Category: Fandom

Shirabe Ako and the Eye of the Beholder

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Pretty Cure is in a strange place where they have a glass. 50 percent of the glass has liquid and the other 50 percent does not. The question is do you see that glass as half full or half empty. Depending on your view of anime, magical girls shows, and fandom it tends to shade your view of the series and its fandom. Everyone agrees that the fandom of Pretty Cure is made of mostly of two categories of fans. There are the young girls who the show is ostensibly aimed at and the older male fans. Depending on your disposition who you think the majority of the fandom is, who the show caters to, and how much it curries the favor of either segment of the fandom depends on if you see that glass as half empty or half filled. I think recent spoiler filled issues in Suite Precure bring that reaction to the forefront. How you interpret recent changes on the show is very influenced on how you see the series before you even view a single episode.

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Let me Fansplain something to you.

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The term Mansplaining has generally fallen into the common Internet lexicon. Mansplaining is when a man explains something to a woman, preferably about a female issues, as if he is a far greater authority about the issue. While nowhere near as weighty a faux pas of ignorance and presumption I have noticed a similar trend thanks to the recent Starfire and Catwoman controversy in the DC reboot. This practice of Fansplaining is a term I have coined who when people make bold statements about an entire fandom that they have little to no knowledge about.

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Nervous in the (Fan-)Service

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This single tweet is what sparked this whole post but in Mike Dent’s defense when I asked about Sacred Seven on Twitter the majority opinion seems to be that most people find the show inoffensive but rather lackluster so most would agree with his decision. (I am really enjoying the show but that is a discussion for another time.) What struck me as interesting was that it was the beach episode that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was discussing the episode with my roommate and we both agreed that the episode barely dwelt on the girl’s in bathing suits and the shots of them at the beach were rather tame. But I think Mike’s reaction is the symptom of a the divide in the community that the recent brand of fan service has created. The extremes of fan service have created an equally extreme but opposite reaction from a majority of the vocal parts of fandom.

When I started watching anime in the mid-90’s I thought lots of fan-service was just part of the deal; if I wanted everything else I liked about it, it was just something that I had to accept. So in a way, I understand the inkling now to reject fan-service outright because there are so many other options. And admittedly, I have a much lower tolerance level than I once did. However, I find there can be an acceptable balance that won’t ruin a story.

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