If you didn't know, Cannon Fodder was the main inspiration for REDCON, a game about building and fighting cannon fortresses. The 17th Cannon also makes an appearance in the game as one of the dialogue lines mentions how it was 17th who fired the first shot during the Unification War (WW1 but it never ended, going on for about a millennia) and that you are given the privilage to use it, being an actual weapon you can buy. Edit: A bit of a spoiler, but after replaying the campaign, you are actually sent to DESTROY 17th (which is renamed to Omega Capital Destroyer) and other cannons of the same type.
The Commander is a Fat, Goofy little man... But even he seems to look at the giant cannon he fires with fear and respect, and as weird as it is: he is the one person on the cannon when it fires, something that seems to be a punishment otherwise. That guy does not want to be there as much as anyone else.
I also love that moment when he throws a quick glance at the cannon and while he seems to stand still, lines on his body move as if he's trembling under the uniform.
I noticed that too when before launches he anxiously looks around a bit but not to the point it’s obvious. And even starts to sweat and second guess himself.
Saw this back in like 2005, I always took the mother tapping her friend's shoulder as an indication that she understood the friend's point, but was warning her that the political enforcer was walking by. I don't think the mother is as committed as this guy thinks she is.
My take was there is no enemy. There doesn't need to be one anyway. The war apparatus doesn't need an enemy anymore. It just needs new coordinates to fire on.
its no longer common, but shells and bullets have historically into the 1940s been called missiles as well on occasion. if the person who wrote the original dialogue learned english in that time period, they could have wrote that down
Yeah I was gonna say what Marsar said. This technically flies in the face of the usual standardization of rocket vs missile while with older interpretation all rockets are missiles
The aesthetics of the characters - the round features, sunken beady eyes, general sickly pallor - remind me a lot of the similarly missile-themed 80's animation When the Wind Blows. Except in this we don't even see the family healthy by the beginning.
North Korea itself is just another puny reflection of the tyrannical nationalist hellholes that kept popping up in the 1930s, and of which Orwell himself warned about. The Soviet Union / Russia have by all means been THE prime role model to most of these smaller, locked down tyrannies. NK itself relied on USSR's / Russia's support, but the big bear at Moscow quickly grew weaker and less interested of supporting NK. This was seen as a betrayal and even parodied in NK's children's cartoons, further solidifying their own fortification and solitude. tl;dr: Russia's been equal to Nazi Germany the past 100 years, and they are just continuing their old habits.
Are you all insane? The USA have been in all the major conflict in the world since the nation born! Directly or inderectly. Including Korea! They never leave KOREA, the S. Korea army are on direct control of US! Making "army exercises" IN THE REGION OF N. KOREA! A FUCKING SMALL COUNTRY VS. THE BIGGEST ARMY IN THE WORLD! The president of N. Korea has less prerogatives than the US president! What world of ideology are youys living?!
@@GugureSux tbh nearly every nation before the pre-modern era (before the 40s let's say) has been a dumbed-down version of what we see in this video. It's only in the modern era in some parts of the world where open criticism of such nation and actions doesn't lead to social suicide at best. Beforehand this was always the case
The little comment you made about how the animation showing the technical aspect, individual and collective competency and the process of operating the artillery machinery having an underlying beauty to it rings true to a lot of war media. Even the ones blatantly critical of war and conflict have a difficult time in portraying the technical/hardware aspect of military action in a bad light when people have this inherent appreciation for the engineering and technical marvels that stuff like modern tanks, naval ships and war planes are. Even Hayao Miyazaki, who is incredibly critical of war in his movies, couldn't help but to make an entire movie about the development of fighter planes and the Zero fighter creator in The Wind Rises.
I think it is also a broader critique of the concept of capitalist realism coined by Mark Fisher. The idea that we are so encapsulated by some form of ideology, that even the dissenters cannot see the path forward. This is highlighted with the "protestors" that cannot see it is the overall system and indoctrination that holds a grip over everyone. Forget less toxic ammunition, question who the enemy is and why is society completely geared towards war? This film is very 1984 and fascistic in many ways.
There's no such thing as "capitalist realism." Capitalism operates as a functional system because it's not built on any ideology, outside western liberalism, which has objectively proven to be the best system for the wellbeing of any individual. This world is expressly the opposite of a capitalist one.
What about the end when there were flashing blue lights. Maybe the twist is they actually WERE fighting some advanced enemy. Seemed like robots. Stink bomb had a twist at the end and the ghost one's twist was that the flowers were realin his ghost helmet.
Those lights might actually belong to the (secret) police: after all, such regimes - both in fiction and in reality, - are always fueled by the fear of getting prosecuted for one’s dissent, either publicly (“show trials”) or covertly (people getting arrested in the middle of the night, with labor prisons and executions as the likely outcomes).
The quote "History repeats" does not only apply to Axes or those who lost by the United States. This applies to every countries, companies, or even communities.
First saw this animation in a music video of a song by Nautilus Pompilius (a russian group). The song is "Скованные одной цепью", translates to "Chained with the same/one chain". This is a great animation for the song.
By scientific definition, it can be called a missile. All projectiles can. Even those without mechanical assistance (I.E. spears) Now, the military term would be artillery shells, yes
Very much so. The combination of the legions of identical gas masked troopers and the ridiculously huge static artillery is extremely reminiscent of everyone's favourite suicidal, shovel-loving WW1 clone troopers, the Krieg Death Korps.
Assuming that he is from usa and targeted audience is from there too, this explanation would be the only way for them to understand. They are blind or chose to be(mb godly complex who knows...). And usa implement controll on other way. The cannons in the cartoon are only seen by ones that are labeled as "enemies" by usa. Their citisens only see control trought "freedom" where you retain the power to bark but not to change. If you try to act you get easly canceled or labaled as traitor. So do you think they could ever accept the fact that they are not better from the russians?
Comparing this to the US is wildly out of touch. There exists a reality where ACTUAL DICTATORSHIPS exist and you think you're super smart and enlightened by calling this a criticism of the US. Countries like Eritrea exist, yet you're probably too sheltered to know about that
it's funny that there is a video with this footage and one Russian song "Наутилус Помпилиус - Скованные одной цепью" which could be translated as "Nautilus Pompilius - Chained Together\Forged together with one chain\Chained with one chain" the original video is 13 years old, and the song itself was released in 1986.
As long as the conclusion is that some other people and nations have an authoritarian problem, we are the same city on the other side shooting back with our big canons. The only difference being, our canons are blue. And that's way better.
Yep we need special video about that mind set alone! Or god complex what we call here for nations that use that kind of logic! Extremley dangerous since it can generate extreme resistance cs of fear that the side with that complex has lost touch with reality...
I think you've misunderstood the film entirely. It's not about authoritarianism or oppression, that's the face of the movie. What the movie is about is the government distracts and controls the people with a fictional war, similar to 1984 with "the party" having taken over the entire world and use a fake war because humans require conflict and distraction. What do you think would happen if this city were to suddenly stop firing their guns? Their entire economy and employment would cease, pretty much all of their existence is based around the guns, from ammo production to firing. The movie is an allegory for how the Japanese were socially at the end of ww2, they built their economy on war, so to surrender wasn't an option to be considered, until literal nukes were dropped on them (hence the blue light at the end of the film)
I think, like many excellent films made by talented creators, it can be about many different themes, depending on the person viewing it. My perspective is shaped by my own experiences, and the reason I made this video is because I think the film resonates today in the context of the current war in Ukraine.
@@AlanCampbellFilm You are the young child of the film, believing in the current boogeyman, supporting the US military industry. You need to learn history, not film criticism.
@@kingking-ci1gf why would the Japanese make a series of short films about the US military? It's clearly an analogy for how Japanese imperialism shaped Japanese society, it made them constantly focus on war, all their industry was geared towards for survival, their children in school were indoctrinated to be factory workers and soldiers. You know, just like the film?
@@lc3853 I might be mistaken as I'm not American, but nobody forces anyone into the military in the US, or even force anyone to do any specific job, *you* have the freedom to choose. You're the child here, you cannot comprehend an idea that is outside your own scope of experiences, the Japanese would make an analogy based on what they lived through and witnessed, which was Japanese society and military during ww2
Great analysis of cannon fodder tho if you blatanly insert a political message at the end without adding the proper weight and context to it you risk to trivialize said message regardless of what people think about it. Especially for hot topics like an ongoing conflict that still claims victims. It feels like a subject for a dedicated video rather than a quick mention during a movie review
Political message? Not exactly a political stance to call russia an increasingly self-isolating surveilance state which calls on it’s people to make self-sacrifice to delay the end to a war that is already lost. It’d be like saying “well kind of weird to put a political message at the end of your video by calling hitler and stalin fascist dictators”
the videos title literally implies it. It wasn't inserted at the end, it was what the video was building to, and to say Russia is not authoritarian nor in a war economy at current, the only combination of such in the world right now (Bar North Korea, I suppose, which isn't really in a war economy despite it's ongoing war) is ignorant at best, putin shilling at worst.
@@clankplusm before calling out people about stuff they didn't say (and I'd like to know how my comment implies some sort of support of putin bs) I suggest you to learn how to read the room since 1. The title is very generic since the russo ukrainian war wasn't the only ongoing conflict in 2023 and 2. Just like the title the all video is praising the short movie (and rightly so) as a critique of authoritarian regimes in general but the author make no effort in connecting it with the russian aggression on Ukraine beside the "yo remember there's war in ukraine". Therefore quoting randomly the war in Ukraine to make the video political with the bare minimum "dictatorship is bad" _while reviewing a fictional short film_ is quite lame, naive and out of place if not disrespectful. As I already said it's way better addressing the subject properly rather than just mentioning it with "it's news of the moment, watch my video please" vibes
Is this video just to point out the parallel with Russia and the shorts? Isn't it suppose to represent every nations that fought wars or have a wartime economy? The U.S government during Vietnam tried their best to stop the anti-war sentiment and crack down on protester, they broadcast government annoucement saying how they are protecting South Vietnam and did a great job at bombing the North and that victory is imminent. The same thing during the war on terror, they tried to fight an idea with no clear objective, the government send young men who wanted to served into Iraq and Afganistan to fight people that they branded as "the enemy" or "terrorists" so that the American economy can get more oil and the military industrial complex keep running.
agreed, also we cant tell if the nation is actually facistic with the information we have, authoritarianism and facism are two different things afterall. the point is about militerization in general which occurs regardless of national ethic or type of state
@@Blink_____well fascism is bad so criticising Russia is nothing out of the ordinary. We should criticise countries that blatantly violate international laws and human rights while turning more and more fascistic. I mean Russia at this point was behaving like Germany in 30s’, it’s just that unlike with Czechoslovakia the west this time said no.
There are key differences between the wrongdoings of the United States and the wrongdoings of the Russian Federation The United States HAD pursued awful conflicts. Its people generally hated or disagreed with these conflicts after fervor such as that after 9/11 had subsided. Resulting in great protests and administrations being voted out of office. The United States would occasionally officially apologize and seek friendlier relations with the afflicted countries such as Vietnam. Casualties, while always regrettable still are relatively low compared to other conflicts (pursued by Russia at the same time) The invasion tends to be pretty brief, with the occupation being rough. It succeeds in Iraq but not in Afghanistan Russia meanwhile IS pursuing awful conflicts. Its people have little indication of protesting this (or being able to) It is an open secret that political opponents or former Allie’s of the current President are often assassinated. The military presence of Russia in Ukraine far exceeds the height of the gulf wars for a post Cold War conflict. Casualties (depending on who you ask) especially amongst civilians is of a far greater scale than the US post war conflicts The deadliest part seems to be the invasion, since the war hasn’t even reached the occupation yet.
I don't know exactly why to attribute the relationship to Russia when it is perfectly based on a combination of the Japanese Empire, Germany, France and England in the first half of the 20th century and I genuinely think that it may be an exaggerated reflection of what humanity will be like in the close future because we are entering a pre-war era due to the very complicated situation in the world, so the countries' options are to arm themselves while waiting for a future conflict or to fall when this conflict arrives.
I remember seeing this on TV at like 2 am at my friend's house when I was in high school, being mesmerized by it, and not knowing the name of it. It surfaces in my mind sometimes. So glad this video popped up in my recommendations.
I'm sorry but it is completely wrong to depict russia with this animation because from the core of it, this animation points fingers at imperial japan which was a deeply militarized country, from it's economy to its culture. Yes the government is authoritarian, and yes it declared war on a country, but it absolutely isn't fully militarized or even on a war based economy, The only close enough modern example of this would be north korea and even then. (Also these are not missiles, these are shells, it would be accurate if we were talking about medieval weapons ammunition or actual modern missiles)
I would argue that this is perfect representation of the usa with little tweak that the cannons are airplains only seen by the ones that are labeled as enemies of the usa while citizen are oblivious or dont care about it. And part where they cheer cannon firing would be shows as they cheering what ever television is showing them...
@@obilic93you can stop trying to force this comparison now, it’s really embarrassing how hard you’re trying to make it fit. You can call the US president a poopoo head or or a retard on national tv and not get mysteriously thrown out of a third story window. Hell recently there was even a video of someone getting within punching distance of biden and having an argument with him about how stupid his gun policies are. Putin would rather you keep at least 100 meters distance if you’re a commoner nowadays and 10-2 meters if you’re a high ranking govt official.
@@obilic93Your comments indicate a clear bias against the United States. The U.S. isn’t a homogenous group. And it doesn’t really seek to homogenize them as much as other nations like Russian or Chinese try to do. The problem when calling US citizens oblivious when they’re the ones protesting for and against all sides of a conflict is just plain unreasonable. Some citizens are apathetic, but I feel confident in saying they’re a lot more vocal about their opinions than those in Russia atm. I can’t find a single moment in post Cold War US history when any major war the U.S. pursued didn’t end up with gigantic protests and the current administration being voted out of office.
They perfectly captured that feeling when war dictates every other aspect of life but at the same time it is so distant that you don't notice it. This anime was 10/10 when I first watched it. Now it's 12/10. Russian government managed to balance war propaganda with normality maintenance almost perfectly.
Your analysis of the film is on point, but comparing this fictional country to Russia is nonsense. Russia, at least for now, is very similar to the west in its decadence and desire for comfort. The "war effort" isnt glorified in Russia, on the contrary - the regime tries really hard to make the war invisible for most of the Russians by not expanding the war industry and trying to minimize the amount of people in the combat zone. In its core Russia is still very liberal in philosophical sense - economics, comfort and support of the people are the main concerns of the government. Winning the war, cutting other sources of information and etc are secondary goals at best, and things like Russian nationalism are actually one of the biggest problems for the government.
Thank you so much for watching and engaging with the ideas I was trying to put forward :) I disagree with you, however. I think in many ways Russia is trying to clamp down on it's population and suppressing them from engaging much with the outside world, with the objective of driving focus to the war effort. The Russian Government is trying to make the war invisible, it's trying to make the *effects* of the war (Eg. International sanctions, travel bans, etc.) invisible. Russian Nationalism directed inwardly is an issue being contended with, either through assignation (Eg. Wagner) or censorship. But like the protestors in the short film, I would argue that this kind of protest is actually being enabled by the Government as it positively reinforces the war with Ukraine. Look at how the Russian Government is dealing with the popular milbloggers, vs. jailing the free press and opposition Media outlets. While I don't think Cannon Fodder is a perfect one-to-one comparison to modern Russia, I think it offers some interesting parallels with the lives of everyday citizens, which is what I wanted to highlight.
@@AlanCampbellFilm I don’t know if you heard about Strelkov, but he basically was one of those who helped the donbass conflict to start. He was pushing for more industrial effort and for mobilisation since the start of the war. He was jailed this summer, for criticism of the army. There is also the nazbol party which actively agitates for the war and constantly holds small pickets for the military effort, and yet they are also cracked down by the government with constant raids and arrests.
The anime clearly caricatures N$zi Germany and Imperialist Japan, with the red cannon being a obvious reference to the Schwerer Gustav, and the dude finds a way to compare it with modern Russia lmao. Are you american by any chance?
@@BB-hx4mj if you think this is about the "other" country while your country is right and just, you're completely missing the point and the movie is actually making fun of you.
@@iankummer And when the f**k did I ever say my country is right and just? I didn’t, but you just had to go for an imaginary strawmen. Just because I’m criticising your favourite murderous dictator doesn’t mean you can suddenly throw a hissy fit while predating to be some fake intellectual.
Also by this time during production Katsuhiro Otomo was well aware of the international success of Akira. Also it's well established his works has elements of satire.
Its hard to call this a dystopia because honestly we dont know what the alternative is. What are they fighting against? For all we know these people are holding an entire horde of swarming tyrranids each day and keeping their whole species alive through sheer grit and determination. Everything is dependent on context and without having context its kind of asinine to pass down judgment.
The city was built for something long ago But now it's all focused about the cannon And once the cannon falls Be it by enemy or a fault The city and it's people die with it The purpose gone And in that world there is no more other ideologies that would swallow the people once the idea they supported is gone- in our world, the people of one fascistic group will get swallowed by the other once the previous grift dies. And that's one of the more annoying things irl- you can't kill it, because you can't satisfy everyone. But the thing we can do is to make people aware that there are other possibilites that are not rooted in violence and blaming everyone around you for how life sucks. Strive for world where the dissatisfied are ones who just want to justify violence and stepping over everyone other than them.
@@unknownuser5895nigga, YOU are the fascist lol literally locking up political opponents, Silencing your enemies and indoctrinating the opposite children
I love the analysis of this film :D. However, one nitpick. Shells. Not Missiles. Bullets are also shells cause these are cannons. Cannons use Shells. Bullets however are used for small arms.
This is a very politically biased analysis. Compared to Russia, Israel is way more militarized society, but of course Israel are the "good guys". The film itself has nothing to do with Russia and presents a general philosophical ideas that could be stretched and applied to pretty much any society in human history, including United States.
Thanks for engaging with the video and my ideas. The idea behind my videos is to discuss films and why they resonate today. In that sense, I think the context of the current war in Ukraine and Russian repression is relevant when discussing this film and the depiction of an authoritarian, militaristic society.
@@AlanCampbellFilm Not a fan of Russia, but the numbers don't seem to match, Alan. Russia's militay spending is about 10% of what US spends on military. Russia has around 20 military bases outside its borders, US have around 750. Russia invasions count in the past 30 years: Georgia, Ukraine, with overall civilian casualties count around 35,000. US invasions: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libiya, Syria, with conservative civilian casualties count around half a million. Of course they key difference here that Russia is not a "democracy", and US presumably is, and we know that as long as you are "democracy" you can do whatever the fork you want (with Israel being another great example of that). But even if you ignore the math, and just look at the way political elites and media create a narratives, that shape people's minds in support of wars, selling people "external enemy" and paranoia, Russia is by far behind Israel and United States - and the numbers clearly reflect that.
@@markfreemanvideo yeah, Alan simply ended up proving the point of the movie. He himself is one of the mindless drones cheering for the war machine of his own nation. He's fighting some non-existant enemy, and maybe he too will realise who the enemy is when he grows up. Quite ironic to point those scenes out from the movie only to not understand them and not even compare them to his own situation. In any case, thank you for actually bringing up the numbers, people seem to forget history quite quickly these days and only remember the "current thing".
Why depict Rusia at the start of the video when USA and alot of countries are like this?This video applies to almost all of them and the future will be the same for all because people need to limit government control 😅
literally like 80% of the USA's criticism for government or history or war comes from US citizens whats your point?? if anything that speaks volumes to the foundations the country is built upon to the point where the country itself is free to criticize itself and not get arrested or detained like russian citizens dude, i'd rather work as a defense company employee designing and manufacturing bombs and have a decent work-life balance than live in a country that actively puts down it citizens dissent over the government, its literally the lesser of two evils but "oh the US does it so that must mean russia, china, north korea, nazi germany, imperial japan, the mongols, X is justified too!!" despite being way worse
@@kulot-ki1tu if you dont count that amongst 80% are imigrants from war thorn countries then mb. Next 50% is aproximetly the number at best. Every democratic voter is supporting intervencionism of the usa and only criticizing it is not enough nor is proof that his point is not valid. While in russia you cant critise war on ukranie (i think same would be for usa if they ever go into real war) in usa you cant say that only biological women are women. Yea same things different reasons to be arrested or tortured into submission either by police or cancel culture...
@@obilic93 i wanna know where you got these figures from, you're just guesstimating the things you say i dont know about you, but you're overblowing cancel culture out of proportion and making it look like a raging war is happening inside the country, like dude, russia has AN ACTUAL war going on and you're trying to compare that to a couple of twitter crybabies and then using that as a standard for a country with a population of over 300 million people, like what????? its annoying when you bring up topics like police brutality or SJWs because its such a wide range of issues im not gonna bother tackling each of them, all i know is that i'd rather live in the USA than a country like russia where every city outside of st petersburg or moscow is horrible commie block pastes or an obscure rural village
@@obilic93 “I think that would be the same if they ever go into a real war” sweety, they have gone into many real wars, and each of them had people freely proclaiming how much they disagreed with it, the vietnam war ended for this exact reason. Even fighting hitler had opposition which is hilarious if you think about it.
@@wick9427 Ye USA really was forgiving to citizens that were labeled as communists during cold war era. Ye fighting hitler resultet in the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which is labeled today by them as act of destroying free speech if other govs try to do same for the NGOs that are supported by them. USA doing same thing just different way. And they never went into real war after ww2 and even that can't be called that since it was not waged on their soil (but that can be debated). USA only waged wars against far weaker and undeveloped "enemies". They tryed with yugoslavia which was not that undeveloped and never came to land invasion cs of the losses they alredy had in the air. Ye people can bark at USA gov unline in other parts of the world but still can't bark on some topics like gender or private list of pleasure islands... Ye like i said different but same.
It's tragic as the end shows as the song IN YER MEMORY/end credits roll out, I suspect it is the city joining in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the bombings as you can hear a large explosion in the background at 3:10 of the official song "IN YER MEMORY" Even if he grows up and succeeds or not he and his family and likely everyone will tragically die in the bombing... this theory makes me believe they are fearing of something way more advanced than them
That’s the fun part, you can’t apply it to everyone else. Pretty funny how we live in an era where the internet is so large and ubiquitous that even autocratic societies have people using proxies and VPN’s to escape into the free web and consequently tell everyone else they’re just as bad lol.
I'm not gonna watch the video cuz anime isn't really my thing but what I will say is that the guy in the thumbnail looks like that guy with the wooden eye from pirates of the caribbean
HOLY SHIT, i remebering have make a dream/nightamre where i was on an elavator in this city with my dad and i just fall and try to not but a wake up at this moment
canon fodder means : soldiers regarded or treated as expendable in battle not big blasting canon also big blasting canon have diffrent name tho it is positivley loved
1. The mother is equally as aware of the surrounding reality: her cheering seems rather fake, and in that scene she actually warns her co-worker that the overseer/foreman is coming, so she can put on her act as well and not get a rebuke (or something worse) for stepping out of the line. 2. The short is a little bit more complicated than just the elites staying in power through fearmongering, as there are clear hints that the enemy may be real, or at least, used to be real at some point: when we see landscape shots with stuff outside of the city walls, a ton of craters are clearly visible all around it. So, either their cannons are so bad thay can barely shoot, or someone shot back at them, even if it was a long time ago. 3. Among all the other things, on a more surface level, this short perfectly illustrates a society that's been at war for so long everyone started treating it as a boring routine and the war itself became deeply intertwined with everyday life. Sadly, as a Ukrainian, I also see a lot of silimarities with my country in this short, even if for different reasons than you've mentioned.
Thjs shot filme inspired a lot REDCON an its atmosphere feels like the same, is really good to see that other people played and it was not an false memory of my head
I understand you’re point I respect and think it is absolutely correct but before we point to Russia and other countries let’s look at ourselves first are we living in fear of that ever persistent other. I abhor war in all its aspects but I abhor it’s roots more.
Using the Russian Federation as the only example of ultra-Militarism and authoritarianism is simply silly to me, I would have liked if you talked about this same thing happening in the supposedly "democratic" western world, I.E the U.S Europe and so on, We suffer the same problem actually
@ivel1os they did not mention countries specifically. > supposedly "democratic" western world The world could refer to a side of a continent, a specific country, multiple countries, etc.
Well considering modern dat russia’s increasing likeness to exactly the subject material, and the fact that western countries have stopped doing this mostly since WW2, i’d say it would be rather silly if you flipped it on it’s head. My country doesn’t have teachers mandated by the state to read out daily propaganda news to their students.
@@iplaygames8090 weak comeback. my teachers aren't literally forced to use a certain vocabulary when describing a war, and forced to deny warcrimes like rape, execution of POW's and bombing a theater filled with women and children. again you losers can keep trying to push this cringe argument that everything's the same, but it's not. no amount of whataboutisms will justify what russia has done, and you're pathetic for trying to do it.
@@iplaygames8090well, out of all the western countries US is the only one that has something like that. Mine doesn’t. Now compare it with the countries ideologically opposed to the west and they all have some of that propaganda in schools.
Remember: the "fear of not fitting in" is rather natural but pronounced in Japanese culture. However, authoritarianism takes this fear to a whole new level by literally criminalizing anything less than enthusiastic loyalty to the state apparatus. Thus the fear of standing out and mere reprisal becomes the fear of imprisonment and torture.
While yes, this is an element present all over the world, as many point out, it's still a lot more present in Russia and North Korea than in the west. Considering how pacifist Europe still seems to be.
Interesting family, they’re Korean, they speak Japanese, read English in a German font, dad wears Brodie, mom wears Stahlhelm, son wears Adrian, gunner commander wears pickelhaube, they’re all dressed in Prussian clothing and imperial German gas masks.
I LOVE THAT REDCON GOT INSPIRED BY THIS ANIME AND IM GLAD THAT IT CAME OUT BECAUSE REDCON IS THE TYPE OF GAME THAT GIVES ME THE BEST FEELINGS I REALLY WANT REDCON TO REA ALIVE ITSELF AGAIN WITH NEW PEOPLE. (Sorry i was in a hurry to write this comment just read it normally not out loud).
This was a very beautifully written video essay, right up until the "oh, yeah let's not forget to mention how evil russia is". That just ruined everything for me. It was a completely unnecessary and forced parallel. Kinda beating a dead horse at this point.
@@heybeter9505 yea it has the soviet industialism vibe (especial with the control) but my coment was aimed on narators bias toward russia and othe utocratic eastern govs he try to show. While autocracie are not completley free and have downsides this distopia that cartoon paint is more close to western (mainly to usa) with its cancel culture and poverty over all, "enemies" 1000km away that needs to be bombed into submission while citizen dont care nor are able to show bombed countries on the chart... If we dive even deeper into analysis we will see that current "democracy" in the west has almost same or even higher lvl of controll than the govs on the east it is just hidden better and used enforced on different trigers... But yea i totaly agree with you on that note. There are some cartoons from soviet era that has similar style and that pale colors.
@@obilic93nope, pretty much wrong on all fronts. The world depicted in this movie could not be further removed from a democracy, it is 100% a depiction of an autocratic warmongering state like russia.
@@obilic93 “While autocracies are not completely free” That’s an oxymoron, autocracies are COMPLETELY unfree, that’s the point. Western democracies are not perfect but fantasizing about the idea that they somehow secretly are actually more autocratic sounds like major cope
@@wick9427 a point could be made about western democraties exerting their power in more subtle, less blatant ways. Like rigging the electoral system so much that parties may have different flavours, but still serve the ends of the same powerful people. And propaganda is honestly a staple anywhere you look. On this planet there's not a single government that's on the side of its people, but they need a way to sell the lie that they are
once upon a time in ye olden days american comics and cartoons had the same emotional depth and story telling capacity of japanese anime. a good example is the justice league episode from the 2000 for the man who has everything based on an even better comic or my personal favorite comic hitman and his conversation with superman.@@AlanCampbellFilm
Why focus on Russia specifically? I mean, yeah, its relevant, but EVERY country is clamping down on its people HARD in the past 3 decades especially, and the Russia situation is nothing in comparison how hard the government gripped down on people's throats during Covid...
I disagree, but thank you so much for engaging with the ideas in the video. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say on my videos in the future :)
@@yankieowl7663 Militarism, especially to the extent that Russia does it IS bad. Defense? Its not good or bad, just a necessity, which you DO have to focus on. Saying this as a Russian (that left Russia cuz of Putin's bs) btw.
@@mkzhero militarism to the extent that Russia does it? I'm sorry, do we happen to live in alternative realities? USA spends far more on their military budget by quite a few million dollars of difference. I'm sorry but if Russia's "militarism" is bad because it somehow is of a level too high for your liking, then literally every single western nation wins by a mile and should be condemned even further... think before you write.
If you didn't know, Cannon Fodder was the main inspiration for REDCON, a game about building and fighting cannon fortresses.
The 17th Cannon also makes an appearance in the game as one of the dialogue lines mentions how it was 17th who fired the first shot during the Unification War (WW1 but it never ended, going on for about a millennia) and that you are given the privilage to use it, being an actual weapon you can buy.
Edit: A bit of a spoiler, but after replaying the campaign, you are actually sent to DESTROY 17th (which is renamed to Omega Capital Destroyer) and other cannons of the same type.
I didn't know that! Cool, I'll check it out :) thanks
@@AlanCampbellFilm do you have an idea of where I could watch it with subtitles or without ?
I played redcon first, then saw memories and as soon as I saw that fortress-city, I connected the dots immediately and was so surprised
Didn't knkw about this film before I played REDCON. It was fun, but I'm more interested about the film now.
I KNEW THIS I LOVE REDCON!!!
The Commander is a Fat, Goofy little man... But even he seems to look at the giant cannon he fires with fear and respect, and as weird as it is: he is the one person on the cannon when it fires, something that seems to be a punishment otherwise.
That guy does not want to be there as much as anyone else.
I also love that moment when he throws a quick glance at the cannon and while he seems to stand still, lines on his body move as if he's trembling under the uniform.
damn that was deep....
I noticed that too when before launches he anxiously looks around a bit but not to the point it’s obvious. And even starts to sweat and second guess himself.
yeah kinda just seems like the guy who fires cannon 17
not like an insanely high ranking commander or anything
Saw this back in like 2005, I always took the mother tapping her friend's shoulder as an indication that she understood the friend's point, but was warning her that the political enforcer was walking by. I don't think the mother is as committed as this guy thinks she is.
Shut up, you don't know shit 🤣
Same, it was settle but her facial expression seem more concern then annoyed that her friend wasn’t joining in.
I like how they inluded all Steel helmet from WW1/WW2 from all Sides
Kid: French
Dad: British
Mother: German
Commander... Austro-Hungarian?
1:57 Even the propaganda poster in the street scene shows soldiers wearing the German stahlhelm helmet
Fun Fact: This movie was used as inspiration for the mobile game REDCON, There is also a reference about Cannon 17
Wow! So that's the reason why i feel the vibe of the game in that animeXD
My take was there is no enemy. There doesn't need to be one anyway. The war apparatus doesn't need an enemy anymore. It just needs new coordinates to fire on.
I like that idea, just a bunch of manpower and resources just to make a canon fire because this culture just loves when something goes boom.
similar to the world of 1984
We were fighting an unseen enemy all through 2021. But when Russia invaded ukraine that enemy immediately disappeared. Funny that.
Absolutely positively loved cannon fodder.
It's a great short film! Hope you enjoyed the video :)
@@AlanCampbellFilmI did..
Shell, not missile. These are artillery pieces, not missile launchers.
its no longer common, but shells and bullets have historically into the 1940s been called missiles as well on occasion. if the person who wrote the original dialogue learned english in that time period, they could have wrote that down
Yeah I was gonna say what Marsar said. This technically flies in the face of the usual standardization of rocket vs missile while with older interpretation all rockets are missiles
40k Krieg "Man up"
The aesthetics of the characters - the round features, sunken beady eyes, general sickly pallor - remind me a lot of the similarly missile-themed 80's animation When the Wind Blows. Except in this we don't even see the family healthy by the beginning.
Mixed with a bit of Edward Gorey.
I feel like the film depicted North Korea better than Russia. Especially during 2020-2021. They see everyone around them as enemies
Yeah just replace big red cannon with nukes and its pretty much nort korea
North Korea itself is just another puny reflection of the tyrannical nationalist hellholes that kept popping up in the 1930s, and of which Orwell himself warned about.
The Soviet Union / Russia have by all means been THE prime role model to most of these smaller, locked down tyrannies. NK itself relied on USSR's / Russia's support, but the big bear at Moscow quickly grew weaker and less interested of supporting NK. This was seen as a betrayal and even parodied in NK's children's cartoons, further solidifying their own fortification and solitude.
tl;dr: Russia's been equal to Nazi Germany the past 100 years, and they are just continuing their old habits.
Are you all insane? The USA have been in all the major conflict in the world since the nation born! Directly or inderectly. Including Korea! They never leave KOREA, the S. Korea army are on direct control of US! Making "army exercises" IN THE REGION OF N. KOREA! A FUCKING SMALL COUNTRY VS. THE BIGGEST ARMY IN THE WORLD!
The president of N. Korea has less prerogatives than the US president! What world of ideology are youys living?!
@@GugureSux Delusional take.
@@GugureSux tbh nearly every nation before the pre-modern era (before the 40s let's say) has been a dumbed-down version of what we see in this video. It's only in the modern era in some parts of the world where open criticism of such nation and actions doesn't lead to social suicide at best. Beforehand this was always the case
The little comment you made about how the animation showing the technical aspect, individual and collective competency and the process of operating the artillery machinery having an underlying beauty to it rings true to a lot of war media.
Even the ones blatantly critical of war and conflict have a difficult time in portraying the technical/hardware aspect of military action in a bad light when people have this inherent appreciation for the engineering and technical marvels that stuff like modern tanks, naval ships and war planes are.
Even Hayao Miyazaki, who is incredibly critical of war in his movies, couldn't help but to make an entire movie about the development of fighter planes and the Zero fighter creator in The Wind Rises.
Thank you! Yeah, it's a great sequence.
I think it is also a broader critique of the concept of capitalist realism coined by Mark Fisher. The idea that we are so encapsulated by some form of ideology, that even the dissenters cannot see the path forward. This is highlighted with the "protestors" that cannot see it is the overall system and indoctrination that holds a grip over everyone. Forget less toxic ammunition, question who the enemy is and why is society completely geared towards war? This film is very 1984 and fascistic in many ways.
There's no such thing as "capitalist realism." Capitalism operates as a functional system because it's not built on any ideology, outside western liberalism, which has objectively proven to be the best system for the wellbeing of any individual.
This world is expressly the opposite of a capitalist one.
What about the end when there were flashing blue lights. Maybe the twist is they actually WERE fighting some advanced enemy. Seemed like robots. Stink bomb had a twist at the end and the ghost one's twist was that the flowers were realin his ghost helmet.
Those lights might actually belong to the (secret) police: after all, such regimes - both in fiction and in reality, - are always fueled by the fear of getting prosecuted for one’s dissent, either publicly (“show trials”) or covertly (people getting arrested in the middle of the night, with labor prisons and executions as the likely outcomes).
@ivel1osYou’re just rude, just let him theorize.
Tuesday in Warhammer 40k
The quote "History repeats" does not only apply to Axes or those who lost by the United States. This applies to every countries, companies, or even communities.
You're right.
Not only US
Laughs in Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.
I feel like this could easily be a warhammer 40k story
I believe the mobile game REDCON was heavily inspired by this.
It is
Yeah. The OMEGA gun and the theme and all that...
Yeah. It's great. Happy to see others have played and seen the connection.
Good game
Recommended for those who like strategy games
What is interesting is how often they show the Waffen SS Symbol, like at 1:40 and 1:44
I think it's just a coincidence, it's just how "S" is written in that world's alphabet
@@4tbf616 That very obviously is the exact same thing, it is on purpose, they even use it when only one S should be used.
First saw this animation in a music video of a song by Nautilus Pompilius (a russian group). The song is "Скованные одной цепью", translates to "Chained with the same/one chain". This is a great animation for the song.
I also found this the same way.
i think it should be here
th-cam.com/video/LACAhkdGq4c/w-d-xo.html
Yeah even if it's anime made in 90's... It's still fitting very well
same
they're not missiles, they're shells
You're right! My mistake
Gigantic boolets 😂
gigantic boolets, which are about to blow upon impact@@practicallyprinz
By scientific definition, it can be called a missile. All projectiles can. Even those without mechanical assistance (I.E. spears)
Now, the military term would be artillery shells, yes
This is redcon the game and That's the omega capital destroyer
Could have just filmed a day in the life of a Wallmart employee.
Does anybody else thini this movie has major Warhammer 40k vibes? It really feels like we're seeing some Imperial Planet fighting some powerful enemy
Very much so. The combination of the legions of identical gas masked troopers and the ridiculously huge static artillery is extremely reminiscent of everyone's favourite suicidal, shovel-loving WW1 clone troopers, the Krieg Death Korps.
i was getting Kreig civil war vibes from all the gas masks.
This Film reminded me of a Game called Redcon due to the Artillery and Gas Masks
its amazing how american people imagine that they are not a military society
They know they are one. But they aren't on Russia's or north Korea's level.
Not just in Russia but also in the U S. And anywhere. Control for those who have it and submission for those who don't
Assuming that he is from usa and targeted audience is from there too, this explanation would be the only way for them to understand. They are blind or chose to be(mb godly complex who knows...).
And usa implement controll on other way. The cannons in the cartoon are only seen by ones that are labeled as "enemies" by usa. Their citisens only see control trought "freedom" where you retain the power to bark but not to change. If you try to act you get easly canceled or labaled as traitor. So do you think they could ever accept the fact that they are not better from the russians?
Comparing this to the US is wildly out of touch. There exists a reality where ACTUAL DICTATORSHIPS exist and you think you're super smart and enlightened by calling this a criticism of the US. Countries like Eritrea exist, yet you're probably too sheltered to know about that
it's funny that there is a video with this footage and one Russian song "Наутилус Помпилиус - Скованные одной цепью" which could be translated as "Nautilus Pompilius - Chained Together\Forged together with one chain\Chained with one chain"
the original video is 13 years old, and the song itself was released in 1986.
Its so weird it almost feels like this short was made for that music video, they timed the movements really well to the song
@@jackattack9678 Yes, it looks like it was made for it.
As long as the conclusion is that some other people and nations have an authoritarian problem, we are the same city on the other side shooting back with our big canons. The only difference being, our canons are blue. And that's way better.
Yep we need special video about that mind set alone! Or god complex what we call here for nations that use that kind of logic! Extremley dangerous since it can generate extreme resistance cs of fear that the side with that complex has lost touch with reality...
I think you've misunderstood the film entirely.
It's not about authoritarianism or oppression, that's the face of the movie.
What the movie is about is the government distracts and controls the people with a fictional war, similar to 1984 with "the party" having taken over the entire world and use a fake war because humans require conflict and distraction.
What do you think would happen if this city were to suddenly stop firing their guns? Their entire economy and employment would cease, pretty much all of their existence is based around the guns, from ammo production to firing.
The movie is an allegory for how the Japanese were socially at the end of ww2, they built their economy on war, so to surrender wasn't an option to be considered, until literal nukes were dropped on them (hence the blue light at the end of the film)
I think, like many excellent films made by talented creators, it can be about many different themes, depending on the person viewing it. My perspective is shaped by my own experiences, and the reason I made this video is because I think the film resonates today in the context of the current war in Ukraine.
@@AlanCampbellFilm You are the young child of the film, believing in the current boogeyman, supporting the US military industry. You need to learn history, not film criticism.
This is film is literally the US military industrial complex
@@kingking-ci1gf why would the Japanese make a series of short films about the US military?
It's clearly an analogy for how Japanese imperialism shaped Japanese society, it made them constantly focus on war, all their industry was geared towards for survival, their children in school were indoctrinated to be factory workers and soldiers.
You know, just like the film?
@@lc3853 I might be mistaken as I'm not American, but nobody forces anyone into the military in the US, or even force anyone to do any specific job, *you* have the freedom to choose.
You're the child here, you cannot comprehend an idea that is outside your own scope of experiences, the Japanese would make an analogy based on what they lived through and witnessed, which was Japanese society and military during ww2
Great analysis of cannon fodder tho if you blatanly insert a political message at the end without adding the proper weight and context to it you risk to trivialize said message regardless of what people think about it. Especially for hot topics like an ongoing conflict that still claims victims. It feels like a subject for a dedicated video rather than a quick mention during a movie review
I think they dont ubderstand that...
Political message? Not exactly a political stance to call russia an increasingly self-isolating surveilance state which calls on it’s people to make self-sacrifice to delay the end to a war that is already lost.
It’d be like saying “well kind of weird to put a political message at the end of your video by calling hitler and stalin fascist dictators”
the videos title literally implies it. It wasn't inserted at the end, it was what the video was building to, and to say Russia is not authoritarian nor in a war economy at current, the only combination of such in the world right now (Bar North Korea, I suppose, which isn't really in a war economy despite it's ongoing war) is ignorant at best, putin shilling at worst.
@@clankplusm before calling out people about stuff they didn't say (and I'd like to know how my comment implies some sort of support of putin bs) I suggest you to learn how to read the room since 1. The title is very generic since the russo ukrainian war wasn't the only ongoing conflict in 2023 and 2. Just like the title the all video is praising the short movie (and rightly so) as a critique of authoritarian regimes in general but the author make no effort in connecting it with the russian aggression on Ukraine beside the "yo remember there's war in ukraine". Therefore quoting randomly the war in Ukraine to make the video political with the bare minimum "dictatorship is bad" _while reviewing a fictional short film_ is quite lame, naive and out of place if not disrespectful. As I already said it's way better addressing the subject properly rather than just mentioning it with "it's news of the moment, watch my video please" vibes
40k life haha!
I think it might be more Dieselpunk than Steampunk though.
This movie is definition of "When cannon fodder don't act like cannon fodder at all".
Is this video just to point out the parallel with Russia and the shorts? Isn't it suppose to represent every nations that fought wars or have a wartime economy? The U.S government during Vietnam tried their best to stop the anti-war sentiment and crack down on protester, they broadcast government annoucement saying how they are protecting South Vietnam and did a great job at bombing the North and that victory is imminent. The same thing during the war on terror, they tried to fight an idea with no clear objective, the government send young men who wanted to served into Iraq and Afganistan to fight people that they branded as "the enemy" or "terrorists" so that the American economy can get more oil and the military industrial complex keep running.
agreed, also we cant tell if the nation is actually facistic with the information we have, authoritarianism and facism are two different things afterall.
the point is about militerization in general which occurs regardless of national ethic or type of state
It isn’t even clear if they’re fighting a real enemy as far as I can tell
"Russia bad" is the current popular thing is why the contrast was made. Very low effort.
@@Blink_____well fascism is bad so criticising Russia is nothing out of the ordinary. We should criticise countries that blatantly violate international laws and human rights while turning more and more fascistic. I mean Russia at this point was behaving like Germany in 30s’, it’s just that unlike with Czechoslovakia the west this time said no.
There are key differences between the wrongdoings of the United States and the wrongdoings of the Russian Federation
The United States HAD pursued awful conflicts.
Its people generally hated or disagreed with these conflicts after fervor such as that after 9/11 had subsided. Resulting in great protests and administrations being voted out of office.
The United States would occasionally officially apologize and seek friendlier relations with the afflicted countries such as Vietnam.
Casualties, while always regrettable still are relatively low compared to other conflicts (pursued by Russia at the same time)
The invasion tends to be pretty brief, with the occupation being rough. It succeeds in Iraq but not in Afghanistan
Russia meanwhile IS pursuing awful conflicts.
Its people have little indication of protesting this (or being able to)
It is an open secret that political opponents or former Allie’s of the current President are often assassinated.
The military presence of Russia in Ukraine far exceeds the height of the gulf wars for a post Cold War conflict.
Casualties (depending on who you ask) especially amongst civilians is of a far greater scale than the US post war conflicts
The deadliest part seems to be the invasion, since the war hasn’t even reached the occupation yet.
Missiles ?? Really im no military but this looks like shells
You're right! My mistake
I don't know exactly why to attribute the relationship to Russia when it is perfectly based on a combination of the Japanese Empire, Germany, France and England in the first half of the 20th century and I genuinely think that it may be an exaggerated reflection of what humanity will be like in the close future because we are entering a pre-war era due to the very complicated situation in the world, so the countries' options are to arm themselves while waiting for a future conflict or to fall when this conflict arrives.
Oh, so this is what Redcon is based on...
It gives me Half-life 2 vibes.
I remember seeing this on TV at like 2 am at my friend's house when I was in high school, being mesmerized by it, and not knowing the name of it. It surfaces in my mind sometimes. So glad this video popped up in my recommendations.
I'm sorry but it is completely wrong to depict russia with this animation because from the core of it, this animation points fingers at imperial japan which was a deeply militarized country, from it's economy to its culture. Yes the government is authoritarian, and yes it declared war on a country, but it absolutely isn't fully militarized or even on a war based economy, The only close enough modern example of this would be north korea and even then. (Also these are not missiles, these are shells, it would be accurate if we were talking about medieval weapons ammunition or actual modern missiles)
I would argue that this is perfect representation of the usa with little tweak that the cannons are airplains only seen by the ones that are labeled as enemies of the usa while citizen are oblivious or dont care about it.
And part where they cheer cannon firing would be shows as they cheering what ever television is showing them...
@@obilic93you can stop trying to force this comparison now, it’s really embarrassing how hard you’re trying to make it fit.
You can call the US president a poopoo head or or a retard on national tv and not get mysteriously thrown out of a third story window.
Hell recently there was even a video of someone getting within punching distance of biden and having an argument with him about how stupid his gun policies are.
Putin would rather you keep at least 100 meters distance if you’re a commoner nowadays and 10-2 meters if you’re a high ranking govt official.
@@obilic93Your comments indicate a clear bias against the United States.
The U.S. isn’t a homogenous group. And it doesn’t really seek to homogenize them as much as other nations like Russian or Chinese try to do.
The problem when calling US citizens oblivious when they’re the ones protesting for and against all sides of a conflict is just plain unreasonable. Some citizens are apathetic, but I feel confident in saying they’re a lot more vocal about their opinions than those in Russia atm.
I can’t find a single moment in post Cold War US history when any major war the U.S. pursued didn’t end up with gigantic protests and the current administration being voted out of office.
Otomo usually just entertains my eye. But sometimes he punches me in the balls like this. And somehow I just appreciate him ever the more for it.
They perfectly captured that feeling when war dictates every other aspect of life but at the same time it is so distant that you don't notice it. This anime was 10/10 when I first watched it. Now it's 12/10. Russian government managed to balance war propaganda with normality maintenance almost perfectly.
I saw this back when it came out. It made such an impression, that I sought out your video
I love your content man, you definitely deserve more views for the effort you put into your content.
I hope your channel grows, fren
2:01 in that poster if you look closely you can see two sig runes which were also used be the german ss during ww2
I like they are all wearing helmets from both sides of world wars. French Adrian helmets, British Broodie helmets and German Stahlhelms.
it is a 'Shell' not a missile.
Your analysis of the film is on point, but comparing this fictional country to Russia is nonsense. Russia, at least for now, is very similar to the west in its decadence and desire for comfort. The "war effort" isnt glorified in Russia, on the contrary - the regime tries really hard to make the war invisible for most of the Russians by not expanding the war industry and trying to minimize the amount of people in the combat zone. In its core Russia is still very liberal in philosophical sense - economics, comfort and support of the people are the main concerns of the government. Winning the war, cutting other sources of information and etc are secondary goals at best, and things like Russian nationalism are actually one of the biggest problems for the government.
Thank you so much for watching and engaging with the ideas I was trying to put forward :) I disagree with you, however. I think in many ways Russia is trying to clamp down on it's population and suppressing them from engaging much with the outside world, with the objective of driving focus to the war effort. The Russian Government is trying to make the war invisible, it's trying to make the *effects* of the war (Eg. International sanctions, travel bans, etc.) invisible. Russian Nationalism directed inwardly is an issue being contended with, either through assignation (Eg. Wagner) or censorship. But like the protestors in the short film, I would argue that this kind of protest is actually being enabled by the Government as it positively reinforces the war with Ukraine. Look at how the Russian Government is dealing with the popular milbloggers, vs. jailing the free press and opposition Media outlets.
While I don't think Cannon Fodder is a perfect one-to-one comparison to modern Russia, I think it offers some interesting parallels with the lives of everyday citizens, which is what I wanted to highlight.
@@AlanCampbellFilm I don’t know if you heard about Strelkov, but he basically was one of those who helped the donbass conflict to start. He was pushing for more industrial effort and for mobilisation since the start of the war. He was jailed this summer, for criticism of the army. There is also the nazbol party which actively agitates for the war and constantly holds small pickets for the military effort, and yet they are also cracked down by the government with constant raids and arrests.
Soooo, remind me how long is Putin in power now? 24 years? No goverment in west survived this long, under democracy.
In my opinion, your comment is nonsense, since militarism and the desire to destroy enemies are constantly glorified on russian television.
😂 nonsense
The anime clearly caricatures N$zi Germany and Imperialist Japan, with the red cannon being a obvious reference to the Schwerer Gustav, and the dude finds a way to compare it with modern Russia lmao.
Are you american by any chance?
The fact that every s has been replaced with the SS symbol really drives it home, NGL.
history often rhymes, you're missing the point.
@@s_t_r_a_y_e_d Lmao sure man, modern Russia and n@zi Germany are totally comparable.
Are you dumb or something? It has relevance to todays time just as much as the references its pulling. Think a bit outside the box buddy
Wow, someone managed to connect an antiwar film to a current war!
Saying "this dystopia reminds me of 'bad' countries" means you COMPLETELY missed the point🤦♂️
Indeed, did he do it deliberately or is he just a useful cog, like the mother in the family.
Yeah, that was beautifully embarrassing.
No it’s not. The movie is criticising a specific type of countries, which Russia has become.
@@BB-hx4mj if you think this is about the "other" country while your country is right and just, you're completely missing the point and the movie is actually making fun of you.
@@iankummer And when the f**k did I ever say my country is right and just? I didn’t, but you just had to go for an imaginary strawmen. Just because I’m criticising your favourite murderous dictator doesn’t mean you can suddenly throw a hissy fit while predating to be some fake intellectual.
Redcon was inspired by this
Don’t ever call an artillery shell a “missile” again
tell your worst nightmare or most bountiful dream
very thoughtful analysis. will be checking out the amine.
Also by this time during production Katsuhiro Otomo was well aware of the international success of Akira. Also it's well established his works has elements of satire.
Its hard to call this a dystopia because honestly we dont know what the alternative is. What are they fighting against? For all we know these people are holding an entire horde of swarming tyrranids each day and keeping their whole species alive through sheer grit and determination.
Everything is dependent on context and without having context its kind of asinine to pass down judgment.
It's a satire of "The Fascist Society" to the extreme. Which basically means that War is the normal way of life.
Will become a classic after WW3.
The city was built for something long ago
But now it's all focused about the cannon
And once the cannon falls
Be it by enemy or a fault
The city and it's people die with it
The purpose gone
And in that world there is no more other ideologies that would swallow the people once the idea they supported is gone- in our world, the people of one fascistic group will get swallowed by the other once the previous grift dies.
And that's one of the more annoying things irl- you can't kill it, because you can't satisfy everyone. But the thing we can do is to make people aware that there are other possibilites that are not rooted in violence and blaming everyone around you for how life sucks.
Strive for world where the dissatisfied are ones who just want to justify violence and stepping over everyone other than them.
tell your worst nightmare or most bountiful dream
You have excellent points
I think this is a direction many "democratic" countries in the western world are moving towards.
@@unknownuser5895nigga, YOU are the fascist lol literally locking up political opponents, Silencing your enemies and indoctrinating the opposite children
@@unknownuser5895it is becoming more and more acceptable day by day, and there is nothing you can do about it.
I think many are alredy in that stage but methods that are used are different!
@@unknownuser5895 because there is a big bad enemy that is being dehumanised and a run away military-industrial complex
@@iplaygames8090 On that we agree 🇵🇸
Cannon Fodder is the best dieselpunk anime ever!
This is more reminiscent of what the future in America looks like
I love the analysis of this film :D. However, one nitpick. Shells. Not Missiles. Bullets are also shells cause these are cannons. Cannons use Shells. Bullets however are used for small arms.
This is a very politically biased analysis. Compared to Russia, Israel is way more militarized society, but of course Israel are the "good guys".
The film itself has nothing to do with Russia and presents a general philosophical ideas that could be stretched and applied to pretty much any society in human history, including United States.
Thanks for engaging with the video and my ideas. The idea behind my videos is to discuss films and why they resonate today. In that sense, I think the context of the current war in Ukraine and Russian repression is relevant when discussing this film and the depiction of an authoritarian, militaristic society.
@@AlanCampbellFilm Not a fan of Russia, but the numbers don't seem to match, Alan.
Russia's militay spending is about 10% of what US spends on military. Russia has around 20 military bases outside its borders, US have around 750. Russia invasions count in the past 30 years: Georgia, Ukraine, with overall civilian casualties count around 35,000. US invasions: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libiya, Syria, with conservative civilian casualties count around half a million.
Of course they key difference here that Russia is not a "democracy", and US presumably is, and we know that as long as you are "democracy" you can do whatever the fork you want (with Israel being another great example of that).
But even if you ignore the math, and just look at the way political elites and media create a narratives, that shape people's minds in support of wars, selling people "external enemy" and paranoia, Russia is by far behind Israel and United States - and the numbers clearly reflect that.
@@markfreemanvideo yeah, Alan simply ended up proving the point of the movie. He himself is one of the mindless drones cheering for the war machine of his own nation. He's fighting some non-existant enemy, and maybe he too will realise who the enemy is when he grows up. Quite ironic to point those scenes out from the movie only to not understand them and not even compare them to his own situation.
In any case, thank you for actually bringing up the numbers, people seem to forget history quite quickly these days and only remember the "current thing".
Lack of western self awareness
Hello from Crimea. Have you seen the fortifications of Sebastopol?
Looks more diesel punk than anything
all 3 of the short films are great in different ways cannon fodder has always been my favourite
Why depict Rusia at the start of the video when USA and alot of countries are like this?This video applies to almost all of them and the future will be the same for all because people need to limit government control 😅
literally like 80% of the USA's criticism for government or history or war comes from US citizens whats your point?? if anything that speaks volumes to the foundations the country is built upon to the point where the country itself is free to criticize itself and not get arrested or detained like russian citizens
dude, i'd rather work as a defense company employee designing and manufacturing bombs and have a decent work-life balance than live in a country that actively puts down it citizens dissent over the government, its literally the lesser of two evils but "oh the US does it so that must mean russia, china, north korea, nazi germany, imperial japan, the mongols, X is justified too!!" despite being way worse
@@kulot-ki1tu if you dont count that amongst 80% are imigrants from war thorn countries then mb. Next 50% is aproximetly the number at best. Every democratic voter is supporting intervencionism of the usa and only criticizing it is not enough nor is proof that his point is not valid. While in russia you cant critise war on ukranie (i think same would be for usa if they ever go into real war) in usa you cant say that only biological women are women. Yea same things different reasons to be arrested or tortured into submission either by police or cancel culture...
@@obilic93 i wanna know where you got these figures from, you're just guesstimating the things you say
i dont know about you, but you're overblowing cancel culture out of proportion and making it look like a raging war is happening inside the country, like dude, russia has AN ACTUAL war going on and you're trying to compare that to a couple of twitter crybabies and then using that as a standard for a country with a population of over 300 million people, like what?????
its annoying when you bring up topics like police brutality or SJWs because its such a wide range of issues im not gonna bother tackling each of them, all i know is that i'd rather live in the USA than a country like russia where every city outside of st petersburg or moscow is horrible commie block pastes or an obscure rural village
@@obilic93
“I think that would be the same if they ever go into a real war” sweety, they have gone into many real wars, and each of them had people freely proclaiming how much they disagreed with it, the vietnam war ended for this exact reason. Even fighting hitler had opposition which is hilarious if you think about it.
@@wick9427 Ye USA really was forgiving to citizens that were labeled as communists during cold war era. Ye fighting hitler resultet in the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which is labeled today by them as act of destroying free speech if other govs try to do same for the NGOs that are supported by them. USA doing same thing just different way.
And they never went into real war after ww2 and even that can't be called that since it was not waged on their soil (but that can be debated). USA only waged wars against far weaker and undeveloped "enemies". They tryed with yugoslavia which was not that undeveloped and never came to land invasion cs of the losses they alredy had in the air.
Ye people can bark at USA gov unline in other parts of the world but still can't bark on some topics like gender or private list of pleasure islands... Ye like i said different but same.
It's tragic as the end shows as the song IN YER MEMORY/end credits roll out, I suspect it is the city joining in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the bombings as you can hear a large explosion in the background at 3:10 of the official song "IN YER MEMORY" Even if he grows up and succeeds or not he and his family and likely everyone will tragically die in the bombing...
this theory makes me believe they are fearing of something way more advanced than them
Love how you managed to miss the message of the film entirely.
What was the message?
You have a very western msm view of Russian life it’s funny you should apply that to everyone else
There's a lot of Russians that escaped Russia and could confirm his views as true+you yourselfs are probably not even living in Russia nor lived there
That’s the fun part, you can’t apply it to everyone else.
Pretty funny how we live in an era where the internet is so large and ubiquitous that even autocratic societies have people using proxies and VPN’s to escape into the free web and consequently tell everyone else they’re just as bad lol.
Yeah yeah we've heard it all before.
I'm not gonna watch the video cuz anime isn't really my thing but what I will say is that the guy in the thumbnail looks like that guy with the wooden eye from pirates of the caribbean
HOLY SHIT, i remebering have make a dream/nightamre where i was on an elavator in this city with my dad and i just fall and try to not but a wake up at this moment
>OP not realizing he’s one of the drones too
Lmao.
so are you lol
Says the drone.
A self-aware drone
canon fodder means : soldiers regarded or treated as expendable in battle not big blasting canon also big blasting canon have diffrent name tho it is positivley loved
1. The mother is equally as aware of the surrounding reality: her cheering seems rather fake, and in that scene she actually warns her co-worker that the overseer/foreman is coming, so she can put on her act as well and not get a rebuke (or something worse) for stepping out of the line.
2. The short is a little bit more complicated than just the elites staying in power through fearmongering, as there are clear hints that the enemy may be real, or at least, used to be real at some point: when we see landscape shots with stuff outside of the city walls, a ton of craters are clearly visible all around it. So, either their cannons are so bad thay can barely shoot, or someone shot back at them, even if it was a long time ago.
3. Among all the other things, on a more surface level, this short perfectly illustrates a society that's been at war for so long everyone started treating it as a boring routine and the war itself became deeply intertwined with everyday life. Sadly, as a Ukrainian, I also see a lot of silimarities with my country in this short, even if for different reasons than you've mentioned.
random russian indie bands putting their songs over the most interesting and thought provoking animations ever:
Thjs shot filme inspired a lot REDCON an its atmosphere feels like the same, is really good to see that other people played and it was not an false memory of my head
I understand you’re point I respect and think it is absolutely correct but before we point to Russia and other countries let’s look at ourselves first are we living in fear of that ever persistent other. I abhor war in all its aspects but I abhor it’s roots more.
and now draw a parallel between Palestine and Israel.
This is redcon the game and That's the omega capital destroyer
Using the Russian Federation as the only example of ultra-Militarism and authoritarianism is simply silly to me, I would have liked if you talked about this same thing happening in the supposedly "democratic" western world, I.E the U.S Europe and so on, We suffer the same problem actually
Yes.
@ivel1os they did not mention countries specifically.
> supposedly "democratic" western world
The world could refer to a side of a continent, a specific country, multiple countries, etc.
The funniest part of this is when the author assumes that it's the international opposing nation of his own that's being depicted.
Well considering modern dat russia’s increasing likeness to exactly the subject material, and the fact that western countries have stopped doing this mostly since WW2, i’d say it would be rather silly if you flipped it on it’s head.
My country doesn’t have teachers mandated by the state to read out daily propaganda news to their students.
There are few countries so oriented on a war that close to home yet completely deaf to the actual situation
@@wick9427 instead it has a pledge of aliegience every day at schools!
@@iplaygames8090 weak comeback. my teachers aren't literally forced to use a certain vocabulary when describing a war, and forced to deny warcrimes like rape, execution of POW's and bombing a theater filled with women and children.
again you losers can keep trying to push this cringe argument that everything's the same, but it's not.
no amount of whataboutisms will justify what russia has done, and you're pathetic for trying to do it.
@@iplaygames8090well, out of all the western countries US is the only one that has something like that. Mine doesn’t. Now compare it with the countries ideologically opposed to the west and they all have some of that propaganda in schools.
Remember: the "fear of not fitting in" is rather natural but pronounced in Japanese culture. However, authoritarianism takes this fear to a whole new level by literally criminalizing anything less than enthusiastic loyalty to the state apparatus. Thus the fear of standing out and mere reprisal becomes the fear of imprisonment and torture.
This film is definitely a metaphor to the military dictatorship in Japan during ww2 moreso than any foreign country
While yes, this is an element present all over the world, as many point out, it's still a lot more present in Russia and North Korea than in the west. Considering how pacifist Europe still seems to be.
Interesting family, they’re Korean, they speak Japanese, read English in a German font, dad wears Brodie, mom wears Stahlhelm, son wears Adrian, gunner commander wears pickelhaube, they’re all dressed in Prussian clothing and imperial German gas masks.
I LOVE THAT REDCON GOT INSPIRED BY THIS ANIME AND IM GLAD THAT IT CAME OUT BECAUSE REDCON IS THE TYPE OF GAME THAT GIVES ME THE BEST FEELINGS I REALLY WANT REDCON TO REA ALIVE ITSELF AGAIN WITH NEW PEOPLE. (Sorry i was in a hurry to write this comment just read it normally not out loud).
Funni game of controling little dudes shooting booms booms
reminds me a lot of Junon with these guns mounted to houses
Alan you should change your name to Taras and move to Ukraine to fight "evil russians".
Thank you ❤
YES more exposure!!!
This was a very beautifully written video essay, right up until the "oh, yeah let's not forget to mention how evil russia is". That just ruined everything for me.
It was a completely unnecessary and forced parallel. Kinda beating a dead horse at this point.
Are you one of thos puterlist hitler types? (obs this is a joke)
@@bunkerhousing no he is a Pol potist type🤗🤗
One day you could/will be famous and I'm here for it
Great explanation!❤
Thank you! I have a few more planned too! Hopefully will come out soon
@@AlanCampbellFilm cool, can't wait to see it
If Russia actually was like that, we'd win in a few weeks
who are we? You're the only one here.
@@ramboxd5894 by "we" I meant the country I've chosen, "we" as in "Russia"
russia is exactly like that, fortunately it is also extremely corrupt and incompetent.
To me this cartoon looks more to western countries then to eastern...
Honestly, first seeing the cartoon in a music video, I thought it was a unique 80s ganddrawn soviet cartoon
@@heybeter9505 yea it has the soviet industialism vibe (especial with the control) but my coment was aimed on narators bias toward russia and othe utocratic eastern govs he try to show.
While autocracie are not completley free and have downsides this distopia that cartoon paint is more close to western (mainly to usa) with its cancel culture and poverty over all, "enemies" 1000km away that needs to be bombed into submission while citizen dont care nor are able to show bombed countries on the chart...
If we dive even deeper into analysis we will see that current "democracy" in the west has almost same or even higher lvl of controll than the govs on the east it is just hidden better and used enforced on different trigers...
But yea i totaly agree with you on that note. There are some cartoons from soviet era that has similar style and that pale colors.
@@obilic93nope, pretty much wrong on all fronts. The world depicted in this movie could not be further removed from a democracy, it is 100% a depiction of an autocratic warmongering state like russia.
@@obilic93
“While autocracies are not completely free”
That’s an oxymoron, autocracies are COMPLETELY unfree, that’s the point.
Western democracies are not perfect but fantasizing about the idea that they somehow secretly are actually more autocratic sounds like major cope
@@wick9427 a point could be made about western democraties exerting their power in more subtle, less blatant ways. Like rigging the electoral system so much that parties may have different flavours, but still serve the ends of the same powerful people. And propaganda is honestly a staple anywhere you look. On this planet there's not a single government that's on the side of its people, but they need a way to sell the lie that they are
I love watching this and porco rosso back to back
the entire collection is a masterpiece alan.
Agreed
once upon a time in ye olden days american comics and cartoons had the same emotional depth and story telling capacity of japanese anime.
a good example is the justice league episode from the 2000 for the man who has everything based on an even better comic
or my personal favorite comic hitman and his conversation with superman.@@AlanCampbellFilm
Why focus on Russia specifically? I mean, yeah, its relevant, but EVERY country is clamping down on its people HARD in the past 3 decades especially, and the Russia situation is nothing in comparison how hard the government gripped down on people's throats during Covid...
I disagree, but thank you so much for engaging with the ideas in the video. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say on my videos in the future :)
@AlanCampbellFilm dude, you act like nation focusing on national defense and militarism is a bad thing.
@@yankieowl7663 Militarism, especially to the extent that Russia does it IS bad. Defense? Its not good or bad, just a necessity, which you DO have to focus on. Saying this as a Russian (that left Russia cuz of Putin's bs) btw.
@@AlanCampbellFilm will do. Idk what you 'disagree' on though, elaboration needed.
@@mkzhero militarism to the extent that Russia does it? I'm sorry, do we happen to live in alternative realities? USA spends far more on their military budget by quite a few million dollars of difference. I'm sorry but if Russia's "militarism" is bad because it somehow is of a level too high for your liking, then literally every single western nation wins by a mile and should be condemned even further... think before you write.
thanks