Tag: Capitalism
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“Hunter × Hunter”‘s Heavens Arena as a Metaphor For the Late Capitalist Class System
Heavens Arena is a 251-story, 991-meter building and a mecca for fighters, as explained by the narrator in the Hunter × Hunter 2011 anime series. The rules are rather simple. If you win a fight, you climb 10 stories higher, but if you lose one, you descend 10 stories. Based on the referee’s assessment of…
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Combustible Decadence of Neo-Tokyo in the Flawed Masterpiece of Anime “Akira”
I found Akira, a landmark animated film which introduced the Japanese animated films to the Western audience, to be an eclectic mess. During the first and even the second watching of the film it seemed that way. Later, as I managed to put the pieces together (and some parts of the film are fragments of…
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Mizoguchi’s “Sansho the Baillif”: Karl Marx in Heian Japan
Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sanshô dayû is based on a folk tale taking place in the Heian period; Chinese and Buddhist influence, as well as the one of the Imperial power were at their summit. Mizoguchi is one of the greatest Japanese directors who created during the period of Japanese cinema which may very well be called its…
