So I finished up finals week, should have all A's, had an interview Thursday (and reportedly should expect an e-mail for the next step in the hiring process soon), and have been binging anime as a bit of a celebration for completing my Master's.
In particular, I've been binge watching Hunter x Hunter. The show has some of the all-too-typical problematic sexual bits that the Japanese throw in, which I tend to sort of shrug off as some sort of cultural difference. Like I know that the perverted old men (who are generally portrayed as 'good' characters) are creepy, and disturbing consent issues are not cool, but you can't really watch much anime at all without coming across some of that, and there are other things that I enjoy. (If I had a kid, I'd probably want to sit them down to talk about some of the more problematic parts if/when they came across it, but that's a story for another day.)
There are generally two big things I enjoy about anime. First, the sheer creativity. So much of it is completely out there, and I sort of feel... I dunno. I was going to say it's easier to think outside the box, but it's more like they stretch the limits of the box so that what I consider inside the box expands. Something like that. Anime makes me feel more creative.
The other thing I enjoy is that they touch on topics that far too much Western media doesn't. Hmmm, that's not quite true, but I'll get to that in a second.
The spur to writing this post came from Hunter x Hunter, where a non-human king has been learning various board games and defeating masters in those games as a way of learning how to strategize/rule/conquer. He's bright, picks up the rules quickly, and has defeated a number of master's at their own game until he takes on a Gungi master (Gungi is apparently invented for the anime.)
What makes this interesting? As the king masters various strategy games he came to realize that controlling the rhythm of the game was critical, and disrupting his opponents rhythm gave him control. As he repeatedly fails to defeat the Gungi master, he takes the mental battle off the board and tries controlling the rhythm by threatening to take her left arm. Watching how she refuses to cede control, and shifts the rhythm back in her favor is just fascinating.
This dynamic, this way of addressing complex interpersonal things, the mental components of battle, are something I just don't see addressed at all in the equivalent Western cartoons. Or perhaps it's just children's cartoons?
We do have it, at times. I think J.R.R. Tolkien did, in the battle for Gondor. The Nazgûl brought fear and terror in their wake, a mental attack as much as physical, and Gandalf riding off on his white horse helped restore strength and courage to the men fighting back. It was a morale booster, and a much needed one, that occurred during some of the darkest parts of that battle.
We talk about that sort of thing in the military sometimes. How leaders must maintain the morale of the troops. But, well... for the most part I think we've been at peace so long that we forget (or forgot, I can't speak for the military now, I've been gone too long... and they've been at war either in Afghanistan or Iraq for over a decade now, so perhaps the troops out on the sharp end have first-hand experience now) what that sort of thing truly means. We think of it in, well, business terms I suppose. Morale as something you can boost with bonuses or lunch or some other thing. We don't talk about the leadership and morale booster that comes from standing strong in the darkest of times, when everyone else is wavering and falling.
Hunter x Hunter is not the only anime that does this. Part of what I liked about Naruto, for example, is something similar. Early in the series he's taking an exam to get promoted, and the proctor is adept at putting on the psychological pressure. The proctor created a stressful situation where he tried getting candidates to give up and quit. Naruto, more because of stubbornness than any great intelligence, loudly refuses to crack under the pressure... and in doing so shored up the remaining candidates' resolve, so that they also refused to crack.
Anime illustrates these types of interactions, where one person influences the rest, and it's pretty frikking amazing. They put these things into words, and images, and it's almost like they have a language for it that we in the West have forgotten. Sure, it's filled with fantastical creatures and magical things, but they address the mental component of battles in a way that illustrates some core truths. Firm resolve is important, and sometimes one person refusing to bend can make all the difference. (But not always.)
Hmmm. Speaking of battle rhythm and control-thereof, I feel like I have to admit that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (there are a couple of publicly prominent politicians that I prefer not to give any sort of attention to, even negative attention, as it just seems to empower them and make them feel relevant. If I could, I would completely ignore them... alas, sometimes I can't really talk about certain things without doing so) has shown great mastery at controlling the rhythm, and probably ought to be called a game changer as well.
It's just... if he's changing the rules of the game, it's in a way that makes things worse. If you can tell a tree by it's fruit, then you can tell that he's pretty rotten... because the fruit of his leadership has consistently been making people pettier and smaller.
Technically, he's a game changer. He regularly disrupts other people's rhythms. But rather than inspiring people, rather than making them feel uplifted... less afraid, more capable...
He seems to bring out the worst in people.
In particular, I've been binge watching Hunter x Hunter. The show has some of the all-too-typical problematic sexual bits that the Japanese throw in, which I tend to sort of shrug off as some sort of cultural difference. Like I know that the perverted old men (who are generally portrayed as 'good' characters) are creepy, and disturbing consent issues are not cool, but you can't really watch much anime at all without coming across some of that, and there are other things that I enjoy. (If I had a kid, I'd probably want to sit them down to talk about some of the more problematic parts if/when they came across it, but that's a story for another day.)
There are generally two big things I enjoy about anime. First, the sheer creativity. So much of it is completely out there, and I sort of feel... I dunno. I was going to say it's easier to think outside the box, but it's more like they stretch the limits of the box so that what I consider inside the box expands. Something like that. Anime makes me feel more creative.
The other thing I enjoy is that they touch on topics that far too much Western media doesn't. Hmmm, that's not quite true, but I'll get to that in a second.
The spur to writing this post came from Hunter x Hunter, where a non-human king has been learning various board games and defeating masters in those games as a way of learning how to strategize/rule/conquer. He's bright, picks up the rules quickly, and has defeated a number of master's at their own game until he takes on a Gungi master (Gungi is apparently invented for the anime.)
What makes this interesting? As the king masters various strategy games he came to realize that controlling the rhythm of the game was critical, and disrupting his opponents rhythm gave him control. As he repeatedly fails to defeat the Gungi master, he takes the mental battle off the board and tries controlling the rhythm by threatening to take her left arm. Watching how she refuses to cede control, and shifts the rhythm back in her favor is just fascinating.
This dynamic, this way of addressing complex interpersonal things, the mental components of battle, are something I just don't see addressed at all in the equivalent Western cartoons. Or perhaps it's just children's cartoons?
We do have it, at times. I think J.R.R. Tolkien did, in the battle for Gondor. The Nazgûl brought fear and terror in their wake, a mental attack as much as physical, and Gandalf riding off on his white horse helped restore strength and courage to the men fighting back. It was a morale booster, and a much needed one, that occurred during some of the darkest parts of that battle.
We talk about that sort of thing in the military sometimes. How leaders must maintain the morale of the troops. But, well... for the most part I think we've been at peace so long that we forget (or forgot, I can't speak for the military now, I've been gone too long... and they've been at war either in Afghanistan or Iraq for over a decade now, so perhaps the troops out on the sharp end have first-hand experience now) what that sort of thing truly means. We think of it in, well, business terms I suppose. Morale as something you can boost with bonuses or lunch or some other thing. We don't talk about the leadership and morale booster that comes from standing strong in the darkest of times, when everyone else is wavering and falling.
Hunter x Hunter is not the only anime that does this. Part of what I liked about Naruto, for example, is something similar. Early in the series he's taking an exam to get promoted, and the proctor is adept at putting on the psychological pressure. The proctor created a stressful situation where he tried getting candidates to give up and quit. Naruto, more because of stubbornness than any great intelligence, loudly refuses to crack under the pressure... and in doing so shored up the remaining candidates' resolve, so that they also refused to crack.
Anime illustrates these types of interactions, where one person influences the rest, and it's pretty frikking amazing. They put these things into words, and images, and it's almost like they have a language for it that we in the West have forgotten. Sure, it's filled with fantastical creatures and magical things, but they address the mental component of battles in a way that illustrates some core truths. Firm resolve is important, and sometimes one person refusing to bend can make all the difference. (But not always.)
Hmmm. Speaking of battle rhythm and control-thereof, I feel like I have to admit that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (there are a couple of publicly prominent politicians that I prefer not to give any sort of attention to, even negative attention, as it just seems to empower them and make them feel relevant. If I could, I would completely ignore them... alas, sometimes I can't really talk about certain things without doing so) has shown great mastery at controlling the rhythm, and probably ought to be called a game changer as well.
It's just... if he's changing the rules of the game, it's in a way that makes things worse. If you can tell a tree by it's fruit, then you can tell that he's pretty rotten... because the fruit of his leadership has consistently been making people pettier and smaller.
Technically, he's a game changer. He regularly disrupts other people's rhythms. But rather than inspiring people, rather than making them feel uplifted... less afraid, more capable...
He seems to bring out the worst in people.
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