I don’t even want to get into the feminism angle because it’s such an old hat. This topic was beaten down quite thoroughly in the mid-2010’s to the point many feminist arguments were left battered, broken and bloody and for a while no-one talked about it, but of course it keeps coming back like a plague of locusts. Feminism is riddled with contradictions and feminists themselves can never agree on anything. Of all Leftist ideologies, it is by far the most infantile and exhausting.
(Somewhat spoilerish)
Satsuki’s Empire is basically fascist, but it’s treated with nuance. Most Western media would just portray fascist characters as over-the-top, card-carrying villains that just simply hate anyone who isn’t like them, but you can trust Japan, a former Axis power, to demonstrate why people might find that ideology attractive. Satsuki and her cohorts are portrayed as real people with their own dreams and aspirations, working towards a larger goal, seeing the ends justifying the means. Fascism is the militarization of the civilian populace, erasing the individual identity and making everyone part of the greater organism (the nation) to defend it from threats both from within and from without. Satsuki believing the only means she could stop her insane mother via forging soldiers through strict discipline and conquering and assimilating rivals made her a compelling anti-hero, as she is given legitimate reasons as to why someone might choose such a path (and it does bear parallels to historical, self-described fascists who loathed Communism and saw it as a greater threat).
Simply portraying fascist characters as being three-dimensional and likable isn’t an endorsement of fascism. This author conveniently forgets that Satsuki was portrayed as the antagonist in the first half of the story, and the protagonist is a lone rebel without a cause. Ryuko doesn’t really have any political philosophy of her own to speak of – She just simply hates authority figures telling her what to do and recognizes the system Satsuki has created as rather messed-up. And later, Satsuki admits she had it wrong and dismantles all of it when it’s no longer necessary. So this author just has her head stuck up her arse.
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