xbobx's Profile - MyAnimeList.net (original) (raw)

"far-right politicians keep popping up in key positions in Italy and France."
Jesus, the Italians don't learn, evidently. (I blame the church! :D) Germany has has been living in its own shadow for decades, constantly trying to compensate for its history. Japan's gone in the exact opposite direction... that Italy would be leaning back into its "glory days" is kind of ironic in that context.

Okay, stop telling me current events shit! I've been trying to avoid as much as possible because the world's crazy enough I'm just fed up with it and plan to go as off-grid as one can possibly be, but I'm constantly being bombarded by divisive American politics everywhere I look. That global politics are every bit as crazy as always doesn't do much to restore my dwindling faith in humanity.
(Ever play Final Fantasy VI? I'm seriously coming over to the "Kefka did nothing wrong" perspective)

"Yeah, I was never too invested on it in the first place. Only election I ever cared about was for mayor because in my opinion it's the only one that actually makes a difference in my life - town council are all marked seats predetermined by corruption and anything above municipal elections makes no difference these days."

Hah, this and your previous paragraph make me grateful there are still people who see the world rationally.
Have you seen The Wire? Despite being American, I assume some of the themes are universal. Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger, who's proved with The Wire and Peaky Blinders his Littlefinger was bad directing and not bad acting) plays a politician who moves up through the ranks; an idealist wanting to root out corruption and make a difference. By the time he's governor, he winds up "playing the game" and making necessary sacrifices and in the end nothing changes but the name of the king.
It's been years since I saw it and my memory is less than perfect, but I recall it was presented less as an overt incrimination of poltics than as a character study that the king is the weakest piece on the chessboard.
It wasn't so overtly Orwellian as "the pigs become the people," as just a natural look at politics and flawed human infrastructures.

"Stay tuned, though, Bolsonaro might try to pull a Trump and make his minions storm some government building later this year."

What I have to keep reminding people, that so many forget because it's now been so long there's a temporal disparity, and what two generations ago was fresh is now "just history and irrelevant," is that this is exactly how Hitler came to power.
Of course, the irony is that Biden has overturned more laws and constitutions and been more overall disastrous to the nation and its people and its economy that people seeing Trump as an admitted dictator doesn't seem so bad.
We overturned the Nuremberg Code so that mass vaccination experimentation would be kosher, but the media has people raging over the overturning of Roe vs Wade.
(maybe this is just Bernays and McLuhan speaking through me, but I blame the media for everything)

"Fun times!"
*Ron Perlman voiceover*
The world never changes. We just get old and wise enough to see it for what it is.

"(I hope you're doing the grape grinding the traditional barefoot way, while dressed as a cute anime girl)."
How did you know what my label was?!!!
I can already see the review: "Gothic Loljisan Chambourcin was the first wine to ever make me sick before I even uncorked it."

I see you didn't care much for Death Billiards. Part of this may be the chicken & egg conundrum. I saw the series as derivative, padding out the same concept for too many episodes, but without being as open-ended and thought provoking, but you saw the series first, so the original probably seemed lacking compared to the recurring character exposition of the series.
As to the "who went to where" I think was the greatest part, as I've read a lot of interpretations, and the OVA was deeper than you realize on first glance. I've seen people pick apart so much of the visual symbolism and offer theories that really fit with it... the series just felt so simple in comparison, like just another anime series pandering to otaku. Again, I didn't dislike it... but it was derivative of something that was rarely original in a medium starved for originality.

HAH!
It's actually funny that our tastes are so different. I actually used you as an example on a psychology forum once, citing that we both have a tendency to butt heads with mods/admins, but despite our divergent tastes seem to respect each other despite each having, realtively... erm.. shit tastes.
I recall the one Shinkai flick I really got into was the one you didn't like. I liked Toradora, and another one I can't even remember the name of, but True Tears was the only drama we actually both liked equally. And on my scale I think Eva and Dantalian are the only anime you've appreciated.
I find that interesting. We can discuss our disparate tastes without animosity, even though writing the same shit in reviews brings down the red right hand of the law.

"c'mon, this dude is about to trigger a civil war and you guys are discussing why We LiVe In A SoCieTy".

As usual, you dislike what I enjoy most, haha. (If they'd been going on about their feelings you'd have loved it :P )
Emil Cioran said that human beings are the only animal to derive so much pleasure from tormenting each other as to have to invent civilization.

"Oshii made a cameo appearance there."
Did he stil look like a hobo who just rolled out from under a bridge?