The all things Anime related thread.

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Seriously?

Spice and Wolf is quite tasteful with it's nudity, what little of it there is.

You see more nudity in your average harem anime aimed at high school kids.
 
Tasteful with it's nudity!!

One shot of her naked would have been enough for any sort of artistic means or to put emphasis on her female form. Repeated unnecessary close ups was just crass, particularly when she appeared to be so young. It was just really pervy.

And some people wonder why anime gets such a bad rap.... Tasteful?!?
 
Nitefly said:
And some people wonder why anime gets such a bad rap.... Tasteful?!?
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I youtubed the first episode.

You're over-reacting, a lot.

There is no fan service here just look up high school of the dead if you want ridiculous fan service. :p

And this anime actually looks quite good although I'll never get on with English Dubbing.
 
Nitefly said:
You know what, I just looked up the first episode of this to try and prove me wrong that this wasn't perverse and jesus christ, was just horribly porny - naked teenage girl prowling around on screen.

I'd be embarrassed to have that in my house to be honest! :o
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Haha perverse? Hardly, the iffy zones that could cause issues are always covered, its no worse in that sense than the any other numbers of medium that show a character in a bikini. The nudity used is all in character and basically goes away after about 1/2 episodes. It's all in context with the fact the character isn't human and hasn't taken a human form in years. Take a look at a later episode before overreacting.
There's also the point that the series is a faithful remake of the novel, the same scenes happen in that, again not for the reasons you went in preconceived towards but within context of the story, these same scenes have just been translated to the screen.

It's not a series aimed at kids anyway, but either way what's shown is not what would be called fanservice, its not trying to titillate but tell a story. The main draw of the series is its slightly unusual trappings and the excellent main characters and interactions, as well as the slightly unconventional love story that goes with it.

If it makes you feel any better the girl isn't young at all, she's several hundred years old :p

And recently I've seen more tasteless nudity in shows and films aimed at mid/late teens on tv lol

@Rob
That's the art style of the novels not the manga :)
 
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Nitefly said:
Tasteful with it's nudity!!

One shot of her naked would have been enough for any sort of artistic means or to put emphasis on her female form. Repeated unnecessary close ups was just crass, particularly when she appeared to be so young. It was just really pervy.

And some people wonder why anime gets such a bad rap.... Tasteful?!?
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Silly remarks are silly, She's only ever naked in the first 2 episodes and they're tastfuly done. After that you never see her naked again and in fact by season 2 she's so covered up you hardly see anything but her face! (She wears this burka type thing all the time when she's outside)
 
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Ok, I read these comments and thought I may well have been overreacting, so I went back and had another look. Sorry, but I stand by my original comments, that scene is extremely pervy and that Holo character is ridiculously sexualised.

Alexrose1uk said:
It's not a series aimed at kids anyway, but
either way what's shown is not what would be called fanservice, its not trying to titillate but tell a story.
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Not trying to titillate, are you having a giraffe? The tallest giraffe ever seen? An evolutionary freak giraffe? :p

How can you say that! The way she wakes up, proceeds to leer at the man and ask if he has an alcohol, or the way she presents herself physically to him, or how she makes her physical presence very close to him and even touches him, are blatantly 'titillating'.

I continued to watch and there was another painful scene that was smothered in overtones of sex - where the man and another woman talk about 'joining together for a business deal', which was essentially her coming onto him, then slumping down on the ground all disapointed when she got rejected. Even the language used was suggestive - 'I'm sorry, but it's risky, maybe when you are... more experienced' :o

If it makes you feel any better the girl isn't young at all, she's several hundred years old :p
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Hmm...

wikipedia said:
he finds in his wagon a pagan wolf-deity girl named Holo who is over 600 years old. She appears to be a 15-year-old girl, except for a wolf's tail and ears.
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:p

All of you lot clearly watch a lot of anime and I wouldn't have been as bothered if there was any admittance that yes, there was some sexualisation going on there... but to deny it is just... well, I'll say no more!
 
Wow, you really are reading way too much into these things! Instead of just repeating the epsiodes you've already watched and being offened all over again. Just skip over to ep3 and try again. It's completely different from that point on.
 
Demoniser said:
They act like it's marine/naval warfare because it is in essence. The only difference is they're operating in a vacuum instead of on the water.

While fun to watch, watching capital ships whizzing about as if the laws of physics don't apply isn't realistic.

Seriously though, Yamato is over 35 years old, of course it will be cheesy and not make sense.
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the plot hole for me is why didn't the iscara people just send the decontaminator to earth instead of a design of how to build a warp engine? The baddies don't seem to have much warp or wave guns so could they not.have just sent a fleet and resolved the problem without making the yamato go anywhere?

Also the bad guys have a gun that is shorter range but more powerful than a wave gun..but the wave gun disintegrated a small planet thing, whereas the yamato just took 3 blasts from the humanoid aliens and only just sank but didnt blow up lol?
 
@Nitefly: Yes, her manner is quite deliberately tittilating (actually I'd call it more flirtatious), but it's really quite obvious that she's not trying to seduce him, just to unnerve him and make him uncomfortable. He's clearly thrown by the way she acts, firstly because (just like the audience) he never expected a centuries-old magical wolf to look like a teenage girl, and secondly cause he's used to being the worldly guy easily seducing naive farmgirls and he's shocked to meet a girl who, despite looking so young, can clean his clock with ease in the flirtatious banter department. For her it's just a means to an end, he gets him hot, nervous and confused in order to get him to agree to her terms. It's part of the character's charm that she confounds expectations in that way (appearing young and innocent but actually being really worldly and cynical), and that she's willing to use flirting as a weapon in quite a conservative society.

If you can't see what happened in that scene, then you're probably the type of guy who can't tell what happened even when it's happening to him. Whenever a female saleslady in a shop smiles at you, you probably think "Oh yeah, she likes me, get in there!" And if you thought that showing a cartoon girl's naked back and side is "pervy", then you've got really distorted standards, considering there's female teenage pop stars that show a lot more in their video clips every day, and in a decidedly more sexualised manner! Maybe you should consider following the rest of the Puritans across the water? :p
 
I'm not sure which pop-videos you are watching if they have long drawn out shots of naked girls exposing practical all but their nipples... Especially ones that are really rather young...!

Plot wise, I have nothing to disagree with you there. Doesn't really explain why the audience is subsequently treated to panning shots of body though...
 
Gotta say I got bored of Spice and Wolf, not really my bag!

I'm more of a sci-fi<>serious<>comedy fan myself. Whether it has bouncing boobs, innuendo or not doesn't matter, I'll still enjoy it :D

I still have multiple shows to watch though but am going through them slowly :p

HSoTD is still ongoing :D
 
robgmun said:
Nitefly, Anime is just not for you then, stick to regular western cartoons for kids and the occasional Ghibli movie
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Thats not really true though is it? The sole point or definition of anime doesn't require software porn to be classed as such. there are many series without such obvious nudity. i think you are trying to justify and normalized something to yourself which a lot of people would definitely find at least a little morally wrong.

considering its not meant to be a horror or porno etc would you comfortably watch it with your parents? If not its probably not as kosher as you might want to think.
 
The Running Man said:
the plot hole for me is why didn't the iscara people just send the decontaminator to earth instead of a design of how to build a warp engine? The baddies don't seem to have much warp or wave guns so could they not.have just sent a fleet and resolved the problem without making the yamato go anywhere?

Also the bad guys have a gun that is shorter range but more powerful than a wave gun..but the wave gun disintegrated a small planet thing, whereas the yamato just took 3 blasts from the humanoid aliens and only just sank but didnt blow up lol?
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It's called 'convenience for the sake of the story'

The amount of shows that change how powerful or strong the weapons/shields are on spaceships is endless.

In one battle a ship will be able to take a massive beating from overwhelming odds, then conveniently the next episode, they get massacred quickly.

It's just one of those sci fi conceits.

I just rewatched the first episode of Spice and Wolf, i don't get what all of the fuss is about. If i were to be, I'd be more embarassed by the run of the mill fan service you see in every other anime show.

Yes it is 'evocative' and yes it is a bit of fan service to an extent, that can't be denied. It's not the first time a pretty girl has been used on television to that effect, real or otherwise. Heck, it's not even the first time 'guy finds naked girl' has been done to death (See River Tam in the western show Firefly). But it is tasteful, there are no in your face breast or panty shots (like some shows i can name, Highschool of the Dead for instance). It's very...adult and restrained.

But if people want to get into the idea of why is she naked..well.

Holo (Or Horo, I'm sure Alex will correct me as to the proper name :p) is a Wolf Goddess, why would she care about clothes? She isn't human, she doesn't have the same 'standards', clothes would be beyond her, and quite..foreign. She is a wolf afterall, and Wolves are well..naked.

I would happily show Spice and Wolf as an example of the more adult shows Anime has to offer, i would also put Saikano and Evangelion out there. All of these have 'mild nudity' with...younger looking characters, but it's done in a reserved, and adult way.
 
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I have seen a fair few Studio Ghibli films and thought they were good, I also enjoyed Akira but thought the Ghost in the Shell was a bit naff. I have also seen parts of Urotsukidoji which I appreciate is the opposite end of the spectrum! That was terrible :D

I don't mind that media can be sexually driven or intentionally provocative in those ways, I just find it slightly annoying when something is packaged yet presented as something else, or those aspects denied. It's like people saying that they like Urotsukidoji for the story - yeah, right.

It's like all those channel 4 documentaries that are essentially 'look and laugh at this freakshow' but are presented as 'insightful and thoughtful'. There's nothing wrong with embracing dross as dross and enjoying those fun aspects heart on sleeve. I listen to Limp Bizkit for goodness sake :p
 
I'm afraid I'm with Nitefly on this, some Anime does give off an 'embrace your inner paedophile' vibe.

Still, it seems quite popular :p :o
 
Thats not really true though is it? The sole point or definition of anime doesn't require software porn to be classed as such. there are many series without such obvious nudity. i think you are trying to justify and normalized something to yourself which a lot of people would definitely find at least a little morally wrong.

considering its not meant to be a horror or porno etc would you comfortably watch it with your parents? If not its probably not as kosher as you might want to think.
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What can I say, the whole point of contextualised nudity is obviously lost; especially having just watched the first episode in Nitefly's case. In regards to the front covers, you're also ignoring the VAST amount of artwork on the series that is NOT sexualised. Oddly enough, companies put images on products they think the average viewing base (in Spice and Wolf's case 18-30 year olds) might find appealing. Notice the fact that the OTHER artwork for the exact same series, doesn't even show a hint of it, it just shows Holo...well acting like Holo.

1) It's not trying to sexualise the scene, or to titillate the audience, it's Holo being Holo
2)She's in human form in the first time in several hundred years; she's not human
3)The REST of the series, once the whole POINT of what is going on is past; so is the nudity.

This isn't pervy porno or hentai, it's some NUDITY, there is a difference between nudity and material aimed at turning on the audience. I'm plenty 'experienced' (:p) enough to tell the difference, I'm not 17, and the scenes make sense within the context of the show, and what's going on. Even more so if you've read the original novels.

I have watched the series several times; know multiple other people who've watched the show, and yes, watched it with the family around, and Nitefly is the first who's jumped to the conclusion it's a pervy show including a few who aren't into anime at all; when actually a lot of the show is 'talking heads', and about the dialogue.

A similar furor came along when the first translated book was released; the company who've licensed the series over sexualised the 'westernised' cover of the novel; and unsurprisingly the fanbase kicked back because it DIDN'T represent the content of the novels very well; which is part of the reason why they've now toned them down, and are also releasing them with the original covers as well as the western ones.


At the end of those days, the point of those scenes is in the context and in the story; when that point dissapears; so does the nudity; and if the series was all about being pervy and fanservice, then it wouldn't be COMPLETELY ABSENT from 24/26 episodes.

If you want to try and find a show that IS a little iffy at times, go check out the likes of Dance in the Vampire Bund. Spice and Wolf is an adult series with some occasionally 'adult scenes', but they are there contextually within the story and the point isn't the audience perving off them. Again, if this show was all about that, would it really COMPLETELY drop the aspect after the first 2 shows when the whole point has passed?


Demoniser said:
Holo (Or Horo, I'm sure Alex will correct me as to the proper name :p) is a Wolf Goddess, why would she care about clothes? She isn't human, she doesn't have the same 'standards', clothes would be beyond her, and quite..foreign. She is a wolf afterall, and Wolves are well..naked.

I would happily show Spice and Wolf as an example of the more adult shows Anime has to offer, i would also put Saikano and Evangelion out there. All of these have 'mild nudity' with...younger looking characters, but it's done in a reserved, and adult way.
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Regards Holo/Horo
-Horo is how the name was originally translated due to the L/R barrier converting from Japanese to English, and it's the name that's stuck with the fanbase; however the official translations, and indeed the second series itself have clarified it is meant to be Holo.

(Actually a similar thing happened with Lawrence, as originally a lot of people were calling him Lawrence Kraft, when actually, his name's apparently Kraft Lawrence)
 
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Alexrose1uk said:
If you want to try and find a show that IS a little iffy at times, go check out the likes of Dance in the Vampire Bund.
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Coming Soon via Manga UK....


Pretty much spot on with your description of Holo deliberately trying to fluster Lawrence in the early episodes.
 
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