×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
This Week in Anime - The Helpful Fox Senko-san is both Comforting and Uncomfortable


Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Cam0



Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Posts: 4884
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 5:35 pm Reply with quote
Northlander wrote:
Quote:
...so what does the fox say?

Can you please not?!


What the fox says
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 5:38 pm Reply with quote
kotomikun wrote:
ThatGuyWhoLikesThings wrote:
Senko-san's intentions and appeal are entirely pure and wholesome

MarthKoopa wrote:
[Wataten] was a completely wholesome, endearing show with one of the best final episodes in the slice of life genre

You keep using that word...

Look, I'm not gonna tell you what you can and can't like, but "wholesome" is generally used to describe something entirely inoffensive, family-friendly, devoid of anything sketchy or controversial or otherwise negative. The major backlash to Wataten/Uzamaid, and the smaller backlash to Senko-San, clearly disqualifies them from being called that. If they seem 100% wholesome to you, I suggest doing some research into why many people reacted so negatively, instead of just trying to dismiss their opinions offhand. You might learn something.


Maybe we should be more willing to criticize certain opinions, because there are plenty of bad ones, whether that be due to misinformation, willful misinterpretation, or some other third thing. The fact that a small subset of people are decrying this show as "problematic" is irrelevant when even the mangaka of MHA has been unironically labeled a pedophile multiple times because he sometimes draws his characters in slightly revealing or provocative outfits at times. People can and have gotten mad over anything they perceive as "wrong", no matter how minor.

A critic's opinions are not gospel. Disagreement is allowed, and sometimes they can even be wrong. Unless they're being harassed over it, no one is under obligation to defend them.

And fwiw, there's a significant difference between Wataten and Senko-san. One features a grown adult creeping on a child, and the other doesn't.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenthehen



Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 835
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 6:09 pm Reply with quote
I don’t remember who I’m responding to (on mobile) but I don’t find anything in Senko offensive or “icky” I just find it embarrassing ... this feeling is almost why I had to push through the first episode of Uzamaid ... the secondhand embarrassment is strong. At least uzamaid was funny, though and you’re supposed to feel embarrassed for the maid and laugh at her absurdity.

Senko feels like awkward play acting at what non human entities think humans are like. It’s TOO comfy and feels fake and makes me cringe. I’ve only watched the dub so maybe it comes across stronger like that in English when you don’t have the language barrier and cutesy poo Japanese voices to distract you ...

I’m just not sure I can keep listening to Senko say “I just want to PAMPER you!” one more time without throwing up in my mouth a little.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Punch Drunk Marc



Joined: 04 Oct 2013
Posts: 1742
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 7:22 pm Reply with quote
Yuvelir wrote:
Chrono1000 wrote:
I think it is the cutest show of the season and Senko is the most adorable fox girl I have seen in anime. The show is a bit ecchi though I would say that is a lot tamer than Dragon Maid. If anything I am just amused that anyone would comsider this show controversial when there are several ecchi shows this season.

Now that you mention the cutest show of the season, I wish Dogakobo were the ones animating Hitoribocchi.
About Maidragon, that reminds me of Lucoa and the boy she lusted after. But that happened well into the show when it had already cemented itself as a likeable series.


I wouldn't say she lusted after Shota. She was trying to act like a big sister who was extremely out of touch, but the way it was framed always had the sexual lean to it. I mean Tohru in the beginning (and kind of throughout the series) was a borderline sexual predator to Kobayashi, and the less said about the Saikawa/Kanna stuff the better.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 7:33 pm Reply with quote
I have a better idea of what to make of the show than I have of this conversation about the show. I'm not this show's intended audience... as an English speaker, I'm never anime's intended audience usually... but I'd stick it with one of Douglas Adam's most succinct titles ever:

Mostly Harmless.

I've discussed why I call it "mostly" in other places... the concept I most liken it to was out and out porn for example... so I'll say here why it's "harmless": It's a high concept premise that can't be taken too seriously. Senko's not a relative, she's not an orphan, she's not even a human being, she's an idea. She's an 800 year old fox spirit who can spend a portion of her life just pampering a random individual for a few months or years.

Even Bewitched or I Dream of Jeanie are more realistic than that as they involve actual human desire on both the receiver and the giver. Senko here just gives because its her job I guess.

Talk about social services....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Ermat_46



Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 721
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 7:38 pm Reply with quote
Are the people in the comments actually discussing the show or not?

I think that for a iyashikei/healing show, the show talks too much and spends too much time to be overindulgent, which kinda dismantles it. There's a scene in Episode 2 where MC-kun took like 3 or so minutes describing what he feels while "groping" Senko's tail. Mastepieces of iyashikei like Konohana Kitan, Non Non Biyori and Aria don't have this overindulgence and utilize silence in order for the viewers to contemplate.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jenthehen



Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 835
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 8:23 pm Reply with quote
Ermat_46 wrote:
Are the people in the comments actually discussing the show or not?

I think that for a iyashikei/healing show, the show talks too much and spends too much time to be overindulgent, which kinda dismantles it. There's a scene in Episode 2 where MC-kun took like 3 or so minutes describing what he feels while "groping" Senko's tail. Mastepieces of iyashikei like Konohana Kitan, Non Non Biyori and Aria don't have this overindulgence and utilize silence in order for the viewers to contemplate.


You’re totally right and I think this is exactly why I find it so awkward and embarrassing rather than cute and indulgent. The two leads just grate on my nerves with all the absurd yammering.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5521
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 11:42 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
See, I knew that those other shows existed, but I completely avoided them due to the subject matter. I heard that this anime wasn't about that.


I thought so. If you HAD watched Wataten you would't have attacked it in such a way. It was 90% a wholesome show about a bunch of kids and and one of their older sisters that had social issues. She liked cute things, she NEVER sexualized Hana-chan. Uzamaid had issues for sure, but it also called itself out on such things and never really "Acted" on them.

As for Senko-san...I have to ask a seemingly unrelated question: Do you think ASMR is sexual? Do you think ASMR "tingles" are the same as having an orgasm? Do you think back messages are sexual? Do you think getting a message is the same as having an orgasm? A massage is the more accurate comparison to the tail thing. Like dogs and cats IRL, fictional animals feel good when you pet them. Her tail being "fluffed" or w/e the word they used was, is more akin to a really damn good massage than it is anything sexual.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address My Anime My Manga
Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5521
PostPosted: Tue May 07, 2019 11:45 pm Reply with quote
Ermat_46 wrote:
Are the people in the comments actually discussing the show or not?

I think that for a iyashikei/healing show, the show talks too much and spends too much time to be overindulgent, which kinda dismantles it. There's a scene in Episode 2 where MC-kun took like 3 or so minutes describing what he feels while "groping" Senko's tail. Mastepieces of iyashikei like Konohana Kitan, Non Non Biyori and Aria don't have this overindulgence and utilize silence in order for the viewers to contemplate.


This is a great take. I also 100% agree that those 3 shows you listed are Masterpieces of iyashikei. I like you
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address My Anime My Manga
Commander Cluck



Joined: 02 May 2019
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 2:28 am Reply with quote
ThatGuyWhoLikesThings wrote:
The fact that a small subset of people are decrying this show as "problematic" is irrelevant when even the mangaka of MHA has been unironically labeled a pedophile multiple times because he sometimes draws his characters in slightly revealing or provocative outfits at times. People can and have gotten mad over anything they perceive as "wrong", no matter how minor.


My Hero Academia attracted a lot of MCU fans and American comic fans, and were surprised to see a superhero comic that still had sexy women and costumes in it which have more or less been banned from American comics over the past ten years. That's what happens when non-anime fans get involved with anime.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
akamarulover



Joined: 14 Sep 2011
Posts: 40
PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 3:24 am Reply with quote
As someone who usually doesn't like this genre and avoids it, I actually think Senko-san is pretty nice. It's just some cute, fun, fluff. And I like to watch it in the morning before I go to work ahaha. (I skip the end bit though its a little weird)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 5:03 am Reply with quote
akamarulover wrote:
(I skip the end bit though its a little weird)

It's a bit of a mixed bag. It can be as creepy as One Room, but it can also be completely innocent (ep3's was nice).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Northlander



Joined: 10 Feb 2009
Posts: 900
PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 8:05 am Reply with quote
Cam0 wrote:
Northlander wrote:
Quote:
...so what does the fox say?

Can you please not?!


What the fox says

Heh. Thank you.

I have to be honest: my first thought before clicking that link was "If it's that goddamned Ylvis song...."
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Mystifire



Joined: 23 Nov 2015
Posts: 22
PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 8:10 am Reply with quote
If this article did one thing, it's reinforce why I only use ANN as a source of news and pretty much always ignore opinion pieces. So thank you for writing this and helping me stay confident in those feelings!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Kitsu Kyouno



Joined: 22 Dec 2018
Posts: 170
PostPosted: Wed May 08, 2019 8:31 am Reply with quote
uzamaid and wataten had a huge charisma of their characters and good comedy that stood out above all, also the animation has remarkable, here is nothing like that, senko-san devotes all his effort to an archetype sad and miserable character who only likes rub with his fluffy tail. :/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next
Page 2 of 3

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group