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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   25915 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026

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Regarding the dinergoth article, I wonder if the author considered the possibility that the surging popularity of anime in the US may have something to do with the remarkable lack of (preachy) wokeness that characterizes it.

I mean it may also just be having good story lines. Everyone seems to like japanese cartoons; when the French(with their own very robust culture making apparatus which is different from our own) gave their youths a stipend for cultural materials they spent it on manga.

I meam, how many copies of Asterix can one really buy beford you need to spend that stipend on something else?

Note that I'd originally included Lucky Luke, but that was Belgian, right? Like Tintin?

Can't speak for the public in general, but that is absolutely why I got into Genshin Impact. (Which is Chinese, so technically not anime, but it's absolutely free of woke BS and performative virtue signaling.) It's so refreshing playing a game (or watching a show or movie) where I don't immediately know who the bad guys are because they're white and male. And where girls are allowed to look sexy, and heterosexual relationships are allowed to exist.

Interestingly, the English voice actress for Paimon (who is the most important character in the game, basically voicing 50% of the lines) actually was a woke lunatic, complete with performative "neurodivergence", an online persecution complex, and claims of being "non-binary". Finally HoYoverse had enough, and 4.5 years into the game's release, they actually replaced her with a proper professional actress. I couldn't imagine a Western studio doing that - if anything, they'd applaud her "bravery" and try to get her on staff permanently to fill out their quotas.

Oh is that why they changed it? I thought it was her squeaky whiny voice. The new one is better though.

I guess it's entirely possible that was part of the reason! I actually kinda liked Paimon's old voice, but I know I'm in the minority. The new actress is doing quite a good job - the voice isn't too different, but definitely less grating.

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