Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is Back Street Girls: Gokudols Worth Watching?
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yuricon
 Posts: 145 |
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Thank you Andy and Steve. I have not watched this anime, nor am I likely to, now, but I just want to say that this was legitimately one of the best reviews excoriating a piece of crap that deserved it that I have ever read. Funny, pained, better suggestions at the end. Well done.
Cheers, Erica |
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gedata
 Posts: 615 |
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I still don't understand what really makes this offensive inherently (maybe specific jokes, but not so much for just the premise), but it's shoddily made in a way that makes me not really keen on standing in its corner.
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AnimeLordLuis
 Posts: 1626 Location: The Borderlands of Pandora |
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Back Street Girls was definitely one of the funniest anime series that I’ve ever watched couldn’t stop laughing from start to finish and I definitely recommend this series to everyone who actually has a sense of humor.
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Shar Aznabull
 Posts: 236 |
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So all this hubbub got me interested and I decided to watch the first episode out of curiosity and uh... did we watch the same show?
I'm not exactly the most educated on the matter so please forgive me for any ignorance, but there an awful lot of buzzwords like "transphobic" and "harmful" being thrown around here without much explanation and I'm not seeing much of that. The main joke is that they're idols who were former yakuza, the sex change aspect is barely brought up so far. For all it matters it could have been an isekai setup. Granted I'm only one episode in, so maybe it really does it get disturbing and problematic, but it even seems to be pretty supportive of the idea that your physical sex and your gender are not the same as we see with the yakuza's... predicament (for lack of a better word). They certainly do not identify as women despite the state of their bodies. As far as I can see there's nothing really attacking actual transexuality. At worst I could maybe say it's ignorant on the matter. Maybe any sort of depiction of transexuality in anything but a supportive light can be considered harmful in today's hostile society? I don't know, and I'm not exactly the most well equipped to answer that. But personally I can't imagine such an absurd comedy really affecting anyone's opinion on the subject. Speaking of which, this show is hilarious. Let's just say I'm not a big fan of idol culture, so I thoroughly enjoy seeing it get torn to shreds with such little remorse. And the dub completely makes the show work; Richard Epcar continues to be a national treasure and both the male and female VAs for the Gokudols are clearly having a good time playing up the yakuza punk attitude to 11. I'm definitely glad I decided to give this show a shot despite the controversy surrounding it. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6528 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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More cleaning out. Keep it friendly, please.
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JustinTaco
 Posts: 118 |
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Not to imply anything about the intelligence of those that enjoyed the show, but,
Punching down and satire are not synonymous. It's worth understanding the distinction. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2515 |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1054 Location: Texas |
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Looks like my post was deleted though, if you ask me, it contained nothing that should merit such an action. Maybe it came off more insulting towards the reviewers than I intended. Alright, cutting it down to basics without the lengthy talk about why I feel it's silly to get upset over a piece of made-up fiction when(by definition) it is not reality, no, Gokudols is not that bad and you should try it.
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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From what I understand, "punching down" is a term made up by a few people who took issue with jokes and comedy about certain groups and topics. It's not officially recognized anywhere nor has any legal binding, so satire as a genre has no relation to it. It's more of a personal preference kind of thing. -Stuart Smith |
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 605 |
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How do you think language change works my duuuuuuuuude |
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SailorTralfamadore
 Posts: 499 Location: Keep Austin Weeb |
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I'm not sure why there would be a legal standard for "punching down," considering that there aren't actually any legal consequences for making an off-color joke. That would go against most democratic countries' free speech laws, after all, including the U.S. First Amendment, which is especially narrow in what kind of speech it prohibits (basically just libel/slander against private citizens + violent threats). The kind of backlash people receive for making jokes that upset other people usually don't happen in a court of law.
So as arguments go for why some phrase isn't "legitimate" that isn't a very good one. |
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teferi
 Posts: 400 |
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Characterizing the humor in this show as punching down would imply that it's deliberately trying to ridicule transgendered people for its satire. If anything it's largely about the clash between yakuza and idol culture so you could actually characterize it as punching up given that. |
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Marzan
 Posts: 515 |
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This. You got it. The low tray humor was directed at the differences in idol/yakuza culture, not the transgender angle. I doubt any anime has the ambition/balls to do that anytime soon. |
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leep
Posts: 9 |
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I heard it was the anime director. She did the coordinated dance routine with different wigs on. |
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