Left-wing manga!(?)
What are your left wing manga/anime recommendations? I only got Ninpu Kamui Gaiden, because it is communist and ninjaic? You may shrug you shoulders, but a communist created all the ninja cliches, like a dude named Sasuke and the "Izuna Drop"! Unfortunately, the manga is from 1969, when the United States still had not erased all left-wing presence in Japan.
There's a manga adaptation of Das Kapital. It's neat.
I'm gonna recommend a bunch of anime, since I'm less of a manga reader:
Rose of Versailles is the best depiction of revolution around, even if it handles something really poorly late in the show, but is about the bourgeois revolution in France 1789 instead of anything socialist - as the name says. The author hadn't gone back to being a lib yet back when it was written.
Fang of the Sun Dougram is the story of a guerrilla war of independence... with mechs, of course, because 1981.
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is arguably pro-anarchist. E1 is the worst of the whole thing.
Patlabor is a mecha police slice of life/comedy made by a bunch of commies or commie-adjacent people in the late 80s. Patlabor 2 is basically a pondering of "1989-1991. what now?"
The Universal Century Gundam shows approach leftist themes, but Tomino's politics are kind of a mess.
Then there's left-friendly but ultimately still lib media like Interviews With Monster Girls (yes, really. It's somewhat horny, but it genuinely is actually good and has something to say about society, in spite of the fetishistic-sounding title), Ghibli movies, Hinamatsuri (for a big arc at least - inequality is a topic) and the like.
Thank you for the recommendations!
outside of uc gundam ibo also is pretty good. it's very focused on labor and class, and is kind of a great takedown of great man theory
also revolutionary girl utena is only truly leftist in its subtext (it's about the way patriarchy shapes things and how its systems abuse people but it's not hard to make the capitalism connection) but even without that it's about a bunch of queer youths navigating systems of oppression
I remember seeing someone here recommend Golden Kamuy. I think it focuses on indigenous Ainu people and has lots of buff naked men.
I found this great list, though I don't think I've read any of these myself: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/2128
I've read that Ashita no Joe was particularly influential and is on my list of manga to read soon. There's also Capital - In Manga! Which is supposed to be a summary of the ideas presented in Capital.
Thank you!
Ashita no Joe was actually written by a conservative. It's class conscious though.
Been reading a French manga called Radiant for a while, and while I dunno about a strictly left wing bent to the author it definitely leans that way with it's exploration of power and politics in it's setting, focused almost entirely on a subclass of people who have been othered by society trying to get by while they get demonized largely just for being made victims by an overzealous inquisition. I suppose one could read a kind of awkward allegorical reflection of our society in a similar vein to X-men being an allegory for gay people back in the 90's.
It updates super slow though, both in part I think because of translations and of course the writer having to make the thing
Edit: having just caught up I revise my statement after reading the latest chapter: it was based and so is the manga
I remember almost checking this out, but then it had massive Shonen vibes so I never got around to it. Might have to check this out now though
The Rose of Versailles, and Kaiji. Especially Kaiji, it's probably the most radical anime I've seen. But also The Rose of Versailles is very very good too, especially the last 10 episodes.
There was a famous leftist manga creator who's main Marxist works have never been translated into English https://hexbear.net/comment/3317686
Kamui Den, the first series published in Garo, can be considered his most important manga work. It is the story of Kamui, a ninja who leaves an organization that pursues him and clearly sees the true nature of the Edo period and the discrimination that existed in the feudal system. Shirato's works are primarily historical dramas that focus on ninja, present a historical record of Japan, and criticize oppression, discrimination, and exploitation.
I like to describe I'm in Love With The Villainess as 'Lesbian isekai with Marxist-Leninist Characteristics', as it has a revolution lead by a vanguard party in the first two light novels (which the manga has yet to get past the first two LNs). 'Part 2' of the story does get away from the same precise political themes a bit but it's still entertaining (and it'll probably be nice if/when the manga gets there).
I also read Koroshiya Yametai! (or: I wanna be fired!) recently. It's kiinda mid but it's lesbian and there's an interesting polemic about refugees and their role as cheap labor in the global north.
I can also recommend the classic Akira, which while it isn't explicitly leftist it portrays the military-industrial complex in fairly left wing fashion and also talks about some of the struggles of poverty.
I'll definetly give the ones that you've posted a look :)
This is what I was hoping Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady would be but it's a bourgeois revolution.
I havent finished that one yet, some of the polemics were interesting but the light novel was kinda meh and I havent watched the anime yet. Bummer that its bourgeois
Whatt
Okay so let me explain a BIT because some of it is a bit funky
The thing is though, the radicalization of the main love interest :claire-grin: is played incredibly straight, with her conversations with the high-ranking nun Lily regularly spreading clearly marxist polemics about the nature of feudal society. I fucking love how the author Inori was able to make marxist polemics interesting as a 'yuri scene,' in the same process with how Miyazawa talked about making science fiction palatable. Maybe I should make a blog post about that!
I haven't gotten to the politics yet beyond a couple of mentions of trade dependency, but it's pretty entertaining so far. Thanks for the recommendation.
Yeah it takes its sweet time to get into the juicy politics. I definetly think the light novel does it better, but it might just be the translator. It also has a lot to say about queer love as well, putting aside the class structure critiques :)