Friday, February 19, 2010
Random Rant about Japan and Sex
What is it with Japanese comics and the casual use of sexual harassment as a plot point? I understand that culturally that kind of thing was seen as normal and expected, and that it’s only now starting to change. Still it can make a librarian’s job difficult if they don’t wish to acquire titles with sexual content. Sometimes they can have the oddest couples (like an adult and a small child, or a human and a robot) and the relationships will be really sweet and innocent. I was reading one comic (Skip Beat, I’ll blog about it later) where the protagonist hasn’t even realized that she likes someone. It’s twenty volumes in and no romance has happened but in one scene this guy chases her down, grabs her, opens the back of her dress and then threatens to either rape her or just tell everyone that he did and thus ruining her reputation. It came out of nowhere and was followed by a return to the starting style. It wasn`t even really mentioned again after that. So that is my argument for flipping through every volume before you buy it, or paying really close attention to the ratings and plastic wrappings on some volumes. Shop safe people, but don`t get discouraged because there is a lot of good stuff out there. It`s worth reading, and great for reluctant readers at every age level.
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