I'm following 10 current Simuldubs.

Kind of exciting after following very little for the last few months.

Now in the past when I've excited about finding a good number of current shows to follow, I've never actually watched all of them to completions.  And this could be the same, never underestimate the ablity of a show that had me impressed at the to eventually lose me.  

As the title says they're all Simuldubs, and there are a couple other recent shows I might try binging when their Dubs are finished, I also intend to try Bubble when it drops on Netflix.  If I decide to try watching a current or recent season show Subbed it'll be either The Executioner and Her way of Life and/or World's End Harem.  But that shall not be the focus for this post.

I'm not promising a return to regularly posting updates on my current seasonal viewings, only when I feel I have something to say will this Gaiden tag be revived.

For Monday I'll be watching Lupin III Part 6 which I actually haven't properly started yet, but Lupin is a franchise I consider reliable.

For Tuesday I'm watching The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising The Nation out of Debt which has actually already reached it's second half.  What intrigues me most is learning the Anti Flahm Racism and how that effects this world's geopolitics, it could wind up being the subject of it's own post, or an important example for a broader subject.

I have 2 shows of Wednesday.

In The Land of Leadale which I learned has the same director as Isekai Smartphone, which to my pleasant surprise had a season 2 announced recently.  It's a fun show but don't' expect any think pieces about it.  It also only has two episodes left, so little chance I'll be dropping it.

Estab Life: Great Escape is my first time watching a show with this particular commonly hated on CG Animation style.  As I watched the pilot episode I got used to it quite quickly actually.  It's also got hella Yuri so I'm optimistic it could be the show to finally earn this style some respect.

For Thursday it's season 3 of Legend of The Galactic Heroes: The New Thesis, it's high quality as the show always was, I'm glad I haven't seen the original and thus can discus this new remake without a comparison filter.  Three episodes are out already and they cover some good stuff.

The Friday docket is Love After World Domination, it's a very fun and cute premise that should be appealing to fans of Power Rangers.

Saturday has three shows, not only that but all three drop deep into the afternoon, I'm sometimes asleep by then.

Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie is an adorable Romantic Comedy with some Milo Murphy's Law going on and some subtle Femdom vibes.

SPY x FAMILY seems to be the designated top Meme Generator for the season, so I'm glad to be following one only a week behind for a change.  Trixie The Golden Witch has a good video on the show but ti keeps getting taken down by copyright BS so I hope it's still up when people get to read this.  Trixie isn't a Dub person though, and as a Dub person I can comment on how "Act Normally" is inherently funny to me because of PLL.  The show might also appeal to people who liked Mr & Mrs Smith.

takt op.Destiny is a show from last year but the Simuldub just started.  I found all three central characters entertaining, and I also got a kick out of the Pilot featuring a setting common to fiction but not necessarily Anime, a midwestern Truck Stop road side Dinner that still has a mildly 50s Aesthetic.  A very specific slice of Americana.

But it's the Sunday show that I really wasn't expecting to be as fascinating as it's first two episodes wound up being, Trapped In A Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs.

The reincarnated as an Otome game Villainess genre really should be and is compelling for the premise of rethinking the Villainess's perspective.  but the only entry in that genre to actually get an Anime so far, Hamefura, as fun as it was did none of that, so far as it appears the real Katerina was destined to be a rotten person before a random Japanese School Girl just stole her life.

This show is NOT that specific sub genre, but actually is putting some thought into the villainess's perspective.  It's drawing attention to how the universe is basically Reverse NTRing her.

That's all my thoughts from episode 2 however, Episode 1 was vert fun but I maybe would have forgotten about it if I hadn't watched it when Episode 2 had already dropped.

Gnosticism in Anime and Video Games

TVTropes has a page called UsefulNotes/Gnosticism where it talks about Gnosticism and then lists examples of fictional stories that were or are thought to be influenced by Gnosticism.

As an Amateur Christian Theologian, I think it's a problem how often Gnosticism is defined based on it's mythological archetypes rather then the actual Philosophical/Metaphysical point.  If your view of the After Life is an intangible spirit realm where we are free of the confines of the Carnal Material World, you're a Gnostic no matter how Orthodox, Nicene and Trinitarian your Theology and Christology is.

One question that is particularly relevant to the accuracy of calling some of these fictional cosmologies Gnostic is, can you be Gnostic but not even nominally Christian?  According to Religion for Breakfast no one called themselves Gnostics in antiquity, and all the known specific groups we call Gnostics were Christian sects who identified each of these Gnostic Mythological archetypes with at least one person or concept in The Bible or some other Judeo-Christian text.  

However they are also the result of these Christians being influenced by older gentile ideas that in my opinion Christians shouldn't have allowed to influence them, Neopythagoreanism, Middle Platonism, Hermeticism, Hellenistic Mystery Religions and since they mostly started in Alexandria aspects of native Egyptian Mythology and Mysticism (thing is the "Proto-Orthodox" were also being influenced by at least the first two of those during this time period, simply to different degrees or in different ways.  The difference between whether you were called a Heretic or not was chiefly rejecting a Bodily Resurrection).  So you take the mythological archetypes that comes from those influences but subtract the explicitly Christian stuff, and you get a framework that can be compared to a number of fictional Fantasy/Sci-Fi cosmologies.

But going back to my distinction between Gnostic Mythology and the actual point of Gnosticism.  I don't think any currently existing "developed" culture is less inclined to sympathize with the point of Gnosticism then Japan.  Shinto Mysticism I actually view as fairly compatible with Stoic Metaphysics, and Stoicism was I'd say antithetical to all of the Non-Christian antecedents of Gnosticism, even if by the second century they were using a lot of the exact same Greek key words and phrases.

And so when I look at a lot of the Anime or other Otaku Media that has been or can be argued to resemble Gnostic mythology, I kind of feel like they're using the Gnostic Mythological framework to convey the exact opposite attitude.  

This is most explicit in SSSS.Gridman where the Sophia figure is trapped in an Idealized Platonic World of Forms and the Carnal Physical Real World is what she needs to return to.  But I think on some level the same is true of the use of Gnostic or Gnostic adjacent ideas in classics like Serial Experiments Lain or Revolutionary Girl Utena.  

I would not apply a Gnostic reading of any kind to most Isekai however, in modern Isekai the other world is just as much of a carnal/material world as ours, it's the culture being different that makes it often a world the Otaku/Neet protagonist feels more at home in then Modern Japan.  Sword Art Online does sometimes feel like it's making Gnostic Mythological references, but that isn't proper Isekai.

But in the case of Final Fantasy VII (and perhaps then every FF that's been argued to be Gnostic) I go back to what I said before about the Stoics and Gnostics being antithetical even in their use of a lot of the same terms.  I think every argument for Final Fantasy VII having a Gnostic cosmology is actually better explained by a Stoic reading, The Lifestream is the Pneumatic World Soul and Mako (like Mana in other JRPGs and Manga/Anime inspired by them) is a Pneumatic Substance.  The Physical world being Evil and Dirty couldn't be more the opposite of what a story like Final Fantasy VII is trying to say about Nature.  These are stories where the Spiritual and Carnal are in a symbiotic relationship with each other, it is Man's Sins (especially Capitalism) that create the problems.

The western world however has been very influenced by Gnosticism, for all the talk about the Gnostics as some minority the Roman Church persecuted into extinction, I'd argue they kind of indirectly won, all of Mainstream Christianity has become at least mildly Gnostic.  Gnosticism is essentially Platonism taken to it's logical extreme, and so that's why a lot of the Japanese media I just talked about and others get interpreted by westerners more Gnostically then I feel the Japanese could have possibly intended.

Update September 26th: It's occurred to me that I should explain the Final Fantasy VII part a bit more.

The Gnostic Reading of Final Fantasy VII in large part revolves around equating the Lifestream with the Gnostic Pleroma.  The Lifestream and Pleroma have in common being both the source and destiny of each individual Soul  However the Gnostic Pleroma is distinctly outside the physical world, the physical world is basically a prison to the pieces of it stuck here.  The Lifesream however is the World, it and the physical Earth are intimately connected, they form a Symbiant Circle what happens to one will effect the other.  It is quite literally the Soul and Spirit of The Earth.

The World Soul is a concept in a few schools of Greek Philosophy, but it is the Stoic Version that has all the same similarities to the Lifestream the Pleroma has but also is part of the world rather then separate.

Basically Gnosticism has more in common with Scientology then it does the Lore of FFVII.

Further Update October 14 2022: I just obtained Platonist Philosophy 80 BC to AD 250 by George Boys-Stones and chapter 8 talks about the World Soul and Nature.

Much of the thesis of the chapter is that while Middle Platonists and Stoics agreed on the World having a Soul, for the Stoics it was a pretty natural product of their Metaphysics as it's virtually synonymous with their God, while for the Platonists it kind of didn't fit so well and proved awkward.

So to Middle Platonists the World Soul was a lesser god at best, and to Plutarch it was actually Evil, but in-between it was also presented as a sort of force without much will or agency of it's own.  

But reading this has only strengthened my Stoic interpretation of The Lifestream and Final Fantasy VII.

I also view the Original Pre-Romanization Stoics as having been the Communists of the Hellenistic World.  And so here's a good Marxist Analysis of Final Fantasy VII.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9EWCLHkqRQNkPHiCAYcIUrJ3twpAmD2o

Superman Anime

It's interesting that there has been, at least officially sectioned by DC/WB, only attempts at doing Batman as an Anime, not Superman as of yet.  Because in my opinion Superman suits Anime far better.

Part of it is of course WB increasingly only having faith in Batman in any context.  But there is also how many Normies still associate Anime first and foremost with Edgy 90s OVAs, so that association has people thinking Batman would be more suited to Anime. But the thing is that type of Anime is too edgy even for Batman, they were Japan's manifestation of the same Zeitgeist that resulted in the "90s Anti-Hero" and the Attitude Era of Pro Wrestling.  I don't think Anime has ever been asked to handle a Dark Vigilante who doesn't Kill, outside of the two Batman cartoons that are supposed to count as Anime but were still written mainly by normal American Superhero writers.

For Superman however, it seems to be Japanese Superhero writers who don't see the problem with making someone like Superman relatable, from Kamen Rider Fourze to multiple Magical Girls and Isekai protagonists.  Anime is filled with Heroes who are more Superman then Superman.

And that comes in part from Anime being influenced by Superman.  The Fleischer Superman shorts were among the inspirations on the Godfather himself Osamu Tezuka, Project Ako was basically a Superman fan film, it's not a coincidence that Tetsuou wears a Red Cape in Akira or that Prince Ashitaka has the exact same color scheme in Princess Mononoke, and I detect some specifically Donner Film influence on Sailor Moon R.

I also think you'd be surprised how easy it would be to actually set a take on Superman in Japan.  There is a Japanese surname very close to Kent, Kenta, and then whatever equivalent Japanese name you give to Smallville place it in Kansai rather then Kansas.

But I'd want it to be truly the Japanese doing it, not like War of the Rohirrim which has a celebrated Anime director but the writers are still standard WB Fantasy Writers.  

Ya know what, I nominate Katsuyuki Sumisawa to write the Screenplay, he was my favorite 90s Sailor Moon writer and amazingly he's the only one still working, he also wrote for Macross 7, Gundam Wing Gundam The Origin, Dragonball Z and Cutey Honey Flash, each of those works brings valuable and relevant experience to the Superman table, but Macross 7 is perhaps the most important, the Main Character of that show is basically Superman with a Guitar.

So yeah this post is in part a follow up to my last post about how I'm into Anime for the writing more so then the Artstyle. But Artstyle is important, and I do also have some thoughts on how a Superman Anime should look.

One of the Things that helped define Richard Donner's Superman film was how he made it almost like three separate films in one, using very different styles for Krypton, Smallville and Metropolis.  And well Anime can do that even more explicitly.  I'm thinking maybe even actually have three different directors with only the Screenwriter unifying all three portions.

The Krypton portion should have an Artstyle reminiscent of a classic Leiji Matsumoto based Anime, or Osamu Dezaki's adaptation of Space Adventure Cobra.

For Smallville I was first thinking Makoto Shinkai, but the rural small town themes in his movies are usually about someone wanting to leave, Clark leaves to become Superman not because he feels stifled.  I'm actually not all that intimately familiar with Anime set in Japanese rural small towns.  So I'm gonna need help with what to recommend here.  

And then Metropolis should look like a Raildex or SciADV based Anime, those shows are good at turning Tokyo into a bright almsot futuristic Metropolis, (while Kara no Kyoukai and Boogiepop turn Tokyo into a Gotham).

In the Raildex franchise, Touma Kamijou is another example of an Anime hero who's core is basically Superman if Japanese.  Meanwhile Mikoto Misaka is the closest thing Anime has to a Batman [I forgot to consider Detecive Conan here], she is a bit more retribution focused when she sets her sights on a villain, but still isn't a killer.

I know some people actually think the SciADV games and their Anime are very dark, but I don't see it.  Red Bard calls Robotics;Notes "SciADV at it's happiest", but the number of named important present narrative characters who die and stay dead is equal to Chaos;Child, one, and greater then Steins'Gate or Chaos;Head.  Now that death in Chaos;Child is contextually much darker and the only thing in a SciADV show I'd never want to see in a Superman Anime, but that's it, it only gets that dark once.  SciADV at it's darkest is still no where near Zack Snyder and Snyder is no where near Fate/Zero.

And there are plenty of Superman stories that have dark stuff in them that are liked by the same people who hate on Zach Snyder's Superman, they just don't want Superman himself to be dark.

What does Anime Inspired even mean?

As I've been thinking more about my past complaints about allegedly Anime inspired cartoons in the West, I realize the inspiration they are taking is all Art Style.  Catwoman Hunted is allegedly "Anime Style" but the actual content and writing of the story is the same as I'd expect from any Catwoman movie.

There was a time when a Cartoon being as "Dark" or "Edgy" as Netflix Casltevania would have been very rare if at all in the West.  But the way that show was written draws more from Live Action American Dark Fantasy like Game of Thrones then it does something like Berserk.

For me the actual art style isn't much of why I like Anime.  Yeah I do prefer it to what the Internet calls the Cal Arts style, but there is plenty of Western Cartoons I think look great like Batman The Animated Series.  And actually the only animated content I've ever found literally unwatchable solely because of how much it's art style doesn't appeal to me are Anime, like Pokémon Sun and Moon.  Even my old complaining about the New 52 artsyle of the DCAMU films was more about my DC fandom hang-ups then any preference for Anime and I was able to enjoy some of them regardless.

That's the thing, the Cal Arts style is being thought of as the antithesis of Anime style right now, but it's Steven Universe that drew actual thematic inspiration from Sailor Moon and Utena, while High Guardian Spice drew on Little Witch Academia.

A lot of what I like about Anime is the Meta, characters within Anime who are Anime fans, Anime that are in part about Otaku culture, and the only reason I have any desire to see Americans successfully make an "American Anime" is so we can finally see the particularities of Otaku Culture in the West represented in that, the representation American Otaku visiting Japan get in Anime is pretty bland, even Patty in the otherwise phenomenal Lucky Star.

So yeah I'd like to see what a show with the basic premise of a Lucky Star or a Yuri Yuri [or Comic Party] would be like if it was set in America and written not by just any Americans but specifically American Otaku who are long time fans of those kinds of shows and the Anime they reference.  Or if you're gonna need fantastical elements to get the budget do something very directly inspired by Anime adapted from SciADV games, or an Isekai where it's an American Otaku who gets randomly transported to a JRPG Fantasy world, but of course American Otaku Gamers would probably use Final Fantasy or SaGa as the model rather then DragonQuest.

Miyazaki's whole complaint about the state of Anime is how insular it is, it's pretty much all being made by Otaku for Otaku and only drawing inspiration from other Anime.  So called "American Anime" is being made not by Otaku but by at best Anime Fans who're nostalgic for what was well known in the U.S. in the 90s and early 00s.  

Even western Magical Girl shows are still made by people who've only seen Sailor Moon and maybe Cardcaptor Sakura, or think Utena counts, and maybe super recently might have seen Madoka.  But the true Magical Girl experience also requires exposure to Pretty Cure, Nanoha, and at least one Post Madoka show (hopefully they'd choose Yuki Yuna), but I'd really be hoping for people who've dug even deeper then that and seen Symphogear, Pretear, Wedding Peach, Pretty Sammy and Prisma Illya.

Don't confuse this with another "Style vs Substance" dichotomy, visual style and writing style are both styles.  In Anime especially Style is Substance.