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REVIEW: Koikimo

Koikimo has low production values and some of the worst sound mixing I've ever seen for s series (no doubt COVID-19 had its part to play in that particular less-than-mediocre aspect). It never becomes a great show and has a particularly bumpy start--I certainly agree with the reviewer that Ryo's sudden love for Ichika is bewildering at best if I'm expected to take it seriously.

However, I also find myself increasingly frustrated with the discourse surrounding the show. Yes, teenage girls are sexualized to an uncomfortable degree--all over the world, not just in Japan--but surely there is room for a discussion of nuance that comes with works like Koikimo being written by adult women, for adult women. This is not to say that such works are beyond criticism, only that the criticism lands far off the center of the bullseye if you're not acknowledging the female-oriented fantasy that's being explored and why it's being explored through an age-gap couple in this case.

Koikimo has low production values and some of the worst sound mixing I've ever seen for s series (no doubt COVID-19 had its part to play in that particular less-than-mediocre aspect). It never becomes a great show and has a particularly bumpy start--I certainly agree with the reviewer that Ryo's sudden love for Ichika is bewildering at best if I'm expected to take it seriously.

However, I also find myself increasingly frustrated with the discourse surrounding the show. Yes, teenage girls are sexualized to an uncomfortable degree--all over the world, not just in Japan--but surely there is room for a discussion of nuance that comes with works like Koikimo being written by adult women, for adult women. This is not to say that such works are beyond criticism, only that the criticism lands far off the center of the bullseye if you're not acknowledging the female-oriented fantasy that's being explored and why it's being explored through an age-gap couple in this case.

And even then, I think the criticism that women could have drank the cool-aid and that shows a bias in what they feel is fantasy is kinda key. If a woman is so indoctrinated in systemic issues that she doesn't see how they're bad, wouldn't she replicate them thinking they're something she should also desire?

I don't feel this particular series caters to a female-oriented fantasy, but I guess it was intended to. I've just seen so much better age gap (or possessive, obsessive, stalking) aimed at younger and older audiences alike in shojo and TL manga that this tracks so far from them. And even then, I think the criticism that women could have drank the cool-aid and that shows a bias in what they feel is fantasy is kinda key. If a woman is so indoctrinated in systemic issues that she doesn't see how they're bad, wouldn't she replicate them thinking they're something she should also desire? Koikimo just feels too much like that to me, or at least like a woman really wanting to have it both. (That is, the commentary, but also not letting go of the age gap and more, but definitely not doing great with either.) .

And even then, I think the criticism that women could have drank the cool-aid and that shows a bias in what they feel is fantasy is kinda key. If a woman is so indoctrinated in systemic issues that she doesn't see how they're bad, wouldn't she replicate them thinking they're something she should also desire?

I think it says a lot about the viewpoint of this site when you compare how KoiKimo was received to how HigeHiro was received.

One of those shows was highly praised, and enjoyed for its "deep" plot. One of those shows depicted a highly sexualized teenage girl engaging in sex, getting panty shots for no reason, seducing the adult male lead, and basically gets put into the role of a bang maid school girl waifu. Those were the same shows, and I didn't finish higehiro but I'm sure you'll throw a tantrum when you realize that it's exactly what the premise implies instead of "wholesome found family". You all glossed over the problematic elements in a show made for the male fantasy and go "It's icky," "It squeaks me out," and "It sexualizes teen girls(When it doesn't)" when you get a show made in the female gaze for the female fantasy.

We get it, you're on the side of Edwardian/Victorian men that think women are too stupid to engage in fiction, but when men do it? Totally OK and it gets praised for it.

While it's completely fine to dislike any tropes, it would be good to have some self-awareness and understanding behind the female gaze and female fantasy when writing about a show made for women.

And before some of you go to type that comment about how I'm potentially overreacting and can't separate fiction from reality: just... stop. Just take a minute and consider what I'm getting at. Miss me with your, “Well, the age of consent is 13 in Japan!” because that ignores the fact that prefectural laws set the age of consent closer to sixteen, with most being the age of eighteen. Stop trying to find reasons to sexualize actual, living, breathing teenage girls, and stop trying to lean on fiction to excuse the issue of Koikimo being a love story in a society where teenage girls are commodified. Yes, I know Koikimo is explicitly fiction: there's nothing real about this series, other than the real manga and its fans. But Koikimo isn't a story trapped within a bubble: this kind of thing happens all the time to actual teen girls both in Japan and all around the world

Just so we're clear: you think Koikimo is the better anime from Higehiro, right?

Animechic420 wrote:

Just so we're clear: you think Koikimo is the better anime from Higehiro, right?

I don't really think it's about better or worse?

In Higehiro, the male fantasy is being rewarded with the (implied) love of a girl through doing the morally right thing of not entering a relationship with her until she's of age. The series flirts with sexual attraction on behalf of both the protagonists to provide tension on whether or not the main character can resist the temptation the high school girl represents. Society is a factor in the relationship, but only so far as the subtext is being annoyed by judgment. It's complicated! He would NEVER! (Until she's a legal adult and hey, she's HOT, but she's still just a kid!) Etc, etc.

In Koikimo, the female fantasy is having an older guy that can (and often does) get any woman he wants fall in love with the protagonist on an emotional level. He would never be pushy sexually, only emotionally. The tension comes between whether or not the main character will allow herself to be emotionally vulnerable to someone she doesn't initially trust. While sex isn't overtly in the series, how society would view a relationship like theirs is a constant in the background--even with the approval of most of their peers and parents--because the main character is aware that a guy like the love interest would usually pull a pump and dump on someone like her, even if this is never stated overtly.

Both of these scenarios are obviously fantasies. The male fantasy puts the onus of the temptation on the teenage girl--this doesn't tend to happen in real life. The female fantasy has the high sexed love interest primarily interested in emotionally connecting to the girl he loves--this also doesn't tend to happen in real life.

Why is one more "okay" than the other? And going further, why is the one that's "okay", the one where the teenage girl is cast in the role of the seductress while the man if lauded for not giving into her? The scope of this review is obviously only on Koikimo and how well/badly it handles the subject material, but surely if we're talking about the danger of fantasies, one must be at least as dangerous as the other?