UK Anime Distributor Crunchyroll/Funimation/Manga UK Discussion Thread

[Otomo]

Dress-Up Darling's complaints iirc were the result of / peoples loathing the idea of an attractive female cosplaying, amirita? Activism groups like Sweet Baby and their ilk are utterly toxic. Fan-service to the newer breed of 'anime fans' - specifically influencers on podcasts etc - is a relic of the past that needs correcting. But yes, Darling has some fan service/male gaze. It's also a series about cosplaying both genders can enjoy, as u found. Not seen S2 either--think they toned it down somewhat?
I stay away from social media; mainly as I am not social, 'innit. 'Tis saddening... butt even I heard tell of some of the nonsense 'neu fans' have had spill out, such as when they discovered Berserk exists and highlighted their disgust at its sexism. Or more recently with Frieren, where her willingless to kill demons instead of humanising them is wrong, because diversity is our strength. Despite an example of inviting one with upon arms going tits up. 'Tis silly.

Social messaging I was mostly referring to modern gaming, allah Sony's strict policy on replacing all male leads with lesbian women, and making said women be as masculine/unattractive as possible, which is also a thing on Netflix/TV/movies and rarely as you say done well, or put in naturally vs a checklist. In anime it's not yet got to that point. In some media tho it's got to point where would rather not engage with, lest be lectured. I pay monies to be entertained, not 'educated'. My politics are less anything against the left than 'let me enjoy what I enjoy, or sod off'. I think?...

PS: I concur your oddly cat-eyed Shinji would've made a better... tee. 'Tis a nice drawing; one you should send to the Nier director that is doing the remake.
I guess it's better than wearing this, though. Less is more vs one derpy manga panel, maybe?... I must go, for my lasagna awaits. Farewell.

View attachment 45888



Truly, you move meeee by being so... innocent whilst wearing the mask of Golgo 13, and praising MANn. That you spend your time typing about squeezing joy out of perverted and/or isekai anime... despite typing so few words that you could very well be role-playing as Golgo himself! 'Tis this - for want of better phrasing - 'gap moe' that makes you such an enigma to me, Oto-chan. That and our shared affinity for Ayase typing too much/not shutting up that makes us kindred spirits. Almost. Alas, I cannot trust your opinion on comedy, as a man that doesn't laugh: Suba dropped, with nary a mention of Prison School--for shame.

...Given you may genuinely be unaware, allow meee to explain it to you like this: imagine (if you are not, that is) yourself as a woman. One with sexy appeal (protip: you are meant to stroke instead of squeeze, regardless of gender: it ain't ketchup.) Naturally, you do what most such womens do nowadays, and make an OnlyFans account. But no one cares as there are millions of such womens. How should one gain more attention, and more monies, you ask yourself? The answer: go to where men go en masse; wearing as little as possible. BUT WAIT: you'd get arrested and/or sexually assaulted doing so!... that is, unless you go to a fan convention to cosplay as anime/game characters. What's more, you could make Yoko from TTGL no longer be 14yo/legal~ Now do you understand, Oto?

No, you can not actually pay for sex.
PS: @HellCat 2m9s

I didn't want my list to be too long.
I did miss Prison School and Monster Musume off the list. Probably others.

Use of the word squeeze. It was innocent. After posting, I re-read, Oops but decided to leave as is to expose the preverts.

Very interesting video. Cheers.

 

[Aion (Retired)]

Use of the word squeeze. It was innocent. After posting, I re-read, Oops but decided to leave as is to expose the preverts.

Very interesting video. Cheers.

No problem.
Here's another video for you, in response to exposing perverts.
It's also a very interesting video.
Thank you.
xxx

 

[Demelza]

But yes, Darling has some fan service/male gaze.

I would personally hesitate to call it male gaze when the author is a woman and many of the key players when it came to the anime were also women (and very excited to draw all of those scenes!)

 

[Aion (Retired)]

I would personally hesitate to call it male gaze when the author is a woman and many of the key players when it came to the anime were also women (and very excited to draw all of those scenes!)

Recall my currently AWOL friend (who gifted me the series, as happens) mentioned the author is a woman. As they(?) say, women tend to be more smutty than men when push comes to shove. At least in non-hentai manga~

Was thinking of one specific scene when mentioned male gaze: 'tis early on S1, when Marin basically in skimpy underwear, having Gojo measure her... with her somehow oblivious to the fact he's a guy she barely knows and she's in his room. Although one could argue it was fan-service from both sides--it perhaps being cute for the other half seeing Gojo react as does. He's rather effeminate as male charas goeth, and I'm assuming designed to be fun to tease. It did however feel a tad targeted at my s, still. Expected it to be a tad more sensual than... ta-da, I suppose, if not homed in on males.

Didn't know the animation staff consisted heavily of women. Can imagine they enjoyed the hotel bed scene and more... steamy bits, in particular. Am I right in thinking there were less of those type of scenes in S2? Think I was reliably informed that the manga itself had less vs it being just the anime. Or something.

 

[Demelza]

Didn't know the animation staff consisted heavily of women. Can imagine they enjoyed the hotel bed scene and more... steamy bits, in particular. Am I right in thinking there were less of those type of scenes in S2? Think I was reliably informed that the manga itself had less vs it being just the anime. Or something.

Yeah I would say there’s nothing as bold as that scene from earlier on in the series that you mention and posted the clip of above. It still has its moments of course, but I think it just had a lot more focus on other stuff and the particular cosplays they were working on weren’t as skimpy.

 

[cfx]

The whole "male gaze" thing is just more nonsense to belittle men for being and feeling what nature intends and attempt to make them feel ashamed for even existing. I am personally sick of it.

 

[Aion (Retired)]

Yeah I would say there’s nothing as bold as that scene from earlier on in the series that you mention and posted the clip of above. It still has its moments of course, but I think it just had a lot more focus on other stuff and the particular cosplays they were working on weren’t as skimpy.

Good to know. I must confess I found the rom-com scenarios and fan-service derived from cosplaying more amusing than the 'dress up' aspect itself. Was mostly curious though if the anime was toned down or the manga focused on cosplaying more intricate outfits. The latter it is.
Marin was appealing to me (for obvious reasons), where as Gojo always came across a bit... too much from the female perspective, perhaps. Iuno. Marin felt more authentic, 'male gaze' or what have you aside. Was convincing with her love of cosplaying and the energy she put into. As well as the moments where she became embarrassed blushing from cheek-to-cheek, like her brain switched between irl/cosplay at times.

The whole "male gaze" thing is just more nonsense to belittle men for being and feeling what nature intends and attempt to make them feel ashamed for even existing. I am personally sick of it.

Ye, you tell 'em, brohime: row, row, fight the power! Just uuuuu wait until I tell you about manspreading on public transport--the nerve of some women, not understanding we need extra space, lest we crush ourselves. 'Tis enough to make one's blood boil...

 

[zrdb]

My theory is that sony came to Kleckner and he was starting to have doubts about the viability of Rightstuf and sony told him you can let us buy you out and you can retire or we'll run you out of business. So guess what choice Kleckner made? Basically he tucked his tail between his legs and ran away like the scared mangy cur he is leaving all the faithful RS customers holding the bag.

A the risk of repeating myself the final dissolution of Rightsuf has occured and a lot of posts over at ANN concur with my own opinion and Kleckner DID leave all the RS customers literally holding the bag. RIP RS-you were the best place to buy anime on the internet by far.

 

[sirijo]

Yeah I would say there’s nothing as bold as that scene from earlier on in the series that you mention and posted the clip of above. It still has its moments of course, but I think it just had a lot more focus on other stuff and the particular cosplays they were working on weren’t as skimpy.

Can't remember the episode (maybe 6?) but when Gojou walks in on the other cosplayer girl (who has a very young look) who for no real reason is taking a bath in his house I nearly bailed on the series. It doesn't serve the plot, or develop the characters.

The measuring scene, while presented in an alluring way, at least shows that Marin is a bit of a doofus not initially recognising the position she is putting herself in, or the pressure she is putting on Gojou. It reinforces how subservient he is and unaware of normal social etiquette and so is following along not out of perversion but because he isn't sure how to deescalate the situation. It's also an early opportunity in the show to demonstrate that they have some natural chemistry with each other. Also kudos to our main man for trying to act professional in this utterly bizarre scenario and not take advantage.

 

[Suzu]

The whole "male gaze" thing is just more nonsense to belittle men for being and feeling what nature intends and attempt to make them feel ashamed for even existing. I am personally sick of it.

The male gaze is the act of depicting women in media from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer. It presents women as passive sexual objects meant for male visual pleasure rather than as autonomous individuals. Male gaze is not about shaming men for finding a female character sexy or shaming men for feeling attraction towards a female character. I say this all as a woman who is attracted to women (and men) and my taste in media has sometimes been accused of being "male-gazey".

As a woman it is at times quite tiring to see female characters being reduced into just "hot bodies" and flat eye candy instead of real people with deep stories, feelings and goals. It's especially eye rolling and degrading when in anime a female character is introduced boobs or ass first before we see her face.

I am not saying that My Dress Up Darling does any of this, I have not seen it so I can't comment on it. It seems like a fun cute show.

I would personally hesitate to call it male gaze when the author is a woman and many of the key players when it came to the anime were also women (and very excited to draw all of those scenes!)

Female artists can frame female characters through an objectifying lens if they rely on conventional, patriarchal storytelling tropes. Again, I am not saying My Dress Up Darling does this, I can't comment on a show I have not seen, I just wanted to correct that female creators can participate in or perpetuate the male gaze.

 

[Aion (Retired)]

Silky & smooth~​

SIR Joe: Spread eaglin' didn't help that particular scene muchly. Forgot about it (and the middle eps tbh) as side characters in rom-coms are generally there to stall main duo development. Vaguely recall Marin fawning over the loli, like Sena did in Boku Friendship... and little else. Tying into what you said about no other reason be there, her chara felt like a filler addition. That and I prefer Sheryl to Ranka, as a rule. Ami>Taiga, yo. Etc.
But I digress: 'tis a more a typical ecchi contrivance - walking in on a girl in a bathroom, them falling over/into etc - although what I noted with the measuring scene was similarish: that had a literal first-person view (via male eyes; gazing~) sexualised tidbit... which is ofc a wee bit more likely to stimulate men as men be mostly simple/easy to please in that regard: "Ta-da!" being a highly effective tictac, in particular.

When typed briefly yet... err, longly? to Demezilla about female authors doing seinen (/Adabanana), think it came up amidst some confusion over my wording how the demographic vs gender differences have some built-in quirks. Ze passun for costume designing, along with Marin's personality prob come across so well 'cause of the author not being a man, thus appealing to both genders. Yet it's still a seinen work, so it's going to add-in things that will attract men more so, ie . Whilst appealing to shoujo/josei people. Her teasing/feeling safe around mostly plays into the comedy; Gojo not exactly a man's man or the type to take advantage--he's most assuredly a male a woman would create. Or at least that's how he comes across to meeee.

----------​

PS: Opened Pandora's boxy, 'ere. For clarity, only mentioned ze dreaded "male gaze" because I instinctively knew that would've come up as criticism on . They need a reason to complain, ie anime bad/men bad due to the fan-service. I'd prefer if more series were made for mine eyes, as that's kindasorta the whole point of escapism... as opposed to being shamed for enjoying things that target men and those things then being tainted as 'bad' by people with an agenda (those people are to fun what vampires are to humans). Stellar Blade a good non-anime example.

Darling happens to be an interesting case study as A) woman creator, B) women tend to be into clothing design/cosplaying & C) it still targets the male demographic as a seinen title, sometimes very directly. With that added, ima take my leave.