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

[jimmy olsen]

Seedy's post gave me a boner. Be back in 4 hours.

Might want to see a doctor about that.

[Josquius]

Japan's attitude to young girls is fucked up.
I remember at a staff party when I worked in high school a group of male teachers were rather casually discussing which of the students were the hottest, it wasn't even a shameful drunken talk, they could just as easily have been speaking about sports.
Not too many years ago there was a big scandal in Shizuoka with teachers behaving *ahem* inappropriately with kids.
Not to mention the whole maid cafe thing....

NSFW-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkHlnWFnA0c
This is one of the most popular pop groups in Japan. Crappy song but the video struck me as rather shocking when I first saw it considering half the girls in  that group are under 18. The youngest is 14 iirc. Maybe less- one of their spin offs I know is pretty much all middle schoolers (despite coming from the city with the hottest women. They spoiiled that one, pshh....)

So yeah. Kids in anime- meh. I'd rather pervs be getting excited over that than the real thing.

[Ed Anger]

Seedy's post gave me a boner. Be back in 4 hours.

Might want to see a doctor about that.

You might want to go eat a bag of dicks.

[Valmy]

I think the problem with the analogy is it assumes that the anime industry is one big hive mind, "my neighbour".  When in fact there are thousands of neighbours, and only some of them are problematic.  The anime industry is incredibly fragmented, and there are a huge variety of different shows.  Sure, Strike Witches is filled to the brim with fanservice.  Just like there are movies and videos with adult or offensive content.  If you don't like Strike Witches (which is perfectly understandable), the solution is not to watch the show.  No reason to hate all anime in general, just like there is no reason to hate all movies just because porn movies exist. 

Yeah ok when I talk to movie fans they do not say 'this is a really great movie you just have to tolerate the porn' because mainstream movies that actual movie fans enjoy are not porn.  Likewise most mainstream books do not contain porn except for creepy parts of George RR Martin, and if every time somebody quoted a book it was a creepy GRRM sex scene between a dwarf and his prostitute I could get why they might be anti-book. 

But whenever somebody shows me some really popular Anime it usually creeps me out, like freaking Sailor Moon ().  So yeah if you don't want me to be creeped out by anime maybe we non-fans need to see stuff other than young girls personifying battle ships or weird 12 year old female naked fighter pilots.  It doesn't really help that the art style seems to make everybody look sorta pre-pubescent.

[CountDeMoney]

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.

[Valmy]

So yeah. Kids in anime- meh. I'd rather pervs be getting excited over that than the real thing.

Well I guess that's true.  If you have to perv on 12 year old girls it is better they be fictional ones.

[Valmy]

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:

I have seen a couple Japanese women on the internet casually remark that they live in one of the most sexist cultures on the planet.  Which is quite a claim given the competition.

[garbon]

No reason to hate all anime in general, just like there is no reason to hate all movies just because porn movies exist. 

I don't think that's a good comparison. Here we have you saying on one hand that many animes are big on fanservice. Then that strike witches is a great anime while meanwhile telling us that we shouldn't get so hung up about sexualized 12 year olds.

I'm not necessarily against animes in general (as I can think of a few things I've seen that I liked in the past), but it does cause my eyebrows to raise thinking about that as the mindset of a typical anime viewer.

[derspiess]

So do they still have vending machines for used schoolgirls' panties in Japan?

[garbon]

I think the problem with the analogy is it assumes that the anime industry is one big hive mind, "my neighbour".  When in fact there are thousands of neighbours, and only some of them are problematic.  The anime industry is incredibly fragmented, and there are a huge variety of different shows.  Sure, Strike Witches is filled to the brim with fanservice.  Just like there are movies and videos with adult or offensive content.  If you don't like Strike Witches (which is perfectly understandable), the solution is not to watch the show.  No reason to hate all anime in general, just like there is no reason to hate all movies just because porn movies exist. 

Yeah ok when I talk to movie fans they do not say 'this is a really great movie you just have to tolerate the porn' because mainstream movies that actual movie fans enjoy are not porn.  Likewise most mainstream books do not contain porn except for creepy parts of George RR Martin, and if every time somebody quoted a book it was a creepy GRRM sex scene between a dwarf and his prostitute I could get why they might be anti-book. 

But whenever somebody shows me some really popular Anime it usually creeps me out, like freaking Sailor Moon ().  So yeah if you don't want me to be creeped out by anime maybe we non-fans need to see stuff other than young girls personifying battle ships or weird 12 year old female naked fighter pilots.  It doesn't really help that the art style seems to make everybody look sorta pre-pubescent.

Well said.

[celedhring]

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:

I have seen a couple Japanese women on the internet casually remark that they live in one of the most sexist cultures on the planet.  Which is quite a claim given the competition.

A Taiwanese friend of mine that spent most of her life in Tokyo used to tell me it is a horrible place for women. She would walk to school and back (an hour each way) to avoid the subway groping, for example.

[Monoriu]

But whenever somebody shows me some really popular Anime it usually creeps me out, like freaking Sailor Moon ().  So yeah if you don't want me to be creeped out by anime maybe we non-fans need to see stuff other than young girls personifying battle ships or weird 12 year old female naked fighter pilots.  It doesn't really help that the art style seems to make everybody look sorta pre-pubescent.

I already have.  I can list 10 popular anime shows right now that contain very little or no fanservice.  Madoka Magica, Attack on Titans, Steins Gate, Angel Beats, Clannad, Gundam, Log Horizon, Legend of Galactic Heroes, Sword Art Online, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.  I can go on and list 50 more if you want, but you get the point. 

[garbon]

But whenever somebody shows me some really popular Anime it usually creeps me out, like freaking Sailor Moon ().  So yeah if you don't want me to be creeped out by anime maybe we non-fans need to see stuff other than young girls personifying battle ships or weird 12 year old female naked fighter pilots.  It doesn't really help that the art style seems to make everybody look sorta pre-pubescent.

I already have.  I can list 10 popular anime shows right now that contain very little or no fanservice.  Madoka Magica, Attack on Titans, Steins Gate, Angel Beats, Clannad, Gundam, Log Horizon, Legend of Galactic Heroes, Sword Art Online, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.  I can go on and list 50 more if you want, but you get the point. 

Actually I think you are missing his point.

[Josquius]

So do they still have vending machines for used schoolgirls' panties in Japan?

I don't think so. I recall reading that they were somhow ruled illegal.
But its not like they were ever a big thing. There were only ever literally a handful of machines in major sex shop areas.

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.

As with right wing politicians saying stupid shit, the spirit of "Its the way of things, it can't be helped" is strong.
Whilst the male teachers were comparing students the female teachers I was sitting with just responded to my outrage with smiles that I could only read as "We don't approve but its not worth making enemies over"

From what I can see Japanese women tend to be pretty weird. One minute they're rather modern, wanting careers and excitement in their lives, and the next they plan on settling down and being a housewife before they're 30 or else they are doomed.
Anime fans are certainly regarded with disdain by most Japanese people but teen-idol groups are popular with men and women alike.
Given how messed up Japanese relationships have the reputation of being I can only guess women don't mind all the porn? Stops their husbands going and finding a real woman to have sex with (since they aren't going to do that themselves).

[celedhring]

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).