Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Darkshaunz on Lolipops

I’ve wanted to do an entry on this topic for a while now. Admittedly, I have been distracted by all manner of real life obligations and well, Ikkitousen D.D. Lolis, now thats something we all love and adore. These little ladies are slowly changing the trends of anime we get every new season. They’re typically harmless, cute, hapless and always bear around that innocent “sex” appeal. They commnd massive fanbases and they are a huge market in Japan. Question is, are Lolis the dawn of an entirely new anime future?

Meronpan :3

Understanding Protoculture

Anime-otakuism is protoculture, there’s a saying amongst Trekkies and Star Wars fans that they “Stick together”. This is because unlike more “tangible” cultures we find globally, they are still defining themselves and still moving from one massive change to another as the culture tries to stabilize. Despite all their “Geeky” misgivings, Sci-Fi fans have a very strong community bonds and are definitely very proud of their fandom. Anime Otakus are no dfifferent, unlike Sci-Fi fans, we are changing and evolving at a much more rapid rate. Simply put, there isn’t always a new Star Wars movie out every new season (though Lucas would love that). Anime calendars on the other hand, are extremely robust, dynamic and full of variety. It’s like playing slots, we’ll never know what combination we might come across. As a protoculture, we do have certain set trends and identifiable archetypes; The Shounen, The Tsundere, The Anti-Hero, The Mecha and of course, The Lolita.

Decisions, Decisions!

Whats the appeal of Lolis?

A lot of Lolitas just magnify the already basic popular traits that made non-loli characters successful. But why? Part of it lies with Science. Younger children actually manufactures an urge amongst parents to care and defend them, this trait is instinctive and part of Mother nature’s plan to protect the next generation. Anime companies may have *accidentally* stumbled upon this very fact, and it has not been a long time that we have been experiencing “Loli Penetration” into our markets. Haruhi forbid some of you were thinking something dirty when I said that =p. Men are also generally domineering, this is natural and definitely not something which should shock anybody. Its a bit too convenient to shove it all to mother nature or our family jewels manufacturing testosterone though.

As a predominantly male-target market, is the whole “Lolita” thing going too far? Perhaps, because its a simple concept made new again: Sex sells, so younger sex appeal delivers a bigger accretion of excitement. This is definitely the case and numbers don’t lie Cardcaptor Sakura remaiins the most well known and mos tpopular magical schoolgirl, with Nanoha and friends coming a close second. I also should mention that Shana’s won Tsundere awards for 2 consecutive years according to Japanese publications, so there’s a lot of lolis out there, and they are definitely “Household names”. There’s no denying it, the anime community has jacked up the demand for more loli-starring anime and 2007 could just be the start of a full scaled invasion.

Nevada seems cute here, but she might knife you in the face.

Don’t make Lolis seems like a “Bad” thing

Who doesn’t love Lolita characters? I mean c’mon, after covering Zero no Tsukaima and absolutely loving it, it would be pure hypocrisy to even think of condemning the archetype. Personally, I think Shana and Louise are fantastic and lovable characters. Louise especially, the whole “Delicious Flat Chest” and stockings factor just send Rets and I into a mad spin, we found it amusingly cheeky and really hilarious at the same time. In fact, we look forward to ZnT season 2 and the Shana movie which is scheduled to be released later this year. The problem lies with the balance of loliu-based anime, many of you reading are old-skool anime fans, who have detected the noticeable increase of pre-adolescent girls in pleated short skirts in all sorts of new and “exciting” situations. To those new anime fans, well I don’t blame you if you shrug all of this off by citing, “Its pretty normal”. I guess this falls back to my main point that both oldskool and new anime fans are steadily and readily accepting what seems to be a predominantly “Lolita Popularity” factor.

You got the Power! Now put some clothes on.

Power to the Otakus

I’m narrating this topic on the basis of observation. Honestly, telling people what they can and cannot/or should or should not watch is nonsense and absurdity. I have my own views on censorship, and I can assure you that I’d will them to be more liberal and less controlled by overly-right-wing conservationists. If Japan wants to sex up their Lolis and flood our gates with sotcking-wearing, innuendo-willing magical girls, I will personally them an Thank You note. Japanimation have always gone all out with the sex factor, Loli or not, and I salute them for not pulling punches or sitting on the fence. If anything, we Otakus can’t stand half-arsed works and we appreciate it when something is taken the full way.

Whilst we are on that note, I was kind of disappointed that the pool scene in Ikkitousen DD episode 1 was censored, seeing as the Promo was as garishly “raw” as one might get on the ecchi genre, but who knows, maybe it was part of the actual script. Going back to the topic now, what all this says about us as a Protoculture is that we have a lot of say on what anime trends will emerge in the future. Lolis may be the current uprising trend as a result of your continued support for the “Lolita” archetype Importantly, we can derive that Animation studios are indeed watching our viewing behaviours very closely and acting upon our every whim. If you’ve never participated in official polls or voiced your opinions about anime ideas or innovations, now’s never been a better time to do so.

Loli Blitzkrieg!!!

Full scaled Invasion of Lolis…..Air raid shelter time?

No, no. Far from it, we haven’t gotten to the point where there’s nothing but Lolita girls floating in the scene. Purely because that would be an unrealistic hypothesis, there’s always going to be the regular stream of High School Girls, GAR guys and MILFs. What I am arguing though, is that the balances are tipping ever so subtly to the “Loli” part of the scale. So whilst this may mean an increase in Lolita-based titles, its definitely not to a point of a full-scale invasion yet, as I sensationalized earlier. Rather, its just that this has implications on us as fans, because we’ll start needing to tune our heads around to picturing what looks like 7-10 year old girls who are apparently 16-17 year olds on their online biographies roaming our computer screens. For some reason, thats just Japan’s way of justifying what is obviously a Lolita-switch and bait of their age versus their real-age “appearance”.

She’s actually 10,000 years old.

Some of you are probrably thinking along the lines of special exceptions, like that Eva chick from Negima am I right? She’s some 500 year old vampire in the form of a child right or something, and I am sure there are countless titles where extremely old immortals take the form of young females. Fair enough, but it seems like a bit of a copout or an excuse to position the Lolita character in compromising positions or situations. By the way, no complaints here, I definitely don’t mind them in all sort of unrealistic and humourous situations, it is, after all why we watch anime. However, there’s a difference between citing it as, “Character Design and Character Appeal” and just taking the shortcut to actually capitalizing one of the male form’s baser desires. There isn’t a Lolita conspiracy here or anything. Rather, is it fair to say that although we are responsible for this trend, should anime companies stop innovating and just feed us what we want because there’s huge megabucks to be made?

Lolis + American Idol = Innovation

Woah woah! Lolis are stunting Industry Innovation?

If anything, we should try and look past the whole “Lolita Trend” within the anime industry. If the majority of anime companies are indeed gearing up to shovel us with all matter of Loli-based series, then out of all the groups, the Viewers (us) would most likely go, “Hey wait a minute, whats with all these Loli series? I like them a lot, but there’s so many out there now, which do I actually watch?”. In a matter of simplifying it, there’d be an over-supply of Loli-anime if the trend as I am calling it is actually occuring. We wouldn’t need any alarm bells to go off because we’d just adjust our viewing accordingly by not continuing to watch the large volume of Loli-based anime on the marketplace. Lets face it, too much of a good thing can be bad, kind of like how consuming too much chocolate makes you feel sick. Every thing feels good at the start.

Catgirl Wrestling could very well be the next Big hit.

We’re an active and excited group of people in this community, so we like to challenge our current viewing by mixing up a variety of titles on offer. If anything, Japanimation companies need to take the Lolita trend not as a signal to continue maintaining the the Status Quo, but rather they should try coming up with new ideas on what to do with the archetype. We’ve all seen the Tsundere Loli done to death, I guess I can’t say Moe Loli because they are all super-moe in many ways naturally (they don’t even have to act it), but I’d definitely like to see more Lolita characters like Gretel around the anime scene. She’s probrably the only Loli character who’s really challenged my ethical point of view and actually forced me to reassess my integral core beliefs on what is the “correct course of action” when dealing with something so unique and troubling as a Child Assassin.

….Lolibear?

Dodging the Bullet

Back when I was a wee lad, I really enjoyed watching those early morning cartoon shows before school. You know the ones with the dubbed Pokemon, Digimon and Dragon Ball Z. Memories! Sometime’s if I woke up early, I’d make in time to watch Card Captor Sakura. I personally thought the the show was corny like Barbie in cartoon form or something. It’s a guy thing, we really preferred seeing Goku or Agumon blow the shit up out of other bad guys rather than some weird girl dancing around with Cards (I did like me some Pokemon cards though). We didn’t see her as Loli character per se’, she’s always been the model “Little Sister” kind of girl ever since we grew up. I just find it funny that once we have reached an age where we have perspectives and influence from all over, people really see Sakura in a different light (Maybe its a post-adolescent thing, or red-bloodedness). More often than not, I think she’s one of the few Lolita characters that are not viewed in a “Dirty way”. Though this is because some of us could relate to her during our schooling days.

Often when I bring up a discussion on a Loli character, the respective channel or conversation becomes either politically “evasive” or we all just suit up as E-Pedobears (just cos we can, and it’s cheeky fun). So whilst I do appreciate the archetype, its certainly become a concern that we can’t discuss Lolita characters without your fellow peers dialling the FBI hotline or raising a “dude, wtf” eyebrow stance on you. Let’s take Studio Ghibli’s Kiki Delivery Service, the Witch Girl’s a “Lolita” strictly speaking and we used to watch that with our family, truly a magical bonding experience. Lets fast forward in time by a couple of decades and we have voluptious Louise in stockings and Nanoha/Fate lesbian undertones as Lolis, which are Jawsome but you can see where I’m coming from here (if you watch those with your families, then thats cool too). On that note, Nanoha StrikerS will have the two girls as real ladies, so they are excused from the discussion.

This one’s hot. And I’m not referring to the weapon.

Personal Picks - 3’s a Nice number

Gretel - Black Lagoon: Second Barrage

There’s all the usual mainstream Lolita types, and then there’s Gretel. Gretel’s like a Revy, a stereotype crusher. Those of you who followed my coverage on Second Barrage knew that I was captivated by her character, she was troubled, adorable, lethal and had a classy Goth style all the way. I also should mention that she can one hand what looks like an MG-42 or M60. Before gun buffs remind me that such heavy arms need at least a two man team to operate, I’d also like to mention how stupidly awesome it is to see a little girl just dish out this much punishment with nigh an innocent smirk on her face.

That’s not her real charm, her real charm is that she’s been through a shitstorm (watch her arc if you have not already) during her brief period on this mortal coil, yet she’s done what mother nature had intended all her sons and daughters to do, Survive. We may question her methods for justifying the slaughter of so many, but like a child solider who has been conditioned to kill, she’s the prime ethical snag for many viewers. Regardless of how much her situation makes our head spin or makes us go, “Damnit, the world is so unfair!”, we fucking love Gretel.

Yachiru - Bleach

Now that I come to think of it, there’s something about emboldened Loli types which appeal to me. Regulars here definitely realize I have a real combat vixen complex. Then again, the concept of gals kicking ass isn’t anything new, but throughout the creation of this entry, I’ve picked this trend up about myself. There’s Yachiru, who aside from Louise, is my other favourite Pink Haired Thunder. She’s mysterious, Fast, Fearless, as close to excusably “Chibi” as you can get, and her personal mode of transport is the most powerful captain in the Soul Society. The little we do know of her is derived from the fact that Kenpachi spared her life when he killed an entire village, during which time he probrably trained her in the ways of brutal and exciting combat, at least that last part is slight speculation.

There’s a rumour going around that Yachiru actually forms part of Kenpachi’s “Bankai”, and undoubtedly watching the two fight with each other is something all Bleach fans will be awaiting, or even shounen fans in general. By the time this post goes up, Bleach 119 should be up and it will hopefully give us an insight into Kenpachi and Yachiru’s past, I am assuming this from the Ikkaku-past preview 118’s end provided us. Yachiru does not seem fazed by many things, even by her fellow liutenants or captains, so she’s definitely keeping her powers to herself for the time being. There will undoubtedly come a time when Pandora’s Box must be opened, and here at Retsgip anime blog, we’re patiently awaiting that very moment.

Louise - Zero no Tsukaima

Some of you probrably raised an eyebrow upon seeing Louise on this list. Sure she’s as cliche’d, mainstream and shallow a character a Lolita archetype can get. All this with a slight twist, and its not because she’s a Tsundere (that sure helps!), but its because she’s voiced by the same lady who does Shana. Her character definitely has a lot of potential to grow out of the conventional, but her voice is what makes her super extra cute. Plus, the anime series is based in a Harry Potter parallel universe and she wears Thighigh stockings, she’s illegally attractive (Just like her foremother, Shana). Louise’s Tsundere levels are definitely throught the roof, and people like that for sure. Hell, I enjoy watching the miscommunications, the mini-spats and notions of missed opportunity as much as the next guy.

But what separates Louise from the other Lolita archetypes is definitely her chemistry with Saito. It’s akin to Shana and Louise’s chemistry in Shakugan no Shana. You’ll hear me bring up chemistry a lot (Oh ho, why not make an entry about it?), as I find that it’s the spice and winning factor of the best of anime. Louise has a special unspoken with Saito, in that one does not feel complete without the other, this is ingrained into their character design and into the audience. The old saying, “opposites attract” could not be truer, because said individuals see things inside the other which they do not have, and like the inevitable jigsaw to be completed, both the characters in the series and audiences themselves feel a sense of relief and even reward to see the penultimate pair together. Some characters do it with romantic undertones, like say Louise and Saito, but many others have chemistry so tense and thick, you can almost taste it (Revy and Rock from Black Lagoon).

DO WANT!

This has our “Seal” of approval. Arf Arf.

Retsgip Anime Blog supports those who supports Lolita archetypes. They’re fun to watch, adorably addictive, make our brain go all mushy and hell, they can bring out the red-bloodedness within us at times too. Variety is the spice of life, assumptions to the prior and over-conservative views on what should or should not be is definitely the lead-balls of life (Balls are inert, don’t worry). We’re all for sexing up the anime industry and making everything super-gravilicious. What we don’t want to see is the industry getting slack on the innovation just because they see the big bucks all the way. Japs have been doing this whole anime gig for longer than I’ve existed, I’ll trust them to do the right thing by us and continue to shock/please/amaze us. That is, THEY BETTER do those things, or incur the wrath of Otakus (Protip: Really, really BAD wrath to have opposing you).

Also, I haven’t watched Manabi Straight, but by the looks of things, I think I will probrably pick this up by some freak of nature. There’s this character my blogging comrades tell me is a Proto-Natsuki (from Mai Hime) called “Mei” or something, sounds kind of hot and Godsauce. But hey, I mean technically they are High school girls….right? RIGHT!? (Who cares either way? =p).

Cheers,

Darkshaunz

PS: If you are FBI reading this, this whole paper has been a figment of your imagination. Honest.