Forum - View topicIs most anime liberal or conservative?
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Animage~
 Posts: 66 Location: Behind you. |
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When I watch alot ofanime/manga/listen to j-pop, I wonder, Is anime more conservative or liberal? I was going to post this before the election but I thought better. I think that most artists/writers of anime are very conservatve, especially Nobuhiro Watsuki talking about the Meijii Era. In Kenshin he had 2 drunken monkeys as the show's answer to democracy. And Kenshin said, maybe later but this works better. This post probubly will get locked,or even worse blammed. Lol. If it doesn't it'll be a hot topic. While I'm at it I'll check to see if this kind of post is against the rules.
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11509 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Well, if this were strictly about political agendas and had absolutely nothing to do with anime, then I'm sure it'd get locked. But seeing as how you've woven just the philosophical aspect into this thread (at least, I think that's what you did
 ), then it's all right.
As for Mr. Watsuki's portrayl of democracy in Kenshin, I don't know him, but unless I see some kind of official or documented sources saying he is in fact a conservative, then I don't think it's necessarily upstanding to label him as one. Of course, I'm sure there are writers and such that may have their opinions on these areas, but I myself never really... cared... for politics in the first place. 
Any information you all could provide or enlighten me with would be appreciated though. 
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Fenrir
 Posts: 369 |
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I don't really think you can label anime as being conservative or Liberal. Those ideals and views just don't really apply to anime. I've seen anime that can easily be said to go all across the board and asks us many questions about life etc. Also Japan comes from a Shinto background therefore it really means that our ideas of what is conservative and what is liberal can't be translated to the japanese.
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ames_909
 Posts: 37 Location: Canada |
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Anime is just a label for a specific medium in the media; trying to define most anime as "liberal" or "conservative" is like defining a certain type of music, or genre of book, as such... it just doesn't make much sense. Also, there's a wide variety of writers who most likely have widely diverging opinions when it comes to politics... and they may or may not incorporate their views into the anime scripts that they write, so we can't tell for sure. Lastly, like Fenrir said, I don't think the definitions of being liberal or conservative can be applied to other cultures, such as the Japanese.
Later, Ames |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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It really depends on individual manga-ka / anime creator. While it's more difficult to put an anime / manga on a political balance, many of their authors have strong ideals.
I'm confident that two God-level manga-ka, Osamu Tezuka and Hayao Miyazaki, are on the left side of political spectrum. Miyazaki was once a union leader, and he praises artisanship and other hand laborers while resents many aspects of our current world, not to mention his environmentalism ideals in most of his movies. As far as I know, Tezuka don't have such evident traits, but judging from Black Jack's rebellious and cynical behavior against medical community I'd say he's more liberal as well. On the other hand, manga-ka like Kaiji Kawaguchi and Kenshi Hirokane are more right-winged. Kawaguchi's highly detailed yet extremely inaccurate modern military settings mixed with his nationalism / patriotism have pissed many non-Japanese military geeks off. In Silent Service, spoiler[one single ballistic sub with Japanese crews can accellerate to 60 knots silently and fends off the entire US 7th fleet on sea surface.] Anyone with basic ASW knowlegde knows a sub is no match for surface vessels once it's surfaced, not to mention dozens of fixed-winged and helicopters are flying around dropping sonobuoys and depth charges. Hirokane got many criticism from feminist groups for his portrait of female in corporations. Okay, I admit I have personal preferences and may be biased. In summary, many manga / anime present the protagonist alone fighting against the "system;" political, financial, educational, you name it. This makes them more liberal. However, Silent Service is definitely not among them. |
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FallenEyes
 Posts: 21 Location: The edGe of GoD's mInd |
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Actualy, most artist and writers are very Liberal. Unless they work for the Wall Street Journal or Fox News Channel. But in Japan it might be different. |
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Kazuki-san
 Posts: 2251 Location: Houston, TX |
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As you said though, this is simply a take on his nationalism rather than a political view. To label it right-wing is unfair, both the left and the right can have extreme nationalism. In any case, I haven't seen or read SS, but unless there was some portrayal that it was accurate in terms of technology, it's not as if it's out of the ordinary for someone or something to perform feats that are not anywhere near real life. I'm not sure how you can assign a liberal/conservative label to anime, so I will refrain from doing so. If the political parties in Japan represent in general the views of the people... well decide for yourself: Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Party of Japan, Japanese Communist Party, Liberal Party, Japanese Socialist Party, Social Democratic Party |
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OTP
 Posts: 99 |
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I was thinking the same thing because I would think that the liberals and conservatives (or however politics work there) would be different than in North America, where I'm assuming Animage is posting from (U.S. and Canadian liberals/conservatives) are supposedly different. |
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The Ramblin' Wreck
 Posts: 924 Location: Teaching Robot Women How To Love |
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Nice hyperbolic statement there. But I agree that point of this is really tricky. I don't profess to know much about Japanese politics, but the terms that have developed here America may not tranfer directly to other political systems, even other democracies directly modeled after our own, such as Japan's. |
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jfrog
 Posts: 925 Location: Seattle |
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I'm not so sure about that. I don't know anything about the guy, and I haven't read Silent Service, but Eagle seemed pretty liberal to me. And while the facts about America's political culture were sometimes off, he seemed sincere when he talked about things like gun control and other typical democratic causes. Miyazaki and Takahata were both Marxists back in the day (they've since seen the light), and apparently Miyazaki was worried about making Nausicaa into a princess because she would have been of an elite class. Leiji Matsumoto, as much as I love him, seems like a conservative reactionary at times. Like the somewhat unsettling WWII flashback scene from Arcadia of My Youth, where Phantom F Harlock II - who was fighting for the Nazis - bravely shoots down a bunch of British planes. And I've heard that in the uncut version of Space Battleship Yamato the same music plays during the American attack in the WWII flashback (he sure was fond of those, wasn't he?) as when the Gamilons attack Earth in the main story.
Am I the only person who has read The Vanity of Dulouz? Jack Kerouac making offhand references about how we shouldn't have fought Hitler because he was just trying to protect us from the Jewish communists? Or that there's nothing wrong with killing gay men if they make a pass at you? And let's not forget Dave Sim. If it wasn't for Ayn Rand, who I haven't read but seems intelligent, I'd say that to be a conservative writer/artist, you're also required to be batshit insane. |
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ac_dropout
Posts: 88 Location: Newark, NJ |
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Conservative in the USA believe Gays should not get married and abortion is a crime. Not to mention anything foriegn is bad for Americans. Like French/Freedom Fries.
Anime has open gay love. Never heard of an anime about abortion. But anime in general doesn't subscribe to conservative politics in the USA. Also anime is full of underage, pre-marital sex, and gender bending concepts. Definitely not conservative views. If anime was a political platform, I don't think people like Bush's neocon chicken hawk crew would be supporting it. |
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ShellBullet
 Posts: 1051 Location: I hit things, with my fist. |
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There is no reason to think that the "Democratic Party of Japan" or even the "Liberal Democratic Party" have any idealogical connection to the Democratic party here in America. In fact I'm pretty sure that one of them represents what we would call the conservative wing of Japanese politics. I thought it was the Liberal Democratic Party, but now I'm not certain. Maybe someone can correct me... |
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Kazuki-san
Posts: 2251 Location: Houston, TX |
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You sure are making a HUGE generalization. And actually to correct your statements, according to several polls, the abortion issue is about half and half across the country, and 60% of the nation feels gay marriage is wrong. (not saying my view, just saying facts or whatever you believe polls to be) And your last statement is particularily funny, because we are operating under a MASSIVE trade deficit at the moment. Labels suck in general. There are degrees of conservatism and degress of liberalism. You can be down the middle, slightly to the right, right-wing, and the same with the left side, but each degree share some ideas, and have very different others. I've heard from plenty of people who are on the right, that both support abortion and gay marriage.
I never said they did. What I meant to show, is that there is no political party in Japan (that I know of) that calls itself conservative. We can't impose the beliefs of our political parties on other people. Of course, I also did mean to take note of the communist/socialist parties. |
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Red Recluse
Posts: 56 |
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I think we should get back on the subject of how this pertains to anime before this thread gets locked!
I will also go out on a limb and say that conservatism/liberalism in anime would depend more on the views of the individual viewer than those of the creators. What I'm trying to say is that when it comes to the underlying content of the media (whether it be anime or anything else), much of it is subject to the interpretation of the viewer. For instance, take two of the main characters from Trigun: Vash and Wolfwood. I, myself, would consider Vash more liberal ("Love and Peace!"), and Wolfwood more conservative ("I thought there always had to be a sacrifice.") But, being that Vash toted a revolver and had strong moral values, couldn't some folks (of western culture, of course), consider him more of a conservative? And vice-versa for Wolfwood; he's a priest, yet he smokes, curses, and rides a motorcycle. Anyways, my point is I think that whether or not most anime is liberal or conservative depends on what the viewer chooses to see in the underlying ideals of the anime. |
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Nani?
 Posts: 632 |
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A quick primer on Japanese Politics, The Liberal Democratic is the conservative party in Japanese politics and in the early years at least bordered on fascist. One of it's PMs was a class 1 war criminal. It has run the government since 1955. It cemented it's dominance though cooperation with Japanese big business, particularly construction after the 64 Olympics. With the help of the Yakuza, they assainated of a pretty popular socialist opposition leader to finish the job. Support from big business includes an implied threat to thier employees that if you don't vote LDP, you won't get promoted and be branded as "disloyal" to the company. Needless to say, they are the "Republicans" with some religous backing (Shinto nationalist) and with more (and sleazier in my opinion) big business and open Yakuza support. For many years the Socialists were the main opposition party on the left. But there was/is also the communists and a Buddhist fundamentalist party with Diet seats. Sometime in the 80's they essentially self destructed over internal leadership issues. The Democratic Party is essentially the new dominant "left wing party". In recent years they have slowly been eating away at the LDP majority in the Diet. Recently, they put together a "shadow" cabinet which included members of other parties and some influential independents. Some notable Politicans: Junichiro Koizumi--LDP PM. He comes from a "reformist" wing of the LDP but is has been stymied by enchrenched interests within his own party. Yasuo Tanaka: Indpendent Gov. of Nagano Prefecture. Very popular for reforms in the school system and the enviroment. Despised by the Tokyo Buercracy and as a consequence, Nagano has taken a hit in tax revenue from the central government. Gov of Tokyo (forget his name): Right winger but also popular . He has done some good in slowing construction in Tokyo. He also has suggested that the Rape of Nanking, comfort women, etc has never happened. Suggested killing the crows in Tokyo and feeding them to the homeless. Central Government Bueracracy--The power behind the thrown in Japanese politics. Because of weak legislative control they are often a power onto themselves. Most officals are promoted from within, retire early, and then take a lucrative "consulting job" in Japanese Business (consulting from Hawaii, so to speak). When the opposition briefly took over the Government in 93 thier non cooperation was part of what brought them down. Koizumi is unable and is somewhat unwilling to reign them in. They also make sure that laws are selectively enforced and that government money goes to the "proper" chanels. For example, there are about 10 enviromental inspectors for all of Japan compared to several thousand in the U.S. All the Best, Nani? |
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