Are You a Hentai Otaku?!

I’m sure most of us collect anime figurines for the same reason – They’re stylish, cool, aesthetically appealing, and cute. They have nice creatively designed outfits, and well, they can be sexy. From my standpoint, they’re just that – aesthetically pleasing PVC. Artistic, dynamically sculpted, and capture the original character in a state of suspended animation. And in a way, a statement of your fandom towards that particular series.

So why do people think you’re perverted?! You’re puzzled. You think “What is it about my hobby and fandom that lets you pass that sort of judgement on me, a perfectly normal person?” To them, they see a figurine wearing practically nothing, posed in a provocative manner, usually with large breasts, and even they themselves are often tempted to peer underneath the skirt to see what panties these pvc girls wear, if any.

I just discovered that Arin, from Super Swing Golf Pangya wears polkadot panties, thanks to a coworker that decidedly looked up her skirt. After owning her for so long, I actually never thought to look. My mind has now been tainted.

They mock you on your perversions and fail to understand that these are not a substitute or an appendix to your “sick fantasies“. They don’t understand that you collect these figures with the intent of admiring them like how a comic-book fan would admire a Wolverine or Spiderman statue.

But why? Why is this link not there? What is it that makes them think you are perverted? The answer is simple yet not so obvious. It’s a relation between reality and fantasy when the lines of appreciation are blurred. Let me give you an anecdotal story on what I mean:

My friend had a bachelor’s party. We got him drunk, we got roudy, and then we went to a strip club. This was supposed to be Vancouver’s Best as well. I was more than amused at the setting. Girls wearing white single-piece, cotton dresses almost like a Chinese Dress look, with plunding front and back and probably nothing underneath. Short skirts, and netted tank-tops. It seemed pretty “standard fare”. Then the dancers on stage – they were wearing very exotically cool outfits. Some looked like persian/arabian princesses, silk sarongs, elaborate embroidery, mixed with leather corsets with lots of buckles, and knee-high leather boots. One of them wore a completely red outfit – leather boots, corset, short pleated skirt, and black angel wings with long blonde hair. Tall slender body and legs, prancing on the stage floor.

What am I getting at? I looked at these outfits and was thinking “Wow, they look super cool! Stunning!” I found myself critiquing every one of their outfits, analyzing every detail, every frill or buckle…

… much like how I would with an anime figurine. And then it hit me. “These costumes would look great as a figurine…”

My artist rendition of one of the strippers that appeared on stage. Yes, she was blonde, and that slender, and yes, she did have that sort of sensuality about her, and no she was not an anime character.

The link between reality and fantasy… the very reason why people think we’re pervs. I’m at a strip club, and these outfits are considered “sexy” and “taboo”. Honestly, yes you would never ever want to wear that kind of clothing on the streets, nor would you allow your girlfriend to wear that kind of clothing on the streets. But for some reason, it’s okay when it’s an anime character.

Why is that?

Simple : you watch anime. You see these characters do that all the time. Parading on city streets, revealing their panties, and even fighting in combat. Of course it’s acceptable that anime characters wear these types of clothing. And to those that don’t watch anime, all they see in those figurines are naughty/dirty little girls from strip-clubs. An insult and offensive representation of females. Degrading.

I was in reading in Wired Magazine recently about how Manga and Anime are taking North America by storm, and how this came to be. (it’s the cover story)

It starts off with a brief history of how Anime showed up in the 80’s in North America starting with you know, Speed Racer, Kimba, Robotech, etc.

However, anime didn’t really take off until series like Akira and Ghost in the Shell came along. The reason being was that during this era, a lot of bored teens needed something to amuse them. The whole futuristic themes of Terminator etc were rampant and Akira took that to a whole new interesting level. Extreme violence and sex was something unseen in cartoons, and Akira quickly established the “norm” of Anime.

In Japan, they have just as many, if not more, varieties of shows as they do here – children’s anime, anime with violence, drama, romance etc etc. However, it seems that only the violent or sexy anime make it state-side. It’s like a vicious cycle.

This is my point – Anime is deemed as violent or sexual because the shows that appeal to North American audiences are violent and sexual in nature. They are effectively creating their own stereotype.

Nowadays, we have a much broader range of anime genres appearing in North America. However, the less informed typically still stick to the stereotype that anime is violent and sexually explicit. They’ve been indoctrinated with the ideas that Anime = sex/violence. Even the slightest thing can be twisted into something it’s not. These non-collectors who see it from “the outside”, if you will, have most likely never seen what true perversion on the extreme is in terms of anime figures. However, they relate it to the general culture of Anime, which is typically not suitable for kids. They seem to fail in making the connection that Pokemon and Dragonball and Sailormoon fall in that spectrum also.

There is definitely a double standard applied between fantasy and reality when it comes to anime, regardless of what genre the anime falls into. Ones that seem more sexually liberated are the major targets, especially in North America, where religions such as Christianity and Catholic are the norm. “But ah, fine sir. How do you explain North American comics with revealing characters, such as Wonder Woman being acceptable?“

Wonder Woman is quite scantily dressed, and brings quite a bit of sex appeal if you look at it critically. She carries a whip, and if you’re able to cross her gauntlets, she becomes entirely submissive. There’s a tonne of implied sexuality right there, and in comics, no doubt! Morrigan also radiates sex appeal on the same level, but yet it seems that Wonder Woman is more widely accepted than Morrigan. So why, indeed?

Familiar Wonder Woman (left), compared to Unfamiliar Morrigan (right). I chose a cosplay photo, and a photo of the Wonder Woman TV show as an emphasis on example of applying real-life views to this case.

The answer is quite simple, actually. Familiarity is a major part of acceptance. We’ve grown up seeing Wonder Woman in North American culture, and have accepted that style as norm in Noth American comics, where as unfamiliar, relatively newer content is judged more harshly and differently. This sort of double standard exists not as an anomaly, but part of the habits, views and values of modern society in North America. It’s the whole reason why back then, Rock and Roll was considered bad and violent influence for kids, just like how video games now are considered bad influence for kids.

Side by side comparison of Blanc Neige (left) and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (right).

It doesn’t help with the stereotype when figures are generally half naked. While attractive and artistic, the double-standard that people have really distort the way they see things. Above is my coup de grace example of the double-standard drawn upon the difference between accepted art, and the art that is otaku-ism. If you’ll notice, Venus is actually wearing even less clothes. However, if you show the Blanc Neige to any non-anime educated person, they would consider Blanc Neige “perverted”. You show Botticelli’s Venus to those same people, and it is considered art.

Go figure (pun intended)