Nice articles! It also took me a while to figure out what made me uncomfortable about the first one, so here we go.
I first really take issue with that general view of politics as a simplistic left/right thing. It doesn't even fit the current model of events where they need an alt-right for people who think fascism and hate is the new cool. It's a bit of a nitpick but often left/right in the US doesn't mean the same thing as elsewhere in the world. I tend to prefer thinking of politics as a more granular thing, addressing individual problems.
My main discomfort comes from that feeling that such articles reduce these stories and works to their political facets. I think they are definitively right to point out the rise of thinly-veiled glorification of the military and being an instrument for the Japanese state, but it's a little much to discard the story's value entirely. Hell, most of the historical samurai manga and anime we love so much is incredibly revisionist, or takes huge liberties with historical accuracy.
In the end, I'd guess that most people just don't care because the story really moves us, because it feels like what the tale is telling matters. I think it'd be insulting the intelligence of the viewer to think them so vulnerable to twisting history and training to whitewash atrocities. You can enjoy the story being its own fictional thing while being aware some things are just bearing a distant relationship to history and reality.
I feel saying an anime is leftist or conservative is hugely reductive, being so blunt and useless a qualification. It does a huge disservice to the stories it actually tells and seems to carry the implication a work of art is good or bad because of that label that's attributed because of arbitrary story and world elements.
To me, as long as art, as the art of animation isn't treated as a dedicated vehicle for ideologies, I'm good. Things start being a problem when telling stories matter less to someone than advocating for a given political ideology, be it Japanese Imperialism and elitism or railing against Capitalism. Incidentally, stories that are just about being an excuse for such propaganda usually suck and go on being ignored as shallow and stupid more often than not.
Also, on the topic of animation, I can't recommend
The Canipa Effect enough. It's a great channel with a lot of insight and even industry interviews.
