My new AniTAY.org articles

Doctorkev said:
He has a predisposition towards drawing cute child (or at least child-like) characters placed in potentially problematic situations that would unlikely fly today for the average anime production committee.
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You uh, think anime has gotten less lolicious of late?

Glad you enjoyed revisiting Bean at any rate. At least I think you enjoyed it, I find myself entirely unbothered by any potentially “questionable” content in… Fiction in general really. Sonoda is one of the greats imho and Bean is a great watch not just on its own but as a proto-GSC, it’s really interesting to me to see how he developed the characters over time.
 
ayase said:
You uh, think anime has gotten less lolicious of late?
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No, recent anime still has an issue with sexualising childlike characters, but rarely so overtly or as creepily as in Sonoda’s works. His underage characters are often placed into very upsetting situations where they are abused by adults with power over them. This is a bit different to the usual supposed 200-year-old elves/vampires/whatever who just happen to look like 12-year-olds. Mind you, Gushing Over Magical Girls this year didn’t just skirt boundaries so much as gleefully crash through all of them.
 
Doctorkev said:
No, recent anime still has an issue with sexualising childlike characters, but rarely so overtly or as creepily as in Sonoda’s works. His underage characters are often placed into very upsetting situations where they are abused by adults with power over them.
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Even putting differences in taste aside, I would consider it something of a mischaracterisation of Sonoda's work to suggest it's either particularly remarkable or extreme in this regard. I'd hardly put Riding Bean or Gunsmith Cats on the same level as something like Kite or even Elfen Lied or Made in Abyss, all of which I enjoy while still recognising that the content could make some people uncomfortable. Sonoda's work, by comparison, I'd consider so tame it wouldn't even occur to me to offer potential readers/viewers a content warning like I might with those other series. To my recollection Minnie May (whatever her true age may be) was always depicted as being in control of her own sexuality rather than portrayed as a victim. As for Goldie or Semmerling's girls, I think the worst you ever actually see is them getting smacked around a bit (which is no worse than the adult characters get). In either case, those subjects take up no more than a handful of the thousands of pages of one of (if not the) best action manga in existence. It's not like there are constant scenes of young girls getting creepily lusted over or sexually assaulted.

Don't get me wrong Kev, it's not my intention to pick a fight to defend my own degeneracy or Sonoda's honour here, anyone (yourself included) is welcome to think what they like of either as far as I'm concerned. I just can't bring myself to let that part in bold slide because I think it has the potential to give people completely the wrong idea about Sonoda's work.
 
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