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#anime #animediscussion #animecommunity #animelover #weeb #anitwt #stoplolicon #responsibleanime #seinenanime #shoujoanime
Do you remember the Looney Toons skit where Bugs draws a line on the ground, and Sam crosses it until Bugs leads him to a cliff to fall off?

This is a good way to represent the concessions and excuses people will use when defending something they enjoy or do not want to see changed.

When talking about anime, there are lines that people will always cross and excuses they'll make to defend an anime they enjoy.

This isn't new; it happens in all fandoms, but some lines are just not meant to be crossed.

One particular concession I see being made is the use of underage characters in sexual situations.

Some of the things I hear being used are:

"Japan has a different culture."
"They are fake characters."
"Anime has always been like that," or "This is a good way to keep the tourists out."
These are just a few of the reasons I see for justifying why this exists in anime and why it doesn't need to change.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm in no way pulling an Anita Sarkeesian and trying to advocate for fake characters' rights.

I would much rather keep this argument in the realm of reality. The use of underage characters should not be something that is celebrated in any culture.

I'm not against them being in anime, but portraying them in sexually suggestive ways has to be out of the question.

It gives the impression that those who watch anime are perverts or creeps, and the more people try to defend the legitimacy of keeping this kind of content in anime, the more they look like they should be on a list.

With anime becoming more popular, I see this changing in the future anyway.

But I would rather not leave the changes up to the industry; I'd prefer to have the community control the change as much as possible.

One of the biggest ways I see that the community can help change the industry is to vote with your wallet.

By not supporting a product with your money, you're sending a clear message to the industry that this will not be supported, without financial backing, a product will not continue to be made.

But when I see things like "Gushing over Magical Girls" outselling a show like "Frieren" in its first week, I can't help but be concerned about the trend anime is going and how it will be perceived.

I would like to see the anime community speak out more about this and not push others toward shows that have this as part of the show's appeal.

Now, I'm not saying take the perversion out of anime, but there is no point in depicting underage characters like that.

These are shows made for adults by adults. No child should have easy access to content like this, and if adults are advocating for this kind of content, then their motives should be brought into question.

Anime has evolved so much from the overly sexual and violent era of the 80s and the stylized anime of the 90s.

The audience for anime is so much larger and different from the time when we were exchanging bootleg VHS tapes with each other, and with that growth in the audience, we must also grow our understanding of what is acceptable.