Some of the challenges for the 30 Day Anime Challenge go against how I feel about anime and entertainment in general. Such is the truth for the fourth installment of it where we’re supposed to talk about anime you’re ashamed to enjoy. Considering the wide swath of anime that I watch and the sheer amount of hentai that I watch, the only thing I feel that’s close to that at time is maybe disturbed or scared. Ashamed? About watching shows? I never got into that. After all, it was back in the 80’s that I ended up keeping up with my interests that are all now mega popular but were widely derided by fellow classmates in high school. Anime was just one component of that. But I was a known comic book fan, Transformers, Star Wars and so forth. How could I feel ashamed about anime when I never felt ashamed about that?
So for this challenge, I decided to look at a couple of shows that I’ve been told I should feel ashamed for liking. I don’t feel ashamed, but hey, plenty of people have tried to shame me about it.
Chu-Bra
The most recent example is the 2010 series Chu-Bra in which were follow a junior high school student named Nayu who has what many consider to be an unhealthy fascination with underwear. We do learn the reasons behind it over the course of the series and it makes sense, but some of the things she does certainly would give people pause to say the least in real life. There’s more fanservice that’s considered inappropriate by many in this series but I found it to be well balanced against the reality of what it’s like for girls of this age to grow up where even as permissive as the culture is now, many girls simply never really get a talk about these things. Nayu almost provides a “how to” guide to growing up with the changes your body goes through in picking out the right kind of underwear and bras and the show has a great heart to it. Raising two young girls myself that are close approaching this age, it’s certainly a great reminder of what kinds of things to be aware of. I adored this show as it aired and never truly found it creepy as a whole and recommend it heartily to any parent looking to get a reminder about what growing up as a girl is like. Some things are simply timeless.
Tenchi in Tokyo
Screw you guys, I love this show! Take a hugely popular franchise that had plenty of OVAs and a fun series prior to it called Tenchi Universe and then go in a completely different direction. While there are many things that are true to originals in terms of how the characters act, Tenchi in Tokyo commits the cardinal sin of introducing yet another girl that’s interested in Tenchi. I mean, doesn’t he have enough already even with just Ayeka and Ryoko fighting over him? The difference with Sakuya is that even though she does have her secrets, she’s a more grounded girl in the real world for him and the two get to actually progress a relationship. The problem was, it wasn’t a relationship the fans wanted to see and the show changed many things with how the characters are designed in terms of their back stories and connections. The show also went very different with the way it worked with the situations, spending more time on surreal things and a whole lot of slapstick comedy. It tickled me pink and I loved that it essentially gave the finger to the die-hard Tenchi fans who just wanted their particular favorite to win. This series gave me a favorite that wasn’t around before.
Fencer of Minerva
This series straddled the line for the young Central Park Media studio as it was released as a standard title even though it was close enough to be an adult title and it’s largely considered a hentai release, even though it’s pretty softcore overall. What it is, though, is a series that’s about the master/slave relationships that happen in a quasi-fantasy setting. The series borrows heavily from the Gor novels with what it does and those elements are things that really put off a lot of people and have them attempt to shame others over it because it’s not something they’re entirely comfortable with. Master/slave relationships aren’t in the norm of mainstream society of course, but you never know what goes on behind locked doors. And between consenting adults, it’s all the more fun. But it’s understandable to me why people react as they do with the idea that some women like to be roughed up and beaten in this manner and they can view it as making it acceptable. That’s a scary thing for many, even when it’s entirely consensual. Fencer of Minerva provided a show that at that time was rarely seen in hentai as well and something that was even rarer to be brought over until years later when that side of the business found a big pile of money with depraved hentai. By contrast, Fencer of Minerva seems positively quaint.
