- Joined
- Dec 15, 2021
I never liked Berserk after Golden Age. It just drags on with no direction and Griffith is not a good villain or actual character.
Anime/Manga - Discuss Japanese cartoons and comics here; NO CULTURE WAR DOOMPOSTING!
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- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
I’m working my way through Drama Queen and, this is me being insane, I am legitimately blown away so far with how good its symbolic storytelling is. I’m not lying, I actually want to write a really autistic dissection of its themes because there is a lot more than meets the eye with this one.
I think a lot of people are missing the forest for the trees because ‘muh xenophobia’ and ‘muh Americans’ and ‘muh racism’ had such (gay) controversy that, while those are obviously themes and part of the story, they completely miss the feminist aspects as well as the thematic discussion of taboo.
It’s really a lot like Chainsaw Man, and I mean that as a compliment. Chainsaw Man is a story told in symbols that you must decipher and Drama Queen is so similar in that respect that it’s a meme.
I think a lot of people are missing the forest for the trees because ‘muh xenophobia’ and ‘muh Americans’ and ‘muh racism’ had such (gay) controversy that, while those are obviously themes and part of the story, they completely miss the feminist aspects as well as the thematic discussion of taboo.
It’s really a lot like Chainsaw Man, and I mean that as a compliment. Chainsaw Man is a story told in symbols that you must decipher and Drama Queen is so similar in that respect that it’s a meme.
wtfNeedSignUp
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Near the end of the original Yu-Gi-Oh, I remember it implied Atem was more morally ambiguous, with Kaiba having a point in rebellion rather than just having his dad possess him for 5 minutes. Also summoning killed slaves rather than cost nothing.
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
Get ready bois, I caught up with Drama Queen and I’m ready to fucking sperg. Now, my analysis will more or less scoot over the whole “foreigner” thing as we all get the point on that, and I think there’s some stuff I haven’t really seen brought up that I personally find interesting.
Aliens as foreigners
This is the base level idea, and pretty obvious. The aliens represent immigrants, but more importantly soft economic conquest and entitlement. The aliens saved humans, therefore humans must cowtow to the aliens. The aliens brought wealth and technology (to the elite class of humans), therefore any and all misdeeds done to the humans are covered up or ignored.
Obviously this is about westerners, mostly Americans, coming to Japan feeling like saviors but in reality degrading the country by demanding that they have the best jobs, that they have the best lives, that they can do anything they want, and kvetching like crazy if ever defied.
What’s interesting to me is that out mains are not the only people who hate the aliens by a mile. We meet many characters who have beef with the aliens, to the point that a common conspiracy theory is that the aliens themselves set up the asteroid situation in order to peacefully conquer the Earth. Why this is interesting comes back to the privilege that the aliens have, I think the true reason anything they do is covered up is the same reason as in our world. If the humans are allowed to know that many other humans hate the aliens and want them gone then the humans can group up to fight for that goal. This is already happening in the story, and I think that this will become a larger point in the story.
I also think we could view the aliens as an allegory for the rich exploiting the working class and keeping them poor, but really as it’s a Japanese story that’s more in line with the whole foreigner idea as is.
Aliens as men
From literally the first cover the phallic imagery of the aliens is blatantly obvious. Their trunks are literally dicks, and while this is a funny gag I believe it speaks to a deeper theme I rarely see discussed. I think that we can read the relationship aliens have with humans, more particularly with Nomamoto, as the relationship men have with women in some senses.
The aliens are larger, have more power and privilege, are themselves phallic symbols, and while some are good the humans don’t know which aliens are good or bad until it’s too late. They are men, humans are women. The aliens have done great things for humans, but have also degraded them down to second class citizens who must tread lightly around the aliens just in case. Nomamoto represents how women may view men.
She hates them, she absolutely fucking hates them. I believe we will learn that she is a hybrid but either way I think it’s very likely she has a tragic backstory regarding the aliens. And with other imagery I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it was rape in at least a symbolic sense. I will explain that, but for now let’s just say Nomamoto represents a woman who was harmed by men but is still attracted to them.
She hates them and yet she is obsessed with them. She wants power over them, she wants to consume them and that is a major metaphor for sex. She wants to consume them so much that that desire overpowers her desire to kill all of the aliens, the way a woman who was abused by men may both want to be rid of them forever yet desire them for various reasons. Consumption has frequently been used as an allegory for sex as the action of eating is that of taking something, or in this case someone, and becoming one with it. Her eating the aliens obsessively, in particular many of the scenes focusing on her eating the heads or trunk, is her gaining pleasure from the erotic destruction of a creature she despises. Now, the rape.
Look at this image here:
The alien ships are straight-up sperm impregnating the Earth. And everyone who talks about the ships hates them and is disgusted by them in the sky, a constant reminder of their conquest. A reminder of their violation at the hands of the aliens. We also were just introduced to a character who was abducted by aliens as a child, assaulted and scarred, and is now obsessed with trying to fuck women. If that’s not also an allegory for hypersexuality as a coping mechanism for SA I don’t know what is. Does that remind you of what Nomamoto is doing?
I am so fascinated with this manga, I really want to see where it goes from here because the pieces are all laid out for something insane. I also can’t find shit about the author aside from some short mangas, so without the context of the author I have no real idea how things will turn out here.
Aliens as foreigners
This is the base level idea, and pretty obvious. The aliens represent immigrants, but more importantly soft economic conquest and entitlement. The aliens saved humans, therefore humans must cowtow to the aliens. The aliens brought wealth and technology (to the elite class of humans), therefore any and all misdeeds done to the humans are covered up or ignored.
Obviously this is about westerners, mostly Americans, coming to Japan feeling like saviors but in reality degrading the country by demanding that they have the best jobs, that they have the best lives, that they can do anything they want, and kvetching like crazy if ever defied.
What’s interesting to me is that out mains are not the only people who hate the aliens by a mile. We meet many characters who have beef with the aliens, to the point that a common conspiracy theory is that the aliens themselves set up the asteroid situation in order to peacefully conquer the Earth. Why this is interesting comes back to the privilege that the aliens have, I think the true reason anything they do is covered up is the same reason as in our world. If the humans are allowed to know that many other humans hate the aliens and want them gone then the humans can group up to fight for that goal. This is already happening in the story, and I think that this will become a larger point in the story.
I also think we could view the aliens as an allegory for the rich exploiting the working class and keeping them poor, but really as it’s a Japanese story that’s more in line with the whole foreigner idea as is.
Aliens as men
From literally the first cover the phallic imagery of the aliens is blatantly obvious. Their trunks are literally dicks, and while this is a funny gag I believe it speaks to a deeper theme I rarely see discussed. I think that we can read the relationship aliens have with humans, more particularly with Nomamoto, as the relationship men have with women in some senses.
The aliens are larger, have more power and privilege, are themselves phallic symbols, and while some are good the humans don’t know which aliens are good or bad until it’s too late. They are men, humans are women. The aliens have done great things for humans, but have also degraded them down to second class citizens who must tread lightly around the aliens just in case. Nomamoto represents how women may view men.
She hates them, she absolutely fucking hates them. I believe we will learn that she is a hybrid but either way I think it’s very likely she has a tragic backstory regarding the aliens. And with other imagery I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it was rape in at least a symbolic sense. I will explain that, but for now let’s just say Nomamoto represents a woman who was harmed by men but is still attracted to them.
She hates them and yet she is obsessed with them. She wants power over them, she wants to consume them and that is a major metaphor for sex. She wants to consume them so much that that desire overpowers her desire to kill all of the aliens, the way a woman who was abused by men may both want to be rid of them forever yet desire them for various reasons. Consumption has frequently been used as an allegory for sex as the action of eating is that of taking something, or in this case someone, and becoming one with it. Her eating the aliens obsessively, in particular many of the scenes focusing on her eating the heads or trunk, is her gaining pleasure from the erotic destruction of a creature she despises. Now, the rape.
Look at this image here:
The alien ships are straight-up sperm impregnating the Earth. And everyone who talks about the ships hates them and is disgusted by them in the sky, a constant reminder of their conquest. A reminder of their violation at the hands of the aliens. We also were just introduced to a character who was abducted by aliens as a child, assaulted and scarred, and is now obsessed with trying to fuck women. If that’s not also an allegory for hypersexuality as a coping mechanism for SA I don’t know what is. Does that remind you of what Nomamoto is doing?
I am so fascinated with this manga, I really want to see where it goes from here because the pieces are all laid out for something insane. I also can’t find shit about the author aside from some short mangas, so without the context of the author I have no real idea how things will turn out here.
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- Joined
- Jan 12, 2017
I dunno, might be a bit out there for the time being since Nomamoto is quite the tomboy, but is also an anti-social (almost misanthropic in tone), and we have been seeing female aliens and the one neighbor might be reaching out to her to have a female friend. I'm sure her backstory will show why it is she is like this and became the girlfailure she is, but I'm honestly expecting some other character to come in who was actually raped by an alien, and am not sure if this new guy is that particular example.
I dunno, the recent arc culminating in the shootout might not be the masculine-coded symbolism you're suggesting. It was definitely more of a "Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason but don't you dare assume so, bigot" situation, and I think we'll get further confirmation with the idol to see if she's still #NotAllAliens or has become radicalized. If she's still the former, and even throws herself at Lilly♪ for it, then yeah, her Woman Moment will outright confirm the "aliens are men" you're suggesting.
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
My idea is that they are not literally men, but serve as a representation of the power men have over women as a social entity.
We’ll have to wait and see if my allegorical nonsense holds water, this series could either evolve into pure kino or turn into total dogshit but I really feel there’s some deeper themes brewing up.
wtfNeedSignUp
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Kunoichi and Ninja latest episodes gives me flashbacks to Akiba Maid War
Cool eyepatch though.
Also finished Yu-Gi-Oh, wish it had a proper epilogue than just ending suddenly. Thinking about watching the last GX season, can't find it dubbed and I feel like it's too repetitive to justify reading the sub.
Also finished Yu-Gi-Oh, wish it had a proper epilogue than just ending suddenly. Thinking about watching the last GX season, can't find it dubbed and I feel like it's too repetitive to justify reading the sub.
PS1gamenwatch
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2015
I forgot it was this character's birthday
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2025
Same, I'm not sure what happened with it, but the fairy, the 2 underage characters following Guts, Casca being retarded the whole time, it almost felt like a slice of life with some shock content. Ironic that the Golden Age is the best arc of the entire manga and nothing came close to it after. The conviction arc has some good moments but it only goes downhill from there.
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
I watched that. The story of the Baki translation feels like what would happen if the Farms translated a Manga. Absolutely batshit.
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2022
This doesnt help him since Gotouge had 4 one-shots and no series to their name before making Demon Slayer (and I'm pretty sure one of them was just a pre-serialization one-shot for it) which, outside of a very vocal minority, had a pretty well received run and conclusion.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2022
Every time I think about how the series could end, nothing seems good enough. How could you end something like that (after the stakes became global and the "final boss" became the Idea of Evil itself) without it being extremely cliche and unsatisfying? Berserk was initially supposed to be just a dark shounen series about an edgelord fighting demons and getting his revenge. It clearly followed the popular Fist of the North Star formula at first... but then something happened, Guts shed a tear. I think the Golden Age arc in its inception was/is the greatest genius of Berserk. The idea to actually flesh out your seemingly basic protagonist and make his pain the reader's pain. However, this act turned what was going to be a generally simple series into an extremely complicated one, perhaps to its ultimate "detriment".
Instead of creating a generic revenge story, Miura was now free to flex his creative muscles in a medieval romance setting, instead of just a dark fantasy. He could now draw armies, kingly courts, medieval fashion, romantic pairings and beautiful vistas. I believe that the Golden Age freed him up to turn Berserk into something that it wasn't initially created to be. The Golden Age sprawled into probably the longest flashback arc in manga history, which I think showed how much fun Miura had with it. Guts was fleshed out, the world was flesh out, an entire medieval drama and three-way love triangle was created between Guts, Casca, and Griffith. Berserk didn't have to be just a Dark Fantasy revenge story anymore. However... The Golden Age inevitably had to end, and in a way which connected it to that initial revenge story. It was, in a sense, "shackled" to that old story that Miura seemingly wanted to get away from for so long.
The lessons Miura learned from the Golden Age obvious enriched Berserk moving forward, but the story was now back to what it started as, a man slaying monsters. Just as the Golden Age was shackled to the old story, the "new story" was now shackled to the Golden Age. Miura couldn't remove Casca, because that would make Guts too simple. And Miura couldn't remove Griffith (the beautiful one), because that would make Guts' enemies too simple. So what happens? Instead of being killed off as originally planned, Casca is potato'd and kept around. And what happens right after the Eclipse? The Conviction Arc, which ultimately ends with the resurrection of Griffith to a tangible plane. The Golden Age made the most interesting thing about Berserk not the monster slaying or revenge plot, but the three-way love triangle between Guts, Casca, and Griffith, something The Black Swordsman Arc didn't account for it at all. One could argue that the majority of Berserk post-Conviction was Miura stalling for time, especially with that boat arc. I don't believe he had any worldly idea about how to end the series satisfactorily.
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2015
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
Brother if Fate/strange fake is becoming a yearly anime I'm snapping
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2023
I prefer Tower of Conviction or anything else after Golden Age. But that is to some extent due to fatigue, since it has the most mindshare and is a bit too omnipresent.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2021
Tower of Conviction is honestly where I stopped caring. It’s just very trope heavy and the world really shows how poorly thought out it is. The entire magic world bs with the idea of evil just being a rip off of Hellraiser’s crystal Leviathan and reality being an inverse Kabbalah tree of life felt like it would be unsatisfying.
You kind of need good catastrophe in darker fantasy.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2025
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2019
I didn't give a shit about that arc by the time I got to reading it. Why should we care about the people Guts saves when they could all be killed by demons at any moment? Its all too grimdark for it's own good.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2025
Something about Guts, in his most broken and downtrotten moment, deciding to comfort a little girl while also disuading her from following him, just gets to me.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2017