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INTEREST: Busty Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Blood Donation Drive Poster Sparks Online Debate


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Nick4x



Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:06 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Common arguments were that Uzaki's clothing was not revealing, and that just the existence of large breasts does not equal sexualization. Others argued that the collaboration is intended to draw young people to donating blood, so if the drawing serves its intended purpose, then there should be no problem. Some comments argued for the importance of freedom of artistic expression. It was also pointed out that the drawing used for the poster is identical to the cover illustration of the manga's third tankobon volume.


Pretty much exactly this. If she were wearing a swimsuit or something revealing, I'd understand. If she were saying something inappropriate, I'd understand. If she were from some smutty series, I might even understand that, but none of those are the case. Her main role in her manga is to be an extremely annoying kohai that teases her senpai.

This is good marketing. It's helped increase blood donations and thus save lives. There are many battles to be had with exploitative marketing, but I don't see this as one of them.
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KabaKabaFruit



Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 1869
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:42 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
the existence of large breasts does not equal sexualization

Depends. If we're talking about women who had their breasts grow that large naturally, then yes, it's not sexualization unless the woman chooses to flaunt them in a sexual manner. But, if we're talking about illustrations here, then that's a more difficult argument to make. I mean, I have yet to see a single manga illustrator who specifically chose to draw large-breasted girls for non-sexual purposes to the reader.
Nick4x wrote:
This is good marketing. It's helped increase blood donations and thus save lives.

Could you not get the same results with any other manga characters? What if you had Luffy or Goku promote blood donations? Does the desire to donate blood only work if a large-breasted anime girl implored you to?
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Nutaris



Joined: 26 Jul 2019
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:54 pm Reply with quote
[quote="KabaKabaFruit"]
Quote:

Could you not get the same results with any other manga characters? What if you had Luffy or Goku promote blood donations? Does the desire to donate blood only work if a large-breasted anime girl implored you to?


I don't know about you, but this poster would be 10 billion percent more likely to get me to donate blood than Luffy or Goku.
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KabaKabaFruit



Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 1869
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:57 pm Reply with quote
I'm sorry but that's just a pathetic reason to donate blood then. It honestly shouldn't even have to fall to supposed sex appeal just to have donations come in.
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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:16 pm Reply with quote
KabaKabaFruit wrote:

Depends. If we're talking about women who had their breasts grow that large naturally, then yes, it's not sexualization unless the woman chooses to flaunt them in a sexual manner. But, if we're talking about illustrations here, then that's a more difficult argument to make. I mean, I have yet to see a single manga illustrator who specifically chose to draw large-breasted girls for non-sexual purposes to the reader.

I do agree with the first part of that statement, but not the second. While there is obviously a lot of adult and "ecchi" manga out there, the majority is not sexual, and I'd say that "large breasts" are pretty standard for adult female characters in general. I suppose this comes down to one's exact definition of "large".

Quote:
Could you not get the same results with any other manga characters? What if you had Luffy or Goku promote blood donations? Does the desire to donate blood only work if a large-breasted anime girl implored you to?

They could, and they did. It's not as if this was the only promotional artwork they used. Some ads used actors and actresses from TV and movies, others used sports stars, this one happened to use the cover art from a trendy popular manga (which, as Nick4x pointed out, does not contain any 'adult' content at all)

I think it's relevant to quote Rebecca Silverman's review of Uzaki-Chan here:
Quote:
Given the way that Uzaki is drawn – with breasts so large that they're bigger than her head – the story takes surprisingly few ecchi turns. That's a nice surprise, because that means that Uzaki as a character is more than the sum of her boobs; they're a part of her body, but not a piece of who she is as a person. There are a couple of scenes where her design comes into play, but for the most part it's really just an aesthetic choice on the part of the artist. In fact, the most suggestive scene involves Uzaki having her front half stuck in a hedge and yelling all the wrong things (loudly and in public, of course) as Sakurai tries to pull her backwards by the hips. It's a gag we've seen before, but it works well enough here to not feel stale, especially since Sakurai never actually stops trying to pull her out, even as passersby begin looking askance at what's going on.


This doesn't seem like a case of using "sex to sell" if you ask me. This is just a popular manga--and a pretty "clean" one at that--being used to promote a good cause.
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:22 pm Reply with quote
On one hand this increased blood drive donations that literally saved lives but on the other hand some people got angry that it featured a drawing of a cute anime character with boobs. I mostly find it amusing that boobs on an anime character equals sexuality to some feminists which is a messed up way of thinking. This situation is even a bit meta since it deals with an issue that Uzaki-chan has within the manga.

KabaKabaFruit wrote:
Depends. If we're talking about women who had their breasts grow that large naturally, then yes, it's not sexualization unless the woman chooses to flaunt them in a sexual manner. But, if we're talking about illustrations here, then that's a more difficult argument to make. I mean, I have yet to see a single manga illustrator who specifically chose to draw large-breasted girls for non-sexual purposes to the reader.

Well if you think that boobs are inherently sexual than that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:39 pm Reply with quote
There is nothing wrong with that poster.

Hell, it's one of the tamer blood donation tie-in advertisements that I've seen.

Yikes.
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Nick4x



Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:45 pm Reply with quote
KabaKabaFruit wrote:
Nick4x wrote:
This is good marketing. It's helped increase blood donations and thus save lives.

Could you not get the same results with any other manga characters? What if you had Luffy or Goku promote blood donations? Does the desire to donate blood only work if a large-breasted anime girl implored you to?


Can I just take a second to point out the irony that one of your first picks to replace a character you perceive as having a body that is mainly about sex appeal is Goku?
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RealMTL



Joined: 09 Jun 2018
Posts: 178
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:06 pm Reply with quote
Somebody will always complain no matter what you put out in the world. Not my taste but I wouldn't call it insensitive or offensive.
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NiPah
Subscriber



Joined: 11 Feb 2011
Posts: 205
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:06 pm Reply with quote
KabaKabaFruit wrote:
I'm sorry but that's just a pathetic reason to donate blood then. It honestly shouldn't even have to fall to supposed sex appeal just to have donations come in.


I’d argue judging someone’s reason to donate blood is way more pathetic then someone donating blood for some anime artwork, even if the artwork has a cute/sexy/manly character on it. Sure it’d be nice if everyone selflessly donated blood to the blood selling companies (at least in the US) out of the goodness of their heart but we know it helps with a little bonus, be it free movie tickets, a goofy “I donated blood” tshirt, or anime tat.

The other side of the story is the place sex appeal has in everyday public life. I don’t agree with the lawyer/feminist advocate on this artwork being background sexual harassment, full stop, unless she offers some reasonable explanation then her point that this shouldn’t be in a public space is moot to me.
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Stampeed Valkyrie



Joined: 10 Aug 2014
Posts: 825
Location: PA
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:33 pm Reply with quote
Sex Sells.. and this picture is pretty tame so pretty much a nothing burger.

Quote:

In a follow-up tweet, Ōta mentioned that she had sent an inquiry to Red Cross Japan regarding the poster. She also wrote: "Every time this theme comes up, I get a lot of replies from people who don't get it. 1) I'm not saying that it's always wrong to emphasize breasts or sexual parts in a drawing. It's a question of what kind of purpose that depiction serves within a particular subject and place. It infuriates me when people show no understanding of why that kind of thing should be addressed."


It's pretty obvious the one not getting it is Ota. The race to be offended produces this stuff.
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Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:41 pm Reply with quote
I could have sworn that I have seen much more "sexually-tantalizing" blood drive collaboration posters before in Japan, and this one is actually tamer in comparison.

Just a guess though, based on the tweet reply, I am more and more curious if the tweet poster is more offended to Uzaki-chan's teasing lines in the actual poster than...say, her body figure.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4352
Location: New York
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:12 pm Reply with quote
As it stands, if the collaboration is getting people to donate blood, a resource people need that could mean the difference between life and death, then it’s a good thing. Please continue.
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harminia



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 1987
Location: australia
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:14 pm Reply with quote
I'm not so fussed about the boobs, but I'm not exactly sure why they used that character (I guess she's popular?), but more than that why that image? Couldn't they have commissioned something more relevant? She's just standing there in her waitress outfit holding a parfait. Doesn't really scream "blood donation" to me. I don't mind the concept of teasing people, after all, teasing girls is very In right now. So I guess I can understand the character... But it feels lazy.


sirdano1 wrote:
So breast envy is a real thing, huh

I feel like not many girls in the world would be envious of breasts so big that realistically you can hardly do anything without experiencing pain.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:22 pm Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:

Just a guess though, based on the tweet reply, I am more and more curious if the tweet poster is more offended to Uzaki-chan's teasing lines in the actual poster than...say, her body figure.

I'm finding it hard to see how teasing someone of being scared of needles could be considered sexual harassment, but I suppose that could be it?
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