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Oh man that reminds me of the most meta- thing I\u2019ve ever seen.
\n0) World War II happened.
\n1) In postwar Japanese pop culture, \u201cthinly or completely unveiled reference to nuclear explosion\u201d is rivaled in thematic popularity only by \u201cthinly or completely unveiled alternate-WWII in which Japan wins and is totally the good guys\u201d.
\nActually I\u2019m almost afraid they finally got over this in the late-90s with the passing of a generation. I liked that, something somber and elegaic in the culture that wasn\u2019t pure fanservice or third-generation commercial ripoffs. Anno and Miyazaki and remember when Final Fantasy had Cyan and the ghost train instead of a bunch of fucking EZ-Bake popstars?
\n2) Okay so there was this recent trend, they call \u201cmoe anthropomorphism\u201d to represent things and concepts as cute girls, because obviously, Japan. It was particularly popular in terms of military hardware, because obviously, Japan.
\n3) Manga, etc., etc., so comics are a big thing in Japan, and part of the farm team for that is working on basically fanfic of established properties, they call it doujin, and like all fanfic, like most pulp, a lot of time it\u2019s only good for the sex. Which is often violent and involves 13 year old girls, because obviously, humanity.
\nOKAY
\n4) So 1) and 2) combine to create Strike Witches - it was this series about a school/force of teenage girls representing various planes from all the nations of WWII, like they strap on these leg-things to fly around, and because they\u2019re all allied together against an alien force literally representing militarism and war descending on the world even though no one particularly wants this militarism and war oh no, they\u2019re just all brave and innocent warriors, and they might have to put on these leg things and fight the aliens at any time, they never wear pants so you can see their panties all the time, because obviously, Japan.
\n5) so 4) and 3)\u00a0 combine to make a hentai (\u201cpervy\u201d) doujin of Strike Witches. Which I read, to masturbate to. The first twenty pages of this doujin is mostly lesbian dominance, all of the girls breaking down and raping one of the more innocent characters, who was the Japanese one and I think a Mitsubishi Zero?
\n6) and then 5) combines with 1) again, which was already baked in, and the last 8 or so pages are the apocalyptic showdown with the aliens as seen from the Zero\u2019s eyes. The American and British girls are out of the picture, dismissed in one panel. The French and Italian girls have surrendered and slunk away because they\u2019re pussies.
\nThe French and Italian girls have surrendered and slunk away because they\u2019re pussies, but the two German girls went boldly into battle and lie bloodied and dying on the ground, this is the thing.
\nAnd so finally, the Japanese girl is fighting alone. She\u2019s scared, she\u2019s meek - she was the natural submissive for the first 20 pages, getting hazed by all the older nations^H^H^H^H^H^H^H girls but now it\u2019s just her, now it\u2019s her turn to prove her honor, and she jets out shrieking her vengeance, dodging alien missiles, coming straight out of the page\u2026
\nAnd the next page is imitation newsprint, with a period photo-offset litho as the header. It\u2019s an alien aircraft carrier, obviously American in design, with an exhaust trail streaking into one side of the island and a giant explosion blossoming out of the other.
\nAnd THAT is the most meta- thing I\u2019ve ever seen.
(UPDATE for incoming 9/15/16: Takotsuboya\u2019s \u201cWitch-tachi no No-Pantsu\u201d
)