Original Article Kyoto Animation's Free! Swim Team Anime Promo Streamed
Well, shit just hit the fan. It's hilarious, but I don't personally find it entirely out of character for KyoAni to swing from one end of the extreme to the other end of the extreme. It's KyoAni's job to generate talks. "Cute girls doing cute things" has been a staple of the studio for as long as we can remember, and regardless what critics may say, we can't deny no one in the industry has quite mastered the art of pandering as well as KyoAni has. Even when they've been so reliant on their tried and true formula, they usually manage to inject some intelligence into the narrative, and underpinned with an interesting directory style and monstrous production value, things usually work out pretty well on the commercial front. No question about it, moe is largely marketed for the male demographic, and though the diversity of the actual audience is hard to say, I do find moe irksome when it's over exploited, which is often the case with KyoAni series (Haruhi and Hyoka are debatable). So...here we have this, KyoAni attempting to expand its female fanbase using pretty boys flaunting prettiness, and opening a can of worms while they are at it.
To be honest, I'm pretty immune to blatant pandering in general and I don't find it particularly appealing either way, but the industry double-standard needs some readdressing. The bottom line is you don't often find comments like "Eww...Pedophiles" whenever moe infested shows come along, but the moment KyoAni caters to female fanservice, forums are rampant with homophobic remarks. And yes, apparently Fujoshi is representative of all girls who find pretty boys attractive. I'm not bashing on moe-fans here and it's perfectly fine to enjoy the stuff (even if I don't myself), but acting like a narrow-minded hypocritical individual is a different story altogether. Watching some fans rage is amusing and grating at the same time, but at least this provided a rare opportunity for people to talk about the lopsided state of fanservice in the open. So I say bring it on KyoAni, let's rock some boat.
Omg...is this what people in RC were talking about in the last podcast? It looks so beautiful, as per usual KyoAni standards, but hopefully the show will have some substance as well. (I already picked my favorite character to look at here--Makoto, hehe)
ReplyDeleteI totally hear you on the double standards part (and am equally turned off by excessive moe blobs thrown together in a substance-less plot), and I wish there wasn't so much bashing of bishies, or people who like to appreciate bishies. I actually would be really interested in finding out just what the demographic of those people are, since I have plenty of girl friends who are indeed fujoshi but also plenty of girl friends who just like looking at good looking guys! xD
It does look pretty doesn't it? =D..I love the way KyoAni animates hair, it's almost like it takes on a life of its own (and I don't even think I have a hair fetish..>.<..)..lol, it's just so interesting to look at.
DeleteI find myself wanting to complain when I see a season lineup saturated with moeblobs....but I try to tolerate by just ignore them. The bishie bashing wouldn't have been so irritating if they used a different argument, but the logic of pretty boys = gay is irrational and homophobic. I was actually talking to Kairi about Karneval the other day and how much gay-slandering comments it inspired. Well, okay..stories overrun with bishies have a reputation for plot butchering, but the same could be said for moe-shows. Besides, the relationship is correlational, not causal...how do they know bishie shows can't have substance, when the same people have used the exact same argument for moe-shows.
Not the biggest fan of bishies, male or female, but nice to see KyoAni going for the other end of the spectrum for once! We'll find out whether or not this has more going on for it soon enough; KyoAni might be mostly a pandering studio, but they're very good at making pleasant shows.
Deletelol...yeah..knowing KyoAni, I'd like to believe pandering is only one part of it and there will be something genuinely interesting in the mix to carry the story.
DeleteOn a side note, I still want my Hyouka sequel...>.<