WTF Japan?!? – Lolicon

Finally we get to the WTF Japan?!? edition involving lolicon. I must admit that I’ve been procrastinating from writing this one because for me (and I would hope most people) it’s a pretty disturbing subject and it’s bound to get my blood boiling. But I’ve committed myself to this topic and it’s actually one of the main reasons I started this blog in the first place, as a place to express my thoughts on this subject matter, so as angry as it may make me, it’s something that I need to do.

One thing I’ve noticed over the past year is that my WTF Japan?!? blog posts, the one on traps in particular, have consistently been among my most popular articles. While I’m flattered by this because these are perhaps the ones I spend the most time researching and that I hold the strongest opinions on, I also worry that the reasons people are visiting these posts aren’t because they necessarily agree with them or are interested in my viewpoint, but rather were lured there for the exact reasons I’ve been ranting about. In many ways, it actually proves my point tenfold. And given that trend, I wouldn’t be surprised if this particular post becomes my most frequently visited article for all the wrong reasons. I’m not sure how to feel about that. On second thought, I’m pretty sure I know exactly how to feel about that.

That having been said, while the trap and incest columns may have shown me to be somewhat tolerant of those tropes, be prepared to find absolutely no quarter this time around. And for the record, I will not be linking to very many resources or providing specific examples given the nature of the topic, 1) because I don’t want to see it myself (feel free to look for yourself – it won’t be very difficult), and 2) I’m certain the FBI is already monitoring me just based on my Google searches and the few sites I did visit in order to research this topic.

The Best of Anime: 2013

And so another year has come and gone, and it’s time for my anime year-end wrap-up. Just like last year, the rules are as follows:

1. My lists only include shows I have actually watched. I cannot speak to the quality of shows I didn’t watch, but chances are I never gave them a look-see for a reason. This rule will especially be true for the most disappointing shows since it’s not fair to categorize shows as being terrible – even if they actually are – when I’ve never seen them; hence the reason I don’t have a ‘worst of’ category.

2. A show needs to have ended in 2013, so any two cour (season) shows that started in 2013 but have continued into 2014 are ineligible.

In many ways, I’m rather thankful for that second rule because this latest season has a good number of great shows, so narrowing it down to a select few would have been difficult (and no, the soulless Kill la Kill is not one of those shows). Thankfully several of those shows were two cour and therefore extend into 2014. Of course, that will probably be problematic next year, but that’s an issue for another date.

So without further ado, make it so!