this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2026
622 points (98.7% liked)
196
7176 readers
2288 users here now
Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- Most moderator actions which have a modlog message should include your username.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, if you get tired, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Share everything you do in the mod matrix, both so several mods aren't unknowingly handling the same issues, but also so you can receive feedback on what you intend to do.
- Don't rush mod actions. If a case doesn't need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- No large decisions or actions without community input (polls or meta posts f.ex.).
- Large internal decisions (such as ousting a mod) might require a vote, needing more than 50% of the votes to pass. Also consider asking the community for feedback.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Chani being barely a shade darker than Paul is very sus to me
though given the context I can't say I'm surprised
Tbf to them that's just how anime be. Come to think of it, Naruto was actually insanely woke in its anime time for having actually black characters (even when it made the most prominent one a rapper), that's something even the otherwise wildly leftist Ghibli works tended to avoid.
Though I think you could argue that characters like San from Princess Mononoke are inclusive of indigenous Japanese groups in a way that's both underacknowledged and more relevant to daily Japanese life.
While anime as a medium has a long history of being really, really shit at dark skinned characters, that doesn't excuse the fact that these models are completely fucking incapable of creating a darker skinned character as a result
Yes, it's a direct result of how skewed their training data is, but that just calls out how fundamentally flawed the whole process is. A good artist is capable of adopting an anime style while still creating things that are unusual within that style. Just look at the Avatar series. Korra, Kotara and Sokka can all be darker skinned characters that look amazing in a show that still has a distinctly anime look to it.
Characters in anime are not required to be light skinned. That's a flaw, not a thing to be preserved as if it's a requirement of the style. Even in actual anime we're finally starting to see this change for the better. But LLMs cannot produce things that are new or unusual, they can only regress to the mean.
I love Ghibli, but "wildly leftist"? Did they make an anarchism PSA or something that I wasn't aware of?
"I'd rather be a pig than a fascist" sounds pretty leftist to me.
Maybe these days. But there's a gap between being anti-fascist and leftist that includes ideologies that range from center-right to center-left
At least there used to be.
There's a ton of commentary out there on this but tl;dr Miyazaki was a Marxist in his youth and is probably best recently described as an ecosocialist and all his works reflect values of anti authoritarianism, rejecting patriarchy, environmentalism, and pacifism or at least the rejection of militarism.
He is, in short, a Japanese Green (not literally since there is a Japanese Green party but also possibly literally)
The way Ghibli's villains work says something special to me.
The ultimate villain in Howl's Moving Castle isn't the Witch of the Wastes or the heart eating fire demon. It's the court magician causing a war.
The ultimate villain in Spirited Away isn't the uncaring parents or the dragon no one trusts or the scary spider dude or the grumpy frog guys or the giant baby who hurts Chihiro or even the greed demon. Or the woman who tries to kill the love interest. It's the woman what owns the bath house.
In Porco Rosso the villain isn't the air pirates who kidnap children or the asshole rival ace or Porco's last male friend who joins the fascists. It's the secret police. It ends with everyone making peace to flee the fascist Italian Air Force.
In Castle In the Sky the air pirates are big softies. The villains are the military and the intelligence officer with the nuke.
That isn't to say the other villains aren't bad. The air pirates shoot up a town and rob people. The Witch of the Wastes is cursing everyone. Noh Face eats people! But they are redeemed in my heart. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe because everyone lives after Noh Face vomits them up. Or because the air pirates can't hurt the kids they kidnap.
I love The Witch of the Wastes. She never stops being bad. Never stops hurting people. The state cripples her and she still fights back. She fights everyone. Hurts Calcifer. Taunts Howell. She's so angry. So broken. If she had the power of the state she'd be worse than Madam Sullivan. But she doesn't.
Porco doesn't look at the camera and say, "It's better to be a pig than a fascist." The whole thing just.... Says something. To me at least.
The eyes are also white rather than blue. This was mentioned a few times in the books. I haven't seen the movies so this might be a criticism of both.
And the eyes aren't even blue