>Are western comics "trojan horses for activism and ESG scores"?

At times they can get very preachy, which is the problem. The reason is irrelevant, be it ESG investments or personal activism or what have you.

Japanese media can (and often does) include elements that are considered progressive, but it's rare for those to be crudely inserted for the sake of inserting them. Characters or themes that would be bemoaned in western media are appreciated because they are actually done in interesting ways, rather than acting as a political vibe check for the reader.

Which, in all honesty, is how I feel about this comment thread too. I simply do not believe anymore that people don't know what others mean when they say "woke". Not at this point. Yes it's hard to give a specific definition, but so is the case for fascism and the word is so, SO overused in political discourse that, funny enough, it has almost lost its meaning. Rarely does anyone go around saying "define fascism". And so comments are laid as bait, lest someone take a misstep which allows them to be branded as a series of -ists.

Whatever "woke" is, it is a thing. And many people are exhausted from it.

You raise a completely valid point that "fascism" is used in exactly the same way by the left political spectrum.

But this does not make the use of woke as a generic accusation any better.

> I simply do not believe anymore that people don't know what others mean when they say "woke"

The insiduous thing about this is: Different people do mean different things with this.

Some people are maybe against depicting women in leadership roles; others might not want to normalize homosexuality. Another group might want to keep any mention of transgenderism away from their kids. Someone else might just want to see more racist jokes about Mexicans. All those views are radically different; a lot of those "anti-woke" views would not even agree with each other.

By allowing weasely standpoints like that in a debate, you make it very easy for people to claim broad support for stupid and bigoted views without having to justify them.

So, in the context of western comics, what does "too much woke" mean to you?

Is this factually correct or can you simply not recognise the politicaly activism in the Japanese productions because of the cultural differences, or because they're more subtle or integrated into the story?

I mean that last one is a good thing; I think that instead of pearl-clutching and yelling "woke11!111" on the internet for a new Netflix production, it's more intellectually honest to criticize poor writing.