No.12388[View All]
Comrades, we need better anime literacy on this board. I've made this thread to help direct people to good leftist anime. Listen to me or not, but I have watched a lot of anime so these are my serious recommendations. If you watch these shows you will also be broadening your tastes and escaping from seasonal consumerism. I will specifically recommend leftist/revolutionary anime.
>Belladonna of Sadness
This 1971 film has a lot of sexual content, but it is one of the most beautifully drawn anime of all time and is a great audio-visual experience, with varied styles of art over the film. It includes incredibly experimental and interesting shots. Plot wise it tackles the sexual, religious and feudal heirarchy with great visual storytelling. It flips the idea of sexual corruption as bad, and turns satanist hedonism into a revolutionary force which only positively affects the villagers.
>Gundam
Tomino's Gundam is a masterpiece because of how good the characters are. They are astoundingly well developed and feel real due to characterisation present in almost all episodes. Tomino's style of storytelling is obtuse, and the subext is not narrated out like in most anime, which many people really enjoy which is why the show has such a strong fan base. The themes of the original show are extremely well expressed in the last third, and a number of scenes towards the end are absolutely fantastic. As for the leftist analasys, Gundam is anti-fascist, with a possible Trotskyist degenerated worker's state analasys on the antagonist faction, who were originally a revolutionary anti-earth eco-fascist group until they were taken over by a ruling familly. However, their ideology is not wrong as the Earth Federation opresses the space-underclass as well as destroying the planet. There is a lot to unpack here and the evil principality is well humanised despite being clearly in the wrong, except for Char who did nothing wrong. Tomino is known to have some sexist takes, but this isn't really present until the 90s and before that his anime all have strong women.
>Gurren Lagann
It is the ultimate revolutionary anime. The entire show goes about combating conservatism and reactionism in a highly bombastic way, without making them seem evil. Instead, conservatism is just wrong and impossible to maintain. The show is epic, with very strong pathos and emotion in some very memorable scenes. It also wierdly has a bit on establishing a revolutionary government and revisionism.
>Dallos
Its literally about a socialist revolution and anti-imperialism, something which few western media depict even in a sci-fi setting. I have shilled it enough in other threads but this is a must watch for any socialist anime fan and its only 4 episodes so you have no excuse.
>Fang of the Sun Dougram
Its a long anime about a guerilla war against colonialists and their puppet government. The art and animation is awful but some of the characters are legendarily good and the plot is among the best in the medium. I only finished it recently and haven't had a good think about it but I completely recommend his one to people who enjoyed LoGH and Maoists.
>Shin Sekai Yori
This one is interesting. My reading is that the show is about how reformism won't work and how people from the ruling class who oppose the system are transformed into the very upholders of that system, including the parts of it which killed their friends and enslave other humans. It unironically seems third worldist, with only the opressed race being able to rise up in revolution. I would definitely like to discuss this one with others.
>Kill la Kill
Anarchist naturist anime.
Please recommend other anime which are leftist (or not) to add recommendations for other people. I will respond and start discussion.
522 posts and 170 image replies omitted. Click reply to view. No.19861
>>19688There already is a graphic adaptation of Road to Serfdom; I wouldn't put that past them.
No.19868
>>19860>General Blue He, like Oolong, is a caricature of aryan nazis, he dies like a chump and is never talked about again. As for the 'gayness' it's just a stereotype about nazis being closet fags.
>Otokosuki A barely present character that's also a caricature of leather gays and is clearly a gag character.
No.19894
>>19868I'm specifically referring to his pedo activity in the Dr. Slump crossover episode. I rescind my point about Otokosuki because at the very least Trunks was older than Bulma was when Roshi was after her, so he's not more of a pedo than the usual cast.
No.19895
>>19894most media literate american
No.19896
[reading a made-up story] oh man i am just ITCHING to pass judgement on these people!
No.20072
The law of revolution
Sickness is the mirror of health
Discretion for the proletariat!
Prejudice is for the bourgeoisie!
No.20073
>>20072>Discretion is for the proletariat!Missed that oops
Btw cute anime I enjoyed it
No.20485
many books to you Comrade Main
No.20792
>>19894>his pedo activity in the Dr. Slump crossover episode I honestly cannot recall that episode.
No.21154
https://www.zeonic-republic.net/?page_id=10526>words like ‘innovation’, ‘revolution’, ‘reform’ are as misleading as communism—they tend to push us towards a totalizing way of thinking, synonymous with socialism, which inevitably leads to totalitarianism.-Yoshiyuki Tomino
whoopsie doodle
No.21156
>>21154Yeah Tomino's gone off the deep end with this one lol. But he's never been particularly communist to be honest, none of Gundam really is.
No.21157
>>21156Tomino never ascribed to any specific ideology even in his college years; lots of old creators were left wing but he wasn't really. Don't like the "we need to claim every popular creator as communist" meme especially when you have old stuff like The Legend of Kamui & Sakura Gaho to translate by actual marxist creators.
No.21158
>>21157 >Don't like the "we need to claim every popular creator as communist" memeI've never been in that camp, it's always been annoying to me tbh. Tomino is Tomino.
No.22331
>>21779I mean, he was wrong about that. Most Marxists even agree on that currently.
No.22332
>>22331>he was wrong about thatwas he though ? rate of profit still falling. I don't think he ever gave a timetable
No.22333
>>21779that's not what marx said tho, it was not a lack of investment, but the necessity of investment which would drive a falling rate of profit due to rising fixed costs and forcing monopolization.
No.22334
>>20906yeah except it sucks. netflix made a bad anime
No.22335
Can only speak to anime I've actually seen, but this is my list of shows that are actually worth watching
Anime with a good materialist analysis of societies:
Durarara!!
Paranoia Agent
Dorororo
Blood+
Pluto
Chainsaw Man
Girls Last Tour
Progressive Bourgois Universalist anime
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Princess Tutu
Godzilla Singular Point
Vampire in the Garden
Kaiba
Full Metal Alchemist
Kill la Kill
Spy x Family
Gurren Lagan
One Punch Man
Bacanno
Gay Conservative/Regressive Bourgois Anime
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Bubblegum Crisis
Eminence in Shadow
Beastars
Fascist Anime
Attack on Titan
Made in Abyss
Sword Art Online
No.22336
>>22335What's fascist about Made in Abyss?
No.22337
>>22336pedophilic Nietzscheanism
No.22360
I just saw demon slayer. Animation is nice. Story is OK. Character design is meh (typical anime tropes). Voice acting (Japanese) is the usual anime oniichan shit mixed with good voice acting. Storytelling itself is so-so, a bit repetitive and slower development.
In general, I give it a 6. Not Marxist or leftist at all. The setting is feudal Japan and they take that shit seriously.
No.22385
>>22360is it just me or was demon slayer kind of rushed? Like the author just randomly decided wipe out half of the demom leadership and the strongest demon guys were quickly disposed of. Recently I have had this feeling that newer manga and anime is trying to get to the action and resolution for main conflict too quickly and this doesn’t allow characters and the setting to be properly developed.
No.22430
>>12388>Gurren LagannTypical neocon resistance against the "outside threat." Later on was co-opted by the monarchist Simon and later by the fascist Rosseau.
>Kill la KillDamn it, wanted to mention it myself, CLOTHES ARE A FORM OF OPPRESSION BY AN INDUSTRIALIST SOCIETY!
No.22431
>>1642literally did nothing wrong
No.22434
>>22430>>Gurren Lagann>Typical neocon resistance against the "outside threat."Holy shit, most media literate leftoid.
No.22436
>>22434It makes me feel good about myself therefore it is leftist.
No.22913
>>22432>Gurren Lagann is neoconDidn't say that. I just said that it wasn't focused on fighting an oppressive regime or dismantling capitalism, these themes are just not there. And judging by how it devolved back into monarchism I don't think the writer cared about leftist themes, like, at all. I'm not saying that it makes the anime BAD, I'm just saying that the anime's message isn't all that original or leftist as you may think.
No.22914
>>22913 (me)
I mean, it's all just "Believe in yourself" and "Do the impossible." I guess there is some revolutionary idea of not being content with what you have but it just resulted in Kamina and Simon just abandoning society altogether by escaping to the surface, an anarchist thing to do but it hardly has any class component to it, it's your typical "lifestyle" nomadic anarchism that was later dissolved by imperialism because other humans decided to recolonize Earth thanks to Kamina's example. The anime's plot can be compared to the American frontier ironically.
No.22915
>>22914 (me)
I think Kamina is the closest to an anarcho-individualist who rised against the slave labor he and Simon were forced to endure. The thing is, other people are not Kamina, once Kamina disappeared he became a mere symbol of hope and determination rather than individual freedom and anti-slavery.
No.22916
>>22915 (me)
Basically, Kamina's yearning for individual freedom as a rebellion against class society and domestication was twisted into a collective, bourgeois "freedom" of
humanity class society.
No.22930
>>22916 (me)
Compare this to Kill la Kill. Kamina ran away from the ruling class only for this very ruling class to neuter his ideas and use him and the name of his team as a symbol of nationalism (typical for the Japanese). On the contrary, Ryoko went into an open war with the ruling class, aiming to cut Satsuki's throat from the start. One is a war between humans and non-human invaders (that were trying to save them from a greater threat anyway). The other is a war between classes.
No.22942
>>22911love black lagoon, but its not really leftist
they do work for the cia sometimes, and I dont think you actually see them arming any communists or rebels. The themes are more personal and philosophical than political.
loved the episode with the japanese red army member though (even if its the episode where they work for the cia).
No.22951
>>22942>they do work for the cia sometimesSo does Big Boss but Kojima and Metal Gear are generally considered left leaning. I would agree that it can't really be called communist, but it still seems to have a lot of sympathy for left wing revolutionary organizations, plus the personal themes vis a vis alienating capitalist life. A surprising number of protagonists (and sympathetic antagonists) have links to the USSR, Burkina Faso, FARC, etc.
>I dont think you actually see them arming any communists or rebelsTrue but they mention that they smuggled guns to the NPA in one of the first episodes.
No.24260
>>22951>I would agree that it can't really be called communistWell duh. The only communist media I can think of is Disco Elysium. Anything else is at most vague anticapitalism.
No.24274
>>24259Chiba is a shit ldp lackey
Unique IPs: 25