A recurring motif in Japanese animation and contemporary climate fiction animation is the misuse of technology by fictional scientific and militaristic authorities, which in the fictional narratives leads to severe disaster, often with ecological and environmental consequences. In this context, “living weapons” – powerful beings created by science whose impact and abilities are reminiscent of weapons of mass destruction – are particularly potent. Living weapons are “fantasy characters who exist in alternative worlds and become embroiled in implausible plot lines” (Swale 2020, 1999). As archetypes, they prompt reflection on the depiction of cultural notions of catastrophe, particularly environmental catastrophe, and are often explored as symptomatic of deep-rooted and durable cultural anxieties about disastrous scientific incidents.
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