Report TomiTomsen's Profile

Yeah :)
Marcus Aurelius is quite an interesting man, especially considering he was a Roman Emperor who could have easily been swayed into a life of Hedonism considering his position and wealth.

That's fair. Many philosophical texts are complicated due to their unique usage of vocabulary, but that is part of the fun since we get to learn new words and use them in discussions like this.

Sometimes, when I talk about those topics, I get really messy with what I'm trying to say since they're so complex and exciting! It's tough to communicate complex ideas or thoughts without using the same language and sounding like a crazy person sometimes.

Ah, yeah, the ending is a nod to Carl Jung's idea of "Individuation," which means to accept yourself in simple terms. It represents acknowledging your "shadow" or unconscious self and accepting them into your conscious mind so you can be a more whole person.
You can think of your shadow as everything you reject about yourself and society. It's the negative parts of you that you don't want to accept. Ironically, we project our shadows outwards when we see someone doing that same behaviour.
- A good example would be a homophobic person getting mad when they see gay people in public because they are afraid they might be gay themselves.
Another example could be Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, who projects how Rei is like a puppet because she follows orders and gets more attention than Asuka. Ironically, Just like Rei, Asuka also always follows orders since she wants to be acknowledged and loved.

Just a warning: You'll have to study psychology deeply to understand Carl Jung and Freud, but the payoff is that many of their themes are present in philosophical animes. By understanding Frued, you gain an understanding of Carl Jung's work since he was Frued's student and modified his theories further so they made more sense. Their relationship was similar to Plato and Socrates but for psychology mixed with philosophy. So, by knowing one, you can get an idea of the other. The main difference is that Carl Jung modified Sigmund Freud's theories (which pissed off Freud) and added much-needed complexity and analysis to them. It's quite a deep rabbit hole.

I completely agree with you!
A lot of modern anime feels like copying and pasting, which is a shame. However, Frieren is an excellent modern anime that focuses on the idea of time and what loss means to someone who can live for over 10,000 years, which you can argue is a philosophical position.

I find it funny that the most popular animes are mainly about friendship and superficial action, so they get rated highly. In contrast, animes that involve a lot of introspection and complexity, such as philosophical or psychological anime, tend to be underrated or disliked.
That tells me that people prefer to use anime as an escape from the stresses of life, which isn't bad, rather than using it to learn and face ourselves further.

Personality structure may play a significant role here, but hey, despite these animes being obscure/underrated, it means we can enjoy them more and get into fascinating conversations because of it :)

Also, never feel sorry about taking the time to respond!
I also take a very long time since I'm a busy guy and prefer to take my time thinking about a thoughtful response rather than an impulsive one.

Cheers, TomiTomsen; may your philosophical studies lead to interesting perspectives and enlightenment.
I wish you the best on your journey.

That's a good idea! Marcus Aurelius is quite a famous philosopher who offers some excellent lessons on emotional control and accepting that we can only control our own actions and shouldn't try to control the outside world since it's not in our power sphere. He's one of the main teachers of Stoicism and, interestingly, is similar to the Buddhists in his mindset when it comes to pleasures of the physical body and calmness of the mind :)
Germany is one of the best countries in the world for philosophers as it has such a rich history with them, especially from the 1700s to the 1900s

I love both Perfect Blue and Ergo Proxy; they both deal with heavy themes of Carl Jung's psychoanalytic work and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis work with the concepts of IDs, Superegos, Personas, Shadows, the Anima/Animus and Individuation (which means to take your "shadow" and incorporate it into your conscious mind to trigger a transformation) very simar to someone accepting their dark side and using it to benefit themselves.
If you want more themes like that, I'd look into Satoshi Kon's animes. His primary focus is the human physiological experience through a Jungian philosophical lens.

Philosophical animes, in general, are really good. They try to show us new perspectives and require so much knowledge and experience to make, all to entertain and teach us about life; they're beautiful in my eyes.
Philosophical animes are kings of atmospheric storytelling; I think it might be their way of making up for the lack of combat spectacles and superficial drama to drive the plot that usually keeps the general populace entertained, but I'm happy with that as we get to experience beautiful worlds that further teach us about each other and ourselves :)
There's something truly magical about that feeling

I wanted to experience their work without someone else interrupting it and explaining it to me, so I went to search for their works as audiobooks :)
I picked Nietzsche mainly because a lot of his work is present in Western society and within series such as Dark Souls and Berserk; as for Dostoevsky, I ran into him by accident when looking up Nizetche and Arthur Schopenhauer's almost opposite perspectives on the "will to life" or "will to power."
I have yet to read or listen to Crime and Punishment, but I am currently looking into it as I've noticed a lot of fiction is also influenced by that book.
I also feel that Monster has undertones of Dostoevsky (Dr. Tenma) selflessness at the cost of you vs Nietzsche (Johan) selfishness at the cost of the world, so I want to confirm my intuitive gut feeling about it to see if there is merit to my intuition or if it's just a baseless projection xD

There are many ways to get into philosophy. One of the best ways is through deep anime and video games such as BioShock, for which there are many YouTubers whose careers revolve around explaining the philosophical concepts within these games and animes.
Such as An Overwhelming Question, Anime Philosopher, aToko, Bess, Beyond Ghibli, Daniel Santos, DhruvJ97_Anime, Max Derrat, mimikyuno, and myself, although my work is mainly on Jungian ideas so it's very specific.

However, I'd go with just listening to or reading philosophy books if you want a less biased understanding. People who make videos will unconsciously project their interpretations of those ideas on the respective media they are looking into, whether they are aware of it or not, such as myself.
The only downside is reading or listening to an audiobook is the most boring option, but it also allows you to develop your own ideas.

Alternatively, another starting area would be to study the culture and country you are from, as you could more easily see the philosophical ideas people around you have applied to themselves without being aware of it.
Additionally, religion and history are good places to search as they give you context for why specific philosophical ideas are so popular or present around you. They also help you understand how those ideas came to be, as humans are subjective creatures who tend to form our ideas and identities from our direct experiences or senses.

It's good that you take your time to reflect; I have a horrible habit of binging on series and then getting hyper fixated on it by studying everything I can related to it to see if my theories or insights align with other people's ideas xD

Oshii Mamoru is a genius

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words and wonderful suggestions :)
I'm super glad you enjoyed the interest stack and its various descriptions. I've been studying more of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky recently, so I hope to see more patterns in animes with their created themes.

I've also heard that Texhnolyze, Lain, and Casshern Sins are quite philosophical and thought-provoking; they're definitely on my watch list. However, I think I should be more philosophically educated to tackle a big boi like Serial Experiments Lain.
Although I've never heard of Patlabor 2, I'll look it up and add it to my watch list.
Thanks for all the suggestions; I look forward to experiencing them, although it might be a while since life is a little busy these days xD
Cheers,

Yeah I miss the old art style of classic anime!

Not yet but I plan to soon hopefully. I’ll probably check of Ghost in the Shell and Vampire Hunter D first. Out of curiosity have you seen Netflix’s Castlevania? Because I was curious if it was any good. Apparently the art was heavily inspired by Vampire Hunter D.

I’ve only watched Angel’s Egg once so far and I gave it a 10/10 instantly! Apparently Angel’s Egg is being restored and released internationally soon. Hopefully it will get an official Blu ray release in America. Because of this I don’t intend to rewatch it until I can watch it through a better experience hopefully! I love slow burns and I love binging an entire show. Gankutsuo and Steins Gate are perfect illustrations of this! But perhaps Texhnolyze wasn’t one of those shows that I was supposed to binge lol! Also I’m very careful with what I watch. I usually only watch stuff when it’s complete with an ending that I hear is satisfying. I don’t want to come across another Promised Neverland season 2 lol! But if the show is like Demon Slayer or Jujitsu Kaisen then I don’t have to worry about binging it. It’s because the plot in stuff like that is so basic that I can jump in and out of the story without losing anything. Also Demon Slayer is almost over and it’s so popular that I doubt it will fail epically like Promised Neverland. Currently I’m waiting for stuff like Vinland Saga, Made in Abyss, and Frieren to end so I can binge it. In the mean time while I wait for shows, I think will be masterpieces, to end I find all the shows that are already complete. That’s how I found my obsession with discovering hidden gems like Gankutsuo, Blade of the Immortal (2019 remake), Baccano, ID: Invaded, Odd Taxi, Akudama Drive, Casshern Sins, The Big O, and Deca-Dence.

I felt the same way with Texhnolyze but I continued anyways and the ending was insanely shocking, so I decided to give it a 7/10. I might change my mind if I rewatch it though. I actually have it on dvd. I got it for only 20 dollars or less. Its price is now 100-300 dollars now! The case I have is official but it’s even more rare than the other box sets that are being sold. It has the English dub, the Japanese language with English sub, special features, and trailers. Oh and I updated my list. One of the reasons I have so many 10s is because I rate every season of every show lol!

You’re right I’ll check my list again lol! Also I’m glad you liked Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal! And yeah Rahxephon isn’t for everyone. Personally I love it because the lore and history is captivating to me, the mechs are some of the coolest I’ve seen, and the main romance is intriguing and heartwarming. Fun fact, Rahxephon was the first anime to start using digital art I believe.

You seem to have good taste!

Hello 👋 this is the person on Reddit right?