In this article, I focus on the internal struggle between good and evil as a focal scope in engaging the extensive theme of ‘Good Versus Evil’. I chose this theme to emphasize on the issue of ambiguity and the popular depiction of flawed heroes and the neutralization of political issues. And ultimately, how cultural and religious influences have shaped animes and how animes in return parody Japanese society.

It is pertinent to highlight that both Buddhism and Shinto tradition have been and still are deeply entrenched within Japanese society. Elements of both teachings hold great influence in Japan and are much manifested in Japanese culture and tradition.

Mahayana Buddhism, a more predominantly embraced form of Buddhism in Japan has ideas and teachings that mashes well with Shinto tradition, in particular, the optimism of human nature. It is committed to the belief that “all human beings have the potential to attain the wisdom that vanquishes all suffering and evil and an ultimate optimism but only when the world itself is in balance”, Paul Watt (1996).

Evil, on the other hand, is believed to be the culmination of the ignorance of three potent passions in the environment, hatred, greed, and delusion. One embraces goodness only with the renunciation of the three roots of evil.

Meanwhile, the basis of Shinto emphasizes the concept of balance and harmony between the individual and the kami. Truth or goodness involves an “inner searching of the heart which is just as important as the outer confronting the situation”. Though Shinto postulates that “ethical teachings can be situational, that is, there is no fixed way of doing the right thing”, Floyd Hiatt Ross (1965) the observation of harmony and balance is gravely mandated. Here, it can be deduced that the concept of evil can hence be seen when the individual is being thrown off balance.

Since it is difficult to conjure a definite conception of the state of good or evil as going by the Mahayana Buddhism and Shinto tradition, it can thus be inferred that a greater dependence on the individual’s interpretation and perception is required whilst one is maintaining the harmony and balance of one’s environment. As this balancing varies from one individual to another, the interpretation of good and evil is often reflected to exist in a hazy spectrum or in ambiguity.

As known that Buddhism and Shinto tradition are deeply entrenched within the Japanese society, this ambiguity, also called the “grey areas” where things are given no precise defining characteristics, is gaining greater acceptance and popularity. This is clearly manifested in much of the popular culture in Japan today, in that there is an absence of absolutes, where nothing is absolutely evil or good. This paper seeks to explore the play of this ambiguity on the concepts of the internal struggle between good and evil in three animes, namely Samurai X, Devilman and Barefoot Gen.

The internal struggle between good and evil

The character of Kenshin in Samurai X is a kaleidoscope of conflicts and contradictions. As the protagonist moves through transitions, at times blurring the borders of good and evil, his character development circles around his perpetual inner struggle of justice. As a child, his single-mindedness to help the weak through the use of his blade is the personification of pure innocence. And as the famed assassin, Hitokiri Battousai, his carnage of bloodshed has branded him a cold-blooded killer. The chronological progression of time depicts his loss of innocence and initiation into chaos, his redemption from insanity and his constant personal struggle of good and evil in his attempt to bring peace and exorcise his past demons.

Mirroring that of Samurai X, Akira Fudo, the protagonist in Devilman has to subscribe to the canon that “To fight a demon, one must become a demon.” He gets deluded by a friend, Ryo, into believing that there lies a capacity within him and also a responsibility to simply vanquish all evil that insidiously exists around him. However, Akira embraces a new persona which is diabolic and blatantly of great contention to his true disposition of passivity. Akira hangs in the pendulum of a moral dilemma, the choice to embrace evil for strength in saving the world or rejection of it to keep personal integrity at the expense of innocent lives lost to imminent chaos. Confronted with such a dilemma, Akira, plagued with great uncertainty, delves into the other side and starts discovering his true self. The two protagonist’s internal struggle mirrors a ‘Faustian bargain’, where they make an exchange with evil for a greater societal good, which in this case, is the protection of the innocent.

This theme of internal struggle between good and evil is very much plausible in Barefoot Gen. Upon scrutiny, it can be drawn that ever since WWII, Japan has seen its nation divided in war sentiments where nationalism is being opposed to those for peace, especially those who have been through the warlike Barefoot Gen’s director Keiji Nakarazawa. They advocate peace having been through the ordeal themselves, believing that although human beings have the resilience to endure and survive just about anything, they should not have to. The internal conflicts of the two fore mentioned protagonist is hence a personification of the divide in Japanese society amplified during the war.

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What constitutes the definition of good and evil within the selected protagonists?

In Samurai X, the notion of good is perceived by Kenshin, as the ability to bring peace to the people. His witness of the massacre of his minders at a young age had planted the seed of justice in him. His resolute cause to bring peace is perceived goodness, smudged by the unorthodoxy of his means to achieve it. Thus, as he sinks deeper into the political power-play and his role as an instrument of death, he loses his humanity and his mode of attaining the primary ‘goodness’, is now corrupted with evil. There hence, becomes no absolute good or evil, as good is now fused with pockets of madness.

In the same vein, Akira Fudo, in Devilman, has his conceptions of goodness deeply anchored in the ridding of demons and restoring of peace and concord for his people. However, as he delves deeper into the world of Amon, Akira starts becoming entangled in malevolence, gravely losing and unfortunately drawing himself further from the truth, purity, and innocence once forming the core being of his human heart and soul. Since it takes the forces of evil to materialize good, it can be inferred that both concepts of good and evil have morphed into that of an ambiguous form, where it almost always will be reflected as an amalgamation of both, far from its absolute form.

In Barefoot Gen, the evilness of the war is shown through how war affects people beyond the body counts: how people can turn on one another, how families and communities can be driven apart, how a country’s war machine can chew up its young and spit out the bones. There is no ‘good’ war no matter how country leaders try to justify it. The most innocent victims are almost always civilians. The good is depicted through Gen’s family, especially through Gen’s father who is a pacifist in wartime Japan. We constantly see the family hungry for food as their rations dwindle. Their rejection of the war is juxtaposed with the pro-war enthusiast to vividly show a divided nation. Whilst the anime depicts the war as an evil, the perception of good and evil cannot be simply conceptualized through war victims and soldiers.

Concept of idealism

The personal idealism of the protagonist is the focal core of the internal struggles and it mirrors even in Devilman; the pursuit for good with the means of a corrupted avenue. The notion of finding the strength to protect the weak more often than not is the attainment of strength at the expense of righteousness and morality. For the case of Kenshin, strength is bestowed in the form of reverting himself back into Battousai. It culminates to a point where he is devoured by self-righteousness and sees death as the only means to peace. He sees himself as “Heaven’s Justice” and will kill in order to create a new world of peace.

The concept of idealism consumes Kenshin here as he now begins the perpetual internal conflict of good versus evil. His goal as a means to justify his course of action is fast dissolving as Tomoe, who is a foil to his carnage, highlights the fact that Kenshin has lost his initial cause of goodness and is at risk of veering into evil. The dynamics of good versus evil is built on the play of ambiguity, where there are overlaps and no polarization of either element.

As once avowed by Akira, “To fight a demon, one must become a demon”, it clearly demonstrates the idea that the ends justify the means employed. Idealism only comes concomitant to Akira, with the realization that his very association with evil though justified by the noble intention has cost him dearly. Akira finally confronts the evil within him with the demise of his love, Miki Makimura, who was savagely killed in retaliation to Akira’s association with the diabolic Amon. Akira’s desire in severing ties with evil escalates to the final battle between Akira and Amon and acts as the apotheosis that propounds the newly established ideals within Akira, that is, the rejection of evil.

The idealism can be seen in the ‘Greater East Asia War’ that is associated with the war objective that Japan rationalizes on their role in WWII, that of the ‘liberation of Asia’

In the New History Textbooks published by Fusosha for use in junior high schools. On page 277 it states that “The aims which Japan had in going to war was declared to be its own survival and self-defense, liberating Asia from U.S. and European rule, and building a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Following in Japan’s footsteps, Germany and Italy declared war against the U.S. Thus the Second World War developed into a full-scale war in which Japan, Germany, and Italy was challenged by the allied forces of the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, and China”

The textbook shows its intention more blatantly in subsection 69 “Greater East Asia Conference and Asian countries,” which is particularly devoted to playing up Japan’s role in liberating Asia.

It’s stated, “that the Japanese forces in the initial stage of the war defeated the Allied Forces encouraged the people of Asia who had for a long time been placed under the colonial rule of Europe and the United States” (p. 280).

It is stated many times in the textbook many times that Japan’s victory encouraged Asian people and elevated their moods toward achieving independence. No statement is more removed from historical fact than such an assertion.

Japan’s war objective was anything but to liberate Asia. Its aim was to rid the region of the old colonial rulers such as France, Britain, and the Netherlands, and to replace them as the new ruler. The government and the military tried to gloss over this war aim by the rhetoric of “Asian emancipation.” In areas which Japan occupied, the Japanese army immediately set up a severe system of military rule, and perpetrated atrocities such as massacring local residents in many places.

Fuwa Tetsuzo, Japanese Communist Party Central Committee chair, published a critique of “New History Textbook” that was published in the JCP daily Akahata (July 15, 2001), entitled, “Can We Tolerate Education Which Indoctrinates Children into Believing that Japan Fought a Just War? — On the core issue of ‘New History Textbook'” he argues that the textbook “isn’t simply a historical description. The “New History Textbook” intentionally gave the heading of “The Greater East Asia War (Pacific War)” to subsection 68 which covers the period from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Battle of Okinawa. This heading reflects the authors’ unequivocal evaluation that the designation “the Greater East Asia War” by which the prewar Japanese government called the war expresses the war’s nature more accurately. They think this as a more accurate designation because the authors of the textbook see the Greater East Asia War as the war to achieve the aims upheld by the name, to ensure Japan’s survival and self-defense, to liberate Asia from Europe and the U.S., and to establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The instrument of death erected by the war as a means to achieve an ideal Japan foresaw, is symbolically depicted in the other two animes. The attempt to achieve that goal was littered with carnage and created a vortex where the innocent became the victims. The contest of good and evil hence mirrors the self-righteous attempts of the two protagonists to bring peace through violence.

For the three animes, the goal of attaining good is done through the subscription of evil, with the great denominator binding the three animes in the quest for good being death. The dynamics of good and evil, thus becomes shrouded in ambiguity when injected with the element of idealism.

Question of choice

The theme of ‘Choice’ is a recurring presence in the three animes. The choice to take sides sways the character development and contributes to their internal struggle. In this instance, Kenshin is presented with the choice to help a faction’s cause by becoming an assassin. He has viable options to pursue his goal of peace, but the choice he makes is one of perceived evil, as society views it. Hence, his valiant quest becomes ambiguously self-righteous and raises the popular debate of which is more important, the journey or the destination.

Akira, plagued by the agony of seeing his purity and innocence being sapped away by his association with Amon, attempts a final redemption. This union, primarily initiated by a noble purpose espoused by Akira, becomes disastrously perceived as diabolic in nature and thus, ensures a rejection of him by society. Such is the known consequence of his undertaking, and like Kenshin, is a sacrifice for the choice he makes.

The question of choice in the polarization of the elements of good and evil is also shown through the question of the willingness of the soldiers going to war. The atrocities that are committed in a war by the soldiers- can it be rationalized as one fulfilling duty and following commands as a soldier? Does choice dictate eventual actions such as war atrocities? The ambiguity of good and evil is raised again and is judged under the varying angles of perception and context. As idealism is highly mutable and debatable, the absence of absolutes becomes pronounced in the three animes, and thus shown through the internal struggles of the two protagonists and Japan as a divided nation.

The choice is the main theme behind the whole controversial Yasukini Shrine as well. The choice between good and evil – against and for the war since traditional Japan is still relevant in contemporary Japan today. We can see it being manifested through the controversial Yasukini Shrine where the site commemorates Japan’s 2.4 million war veterans—including 14 war criminals convicted by a 1948 Allied tribunal—and has been visited by three sitting prime ministers since the 1980s. China and South Korea usually condemn these appearances, saying they amount to an official endorsement of Japan’s aggression during World War II.

This inter-nation conflict is evident intra-nation as well where nationalistic sentiments are played up against those who hold anti-war views. Japan is divided amongst those who stand for and against Koizumi visiting the shrine. Most believe that as Prime Minister of Japan, Koizumi can actually choose whether to visit the shrine and the very act of his visit is significant as it is a display of his stand on the war issue.

Reconciliation

In regards to the Yasukini Shrine controversy. Koizumi tries to reconcile the two oppositions by defending his visits. In April 2005 he said in an interview, “Each country has its own history, tradition and different views. I go there to pledge not to fight a war again and offer my condolences to the war dead.”

Mr. Koizumi also excused himself by saying that it would be a natural sentiment to console the soldiers who devoted their lives to the nation regardless of their role in the war. Nationalists join these arguments, and they refuted China’s criticism as interference with domestic matters.

The war-responsibility issue remains unsettled in Japan. It is impossible to reach a reconciliation with the persistent strong views held by different nations. The Yasukuni Shrine issue has become a derivative of the war-responsibility issue, and not about whether or not to console the souls of soldiers who were devoted to the nation.

For Samurai X and Devilman, one might ponder as to whether there would exist a rejection, perpetuation or denial of evil within the protagonists in these two animes. In Samurai X, Kenshin, like Akira, is torn between his desire to protect and his role as a pawn of murder to achieve this means. The availability of this choice introduces new angles of perception to objectively view the matter.

Kenshin like the other protagonist is constantly plagued by his battle to suppress the evil in him, manifested by the persona of Battousai. Eventually, Kenshin would reverse his blade and swear never to kill again in an attempt to atone for his past. It would seem that he has exorcised his demons, however, the perpetual struggle in him would always surface in a fight, as the Battousai in him tempts with avenues of greater power.

In Devilman, the killing of Akira’s girlfriend brings about a realization that he has been wrong in all of his doings. This loss results in him regretting the choice made and the apparent rejection of the evil is evidently manifested by the confrontation between him and Amon. At this juncture, it is paramount to highlight that Akira is finally able to clearly and objectively perceive and demarcate the boundary of evil, thus, bringing forth reconciliation within him.

Conclusion

Certain socio-cultural factors can be observed to have conditioned the representation and creation of animes such as those that have been discussed earlier in this paper. The ideas pertaining to internal struggle and ambiguity are very much evident and prevalent in today’s Japanese society. The internal struggle plaguing the protagonists is deliberately made satirical, encouraging the viewer to delve a little into the Japanese society which has been understandably trapped in the rigidity of a hierarchical structure. “Codes of conduct” in Japan are taken very seriously and non-compliance is seldom tolerated be it in business, school or daily life, the Japanese are expected to conform. The social atmosphere is saturated to the point where any “deviant” behavior has to be kept

“underground” and hence, the individual is constantly being caught in a dilemma. The internal struggle thus sets in, pushing the individual to make decisions and forces him to confront reality just as it is in the anime.

As mentioned earlier, the flexibility postulated by both Shinto and Buddhism has encouraged the idea of ambiguity within Japanese society. In the animes discussed above, the concept of evil undergoes a series of translation and transformation before it is being objectively perceived and either rejected or perpetuated. In spite of the presence of this ambiguity, it can be seen that such a concept is gaining popularity and is being adopted much in anime production. In finality, the theme of the internal struggle of good and evil manifested in these animes becomes a catharsis for society to animate historical and contemporary issues.

References

Angus Reid Consultants (2005) Japan – Koizumi’s gamble pays off with majority Retrieved on October 3, 2005 from Angus Reid Consultants website http://www.angus-reid.com/tracker/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/8477

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Devilman. Retrieved on October 5, 2005 from The Best Links website http://www.thebestlinks.com/Devilman.html

Fuwa Tetsuzo (2001). Can We Tolerate Education Which Indoctrinates Children into Believing that Japan Fought a Just War? Retrieved on September 29, 2005 from Japan Press Weekly website http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2245/fuwa.html

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