Gatchaman Crowds: Positivism Trap

Take a break and watch this little youtube video about the criticism of the ideology of positive thinking.

Does it make sense in the context of Gatchaman Crowds?

Fundamentally, the crowd-funded, crowdsourced mode of thought differ from traditional heroism in the sense that all of us contributes to resolve problems, versus the heroic effort of one or few individuals. Anime and manga are stable sources of media to draw stories about incredible beings (and perhaps much more so for American comics and its derivatives) with incredible strengths, inner or otherwise, that achieve a great feat or two. Maybe these stories even feature concepts like teamwork, because being a good team player is an ideal inner quality as well. [Maybe I should give SAO a nod here wwwww.]

But that’s just the teeth of positive thinking at work. It’s great to develop and cultivate admirable personal qualities–I am a full believer of this–but we are not called to be superheroes. Maybe just ordinary heroes. And maybe sometimes Hikigaya Hachiman is who this ordinary hero looks like. I say maybe because he is still way too heroic, in the “dark hero” kind of sense that’s pervasive in the 90s and onward–just because you are not Superman doesn’t mean you are not some delusional power fantasy ideal? Of course, I also mention 8man because he’s rather close to who I’m talking about–a realist. A realist that doesn’t have all the answer, and sometimes take a dumb way out of the situation. He will piss some people off, including the audience of Oreguile. So maybe we should aim closer to Moko instead.

To go back to Gatchman Crowds, originally we are following the idea of a sentai team, doing heroic deeds fighting with aliens to save the townsfolk. But here we are, 3-4 episodes later, now confronted with the fact that positive thinking-powered, straight-looking sort of a lifestyle actually is not the optimal solution to the problem. A realistic solution to the problem is precisely one that attempts to solve the problem through trying to understand the problem, and trying something new in light of that. It is not Hajime’s positivism that saves the day, but the quality of her actions.

PS. This is kind of like Genei Taiyou isn’t it, speaking of another Miss Genki having to deal with some horrible situations.