A Subversive Potpourri: Concrete Revolutio or When the Phantasmagoria Turns Political
A Subversive Potpourri: Concrete Revolutio or When the Phantasmagoria Turns Political

Summary/Abstract: The present study analyses an anime series entitled Concrete Revolutio: Chōjin Gensō (Superhuman Phantasmagoria), produced by Studio Bones, directed by Seiji Mizushima and written by Shō Aikawa, which ran in two split cours between 2015 and 2016. Concrete Revolutio is a series removed from the arche- typal trope often plaguing the cinematic and animation landscape, namely that of a logocentric worldview constrained by binary oppositions. From a methodological standpoint, the study applies a multi-layered approach to the study of anime, in order to address the socio-political implications of a series that uses idiosyncratic characters of all shapes and sizes – from superheroes to demons, from aliens to Godzilla-like monsters – to provide a meta-critique not only of Japanese postwar history but of militarism, late stage capitalism, globalization, or exploitation to name but a few.

• Details
• Contents