[Nerfnow!!] Classic Fantasy vs Modern Fantasy
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Even a lot of anime is depicting demons and just another fantasy race whom are being persecuted by humans, mainly because of jealousy that they live longer and are innately better with magic. You know, just making them eleves.
Praise "Sōsō no 'Demons need to be fucking exterminated!' Frieren".
Hail Frieren the Slayer
In anime it would depend on what kind of demons they're referring to. In Shinto Yokai can be good, bad or indifferent and that word gets translated to demon in English pretty much all the time. So if they're basing the demon race on that concept then there can be nuance.
It gets really muddled when they also use the Catholic version of demons for the aesthetic like in Blue Exorcist, but use Shinto logic for their behavior.
If the setting is unmistakably Japanese then yeah, but if there's a bunch of Tolkeinian fantasy races running around and the dragons are western in style, I'm going to assume they intended on a western version of demon. Like in 'jobless reincarnation' (don't feel like looking up what the japanese title is), everything about the world is western, and the one Japanese girl who got portaled in sticks out like a sore thumb, but there's a whole continent of 'demons' that are indistinguishable anime characters... or furries.
That's what I said in the last half, a lot of the time they use classic demon aesthetic, but use the Shinto logic for their behavior, regardless of setting.
Those shows are set outside of Japan, but, in most of them, everyone acts like they're Japanese anyway.
They (like most artists) tend to copy aesthetic without deeper meaning, and it flies right past people that deify art.
Evangelion is often praised by midwits for it's religious imagery that the original creators admitted was only done "because it looks cool".
We even have a literal term for it, westaboo, to describe the constant fact of the Japs being obsessed with Western aesthetics and media without a hint of understanding of it. Kojima is famously one.
From dudes wearing cowboy hats for no fucking reason, to them constantly using Gnostic nonsense, its no deeper than a bunch of dweebs.
Which is the religion with the big titty demon girlfriend who loves you?
Probably some Shinto sect
even in western stuff, I'd say there's nuance. If there's a story, for instance, that uses the trope of the "misunderstood demons" to push DEI bullshit, yeah, i'd say steer clear. (99% percent of the time, that's what's going on today)
But if it's just somebody trying to tell an interesting story, then it might be okay.
Generally speaking, it depends on the thrust of the story in question; is this person trying to push an agenda, or are they trying to tell an interesting (if controversial) story?
If they're going to go the "Demons are actually kinda-sorta-okay-ish" route, there's also an anime meme of "miasma", that while demons COULD be reasonable, friendly, peaceful, whatever, their very existence is toxic to humans and human-friendly nature. Just breathing, as a demon in the human lands, will poison crops, give bunny rabbits cancer, and encourage the spread of the plague.
It allows for "noble demon" archetypes and friendly demons, while still maintaining a solid "us or them, literal existential threat" element to the demonic hordes, and a solid reason to not want them moving in next door.
The "good exception from a bad race" is probably one of the most overused tropes in any story. Drizzt is one of the most famous examples in D&D and not only spawned various other "actually I'm a good Drow" OCs, but then similar exceptions in other inherently and historically evil races.
Once or twice and written well it's fine, but neither of those conditions are met now.
Castlevania was so based on this.
"Your God's love is not unconditional. He doesn't love us, and he doesn't love you."
See, is that the truth, or is that a demon's lie? Clearly God is kinda pissed, cuz he let the demons loose. Maybe hard to tell.