Wars are not just fought with guns and bullets, Aria. Wars exist on a broad spectrum.
Consider:
Humans are a visual species. If it were not so, visual art would not be so prevalent in human cultures ever since the discovery of being able to daub colours on rock walls.
The Caldari State exists as a corporate society – do you know what corporations are really good at? Advertising. Do you know what is the preferred medium of advertising? The visual medium. Because like it or not, it is effective. Do you think the average baseliner reading these fora give a flying ■■■■ about reading walls of text? I submit they do not, they don’t have the time for that much critical thought. A well crafted image captivates the attention more than any amount of text, because it is succinct and appealing – which is why it is so frequently used in both advertising and propaganda.
Anime is an industry in the State, and it is an industry that serves a purpose more than simple entertainment – it also functions as a vector in the interstellar culture wars.
Just look at the basic format of the vast majority of anime in terms of tropes and storytelling: The teenager who must undergo the traditional Hero’s Journey, and along the way discover friends in order to understand the true meaning of camaraderie, duty, sacrifice, and discipline in order to overcome evil. The underlying themes in Caldari anime remain underlying themes in the Caldari cultural mileu.
People like you dismiss it all as nothing more than frivolity; the naivety of youth. Yet at the same time you balk at just how popular anime is in societies that have close parallels to, or contact with the Caldari State – the Achur; the Jin-Mei; the Khanid Kingdom.
Because you fail to realize just how effective the visual medium is as an extension of Caldari corporate soft power in the promulgation of its cultural memes abroad.