing your experiences onto their #fictional reality and calling it canon #edit (because people put some good tags on this post): even though I was kind of vague about it this also goes for assuming that #christianity is the only possible religion any characters could be into #the options aren't either athiesm or christianity. there are other big religions in Japan #and in the same way Christianity colors American society and experiences even for people who have never practiced‚ so goes the way society #and people's general beliefs are influenced by Japan's major religions #the person in the tags who mentioned Shinto gets a cookie

87 notes · View notes