A Brief Overview of FUTURE WAR 198X

I was scrolling through old anime... And I found this treasure. The anime "Future War 198X年" (1982) - a little-known but very interesting Japanese feature film that combines military drama, political science fiction, and a vibe of nuclear apocalypse. Created in the wave of fear of the Third World War, this anime warns: the world can burn not because of evil, but due to indecision, technocracy, and complacency. In the context of war, this anime is quite interesting to watch. There are currently very few titles that can hold the attention of Ukrainians. So let's go:

The film depicts a world slowly sliding into global conflict. Tensions between the West and the East are rising.

Sabotage, random provocations, local wars — and gradually nuclear missiles take to the air. The confrontation between the USSR and the USA eventually breaks free from diplomatic frameworks. The viewer observes the final phase - the destruction of major cities, chaos, and the loss of humanity.

Although the film was created during the Cold War, it resonates differently today - especially for the Ukrainian viewer. The Russo-Ukrainian war has become a real example of how autocracy uses nuclear rhetoric to terrorize the world.

In "198X," it is shown how world leaders do not believe for a long time that the war is real. They hesitate, wait, hope for "peace through diplomacy," even as cities are already falling. This strongly echoes how the West reacted in 2014, or in the early months of the full-scale invasion in 2022.Many propagandistic expressions are already very familiar to us.

The film depicts both presidents - the USA and the USSR - as people constrained by their own system, the pressure of generals, and fear of weakness. They do not press the buttons out of cruelty - they hesitate, delegate, lose control. And there are also attempts at coups, the human factor, and so on...

The American president does not believe in the threat for a long time, hoping for deterrence. His decisions are delayed. The Soviet leader also sees no way out when the system is already in motion.

This is a grim warning: if the leadership lacks the will to act decisively — weapons prevail, not reason. In short - this anime is not that much of a fantasy. But personally, I found it interesting to hear and see all these narratives in the anime of the 80s. It also shows a lot of weapons that we already know from the news (and unfortunately, not only from the news). After watching, it feels like listening to/watching a podcast by Chmut and Sternenko about potential threats and the latest news. The only nuance - the map of the world's distribution in the 80s and NATO is attacked from the territory of Poland (which joined NATO on March 12, 1999).

There is a Ukrainian voiceover available online. However, I couldn't find a trailer. So here is what exists: