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The Antifascist Praxis of Gatchaman Crowds

It's a well known point that I won't belabor too much that Gatchaman Crowds insight was visionary. At the time it seemed to predict the 2016 election and beyond, and even now revisiting it reveals it may have even predicted people becoming dependent on sycophantic chatbots. At the time I praised it mostly for how it seemed to be demonstrating a better, healthier form of heroism that typical comic book superheroes. But the show itself, in all of its elements, is full of the spirit of antifascist resistance. It was baked in from the very beginning. Fascism doesn't have a theory or text because it's basically a psychological or sociological breakdown. Good primers on fascist theory have been written by many, although Umberto Eco's landmark work on Ur-fascism is a good start. Fascism has a lot of flexible elements that can combine in novels ways, so a certain degree of psychological and social vigilance is needed to be on guard. And it just so happens Gatchaman Crowds...
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Such Violent Saints: The Case of Urban Myth Dissolution Center

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  I am a huge fan of mystery visual novels of the Phoenix Wright, Famicom Detective Club, and Paranormasight mold. If I have to interact with menus for 15 hours to get a slow dripfeed of anime drama delivered in text, I am a happy camper. So I was delighted to discover Urban Myth Dissolution Center, a horror visual novel from Shueisha games, which has a case-style with a story that mixes the best of Occult Academy, In/Spectre, and Gatchaman Crowds while offering something they didn't. Occult Academy is fun, but conspiracy theories and occult obsessions are not as cute and fun as a TV show from 2010 made out. In/Spectre is a delight, but its folklore focus isn't quite as grounded or political as I'd like. And Gatchaman Crowds is a classic, but Hajime is always too high minded and noble, and the series is never quite as angry about the internet as it probably ought to be. Urban Myth Dissolution Center offers a game that is about true crime, urban legends, internet trolls, and...
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Land of the Lustrous and Buddhism

 Having a master's degree in Japanese studies always felt like it could be a boon for writing about anime, but the number of series where having a good working knowledge of the Meiji restoration or labor movements in 1920s Japan are very small. I think I got a reference in Gatchaman Crowds to Nakane Chie's Japanese Society , I understand the context of Golden Kamuy pretty well and wrote an article on that, Yuureitou has some post-Occupation social trends I could nod at but generally, the interest or deep engagement with the things I am familiar with is not that common. After working at a bookstore and learning more about Buddhism I was really ready to do some analysis, but there's not a lot. Before now, the most Buddhist anime, in terms of cosmology was actually Ushio and Tora. That is, until Land of the Lustrous. This is a Buddhist as hell series, and knowing the context will help anyone to understand it better. I wondered if the Buddhist Priest character and the invaders ...
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