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The Obscure Anime that Argued Women Secretly Want to Be Slaves (& Other Offensive Anime Themes)
We explore how various anime tackle controversial themes and ideas that would be taboo in mainstream Western media. Anime can act as thoughtful social commentary by framing issues abstractly through fiction. We discuss shows like Beastars, Darling in the Franxx, When They Cry, and the deeply problematic but conceptually fascinating Dears.
Malcolm: [00:00:00] So a lot of people would hear this and they're like, oh, it must be about slavery, right? But no, I don't think it's a show about slavery. It's actually a show about women.
And the way our society treats women, what if there was a group of people on earth that when they were born preferred to be submissive to another group of people? What if that, and what if our entire planet shamed them for that instinct? Made them feel like garbage for that instinct? Made them feel like they had to go out and try to be these These perfect politicians, these perfect citizens, which is what the Deers feel they have to be.
But it's all hollow for them. It's all a facade. Because what they really want is someone to believe in a worthy master to serve. And that is such an offensive idea. You could never say that. It's I mean, I did. I'm going to get canceled for this episode. Of course. Look, I'm not saying I agree with that, but I'm saying some people feel that way.
And it is an interesting concept to explore
Would you like to know [00:01:00] more?
Simone: All right,
Malcolm. So today we're going to talk about various anime shows and what they mean about larger society because, and I think you've made a really interesting observation about this.
fiCtion in the past used to be meaningful and something that we talked about in English class because it said something very profound and meaningful about society that was often subversive and that often couldn't be said out loud. So you had to say it through allegory. You had to say it through some like fantasy world or fictional story.
And everyone had to infer the meaning, the societal commentary. And now that doesn't really happen in that much in fiction. It's all like
Malcolm: context for this. So first, this is actually our second recording because we both forgot to hit record the first time we were doing this. And so Parts of this are going to sound a little rote.
I'm sorry about that. But we did want to do another anime episode because the last one wasn't one of our most watched episodes. People were like, really into it. They were like, actually, like, I'm really nerdy about this stuff and I appreciate you guys talking about it. So we're like, [00:02:00] let's go deeper into this.
But I think, so
Simone: for non, for non weebs. In this, in this audience and it's not like I'm, I'm a nerd too, but I do think that Malcolm is right in that if you want to see genuinely unique social commentary. You're going to see more of it in anime than you are, especially like also, you know, in Western media these days, so much has been sort of like bankrupt and hollowed out by the woke cult, essentially, that you're not going to see social commentary.
You're not going to see some subversive ideas in literature or in mainstream Western media. Where are you seeing it? Anime? So that's why, even if you're not into anime, we recommend. Well, considering some of the shows that we talk
Malcolm: about, we're at least considering the analysis. We'll add interesting ones and we'll talk about them later, so people don't need to actually watch the s**t, okay?
And this actually comes to a point. Somebody, in our last one, they were like, Oh my god, I can't believe the Collins is. Don't just watch Izekaya, but they watch bottom
Simone: tier Izekaya flop. Izekaya. Izekaya is a form of, like, Japanese tapas. [00:03:00]
Malcolm:
Published on 2 years, 1 month ago