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owo? Fall 2020 seasonal anime thread? Yes! Yes it is. HYPNOSIS MIC: DIVISION RAP BATTLE
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This show stumps me. It has really insidious political undertones, but it also doesn't give a shit about those political undertones and definitely just wants to be a show hot guys in hip-hop aesthetic rapping at each other for dominance.
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The show, in case you haven't seen it, takes place in some unspecified future where a matriarchal, totalitarian party coups the government with the power rap alone. They plot to control the inherent violence and misogyny of men by taking their guns by force and...
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...literally forcing them to resolve their conflicts with words. Yeah it's as silly as it sounds. There's a part of you that maybe wants to take the show seriously but it absolutely refuses to let you.
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The political implications here are kind of really interesting. There are basically no female characters in the show. The only women are the fascist dictators or the damsels in distress that the rappers save.
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At first I thought maybe this show would pull a Shield Hero and talk about how evil and corrupt feminism and matriarchies are, but HypMic seems sexist for an entirely different reason. It seems to think the dictatorship is good?
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I would count this as a Husbando show for sure. There's not a lot of fan service but you're definitely supposed to pick a guy and stan. Which brings us to the political bit. Because that means to enjoy this contrived setting where every dude is a prettyboy rapper is to...
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...enjoy the status quo created by the dictatorship. This dictatorship is a kind of liberal feminist "revolution". No one has been liberated. Capitalism, poverty, oppression, and violence all exist. But because women are in positions of power now the world is said to be better.
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But the show seems to only care about this insofar as it delivers more CGI rap dance sequences to the viewer. It's hard for me to work up a sweat and get mad at the show when the show doesn't seem to care or want its viewers to care.
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This show is such a bizarre experience. The politics are kind of horrifying but I can't bring myself to say it's poorly made. I think if this show was just a rap version of The God of High School or something normal it would've been perfectly fine.







