Well, I’ve been giving sex in anime a bit more thought. What sprung into my mind was the recent claim that we will soon be using robotic concubines. Dropping humanity, creating partners from scratch to be exactly how we want them. If that’s true, then we’re going to be making some very odd robots.
Porn already distorts sexual activity as much as puritan upbringings ever did. It shapes how we see the act, and how we act ourselves – what sex comes to mean to us. Basically its hyperreality, the fake and the real becoming the same for us.
But if we look at sexuality beyond the act itself, it becomes apparent that it’s not just porn that affects us, it’s media in general. It’s films, TV shows, pop music. So even if the anime viewer escapes the tentacles of hentai, their worldview has still been shaped by their hobby. It is just a question of how able they are to “enact” their inner world.
If we could outsource sex from humanity I doubt we’d see straight human replicas. If we could create AI to mimic emotional behaviour, we wouldn’t make copies of real people, we’d make them to fit our fantasies perfectly. Better than humans, designed specifically for your needs. As ever, the use of technology mirrors the contemporary human condition.
This brings to mind the factor of aspiration in drama. Take GAR, which (as The Animachronism pointed out) is something to aspire to and admire – something which alters our view of what it means to be human. That doesn’t just affect self-perception, media changes what we expect from others.
Anime women are not much like real women, and i don’t just mean the big eyes. Same goes for anime men. But then, neither are the men and women of the cinema, or men and women as photographed for popular magazines. Thing is, animation gives greater opportunity to exaggerate. Take the male build in anime – if cinema beefcakes used that many steroids, they wouldn’t be able to walk, the muscles would crowd each other out. After all, the pervasive denial of plastic surgery in Hollywood tells us something. It’s that the character we see on screen has to be real to us. If we know they’re a plastic sculpture then they don’t fit in.
Yes, this is where I insert a mind/body dichotomy. For the lulz. There’s the standard anime personalities, and I’m not sure they’re all that much worse than what we get in Western media. No, its the anime-style physique that will trouble people. The personalities reflect Japanese culture, so they can seem alien to us – but watch some pop videos, the West is pretty screwed up in representing sexuality too. The body is different. The appearance is a product of the possibilities offered by animation.
Walking, talking bodypillows will put the fear of God into certain sectors. That unique anime physique which leaves opportunities for plentiful secondary functions. Their razor sharp hair will shave your chin, their well defined chests will massage your back, their vast eyes will house video screens. This is how future generations will watch Evangelion, in the eyes of an unfeeling model. Now that is a mindfuck.
If we manage to take our technology to these new heights without falling into some fatal crisis along the way (oil, environment, whatever) we’ll have to come more fully to terms with the way that the images presented in the media change us. When the influence of anime is indirect it’s one thing, but robotic versions at your bus stop, arm in arm with your next door neighbour? Well hell, at least it won’t be so bad as the furries.
