The sunset that permeates throughout 1985 Japan is meant to invoke a sense of nostalgia, and even if you haven’t had any experience in that setting, the invocation of certain well-worn otaku media tropes will encourage a feeling of familiarity. Yet, you’ll never settle into a state of complacency within even the most innocent of scenes. The constant displacement in time forced by the necessary narrative-switching results in this world feeling alien and uncertain. Even within character’s narratives, scenes will play out the exact same way only to diverge midway through, leaving you unsure as to whether this is truly the next in a sequence of events, or some parallel timeline, or maybe even somehow both? Even the tropes that 13 Sentinels deals with are so heavily interconnected and draw from so many different genres, from shoujo romance to psychological horror to historical drama, that results in a rather distinct feel even if one is experienced with otaku media.

You could just forget, indulge in the mindless delicacies like crepes and kaiju movies of bubble-economy Japan without paying to mind just how unnatural capitalist luxuries really are, that our way of life is so far displaced from humanity’s origins. The usage of puzzles during the narratives prevent that, forcing you to be actively thinking about the world you’re presented with and manipulating it for your own progression to demonstrate an understanding of its artificiality. This romanticization of an era of false peace calls into question what it means to truly be forward-thinking for a better society. The convenience of a pre-existing image to base an ideal world on does not negate the many failures that have been proven through history, but the question looms “is it even possible to imagine a realistic post-capitalist society with how deeply entrenched capitalist realism is now?” 13 Sentinels doesn’t have a solid answer, but I’d rather that over pretending that there is an easy answer.