I just watched a pretty decent video about attack on titan from Just Write explaining it’s connections to the far right. Almost all of what it talked about was the later seasons that expand on the world or the life of the author. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwCCs6yTpPY
But like, I stopped watching a couple of episodes in because the vibes were fucking stinky man. I sniffed that shit right out. I don’t remember specific examples because this was a long time ago but the way characters interacted, the way the military was glorified, the way society was structured, the uncritical and simple perspective on the titans coupled with the personal hatred towards them. I don’t really remember though.
Why don’t people talk about vibes more? Like, everyone gets all surprised when I said that I stopped watching SAO after the first episode and concluded that it was one of the worst things I’d ever seen. Why does nobody talk about the vibes? I feel like they should be more obvious to people.
Also so many of the shows, esp shonen, that weebs obsess have the overarching subtext of, “this is how good shonen are supposed to act, and if you don’t act this way don’t complain when you fail.” Like, while they are living with their parents because the rents to damn high to move out. Like do you not see the mangaka taking the absolute piss out of you?
:angery:
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Have you seen evangelion? The show actually uses “vibes” in the first half of the series as a way to set you up for the second
I liked eva for the most part. I hated both endings though, kinda killed it for me overall.
r-really? the endings are not separate fyi, but I really liked the show ending and the movie ending accompanied it really well
Yep. Tried AoT again since the new season is airing and my friends won’t shut up about it. Forced myself to finish the first season. The show has it’s merits but it feels gross.
Almost every character is an absolute lobotomized military freak. There’s reddit atheist level commentary on religion. Armin get’s introduced trying to destroy bullies with their own logic. That weird as fuck chud fantasy Mikasa and Eren backstory.
I know it’s all setup for some nazi allegory thingy (the second opening being basically an anthem in german was really subtle guys), but you can feel an open contempt for people that I don’t see going away.
Ok, i’m going to spoil what the “nazi allegory thing” means, so HEAVY SPOILERS:
All those titan shifters are child soldiers sent by an imperialist country trying to conquer the island where the main characters live, also the entire world is ok with this because they are racist towards them (because they used to be a big empire that conquered and enslaved everyone and are the only ones who can turn into titans, the members of this race live in ghettos in this imperialist country and probably all the others). When the main characters find out about this, some want to leave the past behind and make peace with the world; others want to kill everyone else and commit genocide so they will finally live in peace in the island (which clearly portrays one the main characters as the main villain).
That ‘vibe’ you had was just unorganized information. Back when you had just watched it you could have explained in detail why all of these dog whistles amounted to a high level of confidence that this was some fashy bs, but you didn’t need to justify not watching something, so it stayed a vibe.
I guess more what I mean is that people seem to focus so much more on higher order plot when talking about things. It’s rarely like, this author thinks about relationships this way and frames scenes in this way that is similar to how fascists interact with people and frame situations. I just wish that people were willing to take more subjective information as seriously as more objective information. You can’t answer all of life’s questions without both of them but people talk about subjective evidence like it is less than.
Few people seem to talk about how differently fascists interact and think about things than other people. It makes it super easy to spot once you understand it. But videos like this almost always try and prove their points with more “concrete” evidence, such as plot, which is arguably more abstracted from the main point than relationship, framing, language, and other more subjective ideas.
Like, as soon as someone writes a show about the conflict between nations dominated by institutions that value only strength, and ignore or deride the people who can’t participate in those institutions, they’ve already welcomed the fash into their home. Add in glorifying violence rather than seeing it as a means to an end and characters that operate within tight gender roles and it stops mattering if the author was fash or not, because the right already have their feet up on your coffee table like they own the place.
videos like this almost always try and prove their points with more “concrete” evidence, such as plot, which is arguably more abstracted from the main point than relationship, framing, language, and other more subjective ideas.
Ah, this is an excellent point. Yeah, those smaller mood-setting elements are also very important when analyzing media. I agree, a lot of people forget that the setting of a show isn’t something that the creator has to work around when making their story, but something they also invented in service of the kind of story they wanted to tell.
The Thermian Argument is very insidious, so people don’t notice that the fashy communitty in AOT doesn’t have to “invent an external existential threat irreconcilably different from them that requires selfless heroism, unthinking loyalty, and eternal war”, because the author provides it as a premise. Very convenient!
People using this argument to justify shield hero literally sicken me
That is probably one of the worst media analysis videos I’ve ever watched from one of the most blatantly stupid video creators on the platform. You really need to be more careful with what you take seriously.
Ooof. I just sorta went with it because I havent seen the whole show. Do you have any better creators that you reccomend? Whats so bad about this channel?
After all this whole post happened because I was dissatisfied with the video
This channel did a pretty sloppy Hegalian dialectical analysis of Legend of Korra, which IMO revealed themselves as being talking out of their ass most of the time. Unfortunately, I don’t really have any better recommendations. I don’t follow a lot of media analysis YouTubers, because frankly, I think a lot of media analysis falls into the trap of essentially just confirming what they already think the messaging of the show is.
This, ironically, reveals the issue that most media criticism has in presuming that the messaging of a show is something objective, despite every other aspect of consuming art being subjective. Everybody perceives the world around them differently and comes to different conclusions despite being shown the exact same material conditions around them. Entertainment is no different. A fascist will look at most stories and find a fascist interpretation of them regardless of what the actual intended messaging of the show is, so this particular video’s claim of “subtextual messaging” actually meaning anything significant just shows a completely dogmatic approach to media analysis in general.
I can’t fault you too much for the whole “only watched the first few episodes before coming to my conclusions about a show” thing, because god knows you’re not the first or last person to do that. I just hope that c/anime and just leftists, in general, can get over this ridiculous plague of bad media criticism.
Yeah, media analysis used to be one of my most watched youtube categories but I’ve drifted away from it.
So youre saying that the structure of media criticism has to reflect a reality of fluid and changing perpectives rather than trying to find a supposed goal or essence of media?
I still want to hear what you think good media analysis/criticism looks like, any examples? It doesnt have to be from youtube obv
I don’t think the structure of media analysis needs to change necessarily, but I do think there needs to be a rethinking of its purpose. Most media analysis, for the most part, is fine as long as it recognizes itself as a subjective interpretation of the source material rather than an objective analysis of the messages and themes present. These kinds of analyses are fun, especially when discussing them with other people, as long as you don’t take them seriously. While we’re on the topic, I guess one piece of media analysis I did enjoy was ComradeRat’s essay on why Kill La Kill is a Dengist anime. Of course, it’s absurd to say that it was ever the author’s intent, or that it’s the messaging that anybody else is ever gonna interpret from the show, but it’s fun to analyze the themes from the perspective.
Of course, there are examples of media where the intended messaging is very obviously stated, and there is something to be said for criticizing media with very obvious bad takes (i.e. The West Wing), but if you’re at the point where the intended messaging is that obvious it shouldn’t be necessary to do any in-depth analysis to prove your point. Essentially, if you need to explain the messaging to others, you’ve essentially just admitted that it’s a subjective interpretation.
I started to read the essay but then decided it would be more fun to watch the anime first. I stopped watching it in the past because all of the themes of sexual harrasment and assault were super grating to me, but maybe it’s worth a second shot.
Anyway, I think that I’m starting to get what you mean. In order for something to be truly worthwhile media analysis it has to be more than just a summary of the themes. It has to involve some kind of unique perspective. It’s not enough to just sorta be a person who makes a video talking about what the show is, it has to be what the show meant to you, or someone else, or why understanding this piece of media helps us understand something else… It does seem odd really how removed most media criticism on youtube is from the actual youtuber, almost all of the videos are just excuses to talk about shows that they like and they don’t really do much with it. “why atla is a good example of positive masculinity” and then talking about sokka’s arc isn’t really an ambittious enough video to justify the 15 minute run time. Doing something to make it more personal or bringing in unusual knowledge or expertise for a different perspective is important to the video actually being worth your time.
the show had zero rhythm. just constant tension, followed up by further ramping up of tension. you gotta have release at some point
Imo the biggest mark of shit art is a lack of understanding of nuetral and negative space. Let me actually watch your show, not just weather it
