Chouetsu Sekai

You are not immune to propaganda. You think you are, but you're not. Because propaganda, like politics, operates as a brain programmer at the subconscious level. It's why you feel like you're taking a political stance on pineapple pizza even though you know the whole truth - that people have their own simple preferences.

To literally everyone in the world, nobody but me can find a reason to recommend this piece of propaganda. That's why I'm doing it. Because I'm that much better of a reviewer than you.

Let's get the pleasantries out of the way. Chouetsu Sekai is one of the most disgusting pieces of media ... in the existence of humanity. By itself, it looks innocuous. But if you take a look at the lore, you will immediately realize just how fine of a rope I'm walking here.

But just letting you know, it's a pretty long yap as it serves as a barrier to my recommendation. So if you're not interested in long ass yapyapyaps, you're more than welcome to skip this review/propaganda. Anyways, this review will yap about the following questions:

1. How was the experience of watching religious propaganda from a neutral perspective? (Bizarre)
2. How effective is this propaganda? (Thankfully, most likely ineffective)
3. Why is the MAL user score not a 1? (Read the review)

"About duplicity, don't mislead one another." - 7th Precept
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Surprisingly, when you really think about it, the best way to watch Chouetsu Sekai is without any expectations - like any other anime you'd watch and consoom. That's because the target of this propaganda (the kids) would be consuming it in the same way. The parents control the TV, so they would simply present the propaganda and the kids would absorb Jesus or something. That's the theory.

Unsurprisingly, I'm more fascinated by the technical details of the propaganda rather than the content itself. I mean, this came out in the '90s! Remember, exactly because this was made for kids, it ends up competing in the same headspace with OG Pokemon for instance! I know, anachronistic comparison, but you get the point, right?

Even though the propaganda has 10 episodes, they are all 6 minute propaganda pieces each. 1hr of a false Jesus in comparison to a 12ep cour (~5hrs) or 24ep (~9.5hrs). The most important detail is that of course, ***this propaganda was made in-house.***

"About falsehood, don't speak untruthfully." - 5th Precept
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Calling it cheap and pathetic is so basic. It's like hating a McDonald's burger for being cheap... when every burger has a place and purpose like a true art-form...

Credit where credit's due, Chouetsu Sekai is bizarrely pretty well produced. Undoubtedly so. Because if your budget is limited to the bank of prayer money scammed from dumb parents and elderly, there's only so much you can do.

The side VAs are most likely B-tier cultists who will work for free, the backgrounds are cheap, the actual animations are even cheaper, the message is clear, the vision is warming, the tonal pitch is directed well enough, and you DO want your isekai to be a good one, right?

It's as cheap as you can get! Yet, despite it all, you can make funny memes out of these animated snippets. They're all great toxic fodder for the false Jesus reaction gifs.

The propaganda was boring for the most part, as the propaganda elected to be more of a lecture than an actual show as expected) And that wasn't even mentioning the rudimentary animated tales, the disgustingly suggestive services, nor the outright creepy overwatch THE GLORIOUS "GURU" HAS.

A good chunk of the show is dedicated to a shining white light that lectures you on cult values. In the last two episodes, they realized the potential of this and finally evolved this medium by overlaying a picture of the false Jesus. Neat!

So, yeah. Pretty bizarre experience.

"About duplicity, don't mislead one another." - 7th Precept
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When you think about propaganda and the forms it could come in, people always question the effectiveness. Some people don't even question it at all and assume the worst possible scenario, reasonably so. Unfortunately, yapping about propaganda faithfully and not maliciously is one of the best way to combat propaganda.

Effective propaganda from my rudimentary view be distilled into the following equation:

Effective propaganda = Exposure x Vibes x Distribution

Distribution could only occur at the parental level. Parents in those days would be buying crummy VHS tapes. They'd also have the TV. You wouldn't sell this to kids... the kids never have any money for GMO-free propaganda nor TVs...

The kid's exposure to such propaganda is limited to the parent's choice. And even then, it's only 6 mins per episode. Watching any other anime within the time period would definitely be more entertaining...

The vibes, and this is the most important one, wasn't good. It turns out that kids aren't very impressionable unless directly controlled and entertained. The propaganda was primarily designed for kids but had no entertainment value whatsoever. If the target kid exposed themselves to another kid external to the cult, the chances of disillusionment become that much higher (good thing).

So if you asked me, I think the only children that would be susceptible to this are those with compulsive controlling parents. The only scenario where this could be truly effective is within an isolated environment where there aren't any sources of "good" information like any other truly evil cult I guess.

I put "good" in quotes, but a kid can easily disillusion themself by just being near other kids! Eating ice cream with people outside of your cult family! Literally watching better anime! Quite literally separating them from the isolation!!!! Easier said than done, I know.

"About delusion, don't deny the Truth with ignorance." - 10th precept
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The Anime Man rightfully raises a concern with MAL's user score on propaganda. It's much more higher than the score on AniDB! It's a sign of concern that should only be taken seriously if it's still a threat today!! You MUST vote with a bad rating to showcase your solidarity with the tragedies of the past!!!

But pain is generational, its awareness reigniting old hatred, forgotten but never forgiven. It's one thing to make people aware past horrid tragedies, it's a completely other thing to directly force an opinion onto an observer - that'd be political!

I don't think this specific propaganda piece is that big of a deal today. Again, conditions for this propaganda to be effective would involve complete parental control. They would have to control and promote the narrative to their kids. Outside of that, you also need to be pretty vulnerable to let a false Jesus in your heart. A weird ass nerd recommending this to you has to have a different weight than a cultish parent, right?

That's not to say that this propaganda no longer has the capabilities to leave impressions on the vulnerable. I'm not going to assume something THAT nuclear.

And so, knowing what I know, MAL's score of 4.76 from 435 users (at the time of writing) makes complete sense to me.

MAL exists as a database and community, which would imply a sense of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm would at least get you to read the synopsis... anything lower and you'd be treating anime exactly like thoughtless TV. That isn't a bad thing btw. You watch how you want to watch, boo.

In the end, the kids thought this trash was mid. Chances are that they're too young to feel the excruciating pain of the past. That's okay, nobody should feel that. Leave it for crazy people like me. The reviewers were more negative in general. They were more correct.

Honestly, this is okay too. With exposure to the internet, communities to slap you if you're weird, I think this propaganda is safe to consume for fun and fun alone!

The World Ends With You
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I think Chouetsu Sekai failed as a propaganda piece both today and within the past. A whimsical experiment that only serves to waste an hour of your time today.

That's not to sweep the danger of propaganda under the bed, the danger very well exists today. YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO PROPAGANDA. They just won't be using this shitty propaganda piece to exploit the common man.

Chouetsu Sekai exists today as a fragment of history. Bad history. Unsavoury history. A glimpse into what true evil can produce. If you wanted to see what a product of raw evil looks like...

It would be the only reason why I could recommend this 1/10 garbage to you. It's entirely forgettable otherwise.

Until next time.

It was an interesting experience which gave me an impulse to spend few hours prior to explore the background of this anime.

For me this anime was quite relaxing in first few episodes, when there is this chakra opening music and cute woman's voice tells me something about spirit force and how their leader is such a cool lad. However when you finally understand what kind of people animated it and how it was irl then it gives you creeps.

Also made me think why at first sight smart people like Seiichi Endo or Tsuchiya get involved in something like this and I came to conclusion ... that normal person can't live without spiritual education and among young people a mainstream religion seems like some archaism. And that might be partially the reason why people join Aleph etc. At least these are my thoughts.

It was apparently distributed as a tool for religious solicitation, an anime about a cult that carried out terrorism in Japan.
Although not added to my list, there are other Aum Shin's animations, which are similar in content and low-brow.
It's so incoherent that it's ridiculed on Nico Nico Douga.

Needless to say, it's a shady religious anime.
The voice actors are also amateurish, and Akio Asahara is too beautified, too different from reality, and feels out of place.

Even though it's a religious anime, it's not the quality of Happy Science or Soka Gakkai, but the low quality of University Circle.
It's not worth watching.

I'm using a translation site, so ... I might make a mistake in the text.