Both in modern Russian fiction and in modern Japanese anime (manga, dorama) the genre of “popadanci” is extremely popular – when a person, usually an average one, without special talents, or even just a loser, gets into another world, or in the past. But there is a fundamental difference. In Russian opuses, the protagonist, as a rule, immediately undertakes a task of colossal proportions, becomes an adviser to Stalin, say (or reincarnates in Stalin’s body), which leads, for example, to the USSR becoming a global empire. Everything is focused on great power, the hero tries to build a paradise (as in the Russian chauvinist vision) on earth.
Japanese works, for all their external naivety, actually demonstrate the hero’s difficult path to self-knowledge and self-improvement, healing his inner traumas, overcoming fears and finding εὐδαιμονία in a purely Aristotelian sense, as a state of happiness and peace with himself and the universe. And although in some places these heroes have questionable moral qualities and prefer to position themselves as cynics (reminiscent of Callicles from the Platonic dialogue) – in the end, faced with difficult life decisions, and they go through a certain internal transformation, rethinking themselves and their attitudes to others.
Needless to say, the Japanese way impresses me much more.
