Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Is Incest Such A Common Topic In Anime?
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Ggultra2764
 Subscriber Posts: 3876 Location: New York state. |
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Would agree with this to some degree, though many said titles often avoid tackling the issue directly by having the family members in question be stepsiblings, reincarnated lovers, adopted, or some other gimmick to make it more palatable to its audience. Also as many who have seen it would comment on, Koi Kaze would be the exception to this industry standard since it is more grounded in reality and doesn't fetishize the relationship in question as many otaku-geared titles tend to do. In regards to cousin relationships, I was under the assumption that many European and Asian countries had no issues with them since birth defects have a very low chance of happening if cousins procreated thus not being too frowned upon when incorporated into anime storylines. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4426 |
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Which is similar to what Justin said about the practice occurring in small, rural villages. With that and royalty, the list of available/acceptable marriage candidates would be small enough that after multiple generations there is an increased likelihood that two people are at least somewhat related. I knew about the old cousin-cousin marriages, but the widower-daughter thing is news to me. I also had no idea that the potential genetic risks were considered a common problem, or that the practice was prevalent enough that people would look at it as a possible cause of common health issues. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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As for why it's so popular in non-historical current anime, that's a little less traditional and more about the reason we get other tropes in boys' anime, like harems or marriage contracts:
Japanese boys usually have curiosity about girls, but with less chance to socialize at school, either have no interest in giving up sports/activities for them, or just plain panic. Hence, the presiding fantasy is to be involved with a girl without the terrifying experience of having to actually ask one out. And to look for the girl you have an instant comfortable rapport with--someone who already has a familiar idea of your personality without having to go through those awkward first stages of having to figure each other out--the fantasy of an adoring little sister who's known you and shared experiences with you since childhood (hence the "childhood friends" also showing up in romance anime), and/or can also tease you platonically without harm, seems like the ideal "training wheels" if one was so lucky as to have it in real life. Under the right circumstances, it can even start to seem like a preferable fantasy compared to the real-life battles. A boy's best friend is his sister, or so they believe. As for girls, the idea of having a dreamy, sensitive, protective older brother who understands you immediately and can charm you without seeming threatening in any more advanced relationship, also seems like the "safer" option to dream about. There's good unhealthy fear on both sides, so it's all even. |
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donhumberto
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This. Absolutely this. I mean, it's pretty obvious that your average otaku is basically terrified of real women (probably that's also why most female characters in anime look, sound and, many times, act as little girls), so it kinda makes sense for them to fantasize that their imouto is in love with them |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2945 Location: Email for assistance only |
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I don't think so since the same concept is present in a lot of creation myths, including Greek and, arguably, Christian. |
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Parsifal24
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I always find it interesting when discussions about Incest in Japanese pop culture come up someone will without fail defend incest under the concept of "consenting adults" or as long as no children come the union. Fiction is one thing realty something else entirely,
I've also heard one theory that the idea of the little sister big brother relationship. Comes partially from the practice of noble families raising girls for their sons to marry. I've heard it called the Hikaru Genji Plan after the protagonist in The Tale of Genji |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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You're a product of the 21st Century... I can't speak to Japan, but keep in mind that the idea that humans and animals are made of the same "stuff" is (historically speaking) relatively new. Until the work of Mendel and Darwin in the 19th century, they were essentially considered separate orders of beings (a concept enshrined in the Christian Bible). So it's really no surprise that the Japanese didn't figure it out until it was pointed out to them... We ourselves (here in the West) had only recently begun to figure it out. The Mejii restoration and the Mendelian and Darwinian revolutions were practically simultaneous events. In the same way, the nobility and the commoners were considered separate orders ("corruption of the blood" writ large) on much the same (illogical) basis. And again, it wasn't until practically the 20th century that it began to be understood that the differences were based not on nature - but on nurture. (Upbringing, access to nutrition, access to education, access to what passes for medical care.) That was the point of George Bernard Shaw's 1912 play Pygmalion (perhaps better known as My Fair Lady) - that there was essentially no actual differences between the classes and the whole idea of "pure blood" was so much nonsense. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2862 |
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to add to the pyramid, it came to a point that when the ope forbid incest for marriages they were out of people to marry and had to get married to asian monarchies (becuase god forbid they married a commoner) |
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GracieLizzy
 Posts: 551 Location: Sunderland, England, UK |
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Can't vouch for mainland Europe but it is frowned on the UK, however it is not illegal. |
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TenCentFang
Posts: 31 |
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I think "why do otaku like incest" and "why does incest exist so much in Japanese works specifically" are two different questions. If the comforting familiarity of a sibling making romance less awkward was all there was to it, you'd think it'd be more of a worldwide theme among geeky outcasts. I think this Answerman does a good job of explaining how that particular quirk's ball got rolling in the first place.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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Just to be clear, I am not hypothezing that otaku are lusting after their imoutos in RL (if they have any). I'm sure the taboo/fetish aspect may be an attraction for some, but my theory is that the attraction to the incest trope actually has very little to do with incest itself, but rather it's attraction as a scenario where the viewer does not have to "worry" about watching a character try to woo a regular female. I don't know if I'm making myself clear, but my thought is that an otaku thinks, "hey, it's nice to see a couple in a relationship but, oh my god, the thought of watching a character approach a female who might scorn him is really anxiety-making ... oh wait, here is a scenario where a younger sister, naturally enough, loves and respects her older brother ... yes, I can watch this relationship unfold without feeling anxious." |
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johnnysasaki
Posts: 925 |
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ironically,now Japanese media is forced to be more careful with how they portray incest thanks to that Tokyo Law,just look at what happened to Aki-Sora.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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Well, my theory is that Japanese otakus suffer from a greater degree of social anxiety around females than virtually any other national group of nerds and geeks. A lot of Japanese society is specifically organized to avoid conflict and or social embarrassment (which is basically the same thing, I suspect, in their eyes). In other words the social anxiety experienced by Japanese otaku is even stronger than that of non-Japanese nerds, which would explain why the "soothing" aspect of an incest relationship isn't as sought out in other geekdoms. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Again, the prevailing trope of boys' romance/comedy is that the girl is ALREADY THERE, in your house, in a nice comfortably flirty, but for the moment responsibly platonic, full-time live-in relationship, and she's not going to be walking out on you any time soon. Either she's sleeping in your closet, contractually forced to share the apartment under dire threat of consequences, or, well...she's just always been there. The third is usually more real-world believable, if you're not doing a fantasy premise for a romance concept. Boys don't know how to be Responsible, and be comforting or supporting without someone to practice on, and Girls don't have the experience yet that someone older and more experienced can be protective and understanding of you WITHOUT being scary. This would be the fantasy of the Imouto/Onii-san, whereas in most comedies, the boys' older sister is a gleeful teasing provocateur with a marked sadistic streak. (Which is a little closer to real-world situations.) |
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1790 |
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This was pretty informative as I've heard snippets of info similar to this here and there but never in a post focused about it. That said it still comes off as pretty annoying whenever the trope does pop up because it's more often than not used as a flavor thing than an actual narrative device (and even then most of what I've seen ins just plain bad.)
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