[JamesE]

Removed at author's request

[dongle]

Oh come on, they may be underage but they're not all prepubescent.

And how about Charlotte in the new Castlevania? I /r/ed her right after I hit the first savepoint.

<_<_>

[km]

The only think I can think of right now is why the fuck is this on the front page?

Look at me, I'm cool too guys because I don't like the same things you don't like but hey look I like this thing that you guys like, so you like me, right?

This is worse than those posts on IC about robot games or whatever. Those had content valuable to *somebody*. This is just "hay guys look at me" bullshit that belongs in a livejournal.
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vi) RPGs (Role-Playing Games)
For adolescents; half-formed personalities roaming (in packs) in search of identity.

[BotageL]

Look, guys, I am pointing out a wacky anime fandom trend for shits and giggles and holding it up as an example of what it's all like! I am hip and cool and this has never been done before and certainly not better. Just look at them silly pedophile slanteyes! Japan is so wacky.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Maybe Toups should start screening what gets posted to the front page.

[JamesE]

It's an autobiographical account of me encountering moe and being freaked the hell out - obsessive (male) fanboys who fixate on young women are perhaps something to freak out about. I don't see this commented on elsewhere and it saddens me and freaks me the fuck out.

http://ea.zeroesunlimited.com/articles/moemania.shtml

[JamesE]

[RecessRapist]

My friend sent me the doujin manga that inspired the Lotus tits picture.

It made me cry.

[BotageL]

This shit has been addressed. It comes up fairly often. Heck, the article you linked is perhaps my favorite description of the lol-tastic phenomenon of moe ever. You're exaggerating stupidly for shock and "look at them sick otaku" value, and I'm calling you on it. Yeah, a lot of them games are like that. So? It ain't anywhere near all of them, and you can find a bunch of non-Japanese amateur software of similar or worse "deviant" art styles. The majority of the doujin games that get passed around on the English-speaking parts of the internet aren't pornographic or typically even particularly fanservice-filled (read: panty shots). If you want to see the disgusting heights of moe, check out some of the commercial releases in Japan sometime.

Would you have preferred it if it had been a whole bunch of furry-themed amateur games? Wait, I think I know the answer to that.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[Intentionally Wrong]

God damn it, James, you beat me to the Ecchi Attack! link.

The other thing this reminds me of is a recent update Jeremy Parish made on his website. No, wait, get a hold on your trolling reflex; the Bastard Sons of Insert Credit may have a history of rumblin' with Parish and affiliates, but this history is without merit. It's not useful, necessary, or entertaining. So!

[BotageL]

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering, that link James posted to the MoeMania article is not at all worksafe. It is however great reading.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[dessgeega]

[Deets]

This thread could have been a new Green and Black Attack :(

[BotageL]

Hey guys, is this moe enough for you?
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[JamesE]

[JamesE]

[BotageL]

[Triton]

Is it thoroughly impossible to view little girls as cute without sex entering the picture anymore? I mean it's a bit ridiculous, there are plenty of games that star young boys as protagonists, and nobody is sexualizing them.

For instance I find the girls in the Touhou games cute, but I'm certainly not sporting wood when I play. I don't argue there are those who do, but it's certainly not the game's fault. If they aren't masturbating to lolikon, they would be to the JCPenney catalog.

Believe it or not, there are actual real living, breathing, heterosexual females who find this sort of stuff aesthetically pleasing too, because it's cute, not because it's erotic.

These games are not available for purchase outside of Japan. Most of them being sold at comic conventions, they're barely available inside Japan. While I certainly don't condone piracy, I don't think they're hurting anyone's bottom line.

There are more games on there than you think that don't fit the "Moe" style as well, maybe you need to look a little harder!

DeusJester used to have a sig with a picture of Samidare in it. I asked a "doujin savvy" friend where the pic came from, and through encounters on other forums and searches on google, I was lead to simulationstyle for the download. Judging by association and sweeping generalization that means that all parties involved must be huge flaming pedophiles, right?

[Touran]

[dongle]

I experienced this feeling for the first time while watching the flash movie from which Persona got his sig.

I don't know how to deal with it.

[Toups]

I... don't see anything wrong with this.

Would the offended parties please speak with me via PM or email as to why this is an inappropriate frontpage post? I mean I guess I'm not so educated about the subject matter here so maybe I'm missing something. My only problem is that it's a double post, really.
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[Intentionally Wrong]

[Toups]

The thing is -- no, not everyone who is playing (or even making) these games is getting off on it sexually. But you can't deny that in all of these games -- and the subgenre of anime from which their characters come from -- underage girls are sexualized. Panty shots, camel toes, enormous breasts, skimpy outfits: it's all really fucking creepy. I find it hard to defend any of that as just being "cute". It's creepy and weird and it makes the games difficult to enjoy for some people.

Little girls can be presented as cute in a manner that's genuinely endearing and likable and not sexualized at all -- see Pearly in Phoenix Wright, for instance. There's a huuuuuuge difference between this:



and this:


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[Deets]

The lower image doesn't depict little/underage girls, toups.

[Toups]

it gets hard to tell after awhile
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[Intentionally Wrong]

[Takashi]

What i think is in stake here is that James doesn't want an ass shot of an 8 year old as a reward from performing a 20-combo move, and I totally sympathize with him on that regard.
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low-end.net | Whimsy (soon) | Serfdom 2.0

[klikbeep]

And me just back from Comiket.

Man . . . still trying to digest that place. One thing that seemed very interesting to me about the doujin scene -- and actually by extension, Akihabara itself -- is that the otaku hang together much better than they do in the West. In Japan, being into games or manga or anime or cosplay or any otaku thing really kind of lumps you into the same pot - - one of them. As such, everyone seems to have kind of a live and let live thing going on, and it all mingles right out in the open. People just kind of see what they feel like seeing.

They're building a whole freaking new world in that place. It's like one huge shared vision, 24/7.

[taidan]

James' point about aesthetic in 2d hit close to home for me. Not long ago on some other forum I was practically being battered into explaining why I didn't wish to play Disgaea. Among other reasons was the simple fact that I was turned off by the lolitastic characters. This led to the following reply:

"That says more about you than it does about the game"

Maybe that's true. Maybe I'm being thick for not seeing past them to enjoy the game beneath. But I don't see how a polite disagreement could warrant such words. Its one thing to like something different, but do you have to criticize those who don't feel the same way? No wonder the moe is so prevalent - the fans are vicious enough that you couldn't stop them if yo tried.

[luvcraft]

Hey guys! Aren't those wacky Japanese some sick pedophile fucks???

Oh, wait...

[luckystrike]

so, uh, Arcana Heart. Yes? No? Those machines are manned all day, every day at every arcade I've been to, despite the fact the game looks pretty like a pretty mediocre counter-fest.

Keep in mind I found nother either pedo nor sexual about the characters of Disgaea. They were just goofy. To either play that game or avoid that gae because such images make you uncomfortable does say something more about your tastes than about the game. Keep in mind I am not saying that this is a negative thing, but still.

[BotageL]

I apologize for somewhat snapping earlier in this thread - it was late and I had a headache.

However, I will attempt to clarify my complaints with James' post here:
- He immedietly goes for the "oh those wacky animu fans and their obsession with all things Japanese being better" stereotype. Commence eye-rolling.
- Whips out the "all of these games involve prepubescent girls" stereotype in the second paragraph.
- Brings in the usual "hey guys Japan is fucked up and creates pedophiles- I MEAN 'fans', just look at all the creepy costume cafes and shit man. ISN'T THAT ZANY?!" bullshit.
- Equates all portrayal of any girl that doesn't look like an american supermodel with the lol-tastic "moe" trend, which is only sometimes (okay, usually) linked to pedophilia.

You lack tact, you do little more than trot out old stereotypes for shits 'n' giggles, you offer no insight into any of this, and don't even talk about what particular games offended you so so one could properly respond to your claims of "oh them jap doujin games are all pedo-bait except three or four stock freeware games everyone and their dog already knows about."
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[luvcraft]

[bort]

Even if they dismiss it as nonsexual, I don't see how people can actually stomach the Precious-Moments-figurine aesthetic. It's soulless and kitschy and completely worthless.

About the JAPAN thing though I have been thinking. Someone should make a Norman Rockwell-themed doujin game and see if they can bring out all the Americans with equivalently fucked sensibilities. Or that dude who draws those whitebread landscapes of houses in meadows with waterwheels, or the woman who takes pictures of babies inside flowers and ladybugs and watering cans.

[luvcraft]

[Toups]

[luvcraft]

[luvcraft]

[RobotRocker]

James stop stealing my gimmick plz.

[JamesE]

I'm playing Mega Mari right now. Level design seems a bit like the work of a no-style rookie - lotsa stuff you can't see coming, which seems unfair, since Mega Mari should be twitchy as hell, not a memorisation fest (the concept is bullet hell Mega Man with little witch girls). The stage graphics feel overly slick and a bit soulless.

I'll give it time. The design aesthetic is bullshit, though.

Actually I just shut it off to play the SoR remake. It seems very lazy and unfocused. The concept of a curtain-fire Mega Man makes me hot, though.



Melty Blood still has the same fucking ugly art style that so much jap freeware falls prey to.

[Balzac]