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Hetalia: Axis Powers and Stereotypes

Hetalia: Axis Powers is a well known anime that attempts to explain history in humorous ways using anthropomorphized countries and their relationships with each other. Although it’s quite controversial because of the way it portrays certain countries and toes the line between satire and offense, I think this show also provides a unique perspective on our world that can still be appreciated even if it is not enjoyed.

One of the biggest issues that this show runs into is its use of stereotyping which is often used for humor but can also be interpreted as unfair stigmatization. One of the biggest ways this happens in the show is how Italy is portrayed. In every episode he is shown to be weak, a bit air-headed, a bit stupid, and almost single-mindedly focused on pasta. In the “chibitalia” sections he is often infantilized and treated like he is completely unaware of the world around him. This is showcased particularly in one episode where the Allies attempt various methods to lure Italy to them to capture him, each one of which works easily. Every time they capture him he offers them whatever knowledge they want without hesitation and does not object when they start treating him like a pet. Many other countries also get an unflattering portrayal: Japan’s hobby is said to be reading the room, refraining from speaking, and saying no to everything; austria is portrayed as being uptight, strict, and prone to nag the other countries; England is delusional; France is said to be too flashy and showy and almost as weak as Italy, shown by a montage of France embarrassing themselves in several wars and summed up by the sentence “their killer technique is profiting from the sidelines.”

While definitely mocking and unflattering, I think such portrayals also serve the purpose of seeing how these countries are thought of and seen by the world in general, something I noticed in particular when it came to America’s character. He starts off the show very loud and boisterous, optimistically claiming that all the problems in the world can be solved if they all work together. However he also takes a very clear leadership position, saying that no one is allowed to disagree with him in the meeting. Over the course of the show he is also shown to be very self-centered, insisting that he will be the hero in the war and the other allied countries will only need to back him up. His self-centeredness is also shown when he opens up a map of America and is surprised when he doesn’t find Japan on it, a mockery of how America believes they are at the center of the world. America’s unhealthy consumerism is also shown in the mountain of burgers America is seen to eat and the giant sodas he guzzles down. While all of this is an obvious mockery of America and also obviously not an entirely accurate portrayal of the country, it is an enlightening look at how other countries see and define America.

Overall, while this show has its issues, it’s a very intriguing concept that, while mocking, also challenges our own definition and view of other countries in a way that hopefully inspires its audience to lessen its uninformed stereotyping of other nations.

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Your Name and Gender Performance

Your Name is one of my favorite anime films of all time, from its touching story to its beautiful animation and soundtrack. It’s a story about love and figuring out who you are and holding on to connections that are important to you, but underneath the big themes I think that this film also makes a commentary on a few relevant societal issues.

An issue this film tackles in particular is gender expression and how we express ourselves through it. When Mitsuha and Taki first start switching and are still trying to figure out how to exist in different bodies, we see that despite the sex of their bodies changing their gender expression does not. In Taki’s body Mitsuha’s body language is still very girlish and feminine, especially in the way she often holds her hands close to her chest when she’s unsure. She also speaks softer and lighter and uses the more feminine word “watashi” to refer to herself. Meanwhile in Mitsuha’s body, Taki’s body language is a lot more casual and confident, sitting with his legs spread wider than is usually considered “ladylike,” interacting with Mitsuha’s friends much more physically, and overall behaving much more tomboyish. He also presents himself differently, like tying Mitsuha’s long hair back in a simple ponytail rather than the complicated braid she usually wears.

The film also shows that rather than being ostracized for failing to live up to gender stereotypes when they are switched, the more queer presentation of their gender actually makes them much more popular. In Taki’s body, Mitsuha’s typically feminine qualities like her sewing skills, her girlish demeanor, and her kindness and consideration towards others cause Taki’s previous crush, Okudera, to take romantic interest in who she believes to be Taki and even cause one of Taki’s friends to remark on “Taki’s” change in personality and blushingly consider it cute. In Mitsuha’s body, Taki’s boyish confidence causes Mitsuha’s popularity to skyrocket to the point that "Mitsuha" starts receiving love letters and confessions from both girls and boys at Mitsuha’s school. In both cases it was the ways that their gender performances deviated from the perceived norm that drew people’s attention and popularity.

Although I believe that the point of Your Name was more about their connection to each other than the impact of their gender performance, I think that Your Name’s subtle commentary on the issue was still valid and successfully tells the audience that breaking away from strict gender norms is not a bad thing but rather something to be encouraged.

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Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Humanity's Connection to Nature

Although I’d definitely heard about Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I’d never watched or played the game until now. Although it’s a fun fantasy game set in a beautiful world, the game is also very clear about its message about humans' relationship with the world and how both sides influence each other. Rather than present nature as a force that is better off without humanity, however, Xenoblade 2 seems to insist that both nature and humanity need each other.

The game starts off by introducing the situation of the world: a long time ago humanity used to live on top of the World Tree and had power over all of nature from the earth to the skies, but one day the world changed and became uninhabitable for humans, who had to rely on creatures called the Titans for security and a place to live. Humans at this point are more dependent on nature than ever before and rely on the Titans for their entire existence, but although this relationship has worked for years upon years, the nature they have left is also beginning to fail and the titans are slowly dying one by one. The death of both nature and humanity is imminent, and unless a solution is found both sides are doomed.

Although in the current state of the world humanity and nature are intertwined, there are those within the game who think that things should not be this way and that humanity needs to be eradicated in order for the world to heal. Jin is one of the main believers of this ideology, saying that in the 500 years that humanity has had to adapt to this new way of life they actually have not changed at all, still hungering for war and violence and hurting others who get in the way of it. He says that mankind has an inherent hubris and that one way or another they are always doomed to bring about their own downfall. His proof lies in his own past: he explains to the group how the blades, who are born by nature as crystals that the Titans produce, used to be on the same social status as humans, living in harmony, but due to humanity’s tendency to lust for power and fear those more powerful than them, the blades have been turned into objects of servitude to be used as tools at humanity’s whim and caught up in their wars which do nothing but spread purposeless destruction. To Jin, the existence of humanity is a hopeless cycle of self-destruction that does nothing but harm the world. The world would be better off without them.

However, when Rex and the others finally reach Elysium, they find that nature, in fact, has not been thriving without them. Rather than the utopian paradise that Pyra remembers, all they find is a barren desert. Rex himself asks in pure bafflement, “Where is the greenery? The water? The birdsong?” Left on its own, the beautiful place on top of the World Tree has also died out and even the absence of humans has not given it the opportunity to repair itself. In fact, the group finds out from Klaus that without his own interference trying to redeem the destruction that his mistakes caused, the world and ecosystem that humanity is thriving in now wouldn’t even exist in the first place. Even though it was his own human mistakes that ravaged the world in the first place, nature still needed to rely on humanity to rebuild itself again. Despite what Jin insisted, humanity and nature could not exist without the other and to cause the downfall of one would be to cause the downfall of the other.

Where most post-apocalyptic media tends to portray humanity as being solely at fault for ruining the world, and show that nature continues to exist and rebuild on its own without needing any interference from humanity, Xenoblade goes a different route and insists that humans and nature cannot live without each other and that it is up to us to ensure its continued longevity. Whichever ideology you lean towards more, however, I think it’s clear that our world and the nature in it is important and something that we should not forget to treasure.

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Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Compassion

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is another stunning film from Miyazaki that explores the impact of humanity on nature and how society reacts when they feel threatened by it. In particular it presents Nausicaa as someone who both calls out humanity for how they have caused harm while also acting as an example for how to heal that harm.

The film first sets up how dangerous the world has become for humanity: we see villages ravaged by the Sea of Decay, humans that have had to adapt by wearing gas masks outside and creatures that will turn against humanity in a rage if incited. We also see how humanity has come to view this new world, as the people of the Valley of the Wind are quick to demonize the Sea of Decay and refuse to interact with it at all. People from other tribes demonize it even more than the villagers do, preaching about how they want to eradicate it entirely, despite warnings not to anger the insects that live within it. Even though the forest and the Sea of Decay are just doing their best to survive and heal the world of the damage that has been done to it, most of humanity reacts with nothing but violence: when threatened by the insects he angers with his own disturbance, Asbel’s first instinct is to kill everything in sight; and instead of trying to live harmoniously with the world both the Torumekians and the Pejitians want to bring destruction to the very thing allowing them to continue living in the world, and are not above even hurting an innocent Ohm baby to do it.

In the midst of this hatred it is Nausicaa who teaches humanity to react with kindness instead of violence. Rather than being afraid of the forest, Nausicaa takes the time to appreciate its beauty without harming it. She does not villainize the forest or the insects inside it, but tries to treat them with respect. When she accidentally steps on an insect, she apologizes to it, and when she spots an Ohm chasing after someone she does not try and fight it off but instead calmly redirects it back to the forest. Even outside of the forest, she treats everything with kindness, befriending Teto with gentleness even when he bites her out of fear. Nausicaa is also the only one to notice that it is not the plants themselves that are dangerous, it’s the soil they grow from that was poisoned by humans themselves that make them dangerous. And by the climax of the film, when humanity is so ready to ruin themselves in the name of hatred and destruction, Nausicaa remains compassionate and kind hearted, going so far as to sacrifice her wellbeing and even her life to protect the life of an innocent Ohm baby and save her people. At the end of the film it is this pure kindness that is celebrated and commended as the people of the Valley of the Wind learn to rebuild themselves alongside nature rather than against it.

Throughout the film Nausicaa serves as a role model to society, she points out that we cannot ignore the harm we have done to our world but also that continuing to live and impact the world the way we have without changing anything will only make things worse. Nausicaa’s actions also serve as a reminder to not treat those different from us with fear and violence but to instead respect them and treat them with kindness. Overall Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is not only a truly gorgeous film to watch but also a lesson in how we should treat both other people and the world that we live in.

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The End of Evangelion and Self Hatred

Neon Genesis Evangelion demonstrated how Shinji was able to find happiness through accepting that he will never truly achieve hegemonic masculinity, instead learning to accept that it is okay for him to exist as he is and that it does not make him any less wanted by his friends. However, the End of Evangelion turns this on its head by presenting a different ending, portraying what would happen if Shinji didn’t embrace his queer masculinity and instead kept striving to reach the hegemonic masculinity he kept falling short of.

In the very first scene with Shinji in the hospital with an unconscious Asuka, we see that he at first leans into his queer masculinity, pleading with her to help him and even inviting her to mock and make fun of him again if she’d just help him. However, as she remains unconscious, he tries in desperation to reach for the masculinity that she embodies and for the first time reduces her to a sexual object and masturbates to the sight of her. Yet this act does not give him the confidence and security he desires—he just hates himself all the more for it. And with this failure we find him basically lifeless, having lost all will to live. He hates himself and cannot live with himself and does not want to keep fighting any longer—yet still he is called by Katsuragi to live up to hegemonic masculine standards. She berates him for “hiding behind a girl” and trying to run from reality, and refuses to feel sorry for him.

Again, Asuka serves as a reminder of everything that Shinji fails to be: where Shinji wants nothing more than to die, Asuka sits in her EVA and whispers frantically over and over how she doesn’t want to die, she wants to keep living. Where Shinji does not want to fight and kill people and does not think he deserves to pilot his EVA, mere minutes after Asuka wakes up she charges into battle, reveling in the violence and destruction she is able to cause in a way that is  almost manic, chanting over and over that she’ll kill their enemies.

At the end of the film Shinji’s hatred of himself reaches a climax as he wars with his own thoughts in his head. He insists that he doesn’t have a shred of goodness in him, that he’s awkward and uneasy, but that he’s so so scared that everyone will decide that they don’t want him and that they’ll leave him alone. He reaches out for help but he gets rebuked, he insists that he’s scared and he doesn’t want to be a pilot and doesn’t want to hurt people but he is forced to anyway, he cries out that he hates himself and doesn’t deserve to live but he keeps on living anyways. At the very end of the film, in a final, last-ditch effort he tries to embody the traditional man one last time, attempting to strangle Asuka. But one moment of tenderness from her is all it takes to break him, finally admitting his defeat and failure to “fix” himself and become more of a man. Rather than a moment of happiness in realizing that he is free to exist as himself, Shinji in the End of Evangelion does not see this realization as a triumph but as a broken failure. He cannot be the hegemonic man, he can only be himself: a person that he still hates down to his core.

In the end, despite its confusing imagery, I think the End of Evangelion serves as a lesson to us that we cannot force ourselves and our identity to fit into society’s molds, no matter how much we or society might want us to. Instead of feeling ashamed of the ways we don’t quite fit into society’s expectations and standards, we, like Neon Genesis Evangelion's Shinji, should feel confident to exist wholly as we are, lest we break under the pressure of forcing ourselves to be something that we’re not, like the End of Evangelion’s Shinji.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion Part 2 and Embracing Queer Masculinity

Where the beginning of Evangelion sets up Shinji as a character who goes against the concept of the traditional hegemonic man, the rest of Evangelion shows Shinji struggling with his own identity as he tries to become someone who he doesn’t hate anymore.

At first we see him use Asuka as a model for who he wants to become. Asuka is a direct contrast to Shinji’s character; where he shies away from violence, Asuka is not afraid to use it and is even proud of her ability to do so. When one of Shinji’s classmates starts hitting on her, she has no hesitation in smacking him to teach him a lesson. She also does not wait for Katsuragi’s permission to start fighting the angel like Shinji wanted to do, but instead gleefully seizes the opportunity to fight and prove her capabilities. Asuka herself also notices the difference between who she is and who Shinji is and often mocks him for it. When she first meets him she says later that she expected him to be so much more but instead she’s disillusioned and thinks he’s a letdown. She also scolds him for being a wimp for being afraid in battle, and as she gets to know him better, starts telling him off for always apologizing and taking on the blame too. With help from Asuka’s constant mocking of his character and the confidence boost from doing well in a battle simulation, Shinij tries to go against his natural disposition and “man up” in a sense, becoming the strong, confident, leadership-taking hegemonic man. He proclaims that fighting is a man’s job and that he can lead the other EVA pilots without problem, but when he takes his confidence too far and becomes trapped within the angel, he comes to the realization that that kind of person is not who he is at all and that trying to be so is an impossible task and only makes him hate himself more. In the end his inner self tells him that he needs to embrace who he is rather than run away from it.

We see him begin to take the first steps in accepting himself with Kaworu. Kaworu right off the bat is someone who seems very similar to Shinij himself: he is soft-spoken, effeminate looking, and gentle. He constantly assures Shinij, validating his wants and feelings that the others might have called cowardly or foolish, and tells him that having a gentle personality and a delicate heart is not a bad thing, but a strength in its own way. He understands and sees Shinji in ways that no one else has before, which is part of why it hits Shinji so deeply when Kaworu told him that he liked him, something no one else had said before. Even after Kaworu betrayed him and had to be killed by Shinji, Shinji proves both how deep his own self-hatred goes and how much he admired Kaworu as someone who has grown confidence in not being a hegemonic man by insisting on how much better of a person Kaworu was than him and repeating softly that Kaworu was the one that should have survived, not him.

Up till the very last episode Shinji still feels a disconnect between who he is and who he thinks he needs to be in order to be wanted or of value to anyone. Within his consciousness he states that he feels like everyone would be fine if he disappeared and that at his core he is an unwanted child. He insists that he has nothing to be proud of and even wonders if he even has a real self. His only worth, he feels, is being an EVA pilot, something that he hates being. These deep-rooted insecurities seem to be confirmed by his friends, who shout at him that he’s self-centered and a coward and runs away from people and refuses to believe that they want him. When they say that they hate him and can’t stand him, he agrees with them, saying that of course they’d hate him when he already hates himself. He says that he wants to give everything he has into being an EVA pilot because that’s the only thing people see any worth in him for, and when warned that he will lose himself by doing it, he says that there’s nothing of himself that he wants to keep to begin with. However, the only way that Shinji is able to leave this space of insecurity and self-hatred and loneliness and depression is to finally accept himself for who he is and realize that it’s okay to not want to change who he is, that it’s okay to want to be himself and be confident in being himself, even if it differs from the norm.

I think what Evangelion tries to teach us is that our identity isn’t something that can be defined by society’s guidelines. When Shinji tried to act like how society said a man should act, he was miserable and only got himself into more trouble. When he still felt like he wasn’t measuring up to who he thought he should be, his self-hatred crippled him and made him think that he was worthless. It was only when he became comfortable with his differences that he was finally able to break free from his doubts and join his friends on equal footing. Likewise our identity should not be based on society-determined standards but instead should come from who we truly want to be and feel comfortable being.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion Part 1 and Subverting Masculine Stereotypes

While on the surface Evangelion may be a coming-of-age story set in the popular giant robot genre, by looking closer we can see that the anime actually makes a commentary on how masculinity is perceived or expected to be shown by society through Shinji, a boy who does not fall under traditional, hegemonic masculinity but is still called to a role that wants him to act that way.

Hegemonic masculinity would say that to be a man is to be comfortable with using violence as a solution to problems, which we see right from the beginning of the show. When the angel begins to attack the city, those in charge try to fight back with their own weapons, but with every failed attempt they try something bigger and more destructive, until they are almost causing more destruction to the city themselves than the angel in trying to subdue it. In contrast, we have Shinji, who, when enlisted by his father to pilot a weapon called the Evangelion, refuses because he does not want to fight. He does not find the idea of violence cool or exciting, and only agrees to pilot the weapon when he realizes that if he doesn’t, they would have made an injured girl pilot it instead. We see Shinji’s contrast from traditional masculinity again when he is talking with a classmate who, unlike Shinji, is enamored with the idea of piloting the Evangelion and how cool it would be, while instead Shinji is focused on how worried the boy’s family would be if he had been the pilot.

Shinji also strays from hegemonic masculinity in how he views women. In the first episode he has a picture of Katsuragi to identify her when she picks him up, and despite there being crude drawing on it pointing to her chest, he completely ignores it. In fact, he never looks at Katsuragi lustfully, even when his classmates, after meeting her one time, become focused on “what a babe” she is and are jealous of Shinji’s living situation with her. Likewise, when his male classmates are thinking lustfully about their female classmates and start pressing Shinji to tell them what part of Rei he’s looking at, he surprises them by admitting that he wasn’t looking at her body, instead observing that she seemed to be really lonely. When Katsuragi teasingly accuses him of the same thing, he again tells her that he’s not thinking of her like that, he just wants to get to know her better because she’s also a 14-year-old pilot like he is. Even when accidentally caught in an awkward situation with Rei, he does his best to avert his eyes and be respectful.

Everyone in Evangelion expects Shinji to perform in line with their idea of masculinity and always seem surprised when he behaves in a way that is not, like when he lacks confidence or is reluctant to act with violence or looks at women in a way that isn’t lustful, and we see how Shinji himself has internalized this difference and believes that there is something wrong with him because of it. However, I think this shows that gender should not be defined by how well masculine or feminine stereotypes are performed, as it only harms those who don’t quite fit within those guidelines.

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Otaku and Fandom Culture

While I’ve never gone to a convention before, anime or otherwise, I do have a lot of experience with fandom and participating in fandom culture and I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned about fandom is how diverse it is. From the people who participate in fandom, to the ways people contribute to and enjoy fandom, the documentary True Otaku attempts to explore all the different ways that fandom can be appreciated and experienced.

A big thing that the documentary touched on in regards to fandom is how it gives people community and a sense of belonging. When talking to some convention-goers, they talked about how easy it is to make friends and connections at conventions and within fandom spaces because everyone involved shares the same love and passion for media. No one has to feel ashamed for dressing up as a character or for being open about their appreciation for a piece of media like they do in regular society, instead they are encouraged and admired and appreciated. Some might question whether these relationships and communities actually have much worth or basis in reality, but in my own experience these communities can be just as real as physical communities are. Although these relationships might begin over a shared interest in fandom, I think often fandom is just the starting point or the foundation for these meaningful connections to be built upon. One of my most close-knit communities that I’m a part of is a discord server that came about because all of us shared a love and appreciation for a specific fanfiction within a specific fandom, but has over time caused me to find some of my closest friends; people who, despite only ever interacting with them online, I can feel completely comfortable and safe with.

Another huge way that people can participate in fandom that the documentary explores is through artistic expression. A big part of the documentary focuses on cosplayers and why they chose to cosplay. For many of them it’s a creative outlet, a way to create something that represents their love for a piece of media. They study the character they want to portray, and use their skills to bring it to life: from styling wigs to sewing clothes together to modifying outfits to incorporating the character into as many details as possible, to even taking artistic liberties sometimes and representing the character in their own unique way. Cosplay merges a dozen different artistic skills  and cosplayers take advantage of it to create truly wonderful living pieces of art and use it to express their love of something important to them. The documentary also talked to people who said that fandom spaces and conventions allow them to repurpose skills they already had, whether it be martial arts skills or sewing abilities or artistic talent, and use them to show appreciation for something they love. 

Another big way fandom is used as a creative outlet that the documentary didn’t touch on is fanart. Fanart is often stereotyped as being purely used as a form of pornography or for being extremely sexualized, but in reality that is only a small portion of fanart. Instead, fanart is widely used as a means for artists to combine a hobby that they love with a piece of media that they love, and use it to create something beautiful. Because art is so free, fanartists are also able to use fanart as more than just a representation of a piece of media but as a way to engage with fandom and fan interpretations of that media. Fanartists can incorporate popular fan headcanons and ideas into their character design, they can draw them as being part of different cultures as a means of representation of that culture, they can also draw them in ways that highlight certain parts of their character that they might feel didn’t get explored or appreciated enough in the original media.

There are an endless amount of reasons for why fandom and otaku culture is so popular and widespread, but the True Otaku documentary really portrayed how, despite its faults, it is a very valued branch of society and overall does much more good for the people who participate in it than bad. Fandom spaces might not be for everyone, but it is undeniable that they provide a unique sense of community and free expression that is hard to find anywhere else.

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Wandering Son and Gender Identity

Wandering Son is probably the most controversial anime we’ve watched in this class so far. It is a study of gender exploration and how it is viewed within society, but most of all it asks the question “what is gender, and how does it relate to my identity?”

The show follows Nitori, a kid who was born a boy but wants to be a girl instead and is trying to figure out how to comfortably express themself. Right away it is shown that they aren’t super comfortable presenting themself as being masculine, saying that the male uniforms feel suffocating. Instead, it is shown that they are most comfortable when they express their gender in feminine ways. They adopt feminine behaviors and mannerisms, find happiness in trying on their sister’s feminine clothes, enjoy being called cute, want beautiful skin like their female friends, and find freedom in cross-dressing.  In the first episode they ask themself “what are little girls made of?” wondering what really defines them as being a boy or a girl: is it the way they are born, like society tries to say, or is it simply how they express themself? As the show goes on, they become more confident of their answer to this question and of their identity, which is demonstrated when people have no trouble seeing them as a girl when they are unaware that they were a boy first. 

However, it is when society is aware of this fact that we see the huge double standard that is present when it comes to the issue of gender. From the beginning, girls expressing themselves in masculine ways is seen as cool and impressive, but a friend of Nitori, when hearing that they want to go to school dressed as a girl, reminds them that they’ll just be seen as a pervert instead. The class itself presents a very obvious double standard, similar to the issue that Genshiken addressed in which women accepted gay men in fiction but not in reality: although they make jokes about a female student actually being a boy because of her looks and are enthusiastic about performing a gender-bending play, when they are confronted with the reality of Nitori’s gender, they react with disgust and scorn. And although the authorities let Yoshiro and Chi get away with wearing male uniforms, they send Nitori to the school nurse and call their parents when they show up to school in a female uniform. The authorities, while also seeming accepting at first at the idea that Nitori feels more comfortable expressing themself femininely, start accusing and blaming things for being a bad influence on Nitori when they actually see them cross dress. Their parents blame their sister for dressing them in girls outfits when they were little kids and the teachers at school blame the gender bending play, both of them considering Nitori’s gender identity as a mistake in their upbringing and circumstances rather than part of who they are.

In the end, I think Wandering Son expresses many of the struggles that the youth of today face regarding their identity and how they fight to be perceived by others. To figure out what one’s true identity looks like is a difficult thing, and gender is just one representation of it, but I think what Wandering Son really teaches is that at the end of the day, our identity doesn't change just because society disapproves of it.

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Aggretsuko and Identity

Aggretsuko is an anime about figuring your life out, it’s about finding where you fit into things and discovering what you really want, but above all it is about identity and how much it influences how people see you. While Retsuko’s identity as a death metal enthusiast is humorous and silly, the way she handles that identity teaches us a lot about how we handle our own identities.

Although Retsuko is aware of and comfortable with her identity as a lover of death metal music to herself, it’s not a part of her that she wants to be seen by other people. Instead, she separates categorizes her identity: the sweet, feminine, and professional part of her that everyone at work gets to see, and the angry, raging, death metal part of her that is just for herself. And so, while still being genuine, her identity becomes a sort of performance for those around her: she dresses in feminine clothes and wears mascara and speaks in a polite, sweet tone so that she fits in socially and doesn’t arouse any suspicion or curiosity towards her personal hobbies. In the first episode she irrationally stresses out over any cracks in this performance, like wearing the wrong shoes to work; and even when her feminine identity just brings her more trouble from the hands of her boss, she still attempts to keep up her “performance” no matter what. The concept of a performed identity is not limited to just Retsuko and her love of death metal in the show either, Retsuko also worries about finding a romantic partner so that she can leave her horrible job one day, and spends a lot of time worrying about whether she’s presenting herself in the right way to get a boyfriend, even dedicating herself to learning yoga in case it makes her more desirable.

However, the show also portrays Retsuko as being much happier once she focuses less on performing her identity for others and instead embraces who she is. When she lets the fear of being found out drive her, she distances herself from having a friendship with Gori and Washimi, but when she lets them see that part of her, they become some of her best friends and her greatest supporters. When she focuses so much on keeping up her feminine persona, she lets herself get walked all over by her boss who insults her, demeans her, and takes advantage of her by giving her an unfair share of work. However, by embracing her love of death metal, she is finally able to stand up for herself and be as confident as she knew she could be.

Identity is a hard thing for us to define for ourselves, but I think Aggretsuko tries to say that we don’t need to put on a performance and let others define it for us. No matter who we are or what we love, it’s all a part of our identity and something that we should be able to be confident in.

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Sailor Moon and Finding Strength in Femininity

Sailor Moon is an extremely popular anime that revolutionized and popularized the magical girl genre. The anime itself is very light-hearted and cute, documenting the mundane struggles and experiences of Usagi’s life as a 14-year-old girl, but underneath the anime’s fun exterior is a strong message of female empowerment.

At the start of several of the early episodes, femininity and feminine interests are portrayed as something bad or foolish, and women who are involved in them are silly and easily exploited. In the first episode, Queen Beryl and Jadeite try to take advantage of women’s love of jewelry, drawing women to the store by advertising a huge sale. The women there are shown to have a very materialistic and aesthetic-focused mindset as they scramble to get their hands on as much jewelry as they can. The next episode portrays how easily women are taken in by the idea of love and how it is seen as weak and something that can be exploited. Another episode focuses on women’s obsession with their weight on physical appearance, how they idealize a certain image and want to change themselves to fit it, and the lengths they’ll go to to achieve it. Jadeite even comments on the stupidity of women are their willingness to give anything, even their lives, to achieve beauty.

However, it is Sailor Moon who shows that all of these qualities and femininity as a whole don’t have to be seen as weak; instead she turns those qualities into sources of power. Rather than jewelry being a lure, it is the beautiful pendant that Luna gives Usagi that lets her transform into Sailor Moon. Likewise it is her tiara, another piece of jewelry, that she uses as a finishing move to defeat the villain. Even her tendency to cry becomes a strength to her in battle. Where others see love and feelings as insignificant and silly, Sailor Moon rebukes this by saying that there is nothing worse than those that think nothing of people’s feelings, and defeats the villain through the power of love that she stands for. She also stands against the idea that women are silly for wanting to improve their appearance, saying that “a girl who wants to lose weight is stronger than anyone!” and defeating the villain through her own dedication to losing weight. With every battle she fights Sailor Moon proves that her femininity is her power rather than her weakness, and is always able to defeat the villain on her own merit. Even when Tuxedo Mask steps in to help her, he as a masculine figure does not fight her battles for her, instead he is there to give Sailor Moon the encouragement she needs to defeat the enemy herself.

While some may still have issues with the way that femininity is stereotyped in the show, I think that Sailor Moon’s use of these stereotypes shows that women do not need to separate themselves from them in order to be strong or empowered. Instead, I think strength comes from being confident in who you are, no matter what you like and what your personality is.

[whisperingwisterias]

Genshiken Part 2 and Fetishizing

Where season one of Genshiken portrayed how getting involved in fandom spaces impacts the individual from a male perspective, season 2 switches to the female otaku side of fandom and especially addresses the draw that straight women within fandom spaces feel towards gay fan content.

It is Ogiue in particular who addresses otaku women’s fascination with yaoi material. At first she is critical of it, loudly asking why women are so obsessed with it and telling Saki about how she was traumatized by seeing it all the way back in 5th grade. We learn later that her hatred was actually a front to disguise the embarrassment she felt over liking it herself. However, while at first her fandom preferences seem harmless, if not a bit odd, it soon becomes clear how such an obsession can distort her perception of reality and affect those in it. In one episode she overhears a small portion of a conversation Sasahara and Madarame are having and, despite knowing them and despite them being real people and not characters, immediately begins to create a romantic fantasy in her head featuring the two of them. 

Even after getting the actual context of the situation, Ogiue can’t stop looking at them through the lens of her fantasy, defining them by character tropes and who is the “top” and “bottom” in the relationship. It is especially clear how her obsession has clouded reality as she tries to think of a fantasy with purely fictional characters or tries to mentally pair Madarame up with someone else but still finds herself drawn towards Sasahara and Madarame, even though they act nothing like themselves in her fantasy. She even lets reality influence elements in her fantasy, such as Sasahara helping Madarame with his tie, or even adding Tanaka into the scenario, where she decides that he has cheated on his girlfriend Ohno in order to interfere with the fantasy Sasahara and Madarame. By the end of her fantasy she has gotten borderline explicit in the scenes she has created, all without the knowledge of the two people she’s picturing in it.

While consuming and enjoying gay content as someone outside of the community isn't a bad thing, Genshiken shows how it can be harmful when it crosses the line from enjoyment to fetish. In a way, Ogiue’s fantasy dehumanized Sasahara and Madarame as it made it hard for her to see them as real people instead of character tropes. It also heavily stereotyped and sexualized gay couples, which, as she draws out fantasies like these and turns them into doujinshi that other people buy, actively harms the gay community by promoting the stigma around it. Overall I think that Genshiken tries to convey to the audience that there is a line between engaging in a fandom positively and respectfully and engaging in one in a way that is harmful to others.

[whisperingwisterias]

Genshiken Part 1 and Fandom Spaces

While anime is much more popular now than it used to be and people are not as looked down upon for being fans of it, there is still a lot of stigma that resides around anime fans and fandom culture in general. However, while not being the greatest representation of current fandom culture, Genshiken does peel back the curtain a bit and shows why it is so valued but also what about it still needs improvement.

One of the biggest points Genshiken brings up is how fandom culture is a space where people with interests that make them a bit of an outcast to society can find community and acceptance. In the first episode, we see how Sasahara does not quite fit in with normal society. During a club fair he gets approached by club members trying to recruit him by promising activities like mahjong and tennis and the prospect of getting good jobs, but it is clear that these things don’t hold any value to him and they quickly get turned down. It’s also shown throughout the episode that Sasahara has internalized the shame and disapproval that society gives him for his interest in anime and, despite looking like any other guy, is very consciously aware that he does not fit into society. However, it is the Genshiken club that allows him to let go of the internalized judgment he holds and indulge in his interests for once.

Genshiken, and by extension fandom culture in general, is a source of freedom for many: it is a way to find others that share the same interests as you can create a community, like we see when the Genshiken members go to an anime convention. The show also portrays how fandom spaces aren’t just a place for nerds to hang out but also a place where fans can interact intellectually with the media they are a fan of, such as through analyzing, dissecting and creating discourse over it. Despite the members’ obvious inclination towards perverted content, there are also several times where they express their true love for the show by breaking down and discussing small details of an episode and trying to relate it to the overall theme or message of the show.

However, Genshiken also shows that fandom is not as much of a utopia as fans can make it out to be. First, while still mostly being a safe space for people to explore their interests, there’s also a lot of gatekeeping, prejudice, and close-mindedness within fandom communities. When at the convention, Sasahara one moment rejoices that he doesn’t need to fear being judged because everyone there is just like him, and the next begins judging other people there based on their appearance: according to him, one guy can’t be a real fan since he brought a girl along with him, and another looks too cool. The show also depicts how investing too much of your life into fandom culture isolates you from reality. Many of the characters at several times in the show end up prioritizing fan culture over things that regular society would consider important, like visiting family members’ graves or spending time with romantic partners. The club members also say that they want real girlfriends and aren’t satisfied by anime women, but they have also let anime women create an unrealistic expectation and definition of what they think women in general are, which we see when Madarame is scandalized by the nose hair sticking out of Saki’s nose as he cannot comprehend that real women have imperfections. In the same episode Madarame has a huge dilemma about how to act in front of Saki, someone apart from otaku culture. While he is comfortable in fan spaces, he no longer has any idea of how to interact with regular society anymore. 

While fandom is a wonderful space to find community and engage with others on the things you love, Genshiken shows us that a balance between fandom and society is necessary. To hide away your interests and force yourself to fit in isn’t good, but it’s also not good to lose sight of and connection with reality. Fandom is a great escape for many people, but it should never be a permanent one.

[whisperingwisterias]

A Silent Voice and Subtle Discrimination

A Silent Voice is about forgiveness, it’s about realizing your past doesn’t have to define you, but it’s also about the cruelty of discrimination and how many forms it can exist in. Whether it’s upfront like Shouya’s bullying was, or more subtle as we saw in some of the other classmates, it all does just as much harm to people’s perceptions of themselves.

Although Shouya’s bullying of Shouko was the most noticeable and also the most blamed, Shouko faced discrimination from almost everyone. To begin with, although the school implemented some accommodations, like beginning to teach the students sign language, a lot of the time no changes were made to help Shouko at all. On her very first day the teacher taught and gave the students instructions without writing any of them down for Shouko to understand; it took another student noticing her struggling and offering to take notes for her for Shouko to get the help she needed. There was also an issue in a music class where Shouko was not given any helpful cues to tell her when to sing, which caused her to make a fool of herself.

Besides the school not offering many accommodations, there were also several classmates who simply refused to accommodate for her disability. Although many of the girls seemed nice to Shouko at first, they were quick to distance her because they didn’t want to bother with the extra difficulties her lack of hearing posed. When Shouko tried to join in on their conversation, offering her notebook, the girls turned her down and went back to talking together. Naoka also resented having to learn sign language to make things easier for Shouko, wanting instead to just keep writing in her notebook because that was easier for herself.

In addition to lack of accommodations, the film also shows how many people discriminate against both Shouko and Shouya by shifting blame and justifying their own behavior. When they were younger, Shouya blamed Shouko for the way that everyone was treating her, saying that everyone was sick and tired of having to write in her notebook all the time. He also writes a mean message on the blackboard, saying that it was Shouko’s fault that Miyoko left, even though it was really Naoka’s fault for making hurtful comments to her. The other kids and even the teacher are also quick to justify their own behavior and blame everything on Shouya when Shouko eventually transfers schools. The teacher has no hesitation in calling out Shouya for being a bully, despite having seen the bullying all happen himself and doing nothing to intervene besides calmly threatening a detention for disturbing class. The other students also have no hesitation in calling Shouya out, even though they also did nothing to stop the bullying they saw and often laughed at it themselves, in some cases even joining in on the bullying. When given a scapegoat to take all the blame, the kids are quick to give him the same treatment that they all gave Shouko, justifying their bullying under the explanation that he deserved it.

When they all meet again several years later, Naoka and Miki continue to shift the blame onto others. Naoka is quick to wave away all of her behavior towards Shouko by claiming to her that it “wasn’t that big of a deal.” She also blames the bullying Shouya received and the way their friend group fell apart on Shouko’s presence, saying that none of that would have happened if she hadn’t been there. She also is quick to blame Shouya’s hospitalization on Shouko’s suicide attempt rather than trying to be sympathetic. Miki also refuses to take responsibility for her inaction, insisting that she never made any mean comments like the others did and exposing Shouya for being a bully in the past to make herself look better.

We see just how damaging this treatment is for both Shouko and Shouya throughout the film. Both of them consistently make it clear that they have both internalized the comments that others have made—Shouya, despite taking several steps to change and genuinely become a better person, still hates himself and thinks that he’s an awful person, to the point that he thinks the world would genuinely be better without him in it; and Shouko, despite being the most blameless person in the entire film, truly believes that everything Naoka and the other students blamed her for really is her fault. She blames herself for the way her own disability affected others, for how her leaving caused the other kids to bully Shouya, and for how her suicide attempt caused Shouya to get into a serious accident, even though none of these were actually her fault.

Even though the film projects an overall message of hope and forgiveness and redemption, it also really points out just how awful and cruel of a thing the students' discrimination towards both Shouya and especially Shouko was. Even though most of the students didn’t think they actually bullied anyone, their actions left permanent marks on Shouko and Shouya that marred both the way they interacted with others and the way they viewed themselves. This is why it is important for us to recognize and make an effort to stand against discrimination, no matter what form it takes.

[whisperingwisterias]

Wolf Children and Struggling with Identity

Wolf Children is not only the story of a single mother trying to raise her kid as best as she can after the death of her lover, but also about two kids who struggle with trying to figure out their identity when society tells them that half of who they are is wrong. Although Yuki and Ame’s wolf heritage is not something they chose and certainly not something they should have to hide or be ashamed of, Wolf Children shows us how society’s discrimination against anything that is “different” make people like Yuki and Ame feel as though they have to change who they are to get accepted by society.

We first see this kind of discrimination with Hana’s lover, the Wolf Man. When he tells her the truth about who he is, it is clear that he has accepted that his wolf heritage will always make him inherently “lesser” than the people around him. In leading up to his reveal, he refers to himself as a “what” and not a “who,” dehumanizing himself right off the bat. He said that he had come to terms with the fact that his wolf side was likely something he would always have to hide, and that he had just accepted the fact that he would always be alone because no one would be able to accept him for who he was. After telling Hana who he was, he even expected her to break up with him, to be scared of him, to completely walk out of his life. However, Hana’s response to his confession highlights just how unfair and irrational such discrimination is: there is no reason for her to be scared of him because he’s him, and she knows him. She does not see him as his differences, she just sees him as the person she loves.

However, as Yuki and Ame are born, it’s clear that the rest of the world does not share the same mindset. Much like their father, every wolfish part of them has to be hidden out of fear that people around them will react badly or take them away from Hana. When they were both born, Hana had to give birth without any help from a medical professional, in case they both came out looking like wolves. When they want to do something as simple as go on a walk or play around, Hana constantly has to be on guard and make sure they don’t transform and give themselves away. When they get sick, she can’t let them go to a doctor, and when they see other kids playing in the park, she can’t let them go play with them. Even in their own home just being themselves and indulging in their wolfish sides gets them dangerous scrutiny. It gets to the point where Hana even needs to uproot her family’s lives just to live somewhere where they don’t constantly have to hide.

As they get older, Yuki and Ame start to realize just what their heritage means for them and how society treats them because of it. In the books Ame reads he constantly finds wolves being villainized and cast as the bad characters, which upsets him and makes him feel ashamed of the wolfish part of him. And although he learns to embrace that side of him, society does not let him be both human and a wolf, and he feels as though he does not belong or fit in with people. When society criticizes him for his differences, he gives up on finding a place in society. Conversely, when the girls at her school criticize Yuki for her differences, like the way she dresses and the things she finds interesting and all the wolfish habits she’s grown up with, she gives up on that part of herself so that she might fit in with society. They made her feel ashamed of that part of herself and like she was less of a person for being different: Yuki said that she didn’t know how little girls were supposed to act, but that what she did know is that she was doing it all wrong. She told herself that she was going to learn how to behave properly, even if it killed her—and in a way, it did. She did not want to identify with her wolf side anymore, and she rejected it as being part of her, just like Ame rejected his human side.

Although both Yuki and Ame found happiness in the identities they formed and the side of their heritage they chose; it’s sad that society’s inability to accept all parts of them made them have to choose. Wolf Children demonstrates how discrimination doesn’t just harm how others view us, but how we also view ourselves. People should be able to embrace all of who they are without having to worry about how it is perceived, but society’s tendency to discriminate needs to change before that can truly happen.

[whisperingwisterias]

Naruto and Breaking the Cycle of Hatred

Naruto is one of the most popular and recognizable anime shows of all time and it has many good reasons for being so. The iconic characters, the intriguing plot points, and the absurd number of episodes are all reasons why this anime continues to be remembered so well, but it is Naruto’s own journey to fight against the judgements that people place on him that truly stands out to me.

In the very first episode, we see that Naruto is an outcast not only among his peers but the entire village. When he is struggling in school, no one deigns to help him; when he is the only one who doesn’t graduate, they scoff at him and remark that they’re glad he didn’t graduate; when he is blamed for stealing an important scroll, everyone is all too happy to blame him and don’t even consider the fact that there might be more to the story. Naruto himself says that he never had any friends no matter how much he wanted them, and constantly felt looked down upon by the elders of the village. As it turns out, this wasn’t ever because of something that Naruto actually did, but because of something he had no control over. Because of the spirit of the Nine-Tailed Fox was sealed inside him, people from the village don’t really see him as a person but as something dangerous, a bomb that could go off at any second. Even though their discrimination came from a place of fear and not malice, it still had a harmful effect on Naruto, which we see in the way he rebels and tries desperately to get stronger and make the village proud of him.

We also see the issue of discrimination talked about in a much more extreme context much later on in the series. We meet a character named Pain who, after having his village caught in a crossfire of two warring villages and destroyed, has given up on peace for humanity, and is convinced that all humanity is capable of is hatred. He claims that he is justified in destroying the leaf village and taking the lives of the people inside of it because of the death they had long ago brought to his village, but also says that Naruto would be justified in wanting to kill him for what he did, demonstrating his belief in an inescapable cycle of violence. When people inevitably hurt other people, those people cannot forgive them, and hurt them back, who then also cannot forgive them and hurt them back. While in this context Pain is talking about war, this is also true of the kind of discrimination many people face today and the kind that Naruto faces in this anime. Naruto’s response to the discrimination he faced in his village and the deaths caused by Pain is not to continue the cycle of violence, which he would arguably be justified in doing, but to make the conscious effort to break it. Naruto himself says that he cannot forgive Pain for what he did, but despite that, he doesn’t want people to be ruled by hatred but instead by peace, and so he declares that he will not kill Pain. In breaking from this cycle, Pain realizes that peace may be possible after all and restores the lives of everyone he killed before dying himself. At the end of the episode, we see the village that once outcast Naruto rush to him and cheer for him and adore him, recognizing that he has proved all of their expectations about him wrong.

While fighting against discrimination and breaking hurtful cycles often does not get such happy endings like Naruto does, I think Naruto still does a great job of highlighting the harm that discrimination causes and the importance of relinquishing that hatred and prejudice. Even though hatred can often seem justified, it never actually gives us the peace that we want but instead just breeds more hatred.

[whisperingwisterias]

Mobile Suit Gundam and the Cost of War

Where Grave of the Fireflies and Barefoot Gen both depicted how a real war, specifically World War II, impacted the people of Japan, Mobile Suit Gundam makes its commentary on war through a fictional lens. Although much of the show is centered around and does not discourage battles and the act of fighting in the war, it also shows in many different ways how war does not produce anything good.

The biggest truth of war that Mobile Suit Gundam covers is that war is selfish and takes from people. At the beginning of the show people comment on how even kids have started being used to help fight the war, their childhood taken from them, something we see firsthand as our 15 year old protagonist Amuro finds the mobile suit and gets enlisted to join the army. There are people who raise objections to this, but ultimately they have to allow him to stay as they have no one to spare to take his place. War also, of course, takes the lives of many innocent people, which we also see in the first episode when Frau Bow’s family is killed in front of her in a single blast. And although war hasn’t killed Amuro’s mother and father, it still takes them away from him; first through their initial separation, and then through both of them refusing to see him as their son anymore.

Besides just taking from people, war also changes people as well. At the beginning of the show, Amuro hesitates to take the life of another person, even if they are the enemy. However, the nature of fighting in war necessitated a change; if he wanted to survive he needed to recognize that some situations called for violence. However, his mother cannot reconcile herself with this change, even when it comes to Amuro defending himself. The war has not only changed Amuro but has changed his relationship with her as well. When they depart, her last words to him are that she barely recognizes him and is ashamed to call him her son, and Amuro is left feeling as though any love his mother had for him is gone. We see the same change in Amuro’s father, who barely reacts to Amuro’s appearance and doesn’t care about their reunion. It is obvious he doesn’t see him as a son, and in fact yells at him to go away and be a better soldier. War has taken everything that was familiar to Amuro and changed it.

Even though the war that is being fought in Mobile Suit Gundam isn’t real, it still is able to call out many of the issues that our real life wars cause. War is not a good thing, and as Gundam shows us, no matter who ends up on the winning side, everyone loses.