DORIANDAWES'S PROFILE

This isn't necessarily a story, this is a plot, a good plot, but it needs a story.

Good stories have characters, characters who aren't necessarily focused on saving the world. How many seventeen year olds do you know would actually have a weird dream about crystals and realize it's their destiny to stop evil?

Nobody.

He needs an emotional reason for doing so. Even if its as simple as suddenly, for once in his life, actually feeling important. Maybe its all he's got left. The protagonist needs a deeper motivation for pursuing this quest, otherwise you have a bland, stale archetype of a hero character.

All joking aside, this is some gorgeous art.

This looks just simply breathtaking.

author=KingArthur

Personally, I find most anime horribly cliche'd and unforgivably offensive in terms of sexist and racist stereotypes; however, that is not to say that the entire medium is at fault, but instead an industry that is birthed out of the country which while not holding onto incredibly backwards philosophies and ways-of-thinking, but also shares the fifth highest suicide rate out of all the countries in the world!

As a person of Japanese ancestry and a long-time fan of anime, I find your biased and uncalled-for remarks highly offensive. I kindly ask you to look in the mirror and realize the great irony lurking in your post.

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Back on topic, I've watched quite a number (read: a lot) of anime; I've been watching since as far as I can remember! Out of them, some recommendations that come to mind would be (in no particular order):
* Yuusha-ou GaoGaiGar
* Nichijou
* Seitokai no Ichizon
* Cardcaptor Sakura
* Detective Conan
* Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai
* Fate/Stay-Night
* Slayers
* Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha
* ZOIDS
* Kidou Senkan Nadesico
* Fairy Tail
* Full Metal Panic
* Zero no Tsukaima
* Shakugan no Shana
* Ghost Hunt
* To Aru Majutsu no Index

I'd list more, but the list is already as big as it is. Apologies if I got the AniDB links mixed up. (￣▽￣)ノ

Biased?

I merely stated a few opinions behind the medium.

1. The Japanese depiction of gay men in the popularized 'Yaoi' genre of anime is indeed offensive, and rife with negative stereotypes.

2. Popular Anime very often leads itself to a chauvinistic sexism with oversexualized female characters. Furthermore it is a backwards and anti-feministic approach that the majority of these female characters are squeaky and submissive or either overbearing and obnoxious.

3. Japan does have the fifth-highest suicide rate in the world

Not once did I accuse Japanese people's of holding to these things, only Japanese culture. That is not to say that other country's cultures are not full of problems (Canada has riots over hockey games, and America has Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann). That is also not to say that the some horribly offensive sexism and negative stereotypes of different people's is not apparent in other mediums produced by cultures from all around the world, such as the horrendous over-sexualized reinvention of the Starfire character by DC Comics.

I also never once accused all anime of having these inherent problems, and listed a few that I do enjoy. I did indeed specify that it was not the medium but the industry itself. A little research into the industry and you will find a cold, heartless money-making machine fueled by the root of all evils in mankind, greed. It's something I've done extensive research into and I've come back shaking from the horror of it all.

There are good shows out there, but I did feel the need to express my opinion that the majority of anime is offensive to me. I do not like a culture that squashes the individual in favor of having a collectivist society striving towards a twisted ideal of perfection, nor do I believe in the idea of submissive partners in any relationship, regardless of sexual orientations.

Furthermore, I do not appreciate that there is an entire genre of anime dedicated to selling homosexuality as a product to teenage girls, and not even an accurate depiction of homosexuality, but a bizarre and twisted perversion of it, in which rape is considered a romantic act.

From someone who has dealt with issues of sexual harassment and molestation, and ALSO as a gay man, I find all of these things horrible, and merely because it is a popular medium of entertainment from another culture and country, I feel every right that when I see something as sick and twisted as that, there is a need to say something about it, like I will stand up and say something about any medium that crosses these moral and ethical boundaries I've set up for myself.

I have nothing against the Japanese, and if you'll look through my post, you'll find that there's no traces of resentment for the Japanese people at all. Satoshi Kon, the creator of Paranoia Agent, as well as Susumu Hirasawa are two of my biggest heroes. I'm quite fond of Japanese art and literature, and find their classic history and mythology quite inspiring.

My problem is with these cultural malfunctions and a cold, heartless society that destroys countless lives, daily.

Assume nothing, sir.

For all you know, that might be what I am doing, only I have chosen this moment to confess some weaknesses here in this forum.

For all you know, I do try in other areas and aspects of my life, but this is an isolated instance.

We judge so quickly and so easily.

Interesting.

There is of course, also the issues with the fact that none of us knows each other. We're all strangers here who have all walked through our own periods of pain and have dealt with them accordingly. Everyone suffers in life, it's the truth.

Personally, I don't want to tell anyone what they should and shouldn't do, as I have no idea what it is that caused that person to fall into that mindset. I've no idea what they've overcome, and what has nearly destroyed them.