Anime has a problem with body boundaries, and the problem extends to both men and women. Fan-service centers on seeing breasts, abs, pecs, panties, and other parts, often without a character’s consent. It involves women pressing up against flustered men (and the reverse and every other combination) as they struggle to get away while expressing their dismay. Fan-service involves unwelcome touches, accidental or otherwise. The breaking of character body boundaries features in many comedic situations.
A guy falling on a lady so he accidentally squeezes her breasts is a common trope. Likewise, a lady pressing or squirming against a man’s crotch–to his pleasurable discomfort–is also a common trope. While anime is fantasy, the narrative offers troubling problems. Fantasy focuses on doing what can’t be done in reality, such as feats of magic or daring-do. Anime’s fan-service fantasy focuses on boundary violations. However, unlike magic, anime’s groping and other actions can be done.
In fact, Japanese women struggle with body boundary violations to the point of having women-only subway cars so they don’t run the risk of being groped (for more details read my articles “A Look at Japanese Feminism and Japanese Misogyny” and “What is an incel? How does it overlap with otaku culture?” Japan requires cameras use an audible shutter sound to avoid up-skirt photos.
Body boundaries primarily focus on women, but men suffer from such violations. However, because of cultural norms and the differences of the violations, they are under reported. After all, men are supposed to want sexual interaction! Men are deemed more violent by nature, so violations such as punches, kicks, and slaps aren’t supposed to a problem. You see this in anime as female characters drop kick, punch, and otherwise abuse male characters for comedy.
While anime watchers understand this is comedic fantasy, it seems to influence behavior among a minority in the fandom. After all, if it didn’t, cameras wouldn’t have to make noise and women wouldn’t need their own subway cars. Of course, not all men who violate female body boundaries are anime watchers. In fact, I wager members of the fandom are a tiny percentage of violators. Sadly, there’s no good data on this. But anime conventions wouldn’t have to post signs such as this one if it wasn’t a problem:
While in the minority, a segment of the otaku community appears to act upon the boundary violations they see in anime. It’s hard to say if they would do the same if anime didn’t use such actions for comedy. Media coverage tends to point toward autism and other neuro-divergance as causes. This paints such people unfairly and increases stigma toward their mental disposition. The majority of people who act on fan-service are neurologically “normal” (for lack of a better term) but have some sort of social deficit because of their upbringing and behavioral choices. In other words, they lack good social education and have limited social experiences. Anime tends to attract socially awkward people. The otaku community can be a great space to meet people with similar interests, yet the fantasy elements–waifu and fan-service and similar–also provide sometimes unhealthy outlets for pent-up sexual and social urges. People who struggle with connection turn toward anime as a way to avoid the messiness of human relationships. There’s also the problem with many males feeling sexually frustrated because they cannot establish long-lasting relationships. Modern culture over emphasizes sexuality and romantic relationships, which contributes to this frustration.
Cute anime girls and anime boys don’t have their own minds or desires or troubles. They offer a risk-free area. After all, you can draw a character in lingerie, and they cannot protest (unless you like drawing that!). And there’s nothing wrong with this as long as you aren’t influenced by these depictions. The media you consume influences your thinking. For example, sexual choking is on the rise with 25% of women in a study’s sample experiencing it by the age of 17. It’s thought pornography consumption–choking is common in pornography–is the source for this behavior (Herbenick, 2022; Wright, 2021). But, among some people, anime’s social and sexual depictions encourage mental habits which inhibit their ability to interact with others appropriately. Other people have boundaries that can differ from your own. Each of us have different social bubbles around us, allowing for certain levels of touch with certain people. Some people don’t like to be touched. Some people don’t mind shoulder or back touches. Still others are huggers. Yet anime often ignores how people have different preferences for touch, even when characters express those boundaries. This comedic habit stops people who have few other places to learn social conduct from learning how to navigate those boundaries.
Now, I know it seems like I’m overreaching. If you’ve read JP for any length of time, you know I value stories as tools for navigating life. They provide moral guidance, provide examples, and help us develop empathy. But stories can also do the opposite. They can make us racist. They can make us disregard body boundaries. They can encourage us to hate women or men or blacks or anyone different. Stories encourage fetishes like yellow fever. The stories we tell ourselves, the stories we consume, shape us on both an unconscious and conscious level. Consuming too many romantic comedy anime laden with fan-service will change your thinking, especially when you are a teen or young adult with limited social experiences, just as consuming pornography makes you think such content is normal human sexual behavior. The types of stories we accumulate in our minds determines our thinking. Incels, for example, accumulate stories where women take advantage of men and disregard stories that don’t match their limited library.
Anime’s body boundary problem shapes how people immersed in anime think. They may not grope people, but many will mentally do so. Many fans struggle with human connections. There’s some correlation between Japan’s large sex industry (including manga and anime) and the decrease in relationships. Of course, anime isn’t the only culprit. Social media, smartphones, video games, long work hours, and other factors play into people’s connection problems. Notice that all of these involve stories: either stories you consume or stories your tell yourself. Humans exist in stories. Our lives are stories we tell ourselves, and those stories govern our behavior. How we view relationships is also a story we tell ourselves.
Anime’s use of body boundary violation for comedy isn’t healthy for viewers or for the medium. I’m exhausted by the usual comedy. I really don’t see how fans can find it funny or even escapist anymore. Whenever the usual trip-boob-grasp scene appears, I sigh. Anime’s jokes are beyond tired and overdone. But then again, that’s just me. I’ve been watching anime for over 20 years. Every so often a romantic comedy comes along that refreshes things, such as Kaguya-sama and Horimiya. But Kaguya-sama avoids most of the typical fan-service or satirizes such tropes when the story delves into it. The manga features more of it than the anime. It’s possible for anime to build other jokes, such as awkward hand-holding (which most wouldn’t consider a major body boundary violation), or just something that requires more thought than the usual fodder. Moving away from these tropes would open anime and manga toward more creativity and variety in its humor. However, anime and manga fans have come to expect these tropes and story beats, like the ever-present beach trip, and many protest when these tropes aren’t provided. Of course, stories can twist these tropes toward different angles. Ranma 1/2, which was released originally in the 1970s-1980s, plays with these comedic tropes, turning them into satire and mixing them with zany, comedic martial arts. Because the male lead Ranma turns into a girl, he’s familiar with the female anatomy, which leads to the body-boundary violations happening to him (an interesting inverse) and decreases the physical embarrassment of when he accidentally does them. Instead, the story centers on his inner emotional vulnerability during those instances, especially toward his reluctant love Akane. Fan-service, including body boundary violations, can be used in good comedic, satirical, and narrative ways; it’s just not handled well most of the time.
Anime offers many positive stories, but the reliance on violating body boundaries for comedy hamstrings it. It negatively impacts the stories otaku tell themselves about relationships, and it keeps anime from innovating. That, perhaps, is the greatest sin of fan-service. It templates the medium and prevents experimentation. After all, fan-service can include a character dressed from neck to ankle in beautiful clothing. Fan-service could include a character showing off their intellectual prowess (witty intellects are sexy!). Limiting fan-service to skin, breasts, panties, washboard abs, and the like leaves out a lot of areas to play. Fan-service could even be a character’s drawing skill or ability to comfort other characters. But as long as anime relies on body boundary violation for comedy, we will continue to have the same exhausted tropes and offer unrealistic relationship reference stories for those who have a limited social experiences.
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