Frieren enters its second season in January. The popular anime represents a turning point in the fantasy genre—and Japan's societal zeitgeist. By Marco Gallina
Though as any self respecting commenter on the internets i need to shit all over it by adding some perspective and insist on how i am right and everybody else is wrong.
The aspect that made Frieren so successful within the alt-right wasn't that there are black and white characters who became allowed again somehow.
A short look at Übel, who may have the most fan art after Frieren, shows that very clear.
Yes, she may be popular because of her armpits and her smugness when bullying Land, but she also is morally ambiguous and exremely grey, not black or white in the slightest.
One might argue she is a total psychopath who is able to kill without any remorse whatsoever. And she still is one of the "good guys".
The "good guys", as seen during the magic evaluation tests, do not really follow western morality. There, might makes right and if you have to kill to advance your path? So be it.
Darwins law rules there and neither Frieren nor Serie, the oldest and most powerful elfen wizard alive, are an exemption to it and just accept this as an aspect of life itself.
But where it really became the alt-rights newest hype was the blatant unapolegetic racism against demons, not anything "morally" black.
Where other popular shows like "Demon Slayer" show demons as capable of to be reasoned with and some of them even helping humans to achieve some kind of co-existence, Frieren time and time again scolds other characters for even trying to listen to demons, because to her (and the show proves that true) demons only ever evolved the ability to talk to lure humans into traps, which later evolved into sophisticated rhetorics which may fool humans into thinking demons could be reasoned with.
To Frieren it's them or us and everything else ist just weakness.
Something similar happened with "Attack on Titan", where a somewhat gifted people was persecuted gruesome and merciless for a historic guilt and the whole world was out to erase them from existence.
There is a pattern here.
Oh, and last but not least: Asian shows in general have one distinct feature that makes them more appealing to broader audiences day by day: Yes, some wholesome plot like in Frieren but also most K-Dramas which also gain traction.
But it's also more simple, really: Close to zero black people, close to zero transgender people, close to zero ugly people (except the villain of course).
Well, that's my two cents and like i said before: i am right about this.
Close to zero trans people? The last season of the Ancient Magus Bride had to shoehorn two trans people in. Even Mikasa in season 4 of AoT was pretty androgynous looking. And that woman with the bowl cut looked exactly like a man. In To Your Eternity Kahaku falls in love with Fushi, whose default persona is usually the boy from early season 1, but he has male and female forms. Jishi in The Apothecary Diaries is described more than once as having the face of a goddess. Trans and androgyny is everywhere in modern anime it seems.
Frieren’s world is boring and almost intentionally generic as an every-man’s JRPG universe. There is nothing authentically “western” about the world or values of the story, at least no more than the Mushroom Kingdom. In fact, the Mushroom Kingdom is at least full of Occidentalist imagery… There is nothing uniquely Christian about the concept of absolutely evil, irredeemable, animalistic villains, and if it wasn’t for the existence of insane woke people I don’t think anyone would ever see this as political. It’s a good show but I think it’s overrated, and I think its fans are extremely cringey.
I agree with this article, i really do. Mostly.
Though as any self respecting commenter on the internets i need to shit all over it by adding some perspective and insist on how i am right and everybody else is wrong.
The aspect that made Frieren so successful within the alt-right wasn't that there are black and white characters who became allowed again somehow.
A short look at Übel, who may have the most fan art after Frieren, shows that very clear.
Yes, she may be popular because of her armpits and her smugness when bullying Land, but she also is morally ambiguous and exremely grey, not black or white in the slightest.
One might argue she is a total psychopath who is able to kill without any remorse whatsoever. And she still is one of the "good guys".
The "good guys", as seen during the magic evaluation tests, do not really follow western morality. There, might makes right and if you have to kill to advance your path? So be it.
Darwins law rules there and neither Frieren nor Serie, the oldest and most powerful elfen wizard alive, are an exemption to it and just accept this as an aspect of life itself.
But where it really became the alt-rights newest hype was the blatant unapolegetic racism against demons, not anything "morally" black.
Where other popular shows like "Demon Slayer" show demons as capable of to be reasoned with and some of them even helping humans to achieve some kind of co-existence, Frieren time and time again scolds other characters for even trying to listen to demons, because to her (and the show proves that true) demons only ever evolved the ability to talk to lure humans into traps, which later evolved into sophisticated rhetorics which may fool humans into thinking demons could be reasoned with.
To Frieren it's them or us and everything else ist just weakness.
That somehow intigued 4chans /pol/:
https://ibb.co/nNy8dS9Y
https://ibb.co/SCYKx4p
https://ibb.co/Swn4vNXT
Something similar happened with "Attack on Titan", where a somewhat gifted people was persecuted gruesome and merciless for a historic guilt and the whole world was out to erase them from existence.
There is a pattern here.
Oh, and last but not least: Asian shows in general have one distinct feature that makes them more appealing to broader audiences day by day: Yes, some wholesome plot like in Frieren but also most K-Dramas which also gain traction.
But it's also more simple, really: Close to zero black people, close to zero transgender people, close to zero ugly people (except the villain of course).
Well, that's my two cents and like i said before: i am right about this.
Close to zero trans people? The last season of the Ancient Magus Bride had to shoehorn two trans people in. Even Mikasa in season 4 of AoT was pretty androgynous looking. And that woman with the bowl cut looked exactly like a man. In To Your Eternity Kahaku falls in love with Fushi, whose default persona is usually the boy from early season 1, but he has male and female forms. Jishi in The Apothecary Diaries is described more than once as having the face of a goddess. Trans and androgyny is everywhere in modern anime it seems.
Androgyny and transgenderism are somewhat different. Anime has always had tomboys
Frieren’s world is boring and almost intentionally generic as an every-man’s JRPG universe. There is nothing authentically “western” about the world or values of the story, at least no more than the Mushroom Kingdom. In fact, the Mushroom Kingdom is at least full of Occidentalist imagery… There is nothing uniquely Christian about the concept of absolutely evil, irredeemable, animalistic villains, and if it wasn’t for the existence of insane woke people I don’t think anyone would ever see this as political. It’s a good show but I think it’s overrated, and I think its fans are extremely cringey.