Every time you pick up an academic or legal journal, do your eyes start to shut and glaze over paragraphs until you reach the end? At first, you think it’s the writing — maybe you chose a particularly boring piece. But after attempting to read a few more essays, you know you’re the problem.
So what does one do next, when they are downcast? Binge on pop culture and junk food, of course. But that’s the thing, you don’t have to read critical theory papers to explore ideas; just watch anime! With simple animations and illustrations, it discusses and analyses complex thoughts, just like the other mediums of art.
In a talk, held at Mylapore recently, titled ‘ Otaku -nation: Understanding law and justice through the eyes of anime’, Deeptha Rao, a human rights lawyer with Alternative Law Forum, touched up on this — the role of pop culture in staying informed.
Otaku in Japanese refers to young people who are obsessed with pop culture, to a point where it can become detrimental to their social skills, which accurately represents the nation’s youth at the moment. This, she said, can be used to our advantage, to think critically on myriad questions that plague us.
A self-proclaimed ‘otaku’, Deeptha grew up on a steady diet of anime, music, movies and books, which helped create the narrative for the evening. Drawing parallels between the judiciary and three anime series — Deadman Wonderland , Fullmetal Alchemist and Death Note — she distinguished between law and justice, and pondered on whether the former is the right gatekeeper (or if there should be only one) to the latter.
The beginning: Death Note and death sentence
For those unfamiliar, Death Note is a story about a high school student, Light Yagami, who finds a notebook that belongs to a Shinagami (god of death) named Ryuk, which gives him the power to kill anyone by writing their name in the book. In the story, Deeptha pointed out, Ryuk acts as a judge; since it’s his book, he has a set of rules the writer has to play by. This can be seen as the Indian Constitution. And various other, more unclear laws are brought in by Ryuk later, which is common enough in our society.
The series, hence, establishes the strength (and weakness) of words and the written law. One of the problems lawyers had in the Section 377 case was establishing the meaning of the sentence ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’. What does such archaic language really mean in present context?
If Ryuk is judgement, Light represents the merger of law and justice in an individual’s life. In the start of the series itself, he is heard saying, “I am Justice! I protect the innocent and those who fear evil. I’m the one that will become the god of a new world that everyone desires.” He kills the so-called scum of the planet based on his moral values, in the name of justice. At first he follows set rules (the law), but turns into a hunter when he is threatened, and bends the rules to suit his convenience. Sound familiar?
Death Note , which happens to be extremely relevant to Indian law and society, also narrates a discussion we have on a daily basis: What is murder; is it murder if it is state sanctioned or for a ‘greater good’? Deeptha said we often don’t consider the effect of the trail itself: “The process is punishment since court proceedings aren’t as simple as they sound on paper.” This brings back focus to language. When the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act was amended in 2015, many were against juveniles being tried as adults for similar reasons.
But the question to really ask is: Who decides what murder is? And what role do ethics have in society? Not everything is black and white, though we’d like it to be. While we expect the law and justice to have defined boundaries, we cannot ignore the role of emotions. In Suresh Kumar Kaushal vs Naz Foundation, the latter had to file affidavits of the LGBT community, to humanise them for the judges since they are otherwise invisible to most people.
The middle: Deadman Wonderland and innocence
Now that we’ve acknowledged the system and its faults, what happens to the consequences? In India, the theory of justice has moved from retribution to deterrence and reform. Through Deadman Wonderland , the entangled nexus that lies behind every system is looked at. Ganta Igarashi is a 14-year-old who witnesses the murder of his classmates. Since he is the only survivor of the tragedy, he is blamed for the murders and is sent to a private correctional facility.
In theory, the phrase is ‘innocent until proven guilty’ but in practise, it’s the other way around. These days, guilt is established through social media and individuals have become judges. Family members of the accused refuse to be associated with them in fear of being judged by society. And since the law (and hence, justice) is so inaccessible to most people, it adds to the prejudice.
While Ganta has a court-appointed lawyer who promises an acquittal, viewers later find out that the same lawyer runs the prison facility and has vested interest in seeing it thrive. His inability to access the judiciary and defend himself because of his lack of privilege is the click point of the series.
In a time when privatisation is at its peak, even correctional facilities are ways to earn that extra buck. At some point in the US, so many private prisons mushroomed that they began acquiring valuable farm land.
The end: Fullmetal Alchemist and the sacred
This series is about two alchemists — Edward and Alphonse Elric — who lose their mother under tragic circumstances and try to bring her back with alchemy. In trying to do so, they break the one law of alchemy — do not attempt human mutation, which emphasises the inherent worth of human life above all else. Like most forms of art, it makes clear that death is inescapable and allows people to figure out who should control life and death. So, we have a choice — accept things for what they are or negotiate with the powers of justice while keeping the law in mind.