• Azur Lane is really weird

    From David Johnston@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 17 20:58:34 2020
    So there are these ships personified as girls right? And they're sort
    of playing out the naval engagements of World War II except not really.
    But what's weird about it is that this is a Japanese cartoon in which
    what are basically the Japanese are still portrayed as very clearly the villains. This is not something I expected to see. I mean sure the
    Eagle Union and Royal are weirdly Japanese themselves no matter how red
    white and blue their socks are but the Sakura Empire are the ones who
    have all the Japanese ships from World War II and they're all "The world belongs to the strongest" and "You are my prey".

    Of course the original source material is a Chinese game. Still it's a
    weird thing to see in a Japanese cartoon.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Anon@21:1/5 to David Johnston on Fri Sep 18 20:57:02 2020
    David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> writes:

    So there are these ships personified as girls right? And they're sort
    of playing out the naval engagements of World War II except not
    really. But what's weird about it is that this is a Japanese cartoon
    in which what are basically the Japanese are still portrayed as very
    clearly the villains. This is not something I expected to see. I
    mean sure the Eagle Union and Royal are weirdly Japanese themselves no
    matter how red white and blue their socks are but the Sakura Empire
    are the ones who have all the Japanese ships from World War II and
    they're all "The world belongs to the strongest" and "You are my
    prey".

    Of course the original source material is a Chinese game. Still it's
    a weird thing to see in a Japanese cartoon.

    Japan, or at least a sub population of Japan, have already moved past
    the childish "be offended"/political correctness culture that pervades
    much of the West currently. For example, Nazi uniforms show up
    frequently because their uniforms look sexy/cool as fuck, and Hitler be
    damned we're not giving up an awesome uniform just because some dead guy
    did bad things.

    Warships are cool, the girls are cute/sexy, and WWII is interesting, so
    it doesn't really matter that the Japanese are the "villains" (they
    don't really do anything too horrible in the story anyway). It was
    something in the past and we've all moved past it.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Anon on Fri Sep 18 22:10:48 2020
    On 9/18/20 8:57 PM, Anon wrote:
    David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> writes:

    So there are these ships personified as girls right? And they're sort
    of playing out the naval engagements of World War II except not
    really. But what's weird about it is that this is a Japanese cartoon
    in which what are basically the Japanese are still portrayed as very
    clearly the villains. This is not something I expected to see. I
    mean sure the Eagle Union and Royal are weirdly Japanese themselves no
    matter how red white and blue their socks are but the Sakura Empire
    are the ones who have all the Japanese ships from World War II and
    they're all "The world belongs to the strongest" and "You are my
    prey".

    Of course the original source material is a Chinese game. Still it's
    a weird thing to see in a Japanese cartoon.

    Japan, or at least a sub population of Japan, have already moved past
    the childish "be offended"/political correctness culture that pervades
    much of the West currently. For example, Nazi uniforms show up
    frequently because their uniforms look sexy/cool as fuck, and Hitler be damned we're not giving up an awesome uniform just because some dead guy
    did bad things.

    Warships are cool, the girls are cute/sexy, and WWII is interesting, so
    it doesn't really matter that the Japanese are the "villains" (they
    don't really do anything too horrible in the story anyway). It was
    something in the past and we've all moved past it.


    Not everyone has moved past it especially Japanese politicians who are upset by references to the conscripted sex workers in WW II.
    We put up a memorial in San Francisco to these women and there was quite
    some controvesy from the Japanese politicians.

    The Chinese haven't fogotten the Rape of Nanking and the massacre of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

    The Koreans both sides of the truce line are quite able
    to recall the colonization by Japan and though they recognize
    that this is quite a different government still harbor resentment.

    If people in the Philippines have forgotten their mistreatment
    under Japanese occupation I would be quite surprised. However they a
    really unpleasant government to deal with presently so I do not expect
    to hear much about the problems of WW II.

    Singapore of course suffered too and doubtless have some people
    who pay attention to the insults and humiliation inflicted by the
    Japanese in WW II.

    Of course later generations of Japanese were not fully
    educated as to the Wartime government's mistakes and misdeeds so
    they can play with the ideas mentioned by previous posters without
    connecting the horrors of WW II with the casual treatment of such
    matter in anime and manga.

    Have you read "Barefoot Gen" as antidote to this glossy
    treatment of the War? Watch "Grave of the Fireflies" to see how
    badly the government treated the people of Japan in WW II or as
    they like to call it the Pacific War. The people had to support
    15 years of Military Adventurism by the Government in Manchuria
    and in China as well as the Western Pacific. It starved them
    and took all joy from their lives.
    The best treatment of this period so far that I have seen is
    the magnificent "Showa:History of Japan" from the 1920s to the
    end of Hirohito's long reign, manga in 4 volumes by the
    great Shigero Mizuki.

    bliss

    --
    bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

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