The cult networks in postwar Japan are part of a system analogous to GLADIO in Italy. At the political level, American fascists repeated their tricks from Germany to begin negotiating with, protecting, and hiding key parts of the imperialist regime, the military, industry, science, and organized crime to install as a full package puppet nation culminating in the Reverse Course and the signing of the ANPO treaty by a prime minister who was once registered as a war criminal. It's only natural Aum Shinrikyo would have ties to high ranking politicians and celebrities, in a way its no different from either the American megapastors or new age cults with the same ties. Thus when you see something like Bakemonogatari, Mawaru Penguindrum, Welcome to the NHK, and Tatami Galaxy talk about cults, these are political themes. The root of these predatory false systems are political. Even where Mob Psycho bumps up against the trope, the profile of "cult" is the same. A point of comparison here is of course Haruki Murakami, whose works intersect with the exact same themes and ideas. 1Q84 tackles the distortions of the cult complex with all the occult and surreal vigor; Wild Sheep Chase points to ground zero, WWII.
>>512827674
I laughed quietly and venomously in the theater because I knew instantly it was part of true otaku creative tradition and would make all the posers furious. I swear they had to be trying to stab all the pressure points. A female refugee main character? That's exactly what I'd create if I wanted to make the worst people seethe. However in the end I think the series abandoned that ferocity for a very strange sentimental metanarrative that really must be inaccessible to people who haven't been living with gundam for generations. Some of it is so blunt if you understand the context that I think it tops some of the things in the Rebuilds. Although, that entire complex about the Curse of Eva is probably the pinnacle of that sort of thing.