Shaky Tail Studios

A Retort to The Anime Pervert and the Danger of 'Normalization'

Added 2022-09-09 08:06:46 +0000 UTC

So I just watched The Anime Pervert and the Danger of 'Normalization' and... I didn’t like it and will explain why in a list:

First and foremost I think its somewhat alarmist in general, framing critique of the anime perfect trope as potential cultural imperialism and censorship.

It also present people who engaged in sexual harassment style behavior as presumed curious children which is a rather baseless assertion given what was shared of the article.

It argues that media cannot influence people which is not true; sure one violent video game will not make a school shooter. But a perpetual onslaught of games and media that dehumanize Muslims and the Middle East while encouraging viewers to kill sure as hell does, its call propaganda.

Finally, it talks about some cultural context clues, about how much of the ‘West’ tends to downplay sexual society in children's media and has poor sexual education. While Japan is fine with including it and apparently (I don’t know) has good sexual education.

It claims that these characters are meant to be seen as immature and childish. The thing is, this whole stance ignores a rather glowing red neon sign in the room in regards to the subjects or victims of said “Childishness”. IE people, usually but not always women

It also rather pointedly ignores the fact that regardless of the comedic reactions (Usually of men/boys) the targets of their interest are drawn to titillate and arouse, IE, sexualized. One can convey mundane nudity, mundane revealing clothes ETC, but these series scarcely ever do that. The subjects are drawn, designed and portrayed in an intensely sexual manner, so the entire premise falls flat on its face.

All in all, it seems to be trying to dress up a trope that is primarily used to objectify and sexualize those portrayed as unwilling to be either in some faux, culturally enlightened light and thus all critique as a reflection of a backwards, pro censorship, uneducated culture.