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this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2025
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One of the work's most famous narrative arcs is about how the demons' evil is racially inherited and independent of material circumstances, and even their children are dangerous monsters that can only be exterminated. Is it really so surprising that someone would see that and think of Rassenkampf and "The only good Indian is a dead Indian," instead of the political project that reformed Puyi?
There's also this line, which... well, let me put it this way: if I were to read this as an pertaining to any real-world political movement, it definitely wouldn't be the bourgeoisie.
E: If anything, the logic of Frieren reminds me of the logic of "populist" anti-fascism, which accurately identifies and rails against the evils of capitalism but externalizes them onto an ontologically evil (generally racial, usually Jews) outsider group.
E2: Come to think of it, the genocide victim protagonist being a blonde-haired, blue-eyed young woman with a German-sounding name is eyebrow-raising as well.
I don't say this usually, but shit really ain't that deep bro, despite the whole amoral species thing, the allegory and subtext about the demons is pretty well intact; German aristocrats doing genocide and colonialism, that's their theme, yeah "it's in their blood", sure call that problematic, big whoop
Come back to me when their presentation is orientalized or is harking to racial caricatures from the west, otherwise your argument is standing on sand
Aside from the fact the context of the arc blows your accusation out of the water, Frieren isn't berating Macht for having the audacity to desire coexistence, she's pointing out his idea of "coexistence" seems to be nothing more than treating others around him as "playthings" and "curiosities" that are thrown away at the slightest inconvenience
So a creature with the goofiest German name, dressed like a noble from a Czarist court, treating those he deems lesser than himself with a colonial mindset, I wonder what the subtext could possibly be
I think I've half-jokingly said something like this in an earlier Frieren thread, but I'll say it again, and 100% seriously this time:
Some people on here seem to actively want any manga or anime ever made to have fascist undertones, just so they can justify their belief that all Japanese people are born fascist. Like it's genetic or some shit. And the fact that this is very clearly a form of racism in itself completely escapes them.
This whole thing is extremely USA coded, let me just remind you that there is an entire world outside your borders.
Buddy if you think this is about me hating Japan, how do you reconcile that with me complaining about racial alignments in Dungeons and Dragons a week ago. I like Dungeons and Dragons but I freely admit that some aspects of it unfortunately radiate Hitler particles.
In any case "You think Japanese people are born fascist" is a gross strawman of the hopefully uncontroversial statement that Japan is a US puppet regime, and being a satellite of the Fourth Reich is liable to influence its culture in not-so-good directions
There were already a lot of not-so-good cultural currents in Japan long before the US got anywhere near it too, which it also isn't immune from criticism for even if sometimes people use it as an excuse to be racist. I think that, ironically, the idea that anyone who might take issue with racism in Japanese media is a racist Amerikkkan (as the user you're replying to implied) is actually very USA coded one. There are around 2 billion people who have very recent (living) social and cultural memory of being victims of Japanese genocides and atrocities, which the Japanese state (and vast majority of Japanese society) not only doesn't even pretend to apologize for but generally doesn't even acknowledge the existence of (except to constantly praises those directly responsible and attempt to rearm to be able to do it again). Almost none of these 2 billion people are American citizens.