To me it makes me think of the intellectualization of revolutionary theory to the degree that it’s no longer revolutionary, merely a means by which academics can advance their careers. I get that impression with a lot of western Marxian/critical theory from the last few decades tbh (although that doesn’t mean the works don’t contain interesting ideas).
A quote from Marx that I like:
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
Yet some academics remain content to idly interpret while benefitting from the spoils of imperialism and colonialism.
Oooorrr it’s just a comic by an anti-communist trying to point out a perceived hypocrisy so they don’t have to engage with the ideas lmao
I’d guess it’s because it captured the demand for english-language isekai at a mid reading level, and snowballed with hype around new releases, which quickly got rolled into the movie franchise as well. For 15 years there was a new release almost every year, between the books and the movies, so you couldn’t really avoid hearing buzz about it. If it was just one book without regular injections of hype into the public consciousness, it’d probably be largely forgotten.
Kids don’t care so much about prose and they’re usually too naive to pick up on political subtexts, at least consciously. As a kid I liked them for the escapist fantasy and the simple narrative.