Forum - View topicANIMENEWSNETWORK'S REBECCA UNOFFICIALLY REVIEWS SEVEN SEAS' EDITION OF MONSTERGIRL ENCYCLOPEDIA
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BAYANI98
Posts: 7 Location: ASIA |
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From GoodReads.com:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28260540-monster-girl-encyclopedia-vol-1 Rebecca Oct 20, 2016 Rebecca rated it did not like it Shelves: fantasy, romance I was originally supposed to review this for ANN, but in the end we deemed it too raunchy for the site. This book feels like a guide for an unreleased adult visual novel about having sex with as many monster girls as possible - each entry for the 100 different monsters discusses how she prefers to "rape" or "assault" human men, focusing on how much the men end up enjoying it. While the full-color images of each monster girl on the left hand pages are quite attractive, most of the entries also have insert, sepia-toned images of the monsters having sex with men in typical hentai style, with plenty of viscous fluids. Genitals are drawn without censorship bars, although there is no pubic hair. (See Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape for why this is an issue.) The text mostly reads like the worst romance novel sex scene you've ever read, with the disturbing, and consistently reinforced, notion that human women do not enjoy sex and find male sexuality a burden, and thus are perfectly happy to allow monster girls to take over, even though it will lead to their eventual extinction. To say that this is outdated and offensive is an understatement. Granted, I am not the intended audience for this book. But even if the issues I have with its depiction of female sexuality weren't present, this is not well-written and suffers from a severe case of masturbatory fantasy. Surely there are better done monster girl hentai stories out there. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2656 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Ah, you found it.
 Just be aware that this wasn't written in a professional capacity, so I took less care with my phrasing. I didn't mention it on Goodreads, but there are some loli elements as well. The physical book itself is gorgeous.
Also, the book I referenced in the middle there is by Peggy Orenstein. |
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Maleel
 Posts: 4 |
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A lot of her problems with the book are easily explained away by the fact that Monster Girls are really just for male otaku escapism, this review isn't going to be very valuable if that's what you're looking for in the first place. This entire genre is kind of built on that idea of escapism. Monster Girls rape men because then for the reader, they feel special in this alternate world where they're automatically desired by sexy lady-beasts unlike in real life where they would have to put in the effort to get laid. Human women don't enjoy sex while Monster Girls do reinforces the idea that you don't need real women, just your Monster Girl waifu (You can also argue this is a reflection on modern Japanese society, but I don't know nearly enough about that to argue it).
Looking at this book as anything other than masturbatory fantasy and escapism will only lead to disappointment. If you like the idea of living in a world like MonMusu then the MGE would be up your alley along with the other supplementary material you can find online. If not, then don't bother, it's not a productive way to spend your time. |
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BAYANI98
Posts: 7 Location: ASIA |
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You should have just made it official, think of all that lost potential revenue that could have come in the form of clicks from outrage fanboys rushing here to defend their fetish passion! :p
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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How did ANN determine this 'too raunchy'? I'm sure there have been reviews of hentai and manga with explicit sex before. There was a whole House of 1000 Manga column on hentai manga. Can't they just put a NSFW warning?
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Maleel
Posts: 4 |
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Regardless of if it's too raunchy, I don't think it would be a good idea to have Rebecca review the book for the website anyways. Her review would certainly generate clicks, so if that's all that matters here then the review should be posted. The problem with it is that she's clearly way outside of its target audience. so much so that all of her complaints have to do with the book doing exactly what it said it would do; appeal to otaku males.
It's like if they got a male writer to review a fujoshi aimed series like "Free!" and all he did was complain about all of the things that make fujoshi love it in the first place. Or if someone, anyone reviewed a battle shounen like Hunter x Hunter or Yu Yu Hakusho which are beloved by fans of that type of series, but the reviewer ragged on it for simply being a battle shounen. I think the fact that a critique of hers on the book is that it's a "masturbatory fantasy" shows that it is the case that she is simply ragging on it for being what it says on the tin. And personally I don't think this kind of review is valuable at all as opposed to someone who does generally like this genre and niche and can give a more nuanced opinion for someone who is also into it. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 2656 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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It might not be, but I do want to stress again that I wrote the review on Goodreads nonprofessionally - a knee-jerk reaction on a social media site for bibliophiles. If I'd written it from a professional standpoint, I would have considered the positives more fully. These would include:
-The book is physically gorgeous, from the cover to the sepia-tinted pages to the full-page full-color illustrations. -A lot of thought clearly went into creating each monster girl race and species, as well as a world where they would logically exist. -The variety of monster girls is imaginative and impressive. -Uncensored. That's a huge plus in my book. My main issue isn't that it's masturbatory fantasy not intended for me, it's the toxic view it takes of female sexuality. I realize that it's a fanboy fantasy, but I still think claiming that human women don't like sex unless they've been possessed by a monster is dangerous territory. It's also worth mentioning that the book is very poorly written. I'm an English teacher; that bothers me.
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10033 Location: Virginia |
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I looked at mine briefly when I got it. It is gorgeous but repetitive. I don't think it is the sort of thing that anyone would sit down and read through. Not the thing you would want to leave lying around for company to look at.
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Y-FUs-R-GR8
Posts: 1 |
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Personal views over what is or isnt a toxic view, shouldnt be taken in count when reviewing a work. We want to know about a book of sexy monster girls, thats all and the personal morals or views of a reviewer should not affect his or her grading. I consider 50 Shades of Grey to be toxic, yet if I was to review it, this shouldnt affect my review or grading. Also the Encyclopedia doesnt state human women do not like sex, only that they enjoy it more as monster girls which is true within the canon. It also doesnt state women do not enjoy sex, it only state that they in general, view male sexual desire in general as something filthy. Which isnt entirely untrue. Like for example, take a look at all those "street harassment" videos in youtube, which while yeah, some are legit harassments, are made up almost on their entirety of guys just greeting them, trying to get their number or just simply LOOKING at them or in general making their sexual interest known painted as harassment. I dont know about you, but at least to these women it would seem they would be quite happy to have monster girls take over and remove all the male attention. |
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