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I& #39;m going to look this up, but I& #39;d love to hear some anecdotal thoughts and responses: why were robots, cyborgs, Transformers, Astro Boy, etc such a big hit in Japan? Akira, Ghost In The Shell – these are legendary now, but what were their origins? Post-war Industrialization?
Anecdotally: Post-War Japan, after having atomic bombs dropped on them, rapidly modernized – making leapfrog developments in infrastructure and hardware. In the 80s they seemed like they could be the next global superpower (comments from /r/cyberpunk)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_economic_miracle">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japa...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_economic_miracle">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japa...
"While Astro Boy wasn& #39;t a giant robot, 1956& #39;s Tetsujin-28 was. The manga was inspired by the U.S. firebombing of Kobe and the notion of top secret super weapons." https://kotaku.com/5834287/why-big-badass-robots-and-mecha-rule-japan">https://kotaku.com/5834287/w...
Life-sized Gundam models are really something to behold. A monument to human imagination and contemporary storytelling.
"What is humanity? [...] To over-simplify slightly, Akira is about losing humanity and Ghost in the Shell is about finding it; Akira explores its themes externally while Ghost in the Shell is all about looking inward." https://nerdist.com/akira-ghost-in-the-shell-and-the-humanity-of-cyberpunk/">https://nerdist.com/akira-gho...
Akira& #39;s director Katsuhiro Otomo& #39;s answer to "what book had the greatest impact on you": HG Wells& #39; War Of The Worlds (1887) – which was about a Martian invasion on Victorian England, and often considered to be a commentary on British Imperialism
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/story-behind-film-akira/">https://www.empireonline.com/movies/fe...
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/story-behind-film-akira/">https://www.empireonline.com/movies/fe...
& #39;& #39;Japanese don& #39;t make a distinction between man, the superior creature, and the world about him. Everything is fused together [...]. We have none of the doubting attitude toward robots, as pseudohumans, that you find in the West.” https://www.wired.com/story/ideas-joi-ito-robot-overlords/">https://www.wired.com/story/ide...
https://twitter.com/somebadideas/status/1067310050908299264?s=21">https://twitter.com/somebadid...
architecture https://twitter.com/furmadamadam/status/1171760223914266625?s=21">https://twitter.com/furmadama...
A collision between flesh and metal, the sub-genre is an explosion of sex, violence, concrete and machinery [...] post-human nightmares and teratological fetishes, powered by a boundaryless sense of invasiveness and violation."
http://www.midnighteye.com/features/post-human-nightmares-the-world-of-japanese-cyberpunk-cinema/">https://www.midnighteye.com/features/...
![A collision between flesh and metal, the sub-genre is an explosion of sex, violence, concrete and machinery [...] post-human nightmares and teratological fetishes, powered by a boundaryless sense of invasiveness and violation." https://www.midnighteye.com/features/...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EUi0Ii1UYAEh6t9.png "A collision between flesh and metal, the sub-genre is an explosion of sex, violence, concrete and machinery [...] post-human nightmares and teratological fetishes, powered by a boundaryless sense of invasiveness and violation.\" https://www.midnighteye.com/features/...")
http://www.midnighteye.com/features/post-human-nightmares-the-world-of-japanese-cyberpunk-cinema/">https://www.midnighteye.com/features/...
https://twitter.com/QiaochuYuan/status/1118619040463777792">https://twitter.com/QiaochuYu...
