What's Up With Most Anime and Rape? *SPOILERS*

[Shadowninja100]

98% of mainstream anime don't incorporate any sort of rape into them. If you think otherwise, then you probably just haven't watched enough anime.

I agree with this, out of all the shows that I have watched I haven't seen a single one that contains a rape scene.

 

[Nieroshai]

Japan has all forms of sexual fetishism, and is a very sex-obsessed culture.

As for depiction, it should only ever be depicted as the painful and traumatic experience it really is. At least in my opinion.

 

[yanipheonu]

I dunno, there's a lot of rape in Japanese stuff, I have no idea why. If it's a Japanese porn, someone probably is going to be raped.

Probably just a weird cultural difference.

 

[nima55]

It is any easy way to add cheap drama to any story so yea it's used all the time -_-

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
Gantz (from what I hear of the manga)
Berserk
The Cowboy Bebop Movie
Hellsing (well, pre-Hellsing actually... Unless it happens in the manga too)

All Shonen titles. Sorry, I can't help much on shonen. I'm a shoujo fan.

I almost said "shoujo girl" but then realized that would have been linguistically redundant.

So I guess that has more to do with shonen than general anime? Don't really know what to tell you - the only rape in shoujo that I can think of is

Spoiler

Mars, which is a manga ABOUT a rape victim recovering from her trauma

. Actually, since that whole series has been out for years, I don't know if it's really a spoiler anymore, but... yeah, just in case.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

The average man in Japan has very little control in his day to day life (see: Workplace) and rape fantasies give them complete control. That's why Japanese porn is very rape-orientated, it's all about the power they don't actually have.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I mean, just look at the "revenge flick" genre, and in the West! "I Spit On Your Grave" is a perfect example of even entire stories/movies/what have you that shouldn't and don't need to exist. And yeah, that's worse than a single scene in an anime to me.

I'm going to completely break my stereotype here.

No movie needs to exist, but that movie has as much right to exist as any.

I have a guilty secret, which is that I tend to love exploitation films and 'bad' cinema. I love it precisely because they can be so incredibly daring with the subject matter and can give a voice to sentiment which Hollywood wouldn't touch. I won't deny that exploitation films can do exactly what the term implies (see Delinquent Schoolgirls), but occasionally, just occasionally, they can capture an emotion or a spirit which is raw and horrible and so incredibly powerful.

I Spit on Your Grave and the other rape/revenge films have come to symbolize the anger of generations of women and their allies raised under the threat of rape. The pleasure in revenge movies is not in watching rape, but in watching the revenge. A film which exists to fuck up the core assumption that rape victims are weak and passive and that rapists get away with it and present a fantasy of revenge and fulfilment through which people feel empowered in some way has far more right to exist than yet another tame Hollywood slasher movie about how losing your virginity will get you cut to bits by an axe murderer.

I have a real problem with the way rape appears in sections of Japanese visual media, not because they're showing rape, but because they show rape without emotional consequence, it's reduced to a fantasy which you watch because it's pleasurable to watch, not because you're meant to feel hate or anger or indignation, but because, a lot of the time, you're meant to feel either sexual or narrative pleasure.

That said, some of my favourite films come from Japan, including what is in my opinion the best and most disturbingly challenging female-centred revenge movie ever made (Takashi Miike's Audition). I hope and believe that there will a massive backlash in Japanese visual culture at some point against the prevalence of sexual violence in the media and wider culture, and if it happens I hope it's going to be utterly brutal and wonderful and radical and will make me fall in love with the country all over again.

When all they give me is Rapeman and have the balls to pretend it's a satire though, I start to get very depressed.

I don't think it's going to come through anime designed for a male audience.

 

[Darknacht]

Wow 5 examples out of hundreds. Have you ever thought it might just be what you are watching.
Also American media is full of rape too. Hell, we made an entire Law & Order series about it.

Now, to the actual point there maybe slightly more in Japanese media then in American because they are more repressed and their censorship laws are messed up, a girl being raped or molested is not going to be as heavily censored as just showing genitals.

 

[Ian Caronia]

God, I do love I Spit On Your Grave. Great film. I love all the old over the top films like that. However, the way you describe these films makes them sound almost no different than the Twilight flicks in many ways. No character arcs, close to no plot, etc.

On the subject of rape - has anyone seen the movie Irreversible? 8 minute long anal rape scene. Then it is Vincent Cassel going nuts around Paris trying to find the rapist. It is a fantastic film.

Well that's how I see them, and I have yet to be proven wrong (at least with films following close behind I Spit on your Grave, anyway). Also, never said Irreversible was a boring flick or poorly made. Just said the rape was needlessly elongated (for some artistic purpose or another as usual with things like this). I don't need to watch a woman being raped from start to end to A) know she was raped B) side with the guy after her rapist and C) feel satisfaction when the rapist gets his comeuppance.
Thought it was longer, though. Maybe you saw the edited version? Or maybe my sense of time was just warped because that scene just would...not...end to me.

All Shonen titles. Sorry, I can't help much on shonen. I'm a shoujo fan.

I almost said "shoujo girl" but then realized that would have been linguistically redundant.

So I guess that has more to do with shonen than general anime? Don't really know what to tell you - the only rape in shoujo that I can think of is

Spoiler

Mars, which is a manga ABOUT a rape victim recovering from her trauma

. Actually, since that whole series has been out for years, I don't know if it's really a spoiler anymore, but... yeah, just in case.

Oh well fair enough. Maybe it is the more action oriented titles that sometimes have it then. Food for thought...

But see? That example you gave is what I mean by a story that's actually focused on a rape, or victim of, and how it's done right! I bet there's a ton of development with her re-acclimating to her social environment. She works through the stages one feels after a trauma like that, lets herself feel hatred towards her attacker but then learns to overcoming that hate, thus helping her to move on with her life and ultimately cast down the shadow of terror and guilt that infected her after that incident.
...Unless she gets to run her attacker over with a car at some point. :/
But going on the hypothesis she doesn't: from what I've seen and heard from friends, family, and the people I've worked with, no story written in that manner ever hindered a person's healing. Revenge stories have their place true, much like sad endings and depressing stories. They can be great sources of venting and release. But I've seen those sources of release also instill the idea of revenge into victims too, an idea that does ruin not only their healing but their perminant outlook on life and people.

But then I suppose you could say that instead of just having one way to heal, having both options available would be best. *shrug* Depends on how you look at it.

Thanks for the example, Bara_no_Hime! Maybe the occurance of the "meaningless rape" doesn't come into play in every classification of anime..

 

[mireko]

All Shonen titles. Sorry, I can't help much on shonen. I'm a shoujo fan.

I almost said "shoujo girl" but then realized that would have been linguistically redundant.

So I guess that has more to do with shonen than general anime? Don't really know what to tell you - the only rape in shoujo that I can think of is

Spoiler

Mars, which is a manga ABOUT a rape victim recovering from her trauma

. Actually, since that whole series has been out for years, I don't know if it's really a spoiler anymore, but... yeah, just in case.

Actually, all of those are seinen, not shonen. Not that that disproves what you're saying, I just can't remember very many instances of it in shonen [small](but then it's not like I follow much shonen either)[/small]. Or seinen, now that I think of it. Maybe it's more of a genre thing?

[sub]Oh, and Fushigi Yuugi (shoujo!) used rape as a plot point all the goddamn time. Bleh.[/sub]

 

[Ian Caronia]

I'm going to completely break my stereotype here.

No movie needs to exist, but that movie has as much right to exist as any.

I have a guilty secret, which is that I tend to love exploitation films and 'bad' cinema. I love it precisely because they can be so incredibly daring with the subject matter and can give a voice to sentiment which Hollywood wouldn't touch. I won't deny that exploitation films can do exactly what the term implies (see Delinquent Schoolgirls), but occasionally, just occasionally, they can capture an emotion or a spirit which is raw and horrible and so incredibly powerful.

I Spit on Your Grave and the other rape/revenge films have come to symbolize the anger of generations of women and their allies raised under the threat of rape. The pleasure in revenge movies is not in watching rape, but in watching the revenge. A film which exists to fuck up the core assumption that rape victims are weak and passive and that rapists get away with it and present a fantasy of revenge and fulfilment through which people feel empowered in some way has far more right to exist than yet another tame Hollywood slasher movie about how losing your virginity will get you cut to bits by an axe murderer.

I have a real problem with the way rape appears in sections of Japanese visual media, not because they're showing rape, but because they show rape without emotional consequence, it's reduced to a fantasy which you watch because it's pleasurable to watch, not because you're meant to feel hate or anger or indignation, but because, a lot of the time, you're meant to feel either sexual or narrative pleasure.

That said, some of my favourite films come from Japan, including what is in my opinion the best and most disturbingly challenging female-centred revenge movie ever made (Takashi Miike's Audition). I hope and believe that there will a massive backlash in Japanese visual culture at some point against the prevalence of sexual violence in the media and wider culture, and if it happens I hope it's going to be utterly brutal and wonderful and radical and will make me fall in love with the country all over again.

When all they give me is Rapeman and have the balls to pretend it's a satire though, I start to get very depressed.

I don't think it's going to come through anime designed for a male audience.

I understand you completely, evilthecat. As I've said before and will say again here I can understand the healing and empowering...erm...properties(think that's what I'm going for) in rape revenge films. My biggest problem, though, is that the fictional act of empowerment can also lead to an unquenchable desire for revenge in victims as well, which can easily (I've seen it in my personal life) to a horribly altered view of the world around them.
Not to sound like a Sunday school teacher gone awry, of course. It helps some, it hinders others. I see the bad in films like that, but I can understand that there is good to be had there as well.

...But I Spit on Your Grave is horrendous to me and awful and a grotesque piece of cinema. I've watched it. It's fucking awful in my opinion. Like I said about Irreversible's scene, I do not need an elongated scene of rape to A) know they were raped, B) side with the victims as they hunt the rapist, and C) feel release (or cheer, pretty much) when the rapist gets his or her comeuppance. I especially don't need, like, five of the fucking things.
Not saying you like the film, and not saying anyone who does is a bad person or something. The revenge kills are just fine for a revenge flick. Just...did we need a 45min rape scene interspersed with running, crying, beating and screaming? Really?

OT: I see where you're coming from, actually. It does feel like a random dose of a gruesome fetish to me too. Thanks to Bara_No_Hime you and I have just been given an example of a Japanese anime (well, manga) that may have been perfect to cure the depression! And judging from the genre she said it was listed under, maybe your idea that it would come from a source not especially designed for a male audience was right on the money.

Maybe the "meaningless rape" mostly resides in action oriented anime shot to titillate the general male audience, and the rape itself is a sick way of throwing the select few pervs a bone(r)? More food for thought...

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Actually, all of those are seinen, not shonen. Not that that disproves what you're saying, I just can't remember very many instances of it in shonen [small](but then it's not like I follow much shonen either)[/small]. Or seinen, now that I think of it. Maybe it's more of a genre thing?

[sub]Oh, and Fushigi Yuugi (shoujo!) used rape as a plot point all the goddamn time. Bleh.[/sub]

Okay, yes, technically it's "young mens" anime not "boys" anime, but when I say "shoujo" I also mean the 18-30 stuff. Fewer people are familiar with the older terms.

Also, you got me - Fushigi Yuugi is a rape-tastic shoujo series.

For those not familiar, here's the premise: girl can save the world, but must be a virgin to do so. So the bad guys figure, if they rape her, they can prevent her from saving the world. So for like five to ten episodes, every single male badguy attempts to do so. It's probably the most awful part of the series.

There are several reasons I don't own Fushigi Yuugi. That is one of them.

 

[mireko]

Okay, yes, technically it's "young mens" anime not "boys" anime, but when I say "shoujo" I also mean the 18-30 stuff. Fewer people are familiar with the older terms.

Also, you got me - Fushigi Yuugi is a rape-tastic shoujo series.

For those not familiar, here's the premise: girl can save the world, but must be a virgin to do so. So the bad guys figure, if they rape her, they can prevent her from saving the world. So for like five to ten episodes, every single male badguy attempts to do so. It's probably the most awful part of the series.

There are several reasons I don't own Fushigi Yuugi. That is one of them.

Fair enough. It is an easy (if not terribly accurate) way to differentiate between Shonen Jump-type comics and things like Uzumaki, though.

[small]I was going to use a shoujo/josei example, but I realized that I haven't read any josei. Kind of a shame. I don't suppose you have any recommendations?[/small]

OT: So, looking over the manga I've got stacked over here:

Spoiler: Spoilered for convenience

Uzumaki
Himawari-san
Princess Resurrection
Aqua/Aria
Hayate x Blade
Hidamari Sketch
Voiceful
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
S.S. Astro
Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi
Sasameki Koto
Mushishi
Strawberry Marshmallow
Stray Little Devil
Ghost in the Shell
Moyashimon
Tori-Koro
K-ON!
NOiSE
Iono-sama Fanatics
Azumanga Daioh
Strawberry Panic
.hack//Legend of the Twilight
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
Kashimashi
Higurashi
Suzunari
Not manga, but the DVD box set of Maria-sama ga Miteru. I'm still counting it.

No rape. Maybe one or two bad purchases, but no rape.

Now, I realize that most of the genres in there wouldn't exactly lend themselves to such a thing, but "most" may still be a bit of an exaggeration.

 

[NeutralDrow]

The Cowboy Bebop Movie
My hate for that scene in the Bebop Movie is detached from this,

Detached enough to totally misinterpret what happened in that scene, if it's the one I'm thinking of. Faye wasn't raped. She was force-fed the guy's blood via kiss. That's kinda how she survived the movie.

And really, when I came into this thread, I wasn't expecting someone to complain about rape treated with correct horror. I was expecting someone to be complaining about the combination Stockholm Syndrome/Domination Fantasy that a lot of hentai and ero-doujinshi like to call rape. I seriously can't tell what you're complaining about.

Except with Gantz, of course. I haven't heard much good about that manga anyway.

 

[Nexus4]

Japanese culture is a lot more open to depictions of sexual conduct in the media. Things like rape, homosexuality, bisexuality, tran-sexuality etc. Do not carry the same stigma (as in media depiction, not as in reality) as is within a western culture, therefore it occurs much more frequently within Japanese media

 

[ace_of_something]

Could it be simply because of the strict social mores, upbringing, and restrictive nature of japan leave most of the men feeling powerless. So a rape fantasy, which is about power and domination, seems like something that could appeal to an 'oppressive' society.

The tentacles make no damn sense though.

 

[OPPRESSEDxOPPRESSOR]

Berserks rape had artistic merit and added to the storyline in a respectful and meaningful way. One of the characters rape left him/her psychologically broken and was central to the second act goal. You couldnt take away this huge plot point without drastically changing the story.