thoughts on Chinese anime?

@sodaJar

That is just your opinion not mine.

If it bothers you so much that some random User like me labels Chinese Donghua as propaganda, go bitch and whine about it to someone who cares.

Dogshit or not, I see any entertainment that is state media as propaganda. That is simply just my own opinion. There is no reason to correct myself to satisfy some random User I don't know and don't care about.

@ColourWheel
I just wanna know which Dong hua you watched that actually made you feel like you are watching propaganda? Cuz I think you are basically saying dong hua production is heavily influenced by the ccp, therefore they are propaganda. But which exact donghua did you actually see CCP political ideologies in? Watching anime, arent we just watching japanese propagandas with the display of constant Japanese culture. Matter of fact, many people decide to go to and live in Japan because of the influence of anime. Isnt that an affect of the Japanese propaganda in anime? Watching US war films, we are also constantly getting fed with the US's ideologies like liberallism and patriotic lone heroes type of ideas. How come you think everything from China is propaganda but everything else isn't? I get your saying CCP influence on media, but they don't stand if you cant name examples of what you have seen.

So no, I dont get your argument

@Zimmu

I already explained it earlier in the thread but I guess that doesn't matter so I will just re-post it for you if you missed it.



Broadly Chinese Donghua is state media entertainment. If it's too much to wrap your head around the concept I put forth, there is nothing I could do about it. But just imagine for a moment the CCP started advocating in their state media entertainment that killing people that disagree with them was perfectly acceptable. I am sure if you consumed enough of this type of state media entertainment you would start to think killing over disagreements is ok too if that is all you are consuming in your life is this state media entertainment. State media in the concept of the CCP and the tactics they often go to the extreme of can be very subtle considering the length the CCP goes to snuff out any type of dissent. You might think this is paranoia but I have done enough research on how the CCP operates to understand the length they go to even over petty things. It's not far out of reach to think the CCP is employing subtle and even subliminal messaging and themes in every piece of entertainment that is CCP approved. What makes things even more suspicious is there has never been any attempt for a broad global marketing campaign for Chinese Donghua. It's been stated before that broadly Chinese Donghua is specifically made just for the Chinese domestic audience. If China really wanted, they could easily start their own global marketing campaign but it's obvious they are purposely trying to contain their own media entertainment within their country to influence their own citizens in this regard.


Which is why most Chinese Donghua is not even legally available outside of China and those who are consuming things outside of their country that are not legally available are doing so through illegal piracy.

If your are already a huge fan of Chinese Donghua I don't expect you to ever get my arguments if one is already baked into the culture.

I would suggest people do research on the CCP themselves to get a better understanding how they operate and the extremes they would go to just to influence their own citizens. The China people aren't even allowed to use tiktok, youtube, facebook, etc... they got their own alternatives that are heavily policed.

You are right to have you own opinion. I am not going to name names but someone I use to know who lives in China who was against the CCP suddenly disappeared one day and never heard from them again since. I don't know if they are alive or dead but they certainly became a complete ghost. That is what sparked my interest in doing research on the CPP. Which is why I have no interest in consuming direct Donghua garbage. You can call it personal if you want.

@ColourWheel
Ok fair, you can watch it or not and thats totally your choice. Im just trying to get the facts right on my behalf.


Idk what happened to your friend, but people don't just go disappear in China nowadays. That might be true if it was the 1950-80s though. Obviously you can get arrested for commiting actions or open speeches against the party, but its not as severe as many westerners think. Vietnam does this too, and heck, you can get arrested for talking bad about the Thailand king. You also can very likely disappear in Sharia government like Iran and Afghanistan. Point is, freedom of speeches isn't as common as people think. And secondly, no, CCP don't just go around and kill everyone who talks badly about them. CCP isn't even bad when you compare it to many other countries, but this is me being biased. There is no way a government like this can manage a population of 1.4 billion and make China prosper to where it is now in less than a century. Its insane though many people still think China do that.

@sodaJar

That is just your opinion not mine.

If it bothers you so much that some random User like me labels Chinese Donghua as propaganda, go bitch and whine about it to someone who cares.

Dogshit or not, I see any entertainment that is state media as propaganda. That is simply just my own opinion. There is no reason to correct myself to satisfy some random User I don't know and don't care about.

It's not below the CCP to make people disappear completely. Only need to do research on the many people they have completely scrubbed any existence of them off the internet to understand the length they go to. The CCP might not kill people completely off but they certainly have the resource to make people basically disappear. Even restricting the people they can talk to or even socializing at all.

https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/peng-shuai-china-disappeared-how-beijing-silences-critics

Mo Dao Zu Shi
Scissor Seven
Link Click
Legend of Hei (movie)

Are good starters


Quality wise they're not that different from japanese anime, but I'm kinda avoiding their 3D stuff.

@sodaJar

You want me to to put politics aside, fine.

Chinese Donghua is irritating to consume. I don't understand Mandarin unlike how I understand other languages spoken like Nihongo, English, or even Kugo.

The extremely few Chinese Donghua I have watched I simply ended up dropping due to getting bored of the story or simply irritated seeing subtitles obstructing the actual animation. I easily get annoyed by this. Also since a majority of Chinese Donghua isn't even legally available on any of the many western legal platforms that actually caters to Japanese Anime, translations can be shady at best and extremely inconsistent.

Chinese Donghua often lacks the polish and fluidity that I commonly see in most modern Japanese Anime. Also Chinese Donghua created using CGI looks like I am watching videogame cut scenes in a language I don't understand, where I might as well just be consuming raw computer graphics playing some random RPG.

I have noticed Modern Chinese Donghua relies heavily on tropes and storylines found in just about any Japanese Anime where it's fundamentally unoriginal as a medium in this regard and at it's core it's simply trying to copy what Japanese Anime has done already. I would simply be better off spending my time watching regular seasonal Anime Series where I can actually understand what the characters are actually saying to begin with.

Further more I have noticed Chinese Donghua can be often culturally insensitive promoting portrayals of historical revisionism which is worse than their censorship laws where there is literally self-censorship by the creators themselves in order to be deemed appropriate by the CCP.

Generally Chinese Donghua is Over-reliance on CGI to the point they shove it up the ass of the viewers. While CGI can be used effectively in animation, it is overused in Chinese Donghua and often poorly integration when 2D animation is actually being incorporated to begin with.

Over all there is largely no broad appeal when it generally comes to Chinese Donghua. Chinese Donghua might as well just be a low subgenre in the animation world.

In conclusion, Chinese Donghua is garbage. No reason anyone who is at any level of being any type of an animation connoisseur would even waste their time with Chinese Donghua as it's own medium, which is specifically why outside of China it can only exist as a niche product in the West on a platform actually dedicated to Japanese Anime.

That's another thing that pisses me off about Chinese Donghua. I won't lie, Mandarin just sucks as a language when it comes to media entertainment. When watching old Kung fu theater movies, I would rather listen to the actors speak in Cantonese than in Mandarin and Cantonese can be at times just as jarring to listen to as Mandarin. In fact most of the classic films that came out of Hong Kong were originally in Cantonese and simply later just dubbed in Mandarin because no media entertainment was actually coming directly out of Main land China for international audiences till after the turn of the century.

But it's more than just simply being historically inaccurate, there is real cultural insensitivity in their media entertainment in general. They do the same things Russia and North Korea does with historical revisionism in their media entertainment. It's done on purpose. As a main focus to appeal to their young domestic audience by promoting only patriotic and nationalistic sentiments. From the glorification of historical figures to the complete white washing of historical events.

Emperor Qin Shi Huang or Chairman Mao Zedong is always portrayed as unambiguously virtuous leaders while glossing over the complexities of their rule. historical battles and conflicts are always retold in a way that emphasizes Chinese strength, resilience, and victory. Even the Second Sino-Japanese War highlights Chinese resistance against Japanese aggression, while minimizing any setbacks or defeats while ironically trying to flood this type of Propaganda in the Japanese domestic market at the same time through their joint partnerships with Japan allowing them to introduce this type of garbage directly to the Japanese people.

Foreign powers are always portrayed in a negative light (Specifically Western). Always emphasizing their aggression, exploitation, or betrayals to reinforce a narrative of Chinese victimhood and resilience against external threats.

Mainstream Chinese Donghua always uses soft power projection promoting Chinese culture, values, and historical perspectives to international audiences which is always 1st heavily scrutinized to ensure that it aligns with the Chinese government's priorities and messaging.

@ColourWheel cantonese sounds way worse to me tbh

there is nothing wrong with chinese culture and i believe we're rational enough to not let some cartoons change our political stance, examining only the impact of it on the quality of a work(no one is going to watch donghua for history lol, a wikipedia fact check would sniff out all the BS; the biggest soft power china has are bing chilling social credit memes lmao). please dont politicize

and yes mandarin is a legit reason for not liking donghuas

@sodaJar

Have you actually ever seen a Chinese Donghua that ever portrays China in a negative way or even takes place in the country as bad and dangerous as Compton, California in the States? Even Japanese Anime won't gloss over the dangers in places like Kabukicho, Shinsekai, or even Kamagasaki when Japanese Anime is basically fiction. Soft power projection can involve the lack of making anyone aware there are actually bad places that exist in China at all.

@sodaJar

I was literally being just critical about Chinese Donghua where there is a sheer lack of something where modern china is basically never seen in a negative light, not even in fiction. A clear reduction in quality where there is a lack of something.

You politicizing my criticism is pretty rich. Maybe you should stop making it about politics as well.