So I’m housesitting/dogsitting and the first channel on the TV when I turned it on is a channel that streams old anime, I guess. I never bothered to change it since I always just airplay videos from my phone, but today I left it playing normally for background noise. The current anime playing is City Hunter and I noticed the main character is a HUGE pervert. In the beginning of an episode he literally steals and revels in a pile of girls bras and underwear.

I’ve grown up seeing these types of characters in every anime I’ve watched but I guess I’m a little put off by the fact that it goes farther back than my era. Pervert characters have always bothered me, even when I was younger and less aware, and I know they’re supposed to be comedic relief but I have a hard time finding the comedy in sexual harassment. Some even go as far as sexual assault. They are so common and also happen to be part of the main cast which, for me, makes it so much worse. One Piece is a show I had to stop watching because of Sanji, I had other issues too but he was a big contributor.

Does anyone know why these characters are so prevalent?

  • @nervvves
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    8 months ago

    deleted by creator

    • ⚧️TheConquestOfBed♀️
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      1 year ago

      Anime is also an example of media referencing itself so often that the original concept is lost in translation. New anime takes abusive harem protagonists seriously, for example. But the first harem anime (Ranma 1/2) was originally written in the manga in such a way that the Ranma is repeatedly punished for straying from the main ship (with Akane). The author is also a woman and she went to great lengths to make Akane into a strong character that readers would find interesting.

      The anime (largely produced by men) throws out most of Akane’s subplots and focuses largely on fanservice, leaving most of the relationships ambiguous enough that fans could make their own decisions. The anime also cuts out certain scenes to make the men in the series more sympathetic and less like the buffoons they were actually supposed to be (who needed the women they had in their lives to keep them from self destructing). The original message had a very conservative brand of patriarchal monogamy, but the numerous series that have since spawned from it take all the negative traits of harem tropes and spin them into positives.

  • @201dberg
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    1 year ago

    When it comes to Japan’s views of sexuality, gender, porn, etc the only way to really describe it is… “Incel the country.”

    Keep thinking about how to describe their very weird conservative but openly sexual society where you can’t have unblurred images of genitals but also have people just browsing porn shops openly in markets like it’s no big deal but also how so much of their porn is hugely derogatory towards women. One of their most popular genres is NTR which I won’t go into but it’s like, pretty derogatory stuff and often includes black mail, rape, etc.

    It really just boils down to “Incel the country.”

    • @Lemmy_Mouse
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      141 year ago

      A thought; IIRC Some batteries operate on a principal of keeping 2 complimentary forces which are driven towards each other separated with a divider but connected in a solution. The result is a field of energy is created. Neoliberal capitalist society also operates on this idea via it’s consumerist populist function (everyone has to have the best watch, car, house, lawn, etc…or else you’re worthless), keeping commodities in stock and advertised but too expensive and ever changing for satisfaction to ever be acquired. The result is a constant flow of economic liquidity and of course a steadily aggravated hyper-concentrated economic power structure which funnels any semblance of “freedom” into the hands of fewer and fewer. Perhaps this concept is similar to how Japanese society has either naturally developed or has been crafted?

      • @201dberg
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        151 year ago

        Japan is a horny incel battery?

      • @Shrike502
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        91 year ago

        Isn’t what you’re describing a base principle of dialectic materialism? Struggle of opposing forces? (I am not sure about the specific terminology in English, apologies)

        • @Lemmy_Mouse
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          41 year ago

          Yes of course, but I use other examples because I assume modern Japanese society wasn’t crafted using such theory. This is very atypical of western societies AFAIK so I sought further documentation within history.

          • @Shrike502
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            51 year ago

            It’s not about being crafted to the theory, it’s about the laws of societal development being universal. Marxism is a scientific theory after all. Japan may not like it, but they are subject to the same universal forces as the rest of us

            • @Lemmy_Mouse
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              31 year ago

              Of course, my comment was to portray the ambitions and viewpoint of the Japanese authorities of whom I do not believe have studied Marxism. That was my main point is all. Similar to how we called chemistry alchemy or even magic before we had a proper understanding of the phenomena.

    • @SpaceDogsOP
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      91 year ago

      This comment reminded me that some of the worst sex crimes I’ve ever heard of happened in Japan.

  • @HaSch
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    211 year ago

    Because there is hardly any public funding for anime and manga in Japan, animators are at the mercy of the free market, and given the demographics and sexual mores of Japanese society, producing erotic wish-fulfillment is not just a, but the safe bet for any profit-driven studio. Consumers of such products tend to ignore the story, worldbuilding, characters, creative directing and storyboarding, general aesthetics, or the quality of the animation; therefore the studios which supply them tend not to be interested in such things either, which makes their products much less labour-intensive and hence cheaper and faster to churn out. I won’t name any names, but it is not coincidental that such studios also have the worst work environments in the industry. This is why there are like 5 good shows every season, and the whole rest either goes to the dogs together with the chequebooks of its former studio (which is a shame because often they butcher and waste good source materials), or is forgettable dogshit produced by studios which are good at accounting, marketing, then serving unsuspecting first-timers the most recent mutation of their usual formulaic crap, and little else.

  • 陆船。
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    181 year ago

    Ya it’s such cancer to watch. It’s not even contained within its own genre anymore. Everything has these characters, fan service, flat female characters, etc.

    There are some Chinese anime I’ve been watching and they’re devoid of that crap it’s so nice. A bunch of them have been licensed to Netflix in the last few years, a few are on Bilibili’s YouTube channel, and Bilibili itself has some webcomics available for free and in English.

    • @Sunshiner
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      31 year ago

      Do you have recommendations of a chinese anime with cool characters? Kinda like black lagoon but Chinese. I’ve been endlessly searching for them

      • @Eat_Yo_Vegetables69
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        31 year ago

        I haven’t seen anything like Black Lagoon in our animations but there’s a few nice ones I’ve seen so far:

        Yuan Long (Carp Reborn) - PLA soldier transported into an ancient version of his world which is based on cultivation and qi

        Quanzhi Fashi (Full Time Magister)

        Quanzhi Gaoshou (The King’s Avatar)

        Da Wang Rao Ming (Spare Me, Great Lord!)

      • 陆船。
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        1 year ago

        Nothing like that sadly. I’ve watched and recommend:

        • Scissor 7 - goofy/wholesome some action
        • Daily Life of the Immortal King - Reverse 1 Punch Man, the main dude is trying to stay anonymous instead of get discovered and goes about as well as you’d expect for a comedy
        • Quanzhi Gaoshou - basically a shonen battle anime, but the cast is likable and more well rounded
        • Mo Dao Zu Shi - BL, animation is gorgeous and world is interesting
        • Heaven’s Official Blessing - BL, animation is gorgeous and world is interesting

        I want to watch:

        • White Lightning - ping pong sports anime
  • @NothingButBits
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    171 year ago

    Yeah, Sanji is very tiring. I thought he would grow as a character but he’s just a permanent simp pervert.

    • @SpaceDogsOP
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      61 year ago

      I thought after spending 2 years on an island with LGBTQ+ characters he’d be better, but instead he got worse. Whole Cake Island was unable to save his character for me.

  • @big_spoon
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    161 year ago

    horny mangakas and writers who want to self-insert but keeping an “humoristic” distance, probably

  • 小莱卡
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    161 year ago

    No idea but damn does it ruin some good animes. Like if Mushoku Tensei didn’t have that stuff it would be a masterpiece.

  • JoeMarx 193
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    1 year ago

    Good old money grab.

    This is the free market where money trumps everything even creativity.

  • Comrade Ben
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    141 year ago

    A hyper conservative society probably wouldn’t be knowledge about how shitty that stuff is

  • @Kirbywithwhip1987
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    131 year ago

    I’m not so familiar with this since anime is thankfully censored here and I learned that this exist at all relatively recently on the internet. I don’t know, it’s fucking disgusting to put that in media at all, especially ones that should be watched by everyone. There is also a lot of pedophiles in Japan and it’s excused so maybe it has something to do with that.

    Just wtf, it’s so disgusting.

  • SovereignState
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    131 year ago

    Ruined Fire Force for me, not to mention so many others. Fire Force being ruined by it just especially bummed me out because I really wanted to like it. But there it was, random perverted and misogynistic nonsense for no reason.

    • @SpaceDogsOP
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      51 year ago

      The guy who made Fire Force is the same guy who created Soul Eater so it’s nothing new for him unfortunately…

  • @bobs_guns
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    131 year ago

    there are a lot of characters like this because they’re meant to be relatable to the average anime watcher

    • @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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      41 year ago

      Did that guy performed seppuku already because of it, since he probably did more than any other human to popularise anime? Or is that just a fake quote?

        • @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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          31 year ago

          Yeah i know, we can discuss who make worst Anime, but he make undisputably best ones.

          • Ayjan Ibrahimov
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            1 year ago

            Edit : ( if you see more response of mine just ignore them it was me trying to say the same thing i was saying but it have some errors and i deleted it to correct my writings ) .

            Yeah i know ☺️ . But let me tell you my beloved comrade . I never intended to harm no ones feelings i just honestly don’t like anime of that type and that is how i criticize that type of anime only , i don’t mean to hate on Comrades who like it . By the way . I even time to time i watch them too sometimes 😆 . and sorry for putting the meme . I know it was not my intention to offend or insult , it was just to criticize but in a humorous way , not to make fun of Comrades who watch it . again , i too watch them sometimes . ❤️

            • @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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              1 year ago

              No problem, i just find the usual anime haters on the internet exactly as obnoxious as weebs so i usualy mock them. Can’t they just instead hate baroque like everyone should smh ;)