Pronatalist Propaganda in Anime: Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again

https://discord.gg/EGFRjwwS92

In this insightful video, Malcolm and Simone Collins dive deep into the anime "Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again," exploring its pronatalist themes, cultural significance, and artistic merits. They discuss how the show effectively promotes traditional values, happy marriages, and intergenerational relationships while addressing Japan's demographic crisis. The couple analyzes the anime's emotional impact, its portrayal of older generations, and its unique approach to showcasing the beauty of long-lasting love. They also touch on broader themes in contemporary anime, the potential influence of government policies on media content, and how this show compares to other popular anime series. This video offers a thought-provoking look at the intersection of entertainment, cultural values, and demographic challenges in modern Japan.

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] But now I want to talk about some of the pronatalist propaganda in it as well. And

Simone Collins: it's, it, I would say it's almost to the point where it takes you out. of the plot as a viewer.

Malcolm Collins: There is one scene. Where the old lady goes to an old store that she used to frequent in the train station. And the train station's completely deserted and the store owner marks that, they're probably going to be going out of business soon, but what can you do?

This is just the way it is with changing demographics. And the old person turns around and gets one of those, like black miasma, like anger things around them. And she goes but we need to resist this. Why are we not even fighting?

The show is meant to encourage you to not like normal anime, thirst after young women but make you thirst after a long and happy relationship. That is what the whole show is. It's a thirst trap for getting married and having a long happy relationship and being intergenerationally invested in your family.

Would you like to know more?

Malcolm Collins: Hello, Simone. I am [00:01:00] excited to be here with you today and we are going to be doing something we haven't done in a while on this podcast, which is discuss anime because I am a big anime fan and you are a medium anime fan, but you're very like good to lean into the culture and everything like that.

Like you used to dress up for conventions and everything. I was

Simone Collins: president. and founder of my high school's anime club. I've been to numerous anime conventions across multiple countries. I love anime. I just don't watch it because I don't have time.

Malcolm Collins: What other country other than the US? The UK.

Simone Collins: I went to a, an anime convention in the UK.

It was fantastic.

Malcolm Collins: Where

Simone Collins: you

Malcolm Collins: were

Simone Collins: at

Malcolm Collins: Cambridge.

Simone Collins: No, actually. I was randomly traveling in the UK and I had a day free and there was an anime convention and I'm like screw it. I'm obviously not going to go to the British Museum. I'm going to go to an anime convention because that's how people spend their time.

Malcolm Collins: So this last year we were in the UK for ARC, which is like a conservative convention. When you were wearing one of your [00:02:00] traditional outfits which, you often wear similar to this and a bunch of anime goers, there was an anime convention at the same time. I was actually wearing

Simone Collins: my fascist outfit, not this one.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, yeah, more fascist looking. They still

Simone Collins: thought I was cosplaying though. They

Malcolm Collins: thought you were cosplaying. They're like, oh, who are you cosplaying as? Like that. So great. But we are going to be talking about in this episode An anime that I think is really interesting for a number of reasons. Yeah.

So I'll break down the reasons why it's interesting to me. One is the pro natalist propaganda, which is put. throughout the anime and is very heavy handed and I think very effective because it paints the reality of Japan as it is today or rural Japan, which is depopulating right now in, in this very stark term.

So we'll get to that. Two, it is an anime that is incredibly simplistic in terms of the characters it presents and the roles it gives them. Yet, [00:03:00] despite being in a, in the plot structure more broadly. It's a slice of lifestyle anime. Very chill, very, you could say it's very cookie cutter in many respects.

And yet I think it is incredibly effective as a piece of art. Which is really worth highlighting about this show. As to why it's effective as a piece of art. I'll just quickly go into this because I think that this is useful to talk about and it can bring us into the plot of the show really quickly.

Despite being very generic in almost everything it lays out, and I'm like, okay, I'm judging art by arts quality, right? I'm judging it on three metrics, okay? The first metric is it able to invoke the emotional states that it is attempting to invoke in me. Art, Can be used to invoke emotional states.

This anime does that spectacularly well. Two, and this is a personal preference thing. Are those emotional states positive? I do not want to watch shows that just make me cringe or make me sad. [00:04:00] Or I find that really dark.

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: I find that unpleasant in a show. And this is,

Simone Collins: I would not say that makes me feel good.

Malcolm Collins: What show? Code Geass. Code Geass? Oh no, I really like all the strategy in Code Geass, and Yeah, so you found it intellectually stimulating enough where all the dark sadness didn't get to you. Yeah, no, it's a power fantasy, and it's my kind of power fantasy because I identify with Lil Luke so much.

Come on, I get it. Rollo! Justice for Rollo. Hashtag justice for Rollo. Anyway, we have another episode where we talk about Code Geass, that people can go check out if they want. But anyway it very effectively makes me feel an emotional set. And you watched some of it too, you'd agree that it's a conveyor of emotional set.

Simone Collins: Nailed it.

Malcolm Collins: It's very wholesome. It does a very good job of conveying what, a good marriage is, what it feels like to be in a good marriage, why you would want that from an emotional perspective. [00:05:00] But I also think the feeling of real love, it conveys very well. As opposed to After this huge buildup, are you going to name the anime?

Yes, I'm going to name the anime and describe the plot. Okay. So the name of the anime is Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again. It sounds like a kid book title, right? It does. Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again. It looks like a kid's book as well, but the anime is incredibly this new way of titling anime titles whereas like a long title and it's just descriptive of the plot of the show.

It's become this recent thing in anime in like the past two to three years. I think it

Simone Collins: makes sense because when you do internet searches for streaming shows, you're often just searching by what you know of the plot, like what you've seen in AMVs, what you've heard. heard from people talking online. It's Oh, what's that anime where the grandpa and grandpa turn young again?

Malcolm Collins: And

Simone Collins:<