- There are dark fascist undertones in the violent anime clip that Rep. Paul Gosar tweeted this week.
- The anime was previously co-opted by alt-right factions due to its allusions to Nazism and the Holocaust.
- The “titans” are transformed from an oppressed race of humans living in concentration camp-like environments.
While the furor over Rep. Paul Gosar tweeting a violent anime clip of himself slaying New York lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden continues to rage, many people are missing the fascist subtext of the clip Gosar posted.
Written as a cautionary tale about the ills of war, “Attack on Titan” was first released in manga form in 2009. Its premise involves a teenager, Eren Yeager, who joins a division of the military called the Survey Corps. Venturing beyond concentric walls within which they believe themselves to be imprisoned, Yeager and the Survey Corps slay titans – monstrous beings that eat humans.
The anime’s dark undertones of Nazism and allusions to the Holocaust become apparent in later arcs when it’s revealed that the subhuman “mindless titans” – the monsters on which AOC’s and Biden’s faces were superimposed – were originally humans, too.
These humans were a race called Eldians that lived in a concentration-camp-style ghetto and were forced to wear armbands that closely resemble those that Jewish people were forced to wear during the Holocaust. The Eldians abided by strict laws imposed by a military government that executed them for petty crimes like venturing outside their encampment.
Read the article by Cheryl Teh in Business Insider Australia.