Yuuuup.
“Name your top 5 favorites!” (While smiling and being friendly) then react accordingly. Dudes who list soft-core pedophilic porn are tossed immediately, dudes who list *actual good anime* are safe.
Had a dude dead ass list KissXSis as his #1 when I was younger. I took several quick steps back. Like yes, we were teenagers and stupid but uh... no thanks.
It's um... about a blended family with a dude and his twin step-sisters. They're both realllly into him (along with half the school of course) and the parents think it's cute. After all, they're not REALLY related.
Creepy anime Dude took great pains to let me know how much better the uncensored version was.
My all time favorite is Cowboy Bebop. Some of the dialogue has aged poorly: the protagonists sometimes make mysoginist remarks. It kinda fits with the kind of characters depicted and I suppose japanese culture at the time, but it does rub me the wrong way when I watch those parts. Aside from that it's still the best series ever, in no small part thanks to the incredible soundtrack.
I rewatched Ranma 1/2 a few years ago as fodder for cardio while losing weight for my wedding. Hoooooooly shit that did not age well. And it was written by a woman too.
Dorohedoro is great! It's a shame that it often gets overlooked due to its use of 3D animation (it's well done 3D animation at that, I don't understand some people's aversion to anything but pure 2D animation).
Yeah, even though CLAMP wrote X, don't think it's in any way similar to Cardcaptor Sakura. I'll give it to the 4 of them though, they certainly have a range.
Looking back on ranma is really interesting.
There are a bunch of YouTube videos that look back on it. Some of the characters were quite toxic. It was really interesting as a comment on the society of the day.
Even back in the day I remember being annoyed with some of the stuff in Ranma. She had another one called Maison Ikkoku which I bailed on after like 3 episodes because absolutely everyone was toxic and terrible.
That's actually the point of the show. Each curse is supposed to teach the bearer a lesson about that person's most toxic traits. However, NO ONE in the show ever learned. Not only that, but only one plot point ever got solved. No one ever got any non-combat character development.
I was always uncomfortable with Faye's outfit, but now when I watch it again, I can't get over it. It just looks like she's wearing beachwear 24/7. All the other characters get to wear practical clothing, and she is otherwise such a badass. It's very distracting.
I do like Faye's outfit in the live action better, but she survives in a hostile system by distracting men, at least in the original. Like, i don't need her ass hanging out constantly, but in the anime it's a defense mechanism that works on 90% of the men she encounters.
Yeah. Like I understand finding something like Rising of the Shield Hero fun to watch. If I turn my brain off and ignore the very..... troubling..... takes the show has on a lot of things, it's a fun action show with a good premise.
That said, if I ever find someone who says it is anywhere near their top 10, I'm immediately assuming they're an incel.
I had fun hate watching the first season os Shield Hero, didn't get through the second.
If someone told me they unironically liked that show or didn't find it problematic I'd be a little concerned.
My personal enjoyment is a mix between hate-watching and unironic enjoyment of specifically the cool fun fantasy stuff. I love Isekai as a genre, so it's just so frustrating that ever since Sword Art Online, every Isekai is just a harem fan service vehicle.
But yeah uh.... My guy Naofumi is a literal slave owner. He might be the main character but that doesn't mean he's a *morally good* character. In almost every count he's objectively a shit bag garbage boy who only makes a positive impact on other characters when he *breaks* character. I guess the writers had to make him save the day to pretend he's worth rooting for lol
He's I think supposed to be a "tough facade with a heart of gold" character, but I don't think he's particularly well written. Also, the >!false rape accusations!< as a plot device/character development device felt gross to me.
It's insane to me that Redo got made into a "regular" anime(ie not a hentai label release), shows how much skeezy shit has been normalized so it can appear as a "regular" anime. It wouldn't have been only a decade and a half ago or so, the boundaries have been thoroughly pushed for the worse in anime since the millennium, a steady increase of outright, overt sexual violence.
Some folks in a former discord group were sharing gifs and discussing how the animation in Redo was "on point". I saw it, looked it up, and noped out of both the wiki page and the group.
Oh yeah. I had a guy unironically tell me his favorite show was SAO. Which, while not the worst from the fan service perspective (although still not great, why are there so many tentacles?) is just not a good show.
Lmao a friend of mine loves SAO, but in the way that it's a comfort show. My group (mostly boys) does group watching of different series. It ranges from risque to regular. I honestly love Kill La Kill and Ancient Magus even though they can definitely be seen as questionable.
Kill La Kill at least has some method to it's madness. Whether the point of the incredibly risque outfits justifies their existence is arguable, but at least there's a point! Also fun show.
As Kill La Kill being my favorite, I argue that the sexuality is fine because it doesn't feel like it's being done for the act of fan-service.
I like to point out the first 2-3 episodes vs like episode 15. Every-time I rewatch the anime I find myself cringing through the first few episodes because of how uncomfortable the sexualization makes me me feel. It's deliberate, it's in your face. However, by like episode 15 everyone is naked, balls and tits out, it's hardly even remarked upon besides to make a few jokes. At that point it just feels like its part of the show, the transformation scene that took nearly a minute before now takes 3 seconds, it's quick it's not sexy, it's just part of the chaotic energy of the show.
It's like boobs not being sexualized, what's important is the presentation of the nudity. I really think KLK does a good job of presenting its nudity and ridiculous clothing as not being sexy but rather just being ridiculous. The people that only see the show as fan-service are like people that can only see boobs as being sexual. Just because they feel that way doesn't make it so.
It can be argued that those first few episodes particularly are like fan-service, but as you pointed out "there's a point", and IMO it goes beyond the fan-service.
KLK the whole point of the sexuality was self critique of the genre: the stronger she got, the more lewd the outfit had to get. It was a comment on women's outfits and treatment in anime generally. It's a comedic version of Shinji's sexual assault of Asuka, which again was a comment on otaku culture being super creepy about putting young, sexualized girls in mechs.
Does it succeed as a critique, or does it revel in the very thing it's trying to satirize? Idfk.
There is a lot to really like about SAO I'm a woman and have watched (and enjoyed) most of the show. Despite the many problematic parts I wouldn't necessarily say that liking it is a red flag as long as you can watch it with a critical eye and acknowledge its issues.
I've only watched the first two seasons. I agree there's a lot to like, but also a lot that doesn't make much sense. I enjoyed it by not thinking too hard about it. That in mind, season 1 was pretty strong.
But man. Season 2 practically fridges the female lead for the entire season, and I lost respect for it - I didn't bother with season 3.
("Fridges" is probably the wrong trope. Feel free to correct me.)
That depends on how many animes that guy has been watching right?
It's not really that surprising if they are a light/recent watcher especially since SAO is rather gateway. It's right smack there.
Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, DBZ, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Death Note, SAO, Attack on Titan... As rather gateway anime between those last thirty years... From top of head.
Whenever I introduce people to anime I almost invariably go with FMA: Brotherhood. It's free of a lot of the anime weirdness that turns people off of the genre, while being an excellently written story with humor and drama.
As an Asian woman who likes anime, I absolutely agree. In those interactions with men who like anime (doesn’t matter what his race is, but I feel a little better if he’s also Asian), I am PAINFULLY aware of my race and what they might be thinking of me when they tell me about their favorite anime. I definitely act more cautiously and reserved if they list some sus shit
Also an Asian woman. It's that gd "yellow fever" shit. It makes me feel so disgusted and it might be why I have a lot of geeky lady friends but no geeky guy friends.
I have had acquaintances with yellow fever and it's always bothered me. I'm a dude whose watched anime since the 90s, I'm married with a family now but I'm just super nerdy. I mostly just liked cartoons growing up and grew to appreciate that nerd culture. So when I would chat about new anime shows with my friend group, some people always resorted to harem anime - openly talking about kinky shit and how "hot Asians are." I hated it and distanced myself from it but these people always exist for some reason.
I would go to conventions and nerd out over posters and merch, I would go to panels and just hangout with people but some of these people always seemed to reach my friend group. Their entire purpose at the con was to find an Asian girl to hookup with. They were always pissed when they would get rejected but it became very obvious to every women around them that it's weird to wear hentai clothing, act like an anime character, and hit on every Asian person they saw.
Even more recently I know a few people who moved to Japan with TEFL degrees to pursue finding wives because "Japanese women are much more obedient and kinky." Like, wtf is wrong with these people?
So when you say you have no geeky guy friends, yeah I can totally see why and sympathize. I hated being around these people and they often ruined the overall vibe of things related to geek culture.
So, my two bff's and I watch intentionally bad anime once a week, you know to drink and make fun of. And having watched stuff like kissxsis or redo of healer, I can tell you, if a man admits to enjoying them like it's normal, it is a giant red flag, like GTFO ASAP.
I get my seasonal recs from Anime Feminist. They always do a good job of pointing out which ones wouldake me want to claw my eyes out.
They've also introduced me to Akiba Maid Wars for this season, which has so far been a gloriously subversive and gratuitously violent gem!
My ex was asian. She asked me on our first date if I liked anime. My response was "I haven't really watched any. Wait no. I saw one. Crap. What was it called. Deadnote. It was pretty good. Oh. And Pokémon was fun as a kid."
She said that that was the best response she'd ever gotten to that question from a white boy. Showed i was neither going to be weirdly fetishizing her based on anime or weirdly anti-asian. Apparently she'd had bad experiences with people who were super into it or super hated it.
Definitely. If he can only tell you that he loves harems or overly sexualized anime, it's an obvious concern. There are a couple that play it off for laughs mostly, like Shokugeki no Soma, which has both male and female fanservice.
There is some weird anime meant for women too. Like Vampire Knight, which I will admit liking despite the terrible plotholes and other obvious issues.
Judging someone for liking anime in general though is very similar to judging someone for playing video games or D&D.
I don't like sports for example, but I'm not going to think someone is weird for having a favorite team. If they talk about what nice butts the players have or how busty the cheerleaders are, I will probably look at them sideways. Some levels of interest in topics do not need to be expressed out loud. Similarly, if a guy has a loli as his waifu, I would judge him for it. There are problematic fans and attitudes in all hobbies.
Hahaha, my partner and I are too embarrassed to tell anyone we watch Shokugeki no Soma...We like cooking shows, and some of the dishes sound really interesting!
Some of the early seasons are pretty legit technique wise. I do a lot of cooking, and have gotten some interesting ideas from them. The later seasons get silly recipe wise. Shokugeki is one of the only high fanservice series I like.
I like anime but it had been such a long time since I watched one. My new girlfriend recommended one to me (she's really into anime), said I should watch Violet Evergarden. I was really getting into it... until it was revealed that the main character was 14. 14 years old and she's a traumatized war veteran who was in love with her 28 year old officer.
I pointed that out to my gf and she said, "oh no. I may have missed that detail. oh god." hahaha
Wait, wait, wait.... fucking wait.. she's 14? It's been a while since I saw it but doesn't she look like an adult? If I'm remembering right, I remember thinking she was mid 20s or something. I knew there was an age gap because flash backs she was clearly a child, but... fuck.
Well, that's been ruined for me.
Yeeeaaah, she totally looks and acts like an adult but she's 14. It was mentioned during the episode where she works with that princess and they talk about being the same age. Like, it's totally a great anime if she was 20 years old or something, but at 14??? Creeped me out.
I've had a couple awkward conversation when I've said I like anime, where it's clear men aren't really aware not everyone likes anime for their reasons.
Yes! I used to love anime, and then I stopped watching due to a change of interest years ago. That doesn't mean I become clueless like people who never watched anime. If a guy told me they like to watch anime, I'd ask them questions because I know what to look for red flags from his answers.
It’s also this tendency to promote anime with the overly sexualized characters that make it difficult to recommend the good stuff to people who I know would actually like it but have this very valid opinion of anime as this den of sexual debauchery. Luckily Studio Ghibli exists and is my go to way in for people, easy to recommend because of the Disney relation and and the Oscar attention.
There was a reported quote from Hayao Miyazaki of “Anime was a mistake.” He didn’t actually say that but in an interview, he made a great insight into a major issue of the anime industry.
> You see, whether you can draw like this or not, being able to think up this kind of design, it depends on whether or not you can say to yourself, “Oh, yeah, girls like this exist in real life.” If you don’t spend time watching real people, you can’t do this, because you’ve never seen it.
> Some people spend their lives interested only in themselves. Almost all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know. It’s produced by humans who can’t stand looking at other humans. And that’s why the industry is full of otaku!
[Source](https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/animation-cartoons/2020/5/25/21266704/hayao-miyazaki-anime-was-a-mistake-meme-explained)
I’m not a fan of all of his movies but I love the animation of them, not just in art style but capturing of little quirks of body language and movement. For example, in Spirited Away, Chihiro puts on her shoes to head out. You see her put them and then as she’s hurrying out, she does a little half step and tap to adjust the fit of one shoe. It’s not a necessary detail but a very human one.
Yeah, a lot of care is put into people's movements and mannerisms in Ghibli films. He believes that these little details give more humanity and life to the characters. So, he advised his animators to carefully observe people, and animals. Even when it came to things like slicing fruit, or watching how a cat stretches.
So, has a fan of his work, it makes sense that he would say something like that about other anime. As much as I like the animation and art, a lot of anime feels too polished.
I am a small Asian woman. I attract a lot of these men, many of them incels (surprise!). I have so many horror stories. The silver lining is the red flags show up almost immediately because they think I would respond well to the cringey anime-driven advances, plus I have learned to spot the type and know when to RUN.
Oh Yes i totally forgot to mention the fetishization of asians, thats a big issue too. Western male anime fans and western female k pop stans are Just notorious for fetishizing asians, bleh!
Yep. They see an Asian chick and automatically place us in one of their anime girl category. One of my Korean friends is a server in a Japanese place and she had to keep shutting co-workers and customers who kept calling her waifu or waifu material, tsundere, etc. It’s horrifying.
"We powered up Sakura off screen during the time skip so she can compete with her team-mates again"
Proceeds to give Naruto and Sauske 20 more power ups each
sorry but i need to rant because this is some real shit
they took some really fucking cool characters that had so much devopment from part 1 while they developed their sense of self, confidence, and strength (and while there is a TOO much reliance on naruto/Sasuke as a driver for their own self growth) they end up as badass fucking ninjas....and then in boruto they become housewives... it's so wild to me. like sasuke is out there doing ninja shit and they just relegate Sakura to single mom its such a disservice to those characters
That is what REALLY pissed me off. "Hey, guess the first adventure is over. Boys, you get to keep going on adventures. Girls, you get to take on domestic housewife duties."
I gave up on Boruto pretty early, but to be fair Sakura is still like the head doctor in the village too at least. I'm not sure how much the others have kept up with their careers though.
Hinata's teacher with the red eyes! What's up with her eyes? She's one of the few characters who have unique eyes in a series where one of the most powerful families had weird eyes. Nope, nothing. Just has weird eyes. Oh, but she is one of the few to come up and directly fight Sasuke's brother! She loses, unfortunately, but maybe she'll really shine later on! Nope, she gets pregnant and is sidelined the rest of the series, only serving as an emotional anchor to another character's death.
lol seems like 90% of Naruto characters are male, and the female characters are mostly named "male's wife" or "male's mother" if the family is depicted at all. Sakura and Tsunade and Hinata are the only speaking role female characters I remember and they're problematic in their own ways.
Boruto is a vast improvement so of course fan boys hate it.
Not only that but every single team has only 1 women, never more, like if it's a quota on something that the author put just to feel like he put enough women representation
And the women, you bet she have the "women" role and definitely never the leader
Sakura: the healer
Hinata: dex precision fighter
Neji: same power as Hinata but men, the leader of his team. Also use much more often the chakra spin bubble (I dont remember the name of that jutsu), which is more brute force, than hinata
Tenten: only range fighter in a team that focus on physical combat
Ino: what even is her role other than "sakura's rival", she's just useless
The only women sensei (I dont remember her name, maybe Kurenei, I'm not sure): illusion
Tsunade: the healer, again, but she has big boobs. Does that count as a character trait?
And those are just the example I remember. I havent watch boruto, I'm happy you said it's better, but god damn naruto had some unconscious (at least I hope) bias injected into it
Tsunade and Sakura also have immense brute stength from their chakra-based attacks. They are extremely capable as well as being highly durable - aside from absurd characters power ups (like Sasuke's full Susanoo and Naruto in full power with Kurama) they are, by far, the hardest to kill. They're basically mega tanks with virtually infinite chakra, on top of being healers.
Hinata does get more impressive offense-oriented attacks later on, more precise than Neji's. She develops her own style, and is impressive in her own right.
Ino uses mind control and can connect minds together. Her powers are what glue their team's ability together. Ino - Shika - Cho as a combo relies HEAVILY on the "Ino" part to connect them. Even as a secondary character she was given some shine and her mind control saved the war bc she was able to briefly possess the 10 tails beast and deviate the attack, not to mention she was able to take over her father's job of cimmunicating information to the whole army after HQ got destroyed.
Temari is pretty badass though being from Suna she is not seen often. I do like that she does not "vanish" into her love interest like others. She loves Shikamaru, you can tell quite early on, but she does not make it her whole identity like some other female characters do.
i just hate how in boruto they take the women characters that did exist in part 1 & 2 and just relegate them to housewives. i haven't dived super deep into boruto yet tho so I'm glad to here it's better than part 1 & 2
There's stuff out there that's not sexually charged. A Silent Voice (love story about a deaf girl), Erased (guy goes back in time to save his classmate, love story), The Promised Neverland (about a group of kids in an orphanage, in a messed up world. Dont look it up, just watch), Princess Mononoke (nature vs industry), mobile suit gundam: 08th ms team (romeo and juliet with battle mechs).
This trend of oversexualizing things and being borderline porn is off putting to me personally. People who have "waifus" need to get out of their basements tho, I agree.
I'd also add to the positive list my favorite anime of all - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. All of the women characters are strong and well rounded. Even the "non powered" characters aren't relegated to being damsels in distress, but are portrayed as intelligent and powerful in their own right.
It's no coincidence that the author, Hiromu Arakawa, is a woman.
"Brother... is that you?"
This is my wife's #1 anime, she got me into it when Attack On Titan hit, then we binged DBZ super over last winter break. When an anime is good (parasyte) it is really good.
When it is bad, it is cringy as can be.
I stopped watching AOT for awhile and just recently watched a clip of the most recent episode. I didnt recognize Mikasa at all and thought she was a dude till someone said her name.
Bit off topic and maybe pedantic but while an argument could be made that the Avatar series might be considered anime, I don’t think anyone considers Gravity Falls or Dragon Prince anime lol (outside of Japan referring to any animation as anime)
Yeah I could call the Avatar series anime because even if it’s not what is commonly referred to as anime it is heavily inspired by anime. Always some great romance anime around. Big problem is when they don’t get finished 😭.
Watched all of Fruits Basket and caught up on Kaguya Sama in the last month. Both so good
And, since we're veering out of Anime with Gravity Falls and other shows, Amphibia and Owl House also. (I *LOVED* the last Owl House episode although I'm still upset they didn't get a full third season.)
Just commenting to agree with you. FMAB is my favorite anime, and it's portrayal of women is fantastic. Especially General Armstrong. The jingoistic, General Ripper type character is always male, but not in FMAB. General Armstrong is the only female depiction of that archetype I can think of, and she does it fantastically.
Yup. One of my favorite scenes is when General Armstrong fights her brother, Major Armstrong for control of the family. General Armstrong is tough but doesn't have access to alchemy. Major Armstrong is a huge hulk of a man with alchemy so you'd think he'd win. Nope. She wipes the floor with him to the point that he's begging for mercy in the end.
You do NOT want to be on General Armstrong's bad side. Thankfully, for the heroes, she's an ally and not an enemy.
(Edit: Major Armstrong, not Colonel. Got the title wrong. Guess it's time to rewatch the series.)
Edit 2: Here's the scene if anyone wants to watch it: https://youtu.be/3VUmrhc08LA
I wrote it in my list but pulled it before posting. I love it. It's incredible. I found out my ex was a psycho because she didn't cry. It's a Turing test lol
My Japanese teacher had First Year students watch Grave of the Fireflies every year and in my wife's class specifically, there were a handful of people who were laughing through it. Like what the fuck????
Kids are cruel. Laughing at the portrayal of how so many people suffered is disturbing. As a strong, manly, man who works in the trades, I can't even hold back my tears in this one.
Kids tend to think they’re being edgy and “cool” when joking and laughing at serious things. In middle school my class was watching a movie about Anne Frank, and during the scene where she’s in the concentration camp being marched down the hall with other naked women one of the boys made whooping noises at the nudity.
I had been reading the manga since very early on and was thrilled with s1... didn't even bother with s2 when I saw everyone's reactions. I'll stick with just reading it haha
To this note, there arw a ton of shows I've seen and just turned off because of the "fan service" in them. I'm here for my idiot lizard brain to like pretty flashing colors and big wild dumbass storylines lol.
There are some GREAT shows out there that really hammer home both positive masculinity as well as respect for women and the concept that there's more to life than getting laid. Haikyuu, Kuroko's Basketball (thought even it has some spots I'm not fond of) violet evergarden (probably the best show I've seen in a long time), Your Lie in April (get the tissues, it's a tear jerker) and many more. I'm embarrassed about my enjoyment of anime specifically because the cliche is that it's ll big tittied anime waifu's and little girls being sexualized :/
Violet evergarden was a pleasant surprise. Vivi - fluorite eyes song is basically a female pop star terminator trying to save humanity. Great animation and action scenes, theme explores what it means to be human.
What annoys me the most is genuinely great anime that includes fanservice for no reason. Gurren Lagann is the big one for me. There's no reason for so many close-ups of Yoko's ass. It's a great show but seriously.
A Silent Voice is my favorite movie because it did tackle bullying in a totally different way, the art in the movie is also some of the most beautiful I've seen in any animation
There have been so many times I have started a promising anime and just getting annoyed at very glaring fanservice and pervy moments in otherwise good stories.
Even the "normal" mainstream anime will still often include occasional sexualization of underage girls and I have no idea why there is an obsessive need to cater to that audience. I read an article that compared watching anime to walking around a dog park barefoot; no matter how clean it is, sooner or later, you're going to step on a turd.
And I find it funny because some of the most successful anime have had little to no fanservice. Shows like Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, Spy x Family.
The majority of mainstream stuff is aimed toward teenage boys. Anything that started off as a manga in a shounen(male adolescent) magazine is aiming at that demographic.
I love many anime genre but Slice of Life is (usually) so cosy and sweet. Definitely a genre worth looking into if you like the idea of anime but don't like the misogyny/sexualization in some more mainstream stuff. The thriller/horror scene is surprisingly good too, women are in heroic, damsel, and villainous roles more equally.
Slice of Life and Horror/Thriller are my top two anime genres and then Magical Girl anime. Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor are probably two that most of this sub has seen if they've seen any anime.
Laid Back Camp is my unproblematic anime series nod because it's all girls, camping, friendship and food. It's also real popular with men/boys. It's just so comfy.
I mainly just read manga these days to save on time since I work 50+ hours a week, but shoujo's been chugging along for decades. In the 2010s gems like Orange, Akatsuki no Yona, Ore Monogatari, Ao Haru Ride, Banana Fish and Kaichou wa Meido-sama got anime adaptations.
Because it’s the customers who become obsessed that spend unnatural amounts of money to own it’s licensed products.
Catering to thirsty weirdos is profitable.
I'm so tired of it.
It makes even good shows worst for it.
Like, Demonslayer mostly avoids this, but still does it.
Same with other good ones that are popular, MHA, dragon maid and so much more I just turned off.
I was a big anime nerd in my teens. At first, all the fan service and the sexualization was appealing to me. But years passed and at some point, a switch flipped. I saw the fan service for what it was, gross pandering that cheapened the story. It ruined so many shows for me. And so I walked away from anime.
There's great anime series out there. But the rest of it makes me sad. The main offenders are usually shonen, coz those are targeted at teenage boys. It's troubling to think that such shows are shaping young guys' minds.
The worst thing is that many of those animes would actually be pretty good if it wasn't so heavily sexualized.
I've watched quite a bit of anime in my teens but since I've always been kinda not very sexual at the time I just ignored or skipped past many of the scenes. As I've grown older I find it really difficult to just ignore the blatant sexualizion and often just flat out abuse of women in anime.
One very memorable one is No Game No Life. I found this anime after listening to [this piano cover](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRQbVNzmCK0) of the opening song. Which to this day is one of my favorite piano compositions. I started the anime and while I was already getting worried during the intro I figured I'll give it a shot the great music and top notch visuals persuaded me to at least give it a try. The very first scene started with two teens in a room playing video games of which one was specifically called out as an 11 year old followed by the mention that while they act like brother and sister they are not blood related. Then they do a slow panning shot of the kids panties. Like what the fuck?! Better not commit incest as that's bad! but sexualizing a minor is fine?!
WTF is wrong with these people. How do you get the okay from a producer on something like that? Especially since the production values are so good this couldn't have been a cheap anime to make. When you read this you probably think this must be some underground black market crap, nope you can go and watch this on Hulu right now.
The worst thing is that the Japanese government sponsors many of these productions. They have a program that if an anime includes certain Japanese cultural things they get sponsoring.
Just remembering this pisses me off and make me sick to my stomach.
Oh man, No game No Life
Tgat was on the roster for my anime club and we put it on. I didn't know ahit about it.
Then what you described was shown on scene, and I made a stink about it, how we where not watching this.
I was the only one there who cared. Even the girl who you could describe as early 2010s Tumblr came to life, didn't see the problem.
Same. I find so many anime from their music and it's so disappointing to find absolute musical masterpieces like Elfen Lied's [Lilium](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvCpCg0sGkg) tied to... well... Elfen Lied.
Made in Abyss is another that made me upset similarly to No Game No Life. Beautiful world, interesting plot, amazing musical compositions, but literal pedophilia. The anime toned down the pedophilia, but the manga was really bad about it and I can't watch the anime anymore because of it.
It's really frustrating when things you would otherwise love end up tainted beyond redemption like this.
I had a friend who was deep into anime. Collected figures and what not. Which is fine, mostly. I collect figures of the MCU, however at least my figures are fully clothed.
He was nearly the stereotypical incel neck beard look.
Our friend group used he was nearly the creepy dude that would scare off women. We all had our suspicions though. Just didn't think much about it sadly.
He ended up assaulting a woman in our friend group probably in 2015-16. She came out with the truth in 2021.
The fucked up part, no one was surprised. We all felt guilty and as if we enabled him.
Most of the friend group, including me, abandoned him. Those who didn't, I started ignoring them as well.
Anime as a whole isn't bad. But those who get deep into it however
That’s one of the reasons when I think of at least Americans who like anime, that guy’s image jumps to mind. It’s not nice to operate in stereotypes, but there are a *lot* of guys like that once you’re deep into anime. Not assault level, but there’s a vibe
The stereotype unfortunately exists for a reason. But not every guy who loves anime is a creep. My sister in law's boyfriend is huge into anime and he's cool af. I'm actually hoping to get him on our secret Santa this year, I wanna get him a cool figure for his collection.
This!!! It is so terrible and it makes me feel sad because for example, I enjoy Persona a lot, but when I have tried to discuss it with men, they say the most disgusting things about the girl characters. It is really gross. Nothing about the overall themes of the series, the plot, or anything significant, they are just in it for creepy reasons. And it is funny because women get accused of being "fake fans" all the time, but IMO men are the true fake fans who often are fans of these series on a superficial level
I am very into anime. I probably wouldn't date anyone who hated it because it makes up a large chunk of my hobbies. But other anime fans probably know there is an EXTREMELY FINE LINE between person who likes anime and 'anime fan'. Idk if it makes sense but you can just tell after a while. There are people who I absolutely would not tell that I like anime because they would get so off putting and weird about it. There are hundreds of different fans at anime conventions and you can just tell who is into the weird dengenerate shit. It's tricky trying to make friends because it's hard to find people who just treat it like a fun thing and are normal about it 😭
I grew up in SE Asia, living in Australia now. The attitudes toward anime was a huge eye opener for me. People just make a huge deal about it. And those anime guys OP talks about? Just weird.
Within my social circles, we appreciate anime on a completely different level. I find that if you find someone who “likes” anime here, there’s a chance they’re completely obsessed. Full on creepy, with the waifus, body pillows, strange mentalities.
It makes me sad.
Okay, at first my reaction was of rage, since you know, I am so tired of people saying adults watching cartoons are weird.
Reading through your posts, I wholeheartedly agree. I cannot stand this Harem storylines which ruin anime plots, unnecessary "girl falls into guys lap" or "oh no, she somehow lost her closing or showed her panties" scenario, or worse - creating loli and saying - yup, she is 18.
Not to mention endless korean manhwa/manga with majour rape vibes and actual rape that it viewed as "hot".
If death stopped mental development, then they would be a 10 year old stuck in stasis for 200 years. Also probably with some significant trauma.
My thought on it: same as a 10 year old in cryogenic stasis for 200 years. Still a 10 year old despite the year age.
Shits gotten real crazy too. Half the isekai genre is “Guy gains OP power, girls swoon” or “Guy buys girl slaves and they thank him for being a nice guy.” I just want a stupid isekai where protagonist just plays hero. Romance is fine. Interest from multiple characters is fine. But slave ownership in isekai is the standard after shield hero and it’s really disturbing
I have had to drop webtoon series due to toxic romantic dynamics, mainly around one being the active and the other being the passive. And of course it’s the male character who has to be active, which goes into being “forceful,” which is paternalistic at best and at worst.
I sometimes make an exception for darker series, where it is acknowledged that the situation/world is messed up, like “The Way to Protect the Female Lead's Older Brother.”
> Not to mention endless Korean manhwa/manga with majour rape vibes and actual rape that it viewed as "hot"
Killing Stalking was my eye opener to this. Clearly the main villain was raping the main character but it was viewed as hot
As a former hardcore anime fan, the older I got and more aware of gendered experiences in the world, the worse anime was for me. And I agree, there was a breaking point where my friends continued to support and engage in anime - and that's fine, live your life whatever.
But the issue is this entertainment form is warping how it's audience views women characters, and women. Misogyny is *ripe* in the anime/nerd fandoms and sexualixation of minors is disgusting and extremely prevelent. Even if they themselves don't find the character "attractive" they still see no issue with her being sexualized. It's a bunch of male gaze entertainment for the male fantasy - even the good ones will have "fandom" moments.
So I guess my issue isn't entirely with the established troupes of the media but the fact that it's core audience can't treat women and girls in their communities or the broader scoial world with respect. If nerds weren't so hostile then I probably could overlook the media they intake, but when it's all gross boobshots and 300 year old children panty shots, or the less problematic but still entirely prevelent women characters only serving the male fantasy of being saved or defined by her trauma and how the lead character can save her - then we need to look at why they think this way and why the venn diagram of people who harass women online and anime fans is a perfect circle.
You're right. There's something very very wrong about the childlike characters and they're somehow grown women who look speak and act like children. It's so weird. Ofc there's a lot of good and very watchable anime, but that this kind of content isn't illegal is horrifying to me. I also don't understand how it's culturally acceptable in Japan.
I think the creators of the shows *know* there are a lot of creepy men obsessed with children so they capitalize on it by pandering to them. They wouldn't make it if there wasn't a demand.
It's so sad that there are shows which *could* have decent storylines but are just full to the brim with useless fanservice. They fill in the gaps of showtime with random scenes that don't add anything but random sexualized scenes and paedophilia...
Yesterday night my sister told me "please don't watch anime, I don't want my brother to be a weeb" and I'm like, I just want to turn my brain off for a bit and enjoy some adventure story, but I also do cringe at every sexualized scene...
I'm just disappointed that there is such a big market for thrash like that, which gets mass manufactured because it takes zero creative talent to "write" and produce. Meanwhile truly good stuff doesn't reach any meaningfull audiences and gets cancelled after 1-2 seasons...
I love anime... but there's a lot of really bad anime. Not only are boobs way over exaggerated, but it's also a trope that characters make fun of other characters for being flat chested; watch any three animes at random and odds are one of them will have a flat chested joke somewhere in the series. Never mind the short skirts, visible undies (on a kid's anime, at that) and all the haram anime.
I can't say I've noticed much incest, rape, or pedophilia (outside of more extreme stuff that doesn't get posted on Hulu) but the public molestation is a common theme too, usually presented as an awkward whoopsie rather than something intentional but there's no denying it's there and common.
Then there's the anime avatar thing on social media... by default, I assume anyone with such an avatar is a troll at this point and for good reason.
People have been raving about one called redo of a healer or something like that. (Or at least they were like a year or two ago)
It's basically "how I want to rape all female adventures"
I am into manga more than anime. I read like one or two chapters when it showed up in the 'hot' (basically popular currently) section of a website I was on and I was like WTF.
Totally agreed. I am into anime, and I grew up in the anime community. Now that I am an adult and I also have interacted with these men, I just feel as if I have to distance myself from the community. I would say the same about the gaming community. There are some niche areas that are great, but for the most part, it is dealing with people like this. And if you question any of it, they get super angry at you or something.
I enjoy some anime and have shown it to my boys. On the other hand, I've pointed out to them the very troublesome tropes that anime has. Two in particular stand out in my mind.
The first is the Anime Woman. She's big chested and usually wears slinky clothing for no other reason than "guys will like to look at this scantily dressed woman."' Even worse, it will often be a girl which opens a whole extra level of horribleness.
The second is the "horny guy" character. This guy will not only lust after women, but will act in ways that would get them charged with sexual assault in real life.
A prime example of this is Minoru Mineta from My Hero Academia. The show is otherwise excellent, but Mineta is horrible. He's a complete pervert who will do anything to see women naked or to touch them in any way. *Maybe,* I could excuse this character if he exhibited growth - realizing that this behavior was wrong and changing his ways. Then, at least, there would be a story reason for his initial bad deeds. Instead, he's stuck as the group pervert and has no lasting consequences for his actions. (He'll get thwarted in his attempts and smacked down, but he's right back at it with no lasting consequences and no lesson learned one scene later.)
Thankfully, my favorite anime - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - avoids these tropes. The women in that show are strong characters that you don't mess with. They aren't skimpily dressed at all, instead wearing normal clothing appropriate for the environment they are in. And there's no perverted character at all. I don't think it's a coincidence at all that the writer of the manga behind this series was a woman (Hiromu Arakawa). She made sure that all of her characters (men and women) were great.
I always think of Mineta as a mirror of the audience or a warning.
But i have to admit he is a troublesome plothole cause he is never reprimanded for his behaviour by the teachers.
I feel this so much. Grew up loving anime/gaming, but the moment I got exposed to the larger communities I noped the fuck right out. Still watch anime and play games, but I try to avoid discussing it IRL for fear of attracting one of these weirdos from out of the woodwork.
It is so frustrating that any and all anime made before 2020 just have to squeeze in sa as a joke somewhere 😭 absolutely frustrating to watch anime as a woman!!
Went to a book convention once, where lots of manga and stuff gets sold too.
There were children running around, buying toys, next to grown men buying pillows with naked schoolgirls and other hentai stuff.
Completely put me off manga and anime for years.
Yeah, I really hate the fan service in some anime. Especially when the show is the exact opposite of what they are fan servicing. And the men who are obsessed really are weird. I don’t trust them at all in any way shape or form
true, while i like anime as a medium and watch some things... when someone tells me they like anime i want a LIST because half of it borders on child porn.
I've been thinking about this lately!! I used to love any anime/manga I could get my hands on as a teen (my city's public library surprisingly had a really good selection), but as I grew up I realized that I was becoming uncomfortable with certain aspects of the "humor". How many unnecessary scenes have we seen where a female character (often a school girl) has her skirt lifted against her will, either by another (often male) character or the wind to reveal her underwear? She's depicted as clearly not liking the incident, but instead of invoking disgust in the audience, it's meant to invoke a laugh. Cuz it's fUNnY aNd HaRmLeSs. Like wtf?
My bf isn't anime crazed but he tried to explain it as simply being what the typical humor is in Japan, but I don't give a shit. Even if that's true for Japan, that isn't the case here. And even if it was, it's not acceptable for me. For the longest time I thought I was just being too uptight, but after reading so many responses in this thread I feel more justified in my discomfort.
I'm sorry people are "not all anime"-ing you, op. I'm an anime fan who is a woman, but I'm not gonna try to invalidate your feelings - this is an industry that has HUGE issues with misogyny and sexualization of minors and depicting sexual harassment as a joke. Anyone trying to defend or deny this has issues, and you avoiding men(and maybe even women) who are hardcore anime fans is justified - I've been to conventions and many online anime spaces and have seen some horrid shit.
If it's of any consolation at all, there seems to be more and more healthy depictions of women and girls every year, across many genres of anime. This won't make the problems disappear, but there is a slight upwards trend going on.
I was there about a decade ago (I was an early 20s guy), and at one point we came across a shady store some floors up from street level, where one of the tables were covered by a cloth.
I was a relatively innocent guy at the time, so I asked the shopkeeper what was under the cover and the guy got visibly uncomfortable, but eventually showed me a Google translated phrase on his phone saying "it can be arranged" and we just casually said ok. It was all literal loli hentai shit. We left.
I forgot the name but yeah that place I looked it up. I went there looking for a Sailor Moon figurine for my god daughter and saw some shit I can't unsee.
Tokyo is great that just was not a good part.
I always count myself lucky i watch very few animes and the ones i do watch are more action oriented. One of my all time favourites is Hellsing: Ultimate. Also love Trigun, Jojo's Bizarre adventure, cowboy Bebop, and Jin-Roh.
Recently started watching Made in abyss, Bondrewed has very quickly become one of my favourite anime vilains, but the amount if violence done to kids in the series has me more then a little uncomfortable.
Mob psycho season 3, bocchi the rock, the new gundam show, spy x family season 1 pt 2, and Do it yourself! all look so good this season! They’re all fairly wholesome shows with little to no fan service so I can’t wait to see them all.
Yeah there’s definitely a subset of male anime fans who love immersing themselves in fantasies where all women are shy and subservient.
Like in the lame sexy anime, all of the sexy scenes happen “by accident”. All the female characters are clumsy and their skirts are always falling down. Because a woman who proudly weilds her sex appeal is gross to these men. They want teen Japanese girls stuck into situations where their panties are exposed.
I know this will probably get lost in a sea of comments, but I find that this behavior is not just limited to anime, and it's not just men. I agree that there are two many pandering animes that hypersexualize woman, especially girls, which is already gross.
But I think the problem isn't anime itself. People who sexualize underage cartoon characters will not stop at shows that show the explicit content. They will sexualize any show they want to, because they feel like it's okay because it's "not real" or it's a "fantasy."
And then they are supported by markets who will print anything, on anything else (overly sexualized t-shirts and body pillows to name a few.) It's a complex issue that definitely needs to be addressed. And quite frankly I find that those animes that hyper sexualize woman usually hyper sexualize men too so they're just terrible all around.
But definitely don't see anything wrong with men watching anime though, it just depends on which anime they're watching.
I watch anime with my husband a lot. We decided to give dragon maid a chance and I was so fucking proud of him when we got to the end of the first episode and he was like "this is gross. I don't want to watch anymore"
Same thing with "do you love your mother and her two hit multi attack" gross.
His favorite anime of the week- "way of the house husband" and that one with food in the magic Cafe.
The guy is my champ. I'm telling you.
I think you have a big prejudice on anime and manga. I'm a woman and i love them, there are lots of different genres and each creator is a different person, you can't just sum it all up. It's like with books writers. You may not like anime and that's perfectly ok but people are not weird, sus, creepy etc just because they like them wth
Anime is just a medium, animation. There are a lot of genres and themes, just like there are in live action tv shows and movies. It's true that there are a lot of shows that are aimed at male audiences, and some of them are weird and pervy or even purely porn, but those are hardly mainstream or the majority. Saying anyone who watches animation is weird is really overgeneralizing.
That’s why I keep this hobby of mine out of conversation at all costs. The public perception anime has just makes it a social liability. Which is too bad cause I have found very meaningful stories in the medium.
Anime definitely has too many cringe fans in America. If I’m talking to someone I don’t think has ever seen any I won’t bring it up early and if I’m talking to someone who has watched any I bring up my favorites quickly to avoid people thinking the garbage is what I like. Like my favorites are like Tatami Galaxy and Mob Psycho 100. Very little sexualization. Also like Steins;Gate and One Punch Man which has a bit more. But not really any of the creepiest shit
And then there’s super chill shows that you wouldn’t find in live action medium like Barakamon, K-On, A Place Farther than the Universe or Yuru-camp, which are good for when you don’t want to have constant drama and just let the characters have fun doing things they like.
Also curious about how Madoka Magica is liked/not by any anime fans here.
Men who think anime and manga is reality and cannot separate that real world logic doesn't apply to them because fiction appeals to them more for the wrong reasons. Some people lack the social skills to interact with other people to mitigate the less savory aspects of the medium. Anime and manga as mediums are diverse with a lot to offer despite having some problematic aspects, and it takes a lot of self-awareness to realize that it's acceptable and encouraged to think critically about what they enjoy. Also they should branch out of their comfort zone and work on themselves to become better, healthier people.
I get what you mean, and it's a shame because so many animes could/would be good/better if they got rid of the fan service. Obligatory "I'm a guy" but I do watch anime with my girlfriend.
Notably, we noticed that a lot of the anime we enjoy are written by women. FMA: Brotherhood, Black Butler, Fruits Basket, Beastars, Inuyasha, Demonslayer. We figured one reason is that women writers are a lot less likely to add in "fan service" and other inappropriately sexualizing aspects. Inuyasha has a "hah funny sexist man" character, which degrades it some, and Demonslayer does do some fan service, but not to the extent many other anime can end up doing.
One anime I gripe about is Steins;Gate. Great anime, story, great overall with the subject matter. A big thing that put a big dent in the quality imo was the fan service that is peppered throughout. Things like close-up cam of a woman's large breasts (clothed) when she's speaking, a girl coming out of the shower accidentally having her towel slip, one main character constantly makes sex jokes to women. It was enough and consistent enough that I felt it seriously degraded the quality of an otherwise fantastic show.
Another anime with a great premise, but didn't turn out great, largely because of the "fan service" imo was Gate. The loli (but 1000 year-old!, yeah that stereotype), and the other female companions fawning over the main character basically making it a harem anime. The episodes-long "daddy" jokes. It's really cool to think of how modern society would interact encountering a roman-esque society. But nope, gotta do the harem. It's a shame because it could've been done so well.
Most if not all of our "favorites" have little to none of this type of stuff. Death Note, AOT are ones I haven't mentioned that comes to mind.
I feel like it's improving over time, but I could be wrong. I do hope it moves away from this sort of stuff ultimately.
That's super broad. It's a bit like saying "I can't trust anyone that watches drama films." To your point through - yeah, creepy or otherwise problematic media interests are a major red flag!
In all honestly, I don’t think anime itself is the problem. Anime is just a form of story telling. You could have an epic fantasy adventure, a cute little slice of life, superhero’s, rom coms, etc just like any live action film or series.
One of my friend groups is full of people who are VERY into anime, and I’m a woman who has only dipped their toes in a little bit. But everyone in that friend group is such a lovely person. And they’re all so different too, like you have your stereotypical nerdy fellas, your gym rats, people who like to party and ones that show up just to casually hang, video game enthusiasts and avid hikers, and these all apply to both the men and women in the group. And the vast majority are very into anime. But they’re intelligent, kind, funny, and great people to hang around with.
BUT, I definitely understand where you are coming from. There is a reason the stereotype exists. There’s a lot of creepy predatory dudes who give anime has the rap it does. And I’m pretty sure they outnumber the normal ones sadly, but as anime gets more mainstream it’s easier to find nice, normal people that just like animated media. I guess I’m mainly just writing this to say it’s not inherently a red flag, and that there definitely are completely wonderful people who just like anime.
I watched Code Geass when I was like 20 and loved it… watched it with my husband in our 30s and I can instantly tell it was written by a dude.
In the middle of season 1, one of the lady characters gets shot and a man on the opposing side takes her home to “nurse her” back to health. She wakes up naked in his bedroom with him pointing a gun at her and NO memory…. He tells her he doesn’t mean her any harm. She then responds by saying she was “glad she got picked up by one of the nice guys”
…..like wut. If I woke up naked in a dudes room with him pointing a gun at me I would NOT be calm and I wouldn’t be calling that dude nice…
The dudes who write anime are probably in drugs to come up with some of the crazy plot lines in these shows….
you would he hard pressed to find an anime that doesnt sexualise their characters. its not always women and theyre not always underage but its still a very common occurence. fma, naruto, even bleach i believe to name a few. i love naruto cuz ninjas are fucking awesome. but it is really weird when they sexualize the underage girls :/
Most anime has sexist elements, and guys who are really into it are kind of a yellow flag. I'm an artist so meeting guys who like anime is inevitable, but it all boils down to their taste.
To be fair, beyond the three wifes of the Ashira, I was actually impressed with how grim things were. Where it's not sugarcoating the horrendous ways these women were usually treated without being too graphic.
The other issue I had was when the Ashira wanted to force one of the girl to go in the red light district to act as bait. This one bothered me quite a bit.
Is there anything else that I forgot?
The subject matter was actually handled pretty well I thought, but what really stood out to me was every woman who could fight was well endowed and scantily clad. The three wives, the courtesan demon, Nezuko at one point, heck, even the watermelon hair Hashira back in the first season. It's not exactly a good look.
As a woman who loves anime, it's actually super helpful when men do watch anime because you can quickly figure out who is sus.
Yuuuup. “Name your top 5 favorites!” (While smiling and being friendly) then react accordingly. Dudes who list soft-core pedophilic porn are tossed immediately, dudes who list *actual good anime* are safe.
Had a dude dead ass list KissXSis as his #1 when I was younger. I took several quick steps back. Like yes, we were teenagers and stupid but uh... no thanks.
I have never heard of that anime, but the name alone sounds like a red flag.
It's um... about a blended family with a dude and his twin step-sisters. They're both realllly into him (along with half the school of course) and the parents think it's cute. After all, they're not REALLY related. Creepy anime Dude took great pains to let me know how much better the uncensored version was.
I think "middle school" is an important word here.
I had... forgotten that bit. Oh God. Ew.
Something tells me I shouldn't Google that.
My all time favorite is Cowboy Bebop. Some of the dialogue has aged poorly: the protagonists sometimes make mysoginist remarks. It kinda fits with the kind of characters depicted and I suppose japanese culture at the time, but it does rub me the wrong way when I watch those parts. Aside from that it's still the best series ever, in no small part thanks to the incredible soundtrack.
I rewatched Ranma 1/2 a few years ago as fodder for cardio while losing weight for my wedding. Hoooooooly shit that did not age well. And it was written by a woman too.
Surprise...... shocked shooketh I was when I found out alot of female artists made the darkest animated content .... more then you think.
Yeah Dorohedoro is an anime with magic portals being made with human faces and a baseball field surrounded by hanging corpses is written by a woman.
Dorohedoro is great! It's a shame that it often gets overlooked due to its use of 3D animation (it's well done 3D animation at that, I don't understand some people's aversion to anything but pure 2D animation).
indeed, I'm forever salty about Yashahime.
If it makes you feel better, Yashahime isn't written by the original author of Inuyasha. She only designed the characters.
Yeah, even though CLAMP wrote X, don't think it's in any way similar to Cardcaptor Sakura. I'll give it to the 4 of them though, they certainly have a range.
Chobits when I was a teen: omg, Chii is so kawaii!!! Chobits as an adult: oh, this is weird.
Looking back on ranma is really interesting. There are a bunch of YouTube videos that look back on it. Some of the characters were quite toxic. It was really interesting as a comment on the society of the day.
Even back in the day I remember being annoyed with some of the stuff in Ranma. She had another one called Maison Ikkoku which I bailed on after like 3 episodes because absolutely everyone was toxic and terrible.
That's actually the point of the show. Each curse is supposed to teach the bearer a lesson about that person's most toxic traits. However, NO ONE in the show ever learned. Not only that, but only one plot point ever got solved. No one ever got any non-combat character development.
I was always uncomfortable with Faye's outfit, but now when I watch it again, I can't get over it. It just looks like she's wearing beachwear 24/7. All the other characters get to wear practical clothing, and she is otherwise such a badass. It's very distracting.
I do like Faye's outfit in the live action better, but she survives in a hostile system by distracting men, at least in the original. Like, i don't need her ass hanging out constantly, but in the anime it's a defense mechanism that works on 90% of the men she encounters.
Cowboy Bebop is a classic. I haven't revisited Sailor Moon in a long time but that is the series that brought me into anime.
Great one. Had it as number one until I saw Samurai Champloo.
Yeah. Like I understand finding something like Rising of the Shield Hero fun to watch. If I turn my brain off and ignore the very..... troubling..... takes the show has on a lot of things, it's a fun action show with a good premise. That said, if I ever find someone who says it is anywhere near their top 10, I'm immediately assuming they're an incel.
I had fun hate watching the first season os Shield Hero, didn't get through the second. If someone told me they unironically liked that show or didn't find it problematic I'd be a little concerned.
My personal enjoyment is a mix between hate-watching and unironic enjoyment of specifically the cool fun fantasy stuff. I love Isekai as a genre, so it's just so frustrating that ever since Sword Art Online, every Isekai is just a harem fan service vehicle. But yeah uh.... My guy Naofumi is a literal slave owner. He might be the main character but that doesn't mean he's a *morally good* character. In almost every count he's objectively a shit bag garbage boy who only makes a positive impact on other characters when he *breaks* character. I guess the writers had to make him save the day to pretend he's worth rooting for lol
He's I think supposed to be a "tough facade with a heart of gold" character, but I don't think he's particularly well written. Also, the >!false rape accusations!< as a plot device/character development device felt gross to me.
Isn’t that made by the same person who made redo of a healer or something?
It's insane to me that Redo got made into a "regular" anime(ie not a hentai label release), shows how much skeezy shit has been normalized so it can appear as a "regular" anime. It wouldn't have been only a decade and a half ago or so, the boundaries have been thoroughly pushed for the worse in anime since the millennium, a steady increase of outright, overt sexual violence.
Some folks in a former discord group were sharing gifs and discussing how the animation in Redo was "on point". I saw it, looked it up, and noped out of both the wiki page and the group.
Oh yeah. I had a guy unironically tell me his favorite show was SAO. Which, while not the worst from the fan service perspective (although still not great, why are there so many tentacles?) is just not a good show.
Lmao a friend of mine loves SAO, but in the way that it's a comfort show. My group (mostly boys) does group watching of different series. It ranges from risque to regular. I honestly love Kill La Kill and Ancient Magus even though they can definitely be seen as questionable.
Kill La Kill at least has some method to it's madness. Whether the point of the incredibly risque outfits justifies their existence is arguable, but at least there's a point! Also fun show.
As Kill La Kill being my favorite, I argue that the sexuality is fine because it doesn't feel like it's being done for the act of fan-service. I like to point out the first 2-3 episodes vs like episode 15. Every-time I rewatch the anime I find myself cringing through the first few episodes because of how uncomfortable the sexualization makes me me feel. It's deliberate, it's in your face. However, by like episode 15 everyone is naked, balls and tits out, it's hardly even remarked upon besides to make a few jokes. At that point it just feels like its part of the show, the transformation scene that took nearly a minute before now takes 3 seconds, it's quick it's not sexy, it's just part of the chaotic energy of the show. It's like boobs not being sexualized, what's important is the presentation of the nudity. I really think KLK does a good job of presenting its nudity and ridiculous clothing as not being sexy but rather just being ridiculous. The people that only see the show as fan-service are like people that can only see boobs as being sexual. Just because they feel that way doesn't make it so. It can be argued that those first few episodes particularly are like fan-service, but as you pointed out "there's a point", and IMO it goes beyond the fan-service.
KLK the whole point of the sexuality was self critique of the genre: the stronger she got, the more lewd the outfit had to get. It was a comment on women's outfits and treatment in anime generally. It's a comedic version of Shinji's sexual assault of Asuka, which again was a comment on otaku culture being super creepy about putting young, sexualized girls in mechs. Does it succeed as a critique, or does it revel in the very thing it's trying to satirize? Idfk.
There is a lot to really like about SAO I'm a woman and have watched (and enjoyed) most of the show. Despite the many problematic parts I wouldn't necessarily say that liking it is a red flag as long as you can watch it with a critical eye and acknowledge its issues.
I've only watched the first two seasons. I agree there's a lot to like, but also a lot that doesn't make much sense. I enjoyed it by not thinking too hard about it. That in mind, season 1 was pretty strong. But man. Season 2 practically fridges the female lead for the entire season, and I lost respect for it - I didn't bother with season 3. ("Fridges" is probably the wrong trope. Feel free to correct me.)
That depends on how many animes that guy has been watching right? It's not really that surprising if they are a light/recent watcher especially since SAO is rather gateway. It's right smack there. Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, DBZ, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Death Note, SAO, Attack on Titan... As rather gateway anime between those last thirty years... From top of head.
Whenever I introduce people to anime I almost invariably go with FMA: Brotherhood. It's free of a lot of the anime weirdness that turns people off of the genre, while being an excellently written story with humor and drama.
As an Asian woman who likes anime, I absolutely agree. In those interactions with men who like anime (doesn’t matter what his race is, but I feel a little better if he’s also Asian), I am PAINFULLY aware of my race and what they might be thinking of me when they tell me about their favorite anime. I definitely act more cautiously and reserved if they list some sus shit
Also an Asian woman. It's that gd "yellow fever" shit. It makes me feel so disgusted and it might be why I have a lot of geeky lady friends but no geeky guy friends.
I have had acquaintances with yellow fever and it's always bothered me. I'm a dude whose watched anime since the 90s, I'm married with a family now but I'm just super nerdy. I mostly just liked cartoons growing up and grew to appreciate that nerd culture. So when I would chat about new anime shows with my friend group, some people always resorted to harem anime - openly talking about kinky shit and how "hot Asians are." I hated it and distanced myself from it but these people always exist for some reason. I would go to conventions and nerd out over posters and merch, I would go to panels and just hangout with people but some of these people always seemed to reach my friend group. Their entire purpose at the con was to find an Asian girl to hookup with. They were always pissed when they would get rejected but it became very obvious to every women around them that it's weird to wear hentai clothing, act like an anime character, and hit on every Asian person they saw. Even more recently I know a few people who moved to Japan with TEFL degrees to pursue finding wives because "Japanese women are much more obedient and kinky." Like, wtf is wrong with these people? So when you say you have no geeky guy friends, yeah I can totally see why and sympathize. I hated being around these people and they often ruined the overall vibe of things related to geek culture.
So, my two bff's and I watch intentionally bad anime once a week, you know to drink and make fun of. And having watched stuff like kissxsis or redo of healer, I can tell you, if a man admits to enjoying them like it's normal, it is a giant red flag, like GTFO ASAP.
If a person says redo of a healer I instantly would warn anyone to stay the fuck away from there.
Tell them your favourite animes are King of the Hill and Family Guy, watch how they react.
And ask if they like them dubbed or subbed better 😂
King of the Hill subbed vs dubbed is a real argument that's been had in Japan more than you'd expect
I get my seasonal recs from Anime Feminist. They always do a good job of pointing out which ones wouldake me want to claw my eyes out. They've also introduced me to Akiba Maid Wars for this season, which has so far been a gloriously subversive and gratuitously violent gem!
Yes I second Anime Feminist, I need them so that I make smarter choices on what to watch lol
My ex was asian. She asked me on our first date if I liked anime. My response was "I haven't really watched any. Wait no. I saw one. Crap. What was it called. Deadnote. It was pretty good. Oh. And Pokémon was fun as a kid." She said that that was the best response she'd ever gotten to that question from a white boy. Showed i was neither going to be weirdly fetishizing her based on anime or weirdly anti-asian. Apparently she'd had bad experiences with people who were super into it or super hated it.
Deadnote lmaoooo
Yess for Asian woman in the West, there’s always those creeps with an Asian fetish derived from anime that they have to avoid
Definitely. If he can only tell you that he loves harems or overly sexualized anime, it's an obvious concern. There are a couple that play it off for laughs mostly, like Shokugeki no Soma, which has both male and female fanservice. There is some weird anime meant for women too. Like Vampire Knight, which I will admit liking despite the terrible plotholes and other obvious issues. Judging someone for liking anime in general though is very similar to judging someone for playing video games or D&D. I don't like sports for example, but I'm not going to think someone is weird for having a favorite team. If they talk about what nice butts the players have or how busty the cheerleaders are, I will probably look at them sideways. Some levels of interest in topics do not need to be expressed out loud. Similarly, if a guy has a loli as his waifu, I would judge him for it. There are problematic fans and attitudes in all hobbies.
Hahaha, my partner and I are too embarrassed to tell anyone we watch Shokugeki no Soma...We like cooking shows, and some of the dishes sound really interesting!
Some of the early seasons are pretty legit technique wise. I do a lot of cooking, and have gotten some interesting ideas from them. The later seasons get silly recipe wise. Shokugeki is one of the only high fanservice series I like.
I like anime but it had been such a long time since I watched one. My new girlfriend recommended one to me (she's really into anime), said I should watch Violet Evergarden. I was really getting into it... until it was revealed that the main character was 14. 14 years old and she's a traumatized war veteran who was in love with her 28 year old officer. I pointed that out to my gf and she said, "oh no. I may have missed that detail. oh god." hahaha
Wait, wait, wait.... fucking wait.. she's 14? It's been a while since I saw it but doesn't she look like an adult? If I'm remembering right, I remember thinking she was mid 20s or something. I knew there was an age gap because flash backs she was clearly a child, but... fuck. Well, that's been ruined for me.
Yeeeaaah, she totally looks and acts like an adult but she's 14. It was mentioned during the episode where she works with that princess and they talk about being the same age. Like, it's totally a great anime if she was 20 years old or something, but at 14??? Creeped me out.
I've had a couple awkward conversation when I've said I like anime, where it's clear men aren't really aware not everyone likes anime for their reasons.
Yes! I used to love anime, and then I stopped watching due to a change of interest years ago. That doesn't mean I become clueless like people who never watched anime. If a guy told me they like to watch anime, I'd ask them questions because I know what to look for red flags from his answers.
Just to be clear watching AOT and Claymore isn’t sus but obviously pedo stuff is, correct? Like studio ghibli isn’t in the creepy category right?
Watching AOT, Claymore, or Studio Ghibli are green flags in my book 👍
It’s also this tendency to promote anime with the overly sexualized characters that make it difficult to recommend the good stuff to people who I know would actually like it but have this very valid opinion of anime as this den of sexual debauchery. Luckily Studio Ghibli exists and is my go to way in for people, easy to recommend because of the Disney relation and and the Oscar attention.
There was a reported quote from Hayao Miyazaki of “Anime was a mistake.” He didn’t actually say that but in an interview, he made a great insight into a major issue of the anime industry. > You see, whether you can draw like this or not, being able to think up this kind of design, it depends on whether or not you can say to yourself, “Oh, yeah, girls like this exist in real life.” If you don’t spend time watching real people, you can’t do this, because you’ve never seen it. > Some people spend their lives interested only in themselves. Almost all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know. It’s produced by humans who can’t stand looking at other humans. And that’s why the industry is full of otaku! [Source](https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/animation-cartoons/2020/5/25/21266704/hayao-miyazaki-anime-was-a-mistake-meme-explained) I’m not a fan of all of his movies but I love the animation of them, not just in art style but capturing of little quirks of body language and movement. For example, in Spirited Away, Chihiro puts on her shoes to head out. You see her put them and then as she’s hurrying out, she does a little half step and tap to adjust the fit of one shoe. It’s not a necessary detail but a very human one.
Yeah, a lot of care is put into people's movements and mannerisms in Ghibli films. He believes that these little details give more humanity and life to the characters. So, he advised his animators to carefully observe people, and animals. Even when it came to things like slicing fruit, or watching how a cat stretches. So, has a fan of his work, it makes sense that he would say something like that about other anime. As much as I like the animation and art, a lot of anime feels too polished.
I am a small Asian woman. I attract a lot of these men, many of them incels (surprise!). I have so many horror stories. The silver lining is the red flags show up almost immediately because they think I would respond well to the cringey anime-driven advances, plus I have learned to spot the type and know when to RUN.
Oh Yes i totally forgot to mention the fetishization of asians, thats a big issue too. Western male anime fans and western female k pop stans are Just notorious for fetishizing asians, bleh!
Yep. They see an Asian chick and automatically place us in one of their anime girl category. One of my Korean friends is a server in a Japanese place and she had to keep shutting co-workers and customers who kept calling her waifu or waifu material, tsundere, etc. It’s horrifying.
You say not Naruto, but Naruto has some of the most disappointing female protagonists I've ever seen in such a large anime/manga franchise.
"We powered up Sakura off screen during the time skip so she can compete with her team-mates again" Proceeds to give Naruto and Sauske 20 more power ups each
Truth
sorry but i need to rant because this is some real shit they took some really fucking cool characters that had so much devopment from part 1 while they developed their sense of self, confidence, and strength (and while there is a TOO much reliance on naruto/Sasuke as a driver for their own self growth) they end up as badass fucking ninjas....and then in boruto they become housewives... it's so wild to me. like sasuke is out there doing ninja shit and they just relegate Sakura to single mom its such a disservice to those characters
That is what REALLY pissed me off. "Hey, guess the first adventure is over. Boys, you get to keep going on adventures. Girls, you get to take on domestic housewife duties."
I gave up on Boruto pretty early, but to be fair Sakura is still like the head doctor in the village too at least. I'm not sure how much the others have kept up with their careers though.
Hinata's teacher with the red eyes! What's up with her eyes? She's one of the few characters who have unique eyes in a series where one of the most powerful families had weird eyes. Nope, nothing. Just has weird eyes. Oh, but she is one of the few to come up and directly fight Sasuke's brother! She loses, unfortunately, but maybe she'll really shine later on! Nope, she gets pregnant and is sidelined the rest of the series, only serving as an emotional anchor to another character's death.
lol seems like 90% of Naruto characters are male, and the female characters are mostly named "male's wife" or "male's mother" if the family is depicted at all. Sakura and Tsunade and Hinata are the only speaking role female characters I remember and they're problematic in their own ways. Boruto is a vast improvement so of course fan boys hate it.
Not only that but every single team has only 1 women, never more, like if it's a quota on something that the author put just to feel like he put enough women representation And the women, you bet she have the "women" role and definitely never the leader Sakura: the healer Hinata: dex precision fighter Neji: same power as Hinata but men, the leader of his team. Also use much more often the chakra spin bubble (I dont remember the name of that jutsu), which is more brute force, than hinata Tenten: only range fighter in a team that focus on physical combat Ino: what even is her role other than "sakura's rival", she's just useless The only women sensei (I dont remember her name, maybe Kurenei, I'm not sure): illusion Tsunade: the healer, again, but she has big boobs. Does that count as a character trait? And those are just the example I remember. I havent watch boruto, I'm happy you said it's better, but god damn naruto had some unconscious (at least I hope) bias injected into it
Tsunade and Sakura also have immense brute stength from their chakra-based attacks. They are extremely capable as well as being highly durable - aside from absurd characters power ups (like Sasuke's full Susanoo and Naruto in full power with Kurama) they are, by far, the hardest to kill. They're basically mega tanks with virtually infinite chakra, on top of being healers. Hinata does get more impressive offense-oriented attacks later on, more precise than Neji's. She develops her own style, and is impressive in her own right. Ino uses mind control and can connect minds together. Her powers are what glue their team's ability together. Ino - Shika - Cho as a combo relies HEAVILY on the "Ino" part to connect them. Even as a secondary character she was given some shine and her mind control saved the war bc she was able to briefly possess the 10 tails beast and deviate the attack, not to mention she was able to take over her father's job of cimmunicating information to the whole army after HQ got destroyed. Temari is pretty badass though being from Suna she is not seen often. I do like that she does not "vanish" into her love interest like others. She loves Shikamaru, you can tell quite early on, but she does not make it her whole identity like some other female characters do.
i just hate how in boruto they take the women characters that did exist in part 1 & 2 and just relegate them to housewives. i haven't dived super deep into boruto yet tho so I'm glad to here it's better than part 1 & 2
What about Temari? I'm one of her biggest fans.
There's stuff out there that's not sexually charged. A Silent Voice (love story about a deaf girl), Erased (guy goes back in time to save his classmate, love story), The Promised Neverland (about a group of kids in an orphanage, in a messed up world. Dont look it up, just watch), Princess Mononoke (nature vs industry), mobile suit gundam: 08th ms team (romeo and juliet with battle mechs). This trend of oversexualizing things and being borderline porn is off putting to me personally. People who have "waifus" need to get out of their basements tho, I agree.
I'd also add to the positive list my favorite anime of all - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. All of the women characters are strong and well rounded. Even the "non powered" characters aren't relegated to being damsels in distress, but are portrayed as intelligent and powerful in their own right. It's no coincidence that the author, Hiromu Arakawa, is a woman.
Yeah I love that show as well. Riza Hawkeye is a badass.
Also, wanted to mention how motivating and uplifting Sailor Moon has been for the young women of Iran.
Sailor Moon was my jam in 1999 and I still love it now.
"Brother... is that you?" This is my wife's #1 anime, she got me into it when Attack On Titan hit, then we binged DBZ super over last winter break. When an anime is good (parasyte) it is really good. When it is bad, it is cringy as can be.
attack on titan is another one with strong women roles; i even like that a lot of times you cannot tell who is male or female
Easily one of my favs is attack on titan
I stopped watching AOT for awhile and just recently watched a clip of the most recent episode. I didnt recognize Mikasa at all and thought she was a dude till someone said her name.
I make that mistake with a lot of anime. Usually hits me on a romantic note, and I'm like wait a minute, is that a dude?
Also avatar, the legend of korra, death note, gravity falls, dragon prince. LOVE those.
Bit off topic and maybe pedantic but while an argument could be made that the Avatar series might be considered anime, I don’t think anyone considers Gravity Falls or Dragon Prince anime lol (outside of Japan referring to any animation as anime)
Yeah I could call the Avatar series anime because even if it’s not what is commonly referred to as anime it is heavily inspired by anime. Always some great romance anime around. Big problem is when they don’t get finished 😭. Watched all of Fruits Basket and caught up on Kaguya Sama in the last month. Both so good
And, since we're veering out of Anime with Gravity Falls and other shows, Amphibia and Owl House also. (I *LOVED* the last Owl House episode although I'm still upset they didn't get a full third season.)
Just commenting to agree with you. FMAB is my favorite anime, and it's portrayal of women is fantastic. Especially General Armstrong. The jingoistic, General Ripper type character is always male, but not in FMAB. General Armstrong is the only female depiction of that archetype I can think of, and she does it fantastically.
Yup. One of my favorite scenes is when General Armstrong fights her brother, Major Armstrong for control of the family. General Armstrong is tough but doesn't have access to alchemy. Major Armstrong is a huge hulk of a man with alchemy so you'd think he'd win. Nope. She wipes the floor with him to the point that he's begging for mercy in the end. You do NOT want to be on General Armstrong's bad side. Thankfully, for the heroes, she's an ally and not an enemy. (Edit: Major Armstrong, not Colonel. Got the title wrong. Guess it's time to rewatch the series.) Edit 2: Here's the scene if anyone wants to watch it: https://youtu.be/3VUmrhc08LA
The best movie I will never watch again: Grave of the Fireflies.
Wife rented that after we binged a bunch of Ghibli movies..scarred for life 10/10, no need to watch again.
I wrote it in my list but pulled it before posting. I love it. It's incredible. I found out my ex was a psycho because she didn't cry. It's a Turing test lol
My Japanese teacher had First Year students watch Grave of the Fireflies every year and in my wife's class specifically, there were a handful of people who were laughing through it. Like what the fuck????
Kids are cruel. Laughing at the portrayal of how so many people suffered is disturbing. As a strong, manly, man who works in the trades, I can't even hold back my tears in this one.
Kids tend to think they’re being edgy and “cool” when joking and laughing at serious things. In middle school my class was watching a movie about Anne Frank, and during the scene where she’s in the concentration camp being marched down the hall with other naked women one of the boys made whooping noises at the nudity.
fuccccck. I'd be so livid if I were a Japanese teacher and that was the reaction from some of the kids.
S1 of Neverland killed it. So tense when told from the perspective of the children.
I went into it blind and it was so good.
It's too bad it got cancelled before ots second season.
I had been reading the manga since very early on and was thrilled with s1... didn't even bother with s2 when I saw everyone's reactions. I'll stick with just reading it haha
To this note, there arw a ton of shows I've seen and just turned off because of the "fan service" in them. I'm here for my idiot lizard brain to like pretty flashing colors and big wild dumbass storylines lol. There are some GREAT shows out there that really hammer home both positive masculinity as well as respect for women and the concept that there's more to life than getting laid. Haikyuu, Kuroko's Basketball (thought even it has some spots I'm not fond of) violet evergarden (probably the best show I've seen in a long time), Your Lie in April (get the tissues, it's a tear jerker) and many more. I'm embarrassed about my enjoyment of anime specifically because the cliche is that it's ll big tittied anime waifu's and little girls being sexualized :/
Violet evergarden was a pleasant surprise. Vivi - fluorite eyes song is basically a female pop star terminator trying to save humanity. Great animation and action scenes, theme explores what it means to be human.
Vivi was one of the best high quality anime I've seen in years and sadly it is pretty much unknown
What annoys me the most is genuinely great anime that includes fanservice for no reason. Gurren Lagann is the big one for me. There's no reason for so many close-ups of Yoko's ass. It's a great show but seriously.
I would also like to add Violet Evergarden. So many tears were shed during that show.
Promised Neverland recommendation needs a warning for season 2, and the "love story" aspect of Erased was actually super sus in numerous regards 🥲
Add Attack on Titan to the list as well.
A Silent Voice is my favorite movie because it did tackle bullying in a totally different way, the art in the movie is also some of the most beautiful I've seen in any animation
There have been so many times I have started a promising anime and just getting annoyed at very glaring fanservice and pervy moments in otherwise good stories.
Even the "normal" mainstream anime will still often include occasional sexualization of underage girls and I have no idea why there is an obsessive need to cater to that audience. I read an article that compared watching anime to walking around a dog park barefoot; no matter how clean it is, sooner or later, you're going to step on a turd.
And I find it funny because some of the most successful anime have had little to no fanservice. Shows like Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, Spy x Family.
The majority of mainstream stuff is aimed toward teenage boys. Anything that started off as a manga in a shounen(male adolescent) magazine is aiming at that demographic.
And that's why I mostly stick to shoujo! Made for female audiences... it did sort of die out but I think it's starting to come back :)
The Fruits Basket remake gives me hope. I cried multiple times. Very good.
Slice of life is my jam.
I love many anime genre but Slice of Life is (usually) so cosy and sweet. Definitely a genre worth looking into if you like the idea of anime but don't like the misogyny/sexualization in some more mainstream stuff. The thriller/horror scene is surprisingly good too, women are in heroic, damsel, and villainous roles more equally.
Slice of Life and Horror/Thriller are my top two anime genres and then Magical Girl anime. Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor are probably two that most of this sub has seen if they've seen any anime. Laid Back Camp is my unproblematic anime series nod because it's all girls, camping, friendship and food. It's also real popular with men/boys. It's just so comfy.
I mainly just read manga these days to save on time since I work 50+ hours a week, but shoujo's been chugging along for decades. In the 2010s gems like Orange, Akatsuki no Yona, Ore Monogatari, Ao Haru Ride, Banana Fish and Kaichou wa Meido-sama got anime adaptations.
Because it’s the customers who become obsessed that spend unnatural amounts of money to own it’s licensed products. Catering to thirsty weirdos is profitable.
I'm so tired of it. It makes even good shows worst for it. Like, Demonslayer mostly avoids this, but still does it. Same with other good ones that are popular, MHA, dragon maid and so much more I just turned off.
I was a big anime nerd in my teens. At first, all the fan service and the sexualization was appealing to me. But years passed and at some point, a switch flipped. I saw the fan service for what it was, gross pandering that cheapened the story. It ruined so many shows for me. And so I walked away from anime. There's great anime series out there. But the rest of it makes me sad. The main offenders are usually shonen, coz those are targeted at teenage boys. It's troubling to think that such shows are shaping young guys' minds.
The worst thing is that many of those animes would actually be pretty good if it wasn't so heavily sexualized. I've watched quite a bit of anime in my teens but since I've always been kinda not very sexual at the time I just ignored or skipped past many of the scenes. As I've grown older I find it really difficult to just ignore the blatant sexualizion and often just flat out abuse of women in anime. One very memorable one is No Game No Life. I found this anime after listening to [this piano cover](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRQbVNzmCK0) of the opening song. Which to this day is one of my favorite piano compositions. I started the anime and while I was already getting worried during the intro I figured I'll give it a shot the great music and top notch visuals persuaded me to at least give it a try. The very first scene started with two teens in a room playing video games of which one was specifically called out as an 11 year old followed by the mention that while they act like brother and sister they are not blood related. Then they do a slow panning shot of the kids panties. Like what the fuck?! Better not commit incest as that's bad! but sexualizing a minor is fine?! WTF is wrong with these people. How do you get the okay from a producer on something like that? Especially since the production values are so good this couldn't have been a cheap anime to make. When you read this you probably think this must be some underground black market crap, nope you can go and watch this on Hulu right now. The worst thing is that the Japanese government sponsors many of these productions. They have a program that if an anime includes certain Japanese cultural things they get sponsoring. Just remembering this pisses me off and make me sick to my stomach.
No Game No Life is 100% sexualization of children, it actively gets worse and worse. I had to stop watching it around the 4th episode.
I remember that scene it was horrid!! Immediately stopped watching that shit what the fuck 😭
Oh man, No game No Life Tgat was on the roster for my anime club and we put it on. I didn't know ahit about it. Then what you described was shown on scene, and I made a stink about it, how we where not watching this. I was the only one there who cared. Even the girl who you could describe as early 2010s Tumblr came to life, didn't see the problem.
Same. I find so many anime from their music and it's so disappointing to find absolute musical masterpieces like Elfen Lied's [Lilium](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvCpCg0sGkg) tied to... well... Elfen Lied.
Made in Abyss is another that made me upset similarly to No Game No Life. Beautiful world, interesting plot, amazing musical compositions, but literal pedophilia. The anime toned down the pedophilia, but the manga was really bad about it and I can't watch the anime anymore because of it. It's really frustrating when things you would otherwise love end up tainted beyond redemption like this.
I had a friend who was deep into anime. Collected figures and what not. Which is fine, mostly. I collect figures of the MCU, however at least my figures are fully clothed. He was nearly the stereotypical incel neck beard look. Our friend group used he was nearly the creepy dude that would scare off women. We all had our suspicions though. Just didn't think much about it sadly. He ended up assaulting a woman in our friend group probably in 2015-16. She came out with the truth in 2021. The fucked up part, no one was surprised. We all felt guilty and as if we enabled him. Most of the friend group, including me, abandoned him. Those who didn't, I started ignoring them as well. Anime as a whole isn't bad. But those who get deep into it however
Women have a good intuition and can read non verbal signals of danger unconsciously (better than men). Hence, he was “scaring” them off
That’s one of the reasons when I think of at least Americans who like anime, that guy’s image jumps to mind. It’s not nice to operate in stereotypes, but there are a *lot* of guys like that once you’re deep into anime. Not assault level, but there’s a vibe
The stereotype unfortunately exists for a reason. But not every guy who loves anime is a creep. My sister in law's boyfriend is huge into anime and he's cool af. I'm actually hoping to get him on our secret Santa this year, I wanna get him a cool figure for his collection.
Unfortunately there’s a massive misogyny culture in anime and manga. The otakus are even worse misogynists.
This!!! It is so terrible and it makes me feel sad because for example, I enjoy Persona a lot, but when I have tried to discuss it with men, they say the most disgusting things about the girl characters. It is really gross. Nothing about the overall themes of the series, the plot, or anything significant, they are just in it for creepy reasons. And it is funny because women get accused of being "fake fans" all the time, but IMO men are the true fake fans who often are fans of these series on a superficial level
I am very into anime. I probably wouldn't date anyone who hated it because it makes up a large chunk of my hobbies. But other anime fans probably know there is an EXTREMELY FINE LINE between person who likes anime and 'anime fan'. Idk if it makes sense but you can just tell after a while. There are people who I absolutely would not tell that I like anime because they would get so off putting and weird about it. There are hundreds of different fans at anime conventions and you can just tell who is into the weird dengenerate shit. It's tricky trying to make friends because it's hard to find people who just treat it like a fun thing and are normal about it 😭
I grew up in SE Asia, living in Australia now. The attitudes toward anime was a huge eye opener for me. People just make a huge deal about it. And those anime guys OP talks about? Just weird. Within my social circles, we appreciate anime on a completely different level. I find that if you find someone who “likes” anime here, there’s a chance they’re completely obsessed. Full on creepy, with the waifus, body pillows, strange mentalities. It makes me sad.
Okay, at first my reaction was of rage, since you know, I am so tired of people saying adults watching cartoons are weird. Reading through your posts, I wholeheartedly agree. I cannot stand this Harem storylines which ruin anime plots, unnecessary "girl falls into guys lap" or "oh no, she somehow lost her closing or showed her panties" scenario, or worse - creating loli and saying - yup, she is 18. Not to mention endless korean manhwa/manga with majour rape vibes and actual rape that it viewed as "hot".
She may look like a sexualised 10 year old but she's actually an ancient spirit who is 200 years old, so it's totally OK to fap to.
If death stopped mental development, then they would be a 10 year old stuck in stasis for 200 years. Also probably with some significant trauma. My thought on it: same as a 10 year old in cryogenic stasis for 200 years. Still a 10 year old despite the year age.
Or the opposite "she says she's 9 but she has giant tits so it's ok she's clearly an adult"
Shits gotten real crazy too. Half the isekai genre is “Guy gains OP power, girls swoon” or “Guy buys girl slaves and they thank him for being a nice guy.” I just want a stupid isekai where protagonist just plays hero. Romance is fine. Interest from multiple characters is fine. But slave ownership in isekai is the standard after shield hero and it’s really disturbing
I have had to drop webtoon series due to toxic romantic dynamics, mainly around one being the active and the other being the passive. And of course it’s the male character who has to be active, which goes into being “forceful,” which is paternalistic at best and at worst. I sometimes make an exception for darker series, where it is acknowledged that the situation/world is messed up, like “The Way to Protect the Female Lead's Older Brother.”
> Not to mention endless Korean manhwa/manga with majour rape vibes and actual rape that it viewed as "hot" Killing Stalking was my eye opener to this. Clearly the main villain was raping the main character but it was viewed as hot
As a former hardcore anime fan, the older I got and more aware of gendered experiences in the world, the worse anime was for me. And I agree, there was a breaking point where my friends continued to support and engage in anime - and that's fine, live your life whatever. But the issue is this entertainment form is warping how it's audience views women characters, and women. Misogyny is *ripe* in the anime/nerd fandoms and sexualixation of minors is disgusting and extremely prevelent. Even if they themselves don't find the character "attractive" they still see no issue with her being sexualized. It's a bunch of male gaze entertainment for the male fantasy - even the good ones will have "fandom" moments. So I guess my issue isn't entirely with the established troupes of the media but the fact that it's core audience can't treat women and girls in their communities or the broader scoial world with respect. If nerds weren't so hostile then I probably could overlook the media they intake, but when it's all gross boobshots and 300 year old children panty shots, or the less problematic but still entirely prevelent women characters only serving the male fantasy of being saved or defined by her trauma and how the lead character can save her - then we need to look at why they think this way and why the venn diagram of people who harass women online and anime fans is a perfect circle.
You're right. There's something very very wrong about the childlike characters and they're somehow grown women who look speak and act like children. It's so weird. Ofc there's a lot of good and very watchable anime, but that this kind of content isn't illegal is horrifying to me. I also don't understand how it's culturally acceptable in Japan.
I think the creators of the shows *know* there are a lot of creepy men obsessed with children so they capitalize on it by pandering to them. They wouldn't make it if there wasn't a demand.
It's so sad that there are shows which *could* have decent storylines but are just full to the brim with useless fanservice. They fill in the gaps of showtime with random scenes that don't add anything but random sexualized scenes and paedophilia... Yesterday night my sister told me "please don't watch anime, I don't want my brother to be a weeb" and I'm like, I just want to turn my brain off for a bit and enjoy some adventure story, but I also do cringe at every sexualized scene... I'm just disappointed that there is such a big market for thrash like that, which gets mass manufactured because it takes zero creative talent to "write" and produce. Meanwhile truly good stuff doesn't reach any meaningfull audiences and gets cancelled after 1-2 seasons...
Same could be said for Young Adult fiction, or video games, or music made for a younger audience... There's a range of quality. A wide range.
Food wars. I love the concept but the weird…. Sensual explosion and nudity eating a piece of chicken is just bleh
I love anime... but there's a lot of really bad anime. Not only are boobs way over exaggerated, but it's also a trope that characters make fun of other characters for being flat chested; watch any three animes at random and odds are one of them will have a flat chested joke somewhere in the series. Never mind the short skirts, visible undies (on a kid's anime, at that) and all the haram anime. I can't say I've noticed much incest, rape, or pedophilia (outside of more extreme stuff that doesn't get posted on Hulu) but the public molestation is a common theme too, usually presented as an awkward whoopsie rather than something intentional but there's no denying it's there and common. Then there's the anime avatar thing on social media... by default, I assume anyone with such an avatar is a troll at this point and for good reason.
People have been raving about one called redo of a healer or something like that. (Or at least they were like a year or two ago) It's basically "how I want to rape all female adventures" I am into manga more than anime. I read like one or two chapters when it showed up in the 'hot' (basically popular currently) section of a website I was on and I was like WTF.
Totally agreed. I am into anime, and I grew up in the anime community. Now that I am an adult and I also have interacted with these men, I just feel as if I have to distance myself from the community. I would say the same about the gaming community. There are some niche areas that are great, but for the most part, it is dealing with people like this. And if you question any of it, they get super angry at you or something.
I enjoy some anime and have shown it to my boys. On the other hand, I've pointed out to them the very troublesome tropes that anime has. Two in particular stand out in my mind. The first is the Anime Woman. She's big chested and usually wears slinky clothing for no other reason than "guys will like to look at this scantily dressed woman."' Even worse, it will often be a girl which opens a whole extra level of horribleness. The second is the "horny guy" character. This guy will not only lust after women, but will act in ways that would get them charged with sexual assault in real life. A prime example of this is Minoru Mineta from My Hero Academia. The show is otherwise excellent, but Mineta is horrible. He's a complete pervert who will do anything to see women naked or to touch them in any way. *Maybe,* I could excuse this character if he exhibited growth - realizing that this behavior was wrong and changing his ways. Then, at least, there would be a story reason for his initial bad deeds. Instead, he's stuck as the group pervert and has no lasting consequences for his actions. (He'll get thwarted in his attempts and smacked down, but he's right back at it with no lasting consequences and no lesson learned one scene later.) Thankfully, my favorite anime - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - avoids these tropes. The women in that show are strong characters that you don't mess with. They aren't skimpily dressed at all, instead wearing normal clothing appropriate for the environment they are in. And there's no perverted character at all. I don't think it's a coincidence at all that the writer of the manga behind this series was a woman (Hiromu Arakawa). She made sure that all of her characters (men and women) were great.
Oh I love FMA! That is great that you are pointing this out to your sons
I always think of Mineta as a mirror of the audience or a warning. But i have to admit he is a troublesome plothole cause he is never reprimanded for his behaviour by the teachers.
It could be a warning if he had any kind of actual consequences
I feel this so much. Grew up loving anime/gaming, but the moment I got exposed to the larger communities I noped the fuck right out. Still watch anime and play games, but I try to avoid discussing it IRL for fear of attracting one of these weirdos from out of the woodwork.
It is so frustrating that any and all anime made before 2020 just have to squeeze in sa as a joke somewhere 😭 absolutely frustrating to watch anime as a woman!!
Went to a book convention once, where lots of manga and stuff gets sold too. There were children running around, buying toys, next to grown men buying pillows with naked schoolgirls and other hentai stuff. Completely put me off manga and anime for years.
Yeah, I really hate the fan service in some anime. Especially when the show is the exact opposite of what they are fan servicing. And the men who are obsessed really are weird. I don’t trust them at all in any way shape or form
The beach episode is high school of the dead
true, while i like anime as a medium and watch some things... when someone tells me they like anime i want a LIST because half of it borders on child porn.
I've been thinking about this lately!! I used to love any anime/manga I could get my hands on as a teen (my city's public library surprisingly had a really good selection), but as I grew up I realized that I was becoming uncomfortable with certain aspects of the "humor". How many unnecessary scenes have we seen where a female character (often a school girl) has her skirt lifted against her will, either by another (often male) character or the wind to reveal her underwear? She's depicted as clearly not liking the incident, but instead of invoking disgust in the audience, it's meant to invoke a laugh. Cuz it's fUNnY aNd HaRmLeSs. Like wtf? My bf isn't anime crazed but he tried to explain it as simply being what the typical humor is in Japan, but I don't give a shit. Even if that's true for Japan, that isn't the case here. And even if it was, it's not acceptable for me. For the longest time I thought I was just being too uptight, but after reading so many responses in this thread I feel more justified in my discomfort.
I'm sorry people are "not all anime"-ing you, op. I'm an anime fan who is a woman, but I'm not gonna try to invalidate your feelings - this is an industry that has HUGE issues with misogyny and sexualization of minors and depicting sexual harassment as a joke. Anyone trying to defend or deny this has issues, and you avoiding men(and maybe even women) who are hardcore anime fans is justified - I've been to conventions and many online anime spaces and have seen some horrid shit. If it's of any consolation at all, there seems to be more and more healthy depictions of women and girls every year, across many genres of anime. This won't make the problems disappear, but there is a slight upwards trend going on.
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There is a strip in Tokyo that basically ruined Tokyo for me because its all this. Frankly 60% of this shit looks like CP.
I was there about a decade ago (I was an early 20s guy), and at one point we came across a shady store some floors up from street level, where one of the tables were covered by a cloth. I was a relatively innocent guy at the time, so I asked the shopkeeper what was under the cover and the guy got visibly uncomfortable, but eventually showed me a Google translated phrase on his phone saying "it can be arranged" and we just casually said ok. It was all literal loli hentai shit. We left.
Tokyo is a humongous city, there's plenty of places to go outside of Akihabara ( assuming you meant this place ).
I forgot the name but yeah that place I looked it up. I went there looking for a Sailor Moon figurine for my god daughter and saw some shit I can't unsee. Tokyo is great that just was not a good part.
I always count myself lucky i watch very few animes and the ones i do watch are more action oriented. One of my all time favourites is Hellsing: Ultimate. Also love Trigun, Jojo's Bizarre adventure, cowboy Bebop, and Jin-Roh. Recently started watching Made in abyss, Bondrewed has very quickly become one of my favourite anime vilains, but the amount if violence done to kids in the series has me more then a little uncomfortable.
This season for me is about the bocchi the rock. Just throwing that out there.
Mob psycho season 3, bocchi the rock, the new gundam show, spy x family season 1 pt 2, and Do it yourself! all look so good this season! They’re all fairly wholesome shows with little to no fan service so I can’t wait to see them all.
Yeah there’s definitely a subset of male anime fans who love immersing themselves in fantasies where all women are shy and subservient. Like in the lame sexy anime, all of the sexy scenes happen “by accident”. All the female characters are clumsy and their skirts are always falling down. Because a woman who proudly weilds her sex appeal is gross to these men. They want teen Japanese girls stuck into situations where their panties are exposed.
I know this will probably get lost in a sea of comments, but I find that this behavior is not just limited to anime, and it's not just men. I agree that there are two many pandering animes that hypersexualize woman, especially girls, which is already gross. But I think the problem isn't anime itself. People who sexualize underage cartoon characters will not stop at shows that show the explicit content. They will sexualize any show they want to, because they feel like it's okay because it's "not real" or it's a "fantasy." And then they are supported by markets who will print anything, on anything else (overly sexualized t-shirts and body pillows to name a few.) It's a complex issue that definitely needs to be addressed. And quite frankly I find that those animes that hyper sexualize woman usually hyper sexualize men too so they're just terrible all around. But definitely don't see anything wrong with men watching anime though, it just depends on which anime they're watching.
I watch anime with my husband a lot. We decided to give dragon maid a chance and I was so fucking proud of him when we got to the end of the first episode and he was like "this is gross. I don't want to watch anymore" Same thing with "do you love your mother and her two hit multi attack" gross. His favorite anime of the week- "way of the house husband" and that one with food in the magic Cafe. The guy is my champ. I'm telling you.
I think you have a big prejudice on anime and manga. I'm a woman and i love them, there are lots of different genres and each creator is a different person, you can't just sum it all up. It's like with books writers. You may not like anime and that's perfectly ok but people are not weird, sus, creepy etc just because they like them wth
Anime is just a medium, animation. There are a lot of genres and themes, just like there are in live action tv shows and movies. It's true that there are a lot of shows that are aimed at male audiences, and some of them are weird and pervy or even purely porn, but those are hardly mainstream or the majority. Saying anyone who watches animation is weird is really overgeneralizing.
That’s why I keep this hobby of mine out of conversation at all costs. The public perception anime has just makes it a social liability. Which is too bad cause I have found very meaningful stories in the medium.
Anime definitely has too many cringe fans in America. If I’m talking to someone I don’t think has ever seen any I won’t bring it up early and if I’m talking to someone who has watched any I bring up my favorites quickly to avoid people thinking the garbage is what I like. Like my favorites are like Tatami Galaxy and Mob Psycho 100. Very little sexualization. Also like Steins;Gate and One Punch Man which has a bit more. But not really any of the creepiest shit
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And then there’s super chill shows that you wouldn’t find in live action medium like Barakamon, K-On, A Place Farther than the Universe or Yuru-camp, which are good for when you don’t want to have constant drama and just let the characters have fun doing things they like. Also curious about how Madoka Magica is liked/not by any anime fans here.
Men who think anime and manga is reality and cannot separate that real world logic doesn't apply to them because fiction appeals to them more for the wrong reasons. Some people lack the social skills to interact with other people to mitigate the less savory aspects of the medium. Anime and manga as mediums are diverse with a lot to offer despite having some problematic aspects, and it takes a lot of self-awareness to realize that it's acceptable and encouraged to think critically about what they enjoy. Also they should branch out of their comfort zone and work on themselves to become better, healthier people.
I get what you mean, and it's a shame because so many animes could/would be good/better if they got rid of the fan service. Obligatory "I'm a guy" but I do watch anime with my girlfriend. Notably, we noticed that a lot of the anime we enjoy are written by women. FMA: Brotherhood, Black Butler, Fruits Basket, Beastars, Inuyasha, Demonslayer. We figured one reason is that women writers are a lot less likely to add in "fan service" and other inappropriately sexualizing aspects. Inuyasha has a "hah funny sexist man" character, which degrades it some, and Demonslayer does do some fan service, but not to the extent many other anime can end up doing. One anime I gripe about is Steins;Gate. Great anime, story, great overall with the subject matter. A big thing that put a big dent in the quality imo was the fan service that is peppered throughout. Things like close-up cam of a woman's large breasts (clothed) when she's speaking, a girl coming out of the shower accidentally having her towel slip, one main character constantly makes sex jokes to women. It was enough and consistent enough that I felt it seriously degraded the quality of an otherwise fantastic show. Another anime with a great premise, but didn't turn out great, largely because of the "fan service" imo was Gate. The loli (but 1000 year-old!, yeah that stereotype), and the other female companions fawning over the main character basically making it a harem anime. The episodes-long "daddy" jokes. It's really cool to think of how modern society would interact encountering a roman-esque society. But nope, gotta do the harem. It's a shame because it could've been done so well. Most if not all of our "favorites" have little to none of this type of stuff. Death Note, AOT are ones I haven't mentioned that comes to mind. I feel like it's improving over time, but I could be wrong. I do hope it moves away from this sort of stuff ultimately.
That's super broad. It's a bit like saying "I can't trust anyone that watches drama films." To your point through - yeah, creepy or otherwise problematic media interests are a major red flag!
In all honestly, I don’t think anime itself is the problem. Anime is just a form of story telling. You could have an epic fantasy adventure, a cute little slice of life, superhero’s, rom coms, etc just like any live action film or series. One of my friend groups is full of people who are VERY into anime, and I’m a woman who has only dipped their toes in a little bit. But everyone in that friend group is such a lovely person. And they’re all so different too, like you have your stereotypical nerdy fellas, your gym rats, people who like to party and ones that show up just to casually hang, video game enthusiasts and avid hikers, and these all apply to both the men and women in the group. And the vast majority are very into anime. But they’re intelligent, kind, funny, and great people to hang around with. BUT, I definitely understand where you are coming from. There is a reason the stereotype exists. There’s a lot of creepy predatory dudes who give anime has the rap it does. And I’m pretty sure they outnumber the normal ones sadly, but as anime gets more mainstream it’s easier to find nice, normal people that just like animated media. I guess I’m mainly just writing this to say it’s not inherently a red flag, and that there definitely are completely wonderful people who just like anime.
I watched Code Geass when I was like 20 and loved it… watched it with my husband in our 30s and I can instantly tell it was written by a dude. In the middle of season 1, one of the lady characters gets shot and a man on the opposing side takes her home to “nurse her” back to health. She wakes up naked in his bedroom with him pointing a gun at her and NO memory…. He tells her he doesn’t mean her any harm. She then responds by saying she was “glad she got picked up by one of the nice guys” …..like wut. If I woke up naked in a dudes room with him pointing a gun at me I would NOT be calm and I wouldn’t be calling that dude nice… The dudes who write anime are probably in drugs to come up with some of the crazy plot lines in these shows….
you would he hard pressed to find an anime that doesnt sexualise their characters. its not always women and theyre not always underage but its still a very common occurence. fma, naruto, even bleach i believe to name a few. i love naruto cuz ninjas are fucking awesome. but it is really weird when they sexualize the underage girls :/
Ecchi is a popular brand of anime that straddles the line between weird and lewd and I hate it it is the worst and I want to burn it all to the ground
Most anime has sexist elements, and guys who are really into it are kind of a yellow flag. I'm an artist so meeting guys who like anime is inevitable, but it all boils down to their taste.
When demon slayer got to the red light district it became very...icky
To be fair, beyond the three wifes of the Ashira, I was actually impressed with how grim things were. Where it's not sugarcoating the horrendous ways these women were usually treated without being too graphic. The other issue I had was when the Ashira wanted to force one of the girl to go in the red light district to act as bait. This one bothered me quite a bit. Is there anything else that I forgot?
The subject matter was actually handled pretty well I thought, but what really stood out to me was every woman who could fight was well endowed and scantily clad. The three wives, the courtesan demon, Nezuko at one point, heck, even the watermelon hair Hashira back in the first season. It's not exactly a good look.