Political Overcorrectness: The Anime
Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist (Shimoneta to Iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai) is a Light Novel series written by Hirotaka Akagi and illustrated by Eito Shimotsuki. The light novels were published under the Gagaga Bunko imprint from 2012 to 2016 for 12 volumes.
In a dystopian future, Japan passed severe censorship laws regarding anything obscene. This means that any foul language, pornography, sexually explicit images, or even the mere mention of the correct medical terms for certain "obscene" body parts have been outlawed.
The story proper follows Tanukichi Okuma, a young man who has gone from a middle school with one of the poorest public decency ratings to the most morally upstanding high school in the country in pursuit of a young woman he admires named Anna Nishikinomiya, the standing Student Council President. Amazingly, he gets the chance to be closer to her when she recruits him into the student council in the hopes of tracking down Blue Snow, an obscenity terrorist. Anna suspects that Blue Snow may be hiding within the school, and she needs Tanukichi's help to find her.
Things take a turn for the wacky when the normally reserved Ayame Kajou, a fellow student council member, turns out to be Blue Snow. She blackmails Tanukichi into aiding her in forming SOX, an organization dedicated to abolishing the censorship laws.
Winning one of the three excellence awards at the 6th Shogakukan light novel prize in 2011, the series was adapted into a 12-episode anime by J.C. Staff in the summer of 2015, and it was licensed by Funimation for English subtitled streaming; they later released the series in a box set with an English dub. A manga adaptation was serialized in Monthly Comic Blade from 2014 to 2016.
Shimoneta: A Troping World Where the Concept of Tropes Exists:
- 12-Episode Anime: This is the total amount of episodes the series has, with the final one being a dénouement episode.
- Above the Influence:
- At first, one might think having a hot girl like Anna wanting to have sex with you would be a guy's dream come true. Yet, Tanukichi doesn't because he's aware that Anna's inability to distinguish love from lust means she can't give proper consent.
- Despite his growing attraction to Ayame, he never tries to peek at her body when she's in her Blue Snow disguise.
- Deliberately invoked by Matsukage, who conditioned Oboro to think and dress as a female at all times while protecting Anna, to ensure Oboro doesn't develop feelings toward her.
- Accidental Kiss: Tanukichi and Anna after the former accidentally falls on the latter after being hit by one of Anna's stalkers. It all goes downhill from there.
- Adults Are Useless: In more ways than one: they're the reason why Japan's legislation has successfully passed and enforce oppressive censorship on anything they've deemed obscene. While most are too scared to speak out, those that do rebel are branded as obscenity terrorists and face imprisonment.
- Affectionate Parody: SOX is a deliberate parody of the SOS Brigade. In the manga, it's even explained in a footnote when Ayame first names their group in Chapter 3.
- All Love Is Unrequited:
- Tanukichi starts off regarding Anna as a "perfect angel", but soon realizes how wrong he is once she becomes fixated on him. Then he begins to develop a romantic interest in Ayame, who only sees him as a fellow SOX member and a friend, at best.
- Ayame's case varies between the manga and anime. In the former, she has no romantic interest in anyone, but will gladly tease Tanukichi about Gouriki's obvious crush on him. In the latter, she gives Tanukichi a Love Confession that is not explicitly rejected, but the series doesn't show any further development after that.
- Anna is head-over-heels for Tanukichi, who begins avoiding her like the plague after learning how terrifying she can be.
- Gouriki goes from being antagonistic toward Tanukichi, to crushing on him after seeing him disguised as a girl. But being sexually repressed by their society, Gouriki doesn't recognize his feelings for what they are.
- By Chapter 13, episode 12 in the anime, Kosuri develops a full-blown girl crush on Ayame, which doesn't go unnoticed, nor is it reciprocated.
- In the light novels, the American transfer student Annie Brown also develops a crush on Tanukichi. But she barely understands Japanese, which causes her to unintentionaly use vulgar slang whenever she tries try express her feelings for him. Which also gives him the impression that she's coming on too strongly.
- Ambiguous Innocence: The students are clueless about how to express sexual attraction, due to being denied basic sex education. Ayame points out that it's unnatural and potentially problematic, something that becomes all too clear when Anna nearly rapes Tanukichi. Later, after Hyouka finds the dirty pictures Tanukichi was going to hide around the school, she distributes them and manipulates the students into storming the forest to uncover contraband pornography.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- One of the things Ayame uses to blackmail Tanukichi into working with her is revealing that she has the rope he used when they first met, apparently forgetting she's holding the same rope with her bare hands. Therefore, the authorities would also find her fingerprints on it had she tried to use it against him.
- Blue Snow's true identity should still be easy to uncover since she runs around naked, which would leave all kinds of DNA evidence like hair, sweat, toe prints, fingerprints and more, so it's fortunate that the Decency Squad doesn't think like a conventional task force.
- Big Brother Is Watching You:
- People are forced to wear special chokers and wristbands called Peace Makers to monitor what they say for obscene words and alert the authorities. They can even track arm and finger movements for anything written or drawn. Blue Snow has a special function on her phone to disable her PM, and presumably any nearby PMs, for three minutes a day.
- Anna's mother is trying to pass a law to make this even worse, by allowing the active monitoring and recording of PM for underage citizens, and making them wear the newest PMs that are shaped like chastity belts.
- The Body Parts That Must Not Be Named: Exaggerated In-Universe. In the boring world without dirty jokes, any sexual talk is illegal, so they have to use euphemisms for genitals.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Tanukichi is the Tsukkomi to Ayame's Boke when those two are up to their SOX shenanigans.
- Book Burning:
- One of the first scenes of the series is the burning of dirty magazines.
- While a stylized insignia/badge is shown early on, the full insignia for the Public Morals Committee is two people praying over a burning book.
- Bullethole Door: A knife variation of this is used when Anna discovers Kosuri sleeping next to an oblivious Tanukichi. He tries to pass her off as his half-sister, and Kosuri plays up the part, which initially relieves Anna. However, Kosuri takes it a bit too far, prompting Anna to knock her down on the floor, then repeatedly stabbing the floorspace around her before leaving. She then falls through the Kosuri-shaped hole that Anna just "stabbed/shot up" with the knife.
- Casting Gag: Monica Rial being cast as Anna. She went from being a tsundere student council president in Maid-Sama!, to a tsundere vice president in Maken-ki!, to being a yandere one in this.
- Censored for Comedy: While much of what Ayame says and does and the pictures she shares in her Blue Snow persona do have to be censored in order to meet real life broadcast standards, the anime's production staff decided to take advantage of this by using "stickers" with cartoonish caricatures of her and strategic bleeps to go for this. The same applies for other characters. Even the name of SOX comes from the way Japanese writing is censored by using circles, in this case replacing the E in sex.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Early in episode 3, Ayame tries to warn Tanukichi about Anna's mental state and says it could be bad for him, if she were to snap. He dismisses it as Ayame being a drama queen. It comes back to haunt him in a big way.
- In episode 4. Tanukichi glimpses a shadow outside his door, but when he opens it to see who it is, all he finds is a small puddle. Later, he begins receiving love letters from a potential stalker, which he shows Ayame. She notices one of them is damp and sticks her hand inside it. When she pulls it out, her fingers are covered in strands of vaginal fluid. Both of them fail to recognize what it is, until the "cookie" scene in the following episode.
- The last thing anyone expected to reuse from the otherwise epic episode 10 - Gouriki in women's underwear, which gets weaponized in #12.
- The Chikan: Subverted. One of the first things Tanukichi does is save Gouriki from a girl falsely accusing him of groping her on the railway so that she could turn him in for a reward. Said girl then turns around and accuses Tanukichi of groping her.
- Clingy Jealous Girl:
- Anna makes it clear that she will not accept competition from Ayame. The latter quickly escapes from the situation by claiming that she totally supports the former and Tanukichi being together.
- Kosuri can't stand the fact that Tanukichi is so close to Ayame, so she tries to usurp his position in SOX in order to be closer to her. When her attempt fails, she quits SOX in a fit of jealousy and retaliates by joining Gathered Fabric.
- Cloudcuckoolander:
- Hyouka's introductory scene has her appear from under Tanukichi's desk, right between his legs. Her fixation with wanting to know where babies come fromnote and her constant gloom faced expression, makes her "weird" even by Ayame's standards.
- Oboro is the head of the school's Decency Prefects and seems level-headed. However, Oboro has an unusual way of thinking as far as what's perceived to be lewd, such as confiscating all ping pong balls and toilet paper or the gym's basketball hoop. This is all done with a perfectly straight face and monotone.
- Crapsack World: This series is set in a dystopian future where Big Brother Is Watching to make sure nothing lewd ever occurs. SWAT teams crackdown on anyone caught looking at porn, Sex Ed has been legally prohibited (meaning almost none of the current generation knows how to reproduce and are clueless about proper social interactions between the sexes), and the head of Public Morals Committee is unaware that his daughter has become a nymphomanic sexual predator as a result.
- Dancing Theme: The ED ("Inner Urge") starts with Blue Snow doing a dance routine, interspersed with being chased offscreen by Anna and Gouriki. Tanukichi and the others gradually join in, until they're all doing it, including Anna.
- Darkest Hour: In episode 11, Ayame tells Tanukichi the worst case scenario. Gathered Fabric ends up tarnishing the SOX name, giving politicians an excuse to crack down even more on lewdness, not to mention bringing down Kosuri's father, who's secretly supporting them. And they can't even do much for the school because they're vastly outnumbered by the terrorists. Fortunately, Hyouka tells them they still have a chance.
- Dating Catwoman: Anna loves Tanukichi, sort of, but views his SOX persona as her enemy. However, she can subconsciously tell it's him and still gets aroused, much to her shame. She considers her own reaction unfaithful.
- Dénouement Episode: The 12th episode takes place sometime after SOX's victory over Gathered Fabric and has them face a new villain called "Black Base". But there's no follow-up to Ayame's confession to Tanukichi from the previous episode, and he's seemingly reverted to freaking out over her puns again. It ends with Black Base leaving the "treasure" in SOX's hands, though Ayame decides it's best to leave it hidden, for now.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- In episode 4, Tanukichi receives tons of love letters from a possible stalker and turns to Ayame for advice. Her suggestion? Leave a note on the door inviting the stalker in, saying he loved them too and that the door was unlocked, clearly assuming the stalker couldn't possibly be difficult to manage or overpower by them. Then it turns to be a crazed Anna...
- Sure thing, Kosuri, taunt the crazy girl with the carving knife, who just crushed a carrot with her barehand, by pretending to have a brocon obsession with Tanukichi. What can possibly go wrong?
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Tanukichi stumbles into a cave that resembles the shape of a vagina in episode 5.
◊ - The shape and color of Kosuri's hair resembles the head of a penis, which Ayame notes shortly after meeting her. It's later used as a sight gag.
- Tanukichi stumbles into a cave that resembles the shape of a vagina in episode 5.
- Double Entendre: Blue Snow uses a lot of these shamelessly during her rampages. Even when not in her Blue Snow persona, Ayame's still able to disable her PM for three minutes a day, during which she unleashes all her pent-up frustration in a flurry of obscene comments and dirty puns.
- Double Standard: In-Universe:
- Otome is romantically attracted to another girl? Tanukichi doesn't bat an eye. He finds a stash of homoerotic manga in the woods? He's incredulous.
- Ayame enthusiastically makes lube and devices meant as self-pleasuring aids for the male students, but she gets flustered when Tanukichi suggests they make some for the girls as well. When he points out they're making vibrators, she brushes it off since guys can use them too. Earlier, it's implied she's never done it herself, despite ribbing Tanukichi about it all the time.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. Anna's assault on Tanukichi is shown in a negative light, made worse by the fact that neither the assailant nor the person watching from the sidelines have any understanding of consent. The assailant doesn't even recognize it as lewdness.
- Dystopian Edict: The "Law for Public Order and Morals in Healthy Child-Raising", which prohibits any form of obscenity, no matter the context or reason.
- Emotionless Girl:
- Enemy Mine: SOX ends up teaming up with the student council and Oboro to bring down Gathered Fabric. Though in the latter's case, it was mostly because of Tanukichi using "recovery of his underwear" as an incentive for Anna to go along with it.
- Evil Counterpart:
- Kosuri is all for the sex revolution, she's just primarily motivated by finding it entertaining and emotionally abuses her victims in the process because it's easier.
- Gathered Fabric, a group of underwear thieves led by White Peak, a panty fetishist covered head to toe in panties. While SOX combines the promotion of sexual awareness with pranks, they never go as far as to hurt people. Ayame is concerned about them ruining the revolution's image, especially since they claim solidarity with SOX.
- Evolving Credits: Every episode adds more characters to Ayame's dance. From episode 4 onwards, the shadow figure during the credits is revealed to be Anna. Additionally, the third "bubble" filter picture in the credits changes to whichever character was introduced in that episode.
- Faceless Goons: The Decency Squad have hats with brims covering the eyes and part of the face.
- Fan Disservice:
- When Anna assaults Tanukichi, you get to see an aroused naked girl, but the T&A is offset by how absolutely terrified he is as it's happening.
- Gouriki is forced to strip, during the hijacking incident in episode 10, which causes all the other passengers and gunman to vomit when they see he's wearing his kid sister's bra and panties.
- The sight of Oboro completely naked during the ED credits of episode 9 might also qualify for some, but for an entirely different reason. The locker room scene in Chapter 10 makes it even moreso, due to Oboro having a woman's face and body. Anyone unfamiliar with the character would think they're seeing a darkhaired girl having an orgasm, until three panels later.
- Fanservice:
- Any scene that involves Blue Snow will offer titillating glimpses of her underboobs and legs (and feet, for the right crowd). The show's OP even includes a scene where she takes down a member of Gathered Fabric with a high kick, while a censor sticker covers her "exposed" groin.
- Anna and her "love nectar" appeal to squirt fetishists. There are two scenes of Anna facesitting Tanukichi while her panties are soaked, and multiple scenes of her squirting, including one where she does it directly on his face.
- And Oboru's aforementioned nude frame counts for those who say they "don't care" that he's a guy. To them, Oboro's hot regardless, or even because of the fact. Plus, Oboro spends nearly half of episode 12 in black lingerie.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Ayame complains that Japan's moral decency laws treat obscenity as if it were worse than murder.note Anyone who violates said laws is labeled an obscenity terrorist, with the opening scene showing the Decency Squad cracking down on students and other offenders for possession of pornography, h-doujins, and even figurines. The items are confiscated and summarily burned on the spot and any resistance is met with Police Brutality.
- Foil: Ayame and Anna are polar opposites in several ways:
- Ayame's understanding of sex is general enough to make dirty jokes and lewd puns, and says she wants to live in a world where people are free to partake in all the raunchy media and behavior they want. But it's as far as her deviancy goes, as she fails to recognize vaginal fluid when she first sees it and the sight of an actual erection causes her to panic, implying that she's still a virgin.
- By contrast, Anna is clueless about sex and was brought up to despise all lewd behavior. Yet, she turns out to be a nymphomaniac who mistakes her lust for Tanukichi as love. Her pent-up libido is such that just the thought of being with him literally brings her to orgasm.
- Anna is SOX's chief opposition at the school, believing it'll bring her closer to Tanukichi. However, she fails to realize that he's one of the members, along with her best friend, Ayame.
- Forced Orgasm: This is actually exaggerated to parody levels because Anna has her sexual desires awakened from an Accidental Kiss and remains in a perpetual state of arousal where even the slightest thing can make her orgasm, especially if it's related to Tanukichi.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- There's several between the show's OP and ED animations:
- The most noticeable one during the OP is the brief profile shot of Ayame as she poses back-to-back with Tanukichi. It lasts just long enough for the viewer to see she really is naked while in her Blue Snow disguise.
- During the chorus, there's a brief still frame of Binkan-chan that shows her cupping her hands between her thighs to hold her skirt down, right as a member of Gathered Fabric has pulled her panties completely off her legs.
- The ED of episode 9 has one of Oboro that confirms he really does look like a lady, even when fully nude. Despite not having breasts (or does he?), he's seen crossing his arms over his chest the same way a woman does when topless.
- You get a twofer during the same scene in episode 5:
- Pause the screen during the close-up of Anna's eye, right as she tells Tanukichi what she put in his cookies and you'll notice her iris is arranged in the shape of three hearts instead of one.
- Look closely at the same frame and you'll also notice they're shaped to look like spread labia, with the sparkles in her eye being her "Love Nectar". It literally amounts to, "blink and you'll miss it".
- There's several between the show's OP and ED animations:
- Freudian Excuse: The other recurring theme. To wit:
- Tanukichi probably would have turned out all right if his father wasn't arrested for obscenity terrorism, leading to him being shunned for half a lifetime.
- Ayame's father was framed in a sex scandal for his beliefs, but not before passing them down to her, which she's out to revive with a vengeance.
- Anna has it pretty bad as her own mother being in charge of the Dystopian Edict has led to a lifetime repression that is breaking her from the inside once she starts experiencing lust, having no clue on how to properly deal with it thanks to said repression.
- Kosuri's father sold out to the government, leading her to start spreading mistrust herself.
- Go-Go Enslavement: In episode 12, Black Base lures SOX, Oboro, Anna and her mother to an outdoor onsen. Once they arrive, he either steals their clothes while they're in the changing room, or sets traps to soak their clothing, and only leaves black swimwear and lingerie for them to wear.
- Godzilla Threshold: After Hyouka mentions it, Tanukichi decides to "defile" himself by getting Anna and her crew to help them get rid of the terrorists holding the students and others hostage in their school. He does it by promising her his underwear. Hilariously, he has to repeatedly scrub himself down with soap to mask his scent and prevent Anna from realizing it's him.
- Going Commando:
- Ayame does it any time she's disguised as Blue Snow, since she actually uses her own panties as a mask. It's also the reason the Decency Squad can't touch her, because it'd risk exposing her naked body in public.
- White Peak wears an entire bodysuit of panties that cover every area, except his junk which is censored in mosaic for comedic effect.
- It's revealed in episode 10 that there are female Decency Squad members who actually don't wear any panties on-duty.
- Groin Attack:
- Used to setup a gender reveal in episode 9, when Tanukichi mistakes Oboro for a panty thief. Tanukichi grabs his legs and stomps directly between them... which is when he realizes Oboro is really a guy.
- Anna does it to a member of Gathered Fabric, during the bus hijacking incident. She beats the poor bastard senseless, then stamps the heel of her shoe right on his nuts. Several male passengers wince and cover their own out of sympathy.
- The Ham Squad: Most of SOX tend to get very hyper when they are working on their heists. Only Tanukichi keeps his composure, but only because he worries too much about getting caught.
- Hollywood Density: Averted when Hyouka notices a woman single-handedly waving a massive gun around and concludes, accurately, that it must be fake.
- Hypocrite:
- Despite all Ayame's "P in V"note and masturbation jokes, she can't handle exposure to the real thing. The series' OP has her panic at the sight of Tanukichi's morning erection and clock him with her schoolbag. And she has a similar reaction when she sees it fully exposed near the end of episode 4.
- Anna insists that her actions toward Tanukichi are "pure and just" because her sheltered upbringing has left her unable to property distinguish between what is, and isn't, proper sexual behavior. She simply assumes she's done nothing wrong by virtue of being a representative of the Public Morals Committee.
- Hypocritical Humor: Done intentionally and unintentionally by Ayame:
- In episode 2, Ayame tells Tanukichi about the first time she defied the Decency Squad, claiming that she got so excited that she had to air out her panties with a blow dryer while standing over a trashcan. Yet, she fails to recognize vaginal fluid when she first sees it in episode 4.
- Despite her penchant for lewd puns and teasing Tanukichi for allegedly having pent-up desires for Anna's body, the sight of an actual erection makes Ayame flee the room in panic. Both suggests that she's likely still a virgin herself.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Anna brings in cookies she made for Ayame and Tanukichi. Ayame's are normal, but Tanukichi's taste a little odd. Anna quickly reveals that she put her "love nectar" into them. Tanukichi is not exactly thrilled.
- Incompatible Orientation:
- Gouriki starts to develop crush on Tanukichi, beginning in episode 3, after seeing him crossdress as a girl. It remains one-sided, since Tanukichi is straight and becomes increasingly attracted to Ayame.
- On the girls' side, Kosuri develops a canonical girl crush on Ayame by episode 12, which Ayame is shown to be uncomfortable with.
- Instant Turn-Off: Tanukichi first met Anna when they were children and he always admired her pureness. After they share an Accidental Kiss in the present day, Anna converts into Yandere nynphomaniac who nearly rapes him on several occasions. As such, he no longer has any feelings for her.
- La Résistance: SOX is only one of several cultural rebel groups who were formed due to the obscenity laws.
- Last Episode, New Character: In a blink-and-you-missed-it moment during the last episode's credits, two characters from the novels that appear much later in the storyline can be seen. Yutori Nureginu (with the purple hair in a ponytail; cover character◊ in the sixth book) and Annie Brown (the blonde with glasses; cover character◊ in the eighth book).
- Let's Get Dangerous!:
- Anna seems ineffectual at first, until it's shown that she's capable of extreme physical feats when motivated. In episode 2, Anna is able to rapidly hoist Tanukichi up a rope without having to brace herself, leap down a flight of stairs, and smash a steel door completely off its hinges.
- Oboro initially doesn't seem like much of a bodyguard either, to where Sophia questions his ability to protect her daughter. The very next scene shows Anna is in safe hands.
- Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: Anna has the hots for Tanukichi, yet she hates his SOX alter ego, not knowing that it's him. However, she instinctively recognizes his scent, which causes Anna to react against her will when she tries to unmask him. She becomes so distraught over her body betraying her feelings for Tanukichi that she leaps off the cliff in tears.
- Literally Falling in Love: Subverted. Tanukichi falling on Anna and accidentally kissing her causes her not only to fall in love but to go batshit crazy as well.
- Love Confession: From Ayame to Tanukichi, though at different points in the anime and light novel. In the former, she does it after they defeat Gathered Fabric; in the latter, it happens much later, just before Ayame is captured and sent to the Hellsound prison. Both of them lack a direct answer by Tanukichi, although he does show feelings for her (particularly in the light novel, where it reaches a point of Everyone Can See It). Also, in the light novels, Anna and Annie both confess their love to Tanukichi before, but they are rejected.
- Love Makes You Crazy:
- Anna's lust for Tanukichi makes her go completely over the top with her behavior, including increasing the severity of moral policing in the school, trying to rape him, and baking him cookies with her vaginal fluid.
- Anna's mother, Sophia, is implied to support the extreme moral laws out of a twisted sense of love for her daughter because she doesn't want to see Anna's purity sullied. She's not happy when she finds out what her laws have actually done to her daughter.
- Loveable Sex Maniac: SOX and other obscenity terrorist groups oppose the Public Morals Committee so the people of Japan can re-educate themselves about sex, and for the simple right to engage in dirty jokes now and then. It's more serious than you think.
- Loving a Shadow:
- Tanukichi is initially attracted to Anna, believing her to be pure and innocent. Ayame tries to warn him about the dangers of idealizing others, but he doesn't listen until he finally sees Anna's hidden side.
- By episode 7, Ayame realizes he's begun to idealize her as well because of her commitment to SOX. So she reminds him that he shouldn't by telling him her goals are selfish.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: The sexually repressed Anna does it right in front of her Lust Object Tanukichi and Ayame during episode 5. She gets so ecstatic from watching Tanukichi eat her cookies, that she starts grinding the edge of the table in the student council's conference room.
- Mr. Fanservice: Oboro has a unique appeal of his own, due to having a woman's face and body,note despite being biologically male. On fan forums and fan art sites, some have said they don't care and would (quote): "still hit it anyway."
- Ms. Fanservice: Ayame's a nubile 17-year-old girl. All it takes is one look at the series' OP and it becomes clear why she's the one featured on the DVD cover and why her Blue Snow persona is used in all the series' marketing material.
- Nailed to the Wagon: Anna develops an addiction for Tanukichi's scent. It gets so bad that after he manages to keep her from stealing his underwear for a week, she begins to suffer clear withdrawal symptoms, up and including getting "the shakes".
- Near-Miss Groin Attack: A moment that ends in this occurs when Ayame is held hostage by Anna with a pair of scissors since she thought Ayame was too close to Tanukichi, which is cleared by them being Just Friends. This ends with Anna leaving Ayame and throwing scissors that very narrowly missed Tanukichi's crotch.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Despite their intentions, the laws put in place by Sophia and her husband have done more harm than good to Japan's citizens, especially where their daughter is concerned. By attempting to shelter Anna from all obscenity, she's been left unable to distinguish love from lust, nor is she able to give proper consent. All of which has left her confused and sexually frustrated, resulting in Anna becoming a sexual predator without her, or her parents, realizing it.
- Kosuri setting off the sprinklers ended up ruining Ayame's plans. It's only after Ayame explains to her that SOX is meant to be a peaceful protest, and seeing Gathered Fabric's leader, that she understands what they were attempting to accomplish. Unfortunately, she does a Face–Heel Turn when she offers to join Gathered Fabric, thinking their way of doing things was "more interesting".
- Nipple and Dimed: All girls' nipples are edited out in the broadcast version. This is averted in the Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD boxset, which is completely uncensored.
- No-Paper Future: While paper is still being used for forms and what-not, it has been mostly rendered obsolete by the PMs. This caused porn on paper to become nearly extinct in Japan - all dirty magazines that the government could find have been destroyed and if someone tries to draw or write new ones, their PM will immediately detect that and alert the authorities. Trying to look up some porn on the net is also impossible since the PMs are also able to scan all the online activity. During the time the series takes place, finding some dirty magazines is equal to discovering a cache of treasure.
- No Romantic Resolution: Played with. As with many light novel series that preserve the Status Quo Is God until the end, there's no official coupling at the end of Shimoneta. However, Ayame does confesses her feelings to Tanukichi in the last volumes, with the attraction being mutual.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Used as Blue Snow's calling card. Tanukichi tries to imitate it whenever he's playing decoy for her.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy:
- Ayame is shown to have a swimsuit model's figure and is usually naked whenever she's disguised as Blue Snow. Yet, Tanukichi never tries to peek under her cloak, despite his growing attraction to her.
- The same is true of Master, the old man who runs the FERLESIO diner. When Ayame celebrates by dancing naked atop one of the tables in episode 2, he merrily strums his ukulele for her instead of perving on her.
- Applies to Tanukichi and Gouriki during episode 12. Half its run time is spent with the main cast in skimpy black lingerie and swimwear, yet none of the guys takes advantage of the situation. They remain focused on defeating "Black Base" instead. The same episodes inverts this with Oboro who, despite being biologically male, has a near identical figure to Ayame. And just like with the girls, no one takes advantage of the eye candy that's on display.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Near the end of Chapter 10, White Peak arranges a meeting with SOX where he tries to convince Ayame that both their factions are fighting for the same cause, and suggests joining forces. But Ayame turns down the offer, recognizing that White Peak only cares about indulging his fetish for women's underwear.
- Not What It Looks Like: In Chapter 10, Ayame walks in on Tanukichi and Oboro in the girls locker room and finds Oboro disheveled on the floor, with Takuckichi holding "her" legs open. Made more incriminating since Oboro's skirt was bunched around her waist and her panties were visibly soaked. Ayame jumps to the obvious conclusion and ducks back outside without saying a word. Naturally, she doesn't believe him when tries to explain what really happened.
- Officially Shortened Title: The original Japanese title, so it's sometimes abbreviated to Shimoseka there.
- One-Word Title: But only for the English version, hence why the fanbase just calls it Shimoneta. The subtitle is actually the translation of the full title in Japanese, as shimoneta means dirty jokes.
- P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: One look at the page imagenote and you'll notice Ayame is front and center, while Tanukichi is in the background, sandwiched between Hyouka and Anna. It's one of the few times you'll see him at all, as most promotional art features Ayame by herself.
- Perverted Drooling:
- In the show's OP, Ayame is shown drooling during the scene where she's using a pair of panties to jerk off a metal bar.
- Anna usually does it whenever she'e lusting after Tanukichi, usually with a Luminescent Blush. She also drools whenever she facesits him.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Going by their names (and the order in which they are written), Anna and her mother are of foreign descent... if their clear blue eyes and platinum hair didn't clue you in. They stand out among the mostly dark hair of the other characters.
- Police Are Useless: Zigzagged. While it's true that the Public Decency Squad can't touch Blue Snow without risk of exposing her body, it should still be easy for them to unmask her identity through her PM scanner, which is exactly how they discovered White Peak's real name in Chapter 11. The fact that she runs around naked also means she'd leave forensic evidence, like toe and fingerprints, wherever she goes. As such, it's fortunate for SOX that the Decency Squad is more like a keystone operation, rather than a conventional task force.
- Political Overcorrectness: The setting is Japan with exaggerated obscenity laws where everything vulgar from fanservice to medical terms is censored, virtually no one in the current generation knows how babies are born, nor do they know the concepts of lust and lewdness. The chief architect of this system makes it her goal in life to "remove all that is dirty from the world."
- Potty Emergency: After Oboro says that toilet paper is potentially lewd, Anna tries very hard to hold back her pee. Once she knocks out a Gathered Fabric terrorist and it's listed as okay again, she grabs a roll and runs off, presumably to a toilet.
- The Power of Lust: After an Accidental Kiss, Anna becomes devoted to doing everything she can to get Tanukichi to love her believing that catching ero-terrorists is what he wants, and she won't let anything get in her way.
- Punny Name:
- Gouriki resembles a gorilla, and others call him that, much to his chagrin.
- The first part of Tanukichi's name sounds similar to "tanooki", a mythical raccoon-like animal that's usually depicted as having huge testicles. Of course, Ayame doesn't fail to point that out.
- If you replace the first "A" in Anna's name with an "o," it becomes "onna," the Japanese word for "woman." But it's also the slang term for a particular sex toynote and her name is phonetically similar (AHN-na). Which makes it a stealth pun, given her extreme desire for Tanukichi to have sex with her.
- Questionable Consent: Discussed between Ayame and Tanukichi in episode 5 when Ayame says that he should be happy now that he knows Anna wants him to screw her. Tanukichi retorts that he doesn't want Anna just for her body, especially since she's clueless about sex, nor can she tell what her real feelings are.
- The Real Spoofbusters: In episode 6, Anna chases Tanukichi around the school in repeat attempts to get his love nectar. Including one instance where she's seen with a vacuum cleaner strapped to her back like a Proton Pack, while he clings to a pipe outside the building.
- Repression Never Ends Well: Anna's parents made it a mission to shelter her from any and all sexual obscenities, unaware that their actions were causing severe damage to their daughter's mental and emotional health. When Tanukichi accidentally kisses her, he inadvertently unleashes all the repressed urges within Anna, turning her into a psychotic and violent sexual predator with eyes only for him.
- Rescue Romance: A minor one in episode 3, after Tanukichi instinctively rushes out to protect Anna from one of her stalkers. They then share an Accidental Kiss, and she starts developing all sorts of weird feelings for him, and begins pursuing him so aggressively that it actually turns him off.
- Rewatch Bonus: The sudden awakening of Anna's hormones is usually attributed to the accidental kiss between her and Tanukichi. However, if you rewatch the scene, you'll notice it wasn't the kiss alone that did it. His knee is seen brushing against her nether region, which causes her thigh to twitch in response. After Tanukichi runs away, Anna is seen lightly rubbing herself in the same spot, though her hand motion is obscured by the folds of her dress.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Ayame occasionally does this when her true self shows through while she's acting her part as the vice president of the student council.
- Secret Identity Change Trick: Ayame has a variation where she doesn't even change into Blue Snow. She just has Tanukichi crossdress and pretend to be her.
- Series Mascot:
- Ayame is the face of the series, as seen in the anime's cover art and its promotional material, usually in her Blue Snow disguise.
- The closest they have, in-universe, would be the coral snake eel-thing - the other one we've seen, the orange dog in a white uniform, is actually the Decency Squad's own mascot!
- Serious Business: While the series' premise is mainly played for laughs, considering all sex related material (including basic sex ed) has been banned for the last 16 years, leaving the average citizen ignorant about how to reproduce and, in light of Japan's steadily declining birth rate, it's no wonder the obscenity terrorists are so passionate about reclaiming the right to sex related material.
- Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: Of the oblivious variety, as the suppression of sexual expression leads to people acting out. Some do so innocently (Ayame), while others go yandere (Anna).
- Sexy Discretion Shot: During the furo scene in episode 12, the water conceals the moment Anna 69's with Tanukichi. She dunks his head before sitting on his face, then dips hers underwater and performs oral sex on him.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Ayame in her Blue Snow persona. She only wears a sheet with nothing under it and a pair of panties as a mask. This is justified in that her lack of clothes makes the Decency Squad unwilling to touch her, because if she winds up exposed they'd be breaking even more obscenity laws.
- Share the Male Pain: After Anna does a Groin Attack on the Gathered Fabric terrorist on the bus, several of the men on the bus immediately wince in pain and grab their crotch as well.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Saotome used to have a crush on Anna, but after seeing the latter sexually assault Tanukichi, Saotome would much rather see them together. It gives her live models and new sex positions to work with for her drawings. So she fully supports Anna bagging him and will even rat him out when he's trying to hide from her.
- Ayame often teases Tanukichi about Gouriki's obvious crush on him and gets excited at the prospect of them going all the way, though he vehemently objects each time. In episode 9, he's shocked to learn that Saotome and Ayame have collaborated on a doujinshi series about them. It becomes so popular with the female students, that it quickly spawns nine volumes.
- Short Title: Long, Elaborate Subtitle: With a One-Word Title short title. But only for the English version, hence why the fanbase just calls it Shimoneta. The subtitle is actually the translation of the full title in Japanese, as shimoneta means dirty jokes.
- Shout-Out: Has its own page.
- Something Else Also Rises: If not censored, sexual arousal is usually represented with a visual metaphor, like a seal or during Blue Snow "show" a breaking dam, an erupting volcano, a launching rocket and a fire-spitting godzilla.
- Spit Take: This happens to Tanukichi when there are dirty punchlines involved:Ayame: Just as I thought, you're a boy great at taking big bullshits! (Episode 1)Hyouka: Can children be created by a man thrusting his cucumber into another man's discharge pipe? (Episode 4)
- Spoiler Opening: The opening reveals that SOX will fight White Peak and his followers, but they're not introduced until after several episodes.
- Squick: Gouriki causes an in-universe reaction when he's forced to strip during the bus hijacking incident. The sight of him wearing his little sister's bra and panties makes everyone onboard vomit.
- Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: Anna's relentless pursuit of Tanukichi is one of the series' main sources of comedy. She's done everything from staking out his apartment, to quite literally chasing him around the halls at school because she fails to realize that she terrifies him.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Anna's sheltered upbringing, along with her newly awakened hormones, has left her unable to recognize her body's desires for what they really are, or how to properly vent her urges. This causes her to become a sexual predator without realizing it.
- Japan's youth no longer has any understanding of how human reproduction works, since their government has prohibited even basic sex ed from being taught at schools, for almost two decades.
- Technical Euphemism: Defied. The draconian obscenity laws in this universe's Japan bans medical terms and slangs equally for certain parts of the body.
- Theme Music Power-Up: The 11th episode culminates in SOX teaming up with Anna and Oboro to fight White Peak. He seems unbeatable until Kosuri loosens her restraints and Oboro charges in, allowing the two of them to break his stun gun. Cue the opening theme song "B-Chiku Sentai SOX" kicking in as the two rival factions turn the tide against White Peak.
- Too Hot for TV: Much of the dialog and nudity in the broadcast version is heavily censored for comedy and to meet Japanese/American television standards. The Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD set is not, showing all nipples, expletives, and Anna's "Love Nectar".
- Underestimating Badassery: Tanukichi, Ayame, and Sophia have all made the mistake of assuming Oboro is clueless, but he has his job as head of the Decency Prefects and as Anna's personal bodyguard for a reason.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Tanukichi used to be in love with Anna when he thought she was unattainable. However, after she discovers her hormones and starts pursuing him, it shatters his ideal image of her. Now he's terrified of her.
- Unusual Euphemism: To get around the censorship on their speech, students have come up with a number of creative ways to refer to anything sexual.
- Visual Pun: A later episode has Ayame sit on Kosuri as she squirms around on a bench, causing Kosuri to inadvertently crush a milk carton with her head. Except Ayame's sitting position, along with Kosuri's legs extending from beneath her skirt, makes it appear Ayame has a huge penis and is ejaculating on Tanukichi's lap.
- Vomit Chain Reaction: In episode 10, when the buses are hijacked, Gouriki puts off his clothes and he's seen wearing some bra and panties. This causes the whole bus to vomit one by one, even the driver.
- We Have Become Complacent: The Decency Squad wasn't prepared for Gathered Fabric terrorists hijacking 42 buses after keeping a peaceful public order for at least a decade.
- Weirdness Censor: Nobody seems to bat an eye when Tanukichi gets knocked out with sleeping gas from his shoe locker.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gathered Fabric attempts to view themselves this way, saying that their actions are in support of what SOX is doing. But SOX members view what they're doing as just being perverted instead of the peaceful protesting they've been doing, as Ayame doesn't go so far as to hurt people.
- Wham Episode: At the end of Episode 4, Anna snaps and tries to rape Tanukichi.
- Wholesome Crossdresser:
- Tanukichi occasionally has to play decoy for Ayame by wearing a wig and nurse's uniform. He also wound up having to disguise himself as a girl, while undercover to protect Anna from a group of stalkers.
- Played straight with Oboro, since he's been ordered to do so by Anna's parents, as part of his job to protect their daughter.
- Wingding Eyes: When Anna and Tanukichi accidentally kiss, her eyes get five different hearts in them.
- Word Salad Title: Next to SOX, there are some other obscenity terrorist organizations, one of which is called the "Bacon Lettuce Moms", which seems to be just a random combination of words (though BL stands for boy's love/yaoi).
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Used when the students go to the forest to look for the printed porn material during the voting in episode 5. The Decency Squad has quite a few guards at the forest. They seem to initially stop the students, until Hyouka tells the girls to initiate the plan she covered with them. The girls all immediately approach the guards, claiming that the boys were being indecent. Once the guards all chase away after the boys, the girls then proceed to look for the porn.
- Yandere: Anna turns into a stalker in episode 4. Episode 5 makes it worse with her rather disturbing advances and threats against Ayame, who manages to survive the situation by making it worse for Tanukichi.
- Yaoi Fangirl:
- In one episode, Hyouka and the student body appear in Big Damn Heroes fashion in search of a porn stash hidden in a forest. They had been alerted to its existence by a bunch of lewd material distributed by SOX. Amongst the students are some girls hoping to find more yaoi like those in the materials spread around the school.
- Hyouka herself turns out to be one later on, desperately begging Tanukichi not to burn a yaoi doujin she found.
- Another female obscenity terrorist Ayame allies herself with shares her stash of yaoi with Ayame and co. The group's name is Bacon Lettuce Moms.
- Many of the girls at the school admit that seeing how friendly Goriki has become with Tanukichi makes their hearts flutter.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The government dubs "Blue Snow" and the SOX organization as obscenity terrorists, whereas the students fully support the SOX organization for liberating them from repressive sexual laws.
