Anime Incest: Why It Appears So Much in It
Jokes about incest between siblings in anime have already become something of a household name. Better yet, it became a meme. Let's try to disassemble the cultural and logical reasons why incest appears so often in anime, how it affects anime, and how it targets a specific audience. Anime is not the first time to touch on topics that are considered sensitive in other countries. Moreover, there is a whole set of taboos that appear so often in anime. However, one specific figure appears in it much more often than others and this is incest - romantic or sexual relations between family members. There are many examples of anime incest between characters such as Beyond the Boundary, Kiss x Sis, Koi Kaze, Aki Sora, Fruits Basket, Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of incest titles. And not in all of them he is something depraved, just as the characters are not always directly related, but simply consolidated. In each of these anime, incest is shown in different ways, although they all have common cliches.
Why does incest appear in anime at all? Why is this question not as sensitive in Japan for its main media product as in other countries? Perhaps the fact is that Japan is quite different in many ways as far as the perception of sex is concerned. And there they talk about him a little more freely. Anime is art, and art, as we know, reflects the mentality and beliefs of the people to whom it belongs. So when sex is part of a cult and is easily negotiated, chances are good it will be reflected on something like anime. In Japan, siblings are generally seen as guardians and tend to take on more responsibility when advising their younger siblings. Because of this, there are many reasons why the theme of incest can be used in anime. While this is unlikely in real life, exploring the possibility of incest between siblings based on these beliefs can be an interesting and suggestive topic. After all, since brothers, sisters and parents are so respected in this culture, possible sexual relations is a very exciting topic. And here we need to focus on what kind of anime it is, where there are similar topics. In most cases, these are shoujo - romantic anime that are aimed at a female audience in its stereotypical representation, that is, the emphasis is on an increased degree of emotionality. And similar anime, where there is a taboo, bring an emotional response to the peak. And the viewer's positive or negative reaction to incest in anime is not even so important, the main thing is that it exists and managed to make the viewer feel the topic as much as possible.
In my memory, there are a couple of similar anime that correctly use such a thing as incest between relatives. The first is the classic 2000 Koi Kaze. And the second, recent - Domekano.
In the case of Koi Kaze, the story is about Saeki Koshiro, a wedding agent who finds himself in a difficult situation where he struggles with his feelings. He is divorced and lives with his father. He has a mother and sister, but he hasn't seen her in years. One day he accidentally meets a high school student, whom he falls in love with, but soon finds out that she is his younger sister, and over time she moves to live with him and his father. This story is a good, and most importantly, a realistic example of how this can be in life. In the same way, everything is played out in my personal love of last year - Domekano about a love triangle with multilevel incest and serious drama. And although there is no direct blood connection between the characters, it raises the question of accepting such a union in society. So, the guy is in love with his young teacher and realizes that he can hardly be with her. One evening he also has sex with one girl. It later turns out that she and his teacher are sisters. Plus, their parents converge and they become a family. In fact, even the Ghibli raised a similar issue in From the Slopes of Kokuriko. One of the subplots was that the two heroes were in love with each other, but later it became possible that they could be brother and sister. This leads them to understand that if this turns out to be true, they are unlikely to change anything. However, this is not the case. But the fact remains.
Other anime with incest elements tend to be hard-core comedic etty. Comedy can often be used to show absurdity. Like in Kiss x Sis, where two half-sisters Ako and Riko have romantic feelings for their brother and want to be with him, which creates a comic effect. It might be weird to hear this from someone who called Kiss x Sis one of the most overrated and sucky anime, but a lot of people really like it. It's just that his approach is very different from the more serious Koi Kaze and the same Domekano. In the first examples, this is portrayed as "Anime about incest, but not about incest, but rather about feelings and problems", when in the case of Kiss x Sis it is a fanservice comedy with an etty. While this may not be to the taste of most people, it should be noted that there are those who enjoy incest on a fetish level. And, in my opinion, this also plays a significant role.
There is a definite large audience of people who enjoy seeing this topic. There is a whole market for this type of content, so there is no reason not to make an anime like this for its creators. Yes, there may be those who will not like the topic of our discussion and are perceived with hostility, but such people may simply not watch such anime. Also, there is another reason why there is incest in the anime. Animation replaces the Japanese in many ways with cinema, so the demographic coverage of the content is much greater. In other countries, it is rare to see an adult drama in the form of animation, as it is more likely to be reproduced in films. In Japan, a lot is about anime. Therefore, I think the presence of a large number of incest titles does not mean that this topic is a defining characteristic for the entire anime as a whole. It's like saying that superhero in America reflects all of Hollywood's cinematography. Although we know perfectly well that this is not so. And just like eroticism is the first thing that comes to mind when the phrase "French cinema" is used, French directors also shoot a large number of comedies. Therefore, having a theme does not define all art. It's just that cultural beliefs in the work, which are different from ours, immediately catch the eye, but do not define it as a whole. The Topic of Article: Anime Incest: Why It Appears So Much in It. |
