Summer 2021 First Impressions – The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 11

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: 800 years ago, humanity was at the brink of extinction. The humans pleaded with the heavens to save them, and the Idaten battle gods arrived to defeat and seal the evil demons causing problems on Earth. Young Rin was left in charge of monitoring the integrity of the seal and training the next generation of deities, should things happen to go South again. Unfortunately the “next generation” is comprised of a few lay-abouts who don’t see much value in training to defeat an enemy they’ve never encountered. Ysley only really cares about studying, while Paula enjoys animals and nature. Only Hayato really has any fighting chops, but he’d rather goof off then get beat up on by Rin in the name of “learning.”

Unfortunately, laziness is quickly taken off the table when the gods catch wind of a contingent of soldiers poking around the Arctic. They seem to have uncovered some sort of ancient demon called Gyudo, and are working quickly to thaw it out of its icy prison. In particular, Dr. Obami, a scientist accompanying the exhibition, seems to know more than a typical human should about the workings of ancient gods and demons. When Hayato is finally able to trounce Gyudo he follows the Dr. as he attempts to escape, only to discover that the Dr. is nothing more than a robot body being operated remotely. Perhaps this twist on typical human mortality may explain Obami’s oddly-specific knowledge of the world’s gods and demons. Meanwhile, far away, civilization is beginning to deteriorate into abject savagery, where not even a prayer to god above can save the believers.

Impressions: This review contains discussion of a graphic sexual assault/rape that occurs at the end of this episode.

Well, here we are once again.

I took a couple days’ break between when I watched this episode and when I decided to sit down and write this review. In the interim, I got a chance to watch the newest Sarah Z video regarding “The Shipping Wars,” which details the rise in conflict between “Pro Shippers” – individuals who believe all relationships and related subject matter in fanfiction are fair game and to criticize them constitutes a desire for censorship and/or prejudice against certain groups – and “Antis” – those on the other end of the spectrum who believe some subject matter inherently lacks morality and shouldn’t be written about even in fiction, as doing so constitutes an endorsement of the problematic material contained therein. Through the lens of some unfortunate personal internet experiences, the author of the video essay outlines the uptick in this sort of black-and-white thinking recently in fandom, and how this all-or-nothing form of discourse eliminates the ability of people to have a nuanced opinion or critique of a work without getting dogpiled and accused of some truly heinous (and usually completely baseless and dubiously-extrapolated) things.

Some of the points she makes throughout the video helped to articulate a feeling that I’ve had for a while now but which I’ve had a difficult time knowing how to express. I believe fully in the usefulness of content warnings (obviously) as a tool to help consumers engage with media on their own terms. I’ll often look up spoilers if I suspect some content may make an appearance, and that’s really helped me to experience media in a way that allows me to protect myself. At the same time, knowing something is coming is only half of the story; the other question is, how is the difficult content utilized to tell a story?

Readers will know that my writing incorporates a lot of my personal experiences. I find that this is a way that I intimately relate to the media I consume. Some of the things I’ve experienced in my life aren’t pretty or fun, and they’ve left deep marks on my soul in a way I simply can’t avoid weaving into my writing. They’re things that are likely to make other people uncomfortable, too. I recall several years ago when I was going through my divorce, one of the ex’s flying monkeys emailed me after I described my experience as abusive in a post. He told me I didn’t have a right to say something like that publicly – that the truth of my experience was inappropriate to express. That was a burden I carried with me for a long time – the idea that my experience wasn’t fit to mention because doing so made other people feel bad. But sometimes art is a way for people to work through their trauma, and that’s something they have a right to share with the world. It’s not meant to make people feel good, but a way to find a sort of beauty and truth in the pain of living.

That doesn’t mean that every piece of so-called “problematic” content is created equal, however, and I think there’s a judgment call that everyone needs to make for themselves regarding how to interpret the horrors of the world as they’re painted across the screens we encounter. Sometimes pain is appropriated for shallow uses, and while shallow art has a right to exist (and even the distinction between what’s “deep” and “shallow” will be singular to each person), those who are affected by it also have a right to criticize what it’s saying and how it goes about saying it. The relationship between humans and art isn’t something that can be defined by hard-and-fast rules, and that’s a fact that can be difficult to abide by when the internet is so heavily defined by hot takes and intense polarization.

This opening episode of The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace ends with a rape scene. A woman dressed as a nun is approached by several soldiers who tear off her clothing and proceed to rape her. The scene is artfully framed in a way that somewhat obscures what’s happening at first, but a final shot of the nun’s face, gaunt and with eyes staring at nothing, is affecting and ensures that there’s no mistake about what’s actually happening. As someone whose life has been affected by sexual assault, I find the use of it here as a storytelling device to be lacking. It’s used to define the badness of this group of soldiers – a group of soldiers who are not characterized in any other way, who aren’t given names, and who simply seem to exist to represent the badness of the whole of this society. The nun who is raped seems to merely exist as a symbol, too, of the violent destruction of goodness. There’s nothing about the scene that lends it meaning other than as shock value, and as someone who’s lived to experience the after-effects of similar acts, it hurts in a way that’s difficult to describe.

It’s a poor end to what is otherwise a pretty entertaining episode.

Pros: The episode’s most striking trait is its unique use of color. It’s somewhat reminiscent of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure in that the color scheme often seems non-sensical, yet in practice it just kind of makes sense.

The show seems to also strike a pretty interesting tone. It often has the look and feel of a shounen battle anime, and yet there’s a lot going on in the background that feels much less straightforward. One is left to wonder just what caused the deterioration of society to the point that human suffering is somehow once again reaching a fever pitch. It’s the one thread that’s kind of keeping me hanging on at this point, when normally I would have been very put-off by the aforementioned final scene.

Cons: The amount of violence feels very strange to me. There are moments where it feels very slap-stick-y, just with a heavier dose of cartoonish blood-letting. In other scenes it feels more realistic and deadly. It’s difficult to tell what kind of story this series is aiming to tell and how seriously it really wishes to be taken.

Content Warnings: Rape, depicted on screen. Violence, including slapstick violence with blood, impalement, and other physical violence. Mild fanservice.

Would I Watch More? – I’m very curious about this series despite it making the worst move that it possibly could have so early on. I suspect I might try to sniff out some spoilers to see if there are any other forays into the same sort of material and possibly follow-up later on.