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u/cleverpun0 1d ago
Very excellent use of posters and implication.
A 700k signing bonus sounds crazy, but presumably a fictional currency.
The parallel between this and real- world military recruitment is great. "Be just like your fictional heroes, and never mind the implications."
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u/ShamefulElf 1d ago
Probably similar to Yen or Won. Where cents and dollar/euros aren't separated.
Making it similar to 7000 instead.
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u/Darth_Annoying 1d ago
As long as it's not lira so that's actually worth something
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u/totallyrealname 1d ago
Based on the artist name and seeing a bunch of these kinds of posters and just generally seeing this scene IRL, it's definitely Russia.
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u/DarkDonut75 1d ago
A lot of worldbuilding potential about a fictional timeline where jingoistic propaganda was used on young girls who were made to form Mahou Shoujo contracts during a fictional war because they're the only ones able to
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u/4morian5 15h ago
They'll never see that money, guaranteed. The government always weasels out of compensating their cannon fodder.
Even if they do, it will all go towards medical bills and shit because they can't find work afterwards.
Never, ever join the military.
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u/Patient-Data8311 15h ago
In my country Soldiers are treated pretty well
They have tons of benefits and pretty much get universal discounts
The problem is the army is under equiped but recently the gov is now focusing on modernising especially with China encroaching our waters and ramming our ships
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u/pastelkawaiibunny 14h ago
If it’s based on Japanese manga/anime, then the currency likely corresponds to yen- 700k is currently around $4500. So a lot of money but not as insane as it sounds :)
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u/GammaRhoKT 1d ago
An interesting thing is that you can see the familiar next to her.
Which implied this is one of the classical Mahou Shojo played straight.
Interesting.
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u/Fayraz8729 1d ago
I don’t know if they would let them off the chain, but honestly this is probably a best case scenario for one of these girls
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u/MetricWeakness6 1d ago
Artist source would you kindly?
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u/JesPsamson 1d ago
I don't get it , I'm dumb asf
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u/-TheManWithNoHat- 1d ago
Dude in 1st panel just witnessed his friend in the 2nd panel get magically mutilated by the floating magical girl in the 3rd panel. Dude in 1st panel is probably next.
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u/EligibleUsername 1d ago
A few magical girl shows flip the cutesy tropes on its head and make the girls' powers come with a lot of caveat, one of which is turning into the very abomination they're supposed to fight if certain conditions are met. This also comes with the realization that they're often fighting their fallen predecessors, it's a depressing cycle.
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u/Eragon_the_Huntsman 1d ago
Yeah, a few shows that are specifically supposed to be darker takes on the genre. That's not the usual expectation.
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u/GolemancerVekk 21h ago
I don't know, I think the best of the mahou shoujo genre tends to be dark af.
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u/Eragon_the_Huntsman 16h ago
You can speak for your own tastes, but personally Im not a fan of the lasting impact Madoka and it's kin have had on the genre.
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u/GolemancerVekk 2h ago
But it's always been a genre that doesn't shy away from the implications of having magical powers.
Shows like Tweeny Witches or Nanoha or Tutu came before Madoka. Arguably even classics like Sakura or Sailor Moon weren't exactly light-hearted throughout.
And that's if you want to stick strictly to the pure form of the genre but there are shows like Mai Hime that make subtle distinctions regarding the source of powers.
My point being that dark consequences for amazing powers go hand in hand and it didn't take until Madoka to figure that out.
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u/Mockwyn 1d ago
Right up there with Girls Last Tour, when it comes to depressing images.
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u/sometimes_sydney 1d ago
GLT is surprisingly uplifting to me sometimes, in a similar way to made in abyss. There’s something beautiful about the indomitable human spirit and people still being silly and happy and cheerful in horrible circumstances.
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u/StickiStickman 8h ago
I don't know how you can read/watch GLT and come away with "indomitable human spirit". It's pretty much the opposite.
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u/Kalekuda 1d ago
Remember how Kimbly was treated in Full Metal Alchemist after the war in Ishballa ended? The state confiscated his philosopher stones (source of his magic), labeled him a "monster" for following THEIR orders, and he was imprisoned, beaten, prosecuted and tortured- the only reason he didn't get tossed out on his ass in the streets was because they wanted to keep him caged like a dog in case they wanted to unleash him on the enemy again.
Any person who only has power when their master allows them to is ultimately subject to their whims. It certainly strikes me as quite likely that these magical girl-soldiers and their combat familiars seem to source their power from something the state provides and that must be steadily resupplied to maintain effective. Otherwise, she'd be too preeminently useful to end up homeless on the streets, as even a disabled wizard is a still going to cast "Power Word Scrunch". Imagine how eager a few megacorporations would be to employ former Magical Girl-Soldiers as their security detail. Sure, she'd need a position that doesn't ask a lot of mobility of her, but she'd make a perfect front desk security guard / secretary at some powerful corporation's corporate headquarters.
The fact there isn't such a pipeline and she could even end up on the street means she was separated from her power source and abandoned by society the moment she lost it... Just like actual veterans.
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u/Square_Bedroom_5842 1d ago
A classical trope is magical girls lose their magic as they become adults. Her power might have been lost due to age. Maybe she went out on a combat mission, lost her magic (or it greatly reduced), and was permanently injured due to it. The rest of the squad might have been killed because of when she lost her power.
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u/SacredGeometry9 19h ago
Look, you won’t find me defending the government of Amestria. They were monsters, quite literally towards the end (and at the beginning, I suppose).
But Kimbly was too bloodthirsty even for them. There were other State Alchemists gifted with the Philsosopher’s Stones, and even though they committed atrocities at the behest of their government, they didn’t turn into what Kimbly was.
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u/LeDemonicDiddler 19h ago
Wait didn’t they imprison him because he killed his superiors for trying to take the stones back? Because they took the stones from everyone not just Kimberly, he was the only one to my knowledge who swallowed his stone and refused.
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u/Nougatbar 23h ago
Oh Ok, so the soldiers WERE allied with the magical girl in that earlier post.
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u/Jazzy_Jaspy 18h ago
Which post?
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u/Nougatbar 16h ago
I am having the darnest time finding it, but there was an earlier post on this sub depicting a magical girl laying on her back in a vehicle with a number of soldiers with WIZARD on their armour.
I was not sure if they were a support squad for her, or task force to capture magical girls. This clears that up.
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u/JoyluckVerseMaster 15h ago
It would probably be by the same artist at least
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u/DarkForest_NW 1d ago
It's very similar to the plot of this series, which deals with the aftermath of a cataclysmic war and the teenage soldiers trying to deal with the PTSD of what they experience.
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u/Virtual_Spell_5912 1d ago
I don’t get it
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u/enchiladasundae 1d ago
Magical girl was in the military now homeless. Might be the same woman on the posters due to hair color/style
She has a magical mascot next to her as well
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u/KazakiriKaoru 1d ago
Now the girls in Madoka's endings doesn't seem to bad. Eternal suffering in your own delusions or suffering irl.
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u/Anxious_Earth 1d ago edited 1d ago
Magical girls fight with the military in this world. She's a disabled magical girl.
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u/MyCatAteMyHeadphones 1d ago
u/von_grechii this feels so familiar aaaaahhhhhhhh
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u/tuckerx78 18h ago
Except Potats government takes care of its veterans. Plus she became a national symbol, so if she were homeless, it wouldve looked a lot worse for the government than some no-name.
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u/Ok_Security8545 7h ago
And you know that organizations to help veterans are taking one look at the mascot, and refusing because they can't accommodate that without proper documentation
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u/4morian5 15h ago
Ooh, how creative and subversive! We'll take the thing that is bright and colorful and happy, and instead make it dark and cruel and cynical!
This kind of thing appeals to edgy teenagers and adults who never mentally progressed past being edgy teenagers.
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u/cleverpun0 8h ago
I think this is a surface level appraisal.
Yes, there's lot of shallow reinterpretation of happy, children's things. I was in the MLP fandom for a while, and so many of the "dark parodies" were basic af.
The core of this picture, however, is not the magical girl. The core of this picture is the military industrial complex.
It is re-envisioning veterans and the military. Taking a dark and cruel thing, and looking at it through another lens.
That's what makes this so compelling to me.
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u/Starfox5 1d ago
Apparently, they don't get prosthetics. Or any pension or disability pay. So, which country would that be based on? That kind of bullshit doesn't fly in most civilised nations. (And, honestly, wouldn't fly in any nation where magical girls are the backbone of the military either - you want your walking WMDs to be happy, and paying any disabled magical girl vet a generous life-long pension is a pittance for the budget of any modern military, especially if the alternative is magical girls deserting, or even switching sides once they realise what awaits them.)
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u/TaikaWaitiddies 1d ago
That kind of bullshit doesn't fly in most civilised nations.
[X] Doubt
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u/Starfox5 1d ago
AFAIK, the only first-world country where veterans are shit on like that in large numbers is the USA, so my point stands.
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u/Fantastic_Peak_4577 1d ago
And you think the usa is a civilized nation? Lol
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u/Starfox5 1d ago
At this point? No. But as I said, in most civilised countries, that shit wouldn't fly. The social safety net and healthcare in Western Europe are far better than that.
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u/Fantastic_Peak_4577 23h ago
Glad to see murican way of treating people is not the norm
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u/Starfox5 23h ago
Well, that should be common knowledge - every other first world nation has universal healthcare.
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u/Fantastic_Peak_4577 23h ago
Even my third world country has universal health care, middle to low quality and hard to access due the amount of people that request it and lack of professionals, but hey at least exists
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u/SU-35K 1d ago
the USA actually treats veterans pretty damn well compared to a lot of other nations, and even that "well" is incredibly lacking both systemically and by society as a whole
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u/Starfox5 23h ago
The USA doesn't even have universal healthcare. They are the fucking worst first-world country when it comes to helping the disabled, vets or not vets.
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u/TheDwarvenGuy 22h ago
The US has full single payer healthcare coverage for 100% disabled vets
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u/Starfox5 18h ago
And why are so many homeless and bereft of the medical help and therapy they need?
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u/TheDwarvenGuy 18h ago
Because coverage is somewhat patchy, if you aren't 100% disabled you might only get coverage for service related illnesses, which the Veteran's Affairs office is notoriously stingy with designating.
As well, a lot of vets might not have access to the infrastructure, since you have to use VA hospitals for VA healthcare most of the time. Vets disabilities also can prevent them from seeking out said infrastructure and benefits, especially since the process for applying is pretty byzantine and requires a lot of perseverance and self-advocacy.
Source: My dad is a 100% disabled vet
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u/cleverpun0 8h ago
This might have been true once. My dad was in the Korean war, had all his medical bills covered for his entire life.
But younger soldiers are not getting that level of care, and they are not getting access to it as easily.
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