Thread: Licensed Ano Natsu de Matteru
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Old 2012-03-28, 12:03   Link #1067
kujoe
from head to heel
 
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 41
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dormeur View Post
And, when I watched Onegai Teacher (2002), I had already felt something old and nostalgic.
I felt the same with Ryoko's Case File (Yakushiji Ryoko no Kaiki Jikenbo). It brought me back to the time when I first saw Cat's Eye, another anime series which features mature female characters.

While younger characters have always been present in the body of works that the anime/manga industry has produced, it just seems there's a pronounced focus or shift towards younger female characters due to the ubiquity of moe nowadays. Everywhere, it's another loli or cute character, whereas the proud oneesan or the older woman is usually the support character. Sure, female characters young and older are still subjects in adult anime, but these just aren't as mainstream. However, it does seem that oneesan/senpai characters have become more prominent lately, such as the case of Tamaki from ToHeart2 and so on.

I also think it's perhaps worth juxtaposing this with the recent shift in the perception of women and the present attitudes towards relationships in Japan, that today's generation troubled with the present economy aren't finding a need to get married or involved with a partner. Is the moe character more likeable or less of a threat in the views within the male fantasy? Is the popularity of younger characters in anime and manga simply a result of an industry (and a generation) wanting to return and escape towards safer, simpler and innocent circumstances?

Perhaps there's too much unnecessary thought put into this, and indeed this is a subject best explored elsewhere.
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