Why are so many anime series fascinated with incest?

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by Archaeon

But it mostly between cousins right,not sibling who have same father and mother.

But redoing it over and over again does not really extend the genetic pool that much... so while on short term it doesn't seem so bad as direct siblings' incest (but direct cousins are still quite close relatives), however if the same gene pool is reused over multiple generations, then it just cannot end well... No wonder the kings lost to revolutions at some point.

[speedyexpress48]

Incest is mostly played as a joke in anime for the most part anyways, and not really something taken too seriously.

All I'm gonna say is...it can be cute in anime if well written, but in real life, fuck no.

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by speedyexpress48

Incest is mostly played as a joke in anime for the most part anyways, and not really something taken too seriously.

All I'm gonna say is...it can be cute in anime if well written, but in real life, fuck no.

Usually I'd say that this sounds like hypocrisy, however I do think that it can be pulled off as some subtle kind of satire, to make a point about something, e.g. social criticism, something along the lines of "society made them like that, now it has to accept them as they are" or so.

[Fireminer]

In mainstream anime, Incest is a joke, true. Except in something like Pupa. But you guys just have no idea what is its potential in fanfic. It's like a lot of people got infactuated with a mix of passion and guilt.

[Archaeon]

Spoiler for OreImo s2 Ending:

I found Ore Imouto Special to be disgusting due to incest...ewww.

[Eragon]

Most of anime is a very poor (by choice, not by its inherent nature) medium for social commentary. There are very few shows which do it right. So, as Speedy said, most of incest in anime is for the kicks and nothing deeper - there are obviously exceptions.

Its an interesting topic for discussion.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Archaeon

Spoiler for OreImo s2 Ending:

I found Ore Imouto Special to be disgusting due to incest...ewww.

Spoiler for OreImo s2 Ending:

Well, all they did in the anime is kiss on the lips one time, and claimed to be "dating" for a time. It was flirting with the concept of a forbidden relationship, but extremely mild/PG-13 in its portrayal, regardless of how you read the subject-to-interpretation ending. In the end, I suppose your disgust was more to the concept of romantic feelings between siblings, as opposed to actual "incest", which clearly did not occur.

(This aside, I would like to point out again that this thread was revived after a 7+ month hiatus, which is fine, but please be aware if tempted to reply to old posts.)

[Archaeon]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Spoiler for OreImo s2 Ending:

Well, all they did in the anime is kiss on the lips one time, and claimed to be "dating" for a time. It was flirting with the concept of a forbidden relationship, but extremely mild/PG-13 in its portrayal, regardless of how you read the subject-to-interpretation ending. In the end, I suppose your disgust was more to the concept of romantic feelings between siblings, as opposed to actual "incest", which clearly did not occur.

(This aside, I would like to point out again that this thread was revived after a 7+ month hiatus, which is fine, but please be aware if tempted to reply to old posts.)

Yeah,that's what I mean.

Spoiler:

Romantic feeling between sibling. That's what make me feel disgusted.

[aohige]

..... I thought getting a boner from taboo is like older than George Burns. Or the wheel.

[Eragon]

Definitely older than wheel

[lightbringer]

I'm fine with Japanese fascinations with incest, I guess I'm used to it now. But recently I happened to show an episode of an incest anime to a friend who has no exposure to anime (the plot involved a sister coming on to her brother, but it was a rather tame episode and they were stepsiblings to begin with, with no blood relation) and that did not come across well. Or at all. My friend was extremely shocked. I've been accused of being sick in the head and in need of counselling, and this came from my best friend who I've known for almost twenty years. I thought the reaction was completely over the top.

Needless to say, I am now far more discerning about what sort of anime I expose my friends to I am really curious about how the topic of incest in anime is perceived by Japanese with limited or no exposure to anime. I want to chalk this up to differences in cultural values, but I would not be surprised if the reaction was similar to what I got. Especially concerning siblings and/or stepsiblings, as cousin incest is a more washed out topic.

[SuitUp]

Originally Posted by lightbringer

I'm fine with Japanese fascinations with incest, I guess I'm used to it now. But recently I happened to show an episode of an incest anime to a friend who has no exposure to anime (the plot involved a sister coming on to her brother, but it was a rather tame episode and they were stepsiblings to begin with, with no blood relation) and that did not come across well. Or at all. My friend was extremely shocked. I've been accused of being sick in the head and in need of counselling, and this came from my best friend who I've known for almost twenty years. I thought the reaction was completely over the top.

Needless to say, I am now far more discerning about what sort of anime I expose my friends to I am really curious about how the topic of incest in anime is perceived by Japanese with limited or no exposure to anime. I want to chalk this up to differences in cultural values, but I would not be surprised if the reaction was similar to what I got. Especially concerning siblings and/or stepsiblings, as cousin incest is a more washed out topic.

Damn dude, that's harsh... but anyhow, on the subject of incest, I would think that despite the cultural diferences between the East and the West, they do agree on the fact that incest is to be frowned upon, though how much do the silbings/cousins/step-silbings would have to do/appear to do, to be considered as stepping over the "they are close, that's cute/damn incestuous bastards" line it is different, but, once they cross the hipothetical line, the reaction would be the same, I mean, after all, it's used a lot in anime to appeal to a fanbase because it is a fetish, and many, if not all fetishes are tought as something dirty and "wrong" (quoted because, well, who am I to decide what's wrong or not?).

[GreyZone]

Human thinking:

Step Siblings with no blood relation = KILL IT WITH FIRE
European royalty continously breeding with with their own cousins, causing the genetic pool to stagnate = Meh, that is fine

/logic

[risingstar3110]

A point i want to make on why incest has slowly becomes a popular trope. I means other than the fetish itself (you simply can't explain fetish); putting incest element in can easily set up a background for supposedly star-crossed lovers to struggle on their feelings without the need to go through all of those background development.

I means if you are into literature, think how long it take and how much works involved for Shakespeare to set up Romeo and Juliet's forbidden love, star-crossed lovers, and how their society will never accept them....? Then to have the audience focus on all that long background without getting bored before the good (romantic) part? Simply difficult in literature sense


... instead, if I make Romeo and Juliet to be a step-sibling. We can get those who haven't know about the story skipping right into the romantic part. I means, it's hard to image how wrong it will feel like to love another girl, whom belong to another family faction that have hundred years of grudge against your family. But have an affection on some close family member? Well most of us can image how wrong it gonna be.


It simply will help to save the author trouble on development, and sometime leave reader/audiences to image it out themselves, which gonna be a big plus.

[Esclair]

Originally Posted by lightbringer

I'm fine with Japanese fascinations with incest, I guess I'm used to it now. But recently I happened to show an episode of an incest anime to a friend who has no exposure to anime (the plot involved a sister coming on to her brother, but it was a rather tame episode and they were stepsiblings to begin with, with no blood relation) and that did not come across well. Or at all. My friend was extremely shocked. I've been accused of being sick in the head and in need of counselling, and this came from my best friend who I've known for almost twenty years. I thought the reaction was completely over the top.

Needless to say, I am now far more discerning about what sort of anime I expose my friends to I am really curious about how the topic of incest in anime is perceived by Japanese with limited or no exposure to anime. I want to chalk this up to differences in cultural values, but I would not be surprised if the reaction was similar to what I got. Especially concerning siblings and/or stepsiblings, as cousin incest is a more washed out topic.

Does your friend not watch Game of Thrones?

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

It simply will help to save the author trouble on development, and sometime leave reader/audiences to image it out themselves, which gonna be a big plus.

It has simply been abused far too much, though. Far too many light novel authors and their anime adaptations just put in the token sister/cousin in the harem, play it for some comedy, bring up some default trope-based moe, or cheap heartwarming moment, and call it a day.

Which, after a point, becomes a complete and utter bore, even an insult, and ruins verisimilitude. The general audience expect incestuous relationships, even step-siblings, to be full of pitfalls and difficulties -- if not, what's the point of taboo? Only the specific otaku audience familiar with "imouto moe" can enjoy this glut of one bland portrayal after another.

Something twisted and desperate like, oh, Pupa, however flawed (note: manga only; anime is, um...), is far better than My Generic Light Novel Needs a New Tsundere Brocon Imouto to Fulfill the Harem Quota Or I'll Get Canceled.

Ironically, whereas the shounen/seinen's default seems to be the throwaway relative harem member, the shoujo manga default is the angsty step-sibling relationship (emphasis on *step*, very few dare to cross the line in the end), which, while inherently more interesting, tends to mean I need to swallow shoujo angst tropes turned up to over nine thousand. Junk like Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru is just painful. :I

Wincest may be in vogue, but so much of it is so difficult to enjoy.

The life of a connoisseur is truly tragic. *sniff*

[Fireminer]

Then, how about Twincest? Why is it so popular with Shoujo series, and even move to some Shonen fandom (for example, RinXYukio from Ao no Exorcist)?

[KholdStare]

Like said before, I'm fine with fascination of incest, but there's not much fascination about it. Because most of incest in anime is a joke, it makes me think that they're rather making fun of it instead of portraying it. For example, there is some incest in Kuttsukiboshi which has a quite interesting story behind it, and one of the few examples where it's not some kind of joke.

[lightbringer]

Originally Posted by Esclair

Does your friend not watch Game of Thrones?

He'd be in for a surprise if he did

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

It has simply been abused far too much, though. Far too many light novel authors and their anime adaptations just put in the token sister/cousin in the harem, play it for some comedy, bring up some default trope-based moe, or cheap heartwarming moment, and call it a day.

This ^

I means what is the point of put incest theme into a work if the author in the same time removed the struggle and emotions of it. Can't think of a better reason than to fill the typical harem quota, or to play out those "conveniently walking into bathing screen" fanservice thingy.

It's like putting a teacher character who does not act like a teacher and was fired by school before the story starts. Or a neighbour who supposed to be a childhood friend, but spends 20 years of her life in coma, hence never have interaction with the main character in the first place. Or a tsundere who do not have a love/affection interest. Or a lesbian star in a world full of men.... (well you get the idea)