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Oh no There Goes Tokyo. Tokyo as a city has been frequently destructed in fictions, either thorough natural or man-made disasters. The vision of destruction is constructed on natural and human history The natural hazardous condition of the island of Japan, the place is being destructed so many times through earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons, and culture of destruction and re-construction is established through this history. This “negative” mindset has exaggerated in later periods where humans also use the atomic bomb has wiped out the cityscape. This is the birth of imagining monsters constantly destroying cities, which they reflect the fear of the sudden apocalypse and beating the monster can be interpreted as beating those imaginary monsters to solve potential dangers, yet, all of these are on the fictional aspects.
“The imagination of apocalypse seems less a reflection of pessimism and nihilism than a potential cure of it”.
Interestingly, Japanese rely on their disasters: the Armageddon and the Résurrection happened every week make them mentally numbed to doom. Conversely, one can see there is a constant belief in Japan that there will be re-construction after destruction, there will be hope within despair. Furthermore, destruction means an subversion of an existed system. Thus even now in the peace era, the monster film remains its playfulness and continues
Chen Yushan
UID: 3035660354
A well-written and considered response to TsuTsui’s reading. You demonstrate a clear understanding of his argument and have paraphrased very well in this reflection.