They Never Surrendered...

Today marks the 80th Anniversary of Japan signing the surrender papers that officially ended World War 2. However, the real truth about the Japanese surrender has been revealed. Yet we chose to deny that truth for the past 80 years because we did not want to be confrontational...

Contrary to popular belief, nowhere was the word "surrender" mentioned in the Japanese surrender message that ended World War 2. This explains why the rogue tyrants that dislike us a lot are very angry right now, as well as why major Japanese copyright holders such as Nintendo, Square Enix, Sony and Toei are waging copyright lawfare against Fair Use, the lack of justice in anime and manga (I'm looking at you, Pokemon!), and the bullying that has rarely been punished, if at all. This can only mean one thing.

Japan never really surrendered despite signing the surrender papers that ended World War 2...

Sometimes I wonder if my love for Japanese pop culture is gone. Perhaps it's because I believe that justice can only be done if evildoers receive the ultimate comeuppance, and anime has rarely ended with true justice prevailing at the end. Maybe it's time for us to sacrifice our nostalgia for the glorious past if we want to create a brighter future where justice prevails and true harmony is a reality...

Hiroshima 80th Anniversary

Can you believe it's been 80 years since Hiroshima was demolished by an enormous explosion? That's right. Today marks the 80th Anniversary of the Hiroshima Atomic Bombings. An event so colossal that it forever changed our way of life.

Sad as it is, rogue tyrants are threatening to unleash "Nuclear Armageddon" upon the Earth, under the misguided belief that their nuclear bombs could help them take over the world. If the Bible prophecies were any indication, the "Nuclear Armageddon" that we have all feared is going to be caused by a rivalry between fascism and communism, and this rivalry is threatening to leave no flesh saved alive and render the Earth void and without form, which is why Jesus Christ needs to return to end the madness by making the tyrants and terrorists die in the same manner as the villains from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

All in all, may those who have perished in the enormous explosion in 1945 rest in peace...

Justice for Hikikomori

It's possible that the late Takeshi Shudo's proposed series finale for the Pokemon TV series would have revealed that the entire series was a dying dream and Ash "Satoshi" Ketchum was a hikikomori all along.

Who are the Hikikomori? They are individuals who have separated themselves from society. Although the Japanese government have recently decided to take action to help the hikikomori to come out of reclusive isolation in a desperate bid to counter the negative effects of Japan's aging and declining population, that helping hand may have come too little, too late. Maybe a society that demands conformity in order to achieve harmony was a bad idea from the start all along. True harmony can only be achieved in a society that is built on justice.

Allergic To Justice

Author's Note: Turquoise is taking over from Red Cap for my lawyer-friendly "Change My Mind" meme comics for now. Also, she has a glass of apple juice next to her.

Ever wondered why justice rarely prevails in Anime? Do you want to know why some of the biggest copyright holders in Japan such as Nintendo, Square Enix, Sony and Toei to name a few have a disdain for fair use and fair dealing? That's because Japan believes that hierarchy, conformity and collectivism are more important than justice. That's why Japan has a major bullying problem, which could explain why Gary Oak often humiliates Ash Ketchum in the Pokemon TV series. This could also explain why Nintendo is so mean towards Waluigi just because he is considered an outsider by both the Mario series and the Wario series. Not to mention Japan prefers civil law over common law. Under civil law, suspects are guilty until proven innocent. Under common law, suspects are innocent until proven guilty. That's why fair use is being falsely accused of violating copyright regulations.

Despite all the positives that would have made the Anglosphere nation states the most benevolent of all the imperialist nations, Japanese Society rarely thinks positively about what the Anglo-Saxon nations did for them. In fact, Japan thinks negatively about Brexit because Brexit was always about Britain quitting the European Union and its secret plans to revive the Roman Empire, which will become one of Japan's trading partners during the time of the end right before Jesus Christ returns. For all we know, the author of Code Geass was inspired by the cruelty of Pax Britannica.

TL;DR, Japan is indeed allergic to the virtues of the Anglosphere.

The Disturbing Lack of Justice

Ever wondered why I do not watch Anime as much as I used to? It's not because of the lack of good shows, but rather, the disappointing and disturbing lack of justice in Anime. Even if there are exceptions, the lack of justice in Anime mirrors the lack of justice in Japanese society as a whole. That is why fighting for justice is exceptionally difficult in Japan.

The Disappointing Lack of Justice

The lack of harmony between the upper class and the lower class in Japanese animation and comics has been a serious issue. We have seen this in Dragon Ball Z, where Vegeta the Prince of the Saiyans has often looked down on the lowly Son Goku. This recurring problem also surfaced in Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. To make matters worse, when it's the lower class getting bullied by the upper class, nobody stands up for the victims of such bullying. This could explain why the late Takeshi Shudo wanted Pokemon to have a depressing series finale, where the entire Pokemon series turned out to be the dying dream of a mentally ill Ash Ketchum. Do you know why? Because Japanese society rarely believes in the good name of justice. That is why bullying has been one of the biggest problems in Japanese animation (Sailor Moon author Naoko Takeuchi was a bullying victim).

This disappointing lack of justice could be the reason some people have all but given up on Japanese animation and comics. Such people have decided to give up because they believe in the good name of justice, and they were left disappointed. Disillusionment is nothing new, but the lack of justice in Japanese animation and comics has made such disillusionment even more justifiable.

The Lack of Justice in Japan

In Japan, stories about struggles for justice are hard to find, if there are any at all. However, such stories about struggles for justice in Japanese history do exist. It's just that they are being relegated to the sidelines. Some of the best examples about the struggle for justice include the Country Samurai that defied Oda Nobunaga, the ninja outlaw Ishikawa Goemon, who could possibly have been the namesake of Goemon from Konami's Mystic Ninja series, the Shimabara Rebellion that terrified the Tokugawa Shogunate and inspired Sunsoft to conceive Ikki, and more recently, Hangorin No Kai's #NOlympicsAnywhere campaign that aims to deliver justice for homeless people in Tokyo. Such stories have often been considered equals with England's Robin Hood, China's Outlaws of the Marsh, and (South) Korea's Hong Gil-Dong.

However, Japan's stories about struggles for justice have often been sidelined because such opposition against tyranny have often been considered treason by whatever ruling regime Japan had in its long history. That's why such stories are being largely ignored by the majority. This could explain why all who have wronged Ash Ketchum did not get any comeuppances by the time Ash's Journey ended. Not to mention that the late Takeshi Shudo's proposed series finale wanted the Pokemon TV series to be the dying dream of a mentally ill Ash...

Lack of Respect for Fair Use

Credits to Sketchbook Silliness for providing the template for this comic.

German and Japanese netizens have already suffered enough misery. Unfortunately, the German and Japanese governments have been making their life more miserable for them by showing their disdain towards Fair Use. In fact, these two countries are imposing stricter copyright regulations that are believed to be responsible for all the copyright takedowns that have been happening over the last several years. Remember the infamous Article 13? According to German YouTube user APC227, the Article 13 copyright directive that wants copyright infringement gone from the Internet originated from Germany. But Germany isn't the only country that calls itself a democracy on paper that's censoring the Web on copyright grounds. Copyright infringement has been classified as a severe offence under Japan's anti-terrorism law. While there have been terrorist acts that were funded by copyright infringement, the act of copyright infringement is not serious enough an offence to be classified as a terrorist act. Looks like the losers of World War 2 want Fair Use gone from the World Wide Web, much to the chagrin of German and Japanese netizens...

TL;DR, Donald Trump's younger self from 1990 turned out to be right when he said that Germany and Japan were America's biggest enemies. So much for these two countries making billions at the expense of small businesses in America.

Regulatory Imperialism

Nobody wants to hear this, but the real truth about the growing Internet censorship, be it the copyright takedowns or the European Union, Brazil and Australia calling for the censorship of X (formerly Twitter), is that Germany has imposed its will on the World Wide Web through mundane, boring legislation. It's called regulatory imperialism, and the European Union is weaponizing it. This is even more dangerous than the last time Germany plunged the world into a global conflict because the corrupt bureaucrats, their pawns and their allies will be screaming for your imprisonment for saying bad things about them online or just trying to defend free speech, Fair Use and freedom of creativity. It gets even worse when you learn that countries that are not part of the European Union such as Brazil, Japan, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, have signed regulation treaties with the European Union, meaning the only way to do business with the European Union is to obey their regulations. This includes copyright regulations, which can explain all the copyright takedowns, whether they are unlawful or not.

In conclusion, we are indeed living in the twilight days of Internet freedom, and its all the fault of an undemocratic institution that cheated and lied to millions of Europeans, including the French and the Germans...

Sunset of Japanese Freedom

Remember the time when I made a comic about the assassination of Shinzo Abe potentially heralding the death of Japanese democracy? It turns out the death of Shinzo Abe will not cause the death of Japanese democracy, but rather, his death delayed the inevitable demise of Japanese democracy instead.

If you dislike Shinzo Abe, blame him for putting the freedoms of the Japanese people to the sword. Shinzo Abe tried to abolish the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, but it provoked opposition to his proposal, with one of those opponents being the late Anime music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who was also known for being the composer of the Sega Dreamcast startup sound. But worse than the proposal to remove the anti-war portion of the Japanese Constitution was the ratification of the 2017 anti-terrorism law that criminalized many minor crimes, with copyright infringement being one of them. This was what really put the freedoms of the Japanese people to the sword. Even worse still is the possibility of the anti-terrorism law classifying Fair Use as an act of terrorism because Fair Use does not exist in Japanese copyright law.

All in all, the Japan that Shigeru Miyamoto and the late Akira Toriyama were born into is now a disappearing memory of a bygone era that no longer exists, and it's all the fault of Shinzo Abe.

The Sour Rivalry

America's miraculous victory over Japan in the Pacific Theater of World War 2 would not have been possible if not for the sour rivalry between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy. This toxic inter-service rivalry within the Japanese camp allowed America and Britain to pick up the pieces after a string of defeats and hit back with a vengeance. Even after Japan surrendered, the insane rivalry between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy continued until the Allies ordered both of them to be disbanded altogether.

In conclusion, do not trust World War 2 Daisenryaku games where you fight as the Empire of Japan against the Allies because the Daisenryaku series does not take into account the leadership dysfunction of any faction.

Fury Against War Criminals

Imagine how outraged the majority of the Japanese people would be if they found out that the reason their country did not repent for war crimes during World War 2 was because of their post-war democracy being originally run by high-profile war criminals that were not punished at all, but were acquitted so that they could be anti-communist allies of the Allied Powers during the Cold War. The fury of the Japanese people will be so great that the Japanese government will tremble before them.

Surely, the majority of the Japanese people want their country to repent of any wrongdoing, and not continue to deny war crimes, if it means making peace between Japan and various Asian countries. But the Japanese government isn't too keen in upholding the freedoms of the Japanese people, and instead impose new laws to suppress the freedoms of the Japanese people. It's only a matter of time before the Japanese people rise up in anger like the angry mob from The Simpsons Movie against the lies and deceit of their own government...

The Simpsons © FOX.

Swimming Pool Matriarch Visual Gag Variations 5

Author's Note: This is the first Matriarch of the Swimming Pool comic since Neo Retro Union started its Bluesky account.

Did you know that Japanese copyright law did not incorporate Fair Use? If you have found out about this, good job. You have found out why Nintendo, Square Enix and Toei have been copystriking so-called "rogue" fans for alleged acts of copyright infringement.

Speaking of Japan, it turns out there was no repentance for all the war crimes committed in World War 2 because many of Japan's war criminals were never punished. That's why the Japanese government can deny war crimes and get away with it. It gets even worse when you find out that there was no repentance in Germany as well. If it's revealed that many aspects of post-war Germany, including copyright management authorities, were influenced, dominated and administered according to the will of National Socialism, all I can say about modern Germany is "Democracy Über Alles, my foot".

In Dragon Quest VI, Ashlynn and Milly both commented about the angel leotard, which is known for increasing the wearer's resistance against instant death spells. Ashlynn says that the angel leotard is more of Milly's style, while Milly says that the angel leotard suits Ashlynn better than her. But true Dragon Quest fans say the angel leotard looks good on both of them.

With the deaths of Koichi Sugiyama and Akira Toriyama, Dragon Quest XII could possibly be the last Dragon Quest game. It's unknown if Yuji Horii will retire to honor the memories of the dead men after the launch of Dragon Quest XII.

When Rooster Teeth launched Red Vs Blue, there was no MySpace because MySpace was launched on 1 August 2003, while the first episode of Red Vs Blue came out on 1 April 2003.

When Vimeo was established, there was no YouTube because Vimeo's establishment was in November 2004, while YouTube was launched on 14 February 2005.

The Melancholy of 2024

2024 is turning into yet another Annus Horribilis. The earthquake that happened in Japan on the first day of 2024, followed by a runway collision at Haneda Airport that killed five Coast Guard officers in the line of duty was already bad enough. Funimation being assimilated into Crunchyroll made things worse. And now, Warner Bros is disbanding Rooster Teeth because they are no longer profitable. But the real deal has to be the death of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, whose other works included Dr Slump, as well as artwork contributions to Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon.

Akira Toriyama died on the 1st of March, 2024. But his obituary was revealed seven days later. Japan is like a tortoise when it comes to announcements about several high-profile obituaries. Now that Akira Toriyama is dead like Koichi Sugiyama, who died in 2021, expect Koichi Sugiyama and Akira Toriyama to appear in the "In Memory of" section of the Dragon Quest XII credits.

When Red Vs Blue first came out, there was no YouTube, let alone no MySpace. Now that Rooster Teeth is disbanding due to lack of profitability, the fate of the final season is looking uncertain. Hopefully Phil Spencer will acquire the rights to Red Vs Blue because this web series was based on Microsoft's Halo franchise. Then Red Vs Blue can have the poetic ending it finally deserves.

If 2024 is the year our childhood starts dying, then we probably need to let go of zeitgeist nostalgia, because Isaiah 43:18-19 says that we should forget the former things and not dwell on the past because God is doing a new thing by making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Given that the turmoil that began in 2020 is going to get worse in the coming days, Isaiah 43:18-19 is going to be even more relevant now than ever before. To quote Dr Strange in Avengers: Infinity War, "We are in the Endgame now."

Farewell Akira Toriyama, and thanks for all the Kamehamehas, Fusion Dances and Dragon Quest Slimes.

Swimming Pool Matriarch Visual Gag Variations 3

Once again, it's time for another Matriarch of the Swimming Pool visual gag variations comic.

Can you believe it's been 2 weeks since Steamboat Willie entered the Public Domain? Guess Disney had finally thrown in the towel and let the cartoon that marked the debut of Mickey Mouse go into the Public Domain, in what could well be the greatest victory for Fair Use.

Is it really a coincidence that Wii Party U and Wii Fit U both came out in Japan on the same day? Not really. According to several sources, the Japanese release dates of Wii Party U and Wii Fit U were stated to be on 31 October 2013.

If you have watched the Legend of Zelda TV series, you would have known that one of the show's 13 episodes, "Fairies in the Spring", is a water park episode, which happens to be the only time where Zelda is officially seen wearing a swimsuit. Since then, Zelda hasn't been seen in swimwear outside of fan art.

LG used to be one of the manufacturers of the 3DO video game console. After the 3DO was discontinued, LG stopped making video game consoles for all markets.

Some professional chefs who are not Italian have officially confirmed that pineapples should not be pizza toppings at all.

Did you know that Germany once operated MiG-29 fighter jets? When the Federal Republic assimilated East Germany, the Luftwaffe inherited East Germany's MiG-29s. Then Germany sold their MiG-29s to Poland for €1 per aircraft. This sounds ironic given that Germany was Poland's biggest enemy in World War 2, as well as stupid, especially when MiG-29s were among the best Russian-made fighter jets. But it's not. Selling military hardware for symbolic prices is merely to clear up your inventory of equipment that you no longer have any use for. Therefore, it makes sense that Germany wants to be rid of Soviet-era equipment by selling them off for ludicrously low prices because Germany no longer has any use for them.

When Commies Were Worse Than Jerks...

In episode 8 of the Pachinko TV series, we get introduced to villains worse than the Japanese fascists who want to turn Japan into a warmongering rogue state administered by a tyrannical regime that has friendly relations with the Hitler-Mussolini Axis responsible for World War 2, and the Japanese upper class who, by being arrogant jerks, may have been the inspiration for Ash Ketchum's original nemesis Gary Oak. We're talking about the Japanese communists. They wanted voters to vote for them in elections, and they influenced Koreans in Japan to join their cause. It just so happens that Isak was arrested for allegedly sympathizing with both Japanese and Korean communists, both of whom are classified as severe threats to Japan in the 1930s. While Russian and Chinese communists did contribute to the bitter division of the Korean Peninsula that continues to this day, we must not forget that Japanese communists influenced Korean communism as well.

Natural Sightseeing Sceneries

Why are we fascinated with nice scenery? Maybe it's because of the tranquility.

You do know that the place where Windows XP's Bliss wallpaper comes from is known for being a vineyard. Of course scenery sightseers will like that place. It has always been a historic landmark due to Microsoft's Windows XP.

When it comes to great Italian scenery, olive groves are definitely among them. Just as vineyards are associated with wine, olive groves are associated with olive oil, and Italy is known for having great wine and great olive oil.

For those wondering whether maple trees exist in South Korea, the answer is yes. Maple trees do exist in South Korea. Therefore, MapleStory originating from South Korea makes a lot of sense.

Nothing defines great Japanese scenery like cherry blossoms. The have always been synonymous with springtime in Japan. Maybe that's why Anime likes cherry blossoms a lot.

Pine forests exist all over the Northern parts of the Earth, and Sweden is one of those places. In fact, Swedish pine forests are synonymous with great Swedish scenery, and quite possibly the wooden furniture you can find in IKEA.

With all that said, sightseers should take this opportunity to visit these scenic places before they're gone.

Japanese Priorities

Author's Note: Today marks the 86th Anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. To commemorate the anniversary of this tragedy, here's a comic about why Japan isn't serious about preserving the past when it comes to yesteryear's video games and evidence of Japan's war crimes. Also, this comic was created using the Screaming Cagney Carnation meme from Cuphead.

While software piracy is morally wrong, it is, however, one of the few methods of preserving video games that could eventually be lost forever to the sands of time. But in Japan, software piracy is considered an act of cyber-terrorism. Maybe this could explain all of the cease and desists issued against people who show their love for Nintendo through fan games and music preservation.

Classifying software piracy as an act of terrorism, however, has got nothing compared to the far-right going ballistic over the truth about Japan's war crimes being revealed. While asking most Japanese people about the destruction of war crimes evidence will leave them puzzled, the far-right, however, will get upset over the truth about the destruction of documents related to Japanese war crimes. In fact, it has always been the far-right that has been intimidating anyone who exposes the truth about the war crimes that Japan committed during World War 2. No wonder reparations from Japan are not coming to all the countries that have suffered under their tyranny. Even Russia paid reparation debts to South Korea in T-80 tanks and BMP-3 armoured fighting vehicles shortly after the end of the Cold War. Maybe Japan should pay reparations in video game consoles that performed poorly in the Japanese market such as Atari and Microsoft consoles to some of the countries that were oppressed by them. Perhaps this will be how Japan can reconcile with some of the countries that they have wronged during World War 2...

Cuphead © Studio MDHR.

No Justice for Comfort Women

Sometimes, bad people die in their sleep without receiving any comeuppance whatsoever, and those who humiliated the comfort women are no exception. All of this has to be due to war criminals being acquitted or punished lightly, which could explain why Japan still refuses to apologize for all the wrongs they did to the Asian countries they subjugated, terrorized and humiliated. Therefore, expect the last comfort woman to die without receiving any justice whatsoever in our lifetime.

Then again, almost all of the people who have wronged the comfort women are dead, and those that are not dead are at Death's Door. Even then, we should forget about justice for comfort women because if I had to choose between letting the villains who humiliated the comfort women die from natural causes and delivering justice for comfort women, I would go for the former, because the latter had already been entangled by feminism, which is no longer seen as the noble cause it had been portrayed to be but rather it had left us with dysfunctional families.

Not So Honorable

Ever wondered why Japan hasn't been sincere with their apologies for World War 2 atrocities? What if it turns out that not many of Japan's war criminals were punished because they were needed to be the counterbalance against Asian communism? If that is true, then this could explain why those who have been wronged by Japan during World War 2 will not have any justice at all, and also the reason the Yasukuni Shrine that the Allies ordered to be demolished still stands to this day.