Since Ostania and Westaria are both presented as oligarchic societies (but with no slums or homeless encampments in sight), while being clearly modeled after Cold War Europe, it’s certainly a work of historical nihilism. It recasts the Cold War as an inter-imperialist conflict in which ‘gentle capitalism’ is a given, and the only thing at stake is whether the war gets kinetic again or not.
Where it gets more explicitly anticommunist is that almost all the criminal or unhinged characters seem to come from, or work for, Ostania. It’s in keeping with western screenwriters never forgetting to include a beating any time someone is captured by Soviet forces, or to show signs of cynicism and corruption any time a ranking Soviet is on screen. There are some Ostanian activists who denounce the greed and consumerism of Westaria, but they go on to strap bombs to cute dogs to try to assassinate diplomats or some shit like that. Meanwhile the Westarian characters are shown to only want to prevent open war from breaking out again.
The animation is pretty and Anya cracks me up , so I still watched all of it
Honestly it’s kinda funny that my friend and I mainly enjoyed the minor romantic subplot (I’d you call it that) of Damian and Anya. Even then it was entirely something for the realm of fanfics to explore but the story gave us jumping off points.
When theorizing about chatecters is the most fun you have with a piece of media, I’m not really sure what that says about the media itself. At the very least it provided something fun to discuss.
Since Ostania and Westaria are both presented as oligarchic societies (but with no slums or homeless encampments in sight), while being clearly modeled after Cold War Europe, it’s certainly a work of historical nihilism. It recasts the Cold War as an inter-imperialist conflict in which ‘gentle capitalism’ is a given, and the only thing at stake is whether the war gets kinetic again or not.
Where it gets more explicitly anticommunist is that almost all the criminal or unhinged characters seem to come from, or work for, Ostania. It’s in keeping with western screenwriters never forgetting to include a beating any time someone is captured by Soviet forces, or to show signs of cynicism and corruption any time a ranking Soviet is on screen. There are some Ostanian activists who denounce the greed and consumerism of Westaria, but they go on to strap bombs to cute dogs to try to assassinate diplomats or some shit like that. Meanwhile the Westarian characters are shown to only want to prevent open war from breaking out again.
The animation is pretty and Anya cracks me up
, so I still watched all of it 
Honestly it’s kinda funny that my friend and I mainly enjoyed the minor romantic subplot (I’d you call it that) of Damian and Anya. Even then it was entirely something for the realm of fanfics to explore but the story gave us jumping off points.
When theorizing about chatecters is the most fun you have with a piece of media, I’m not really sure what that says about the media itself. At the very least it provided something fun to discuss.
Makes me wonder how much the Zenkyoto movement still affects the industry