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A review by akemi_666
Despera by Chiaki Konaka
3.0
in the wake of the kantō earthquake of 1923, thousands of socialists, anarchists, and koreans were assassinated and lynched by far right nationalists and the japanese military and police
to this day, these events are denied by the japanese state — in fact,
when i was in japan, my friend told me how the ordinary japanese person thinks koreans are just "angry, rude people;" they don't wonder why they're angry, they don't connect it to the many war crimes the japanese state has inflicted on foreigners and immigrants
despera circles the jūnikai tower in its final days, a symbol of international capital (the first modern skyscraper) that is demolished after the kantō earthquake — omen to the tides of nationalist fervour that would wash over japan in following years
though the kantō massacre is never explicitly described, an atmosphere of dread and melancholy haunts despera, a sense of inevitability as we trace the lines between dadaists and anarchists, tesla and the bolsheviks, modernity and fetishism
but despera ends before it really begins; the slow unravelling of the collective trauma that is authoritarianism is displaced for a trite exploration of the main character's — takeshita's — trauma
history disappears in the face of psychoanalysis — all the lines rife with meaning go nowhere. i learnt about the kantō massacre from secondary material, not from despera itself
i'm hoping the anime, having had much more time to develop, will go into this . . .
to this day, these events are denied by the japanese state — in fact,
Books denying the massacre and repeating the government frame story of 1923 became constant bestsellers in the 2010s.
when i was in japan, my friend told me how the ordinary japanese person thinks koreans are just "angry, rude people;" they don't wonder why they're angry, they don't connect it to the many war crimes the japanese state has inflicted on foreigners and immigrants
despera circles the jūnikai tower in its final days, a symbol of international capital (the first modern skyscraper) that is demolished after the kantō earthquake — omen to the tides of nationalist fervour that would wash over japan in following years
though the kantō massacre is never explicitly described, an atmosphere of dread and melancholy haunts despera, a sense of inevitability as we trace the lines between dadaists and anarchists, tesla and the bolsheviks, modernity and fetishism
but despera ends before it really begins; the slow unravelling of the collective trauma that is authoritarianism is displaced for a trite exploration of the main character's — takeshita's — trauma
history disappears in the face of psychoanalysis — all the lines rife with meaning go nowhere. i learnt about the kantō massacre from secondary material, not from despera itself
i'm hoping the anime, having had much more time to develop, will go into this . . .