WTH JAPAN!!!!? My rant on 2009 animes

That is where you are wrong. What is sounRAB like is that you believe that in fiction, only the horrible things happen men.

Black Lagoon plays it straight. Sure there is slavery and prostitution in the series, and not only just women. But when it comes to gender, the series plays it very fair. The series runs along the thought; the strong live, the weak die.

For example Balalaika, she is a lady with tac, but she is also a battle scarred veteran and mafia boss.

And on a side note, the quality of Black Lagoon is far better than what Hollywood produces.
 
You're not going to make me feel guilty about liking Black Lagoon, because I would enjoy the show even if Revy were wearing pants.

I guess I can see your point about desensitization (though I think it's a bit extreme), but I strongly disagree that something like Black Lagoon is somehow "worse" than something like Queen's Blade. That's the equivalent of saying that Lara Croft Torab Raider is more demeaning to women than a hardcore porn movie where a woman is put through all kinRAB of submissive, humiliating sex acts against her will. Yeah, a tough, independent woman who has more dimensions to her personality than you give her credit for, yet just happens to wear cut-oRAB, is worse for women than flat-out exploitation.
 
Marn's speech is the epitome of the prudishness that creates boring, unoffensive drivel. I'd take something multilayed like Black Lagoon over something worried about even a hint of offensiveness.
 
Is this going to become like a thing now?

I was looking at Random Curiosity article on the Summer 09 preview (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni in the house FINALLY!!! ) and the second anime on the list is this thing called Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! Guess what timeslot it's taking? That's right, Queen's Blade!

Here's the list in question. It's the second one. Just look at the premise of that crud. (There's a trailer too but like they say, it has nudity in it so watch out)
http://randomc.animeblogger.net/2009/06/24/summer-2009-preview/

What I'm trying to say is when Queen's Blade was out, people tried to justify it by saying it had a complex story and you had to look beyond the fanservice. Well where's your justification for ^^THAT CRAP?
 
I agree completely with you on this. I am trying to think. But, I cannot remeraber any real (showing bare breasts, or crotch) nudity in the Black Lagoon anime.
 
And yet Revy's the one dressed to appeal to male fantasy and get's all the interesting camera angle while Rock, Benny, and Dutch are all dressed in normal attire and are are given focus to their personality. Exploitation and maltreatment come in more forms than just 'bad things happen to girls'. In this case, it's basically creators saying "Sure, Revy, you can be a developed character like the guys, just put on this bikini first so we have something to look at"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Black Lagoon is in the same pool as Sailor Moon, but I also hope it's not the best example out there we can use.

I'm thinking more long-term damage. We can easily label the people who enjoy Queens Blade and said series as deviant otaku, but if we all accept the style of "women are equal.. but they're also hot so let's sexualize the heck out of them" then we're not going to get anywhere with these shows. I just think it's more destructive if we acknowledge something like Queens Blade bad, but Revy's clear discrepancy in Black Lagoon not. Because we can attempt to change something we acknowledge as bad, but if most of the viewing people simply accept Lara and Revy's sexualization as normal and perfectly fine, then we haven't even acknowledged we have a problem yet.

Prudishness is an odd word to use; one because it's implying being 'prude' is bad, and two because it's implying gender equality is such an odd concept that it deserves insulting. One could turn that around and say one who enjoys the opposite are just horndogs, but that would just be going around in circles. Though I do find it odd that you're saying something that doesn't feature fanservice is automatically 'boring drivel', the two should have no correlation to one another. I mean, if BL let Revy put on some clothes and they stopped focusing on her body, would you say it's prudish?
 
Well first, yes, it is, and second, I'm stating that a show that tries so hard to not be offensive it forgets to be entertaining (Moribito) is a failure far more so than something where the girl shows skin and is entertaining in the plot and character departments.

Revy can wear a shirt and jeans, but as long as you don't change her personality from being what it is in the show (which is to say, sadistic and homicidal with a rarely seen sensitive side), then no, there's no issue. But is showing the girl as a psychopath sexist?
 
1. That is where you are wrong.

One of the running gags of the series is that Rock refuse to change out of his business men's clothing.

Each of the characters are very uniquely dressed.

2. You are wrong again. The series is about that "bad things happen to EVERYONE", regardless of gender.

Here are some examples.

Dutch went AWOL from the U.S. military.

Benny got in trouble both the mafia and FBI in Florida.

Revy did something horrible in NYC.

Rock got kidnapped by pirates, and betrayed by the company he worked with.

Balalaika and her solders, after their years of dedication and loyalty to Russia in service and battle, were thrown away like trash by the new Russian government.

Chang use to be a cop (stated by Wong himself in the latest manga storyline when he talked to Rock) Given Chang is a fairly honorable and easy going man (he's the peacemaker of the mafia families in Roanapur), you can only imagine how he went from cop to mafia boss.

And don't even get me started on Roberta and the vampire twins.
 
OH NO! I tottaly Lost Track of a conversation In a Thread that I started! Boy Is my face red. But Ive been Busy with my anime Anthology AMVs....Anywho bot I only asked a simple question & Yet it looks like Ive started another Big Debate. I will reinterate, I don't Think All Fanservice is bad. I just think some of the Newer shows Like Queens Blade & The Juppen-Chan or whatever its called. Are taking it to far. I mean a small dose is OK, but I Really think there neeRAB to be a limit to the amount of Fanservice/Ecchi Content in Anime today.
 
While I agree that BL is slightly exploitative at times, I disagree that it's "like" a Hollywood flick OR accessible and enjoyable to the masses. While it certainly borrows Hollywood set pieces, it just has way too many "cultish" elements in it for it to be considered truly "mainstream". It's more comparable to Italian giallo, old yakuza flicks with a touch of the "pinky violence" genre of Japanese films during the 70s.

However, I will point out--like others have--that unlike those film genres, BL has far less nudity (in fact, virtually no full frontal at all) and "jiggly" than most anime I've seen. While there's no doubt that Revy was created to have sex appeal, BL is far, far down the list when it comes to finding a show that has "everything wrong when it comes to the treatment and exploitation of women." There are simply so many better examples of that stuff out there that bringing it up as it concerns BL seems rather weak to that argument.

That said, I won't get into the female exploitation in anime debate here as I'm sure most people are tired of it by now. Suffice to say, there are many posters here I disagree with when it comes to how they approach the issue, which is why I always try to avoid it.
 
The ironic thing is, I don't even find Revy that "sexy", at least not in the traditional sense. She sports tattoos, uses curses as the building blocks of sentences, has a growly voice, and almost always sports that "pissed off" look. BUT, she's such an interesting character and not one-dimensional at all, that I love watching her, and I love watching her interact with the various characters on the show. She may show some skin but that honestly doesn't matter to me; she'd be just as fascinating if she were always fully dressed.

At any rate, this should probably get back to the topic at hand: The debate whether the 2009 seasons have more or less moe/fanservice than before.
 
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