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Why women criticise sexualised character designs (READ OP)
- Thread starter Persephone
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I have to admit, I was looking at your post thinking, Boob socks? What does she mean? That's a new term.
And then I looked closely at Jam's design and went, Oh...OHHHHHH! Yeah, I'm pretty sure clothes don't work like that.
I guess I know what to call that when I see that next time.
So...we've strayed, a lot of comments about style and themes taking over and distracting from the anime talk we were having.
Let me just put it this way, to get us back on the rails.
When every season, and I mean every season, half of shows have this style:
Is it fair to say that this style is the default style or anime? Now granted, I'm not saying all anime is this. I'm saying the other half of anime is varied, both in tone and in visuals, for better or worse, and will target various demographics. But when half of anime, every season, looks like the above, is it hard to see why people recoil a bit?
And it is half, every time. There are a lot of seasons when it's more than half, I actually think this season is quite good. Whenever we have the conversation of what to watch in the new season, someone eventually says "there's something for you, you just have to find it", but that still means wading through half of the above. Doesn't that make that style, that large eye'd adolescent focused, generally sexualized style, the default?
I like how you use something completely devoid of sexualization as an example.
But yeah, as kaytee said, trends are a big part of it. Not to say stuff like this wasn't always prevalent as it was, but the English-speaking world wasn't exposed to that. Now not only do we know every single show coming out every single season, we're also seeing the increase in production of single/double cour shows with a major decrease of longer form shows, meaning the current trends are going to have even more representation. The rise of Kyoani certainly had a hand in some of what we'll see now.
But honestly, I think many fans would disagree about the similarities between the art styles unless the main complaint is "it looks to clean" which is certainly a big one I hear all the time, or if it's something cheap by Haoliners. A Place Farther than the Universe has been getting A LOT of praise for its visuals.
The Berserk books don't have the anime's incredible poignant soundtrack swelling and fading at the perfect moments.
You already know this, but it is because of Japan's culture for all the cute designs. Trends will come and go but an easy way to get mass appeal are cute designs and it is seen in all facets in life from their overabudance of mascots to their obsession of idols. It is a safety mechanism to confort them of the harsh reality of adulthood. This is also why there are many anime with Highschoolers because to many people they are their best years in life.
I guess, but it never really had much impact for me. I mean, I know I've watched all the Berserk shows but I pretty much forget what the animes are about, even as I know they mostly follow the manga. Just didn't transfer for me and I still think the manga are much better (though I'll at least admit that the music was generally good).
I already have. :P
The animation is great, but there wasn't much beyond that for me.
Worth noting, Aria is my favorite anime, but I still wouldn't recommend it to most people unless they really enjoy a show where nothing happens (Seinfeld?).
I thought that was suppose to look goofy on her, like all the other Nintendo costumes
Clinteastwoodshudder.gif
Those proportions just freak me out. I just don't get it.
I do agree with the point that Bayonetta's usual outfits help hide her weird ass proportions. Maybe it's all the black?
Black is slimming, and all the lines on her costume are vertical (also slimming) rather than horizontal, which accentuates her height and arm length. Everything's made to make her look extremely stretched vertically and present a supermodel (the way she poses obviously accentuates this as well).
I don't know what Welcome to the NHK is, but that's a sign of a good recommendation. If it's powerful enough to cause severe anxiety, I think you dun good.
I think that and her personal outfits were designed with her proportions in mind while the crossover ones are trying to adapt outfits from characters with much different body types.
It's damn good, but if you have depression, it makes you feel like SHIIIIIIIIIIIT.
It's a show about a young individual who feels excluded and kinda goes a bit crazy with conspiracy theories. The manga's a bit more paranoid than the anime is though.
I was gonna bring this up exactly. It's why I have trouble getting into pretty much any anime (and by extension, some jrpgs) these days. The characters and dialogue and such just don't feel real or natural. It's hard to see them as anything but walking tropes because honestly they're usually not much more than that. It's boring at best.
Interest growing. If I hadn't had so many bad experiences with anime recommendations I'd jump on it without hesitation.
Alright, thanks.
This isn't an entirely good read, mostly because moe is not an artstyle, but a kind of archetypal representation of a character or thing, meant to incite a deep affection for transient cuteness. This has been a thing for a long time, even before it had a name and before moe became part of western anime vernacular.
Welp, that's also the fact that most anime are adapting something so the studio try to be faithful to the original material in the designs for the most part. Be it a manga, Light Novel, Novel, Visual Novel, Game or other media. And in the case of manga, Seinen manga isn't always being adapted and the ones more adapted aren't mature in content, with Manga Time Kirara Magazines works being adapted or Umaru-chan from Young Jump, for example. You have things like Tokyo Ghoul, Inuyashiki that came from Seinen magazines and are more mature in what they do but the majority adapted from manga are shounen titles with genres like action/adventure, romcom, comedy, sports and others.
Not that it's a problem for me. I'm a manga reader first and anime viewer in second but I began to watch more anime in 2016 with the seasons and in every one I'm watching more than 10 so this really don't bother me.
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Yeah source material is another thing. Light novels adaptations have really taken over and they're far more derivative than, well, any other medium I can think of, and that includes art style with some exceptions. There's still good ones like Hataraku Maou, but you'll rarely get something that's profound or not a mess of a kitchen sink series.
Yeah. I had already put myself through a bit of a crisis of self reflection long before watching so I was able to take it in stride at times when the show hit close to home.
I'd say check it out. I think it has a pretty good sense of humor and it has something real to say which isn't something I've seen in a lot of anime(though I've only had moderate exposure to the medium).
It's ok. I just think that it's a very important distinction that isn't always evident in the points people make about it.
god, I hate raising female characters to level 40 in Fire Emblem Heroes because their level 40 scenes almost always sound like stupid animu love confessions (which of course doesn't happen with the male characters). also they made Lyn's character revolve entirely around the male self insert which sucks :/
It's been like that for a while now, too. Dredging up some comparisons I made earlier in the thread:
And most of those characters are pretty much identical in role, even personality, despite their games coming from different developers/writers...
Please tell me they haven't gone so low as to have a voice test in the game that let's you hear love confessions to the player...
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Well... they're not voiced. But yes, you can rewatch them whenever you want :^)
You didn't actually read any of the posts either, huh.
Maybe this is the real reason for Nintendo making the Switch cards taste bad--counter forces vying against each other from within the same company.
Damn this is an actual thing? I haven't played enough to discover this. Shame because I find the FE Heroes to be one of the best mobile gacha games out there.
...You take that back!
Yeah boob socks are up there in the annoying obnoxious elements of sexualization along with bikini armour, zettai ryoki and high heels. Except unlike the last two, which are at least sometimes real clothing, boob socks are 100% stupid 100% of the time.
Classic:
I'm not at all a fan of the confession scenes in recent Fire Emblem games. Even here, the characters are just one-note archetypes.
Chrom's is great, though.
I really wanna know how many takes it took Matthew Mercer to get through this without bursting into laughter.
Chrom's is great, though.
I really wanna know how many takes it took Matthew Mercer to get through this without bursting into laughter.
Bayonetta's outfits help to disguise how weird her body is. In particular, the beehive hair in the first game give the illusion that her head is bigger than it is. In this picture, the Link costume is the first to look completely off. The boots make it look like her legs are stretched 100% longer than they should be. Then the Peach outfit make her feet look live hooves. It really doesn't help that these aren't her clothes to begin with so we have an idea what they're supposed to look like, and Bayonetta does not match up to that expectation.
I love this gif. I am taking this gif. It will be used so often.
Eh, with Utena, when you consider the creator went with a lesbian relationship only because he thought it wouldn't be as distracting as a heterosexual one as it wasn't a "real relationship" or whatever, it becomes a bit... unfortunate to think about. I mean, it's still decent even with that in mind as it never really comes across in the show itself, but it's still pretty shitty reasoning when you think about it.
I'd look into Rose of Versailles if you want a series that's got a bunch of non-fetishy, legit wlw content and was actually written by a woman. It's a bit corny but, hey, Utena's plenty corny!
I have said already, how people see those stories - does matter.
So, no my stance is neither dismissive, nor defensive.
It is useful to remember, that different view doesn't automatically make everyone your enemies.
Utena is just a smorgasbord of metaphor. Every single frame is packed with double or triple or quadruple meanings. That's what I mean when I say it's what anime could be. The relationships are almost window dressing to just how much is going on in every scene. It's the only series I've really re-watched and every time I find something new. There are lots of series I like, but none of them are anywhere near as layered. And again, if we're recommending shows, that's a lot different from just what I like.
Lastly, the relationship is supposed to be unhealthy. Near as I can tell, that's a major plot point within the anime. What's more, it's how that relationship scars Anthy, even without her realizing.
If we're recommending female work in anime, I'd recommend Blood Blockade Battlefront (Rie Matsumoto) or Michiko & Hatchin (Sayo Yamamoto).
I'm part of the problem, because when I first saw this, my immediate thought was "the art in this is pretty damn distinctive". Oops me!So...we've strayed, a lot of comments about style and themes taking over and distracting from the anime talk we were having.
Let me just put it this way, to get us back on the rails.
When every season, and I mean every season, half of shows have this style:
Is it fair to say that this style is the default style or anime? Now granted, I'm not saying all anime is this. I'm saying the other half of anime is varied, both in tone and in visuals, for better or worse, and will target various demographics. But when half of anime, every season, looks like the above, is it hard to see why people recoil a bit?
And it is half, every time. There are a lot of seasons when it's more than half, I actually think this season is quite good. Whenever we have the conversation of what to watch in the new season, someone eventually says "there's something for you, you just have to find it", but that still means wading through half of the above. Doesn't that make that style, that large eye'd adolescent focused, generally sexualized style, the default?
The character designs, not so much. That, I just kinda accept, unfortunately.
(This is one of my favorite shows so far this season, although it's only been one episode.)
Ah, I apologize. I presumed you were coming at it from the relationship angle. It's definitely a very loaded anime, visually at the very least. Not many others do that. The only one that comes to mind... well, I probably shouldn't rec in this thread...
And god yes Michiko & Hatchin is great! People keep bringing up BBB, I'll have to look into it.
I will also go up to bat for Michiko & Hatchin. It's a great series as well as one of the few that features a predominately darker cast as it's set place somewhere in South America. It's a truly beautiful anime to watch.
I'll have to check out Rose of Versailles at some point. I dropped it because it was a bit too... saccharine for me. But, it's been a long time and I'm willing to give new recommendations a shot, even if I watched them when I was much younger (still dropped a bunch of shows, because I was a kid - didn't watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes for a long time either because it seemed to take too long when I was younger).
It's just so well animated too!!! I really think everyone should give it a shot.
In fairness I LOVE saccharine stuff. I understand if it's not your cup of tea though. But a lot of older anime, I think, do benefit from watching when you yourself are older, as I really do feel a lot of them are genuinely targeted at older audiences without being grimdark or overly "adult".
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