This is my first review here on this website so please inform me if I broke any rules or conventions while writing this review. Now I noticed that all the people here who have left a review on "Kampfer" have all mist out on, what I believe, to be a vitally important aspect of the show as a whole. After watching kampfer and kämpfer für die liebe I could not help but notice the communist symbolism so deeply ingrained in the heart of the series.
Many people accuse Kampfer of having a trite and predictable plot full of fan service and unnecessary innuendo. They claim
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that the characters lack personality and are there only to there to act as fodder to make up for the crappy and uninspired show as a whole. While I do not disagree with this statement I will say that the over arching themes of the show as a whole makes the boring and uninspired characters worth putting up with. The premise of kampfer revolves around two groups of girls, one with blue brackets, and one with red battling each other in a school setting. it is explained in later episodes that they are made kampfers by a group of mysterious beings known only as "moderators" a force that oversees the conflict and creation of "kampfers". The kampfers fight each other to resolve a cosmic conflict taking place between two forces "blue and red". This is where I began the realize the communist symbolism deep within Kampfer.
The blue and red factions represent the inherent infighting between the capitalist upper class. They represent the big multinational corporations like Exxon and Saudi Aramco vying for power in the global playing field, fighting tooth and nail for domination of their respective industries. The moderators, a sort of peace keeper in the Kampfer universe are the governments of the nations around the world. Because an extended conflict between thee corporations would essentially tear the world apart the moderators then passed the burden of the infighting to the Kampfers, random girls they selected from Earth. These Kampfers are the working class. Just like the Great Russian Revolution in 1917 the Kampfers led by Shizuku, a red Kampfer decide to band together and resist the bidding of the moderators. These Kampfers are the proletariat. They are pushed beyond their breaking point, forced to fight for a battle they dont even care about. The kampfers were pushed beyond their breaking point as their friends died around them and they are forced to rise up against their oppressors. Just like Marx envisioned in his Manifesto, the Kampfers rose up against their chains because they had already lost the lives of their sisters that came before them. They rose up against the cruel oppression of the moderators. They refused to fight against their will and rebelled against the their overlords. In a classic act of civil disobedience worthy of Gandhi himself they laid down their arms and refused to fight one another.
Of course out friends the moderators could not allow this. In an equally classic move they created their own fighting force. The White kampfers, a sort of police force designed to tear apart the bond that had formed between the blue and red kampfers and force them once again into perpetual conflict. This is where Senou Natsaru comes in. The gender bending of Kampfer plays an important role in the communist symbolism of kamfper. Kampfers were always female. Males could not be kampfers and were not involved in the eternal conflict between red and blue. Natsaru was like an outsider. a bystander at best. When he became a Kampfer he was dragged into the battle between the people and the state, between freedom and injustice. Natsaru was in many ways like Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was born into a wealthy bourgeois family. Both were dragged into the conflict. Although Lenin became a revolutionary willingly the similarities are far to deep to ignore. Natsaru and Lenin both became the leader of their respective struggles. However there is one major difference between Natsaru and Lenin. Kampfer is still inherently an ecchi anime, it still needs to appease the carnal desires of countless adolescent males and in that regard it made Natsaru a an inexperienced leader. Immature and lacking any formal knowledge about his cause Natsaru would be forced to "grown up" and learn to lead his comrades to overthrow the opposition.
However Natsaru would be hampered by numerous obstacles, namely his nemesis Sakura Kaede. Natsaru is not a natural born leader. As a male he seemed to be relatively shy but as a kampfer that shyness seems to have increased ten fold. Sakura acts as the temptation of materialistic wealth and total power. Natsaru must learn to overcome these challenges if he is to ever lead his allies to a final victory against the moderators. The most interesting part about kampfer however is the squabbling between the red and blue factions themselves. Here kampfer gives itself a sense of realism and the fallibility of human nature. Humans can never unite fully and completely. The struggle against the moderators although universal among all of the kampfers do not prevent human nature. The kampfers often fight among themselves. The struggle to win Natsaru's heart between Shizuku, Akane, and Mikoto are just like the struggle to win Stalin's approval between Field Marshal Zhukov and NKVD head Lavrentiy Beria. The internal struggle between the Kampfers themselves perfectly mirror the constant vying for power in communist politics themselves.
I have not watched enough anime to give a accurate judge on the sound and art style of the show itself but I have read enough books to realize that the story behind kampfer far surpasses the plot of any anime I have watched so far. Kampfer is a story of the struggle between the people and the state, of the fight between freedom and oppression, of the fragile nature of the human mind, of the oppressed majority and the privileged minority, and the perpetual fight between communism and capitalist oppression.
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Aug 24, 2014
This is my first review here on this website so please inform me if I broke any rules or conventions while writing this review. Now I noticed that all the people here who have left a review on "Kampfer" have all mist out on, what I believe, to be a vitally important aspect of the show as a whole. After watching kampfer and kämpfer für die liebe I could not help but notice the communist symbolism so deeply ingrained in the heart of the series.
Many people accuse Kampfer of having a trite and predictable plot full of fan service and unnecessary innuendo. They claim ... |
