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Politics and Anime.

As American society has gotten more polarized, the middle ground has gone into hiding. This is reflected in anime fandom too. If you don't agree 100% with the left or the right, your dead meat. Now I am just tired of it all. The old wisdom still hold true, only talk to people you know can handle political talk. Don't talk to strangers.

It's pretty easy to avoid all that if you just stay off Twitter. Most people outside that landscape are pretty reasonable.

I remember there was some controversy among the Anime fandom when people found out a notable animation director liked or posted tweets that hinted that he had some pro-Nazi sentiments and it made a big deal online for a while though I don't know what happened since.

Controversies in Japan over anime/manga/light novels have included hinting that a female character might not be a virgin, like that one on Kannagi, although that might have been a while now, I don't know if things are the same. It fits right into the whole idol culture, where they are not allowed to date anyone and they have to be presumed to be virgins. My understanding is that with Japan tattoos still have a very big stigma attached, in regards to something gang related.

Controversies in Japan over anime/manga/light novels have included hinting that a female character might not be a virgin, like that one on Kannagi, although that might have been a while now, I don't know if things are the same. It fits right into the whole idol culture, where they are not allowed to date anyone and they have to be presumed to be virgins. My understanding is that with Japan tattoos still have a very big stigma attached, in regards to something gang related.

If we are talking about why this sort of politics is so confrontational with the West, it probably is some element of pretty much two different cultures being created and coming into contact to try and defend themselves. You have had things like the protests about women, racial and LGBT rights, and have been met with another force of perhaps something like those of Christianity that fought back against those things due to religious dogma, thus those on the Left had to push harder for that change. Both political sides pushing harder is what creates the idea of politics really being something divided, where you get more scrutiny over people the sides might consider problematic.

One of the Girls und Panzer introduced a French school, BC Freedom, which were pretty much in constant war with itself between the rich and poor students, mirroring the idea of the French Revolution. And I have heard that the French Revolution played a big part in the creation of the idea of the Left and the Right in the west, where you had supporters of the monarchy on one side and those against on the other.

BBally wrote:

I remember there was some controversy among the Anime fandom when people found out a notable animation director liked or posted tweets that hinted that he had some pro-Nazi sentiments and it made a big deal online for a while though I don't know what happened since.

There's quite a few directors that westerners have called Nazis so I'm not sure who you're specifically referring to but yeah, there's been industry people who've gotten blowback for spouting politics before. I remember when Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Kazuki Takahashi got some pushback because he posted a political message on his Instagram. A picture of Yugi and his monsters telling people Japan's current administration had sold out Japan and were giving jobs to foreigners over native residents and betraying their ideology He eventually deleted it and apologized. Although the backlash wasn't for his views specifically but more of a a "Hey man, let's keep politics out of Yu-Gi-Oh!, okay? Yugi shouldn't be telling me how to vote." Public figures being political is looked down upon.