Sexism In Anime

I'm reminded of this one guy from Akame ga Kill whose name I forget (Budo? Ludo?). On one hand, they do go the "he likes men and that's weird" route, but on the other, he's a vastly competent fighter and, surprisingly, he and the male lead become really close.

But he dies...Okay, plenty of characters die in Akame ga Kill, but he's still dead.

edited 6th Jan '18 5:05:05 AM by Ikedatakeshi

Some pages ago someone said Ruki isnt the rival to Takato. Yet SHE IS! Why do you think its her Blue Digivice that's used in the anniversary tribute toys? Ruki is major rival material.

BTW Ruki is Rika.

You kinda defeated the purpose of your own post by mentioning that several other characters die in the series.

So I just binged through Otouto no Otto (My Brother's Husband), 21 chapters only! What a shame! This story tugs at my heartstrings! The characters are lovable! I wanna see more! It's like Steven Universe without fantasy elements, sort of. I get the same kind of heart-opening, raw-yet-warm feeling. I miss that!

@Lyendith

I have no answer to your question which was kinda my point. I have no idea how we go about categorizing people if souls have inherently male or female properties. What does male or female even mean in a spiritual sense? That's a big ol' bag of worms.

But at least within the confines of this particular fiction, the soul in the main male character belonged to a being that was explicitly created to be female as she and her brother were created to split the power of the original created being, Adam Kadmon.

But yeah, I have no idea how female representation or LGBT representation might be effected, if it's effected at all, by reincarnation in the work. It's a very interesting topic though.

edited 6th Jan '18 5:40:28 AM by Nikkolas

True, but he's still wasn't significant to the story. More of a Sacrificial Lamb than an actual character.

Even so, you could say that about pretty any much character that isn't Akame or the male lead.

Yeah, I'm not sure that Bury Your Gays complaints really apply in a series that's notorious for killing of 90% of its characters.

That I can agree with. But on the other hand it just means it's part of a bigger problem with the series.

Is this Akame Ga Kill show worth looking into? I watched the first episode and wasn't hooked... What's the real story about? What's the purpose, theme, mood?

Yes, there is a trend to downplay female rivals in manga & anime, although with that specific case in Digimon, it might be more of a merch issue than a problem in the source material.

And of course I should specify that this is more of an issue in shounen, Seinen and kodomo (children's) than in shoujo or josei.

It's also evolved over time, from when there just weren't any female rivals, to "girl wants to be a rival, is a joke", to "female rival quickly undergoes High-Heel–Face Turn, becomes part of hero's support cast", to "female rival does well at beginning, but is soon left behind due to power escalation" to "female rival stays in series but male hero never really takes her as seriously as male rivals." And the rare instance where a girl or woman stays a relevant rival all the way through, such as Iron Wok Jan.

Eh, you can skip it entirely, to be honest. It's one of those shows that tries to be edgy but just comes off as juvenile. You aren't missing anything by not watching, really.

edited 6th Jan '18 6:30:27 AM by PhysicalStamina

A bunch of quirky assassins that have some sort of dark backstories carrying out missions given out by the rebellion and victims of one-dimensional evil fodder. The villains also have a quirky team tasked to arrest them, who also have dark backstories and are obviously mirroring the protagonist. Lots of death on either side but it's pretty obvious who was going to die and all deaths are either meant to be cathartic or shallow attempts at being Tear Jerkers. Gratuitous amount of rape and murder to attempt at being edgy, but still make the protagonist a bland Shonen protagonist.

edited 6th Jan '18 6:36:37 AM by Ikedatakeshi

Oh, that's worse than boring, that's disappointing.

The first episode didn't really raise expectations, so I can't say I understand what you mean.

Well, no, but when I hear "90% of the cast gets killed", I think Berserk or Attack on Titan or Bokurano or Fate. You know, real drama. Mostly.

"Attack on Titan or Bokurano" "Real Drama"

A series that I can't take seriously anymore because literally everyone is a titan shifter and a series thats so pointlessly nihilistic about the Mecha genre I can't even take it seriously either.

Yeah, no.

Can't say much about Bokurano since I didn't watched it, but I assume you've only watched the anime for Attack on Titan?

Read the manga too.

I think the most recent chapters ruined it for me, honestly.

Fair enough.

Back on topic, are there any bisexual men in anime?

I've read some distance past it into the Manga, then eventually lost interest. I got a bit of a Franchise Zombie feeling, to be honest. Once the Main Characters were properly established and it was clear the had Plot Armor, the hook got lost.

But the Battle of Trost and the effort to retake Wall Maria are some of the most intense and memorable Anime moments I remember. When Eren reached out to his dying mother, it was heartbreaking. When Eren pulled Armin out of that titan and got swallowed instead, I thought he was done for, in an incredibly noble sacrifice. When he emerged as a Titan and started wrecking shit, it was so cathartic. When Armin made that speech so that his team wouldn't get a bunch of cannonballs to the face, I cried a bit. It was beautiful.

Bokurano, I wouldn't call it nihilistic, exactly. It's more of an exploration of how one deals with absolute certain death, and the choices one makes in that moment. You know, The Last Dance meets What You Are in the Dark. Will you Face Death with Dignity? Will you sacrifice another Universe for the sake of one where you won't get to live? So, existentialist, really.

For comparison, Narutaru amounted to "don't bully, traumatize, or harass people, you never know when they'll have power over you and whether they'll be noble enough not to abuse it".

There are, but most of them are Depraved. See Griffith, Patron God of Betrayal, Using People, Shallow Goals, Misplaced Pride, and Spiteful Resentment.

edited 6th Jan '18 7:43:08 AM by TheHandle

x5 Hey, just a reminder: it's against forum rules to post just to complain about something. To quote from this thread:

Yuuri from Yuri!!! on Ice?

...I don't think that's the topic of this thread... is it?

Why does this thread still exist?

Japan's cultural norms allow for rampant forms of sexism and they're not exactly shy about it. Hasn't that been established?

edited 6th Jan '18 8:14:42 AM by Soble