[Haak]

Episode 3

How the hell did Ash fit such a huge message in a tiny capsule?

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Ok while these were two fantastic episodes... it's really uncomfortable to watch at times.

Maybe it's just me, and hopefully I don't offend anybody, but this story feels uncomfortably sexist (homophobic?) and possibly even a bit too racist?

The second episode felt like it went pretty overboard and possibly even stereotypical with all the homosexuality it used. Homoerotic flirting between characters on opposing fronts, a fat gay pedophile rapist, cops laughing off pedophilia home videos, crybaby effeminate deuteragonist that looks puppyloved on the protagonist, all the state prison inmates want to sodomize him, etc.

I don't know. Maybe using "-ist" adjectives is not the correct term to use. A part of me believes that this probably just reflects attitudes back in the era the original was made, but it kind of feels like the author unecessarily and/or excessively highlights some possibly biased impressions of certain populations here.

(FWIW I'm a straight Asian male.)

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

This was actually a concern of mine, which I expressed in my post this week.

One thing homophobes have always done is equate homosexuality and pedophilia - not just the lie that one "leads" to the other, but that the two are basically interchangeable. They still peddle this nonsense. It may not have been the mangaka's intention but Marvin (and the way the others talk about him) is a very troubling character in this respect.

Yeah, I don't think the author is doing the gay community any favours by having so many negative examples of homosexuality in this show, which completely overshadow the one example that's meant to be portrayed positively (Ash and Eiji). Then again, I'm not gay either so it could be the case of thinking to deeply about it.

I do kinda wish it wasn't so overt about the homosexuality though. Nothing against gay people but I kinda feel like there's a tonal dissonance in that this show wants to be seen as down to earth but doesn't seem to realise how outlandish it is when almost every other character just happens to be gay.