I’ve noticed a pattern in several sci-fi anime’s I’ve seen. Its a small pattern, but I suspect further study will reveal this is a lot more common than I originally thought.
That is, having a shot of one the main (female) characters nude. The animes I can think of that have this is
Neon Genesis Evangeleon
Tenchi Muyo
Blue Gender
Though I’m sure there’s more. What is up with this? Is it a ‘celebration of the female body’? Some sort of tease to get the viewer to watch more? I should add, the poses are very discreet (i.e. you don’t really see anything, but it is plainly obvious they are naked) but regardless, the first time I saw this I did a double-take. I mean, whose going to read the credits with all that eye-candy behind it?! At first I thought it was an isolated thing, then when I saw it in several other instances it made me think that perhaps there is some sort of cultural obsession I’m missing here, like nurses, or panties, or schoolgirls, or tentacle rape, etc etc
My first guess is it’s supposed to emphasize something more natural and human as opposed to the mechanical world we just watched. Perhaps an American would put some sort of family scene or mom baking in the kitchen. You know, to make the difference more poignant. This is what you struggle for kinda stuff. Anyway, that’s my guess.
You can toss FLCL into that list although the shot is very brief.
I always assumed it was just to make it look ‘artsy.’ Naked angsty woman=art.
Plus there’s not as much stigma on naked women or showing naked breasts in Japan. I don’t think it’s totally sexual (although I’m sure there is often an eye-candy aspect to it) and sometimes you’ll see a main male character be shown naked or semi-naked in an angsty pose too.
It’s sexual. Japan is the land of naked titties. We love 'em here. They will always have a safe home with us.
And there is a stigma about nudity in comic books and magazines, it’s just that the only people who complain are women, and no one listens to them over here.
But several comics I’ve read were written by women and also featured naked women, usually without obvious nipples or other genitals but in some sort of melodramatic pose (cue background bubbles and sparkles.)
This is the sort of image I meant. Less sexual and just fooshy artsy. This is from a comic called Lover’s Place by Chiho Saito.
I didn’t mean to imply that the main purpose isn’t showing off naked boobs, if that’s what my earlier post seemed to say. I just meant, I’ve also seen cases where it just seems to be a way of being frufru.
Well, considering that all of Lain is weird and kind of disturbing, I’ll have to :eek: with you. And I will admit, that is a rather weird pull-out on the end credits.
My daughter has a lot of sailor moon DVD’s and in the scenes where the various girls transform into their “Superhero” personas the girls are shown very close to naked.
My wife, who is a native of Japan, said she never even thought about it when I asked her why that was.
I was kind of concerned if this was appropriate for my 5 YO daughter but my wife simply dismissed my concerns saying that this kind of thing was quite common in Japan and not to worry about it.
However this is from a woman who would mow the lawn topless if I let her.
However, there isn’t quite the stigma against nudity as in the United States. So it is quite likely that a series aimed at teenagers (as in 13-19) will feature nudity.
But there is also a law in Japan that prohibits full frontal nudity. So if you are going to look for out and out porn, the naughty bits, that is the genitals, in Japanese porn will be pixelized. This is why there have been several, um, interesting alternatives to genitals in Japan, especially in anime. Like tentacles? Anybody?
Also, Japan is a nation that has absolutely fetishized the teenage female. Think America is obsessed with youth?
So, much of anime is fan service (slang for gratuitouis cheesecake). The above reasons are why you see the naughty bits-less pictures, and also why you see them needlessly added to the ends of otherwise harmless animes.
Is it necessarily prurient? No, I think it deals with girls who are comfortable with their bodies and wouldn’t notice outside different culture influences. What’s the big deal? But, can it be prurient (and for unhealthy reasons)? No doubt. Spend anytime in the anime culture. Who thinks Rei Ayanami is hot? She’s 14, you know.
Is it damaging? The question reminds me of this thread. I don’t think like any other culture, especially ours, it’s widespread enough to make it relatively harmless.
We are fucked up about sex. The Japanese, while they have their hangups (can anyone say “enema”?) are not as fucked up as us about it. No big surprise – we’re more fucked up than anybody except the machos and the Muslims. Which admittedly, puts us ahead of an awful lot of people.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I’m not sure I agree. They just have different hangups, what with the “women are supposed to talk ten paces behind men” and the market for teen girls’ panties. Gah. Read up about the Lolita complex ("Rorikon) sometime.
10 paces? I’ve always heard of that in reference to predominantly muslim countries, I’ve never heard of that in Japan. When I was in Japan, I saw nobody even vaguely considering something like that anyway. Not that there wasn’t sexism, it was just more subtle.
Well, you have to understand that just because the stigma exists with women, that doesn’t mean the stigma exists with ALL women.
But having looked at the link you provided, I realize I was gravely mistaken about the kind of pictures you’re talking about. I was thinking more of the young, nubile, gravity-defying nakedness that’s so big over here. The ones you’re talking about are certainly more artsy. I don’t know what to say about them. I prefer the young, nubile, gravity-defying ones, personally.
Also, just FYI, many people write under pen names, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the female writers are actually men (especially in the case of some of the dirtier ones…the ones you showed probably really are written by women).
Well, they’re not as fucked up as far as public displays of sexuality. I think they missed that whole Puritan/Victorian thing that we got full blast. I get a lot of other conflicting info about Japanese and sexuality. Like, there’s no rape in Japan, or so little of it as to make it amount to nothing. I think that factor alone puts them WAAAY ahead of us. But there’s also the vending machines that sell panties, the magazine for guys who like to grope women in the subway, etc., the youth fixation some of them have, the fact that many don’t have sex with their wives very often (or at all) after they bear children, instead having sex with other men’s wives (while other men have sex with their wives). It’s pretty hard to figure out where the culture is, in relation to our. But the cultural artifacts make it clear they don’t share all our hangups. I mean, can you see Disney doing cartoon that include explicit sex and nudity, as the creators of Tenchi Moyo did (i.e., “Masquerade”), without anyone protesting? Can you see see an anime that includes hardcore sexual bondage imagery being accepted as a really good anime, as was the case with “Kite”? (A censored version of Kite has also done well with anime fans in the U.S.)
