UPDATE 2022-11-05: I'm going back and editing this post because I went over the line in trolling my Anifam acquaintances, who didn't deserve that. But I'm leaving in the original text (with strikethrough) because I don't believe in memory-holing my mistakes. The rest of the post I think is OK as an examination of the political commentary embedded in The Great Passage, although based on Anifam feedback if I were writing this again I'd talk more about nonprofit organizations, as well as the extent to which libertarian sentiments (which are basically what Matsumoto is expressing) are also pro-market sentiments.
Goodness knows I'm fond of the Anime Feminist editors and my fellow denizens of the Anifem discord, but I can't help but find it amusing how eager they are to sniff out any hints of anti-capitalist sentiment in the anime they watch and review. So I find it especially amusing when they praise an anime (one of my all-time favorites) that not only presents a positive (albeit idealized) view of business, but also comes pretty darn close to saying "no, socialism is bad, y'all".
ADDED 2022-11-19: A lot of people look at anime and manga and see a lot of anti-capitalist sentiment — which is understandable, because anime and manga are produced by people who for the most part get the short end of the economic stick. But one of my all-time favorite anime not only presents a positive (albeit idealized) view of business, but also comes pretty darn close to saying "socialism is bad".
I'm speaking of The Great Passage (Fune o Amu), which follows a group of editors' multigenerational quest to produce a new Japanese dictionary. The anime is perhaps first and foremost a celebration of the Japanese language and (by extension) Japanese culture as a whole. But in its depiction of the editors' work and their efforts to promote their dictionary, it also presents a positive view of what a capitalistic enterprise can be: the editors work together in an egalitarian environment marked by mutual respect and cooperation and unmarred by discrimination based on age, gender, or employment status, they persist despite setbacks and make compromises when necessary, and they ultimately bring the project to a successful conclusion, with their former salesperson finding innovative ways to promote the dictionary to its prospective buyers.
And in the final episode Professor Matsumoto, the wise elder who most embodies the spirit and ideals of the project, spells out exactly why dictionaries should be created via the free enterprise system, instead of being government-funded and controlled--as they would be under socialism. (Here of course I mean "true socialism", where the state owns and controls the "means of production", and not "social democracy", which is basically capitalism plus good health insurance.)
Yes, in a capitalistic system key economic decisions are made by those who have more money, i.e., economic power. But under socialism those decisions are instead made by those who have political power. When it comes to cultural expressions and works of art, under socialism the key question is therefore not "who will pay for this, and how much?", but rather "how does this serve the state and those who run it?"
As Matsumoto-sensei says, "When public funds are used [to create a dictionary], they [i.e., governments and politicians] may wish to interfere with its contents. The integrity of the words cannot be compromised by a desire for power or to use them as a tool for control. Words and the hearts of those who use them must remain free." And if this is true of a dictionary, how much more so when it comes to all of the other expressions of art and culture that surround and sustain us?