One thing I like about his Mechademia article is that he says there are many ways wartime depictions of "speciesism" continue in the postwar period, from unthinking repetition to criticism.

That's a good point. From Ohtsuka, though, I've gotten the impression that the medium itself is a product of the wartime crucible, which leads me to wonder about the ability to criticize a phenomenon in a form created by that same phenomenon. I think, though, that Ohtsuka sometimes takes a deliberately provocative stance, in order to be thought-provoking.

Enh, I got paid to read manga for a year, and I did. ^_^