darkSpyro

how do you guys feel about the hot debate of not being able to find an anime character attractive for being underaged?

personally for me its kind of weird to talk about this subject because somebody always has to mention that trope of an 1000 year old girl in a 5 year olds body. which of course is obviously weird because its a drawing of a 5 year old that they are attracted to. but when it comes to drawings that are obviously not teenagers like



but are labeled to be underaged it becomes an argument. obviously the creator in mind created these characters to look like fully grown people but they are labeled to be 17- for story reasons such as being in high school is more relatable or the anime was made for teenagers. but now we get to the part where everywhere starts to get mad or defensive. sexualizing these characters.

in my opinion I feel like sexualizing characters from anything where characters origin has nothing to do with sex appeal is kinda weird. like if you were to draw pics of captain underpants without his underpants it would be weird to me. but if you were to draw a pic of jessica rabbit in an interesting way it makes a lot more sense to me. which is why anime is so interesting. because sure there are characters who come from shows about being fire fighters but some of those characters also do it in bikinis.

the argument about being attracted or sexualizing anime teens is the big comeuppance on twitter and I feel like people are either full on anti 17- or think its ok to sexualize 17- anime characters. no in between. its either you cant like them because they are a minor and the other is its ok because its a fictional minor.

tbh I feel like both sides of the coin can get really silly. because in the end you are either attracted to a fictional character or you are defending a fictional character. characters that do not know you exist and also do not exist.

I genuinely don't understand the current age discourse, 90% of anime characters are ageless and raceless beings that look completely ambiguous. Even with "loli" characters they look more like strange alien creatures than anything close to an actual child. If you want to draw hentai of some 15 year old anime character with huge bazongas it doesn't matter, if I don't like something I just don't engage with it.

Though a lot of this discourse is due to cultural difference, American views on sex/media are very strange to me.

ill be back with a thiugh but thumbs up you posted violet

Quote: skylandersfan60

I genuinely don't understand the current age discourse, 90% of anime characters are ageless and raceless beings that look completely ambiguous. Even with "loli" characters they look more like strange alien creatures than anything close to an actual child. If you want to draw hentai of some 15 year old anime character with huge bazongas it doesn't matter, if I don't like something I just don't engage with it.

Though a lot of this discourse is due to cultural difference, American views on sex/media are very strange to me.

I think with loli characters it's more about how they act rather than look.

I think the thing about Americans and anime is that they really like to self insert their feelings and beliefs in media that they watch or like. It's why a lot of them think every anime character is white. When in reality anime charactera don't really have the features or details of any race/age and instead are just pale ovals with eyes and a mouth.

But I don't think the cultural difference is just with Americans because countries like Australia ban certain animes for child endangerment. But in America sex sells so a lot of shows feature teenage characters played by jacked adults. I think one of the weirdest I have seen in a popular movie was transformers where there was a teenage couple where the girl of the relationship was underaged. So the dude in the relationship had to always mention the Romeo and Juliet law while the camera pans over the girls ass.

I think the main reason why age discourse is common in anime communities is because a lot of the people watching anime nowadays are also teenagers. I have seen people on the internet talk about not being able to waifu certain characters because they were turning 18.

Tbh tho I feel like the argument of gun games making kids dangerous sounds very similar to animes making people pedos. It's this weird strawman that really can't be proven except the topic of the of media being related to the crime.

okay so first and foremost although i shouldnt have to i want to say nothing here is targeted at anyone is meant to annoy anyone or insult them in anyway anyway it is my thoughts on it which should be evident by the fact that... you know... i said it... and it isnt a given fact any one persons thoughts is fact... i am not asking anyone to agree with me or otherwise like what i have to say about it

now then

okay so firstly to me i would like to mention "what an adult looks like"

because i see people make an attack and a defense on "this drawing looks like a kid" and "this drawing looks like an adult" but the truth is lets take violet up there

she is supposed to be... 17? maybe theres no clear answer on her age. she absolutely could be a 17 year old she might look "mature" but those people do exist i dont think drawing a 17 year old means they should have big eyes and extra round faces. both of the images above sure could be a 17 year old just as well as an adult different people age differently. when i was a 17 year old i looked 17... in height... for a boy... i was tall as tall as i am now still 5'7" and looked more like a 14-15 year old boy then i did a 17 year old girl. meanwhile i have seen 12 year olds who you would swear are 18. so to comment on "what a 17 year old so and so looks like" well to me it can be pretty diverse. and likewise there are 20 some year olds who look 15-ish i remember being in my early 20s and getting asked frequently "are you really that old?? you look 15-16 at most!"

that said

i always double take whenever someone and i mean an adult comments on being "into" an under 18 character. i think some anime is cute but i dont know how to be "into" an anime character. and i guess the most of anime i still watch is about adults anyway. what i mean is while they may be fictional characters its a little weird to me when people are that attracted to them... maybe its a high school anime set in their final year and most character are 17-18ish well... okay... but like anime about 14 year olds 12 year olds so on and so forth no thank you

that said

no i dont think anyone who watches anime that has this kind of fan service is evil and bad or so on so forth i think it has to do with the individuals reaction to it and how they apply that to reality

i watch a lot of shoujo/josei anime and manga - well i used to anyway - and alot of them feature relationships between protags in abusive relationships - relationships that they want on top of that - but i know thats not okay in real life but i like the story anyway if a guy is abusive to me he will find himself in jail but the story they tell with it can be engaging and interesting its just normally theres not a happy ending if ever in real life so if you can seperate fiction and reality thats a plus on that one

i also have no problem as ive stated before with age gap relationships. me being in one with a guy whos more than 12 years older than me i met when i was younger has been a viable option in my book if you know were both adults now and on the same page theres no problem

the problem comes in with being underaged and the anime people 'waifu" over often are with underaged characters and that to me can be a problem

now

i would also like to comment on something from above which is not relevant... anime characters are not generally "raceless..." most anime characters are japanese... maybe its different these days but in my day they were japanese living in japan going to japanese schools and so on and so forth. often based on japanese people and culture and often in these anime when a character is a 'foreigner" or "western" it will be pointed out and treated as such. im going to name a few series just off the top of my head that are very popular where race/age whatever are very important throughout

durarara
death note
street fighter
-almost every shoujou/josei/seinen series
-almost every ghibli, mamoru hosoda, shinkai, etc. film-
darker than black
ranma
inuyasha
bleach
yuyuhakusho
kimi ni todoke
monogatari series
samurai champloo
the tatami galaxy

those were just off the top of my head that use race and the culture of japan (or other places) very prominently in their stories japanese people normally like writing about the culture the people the life style the everyday mundane in japan about japanese people. when you pay atteniont to it i think its really very cool even! anime is very diverse sometimes with their characters and backgrounds especially if youre into listening to what the creators have to say too!

back to age though of course the most youre going to have around is highschool anime and a lot of anime is targeted at high school children so its going to be given so the people who so frequently complain about the japanese and about our anime then i think yeah theyre applying too much of their own beliefs... i see most of the issue with americans... but the west in general despite being very bad with this themselves seems to latch onto this specifically with japanese media and anime and treat it as a "japanese problem." which to me is not only deflecting from your own problem with sexualization but is pretty racist to say too!