Ask John: Why Do Some Villains Want To Restart the World?
Question:
How come some villains are portrayed as wanting to cleanse the world through fire then rebuild it, like Zaha Torte from Sorcerer Hunters? Isn’t this a political stance as well?
Answer:
Villains in anime have a myriad number of goals and motivations, but the desire to create a harmonious and hegemonic society is a relatively common one. In fact, this desire may be especially relevant to the Japanese perspective since Japan already has an exceptionally high percentage of racial concentration, and as recently as two hundreds years ago Japan was fraught with political argument regarding its isolationism. I don’t wish to suggest that xenophobia is typical of Japanese consciousness, but if it exists, it may have some historical foundation. Returning to the point at hand, fundamentally villains need to have some goal and motivation in order to be effective fictional characters. The desire for an idealized unity is a believable and human motivation that may appear often precisely because it’s more natural and believable than a pure destructive impulse. A motivated desire for change, stability, and status quo is much easier for average people to comprehend than a blind, indiscriminate destructive impulse. Furthermore, a rational motivation and goal, however twisted, gives a character psychological depth and humanity. Viewers can relate to another thinking individual that has a concise goal while a blind, amorphous destructive impulse feels inhuman and unbelievable.
Technically politics are personal “views about social relationships involving authority or power.” In that sense, the goals of many villains seeking global domination or destruction are often a political objective. I think the distinction of political intent lies in personal cognition and a distinction between intention and instinct. A rational, calculated decision to pursue genocide or subjugation is a political goal. However, a villain like Dragon Ball Z’s Majin Buu, who kills wholesale out of instinctual malice rather than as a means to an end, does not represent a political action. Villains like Majin Buu are not rational, intelligent effort; they are elemental, thoughtless event. Many viewers may instinctually perceive the difference and impact of different types of villains, but stating the difference clearly may contribute to greater analysis. Rational, intelligent villains with a conscious, political goal are humanized and empathetic. Characters like Zaha Torte and Gundam’s Char Aznable create a complex narrative of opposing political beliefs and desires. On the other hand, characters that act as a practical force of nature may not be complex or intellectual, but they can be very intense and exciting on a purely physical or existential level. The opposition of principled characters against an overwhelming force can be just as exciting and entertaining as an intellectually challenging conflict of ideas and actions carried out to serve political goals.
Related Posts
About The Author
john
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hello, John. I read your answer in Japanese translation yesterday, and I thought I would have to rebut a few fatal errors in your argument.
First; does only Japanese animation/cartoon have villains who want to destroy and create a new world? I remember Darth Vader tried to persuade his only son to join him and create a new hegemony in the galaxy after killing the emperor, while he (and Terkin) destroyed the planet of Princess Leia. Does his ambition reflect the American history or xenophobic character? Why don’t you make a reference to Magneto from X-Men? Lex Luther from Smallville? I’m afraid that both you and the person who asked this question are arguing the subject based on the incorrect premise
Second; you are arguing the subject based on a biased perception of Japanese history. I guess you mean the federal Japan’s exclusion policy of foreigners from the land except approved Chinese, Koreans and Hollanders, or 鎖国, by the word ‘isolation.’ You’re wrong if you believe the popular theory that federal Japanese government decided to carry out the isolation policy because of their racial xenophobia. The Roman Catholic church was notorious at that time for clamping down thoroughly on non-Catholics all over the world. It is a famous historical story that they incited the federal samurai lord ODA Nobunaga to burn the Japanese mecca on the Hieizan mountain to the east of Kyoto and then thousands of Buddhist priests were killed in 1571. (Oda also had much trouble with militant peasant Buddhists) TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi, former vassal of Oda and the then actual emperor of Japan, decided to ban the Christianity soon after he knew that numerous hundred thousand Japanese were exported to South-East Asia as slaves by the Catholic missionaries, merchants, and Japanese Christian samurai loads. It is well-known that South America was soon colonized after the Rome Catholic’s tactful propagation. Tokugawa Dynasty decided to control the diplomatic and commercial intercourses thoroughly after they knew of the power struggle between the Catholic and the Protestant overseas Japan through British ambassadors. The western colonialism led Federal Japan to their heavy restriction of intercourses was as response to the western colonialism. It was a politically realistic decision. Japan was fraught with discussion regarding the diplomatic policy around two hundred years ago since governors and scholars knew of First Anglo-Chinese War, or First Opium War, (1840-1842) through Chinese merchants dozen years before Admiral Perry’s surprise appearance in Tokyo Bay.
Third; I’m disappointed with your tendency of discussing Japanese culture as if the domestic situation of the U.S. were the global standard. I remember you were criticized when you argued that Japanese anime is inattentive to symbols or icons of foreign religions including Muslim and Judism because the Japanese are indifferent to them. You sound as if right, but you forget the fact that the Japanese Islamite and Jews make up only for less than 0.01 percentage of Japanese population. The Americans are nervous of the religious problem only because it was domestic. Japan is not an immigation destination to the same degree that the US is. Why do you not claim that Britain, Germany and France are more xenophobic than Japan? It is well-known even in Japan that they frequently discriminate against Islamic people while they accept them as economical labor force.
I appreciate your wonderful Ask John series, but I’m sometimes disappointed with your arguments unconsciously reflecting the American Sinocentrism. I hope you’ll be a bit more careful to refrain from making a thoughtless discussion of the national characters of foreign countries because people all over the world including Japanese are currently nervous of the Tibet problem by Chinese government.
On the other hand, I appreciate the latter part of your answer. Have you read the book _Can you become the ultimate villain who conquers the world?_ It is a very amusing essay by OKADA ‘Otaking’ Toshio, former president of Gainax studio. He discusses anime/manga villains who have the goal of taking over the world, by categorizing them into four archetypes. A very entertaining book. Must read!