The Port Town, Libra City. Upper Town is the center of politics, economics, and culture and is where all of the wealth is concentrated. Outside is where crime and corruption runs wild where no one trusts anyone. Between those two areas is a massive canal that separates the two and is spanned by a single bridge. The way this town is constructed, is a realization of what human discrimination looks like. Sonia is a young, female detective who has just moved from Upper Town to Outside for work, chasing after a few cases. That is when she meets three hideous beings how fight to protect humanity. ‘Just what are they…?’ she wonders... These three monsters known as youkai ningen (demon humans) live, concealing who they really are, while each bearing their own feelings and thoughts. BEM wants to become human himself and fights against evil that would befall humans. Bela looks up to and desires to become human herself and attends school in order to understand humans better. Belo has dove headfirst into the world of gaming, taking a philosophical view of both humans and the world. With every incident, they come into contact with humans, get hurt, and worry. They fight for the sake of humanity, however, due to their horrible form, they are something that humans will never accept. There is another who is searching for these three beings. She has her thumb on the concealed assembly that controls Libra City from the shadows. But just what is her goal as she tries to get her hands on these three?

Fifteen years ago, a hyperspace gate appeared over the Pacific Ocean. Fairies and monsters live in the world beyond it, Reto Semaani. San Teresa City. This major city is home to more than two million immigrants from both worlds. It’s full of mixed races and multiple cultures. The haves and the have-nots. San Teresa is the newest ‘City of Dreams’ for this world. Under the shadow of this chaos, many crimes flourish including drugs, prostitution, and arms smuggling. The detective who fights against these heinous crimes, belongs to the San Teresa police department. When Detective Kei Matoba, and Otherworldly being, Tirana the Knight, who are both completely different in both personalities, genders, and birthplaces, meet, an incident occurs. With their two worlds and justices ahead of them, this buddy police action anime starts!

In this city, many gods reside, and in the center of that city, a massive dungeon exists that leads deep into the Earth... The name of the city is Labyrinth City Orario... Goddess Hestia and adventurer Bell are the same as always, the smallest familia with only a single member. However, now that Bell has succeeded in undertaking the great task of becoming the fastest adventurer to rank up in the history of the world, suddenly the familia has begun to gather a lot of attention... Labyrinths, Encounters, and Adventures... Once again, they are woven together as the boy walks forward and the goddess records the ‘familia myth’...

All of humanity is terrified... It has become commonplace that humans now suddenly burst into flames becoming monsters of flame known as ‘Infernals.’ They cause insurmountable amounts of destruction while being part of the ‘human combustion phenomenon.’ The mission of a special fleet of firefighters is to stand up to the fear of flames while understanding this mysterious phenomenon and save humanity. That is when Shinra Kusakabe, often just referred to as ‘demon,’ enlists. His goal is to become a hero and fight against Infernals with his colleagues!!

Take the path you believe in while proudly carrying the memories of your friends! Time has passed for Natsu after the intense fighting with the dark guild Tartaros, as well as the painful farewell with the being who raised him like its own, Igneel, the Fire Dragon. Natsu has now decided that he should become even stronger, and so he sets out on a journey to train with his buddy Happy. At the same time, the Guild Master for Fairy Tail, Makarov, suddenly gave orders for the guild to disband before disappearing himself. One year later… Lucy is working as an assistant to a reporter while sending information across the large continent to all of their former allies. Then one day while she’s out gathering information on the annual Grand Magic Games, Natsu appears in front of Lucy having returned from his training! They decide to revive Fairy Tail, and with their hearts as one, Natsu, Lucy, and Happy all set out on a journey to search for their former allies!

Long ago, magic and the long history that magic enjoyed as well, disappeared from the world. Time moves on however, and we are now in the current era. Here live your average high school student, Mangetsu Kohinata, and Shingetsu Ernesta Fukami, a girl toyed with by history itself. One night, when the full moon appears extremely large, the two meet. The girls then decide to learn the secrets of the world of magic and the magical dolls Almanox.

In the near future, it’s only natural that humanity has migrated to space. Nine girls decided to set out on a journey to camp on a planet. They set out on their space journey with their hearts beating in anticipation, but reality is much more beyond what they expected...!?

Set in the world of Fate/Zero, Waver Velvet is the young master who worked with The King of Conquerors, Iskander, to try and win the fourth holy grail war. Time has passed and now Waver has inherited the tile of Lord El-Melloi II from Lord El-Melloi himself. He now fights against all sorts of incidents at the headquarters of the Magus Association, Clock Tower which is overflowing with magic and shrouded in secrecy...

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(This is the 5th Season of Senki Zesshou Symphogear) Regarded as a strange case of medical fusion and referred to as such, a young girl took hold of the Gungnir Syphogear and at a moment when the world was on the verge of destruction, she produced a miracle. Carried out under the premise of preserving the human race, The 'Frontier Project' out weeding out parts of humanity. Thankfully this disaster was brought to an end by girls who have song and blood running in their veins but now a new story is beginning soon after that one ends. A strange object fell to Earth at high speed after being torn out of sub-space. It was a space shuttle carrying a UN specialist who was finishing up their work on the exo-atmosphere at Lagrange Point. Due to some system issues, it fell out of the sky doomed to either break apart into pieces or crash into the Earth’s surface directly. Everyone on earth was in a panic. Thankfully it was saved due to some Symphogears that were deployed. It has been 100 days since then. Ever since the Frontier project has ended, humanity has not seen the ‘Noise’ once. However one day in the office, Sakuya Fujitaka and Aoi Tomosato detected a wavelength that was not the Noise, but similar. It was discovered on the Yokohama Oosan Bridge. There, a small hooded figure in black is running away with a small box. There is a song to destroy the world. At this point in time, no one realizes the danger that is coming but on that summer night sky, the red dust dances.

Academy City is a massive city that sits on the western side of Tokyo. With a bustling population that exceeds 2.3 million people, approximately 80% are students. There, they are a part of a unique curriculum that studies the development of esper abilities. The students are then ranked in a 6-rank system from Level 0 (no power) to Level 5 (exceedingly powerful). Accelerator sits at the top, as the most powerful esper in the city. He is one of the seven rumored exceedingly powerful espers of the city, and due to his excessive ability as the top esper of the city, he spends his days being bloodthirsty. He is finally defeated by the aberrant ‘experiments’ that he is forced to repeat over and over for the sake of discovering absolute power. Soon after, he encounters a certain girl named Last Order, who greatly changes his fate. The strongest, most ‘evil’ Accelerator is about to mow down the ‘darkness’ of Academy City!!

It’s rare that an anime (or any media for that matter) will let a female character get just as wounded and wild as a man in a fight. But Hitomi, aka Brute Ratel, aka a human/honey badger hybrid who only gets stronger the farther she gets backed into a corner, isn’t about to let a little thing like gender inequality get in the way of her rampage. Killing Bites isn’t the most intelligent show you’ll ever watch, but it hardly matters when you get to see Hitomi use her own severed arm to rip a hole through the main villain while screaming with primal rage. She’s pure id, and we’re glad that this anime lets her unleash that berserker passion without anything holding her back.

Panty and Stocking are supposedly angels, but you certainly wouldn’t know that by looking at them. Instead of protecting the Earth, Panty is more interested in sleeping with anything that moves and Stocking is too busy stuffing her face with sweets to care. But when danger comes their way, they transform their lingerie into weapons and show off how badass they truly are. Like Hitomi, these “heroines” aren’t very heroic. But they’re definitely memorable, and we love how brashly they live their best lives without shame. Panty even gets a few moments of character growth near the end of the anime when she forms a closer bond with Brief. We wish we could’ve seen more of these gals, but season 2 is looking more and more unlikely with every passing year.

Delivery god Yato and his fighting companion Yukine would be nothing without their human friend Hiyori. They’re devastating when they work together as a team, but it wasn’t until Hiyori helped these two stubborn spirits understand each other that they could fight effectively in the first place. Even though she’s just an ordinary high school student with a few supernatural powers and some self-taught wrestling moves, Hiyori is vitally important to the plot of Noragami. Her compassion, empathy, and occasional tough love for Yato and Yukine brings all three of them closer together and prevents Yukine from accidentally killing Yato with a curse caused by his own wrongdoings. That’s what one person’s love can accomplish.

Clare is ranked dead last out of the 47 Claymore demon hunters, but that doesn’t stop her from getting the job done. She’s a master strategist who can find a clever solution to any seemingly impossible situation, and she uses the powers of her fellow Claymores to boost her own skills. She stoically exterminates demons, clawing her way up to become one of the most powerful warriors ever! She isn’t just an emotionless killing machine, though. Her growing relationship with Raki is adorable to watch—he defrosts her ice queen exterior bit by bit and accepts her just the way she is. They’re a perfect fit for each other!

Female protagonists are often characterized as kind and self-sacrificing, but Mai HiME shows us that that kind of attitude can wear away at a person’s soul. Mai is stretched between work, school, saving the world, and taking care of her sick younger brother, so it’s no wonder that she doesn’t value her own well-being. In battle, this poor girl saves everyone she possibly can, no matter friend or foe, and endures the emotional pain because she convinces herself that it’s for the greater good. It’s unusual for an anime to take the stance that self-sacrifice is harmful, but we’re glad that this oft-unexplored issue came to light through Mai’s character.

Like Hiyori, Lucy is more of the point-of-view character rather than the one who has the most screentime. But even though Natsu fights in more battles, Lucy is the true protagonist because she grows and changes over time, coming out of her shell and becoming a full-fledged member of the Fairy Tail guild. Our favorite Lucy moment is when she defends Loke against the Celestial Spirit King. Her dear friend has been haunted by his dark past for many years, but she still believes in him and risks her life to summon all of her other spirits at once to prove her point. Loke is so moved by her speech that he vows to finally leave his past behind and join her as her guardian spirit. Since Lucy felt trapped by her own situation before joining Fairy Tail, this moment feels especially poignant for us.

At first glance, Ryuko seems like a female character designed for fanservice and not much else. But if you look deeper, you can see that she’s a determined girl who will stop at nothing to avenge her murdered father, even if it means fighting in an embarrassingly skimpy outfit and putting up with legions of obnoxious allies. We love Ryuko’s complex rivalry with Satsuki, her showdown against Nui, and her love-hate relationship with her own outfit, Senketsu. She’s the perfect off-the-wall protagonist for Studio Trigger’s first full anime series, since she brings together the insanity of her predecessors from Gurren Lagann and the new vision that Trigger wants to bring to the anime landscape.

If you’re looking for a realistic teenage main character, Maka is your girl. She’s lanky and bookish, has a strained relationship with her playboy dad, and wants to prove that she’s capable of greatness on her own merits. She may be a supernaturally gifted meister who wields the transforming scythe/human hybrid Soul Evans against evil spirits, but anyone can relate to her emotional struggles. The best moment for Maka’s character development comes when she willingly lets herself be taken over by madness in order to defeat and save Crona. Maka values her own level-headedness above all else, since it’s something that ties her to her lost mother, so to see her throw that away for just a moment to help a friend is more powerful than any kind of passionate speech she could’ve made. It’s subtle, but this scene cements Maka as a strong and nuanced hero.

“Revolutionary” is a fitting title for Utena Tenjou—her bold and stylish rejection of what it means to be a female anime hero has influenced hundreds of others after her, from Nanoha Takamichi to Ryuko to Clare and many others. She serves as a prince to her beloved princess Anthy and uses the power of Dios to strike down any who oppose her. We love how Utena forges her own path through life, unhindered by societal expectations or anyone else’s opinions. She and Anthy deserve to be together, and surprisingly enough for a ‘90s anime, they are actually confirmed as a couple by the end. We couldn’t have asked for anyone better to spearhead the charge of LGBT representation in modern anime!

Devilishly intelligent and short-tempered under her ladylike façade, Mikoto is one of the most powerful psychics in the city. While others might just use electricity powers to shock people, she has calculated how to create impromptu railguns that launch coins as high-velocity projectiles. It makes you wonder what she could come up with if she was given even more powers! Her rival/crush Touma is the actual main character of the Raildex franchise, but Mikoto proved to be such a standout presence that she got her own spinoff of equal or greater popularity to the original series. Her strength, ingenuity, and magnetic personality took her from humble beginnings to our favorite female lead in any superpower anime ever!

The good news is, it’s based on a completed 5 volume manga series. Without any excuses, the anime can offer the complete story without having to finish mid-way when something is getting good or to have the series stop, or have pointless fillers. So, if you want some idea as to how the story can go regardless of spoilers, then the manga is there for you to read as a preview. Granted it’s 5 volumes, so we can anticipate a 25 or so episode series that can be faithful to the original source material. However, there may be instances of some changes at the insistence of Shinohara, but other than that, we can get something concrete and not get a series that ends in one story arc just to encourage you to read the manga to see what happens next.

Playing Kanata is Yoshimasa Hosoya, who you know as Kaito from Ajin, Daryun from Arslan Senki, and Joe from Megalo Box. Considering the leadership qualities that Kanata possesses along with some qualities that make him physically fit, Hosoya based on his resume seems to be a perfect fit for Kanata. As for Aries, Inori Minase is confirmed to play her. You likely have heard her in Eddelrittuo from Aldnoah.Zero, Hitomi from FLCL Progressive, and Rem from Re:Zero. Considering that she has played all types of personalities, fans already familiar to the original source material and her previous performances, she can easily get a grasp of Aries’ innocence and awkwardness. And the rest of the cast consists of many up and comers from the present generation of anime. Shunsuke Takeuchi, who you likely know as the voice of Kunihito from All Out!!, Shuto from Saint Seiya Saintia Sho, and Ryota from Ajin is playing Zack Walker. For Luca, Risae Matsuda, who you likely know as the voice of Hakumei from Hakumei to Michiko has been casted to player her. So if you are a buff of today’s rising talent, then this anime is perfect for their resume.

Based on what we’ve seen through promotional images and trailers, then the design and everything else is still faithful to the style of the original manga, and we give credit to the anime’s official character designer, Keiko Kurosawa for doing so. You probably know of her as the character designer and chief animation director of Ansatsu Kyoushitsu and Re:_Hamataora. While her portfolio is small, they are big in success and fans should feel that her contributions will do great in making this series come to life. We can’t really say much about the music, but one of the composers to this series is Masaru Yokoyama, who is also contributing to the 2019 Fruits Baskets anime, Occultic;Nine, and Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. While we only have a small quick teaser, we are positive he can capture the atmosphere and emotion of this series.

This is Yumenosaki Academy, a private school overlooking the open sea. Specialising in training male idols, this academy has a history of sending out generation upon generation of talented young men to the entertainment industry. One day, a female student transfers to Yumenosaki Academy - a student with a special responsibility.

One day, Ritsuka Uenoyama meets Mafuyu Satou as Mafuyu’s walking with a broken guitar. He’s just had it fixed, but it’s already broken again. After fixing it, Mafuyu takes to Ritsuka. He has Mafuyu teach him how to play the guitar, but it happens to be the song that Mafuyu plays that pierces Ritsuka’s heart. Ritsuka invites Mafuyu to be a part of his band and the distance between the two begins to close.

Tokise high school’s koto music club is on the verge of being abolished. All that is left is the club president when a delinquent young boy visits along with a girl who is a genius with koto music. This story of the sound of koto from each student all come together to tell this story of youths at an academy.

Homareboshi Academy, Takao Middle School. The story of a girl who has just transferred into this academy is beginning as the somewhat late mountain sakura begin to fall. Her name is Mana Shikimiya. She has excellent singing and dancing abilities, but has forgotten about her dream to become an idol due to something that happened. Here in this new place, she tries to live an average day-to-day life. That’s when she meets a member of the song and dance club that’s on the brink of being dissolve and her former dream is revived. Mana now begins to walk towards the dream she tried to give up on, but now with new friends.

This is the 3rd season of High School Star Musical. “A way to give up on your dreams? I have no idea what you are talking about.” Yuta Hoshitani has finally joined Ayanagi Academy; a prestigious academy famous in the realm of music and the performing arts. In his first year, Yuta successfully cleared the entrance examinations with no issues. Now that he is a second year student, he was cleared to be a musical student, but… soon after he starts the new semester, a “new challenge” appears!! The curriculum for second year students is to support the graduates as they perform as the main cast in the “Special Graduation Performance”. Within “Shadow & Lights”, a traditional performance, there is a part called the “second year training system”. Limited to 5 students, every year one team from the second year students consisting of five members is able to perform on the stage. This is what is an honor for these musical students; achieving the ability to co-star together with the respected former leaders on stage. Yuta and his fellow 25 musical students challenge each other at the second year training system auditions for a chance at glory. The curtain once again rises on this musical story of youth rushing forward.

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All of humanity was, due to a mysterious phenomenon, turned to stone in a moment. Thousands of years later... Senkuu, a young man who is a scientist at heart who possesses a superhuman amount of knowledge, wakes up. From the stone age to the current civilization, more than 2,000,000 years have passed. Driven into a corner, Senkuu searches for his friends deciding to save the world!

In the near future, it’s only natural that humanity has migrated to space. Nine girls decided to set out on a journey to camp on a planet. They set out on their space journey with their hearts beating in anticipation, but reality is much more beyond what they expected...!?

Takuya Arima lost his mother when he was but a child. He also lost his father, a historian, two months ago in an accident. He’s lost all will to do anything and is in the last summer break of his high school career. Then one day, a small package is delivered. Inside, is a round mirror which appears to serve no purpose, and a glass orb with some strange object inside of it. Also in the package is a letter that makes him wonder if maybe his father is still alive…?! “Tonight at 10pm, go to Ken no Misaki (Sankakuyama) and bring the glass orb.” Following the orders he was given, he heads there and finds a mysterious young girl collapsed. There, he found the head of his school and the figure of a mysterious transfer student. Instantly, the earth tremors and he is surrounded by light. His journey around another parallel world begins now.

'Naka no Hito Genome’ It’s a rumored free game that’s become a hot topic among gamers. It’s nickname is ‘the disappearing game’ because right before players clear it, they disappear, never actually finishing it. The gamers who have tried and disappear, all gather on an island, separated from the physical world. The task assigned to them is simple, they have to clear successive game after game and make their views hit over 100 million. Now for these eight charismatic live players, a very real Naka no Hito Genome game is about to start...

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Fifteen years ago, a hyperspace gate appeared over the Pacific Ocean. Fairies and monsters live in the world beyond it, Reto Semaani. San Teresa City. This major city is home to more than two million immigrants from both worlds. It’s full of mixed races and multiple cultures. The haves and the have-nots. San Teresa is the newest ‘City of Dreams’ for this world. Under the shadow of this chaos, many crimes flourish including drugs, prostitution, and arms smuggling. The detective who fights against these heinous crimes, belongs to the San Teresa police department. When Detective Kei Matoba, and Otherworldly being, Tirana the Knight, who are both completely different in both personalities, genders, and birthplaces, meet, an incident occurs. With their two worlds and justices ahead of them, this buddy police action anime starts!

A youth... full of wastefulness. Tanaka (Nickname: Baka) is smack dab in the middle of average, Kikuchi (Nickname: Wota) is wholly devoted to BL, and Saginomiya (Nickname: Robo) is an emotion-less genius. Complely overflowing with their own quirks, these girls spend their days wastefully.

(This is the 2nd Season of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san.) Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san tells the story of Nishikata as he is mercilessly teased by the girl who sits next to him in class, Takagi. So, he decides to get his own revenge on her. But can he successfully rile her up as she does him?

Oda Nobunaga was a man who ran around the Warring States Era and didn’t know if tomorrow would come. Nobunaga enjoyed a close relationship with his foster brother, Tsuneoki Ikeda. However, in order to continue to live, they have to earnestly struggle against each other. While keeping facts as they were, the characters surrounding Nobunaga, and Nobunaga himself, begin to spin a new story which goes beyond historical fact.

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No house... No food... No water... Four high school girls find themselves between a rock and a hard place when they are shipwrecked on an uninhabited island... Or they should, but they seem to be doing quite well! They have nothing, so they can make anything! They can eat anything! This is now a survival of wits and courage on this uninhabited island.

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Second-year student Eijun Sawamura has finally made his debut at the Spring Senbatsu Koshien. He only has one goal: to be the best! The famous school marches towards resurrection. The steady advance of the Seidou high school baseball team starts now!

‘Hibiki... have you... gained weight?’ Hibiki is a high school student who loves to eat. However just those few callous words from her friend were enough to pierce her heart. Hibiki then decides that she is going to go on a diet and lose weight before summer break, but she soon becomes unable to continue exercising and dieting on her own. Then one day, she finds herself outside of a gym. Then after joining, she finds out that her classmate, the beautiful and charismatic female student council president, Akemi Souryuuin goes to the same gym! This is where Hibiki takes her first steps into the interesting and fun world of weight training…

Riku Haruma has no clear future plans, but has just entered into high school. When he enters the school and looks over to the sports grounds, his eyes are immediately drawn to something running like a wild animal. It’s jumping higher than anyone else, running quickly, and deciding its try. The thing that Akira Kariya is doing, is the thing that Riku gave up on: rugby. Before he realizes it, Riku is giving advice to Akira on how to run better. Through his words, Akira was able to perceive Riku’s passion for rugby. Due to the meeting of these two known as ‘tactics’ and ‘physical’, a new future is bestowed upon Riku. ‘My intuition is never wrong. I’m the man that you need.’ ‘I’m going to put a leash on you, Akira Kariya!”

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If any anime needs to reach an audience, it has to have a strong story and based on what the manga offers, Somali to Mori no Kamisama has an excellent story that can be further enhanced in anime form. Without a doubt, the heart of this story is the relationship between Somali and the forest golem, and golem’s individual development. Since the golem has never been outside the forest, you see how he tries to learn the ways of the world and its other creatures, and still be a paternal figure to Somali. In a world where humans are now endangered, it’s really touching to see him develop human qualities in a very innocent point of view. Their relationship grows to the point that even Somali acknowledges him as a father as he helps her survive the real world. Considering the nature where humans are in context to the story, it has a very strong message about prejudice and that people of all backgrounds should really look at what makes us similar in order to unite us, rather than what makes us different in that it divides us. So, no matter where you’re from, the themes and the relationships presented here are relatable to all audiences.

All we have to say is that we tip our hats off to the animators and designers because the quality based on the manga is just difficult to put into words. The environments are very lushing and full of detail to the point it sucks you into its world of wonder and danger. Putting that into motion and with color, that’s a task that’s going to be hard to pull off to satisfy established fans. Based on the only promotional image available upon the writing of this article, we are positive that the upcoming anime version can give that balance of vibrancy and edginess that the original manga has been praised for. We are positive that Ikuko Ito, the series’ character designer, who has also worked on the 1990s Sailor Moon anime, Natsume Yuujin Cho, and Princess Tutu will make established fans proud, and attract new viewers not familiar to the original manga.

If you’ve played Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, then you know that Article 9 pretty much makes it illegal for Japan to go to international war, and that it should strive for peace instead. Article 9 was also implemented by the victorious Americans and in turn, Japan can’t officially have a military. Due to the Cold War progressing in that region a little after the war, notably in China and the Korean Peninsula, America has since maintained military installations throughout the nation to more or less act as Japan’s defenders from possible foreign invaders (and this is stipulated through treaties agreed between Japan and the US).

During the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur and the rest of the occupational forces had to exploit loopholes to get Japan ready and for them to have military grade equipment. This paved the way for the National Police Reserve, which is presently known as the Japan Self Defense Force, or the JSDF for short. As for the JSDF getting their hands on military grade equipment and vehicles, as opposed to calling a tank a “tank”, it was designated as a “special vehicle” in order to say it’s not for military purposes. In addition, those who are official members are still designated as civilians. So, the next question is, how does Article 9, and its present day controversy, relate to pop culture, notably in anime?

In recent years, largely due to China and North Korea, the right leaning ruling Liberal Democratic Party ruled by Shinzo Abe (as well as Japan’s alt-right who have been around long before alt-right was a thing in the US and other parts of the world) have made a push to officially have a military for proper defense purposes. Despite the JSDF not being recognized as an official military, it still has superior capabilities than the militaries of some of its neighboring nations in the region. Many left wing groups, most notably Japan’s Communist Party, have been vocal in keeping Article 9 the way it is, so the nation doesn’t repeat their sins from World War II. While numerous anime from the past 3 decades have been warning us about this, no other anime does it better than Akira from 1988. Through the film (and its original manga), we are given a Japan that is officially militarized and many high ranking hawkish officers have an administrative position within Japan’s government. When you see people protesting on the streets or people acting in rebellion, the military isn’t afraid to react with instant execution. Not only that, you also see them experimenting with psychic soldiers, which can be interpreted as a (possible) criticism to Unit 731. Through a militarized Japan in Akira, viewers can see that quite possibly that Japan may once again fall into the cycle that made them a hostile nation in World War II, and with the recent debate of Article 9 being a controversy to its Korean and Chinese neighbors, such steps could be taken seriously in maintaining stability in that region, and not just domestic stabilization as is the focus in Akira.

If you’ve seen GATE, it’s pretty much the ultimate recruiting poster for Japan’s JSDF (in fact, the series has been used on official recruiting posters). As a matter of fact, Takumi Yanai, the original author, was in the JSDF for a time. Thanks to this series, it gives domestic and international audiences a great idea on how they are and what they do. They are the closest thing to a military, but they’re not technically a military since they can’t be deployed to overseas conflicts. When it comes to the nature of GATE of invading forces from another dimension, it’s a rather distinguishing way for viewers to question the nation’s present state in context to the JSDF. Considering the nature that they are going to push back to another dimension, this element adds a new flavor as to how Article 9, in which they can’t officially go to war with other nations, can or can’t be applied.