Anti Vaccine Vibes In Episode One

Adampk said:
this kind of humor is not really funny tbh

awol_ab said:
What?! That’s a stretch.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:


Don't know if this topic will get flagged as extremist or radical, haha, but I did notice that the phone groupchat scene in episode one was like an analogy for the vaccine.

A governing power pleas with its people to accept their invitation into a groupchat, so they may all know the new established rule. The girl says she doesn't wish to participate, and they immediately attempt to guilt trip her into it. They play the victim and speak as if these rules are needed as part of survival.

I do wonder how far they'll go with this (IMO) intentional analogy. Anyways, this looks like a must watch this season.

Clement75 said:
To me that's not it.
It could be also associated with bullying, having your own opinion. Idk how it goes, but why would they need to do this.
That would be pretty bad if they promote such a things, but these original animes usually take couple years to pre-plan, so I don't think that's it.

zepenedo said:
I think you need to slow down on those shrooms.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:
Take into consideration that Japan has a relatively low adult vaccination rate. It's really not a stretch.

VP2003boi said:
Considering original anime take a long ass time to make its almost certainly they had the story already planned before the pandemic. So no, this is highly unlikely.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:


Let me correct myself here. When I say, "Anti Vaccine Vibes", I mean anti mandates from every corner of this whole pandemic. (i.e. Anti masks, anti lockdowns, etc) I think this establishes a more realistic timeline.

A lot of you are calling this a stretch.My response to this is that as long as it's within reach, then why not have a discussion about it inside a forum? I realize the past year has been really decisive. Everyone has made their own camps and are willing to stop out any inconvenient opinion that stands in their way. We're talking anime and people are getting triggered by a potential direction the story might be going in? That to me is most triggering.

VP2003boi said:
Uh? Man, when i say before the pandemic i literally mean BEFORE the pandemic, like... covid itself. Original anime take YEARS to make, more than 2 years for sure. The director also said that because of covid he had to storyboard a ton alone in his home. And storyboarding takes place in the production phase, actually writing the story takes place in the pre-production, meaning that, again, the story was already done BEFORE covid. And man, im pretty sure most people here dont really care if that thing was about covid or not, its just extremely unlikely so we are just saying it to you WHY it is unlikely.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:


Let me correct myself here. When I say, "Anti Vaccine Vibes", I mean anti mandates from every corner of this whole pandemic. (i.e. Anti masks, anti lockdowns, etc) I think this establishes a more realistic timeline.

A lot of you are calling this a stretch.My response to this is that as long as it's within reach, then why not have a discussion about it inside a forum? I realize the past year has been really decisive. Everyone has made their own camps and are willing to stop out any inconvenient opinion that stands in their way. We're talking anime and people are getting triggered by a potential direction the story might be going in? That to me is most triggering.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:


Don't know if this topic will get flagged as extremist or radical, haha, but I did notice that the phone groupchat scene in episode one was like an analogy for the vaccine.

A governing power pleas with its people to accept their invitation into a groupchat, so they may all know the new established rule. The girl says she doesn't wish to participate, and they immediately attempt to guilt trip her into it. They play the victim and speak as if these rules are needed as part of survival.

I do wonder how far they'll go with this (IMO) intentional analogy. Anyways, this looks like a must watch this season.

sikachuuu said:


It's because people need to be told by their local government that the vaccine is available first before they can do anything, and people have been waiting. We need to receive a vaccination ticket first before we can book an appointment. It's not like in the US or maybe other countries where you can book the appointment right away.

For the record, the reservation site went down every time a new slot of appointment open. People have been wanting to get the vaccine, and they go to get it as soon as they can.

Sure, there're anti-vaxers in Japan just like in other countries, but not majority of them are. Japan just started vaccination late, and we're still don't have enough vaccine for populations, so that's why it's been slow.

You should stop reading or listening to whatever news site you got this antivaxx thing in Japan.

joeykeys said:


Japan does have a lower faith in vaccines in general compared to other countries that is just matter of fact from polling. Mostly due to mistakes from the government with past vaccination drives.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:


Don't know if this topic will get flagged as extremist or radical, haha, but I did notice that the phone groupchat scene in episode one was like an analogy for the vaccine.

A governing power pleas with its people to accept their invitation into a groupchat, so they may all know the new established rule. The girl says she doesn't wish to participate, and they immediately attempt to guilt trip her into it. They play the victim and speak as if these rules are needed as part of survival.

I do wonder how far they'll go with this (IMO) intentional analogy. Anyways, this looks like a must watch this season.

MendicantMonkey said:
I didn't take it as a vaccine commentary. It seems more like a "Lord of the Flies" with Japanese characteristics. Peer pressure to conform to the needs of the group is a definite running theme in Japanese fiction.

Also, my understanding of the vaccination rate in Japan is that it is a function of medical infrastructure and needing to import all their doses.

Clement75 said:
To me that's not it.
It could be also associated with bullying, having your own opinion. Idk how it goes, but why would they need to do this.
That would be pretty bad if they promote such a things, but these original animes usually take couple years to pre-plan, so I don't think that's it.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:


Don't know if this topic will get flagged as extremist or radical, haha, but I did notice that the phone groupchat scene in episode one was like an analogy for the vaccine.

A governing power pleas with its people to accept their invitation into a groupchat, so they may all know the new established rule. The girl says she doesn't wish to participate, and they immediately attempt to guilt trip her into it. They play the victim and speak as if these rules are needed as part of survival.

I do wonder how far they'll go with this (IMO) intentional analogy. Anyways, this looks like a must watch this season.

johannilsnagel said:
Please stop projecting american discourse on japanese culture. The vaccination rate in Japan has nothing to do with conspiracy theories:

"Japan’s modern vaccine unease has its roots in a measles, mumps and rubella inoculation that some suspected of leading to higher rates of aseptic meningitis in the early 1990s. Though no definitive link was established, the shots were discontinued, and to this day Japan doesn’t recommend a combined MMR shot.

Another catalyst was a 1992 court ruling that not only made the government responsible for any adverse reactions related to vaccines, but also stipulated that suspected side effects would be considered adverse events, said Tetsuo Nakayama, a professor at the Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences whose research focuses on vaccines. Two years later, the government revised a vaccination law, scrapping mandatory vaccinations.

These events helped send a message that inoculations should be taken at one’s own risk, and diluted the awareness of vaccination as a greater public benefit, said Mikihito Tanaka, a professor at Waseda University specializing in science communication.

“Japan has a strong health insurance scheme and an accessible medical system,” he said. “Compared to places like the U.S., that makes the incentive to gamble one’s health with a new vaccine very low.”"

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/12/23/national/japan-vaccine-history-coronavirus/

ShibitoMatuzaka said:


Already posted a more recent article if you follow my posts in the thread. I appreciate your time in posting this, but I rather accept the news from this month and not seven months ago—before vaccines were available to every fortunate first world country.

Eira_99 said:
No, anti-vax sentiment isn't as prevelent in Japan as it is in America for starters, it does exist but not nearly to the same level.

Secondly do you know how long anime take to make, espically an original like this, where all the writing, designs, and plot layout has to be made first and can't just be taken from a source material.

I highly doubt that's what they were trying to say, it seems more like they just wanted to comment on power abuse. Which is made even more obvious if the watch the second episode.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:

In future episodes, I'm looking for the student council to form an alliance with the Scientist. There should be a disagreement between the Scientist and the free-willed girl. We'll see the Student Council backing the Scientist which clearly favors the council by allowing them to have more control.

Eira_99 said:

I'm sorry are you on the side of the council, they're a bunch of manipulators and horrible people who are trying to use fear and abuse their power in order to have control over others, the free will girl is in the right to go against them. It's not anti-vax to be anti-authority and in this case they're clearly terrible people who should not be allowed to lead or put in a position of power.

Also the election was rigged, it's to show how the guy who was meant to win purposfully rigged it so his opponent could win in order to have control over her. Which again is being done to show that he's a scumbag and she's a pushover, their establishing character flaws of what are basically the villians. Going against them is the right thing to do because they're bad people, it's pretty simple stuff, you're getting weird reads I'm gonna be honest.

ShibitoMatuzaka said:


Yes, the 2nd episode didn't further the anti-vaccine (mandates) take like I was hoping. However, it doesn't count it out entirely.

We have a group chat complaining of a rigged election.

Then there was the mention of "Fake News" (At least in my subtitle translation)

Lastly, the person who posted the information that wasn't in the student council's favor was immediately targeted.

In future episodes, I'm looking for the student council to form an alliance with the Scientist. There should be a disagreement between the Scientist and the free-willed girl. We'll see the Student Council backing the Scientist which clearly favors the council by allowing them to have more control.

deg said:
anyway the first episode is about the political compass that is authoritarian vs libertarian ideology

sure you can apply the politics of vaccine right now in real life on it but its not specifically about vaccines lol