Breaking the Narrative Episode 75: Its Been Some Time AniFem. The Art and the Artist Argument!

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Many times over the years many of us have been tackling these issues we have been dealing with Feminism and Social Justice’s complete hatred and attempt to pervert and overtake artistic endeavors and hobbies, the factors of enjoyment of life, likely due to the fact that so many men are motivated if not by family then by what gives them respite. They realize that if they can control what men enjoy then they can likely even get the most ardent MGTOW to do as they please, since if a man going his own way won’t work for a woman, he would work for a game or some music he enjoys. If he won’t, then they’ll make sure he never gets to enjoy it again. You could say Kathleen Kennedy is doing exactly that now through Star Wars and the #MeToo McCarthyesque group she now heads, trying to ensure that no one who has enjoyed playing with a lightsaber in the past can enjoy it again. Granted, a lot of hardcore fans now delve into a third party custom market for building lightsaber replicas. I’m building this for my own father with much higher accuracy and support than anything Hasbro would put out for example.

So why do I approach the art and artist argument like this? Easy, because by now we’ve all realized that some of the artisans we may enjoy ourselves, we can’t agree with politically or philosophically.  Even the site AniFem has approached this.  Its also something a friend of the group Nick Goroff has discussed on his own channel. The reason this is coming up now is because that while those of the insane left keep trying to attack anything we enjoy we, have keep tempered our ability to separate a piece from its creator. Its very easy to say that we aren’t going to watch something to ensure that its prime creator will not profit. Its a completely different thing to consider all the others that have worked on a single piece. Solo artists are easy not to support, but teams are a completely different matter altogether. So with that in mind, Let’s Hammer This In!

So why did one of Amelia Cook’s lackeys tackle this subject? Perceived Anti-Semitism!
ArtandArtist1Now knowing many people that make these base accusations about the Japanese, I have decided to look into these tweet likes and translations myself to see if they are misinterpreted. Honestly I have to give credit where its due, it is not only real but I have to say they didn’t wait long enough because I think this full English tweet is a stronger hot take for their purposes… honest holocaust denialism and claims of junk racism. This being said, there is a difference between what Yaginuma here has said and normal Japanese isolationism and nationalism, so AniFem jumped the gun on this whole thing. As you can see, this creator has even personally approached and attacked criticism of his views by anime reviewer Mother’s Basement, who has blatant social justice views. I have not watched Recovery of an MMO Junkie, though I’ve heard good things. Looking at who has worked on this, this creator is merely the director. By not supporting this, you may ensure he doesn’t get paid for his views but you also deny the original creator Rin Kokuyo recognition for the original work.

ArtandArtist2
This likely shows a huge lack of comprehension of how the Japanese media industries work. Yes, Yaginuma is the lead director of the entire series and most likely had final say on what went out on DVD and television releases of the series. A majority of the actual creation and work going into it was done by the individual animators and the assistant director Saori Den, who from what I could find has chosen perhaps wisely to not participate in social media. The staff for a single anime nowadays usually spans about 100 to 300 people across three different countries. This usually includes the primary studio in Japan (usually in Tokyo or Osaka), the animation houses in South Korea (who feel towards the Japanese the same Yaginuma feels towards Jews), and the American localizers who sometimes don’t understand nearly as much as they think they do about the country of origin. So if you like something but find out there is one idiot in charge of the adaptation of the original work do you choose to damn hundreds of artisans to spite an executive? Or do you condemn the idiot publicly while separating them from the work they only guided towards development? Also, due to the current nature of anime development, it’s likely that many of these people wouldn’t consider each other friends, merely co-workers and acquaintances.
ArtandArtist3Here even our dyed in the wool feminist is open to admitting that this aspect of social justice thinking harms female creators. I would like to take it to a more gender neutral route and say that any creator that is a decent person can get their career shot down by a shitheel being involved with the development process. They then put forth the bit about the ACCUSATION on James Deen’s project, one which, to my knowledge, still isn’t solidly confirmed. (Please correct me in the comments if my information on this is off). Next, they mention the arrest of Ruroni Kenshin’s Nobuhiro Watsuki for CP, which is still at accusation status at this point due to the arrest occurring in late November of last year. This is not condoning of his ownership of CP if he is convicted, but knowing the structure of Japanese courts we won’t know if this is legitimate until the same time this year. However, this may not and likely should not kill Ruroni Kenshin as a property, because his wife is an author that had helped him with several of his works in the past, so she could very well and likely should go ahead and replace him in this case for the sake of the series. Such things aren’t unheard of in the industry.

As for them being a hypocrite? They are, but not likely for the reason they think.
ArtandArtist4This part of the article goes to show something very important about being a general professional in any field, particularly in Japan. You keep your personal political, religious, and ideological beliefs at the door and concentrate on getting the work at hand done. This hasn’t been done in Hollywood for most of the last decade and we’ve seen how that has hurt the storytelling out of that media industry. Its been a while but I have watched Guilty Crown, I fail to see where in that story about a guy and a girl he pulls a giant sword out of to fight the government being any reference to Zionism. There are church scenes and a scant reference to one character desiring an incestuous relationship but nothing about Zionism. Unless I REALLY missed something with references to personal ‘voids’. As for Angel Cop there is an case of distaste for something there, but its not Judaism. Its Communism! Though with most feminists now a days I can see where Caitlin here can be a bit confused on that one, just saying.  Funny how many she is affiliated with are as Anti-Semitic as Yaganuma is.
ArtandArtist5Here she also admits the understanding that he was likely paid a one time salary for the show and won’t see a lick of the royalties. Most of it likely going to the female mangaka and the higher ups in the production house due to how that industry works, showing how pointless this run of complaints ultimately is. Then, she twists a fact to try to still show his success as insidious while holding out one key factor. Ninety-three percent of anime success is measured in domestic Japanese markets that neither know nor care of Yaginuma’s distaste for Jewish people and only look at a small handful of anime directors that have been in the industry since its inception. Hayao Miyazaki, Rin Taro, and Shinichiro Watanabe are the ones they make a huge fuss over, not relative series scrubs like Yaginuma. Therefore, this is making a mountain out of a molehill overall, namely because even if we in the West start boycotting his works he will still be successful in Japan where Judaism effectively doesn’t exist and the bulk of Christian iconography they deal with is Catholic. Shinto and Buddhism are still the prime religions in Japan and that’s not likely to change any time soon.

They definitely aren’t gonna embrace atheism. That’s for sure. Consider that however you wish. To answer the question that she asks however, you take a professional approach to it and separate the two within reason.  Enjoy the positive works of a person but condemn their negative actions. That’s as simple as I can get with it. For example, I love Babylon 5 for the relevance its story has towards what we deal with daily but its creator, J. Michael Straczynski? I  question the thought processes of when it comes to politics. Though I must commend his mid to late 90s casting of B5 for its diversity of thought, such as major character actors being both liberal and conservative. Hollywood today would do best to look back at how that series and many other actual successes were cast and use that to help mend the divide between political wings in our country.

I know I’m preaching to the choir on this. I just have to get it out there because if I don’t, then even some of us will start to forget how to separate artistic expression from the artist. full stop. Also, if the person in question isn’t bringing their questionable thinking into their work. then that thinking should not affect such work. He does deserve the freedom to say as he wishes, which in Japan isn’t as guaranteed as you might think. Also remember, if these people have their way then all of us will be robbed of the ability to speak freely, live freely, and game freely! So Please, Remember To Game Freely!

Alex Tinsley
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About the author

Alex Tinsley

A student of Fine Arts and Japanese culture of six years at Murray State University. Having never graduated due to difficulties with a specific teacher has gained a unique perspective upon the issues being faced by men and boys. A father of a young boy and loving husband.

By Alex Tinsley

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