The Unbroken Back: The Millennial and Lost Decade In Media
As of the time this article is written, it is 30 years since Japan’s bubble economy has popped, nearly 13 years out from the United States housing market crash, 10 years out from Japan’s triple disaster, and currently are entering the second year of Covid-19 lockdown around the world. This is a fraction of the world events to have occurred in the past 30 years but these events all signal a major disruption to the life course of anyone born in the 1980s.
Media depictions of millennials and those of the Lost Decade were usually similar around the turn of the century. Both were characterized as lazy, leeches, irresponsible, and self-serving by the previous generation (their parents) and are often told that their lives would be better if they just went outside and got a job. They’re seen as people who were handed everything by their parents and left it to waste. Yet there are characters that many Millenials seem to strongly relate to in media that tend to appear under the same circumstances.
In an article from Anime Feminist, Anthony Gramuglia writes about Misato Katsuragi from the perspective of her experiencing life as a millennial does. Relating her high position in NERV to that of an adult overworking themselves at an underpaying job. Struggling to make ends meet while also being available for their child’s emotional needs. Even going as far as comparing Misato’s witnessing of the Second Impact to the trauma of Millenials living through the economic decline, triple disaster, housing crisis, September 11th, the War on Terror, and Brexit.
You Are Not Alone
Evangelion released in 1995 but characters like Misato have only been on the rise. Characters that are very often young adults who aren’t depicted as very capable by traditional standards. They might be messy, have only one pair of good clothes, might work a job that other adults mock them for, might have no job, might be constantly hopping from job to job, and be unable to ever have a secure footing in their life. Their defining trait tends to be their devotion to avoiding a similar fate for those younger than them.
Peter B. Parker from Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse is a less successful version of the Peter Parker most Americans likely know. He did get married and was recognized as a hero but things didn’t work out. He got injured more and more, his marriage didn’t work out, and the woman who took care of him from a young age had passed on. All of this taking an emotional toll on Peter and he started to gain weight, eat poorly, and stopped taking care of himself both physically and emotionally.
Kamina from Gurren Lagann was born underground. He doesn’t really have a sad moment in his time with Simon and the early form of Team Lagann. He’s been underground for most of his life yet dreams of reaching the surface, and once he’s there, he seeks to explore and see what the surface has for them. The surface was his goal for so long but he had to continue even after it was obtained and discovered to be inhabited by monsters hellbent on the destruction of his kind. Facing the Beastmen, learning to pilot Gurenn Lagann, encouraging Simon to live his life and to not give up while refusing to ever look on the downside are all parts of Kamina’s legacy within the show.
Haruhara Haruko is a nebulous 20 something that’s learning how to deal with her emotions towards someone who broke her heart while jumping from all sorts of jobs and dispensing advice to a bunch of the middle and high schoolers she frequently encounters. She’s often called a kid by the older characters but is a recognized senior even when she’s conversing with a college student. She is genuinely a danger to some people around her but her actions aren’t based solely on antagonism. She’s a force that can be as helpful as she can be destructive and even she recognizes that. A lot of her character is balanced around her equal ability to ruin someone’s life as well as enrich it.
A New Generation of Mentors
While Mentors have been a common aspect of storytelling for years, the past two decades have seen a steady increase and firm re-establishment of these characters' traits change to fit a modern generation. An old man no longer is the staple image of someone who dispenses wisdom. That job has been assigned to those who are no more than 10 or so years older than those they are mentoring or watching over.
The world changed drastically in the last 30 years with the tides of war, financial devastation, and an encroaching climate disaster. The ones who are bearing the burden of keeping the world together now also need to guide the new generation to inheriting what they will leave behind. A future that Millenials are still on their toes of actually forming.
These characters often show strong feelings towards the past or a deep love for the future that many of them will likely never get to fully enjoy but their hopes are placed in those who they also need to properly instruct and inform. The generational gap that has formed in the last 30 years is nearly impossible to navigate for those who weren’t being born in these times. The only generation that has a chance of explaining the new and increasingly complex world are those who are also frequently being crushed and exploited by it.
These characters show a trend of what will be the legacy of those who found a way to keep living even when their futures were taken from them. They may be cynical, overly comical, not very “adult”, and struggle to pay bills as they arrive but they are finding a way to live and to pass on their hopes and dreams to the next generation.
Surviving Calamity
These characters tend to bear an immense burden that takes a lot out of them but receives little in the way of a substantial reward. Some may be rewarded with a better job, or find love in this forever changing world but none seem to really achieve much change over their or arcs. They mainly act as supports for younger characters or deal with intense societal structures and internal stress.
That’s not to say that all millennials in media are like this. Some have given up on the future, some seek answers from those who doomed the planet and seek to make amends, or they’re anywhere else on the spectrum. Millennials collectively suffered an intense emotionally traumatizing life and trauma can impact people in an unprecedented number of ways. All millennials may not be these new mentors but these new mentors are millennials.
People who inherited a broken world that achieved a revolution that has changed society as humanity knew it while suffering some of the most devastating economic downturns in human history. Yet these characters are often a cornerstone of their work’s heart. A pillar that stands not for themselves but to help others like them through their unfair lives. As well as for those who are growing and are soon to stand on their own as well.
These new mentors place their faith in the next generation because doing so means their struggles aren’t for nothing. They’ll work the long hours, thankless jobs, sleepless nights, and try their best to be emotionally available for their children. They may even die or be crushed by the very system they want to change but so long as their hope for a better future lives on in those they watched over, then they can withstand it all and won’t allow those who come next to worry about their problems.
