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NEWS: Anime Matsuri Licenses, Dubs 2 Anime Shorts From Nippon Animation

That incident where a woman walked around carrying a sign saying "Fetishizing lolis = Pedophilia", I can certainly understand the frustration as it's a completely false statement if read by the letter. But harassing/going up their face and challenging to a fight over it is completely uncalled for as well as completely wrong.

The best response would have been if the guy had painted their own sign, reading "Lolicon = Fiction/Not Crime Pedophilia = Attraction To Real Children/Crime If Acted On", and paraded around with that sign along with her on the convention floor.

If I had been there, I think I might have done just that... (of course, being 9000km away, and not really being a convention-going person, would put some bumps on that road...)

I'm not sure why there's confusion. You said people who complain about "woke media" are just people upset their regressive views are no longer accepted in society. So I just pointed out all those regressive views are still perfectly accepted in anime. All the concern over some YouTubers being at Anime Matsuri seemed silly to me given the kind of content we consume. Someone making a video on not liking forced diversity in the new Lord of the Rings show probably isn't as offensive as the fact half the very few black characters that do show up in anime are drawn as stereotypical caricatures. If even more popular YouTubers like Hololive Vtubers can go into excruciatingly sexual detail on their love for loli and admitting to things that would get them arrested in some countries and still get to hold events at anime conventions then we're probably fine.

Which modern black characters do you consider stereotypical caricatures vs those who are simply designed to be recognizably black? I admit that I haven't watched every series that's come out every year but I don't remember seeing any major outrage on social media over racist designs, so I'm genuinely curious if I've just managed to miss some pertinent drama on the Twitter?

You're explaining that it exists in this post though so it has to exist. I agree that certain things aren't allowed in American media anymore, but they're still allowed in Japan. I generally don't consume any American media anymore precisely because of that kind of change. If my "regressive views" are only accepted in Japanese media, then I suppose that's where my attention will remain.

They don't have the rights? That is friggin hilarious. They basically spent the money to rush out a dub to two shorts NO ONE CARES ABOUT, only to result in what is essentially their own version of lost media.

These idiots who run this company are going to tank and this isn't the comeback some sniveling cult fanboys think it is.

This isn't going to wreck Crunchyroll at all.

It's weird to me for white American anime fans on either side of this argument treating all of Japan as a monolith as if there aren't already plenty of mangaka and anime directors who are progressive minded or at least trying be more thoughtful in how they do things. And then you have the majority of creators in the middle who don't care about these culture wars at all and are just interested in telling entertaining stories and would look at you funny if you asked them if they were progressive or "regressive." There's tons of anime every season that aren't problematic at all and are just entertaining stories and you're not looking hard enough if you can't find non-problematic anime to watch.

There is no such thing as a neutral or middle ground in art. All art is political. If someone claims to be neutral in the discussion of inequality then they have sided with the oppressors. They're comfortable with the current status quo of women being background characters or eye-candy for the presumed straight male audience. They're fine with the overwhelmingly ethnically Japanese characters dominating the medium. They're fine with all the negativity and hate surrounding certain gender and sexual identities. Name a show you think is just an "entertaining story" and I'll tell you exactly what they're saying with their work.

There is no such thing as a neutral or middle ground in art. All art is political. If someone claims to be neutral in the discussion of inequality then they have sided with the oppressors. They're comfortable with the current status quo of women being background characters or eye-candy for the presumed straight male audience. They're fine with the overwhelmingly ethnically Japanese characters dominating the medium. They're fine with all the negativity and hate surrounding certain gender and sexual identities. Name a show you think is just an "entertaining story" and I'll tell you exactly what they're saying with their work.

Name a show you think is just an "entertaining story" and I'll tell you exactly what they're saying with their work.

I never said there wasn't any art that wasn't political? I said most Japanese manga creators and anime directors are not involved in this culture war battle that's entirely the creation of white American anime nerds. I would appreciate not having words put in my mouth I didn't say.

Tell me about the deep political subtext of Hamtaro.

CelestialEmpress wrote:

Tell me about the deep political subtext of Hamtaro.

Ritsuko Kawai has stated the message of Hamtaro was to promote non-violence solutions, teamwork, and sharing. He has since become a mascot in Thailand by protesters to protest their tyrannical government's greed and to promote kinder leadership. Hamtaro is explicity anti-facist.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japanese-cartoon-Hamtaro-used-by-Thai-protesters-to-mock-government