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owo? Fall 2020 seasonal anime thread? Yes! Yes it is. TALENTLESS NANAOn twitter.com
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So for this thread I actually want to take you on a journey. One that more or less approximates all the different thoughts I went through as I watched these first 2 episodes.Permalink On twitter.com
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We start with what feels like a dollar store brand My Hero Academia, right? We've got the meek, green-haired protagonist who's bullied by his classmates for not having powers. We've got the hot-headed rival with fire powers. We've got the cute, pink-themed love interest.Permalink On twitter.com
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It's also set in an elite school for high schoolers with fun and colorful powers. Except Nana doesn't give us the context that makes UA come alive in HeroAca (put a pin in that)Permalink On twitter.com
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If you know anything about my work you'll know I have more than a few criticisms for HeroAca itself. So seeing a show do the same thing but... worse and without any of the care that make people enjoy HeroAca definitely was a trip.Permalink On twitter.com
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There's this one shot here. The screencap doesn't do it justice. But she's talking and somehow drinking soup at the same time. And there's no animation whatsoever it's just a still image with a voice over. Some of the laziest work I've seen since The Misfit at Demon Academy.Permalink On twitter.com
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(That was last season. Now I'm sad)Permalink On twitter.com
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The whole time we're also fed this propaganda about the "enemies of humanity" and how our super kids are being trained to defeat them. It's a little fascist-sounding but we look over it for now because it feels like there's more to this school than meets the eyePermalink On twitter.com
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Then we get the big reveal. Our would-be protagonist named Nana, had powers all along. And our would-be love interest, also Nana, did not. Pink!Nana is an imposter sent by the state to eliminate every student in the schoolPermalink On twitter.com
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While I don't think this is a great first episode, the twist is certainly interesting. It's interesting enough to move on to the next episode despite the flaws so we do exactly that.Permalink On twitter.com
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We get some backstory on the "enemies of humanity"Permalink On twitter.com
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If you've seen Darker Than Black, you'll recognize this trope. People with superhuman abilities are said to lack morality, compassion, etc. I bring up DtB not to compare the two (DtB is leagues and bounds ahead of this show) but to show this premise can be done and done wellPermalink On twitter.com
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So we keep goingPermalink On twitter.com
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We're told that "cooperation" between the Talented and humanity ended in failure. But the cooperation was "forced military conscription" and "inhumane scientific experimentation". That's not cooperation, that's oppression.Permalink On twitter.com
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Still, we are being told all this from the perspective of the state. There's still time to give us the perspective of the Talented and subvert this. I mean, it should, right? It's... it's right there. You can't seriously expect the audience to see humanity as the good guysPermalink On twitter.com
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So the school which had no context does have some now. It's not a school. It's a concentration camp in which an ethnic minority that had previously been oppressed is genocided off the face of the Earth because society deemed them too dangerous to be kept alivePermalink On twitter.com
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At this point, I'm getting a little uncomfortable. The fascist anime alarm that is surgically installed into my brainstem is going "beep beep beep beep". But I press on. Surely, SURELY at some point we'll subvert this and show us the perspective of the Talented. Right?Permalink On twitter.com
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We meet this student with time travel powers. He's a bit of a communist. He wants to use his powers to eliminate poverty, oppression, and inequality. He is dismissed as delusional and killed with no remorse or narrative sympathyPermalink On twitter.com
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And THAT's how we come to the horrifying conclusion that Talentless Nana justifies genocide. *You.... you made a My Hero Academia clone that's more fascist than My Hero Academia.* What? Why???Permalink On twitter.com
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"Talentless Nana justifies genocide" is gonna be a hot take, as I don't even think a lot of my peers in lefty anime analysis are on board with this interpretation. But holy fucking shit once you see it you can't unsee it. Nana is the protagonist, we're supposed to root for herPermalink On twitter.com
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I don't read manga so much, but a sneak peak into chapters 39 and 40 show that this premise has not been subverted. I don't believe there's a twist coming up. I think it's just fascist.Permalink On twitter.com
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So I've continued to look into Talentless Nana's source material because this show continues to bug and fascinate me. Around 30 or so chapters in, the story begins questioning its premise, as to whether or not the state's actions are justified.Permalink On twitter.com
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Around 50 chapters in, Nana turns against her masters in favor of the residents of the death camps. Since the show seems to be adapting the manga 1:1 think: - in the middle of season 3 the show will start questioning its premise - at the end of season 4 it pulls a 180Permalink On twitter.com
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I like being right, and I like being right the first time, so I admit this kind of stings. But I'm also not willing to forgive the show for a few reasons:Permalink On twitter.com
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1. This season of Nana will absolutely continue to unambiguously justify genocide. It will feature Nana acting in the service of a fascist state and it will have her kill people unchallenged, and it will ask the audience to root for her and revel in her kills.Permalink On twitter.com
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To understand this, you have to understand why fascist shows are so dangers: it's mainly because they normalize fascist ways of thinking. To sympathize with Nana from her perspective means adopting this kind of worldview.Permalink On twitter.com
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2. More importantly: the story suffers the entire way through from not ever looking at the world from the Talented's point of view. When Nana is convinced doing genocide is good, the story asks us to see this as good as well.Permalink On twitter.com
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When the story wants us to feel for how hard it is to essentially be an SS officer, the story to... feel bad for the SS officer. And then when the story turns around and says "well actually, the state is bad because it hurts Nana personally"...Permalink On twitter.com
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...then we kind of get dragged along in that direction too. If we compare to Deca Dence, which at this point for me is the gold standard in writing anime oppression, we start the story focusing on the most marginalized people, and how the system works against them...Permalink On twitter.com
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...and we expand outwards from there. Even with this 180, because Nana remains the sympathetic character the whole time, we're left with the impression that had the system not hurt her and lied to her it would've been fine.Permalink On twitter.com
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"Alright Mo you've been tweeting about this show all day shut up already and answer the question": Talentless Nana -- fash or nah?Permalink On twitter.com
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I would answer: fash, but with a caveat. It's a fascist story that slowly becomes less fascist over time. The parts of the story that are even remotely redeemable won't even show up on screen this season. I wouldn't describe this as "anti-fascist writing".Permalink On twitter.com
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I'd still pass, and the writing is still dangerous and frustrating, but if the arc I described sounds interesting the manga is waiting for you.Permalink On twitter.com