Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Akebi's Sailor Uniform
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
BonusStage
 Posts: 307 |
|
|||
Akebi's Sailor Uniform runs in Tonari no Young Jump, which is a seinen imprint that runs a number of other ecchi titles. So indeed, the series is aimed at men and those shots specifically appeal to guys who are into that stuff. |
||||
|
||||
|
Netero
Posts: 165 |
|
|||
That's a bit of a sweeping statement. You can't always judge a manga like that because a work's content and its intent can be different. Take Asano's A Girl on the Shore, for instance. At one level it is just straight-up porn, and indeed quite a few of the panels taken out of context would be outright illegal to possess in some countries, but the intent of the author is clearly not sexual stimulation. As for Akebi, if you take the manga as a whole (or at least, the bits of it I've seen) some parts are more like a drawing manual than anything else. The attention to detail is phenomenal, with whole pages sometimes being devoted to the unfolding of a single action. Now if a foot fetishist sees all the detailed drawings of feet, they might say it's a foot fetish manga. And for "foot", substitute any other parts of the body (or clothing) that the mangaka lovingly illustrates. But that of itself doesn't make it a fetish work. For me, Akebi has a sort of fairy tale quality. Maybe that's partly the weird house she lives in, but I think it's a fairy tale about growing up and the discoveries made in the process. We may see some things as fetishistic, but we are seeing them through Akebi's eyes and that's not how she sees them because, as they say, "to the pure, all things are pure". |
||||
|
||||
|
Animegomaniac
Posts: 4096 |
|
|||
|
And here I thought episode 2 ramped up the sex. The image of Akebi of hugging... is that the word?... hugging, "humping" her body pillow while blood rushed to her face puts all of episode one into a new context.... for me at least.
I don't think she was reacting to the sailor outfit but more who was wearing it but she couldn't exactly understand her feelings. "It's all rather innocent." A girl tried to get Akebi to disrobe during lunch, there's pranks but then there's pranks with intent. Does Akebi understand everything or even anything going on around her? No. Are there girls around her who understand? Yeah... |
||||
|
||||
|
510
|
|
|||
|
This are the little girl Hayao Miyazaki adores so much. This a true spirit of Japan.
|
||||
|
Penrhos
Posts: 168 |
|
|||
|
Having watched the first 3 episodes It's looking like
Naïve extrovert girl joins class of slightly more mature girls and the juxtaposition that puts them into (or to put it simply bubbly new girl get yuri-baited by the others). Still one of the nicer surprises this season as I didn't think it'd be in my top 5 new shows for winter 22. |
||||
|
||||
|
Gonzo_Deluxe
Posts: 21 |
|
|||
And that's a fair question. But absent a confessional from the mangaka or the production team, all we only have our own guesses as to the answer. So again it comes back to the viewer. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, I'm not going to say you're unjustified. As I said in my OR, I think the imagery in the show is presented from an adult's point of view, and while I may think it's a parental POV, there's enough there in some scenes to justify thinking of it as something more voyeuristic. The only additional info that we have available is the way the scene is handled in the manga. And while there's no such thing as a long slo-mo shot in manga, they did do a series of close-ups of the toe-nail clipping and sniffing with sound effect text emphasizing the loudness of the clipping, if not the sniffing. So I'd say that any fetishism goes back to the manga itself. Edit: As mentioned in another thread here, the manga is published in a seinen manga known for its ecchi titles, so that's one extra bit of evidence pointing to a voyeuristic POV. Last edited by Gonzo_Deluxe on Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:48 am; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
|
Gonzo_Deluxe
Posts: 21 |
|
|||
OK, that's something I wasn't aware of as the site where I saw the manga online mentions the book publisher but not the serialization. And it does paint a different picture of the intent of the mangaka in these scenes. |
||||
|
||||
dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1378 |
|
|||
(Kodansha's bookwalker.jp site has sample pages.) For example, her episode-one cartwheel takes nine pages, with the following into-the-ditch gymnastics move detailed with several more. There was another page that I looked at and thought the page existed for the artist to show off their skill at portraying the way cloth folds and drapes on the body. Pure, unadulterated technique. Other pages are sketchbook-like montages. So, yeah, drawing exercises. |
||||
|
||||
|
jdnation
Posts: 2010 |
|
|||
|
A beautifully animated and very "moe" show. Ir's nice to have something like this every once in awhile. The production is on-point so anyone who loves animation would love this. There is a fantasy-flair to it. Everything is baeutiful, from the facial animation to the poses and Akebi's flexibility and athlethicism. And there's plenty if the kawaii stuff with her little sister and othet interactions, very innocent and a contrast given her solitary upbringing as the only student in a country school, which is similar to another anime Non-non Biyori, though there were more students. So Akebi is more child-like and less conscious of her behaviour compared to the other girls. There is only one male character seen - her father - and I doubt we'll ger more od him as the cast is overwhelmingly female. So this is it own closeted world that could be the last experience of one before adulthood.
The interactions do carry a bit of a 'yuri' flavor in it but this is more so for intimacy amongst friends. Much the same for the shots of feet. So in bith senses, yes there is an obvious fethistic and voyeurism deliberately used, but it does serve the overall aesthetic so for. Episode 3 gets overt with the cell pics, but maybe it's not unusual for girls to obsess over looks and fascination with idol culture? Artistry-wise, drawing and animating feet and hands/fingers is tough, even getting them to look right in still images. So this is also definately a show-off piece by the crew at Cloverworks. Kind of like classical artists showing off the human form. They are definately conscious that this is a fetish though, but well, what can you do? Direction-wise they do offer an expression of youth and intimacy, but also comfort. People tend not to wear shoes when they are at home, in their private space. So moments like this in school also suggest a comfortable and relaxing setting. They are in a safe space there. Men don't intrude. It's a paradise that Akebi always dreamed of going to as much as wearing that uniform. |
||||
|
||||
Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 576 Location: North America |
|
|||
|
A couple of things I have wondered about.
The point of uniforms is, um uniformity. Was there some point in the past in Japan were students and/or their families were expected to make the uniform instead of buying a standard uniform? It would be very odd for Akebi's mother to make her uniform, unless that was the norm in the past when the mother attended the same school. Unless I missed something, everyone has brown eyes except Akebi who has blue eyes. Is there any significance in this? |
||||
|
||||
|
jdnation
Posts: 2010 |
|
|||
Speaking from experience in India, it is not unusual for custom uniforms to be made. Japan is similar to India in a lot of ways, so I assume the rationale is the same. There is an option to buy ready made uniforms, but some parents opt to do it themselves (saves money), or because there are no ready-made sizes that suit their child. Some kids may be bigger, some taller, some shorter etc. So either they can buy a ready-made one and have it altered by themselves or a tailor, or they just get the list of correct materials of cloth color/type from the school and have a tailor make a custom fitted one. So it is not just a past practice. Local tailors and fabric stores close to the school usually already know what customers want and have been supplying them for years. Also many poorer families use hand-me-downs and only a few alterations need to be made. Since Akebi lives far away, it likely made sense for her mother to get the materials locally and make it custom fit for her excited daughter rather than go all the way to the school store and pay more for the uniform and the trip and have to alter it to fit Akebi anyway. Most of the time white shirts are common and readily available everywhere, so only the skirt and sailor-portion and ribbon had the be made. |
||||
|
||||
|
Animegomaniac
Posts: 4096 |
|
|||
|
[quote="Gonzo_Deluxe"]
I was under the impression they were about 13 years old being 7th graders and all. Why do you think they're 5th graders? We all should remember middle school as that weird period when people who matured fast and those who matured slowly mingled. And we can see the girls in the series trying to work things out, establish a pecking order of a kind. "This school allows you to join more than one club!" ... speaking of symbolism... Is what she is saying the same as what she means? Because joining multiple clubs doesn't make much sense ... but... something else... related to what all the girls were trying to accomplish does? |
||||
|
||||
|
jrockfreak
Posts: 125 |
|
|||
Nah I wasnt bothered by it either and like you said its pretty low on the offensive kink list. |
||||
|
||||
|
dm
Subscriber Posts: 1378 |
|
|||
|
Mercedes' episode three review is spot on. As I watch an episode, I find myself always wondering what new way they're going to hide the stink bug among the rose petals.
|
||||
|
||||
|
ThrowMeOut
Posts: 260 |
|
|||
|
I wouldn't consider myself a prude, I mean I enjoyed Interspecies Reviewers when it came out, but something about Akebi's just gives me the heebie-jeebies. I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling that.
It's not even a particularly offensive show, besides a few questionable camera angles, and yet I felt repulsed watching it. So weird. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group