I got a note to check out the entirety of published Attack on Titan videos on Crunchyroll before it enters a blackout so Cartoon Network can air it.
Let me just say, ITS AWESOME!
Its late and you're gonna have to hurry but you can check it out here.
While just drinking in the flick it occurred to me. Are we seeing a metaphor for the Japanese vs. China issue? I mean think about it. Japan can be considered a walled city...with the ocean standing in for the walls in the movie. The Survey Corps (or Scouting Legion) can be thought of as the Japanese Marine Corps...and of course the crazy Titans can be thought of as the Chinese military and people...an enemy that wants to gobble up its neighbors for no rational reason but seemingly only for the glory of the kill.
Even the fact that they named the walled cities can be considered an allegory for the Japanese Islands!
If you trash my idea thats fine. But if you're into anime check this out quick...oh and they're making a season 2 as we speak, plus there is a Manga (never been into it but I'll check this one out) that is suppose to be fairly impressive so watch the videos, check out the Manga and let me know if you like it.
sorry for off
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/russian-jets-buzz-canadian-frigate-near-ukraine/article20478538/
Wooow you watch anime? That's a surprise...
ReplyDeleteI have to admit this make sense, and makes a little bit more sense as the anime progress...
As an anime watcher I would never have expected you to watch anime, though I must say AoT is amazing.
ReplyDeletei'm surprised that you and Andre think that. anime (well alot of it) deals heavily in military fiction. while i'm not big into the mech suits that populate alot of it, stuff like AoT and Ghost in the shell are hardcore military fiction. some of it like Naurito focus on (in my mind) training your body to go beyond limits.
Deletequite honestly its alot of fun and if you think about it, it fits in perfectly with my interests and lifestyle.
Ghost In The Shell (all movies/series) is the smartest take on near-future policing/warfare out there. There's simply nothing like it available in the western media.
DeleteSolomon is thinking too hard and is seeing things that's not there.
ReplyDeleteThe March of the Titans(This is the exact translation of the title, not Attack On Titan) is simply a 21st century rip off of the Evangelion, nothing more, nothing less. And the original manga started its series back in 2006, long before the beginning of China-Japan conflicts.
dude in the US its called attack on titan. in Manga, its called attack on titan. additionally the "troubles" between Japan and China date back centuries and if you want to only talk about current tensions then you can go back to the early 1990's.
DeleteSolomon
Delete> dude in the US its called attack on titan. in Manga, its called attack on titan.
That's a poor translation.
The original Japanese title "Shingeki no Kyojin"("Marching/Charging Giants") implies a story from the giants' perspective, meaning humans are like ants trying to avoid being run over by titans.
The poorly translated "Attack on Titan" implies a story from a human's perspective, meaning humans are attacking and successfully repelling titans.
> additionally the "troubles" between Japan and China date back centuries
The troubles between Japan and China does not date back to centuries, it only dates back to the 1880s. You have to understand Japan for most of its history was like Germany of Europe, which was a non-player in Europe's political dynamics until the 19th century.
> and if you want to only talk about current tensions then you can go back to the early 1990's.
Early 1990s were the time of Murayamas, when Japanese prime ministers were actually bowing down before an international press and asking for forgiveness of Japan's past sins.
Two evidences that Titans do not symbolize China.
1. The wall that protects humans is actually hardened skin of a titan that has been protecting humans for 100 years.
2. Titans are actually transformed humans, including the lead character who himself becomes a titan.
The March of Titans is actually the story of 0.1 percent vs 99.9 percent class warfare, where the 0.1 percenters create titans that feast upon 99.9 percenters. It has nothing to do with Japan vs China.
that poor translation is how its marketed in the US dumbass. eat shit with your "attempt at perfection" when we're talking about a mythical universe .... i mean seriously? we're talking about 16 meter giants that feed on humans that are behind massive walls.
DeleteDude, no spoilers....
DeleteAoT is an Evangelion rip-off? Are you high? Completely different plots/themes/characters/settings in each. If you want to argue Evangelion rip-offs, start with the movie Pacific Rim.
DeleteAnd I really don't understand why Solomon's siding with Japan, when Japan's cabinet is filled with rightwing extremists, including a pair accused of having Neo-Nazi connections. 15 of 20 Abe appointees are classified as rightwing extremists.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/09/08/national/politics-diplomacy/two-of-abes-new-picks-deny-neo-nazi-links
Two of Abe’s new picks deny neo-Nazi links
AFP-JIJI
SEP 8, 2014
Two newly promoted politicians moved Monday to distance themselves from allegations of extremism after pictures emerged of them posing alongside the leader of a neo-Nazi party.
Internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi and Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Tomomi Inada can be seen in separate photographs next to Kazunari Yamada on the home page of the National Socialist Japanese Workers Party.
The photos will add fuel to claims that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is increasingly surrounding himself with people on the far right.
Abe has courted criticism for his strident nationalism and views on history that some find unpalatable.
In particular, his unwillingness to condemn Imperial Japan’s behavior up to and during World War II has proved a sticking point in international relations.
And two accused Neo-Nazi interior minister and the policy chief of LDP is even more hilarious, they claim they met Japan's Neo-Nazi party leader to hold a "policy" discussion. What kind of politicians would have a policy discussion with a Neo-Nazi party? The entire Japanese political scene is going to hell right now.
DeleteI'M TALKING ABOUT A FUCKING ANIME PROGRAM!!!
Deletetake your hatred of Japan somewhere else. i could careless about your issues because of a war that happened over 50 years ago, or your racial hatred for the Japanese people. keep this shit up and i'll simply erase every message you post.
@SlowMan
ReplyDeleteIts not just Solomon who is siding with China, almost anyone who has a beef with China or things will have one in the near future is out there siding with either Japan or Australia or even India for that matter despite issues with the above said countries like Right Wingers (Japan), dumb Prime Minister (Australia), Corruption/Poverty/even more right wingers (My own country). Its not the small interest groups that these right wingers represent but the overall characterizing flavour of Japan. A characterizing flavour that allows deployment of US combat troops and positioning of US war equipment coupled with a modern native army and the ability to spend billions more to bolster their defence in a worst case scenario.
Also SlowMan, if you are from one of those military families that lost their one or more of their members to WW2 Japanese or in one of those horrendous Jap POW camps then you have every right to be angry at "that times Imperial Japanese" and not at the "Current Japanese".
DeleteIf you think the Japanese used to treat their white caucasian POW's badly then wait till you learn of what they used to do to us Brown folk.
And if you are one of those internet trolls just out there to create confusion at a time when people are searching for allies to contain china, well then......thats just plain bad.
Sarabvir Singh
DeleteThe problem with Japan's rightwinger government is that not only they want to pick a fight with China, but count on dragging the US with it; thus the US ends up being dragged into a war it does not want to fight or needs to fight.
If China was harrassing a pre-2012 Japan, then any potential conflict is China's fault and the US has a treaty obligation to intervene, but in 2014 it is Abe's rightwinger government that is inflaming tensions unnecessarily and is trying to pick a fight to show off Japan's once glorious military might, and there is no reason why the US should be dragged into Abe's trap and shed its blood to serve Abe's rightwing agenda.
The correct US foreign policy is to disengage Japan and apply diplomatic pressures to engineer a regime change in Japan to a more moderate government, not bolster Abe and his successor's government. At least the US State Department understands this and is wary of Abe and his cronies, but the US DoD seems to be carried away by a newly militant Japanese government offering to lift some of US's burdens in patroling in Asia.
So not only do you want the US to disengage from Japan but you want them to sponcer an unlawful regime change as well ?
DeleteI bet you're one of those people operating out of Hong Kong on Beijing's orders. What are your views on the latest central committee to decide which candidate should stand for election in Hong Kong ?
@SlowMan
ReplyDeleteLook, if you have korean or chinese ancestry and you hate us japanese, I understand if you are affraid that Japan invade Korea and China. But this is just a TV show ok?
1 - To begin with Solomon dont' make a mistake by saying "Attack on Titan" for the simple reason that, that is what it say in the opening of the anime right below the japanese words Jingeki no kyojin (the original in japan). This is just another example of japanese "engrish", if you never heard the phrase "All your base are belong to us" then you dont' know about japan as much as you think. i think that you are getting angry with the wrong person and for a very little thing that is it is not worth more than a footnote. If badmouth anything japanese make you happy then laugh about how bad we japanese speak "engrish". But don't mess with others just because they like somenthing japanese, be an anime or sushi.
2 - The author of the manga that the anime is based on, openly reckoned that it was inspired by the visual novel "Muv-Luv Alternative". I dont' remember critics acusing him that it is "just a rip-off of Evangelion". If that is your personal opinion after watching the show, I can respect that, but if you dont' know that the words "Attack on Titan" are on the opening of the anime, then I hardly can respect an opinion made without even watching a single episode.
3 - Just so you see that I don't hate you like you hate my country, I don't disagree with everything you say. I think to that it is not an analogy of Japan vs China.
@Solomon
Like you said is just an anime TV show. Japan vs China? With all due respect sir, I think that you are reading too much on it. I remember years ago that after watching the last Star Wars movies some people draw paralels betwen the Siths and the neocons, George Lucas said that it imagined the plot decades ago during the Vietnam war, so it was not inspired on the Irak war. We are not the CCP, we don't use the mass media for put ideas on the mind of people, is just a fun TV show. Like "Girls und Panzer", an anime of schoolgirls fighting mock battles with WWII tanks made that suddenly the number of voluntiers for the GSDF jumped. Some people may see an ominous plot for turn pacifist japanese in to militarists, but it is just a fun anime with a lot of WWII tanks.
@ Mareo2
Delete> Just so you see that I don't hate you like you hate my country,
I really don't care what happens to Japan, I just don't want to see the US being automatically dragged into a war that could have been avoided entirely. If it wasn't for the US-Japan mutual defense treaty that explicitly guarantees a US intervention in the event of a Diaoyu Islands war I wouldn't have cared who's in power in Tokyo, since all Abe's doing is to make a mockery of Japanese politics in front of the world.
But Japanese domestic politics is a US's problem just like how Iraqi domestic politics were the US's problem. It was Al-Maliki's Sunni-excluding Shia government that fueled the Sunni discontent and created a major headache called the ISIS for the US to deal with. Now Abe's doing exactly the same thing in Asia, where you can substitute ISIS with enraged China armed with thousands of jet fighters, aircraft carriers, 70 submarines, and some 2 million soldiers ready to die for the glory of the motherland and to avenge their ancestors.
If Japan was run by politicians trying to avoid confrontations like DPJ prime ministers and China was still picking fights, then yes the blame rests on China and the US should help out Japan. But when it is Japan that is constantly inflaming its neighbors in order to pick a fight then nope, the US should either try to get out of Japan, or try to engineer a regime change by mocking the Abe government in public and endorsing the DPJ.
Let's be honest, Japan is more of a puppet than a puppeteer.
Delete@slowman
ReplyDeleteHow can you sit there and condemn Japan with a straight face? China has been the one escalating tensions by unilaterally declaring an ADIZ, and looking to seize the territory of other sovereign nations. China is the one preparing its populace for war under guise of uniting the zhong hua minzhu. Japan is well within its rights taking steps to defend itself from an imperial China.
@ wtfunk
Delete> How can you sit there and condemn Japan with a straight face?
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/05/16/chanos-japans-shinzo-abe-is-most-dangerous-figure-in-asia/
Chanos: Japan’s Shinzo Abe Is ‘Most Dangerous Figure In Asia’
The hedge-fund manager, famed for his bearish bets against companies like Enron, said at a conference Friday the biggest threat to the Asian economy was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“The most dangerous figure in Asia is not in China; it’s in Japan. Abe, with our backing, is an ultranationalist,” said Mr. Chanos, founder of Kynikos Associates. “He [will begin] to destabilize the area from a political and military point of view more than any Chinese leader.”
Mr. Abe has taken significant steps toward removing six-decade-old constraints on Japan’s military, and clashed with China over some maritime issues. This week, he said his government would consider whether to allow Japanese troops to aid its allies even if Japan itself isn’t attacked.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26542992
Is Shinzo Abe fanning nationalist flames?
By Charles Scanlon
BBC News
Tensions between China and Japan are at their highest level for decades as Tokyo defies pressure from Beijing over disputed East China Sea islands. As US President Barack Obama tours the region, Charles Scanlon asks whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is deliberately fanning the flames of nationalism in his drive to make Japan a more assertive and self-confident power.
The first article is simply an opinion from a hedge fund manager of all people.
DeleteThe second article even concedes that China is the instigator, not Japan.
"Others agree that China is deliberately making a false link between Mr Abe's policies and the militarism of the past to try to weaken Japan internationally.
'Whatever the views, often objectionable, of these revisionists, there is absolutely no evidence that Japan is returning to any form of expansionist military policy. Indeed... recent changes in Japanese defence policy bind Japan in to its allies and partner countries, and further reduce any possibility of an aggressive military posture," says Simon Chelton, a former British defence attache in Tokyo.' "
It's foolish to believe that Japan would be taking steps to militarize itself if China weren't currently bullying the whole region with talks of the Nine-Dash Line. Along with Japan, China is also menacing Taiwan, Vietnam and The Philippines. But I'm sure as a Chinese nationalist of a Sinophile you chose to believe whatever propaganda China's version of Pravda spews out.