exilley:

exilley:

I do sort of wish western anime fans would analyze anime and manga from a framework of japanese historical and cultural context. Specifically a lot of works from the 90s being influenced by the general aimlessness and ennui that a lot of people were experiencing due to the burst in the bubble economy and the national trauma caused by the sarin terrorist attack. I think in interacting with media that’s not local to our sociocultural/sociopolitical sphere it’s easy to forget that it’s influenced and shaped by the same kinds of factors that influence media within our own cultural dome and there ends up being this baseline misalignment of perception between the causative elements of a narrative and viewer interpretation of those elements. It’s a form of death of the author that i think, in some measure, hinders our ability to fully understand/come to terms with creator intent and the full scope of a work’s merits

#EXTREMELY true yeah #it's not just anime people are incredibly dismissive of japanese media and culture as a whole #like look at the way people react to the 1977 horror film house #emphasizing that it is Weird and Wacky and nothing else #like it has nothing to say #even though it is expressly and unsubtly about what the director says - he was a hiroshima survivor #he was making a film about how the new generation who grew up in times of peace are unaware of the horrors of war #and the ways in which generational trauma from WW2 devours the lives of innocent people #and this isn't random people online - the criterion collection does this! it frames the film as feeling like it's 'from an alien planet' #media literacy isn't just about subtext it is also about analyzing media through a holistic framework #and that includes its historical and social context #but also taking it seriously and approaching it sincerely and in good faith.ALT

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