I'm a bit torn on this. On one hand, there definitely seems to be an issue where some of the ideas and design choices in the manga are ... not great. You brought up the use of indigenous aesthetics for "savage, bad giants", but there was also the line in chapter 11 where she says "Those who hold no beliefs, have no dogma or creed to follow, are in capable of treating other people as human beings!" which is incredibly similar to lines used by some religious groups to demonize atheists and agnostics in the real world.
Japanese media is generally not very into the idea of religion, as evidenced by fighting god a lot. I think there's supposed to be nuance in this statement, since Hinako herself more or less describes herself as agnostic, although she might not realize it. A belief is a value, and I think she fails to understand that the other chick prioritizing herself counts as one. Also like, it doesn't look like the other chick is gonna die/be defeated unless the manga's ending within six chapters, so an ideological battleground could be in the works.
On the topic of fighting god, there's a video essay about why Japanese media has that theme so often. Big beefy 1.5 hours but it pulls a lot of the history of Japan around the topic. https://youtu.be/IEUqLL8J4gI
In regards to the manga, I can't figure out where I've seen this artist's work before. The eye and face style is triggering some memory in me that I can't manifest.
last edited at Aug 5, 2023 9:22AM