Opinion of Japan

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Freedom Country with a ton of problems.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

probably peaking in the late 1940s

What the Christ

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

'The most normal and straightforward interpretation of Japanese history' most certainly does not analyze the Meiji Restoration-to-Pacific War period and the Occupation-to-Lost Decade period as one continuous era, far less parts of the same 'golden age'.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

'The most normal and straightforward interpretation of Japanese history' most certainly does not analyze the Meiji Restoration-to-Pacific War period and the Occupation-to-Lost Decade period as one continuous era, far less parts of the same 'golden age'.

I don't blame historians for dividing up such a long and interesting period into parts; especially since when these two periods were delineated, the golden age was still going on and seemed 'normal.'

I...I can't respond to this. You've made a profoundly odd historiographical assertion conflating two vastly different periods of history that have next to nothing in common except the epoch between them and the 'strength' of the country in question (it wasn't even strong in the same way), defended this assertion by claiming that it's 'normal and straightforward', and then responded to the point that reputable historians do not understand things this way by claiming that they just aren't/weren't privy to the same insights as you.

Also, Sol, you underestimate my ability to go on for hours about which anime series suck and which ones are good. I have very strong opinions on this.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

How does the Pokémon anime and Cowboy Bebop rate?

Pokémon: Serviceable. It delivers what it promises. It's interesting as a cultural phenomenon but not in itself particularly fertile ground for analysis.
Cowboy Bebop: Very good indeed but not quite as good as its inflated reputation in the West would suggest. Far and away the best anime of the period throughout which it aired* but not the best anime of the late nineties (that's Shōjo Kakumei Utena).

*I'm counting the continuous period between October 1998 and April 1999, not the few months earlier in 1998 in which it started to air and was then temporarily cancelled. Serial Experiments Lain ended in September 1998, and that's the only credible challenger for Cowboy Bebop in any definition of its airing period.