Anime Thread #3: You Can (Not) Repost

[Tenofovir]

That doesn’t sound normal.

I think is obvious they are pandering to fans of yuri with the VN and the manga.

It’s probably pandering to more fans of girl on girl sexual stuff, and not yuri per se. I think few guys, even Japanese, advocate yuri. It just elminates so many potential women for them.

I don’t know if it’s normal or not, but it probably happens innocently and the only message to take here is - with good guidance - so much could be done for these poor souls. (Well, animated souls).

I think of what I’ve seen of Yuuki Yuuna it’s a decent show. Some faint traces of yuri if we assume the worst, in the anime, but Yuuna seems to love all her comrades equally. Let’s not make every deep friendship about sex. Traditionally and classically they have not always been seen this way either.

It’s important to not let those who wish to subvert non sexual friendship in pop culture into sexual attraction or a prelude to such, have their way. A blush is not sexual. Girls can have deep admiration which includes holding hands and so on. Now more sexual things (kissing on the mouth etc) are sexual I agree but let’s not have the yuri fans turn everything into yuri. Let’s not make innocent things into what the pervs want them to lead to.

My take is to try to see the positive. If the show is obvious yuri - such as a recent dragon-big-robot-anti-racism anime yes that’s clear cut and pervert stuff which is definitely problematic. But blushing now and again, or some holding hands in a difficult situation, especially when in the last episode I didn’t see that (or recall seing that) shows me the show is just not heading that way.

In Sakura Taisen TV series there is a scene with 10 year old Iris Chateaubriand blushing when given a present or when reassured by her kinder, older Kana fellow team member. Is that a normal reaction. Probably yes. Does that mean such a ten year old is a proto-yuri. No way.

 

[Tenofovir]

They hold hands in episode 5… but that could be understood as a product of the perilous situation they were.

Girls holding hands need not be sexual. Also there are no mouth kissing or sexual suggestions. I think this can go either way and is left for the viewer to decide.

Togo has a crush, or a girl-girl admiration? the first would be problematic, while the second points to more innocent love.

It’s not possible to tell what Togo is thinking, but it seems very innocent. A girl blushing need not be sexual attraction but a mere crush which I don’t consider sexual but more of a soul mate, bosom friend type thing.

Togo’s transformation sequence is quite noticeable, same for the few shortshots of other girl (shortshots, because they are wearing shorts in the magical costumes).

I admit, I haven’t seen those yet. In the last episode there was none of that.

 

[CesarAugustus]

It’s probably pandering to more fans of girl on girl sexual stuff, and not yuri per se. I think few guys, even Japanese, advocate yuri. It just elminates so many potential women for them.

I don’t know if it’s normal or not, but it probably happens innocently and the only message to take here is - with good guidance - so much could be done for these poor souls. (Well, animated souls).

I think of what I’ve seen of Yuuki Yuuna it’s a decent show. Some faint traces of yuri if we assume the worst, in the anime, but Yuuna seems to love all her comrades equally. Let’s not make every deep friendship about sex. Traditionally and classically they have not always been seen this way either.

It’s important to not let those who wish to subvert non sexual friendship in pop culture into sexual attraction or a prelude to such, have their way. A blush is not sexual. Girls can have deep admiration which includes holding hands and so on. Now more sexual things (kissing on the mouth etc) are sexual I agree but let’s not have the yuri fans turn everything into yuri. Let’s not make innocent things into what the pervs want them to lead to.

My take is to try to see the positive. If the show is obvious yuri - such as a recent dragon-big-robot-anti-racism anime yes that’s clear cut and pervert stuff which is definitely problematic. But blushing now and again, or some holding hands in a difficult situation, especially when in the last episode I didn’t see that (or recall seing that) shows me the show is just not heading that way.

In Sakura Taisen TV series there is a scene with 10 year old Iris Chateaubriand blushing when given a present or when reassured by her kinder, older Kana fellow team member. Is that a normal reaction. Probably yes. Does that mean such a ten year old is a proto-yuri. No way.

Blushing, friendships, etc, are not yuri.

But that scene from the VN… again, Togo wanted to repeat it 10 times. I think that scene is obviously problematic, is not like the stuff from the series.

 

[CesarAugustus]

What follows from the love letter? Does she declare herself a lesbian and marry or sleep with the other woman? If not, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Children need parental guidance when watching these shows for sure. I recommend that. The mainstream of this show is not yuri or shoujo ai. It’s just a bunch of girls trying to sing to save their school or some such. And with no fanservice - I don’t think that bikini pic is fanservice - or else going to the beach is fanservice - I think it’s a good show - haven’t seen it yet, but if we follow what the reviewer said. Yes there may be a few strange moments and non-Catholic moments, it’s not a Catholic anime, and such do not exist, but that’s taken for granted.

The lyrics are in romanized Japanese.

I wouldn’t worry so much about this. Again, parental guidance for children.

In these shows there are no male characters. Songs involving some romantic themes will have only females sing them, it’s a given. Are they singing about each other, or just in general? Are they promoting lesbianism? One has to ask those questions.

God Bless.

Well, is not encessary to have these characters do more obvious things, I think a love letter is quite telling, and not something normal between girls.

Did you read the english lyrics? there is a tab with the english version, besides the romaji and Japanese.

About the pic, depends of the person.

Of course is not a shoujo-ai or yuri series. Recent productions with these elements are not marketed as such.

 

[CesarAugustus]

Girls holding hands need not be sexual. Also there are no mouth kissing or sexual suggestions. I think this can go either way and is left for the viewer to decide.

It’s not possible to tell what Togo is thinking, but it seems very innocent. A girl blushing need not be sexual attraction but a mere crush which I don’t consider sexual but more of a soul mate, bosom friend type thing.

I admit, I haven’t seen those yet. In the last episode there was none of that.

The transformation scenes were more common in the first episodes.

If a crush is what you are describing, then isn’t a crush.

God bless you!

 

[jilly4ski]

I just finished Red Data Girl (RDG), it was very fun. I loved the animation, and it was a very clean anime (no fan service). The plot revolves around the Sinto/Buddhist religion/spirits. I am not sure I quite understood all the things this anime was trying to convey, but it was still a lot of fun.

 

[Tenofovir]

Hi Guys and Girls,

I discovered this site:

www.daisuki.net

It hosts quite a few anime shows for streaming. They are free, although the site also mentions paid for video. It’s a legitimate Japanese producers, site, as seen by the JASRAC license it holds. I see it will have idolm@ster Cinderella Girls.

 

[Tenofovir]

The transformation scenes were more common in the first episodes.

If a crush is what you are describing, then isn’t a crush.

God bless you!

A crush is something very innocent. Hence it’s called a “crush”. It’s not necessarily sexual attraction. Maybe our understanding of crushes differ, but I take the kiddy approach to them as most anime portrays a very naive, and innocent approach to crushes.

That’s also what’s alluring for much of this anime for me. The stuff is innocent. These are not people in their 20s, 30s, etc, who are worldly and well looking for “hook ups” or whatever the Anglopshere calls them these days. These are still young people and very innocent and I don’t think we need to read too much sexual innuendo into their interactions. When I was their age and had crushes on girls of a similar age, sex or sexual stuff were not on the radar for me, and so I take that sort of understanding and project it here. That’s what works for me.

 

[Tenofovir]

Check out this new Live2D technology coming to gaming and films in the future:
diginfo.tv/v/14-0062-en.php

2D anime characters rendered with the realism of 2D manga/anime in 3D environments.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Happy New Year everyone and boy did mine start out with a bang! I had my first Pokemon battle with real trainers! (Yep, them authentic competitive types.)

I HAVE TASTED BLOOD AND NOW I WANT MORE!!! does his Kaiba laugh

 

[Mintaka]

You crack me up, Lost Wanderer.

Yuuki Yuuna is a good show, so far. What’s problematic about it is that it’s a pretty brutal version of a magical girl show. They’re fighting to save their world, the consequences are nasty, and it turns out that being a hero means a lot more sacrifice than the girls were expecting.

The other thing that might be problematic is that it turns out to be VERY Shinto. They start out the day by bowing to a shrine of their alternate world’s Shinto god (in a way very reminiscent of WWII Japanese schoolkids bowing to the Emperor as a god). And it turns out that being a hero involves a lot more sacrificial interaction with the power of their god than they had been expecting.

(And yeah, I think this means the whole show is comparing the current potential for war in the Pacific with WWII, and trying to figure out symbolically for this generation a way to save Japan and be heroic, but avoid crazy politics or stupid kamikaze junk.)

So basically, while you’re being semi-traumatized by the main plot, there really isn’t anything on the TV show to distract you from being traumatized. I suspect this is why they have so much less fan service than the average show, and they’ve toned down any “yuri” stupidity that may have been in the show’s source material.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

You crack me up, Lost Wanderer.

Yuuki Yuuna is a good show, so far. What’s problematic about it is that it’s a pretty brutal version of a magical girl show.

Darn it, just googled the show. If there’s one thing that distracts me from my bloodlust (and my current descent into becoming the Abathur of Pokemon ‘breeding’), it’s moe. So I’m guessing this show is like Madoka 2.0? Don’t have the appetite for that quite yet. It’s a pity because I’m seeing lots of moe-blob. Right now, I’ve officially become an Oscar Wilde Otaku: Light pleasures above all else.

So if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna just manually look for some more of that nao. :X

 

[jilly4ski]

Did you guys hear that there is a live action Ghost in the Shell in the works? time.com/3654108/scarlett-johansson-ghost-in-the-shell-anime-manga/

This was one of those anime that I saw on tv in college. I enjoyed it, but I wonder how it would hold up today. I have noticed that a lot of the anime that I used to watch (before streaming was popular) has had limited re-watchability, where I would tolerate some filler in anime then, I tolerate almost none now, and shows that I could watch out of order and weekly, I can’t binge watch (and probably vice versa).

 

[Hobbes42]

Did you guys hear that there is a live action Ghost in the Shell in the works? time.com/3654108/scarlett-johansson-ghost-in-the-shell-anime-manga/

This was one of those anime that I saw on tv in college. I enjoyed it, but I wonder how it would hold up today. I have noticed that a lot of the anime that I used to watch (before streaming was popular) has had limited re-watchability, where I would tolerate some filler in anime then, I tolerate almost none now, and shows that I could watch out of order and weekly, I can’t binge watch (and probably vice versa).

Oh gosh…

Ghost in the shell was interesting… but Scarlett Johanson…

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Oh gosh…

Ghost in the shell was interesting… but Scarlett Johanson…

Well it’s not like we don’t have any other iconic super-spy women… unless you wanna go back to Milla Jovovich (and we all know how that ‘adaptation’ turned out).

 

[CesarAugustus]

A crush is something very innocent. Hence it’s called a “crush”. It’s not necessarily sexual attraction. Maybe our understanding of crushes differ, but I take the kiddy approach to them as most anime portrays a very naive, and innocent approach to crushes.

That’s also what’s alluring for much of this anime for me. The stuff is innocent. These are not people in their 20s, 30s, etc, who are worldly and well looking for “hook ups” or whatever the Anglopshere calls them these days. These are still young people and very innocent and I don’t think we need to read too much sexual innuendo into their interactions. When I was their age and had crushes on girls of a similar age, sex or sexual stuff were not on the radar for me, and so I take that sort of understanding and project it here. That’s what works for me.

I understand a crush as a blooming romantic or even sexual attraction, with that definition, isn’t something proper for being directed towards someone of the same sex.

Now, admiration, friendsphisp, etc, these are different, as I said earlier.

Yuuki Yuuna is a good show, so far. What’s problematic about it is that it’s a pretty brutal version of a magical girl show. They’re fighting to save their world, the consequences are nasty, and it turns out that being a hero means a lot more sacrifice than the girls were expecting.

The other thing that might be problematic is that it turns out to be VERY Shinto. They start out the day by bowing to a shrine of their alternate world’s Shinto god (in a way very reminiscent of WWII Japanese schoolkids bowing to the Emperor as a god). And it turns out that being a hero involves a lot more sacrificial interaction with the power of their god than they had been expecting.

(And yeah, I think this means the whole show is comparing the current potential for war in the Pacific with WWII, and trying to figure out symbolically for this generation a way to save Japan and be heroic, but avoid crazy politics or stupid kamikaze junk.)

So basically, while you’re being semi-traumatized by the main plot, there really isn’t anything on the TV show to distract you from being traumatized. I suspect this is why they have so much less fan service than the average show, and they’ve toned down any “yuri” stupidity that may have been in the show’s source material.

When I began watching it, I wasn’t bothered by the Shinto looking plot elements. I was more worried by the show possibly having yuri, (as has been an increasing trend for slice of life and magical girl shows), or by the transformations. I haven’t finished it, but it seems that the second topic wasn’t present, and only some of the transformations eneded being questionable (specially Togo’s one).

This is an anime first show, I think. The VN with the yuri scene I mentiond earlier, and the 4-koma manga with the yuri jokes are supplementary, and not source material.

 

[CesarAugustus]

I just finished Red Data Girl (RDG), it was very fun. I loved the animation, and it was a very clean anime (no fan service). The plot revolves around the Sinto/Buddhist religion/spirits. I am not sure I quite understood all the things this anime was trying to convey, but it was still a lot of fun.

Yes, from what I’ve read is free of fanservice. It seems that there is a crossdresser character, so that would be the only objectionable thing about the show,

 

[CesarAugustus]

So I’m guessing this show is like Madoka 2.0? Don’t have the appetite for that quite yet. It’s a pity because I’m seeing lots of moe-blob.

When I began watching it, I thought it was going to be like a Madoka substitute without the yuri elements. I didn’t finished Madoka when I watched the first 3 or 4 episodes some time ago, but I’ve read about it. The themes, and overall atmosphere are different in Yuuki Yuuna.

Did you guys hear that there is a live action Ghost in the Shell in the works? time.com/3654108/scarlett-johansson-ghost-in-the-shell-anime-manga/

This was one of those anime that I saw on tv in college. I enjoyed it, but I wonder how it would hold up today. I have noticed that a lot of the anime that I used to watch (before streaming was popular) has had limited re-watchability, where I would tolerate some filler in anime then, I tolerate almost none now, and shows that I could watch out of order and weekly, I can’t binge watch (and probably vice versa).

Yes, I was reading about that recently.

I watched the second movie. I don’t remember well if it had nudity like the first one, or if there were more objectionable elements.

About older shows, I’m rewatching some old series, while not all productions have great re-watchability, I’ve been surprised of how some shows are still watchable.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Crushes, from what I understand and remember, involve someone of your own sex, and you project onto that person a set of idealized characteristics. It’s almost like you admire and want to BE that person. And it’s a natural phase kids go through. It soon ends.

This current society unfortunately pushes impressionable youth into believing that phase is permanent, and it means you are homosexual, and that such a condition is not only natural and wonderful, but superior to heterosexuality.

And that is what’s objectionable.

 

[jilly4ski]

So I watched the first season of Darker than Black. (Mature content but killing and murder not sexual, and cartoon graphic blood). I really really enjoyed it. I started watching season 2, but so far I am disappointed. I really didn’t want to watch a “deep” or involved anime, but the pacing and how they introduce the tougher subjects was good and despite all the death, it wasn’t depressing. It was kind of like a spy thriller, like a James Bond (that same sort of coolness mixed with superficial action, or complex but still fun).

I am also making my way through the second season of Kamisama Kiss, and that is living up to expectation so far. This one is really fun, lighthearted, and sweet.

I realized that in watching anime you really are just accepting that crazy crazy things are going to happen. Even things that would not happen in regular cartoons or animation can and do happen in anime. It is really kind of fun.