How Japan’s ‘BBC’ is rewriting its role in the Second World War

[Josquius]

I am not sure what maid cafes are but we have Hooters and pervy creepy  restaurants as well.  It is not that I have an issue with Japan having pervy stuff, I just do not have much interest in consuming it.

Hooters- Pubs (a little pricier than the norm? but as I understand it they earn their money in essentially the same way as a regular bar) staffed by hot girls with boobies and an average man target audience.
Maid cafes- Ostensible cafes with extortionate seating charges, aimed at the socially inept, who pay for very very young looking girls in fetish-fuel costumes to pretend to be their slaves.

I actually know a girl who used to work in a maid cafe. She's 25 but looks about 15 and generally acts about 10. I just don't get it.

I am curious about Hooters. I really do need to recruit people to go check out the one in Tokyo sometime....I hear their food is pretty good. Plus Japanese girls with boobies=possibly the best sounding thing ever.

[CountDeMoney]

To be honest, a bunch of well reputed TV series in the US carry loads of "fanservice".

That's just due to millennial hipsterism, and assholes like Timmay and the rest of the Axis of Anime.

Unfortunately, animetardism has been going strong--oh, by my watch I'd say 1990--for such a while, you'd think it would be passe' by now.

[Monoriu]

I think we can all agree that we should protect real underage children.  As I see it the problem is to what extent this applies to fictional and animated characters.  I've lived in Canada for a couple of years to know that this is one big berserk button for westerners.  It is not so with Japan apparently.  You guys think it is a problem showing underage animated girls in skimpy clothing; they think it is not that serious a problem.  To be honest, as long as we are talking about animated characters and not real people, I'll just call it cultural difference.

Fair enough, I don't think it should be criminalized or anything - I just think it is sorta creepy, and shows the culture in an unflattering light. God knows enough Western popular entertainment does that as well. 

Sometimes I wonder if the haters really understand the shows they hate.  Sailor Moon for example.  Some see a few screenshots of cute girls in very short skirts and say this is creepy.  Have they really watched the show though?  The show is all about an all-female cast fighting the bad guys.  They drive the story; are given positive character development; they don't need much help from the males; they develop close friendships with each other.  If anything, this is a very girl-power show.  Same with Strike Witches, really. 

[The Larch]

Japan's attitude to young girls is fucked up.

I'm interested in how the other half of the population feels about it.  I can't seem to find much in the way of women's rights and issues in Japan:  which isn't too terribly surprising, I certainly don't expect to find any Groria Steinems or Betty Fliedans over there, but I've always been interested in how Japanese women feel about the sexual aspects of their culture, e.g., the young chicks, dance clubs, uniforms, tentacles, elaborate rope bondage, etc, and how incredibly over-the-top it is.

I don't know any Japanese women, but I can tell you how my wife feels about it - she saw a show about those "maid cafes" and her remark was that the Americans clearly did not nuke the Japanese enough. 

I also find the maid cafes...odd.  But I don't find them offensive.  I find it even more weird that some people can accept strip bars featuring nude girls, but not maid cafes.

That reminds me of my thread regarding the social acceptability of strip clubs in the US from ages ago. 

[Monoriu]

To be honest, a bunch of well reputed TV series in the US carry loads of "fanservice".

That's just due to millennial hipsterism, and assholes like Timmay and the rest of the Axis of Anime.

Unfortunately, animetardism has been going strong--oh, by my watch I'd say 1990--for such a while, you'd think it would be passe' by now.

Anime is pretty much alive.  I keep hearing comments that anime is dying, from anime fans and haters alike.  I was very surprised to find out that at any given time, there are like 60-80 shows airing simultaneously in Japan.  And it isn't just the quantity.  New smash hits come out every year with quality animation and story-telling. 

[CountDeMoney]

Yahoo.  Up with cartoon panties shots.

[Monoriu]

I also hear that, in Japan, the wives control the family finances.  The husbands are supposed to give all their earnings to their wives.  The females then give a small portion of the earnings back to the males as pocket money.  The big chunks stay with the girls. 

I do see a lot of middle-aged Japanese females going to expensive department stores and restaurants in large groups during office hours 

[Malthus]

I think we can all agree that we should protect real underage children.  As I see it the problem is to what extent this applies to fictional and animated characters.  I've lived in Canada for a couple of years to know that this is one big berserk button for westerners.  It is not so with Japan apparently.  You guys think it is a problem showing underage animated girls in skimpy clothing; they think it is not that serious a problem.  To be honest, as long as we are talking about animated characters and not real people, I'll just call it cultural difference.

Fair enough, I don't think it should be criminalized or anything - I just think it is sorta creepy, and shows the culture in an unflattering light. God knows enough Western popular entertainment does that as well. 

Sometimes I wonder if the haters really understand the shows they hate.  Sailor Moon for example.  Some see a few screenshots of cute girls in very short skirts and say this is creepy.  Have they really watched the show though?  The show is all about an all-female cast fighting the bad guys.  They drive the story; are given positive character development; they don't need much help from the males; they develop close friendships with each other.  If anything, this is a very girl-power show.  Same with Strike Witches, really.

It isn't the plot they are hating, but the visual depiction.

[Monoriu]

It isn't the plot they are hating, but the visual depiction.

They are just not used to the style 

[Barrister]

I am curious about Hooters. I really do need to recruit people to go check out the one in Tokyo sometime....I hear their food is pretty good. Plus Japanese girls with boobies=possibly the best sounding thing ever.

Hooters (in NAm at least):

Food is not what I would describe as pretty good.  It's typical bar food - chicken wings and burgers.  It's adequate, not great.
Waitresses - they don't particularly have large breasts.   What they do have is really tight t-shirts.

[Valmy]

Sometimes I wonder if the haters really understand the shows they hate.  Sailor Moon for example.  Some see a few screenshots of cute girls in very short skirts and say this is creepy.  Have they really watched the show though?  The show is all about an all-female cast fighting the bad guys.  They drive the story; are given positive character development; they don't need much help from the males; they develop close friendships with each other.  If anything, this is a very girl-power show.  Same with Strike Witches, really. 

Ok first the whole 'tweeners save the world' plot is not one likely to attract my notice much anyway.  Secondly the reason for the all female cast seems suspiciously for pervy reasons (and not even pervy reasons I can appreciate).  Thirdly girl power might be great for teenage girls, and those who love teenage girls, but not so much for me.  I am sure the characters and story are great, after all this is a show so famous that even I have heard about it, but it has enough creepy imagery to turn me off.  Finally I am not even a hater just somebody with zero interest.

[garbon]

To be honest, a bunch of well reputed TV series in the US carry loads of "fanservice". But it's usually quite non-pervy (if massively sexist).

Really?  US shows tend to have fanservice for both men and women by generally having a cast that consists entirely of gorgeous actors and actresses...and at least the actors are all in their 20s and 30s even if sometimes the characters are not.  American High Schools are full of people who look 29 for some reason.

I'm thinking more of shows like Game of Thrones, Galactica (that one's sooo blatant), heck, we were all tripping about the tits scene in True Detective the other day. You don't get much of that for women. Although I admit that media like Twilight and its brainchilds are paving the way of equal objectification of men.

And I love T&A as much as anybody else, I just wish equal opportunities of being sexist for both genders 

I don't know why you think that is an issue now (or would highlight Twilight as best example). We've plenty of opportunities now to stare at the male form. One of the bits I liked best about Craig becoming Bond was how the camera followed his barely clothed body.

[derspiess]

I am curious about Hooters. I really do need to recruit people to go check out the one in Tokyo sometime....I hear their food is pretty good. Plus Japanese girls with boobies=possibly the best sounding thing ever.

Hooters (in NAm at least):

Food is not what I would describe as pretty good.  It's typical bar food - chicken wings and burgers.  It's adequate, not great.
Waitresses - they don't particularly have large breasts.   What they do have is really tight t-shirts.

Having visited a few Hooters locations, the food and waitress quality can vary greatly by location.  Of course at its best the food is still pub grub, but at the better places it's fresh, well prepared, and tasty. 

[garbon]

Sometimes I wonder if the haters really understand the shows they hate.  Sailor Moon for example.  Some see a few screenshots of cute girls in very short skirts and say this is creepy.  Have they really watched the show though?  The show is all about an all-female cast fighting the bad guys.  They drive the story; are given positive character development; they don't need much help from the males; they develop close friendships with each other.  If anything, this is a very girl-power show.  Same with Strike Witches, really. 

Ok first the whole 'tweeners save the world' plot is not one likely to attract my notice much anyway.  Secondly the reason for the all female cast seems suspiciously for pervy reasons (and not even pervy reasons I can appreciate).  Thirdly girl power might be great for teenage girls, and those who love teenage girls, but not so much for me.  I am sure the characters and story are great, after all this is a show so famous that even I have heard about it, but it has enough creepy imagery to turn me off.  Finally I am not even a hater just somebody with zero interest.

I saw a bit of Sailor Moon as a child. It was creepy even then...particularly the side scroller video game.

[Admiral Yi]

My problem with Hooters is I don't know what proper customer behavior is.  Are you supposed to perv on the waitresses and make comments to your buddies about their tits, or are you supposed to pretend you're in an Applebees?

I've been in a Hooters once and I found it surreal.

On the other hand, the Bikini Bar I visited in Austin made perfect sense to me.