Just once I want there to be one of those big narrative epic games-as-film type video games that forces you to be a faggot. Not “there’s a male romance option” no “optional romances” at all not only is the MC gay, he is having 20 minutes of unskippable gay kissing spread across 80 hours of cutscenes and it is integral to the story and if you skip past the gay kissing you will miss vital plot beats. For the next 400 hours of gameplay you are a homosexual and you are going to LIKE it.
Fellas is it lesbophobic for a gay man to wish Cal Kestis from Jedi: Survivor was gay?
the most annoying people are the ones who just reply “no 💖” to recovery/self-improvement posts
THE WET BOX
ill never forgive you guys for reblogging the version without the wet box addition now there’s edgelords in my notes and nobody gets to hear about the wet box
This is Jeane Karen Waits. She’s the main character of my webcomic NINE GATES, which is a fantasy isekai thing about very dysfunctional girls exploring a haunted megacity full of ghosts and skeletons, and they might even kiss along the way. I wanted to do a little character trivia thing about her and a few of the other characters just because I had it on the mind, so without further ado:
Jeane is 19 years old. Since NINE GATES is set in 2013, Jeane would be 29 years old in the modern day.
She played basketball in college
Her favorite game is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and she’s a massive Alucard enjoyer.
Compulsive Heterosexuality :( Beyond that she’s incredibly gay and weak to women
She’s pretty tall, around 5′11″
She’s adopted, but her adoptive parents have some French heritage, hence her name. She pronounces it like “Gene” though, and you should too!
Her grades in school were decent, but beyond that she’s honestly a bit airheaded
Her central inspirations are: Kobeni Higashiyama from Chainsaw Man, Gideon Nav from The Locked Tomb, and Brother Nier from Nier
Her favorite movie is Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), the one with Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder
She’s named after the final boss from No More Heroes, her name isn’t a Joan of Arc thing no matter how saintly I drew her on that cover art.
Jeane definitely listens to Florence and the Machine
I've read through your posts and deliberated some more, yet I still don't see the connection of a critique on capitalism. I see the critique of work, yes, but mostly because it reflects Denji's self value. I don't think it's the same.
You’re not the first to ask, so I’ll answer (I’ll try to be succinct). I just want to make it clear that this is all my interpretation, if you still don’t see a connection after this post. Then you’re just interpreting this point differently, and that’s completely ok.
For more context I think it’s interesting to point out who I am or rather what I do. I’m a lawyer, still in training but enough to call myself one. I specialize in a rather specific area of law in France: public economic law. Let’s put it this way: it’s a body of law that analyzes the relationship between the State and individuals, and focuses solely on the general interest.
Let’s agree on a definition of capitalism. Capitalism is an economic and social system in which capital (the source of income) and the means of production and exchange do not belong to those who use them through their own labor.
It’s important to note that capitalism takes different forms in each state.
In Japan, the origins of capitalism lie in vigorous state intervention. The period that best characterizes it is the Meiji era, the 19th century. Today, this is revealed by the significant intervention of the Ministry of the Economy.
If all this sounds complicated, there is a first element of definition. If I don’t just see a critique of the world of work in the public hunter system, it’s also because one of Chainsaw Man’s themes is the state. I’m not extrapolating, since it’s a theme that recurs several times, whether through Makima and her confrontation with the gun demon, or through the choice of security structure: public. That is, controlled by the Japanese government.
I think that, yes, CSM makes a more global criticism than a specific point of society, and speaks of the relationship between citizen and state.
But let’s continue. It’s not insignificant either that the first images of the CSM season 1 trailer are of a dark alleyway overflowing with rats. Nor is it insignificant to set up a character, very young, and very poor as a main character. This doesn’t shock us, as heroes tend to have tragic pasts, but it’s not an empty choice.
When we think of neoliberalism, the example of the United States or the United Kingdom are the first that come to mind. Yet Japan is the OECD country that has seen the greatest rise in inequality, due to deregulation of the labor market and the rise in precarious employment (40% of the working population today) with the privatization of key sectors such as rail and postal services.
Privatization movements ? That’s been covered.
But another feature of Japan’s aggressive neoliberalism is the university. Whose entrance fees are increasing atrociously.
University entrance fees ? Lack of education for the most precarious classes ? That’s been covered.
What I’m trying to prove once again is that Fujimoto applies himself to revealing the relationship between individuals and states. Makima, the antagonist, is even subjected to it, inscribed in a hierarchical relationship. She has also become an uncontrollable demon to the point of making the United States swoon, for she is nothing more than a chimera created by the Japanese government, which has hammered her with the doctrine of evil necessary for the greater common good. In other words, collectivism.
The connection between capitalism and Denji’s character is often made, but even Makima, the antagonist, was following a goal imposed by a larger structure, from which she didn’t really benefit because she wasn’t happy.
Nor is Chainsaw Man just about an extremely harsh working world. We’re also talking about the extent to which Denji is satisfied with little things (which Fujimoto also sees in a positive light).
But Fujimoto’s main point with Denji is not that the problem lies in his dreaming of toast per se (although that’s a problem too), but that there’s a disproportion between his sacrifices and his rewards.
It’s not insignificant that Denji suffers horribly when he turns into Chainsaw Man, that the system seems to work with him because he sees himself only as a tool.
Capitalism is defined above all by the fact that the worker does not reap all the benefits of his work.
Denji literally produces the added value that will serve his structure without perceiving the benefits in the extreme. Since Makima is going to take all the benefits away from him.
Is it fair, then, to speak of a simple critique of labor when we know that the antagonist is the product of the Japanese government? Don’t think of the critique of the world of work as a separate, singular critique, but as part of a critique of a more global system: Japan and its current regime, capitalism.
For it is the relationship between the economy and the state’s conception of it that affects the world of work. The liberalization movement that began in the 1980s and accelerated in the 2000s and 2010s is a striking example of this. What is the clearest result of the relationship between globalization and Japan than manga ?
If there’s one thing that helped me understand Fujimoto’s interest in these issues, it’s his relationship with his own industry. His works culminate in themes relating to the community and the individual, and their relationship with art and culture. Just think of all those movie scenes.
Fujimoto isn’t delivering a critique of capitalism because it’s fashionable to do so,he’s following a lineage of his own.
Fujimoto isn’t delivering a critique of capitalism because it’s fashionable, he’s following a lineage, also talking about the relationship between capitalism and his art. The mangakas themselves are trapped in a logic of commercialization and commodity production, to the detriment of creativity itself. I feel that Part 2 is a complete response to Chainsaw Man’s worldwide success. The way Denji’s daily life hasn’t changed a bit, and also the parallel with Fujimoto.
An ultra-popular author… but one who turns in a chapter once a week.
