[begin transmission 1/3]
This is going to appear as such a meme post, but to hell with it. Inspiration strikes unexpectedly.
What could a nonsensical anime from Winter 2018 and an art/philosophy movement from the late 1900s have in common?
That is, what qualities could Pop Team Epic (by Bkub Okawa) and postmodernist art and philosophy possibly share?
Okay, that was hard to write with a straight face, but bear with me. This will make sense soon, I promise.
Oddly enough, it was reading the translated OP lyrics that caught my attention. A few samples:
"An idea, lurking in the familiar scenery. You’re always under surveillance."
Hmm. Michel Foucault's reference to the panopticon in Discipline and Punish, comes to mind.
"An unconcious bias. No one knows its reason for being."
"Repeating. Spirographs inside your head. A geometric pattern of creation and destruction."
"It’s an everchanging mandala. Break even your memories into crumbles."
"Repeating. Spirographs inside your head. A geometric pattern of creation and destruction."
"It’s an everchanging mandala. Break even your memories into crumbles."
Lacanian psychoanalysis, with an explicit example of The Symbolic.
"Break it into tiny pieces and swap it out~. If it was born from nothing, then go back to nothing! All of it!"
"I want to change the design – gotta break it so you can see."
Faintly reminiscent of Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard's structuralist criticisms.
"I want to change the design – gotta break it so you can see."
Faintly reminiscent of Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard's structuralist criticisms.
Surprised by the amount of postmodernist themes potentially referenced in the OP, I thought for a while of how many of them are actually realized in Pop Team Epic. Could Pop Team Epic actually be a postmodernist masterpiece? Could this explain the polarizing, hate-it-or-love-it nature of the show? By my analysis, yes, PTE is in fact a postmodernist masterpiece in an artistic sense. As such, it violates a lot of our expectations when it comes to art, both visual and literary. It is because of this very reason that I think people have come to despise its nonsensical nature while others have come to adore it.
------- Let's talk about visual art in general for a second -------
I'll be the first to admit it; visual art isn't my domain of expertise. Although I have visited my fair share of galleries, installations, museums, and art walks, by no means am I a leading authority on the matter. Most of these excursions resulted in me trying to appreciate the aesthetic appeal of the piece, the artistic technique necessary to create the piece, or the intended message/profile of the artist of the work. Efforts towards this last objective are greatly augmented by the inclusion of a glass of wine or strong spirit; I highly recommend it. Aside from being a casual admirer of visual art, I'm also no historian or scholar when it comes to the domain either. My knowledge of the niceties between Baroque and Rococo is fairly limited, and I honestly couldn't tell you the difference between Expressionism and Impressionism (well, now I could, since I'd just looked each of them up).
However, for the purposes of this examination, none of that knowledge is strictly requisite. As far as I'm aware, the end of the 19th century saw a fairly dramatic break with traditional forms of art. I'm going to go ahead and label all of the art pre-1880s that fits this traditional style as 'pre-Modern' art. If my rough, base, and careless treatment of these works bothers you at this point, I feel it appropriate to remind you that I'm writing about an anime that has been colloquially described as "one giant shitpost". So get over it. Pre-Modern art, for the most part, deals with nature, the supernatural, myths, conquest, religious themes...all of which has some kind of human significance. In almost all instances, great technical skill was needed on the part of the artist to capture texture, lighting/shadows, perspective, composition, and color, in order to depict these concepts as brilliantly and realistically as possible. Some examples of this type of art would include The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, or Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich.
It is said that pre-Modern art is capable of stirring up the intellect and passions of the observer. That its sheer grandeur and beauty is hair-raising. Personally, I never felt overwhelmingly moved by any pre-Modern piece. There's something to be said about historical context here, that perhaps it was awe-inspiring to the people that lived at the time since the themes were relatively new then, more relevant to them, and/or they had never been visually represented before. Contrast to our time period where these themes have long since been done to death, most of us live a life free from mortal danger/strife (so our appreciation for beauty in normalcy is severely diminished), and we possess technology that constantly bombards us with visual stimuli to such an extent that even the novel becomes passé within a week's time. Despite this, I can say that I still have an appreciation for these works, since the themes presented are timeless and considered universal to some extent. I can look at Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog and feel the conflicting emotions that an uncertain future, with its vast array of possibilities, may bring.
Yet the type of art that rouses my intellect and stirs my emotions the most is what came after the 1880s, after pre-Modern art. This is known as the advent of 'Modern' art. If pre-Modern art was universal, dignified, beautiful, coherent, and inspiring, Modern art is limited, undignified, ugly, irrational, and pessimistic. With good reason too; at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th nearly everything appeared to be heading towards absolute chaos. What were typically considered traditional institutions, such as religion, were either under heavy attack by Enlightenment-style thinking or completely dismantled. Religion--with it's faith-based answers to the world, the nature of man, and meaning/purpose--had been ravaged by scientific accounts that highlighted the cold, empty, meaningless nature of the universe and mankind's wretchedness against that overwhelming void. New doctrines such as Marxism promised that the revolution would come soon and utopia was on its way; needless to say, that prophecy was never fulfilled, leaving proponents disappointed and disillusioned (Marxist anxiety produces exceptional Modern art). Hell, skeptical epistemologies (thanks, Kant) made people doubt their sensory and cognitive facilities, leading to a rejection of rational thinking. There's a reason why the German traditions of idealism and irrationalism gained traction during this time period.
[end transmission 1/3]
However, for the purposes of this examination, none of that knowledge is strictly requisite. As far as I'm aware, the end of the 19th century saw a fairly dramatic break with traditional forms of art. I'm going to go ahead and label all of the art pre-1880s that fits this traditional style as 'pre-Modern' art. If my rough, base, and careless treatment of these works bothers you at this point, I feel it appropriate to remind you that I'm writing about an anime that has been colloquially described as "one giant shitpost". So get over it. Pre-Modern art, for the most part, deals with nature, the supernatural, myths, conquest, religious themes...all of which has some kind of human significance. In almost all instances, great technical skill was needed on the part of the artist to capture texture, lighting/shadows, perspective, composition, and color, in order to depict these concepts as brilliantly and realistically as possible. Some examples of this type of art would include The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, or Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich.
 |
| The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. |
 |
| Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich. |
It is said that pre-Modern art is capable of stirring up the intellect and passions of the observer. That its sheer grandeur and beauty is hair-raising. Personally, I never felt overwhelmingly moved by any pre-Modern piece. There's something to be said about historical context here, that perhaps it was awe-inspiring to the people that lived at the time since the themes were relatively new then, more relevant to them, and/or they had never been visually represented before. Contrast to our time period where these themes have long since been done to death, most of us live a life free from mortal danger/strife (so our appreciation for beauty in normalcy is severely diminished), and we possess technology that constantly bombards us with visual stimuli to such an extent that even the novel becomes passé within a week's time. Despite this, I can say that I still have an appreciation for these works, since the themes presented are timeless and considered universal to some extent. I can look at Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog and feel the conflicting emotions that an uncertain future, with its vast array of possibilities, may bring.
Yet the type of art that rouses my intellect and stirs my emotions the most is what came after the 1880s, after pre-Modern art. This is known as the advent of 'Modern' art. If pre-Modern art was universal, dignified, beautiful, coherent, and inspiring, Modern art is limited, undignified, ugly, irrational, and pessimistic. With good reason too; at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th nearly everything appeared to be heading towards absolute chaos. What were typically considered traditional institutions, such as religion, were either under heavy attack by Enlightenment-style thinking or completely dismantled. Religion--with it's faith-based answers to the world, the nature of man, and meaning/purpose--had been ravaged by scientific accounts that highlighted the cold, empty, meaningless nature of the universe and mankind's wretchedness against that overwhelming void. New doctrines such as Marxism promised that the revolution would come soon and utopia was on its way; needless to say, that prophecy was never fulfilled, leaving proponents disappointed and disillusioned (Marxist anxiety produces exceptional Modern art). Hell, skeptical epistemologies (thanks, Kant) made people doubt their sensory and cognitive facilities, leading to a rejection of rational thinking. There's a reason why the German traditions of idealism and irrationalism gained traction during this time period.
[end transmission 1/3]