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Answerman - Why Are Teen Sex Comedies Only Acceptable When They're Live Action?

Jonny Mendes wrote:

leetailor wrote: Oh my god I hate this argument so much. Originating in a different culture doesn't make anything automatically beyond criticism. Over 200 million women and girls are subjected to genital mutilation in 27 African countries; Indonesia; Iraqi Kurdistan; and Yemen. (And before you counter with male circumcision, no I don't condone of that either, and also that is not.) Same thing with homosexuality being punishable by death in many islamic countries. I could go on, but I think I've made my point clear. We are talking about fiction and 2D characters. Anime/manga/LN characters don't have human rights and even don't can be consider underage because they can have any age the author wants in the same body, like a 800 years old loli.

The problem is, most of the time this whole "legal loli" concept is nothing more than a lampshade thrown in purely for deflecting criticism. Meanwhile, the show itself often appears to be making, or pushing the narrative very strongly, that such views of underage girls is okay outside the context of the animation. It's a dichotomy that arises from some series where there is a push to depict realistic situations and scenarios, while embracing only tangentially unrealistic scenarios.

Merely saying "its fiction" is a simply attempt to deflect addressing the central question of the appropriateness of the depiction itself. It may be that some think the depiction itself is alright, but simply saying an intentionally realistic depiction of underage kids is immune from critique because it is animated misses the point. Criticism of live-action movies that depict sexual violence against women isn't a question of whether or not the actors in the movie are actual involved in the violence, but what message, impression, lessons, morals, etc., the movie is presenting by the way it depicts these things.

Jonny Mendes wrote:

leetailor wrote: Oh my god I hate this argument so much. Originating in a different culture doesn't make anything automatically beyond criticism. Over 200 million women and girls are subjected to genital mutilation in 27 African countries; Indonesia; Iraqi Kurdistan; and Yemen. (And before you counter with male circumcision, no I don't condone of that either, and also that is not.) Same thing with homosexuality being punishable by death in many islamic countries. I could go on, but I think I've made my point clear. We are talking about fiction and 2D characters. Anime/manga/LN characters don't have human rights and even don't can be consider underage because they can have any age the author wants in the same body, like a 800 years old loli.

The problem is, most of the time this whole "legal loli" concept is nothing more than a lampshade thrown in purely for deflecting criticism. Meanwhile, the show itself often appears to be making, or pushing the narrative very strongly, that such views of underage girls is okay outside the context of the animation. It's a dichotomy that arises from some series where there is a push to depict realistic situations and scenarios, while embracing only tangentially unrealistic scenarios.

Merely saying "its fiction" is a simply attempt to deflect addressing the central question of the appropriateness of the depiction itself. It may be that some think the depiction itself is alright, but simply saying an intentionally realistic depiction of underage kids is immune from critique because it is animated misses the point. Criticism of live-action movies that depict sexual violence against women isn't a question of whether or not the actors in the movie are actual involved in the violence, but what message, impression, lessons, morals, etc., the movie is presenting by the way it depicts these things.

Anime doesn't have that separation from fantasy: they are drawn exactly as they're intended to be.

Like the Justin Sevakis say, anime is the non-mainstream option that people either aren't used to, or aren't AS used to, and it's the product of a different culture in a different country.

You can't expect for people from a complete different culture to understand what is acceptable in Japanese culture if they don't even try to know about it and only look at anime with the eyes of a narrow minded western culture were any kind sexualization is viewed as a bad thing and most violence is viewed as acceptable.

Seriously, if people cared less about being prude, and focused on real problems, like say, real violence against women, against children, against the LGBT, lack of access to mental healthcare, dealing with poverty and cronyism... Imma just quote Ataturk here and say: Peace at Home, Peace in the World.

The question is already dishonest. In my experience, a lot of people have criticized comedies like Porky's and Fast Times for being built on sexual violence played for laughs (since many of the "pranks" and "jokes" in those movies are basically sexual assault). This so-called double standard doesn't even exist in the first place.

Except that you're forgetting the part where even in Japan, this kind of thing isn't considered "normal". Even in Japan, people that aren't otaku get weirded out by all the shows with 700-year-olds that look six.

...

I hate to break it to this guy, but a lot of those "classic" movies are rapey as hell and would cause a huge controversy if they were made today.

Also, you must remember that while many American teen films ostensibly take place in high school, almost nobody in those films actually is high school age. Most aren't even college age, they're in their mid- and late-20s. The actors playing the "jocks" and the love interests are clearly full-grown adults. This is done for myriad legal reasons on the part of production (non-minors can work longer, don't require parental oversight, etc.), but the end result is that our ideas about how sexually active high schoolers should appear in movies and TV shows are, perhaps, a little skewed towards being older looking than they actually are.

I think it's also a reflection of the way Japanese physiques have been changing and are still more varied on this variable than in other areas (especially among adolescents). Japan also places heavy stock in seniority, so young-looking seniors have a certain cultural resonance/disruption not present in western contexts (the closest examples would be how American media uses affluent/influential black characters and British media uses characters who dress or speak atypically for their class).

Fast Times really isn't in the same category. There's sex and humor, but it's realistic in its portrayal -- for instance when a girl has sex with an adult guy and he never calls her again, it screws her up emotionally for the rest of the movie. It helps that the movie was based on a Rolling Stone exposé on modern high school students, and directed by a woman.

Why are so many commenters here talking about 800 year old lolis as if they were a common thing? I can count on one hand all the ones I know (Shinobu, Rika Furude and Mina Tepes... and Al Azif from Demonbane, although I doubt many here have bothered to watch the crappy anime adaptation). So who are all these other old lolis that apparently are so common that they need their separate discussion? I need to know for... research reasons.