Fanservice. That's literally it. Needed to appease some strange fujoshit out there who wanted to see Shinji get wooed by Kaji for some reason.
Fair enough. But what do we do about the massive fanbase of lolicons and shotacons this anime has attracted or hundreds of hentais based off of it over the years? It becomes an inevitable stain on it's legacy. It almost feels like by defending it you defend all the pedos hiding behind it by extension, that are given an easy outlet to twist and turn your words into tacit endorsement of their "interests".
Eva is massive as a franchise. Massive. You just have to see this to get my point:
Aight, that DBZ comparison was solid, I'm convinced. I have been met with the misfortune of cluelessly searching up what "Majin Goten" was. There are a surprising amount of lolicons into DBZ, even if they don't garner nearly as much attention like the ones into Blue Archive and similar.
I only watched like half an episode so I can't really say much, but a lot of that sounds incidental, and I assume a 90's anime probably sexualized those popular red and blue haired waifus, which doesn't really seem very feminist.
This is the weirdest argument lolifags make, often seen alongside the whole "self-insert to cope with trauma" thing or whatever exactly it is they say. Even if you take it at face value...okay? The question to them then becomes "So why shouldn't it be banned just because it doesn't bother you/you use it for a fringe purpose (which doesn't sound healthy anyway)?"
Even then, most violent games don't glorify violence, it's just the edgy ones that do.
I'm sure there's a tiny minority of people who do, but that wouldn't justify a ban. I am a little on the fence over whether hyperviolent content should be banned, but not just because there's a handful of sickos out there cooming to Sonya Blade being eviscerated in Mortal Kombat.
I mean it's the same shit as the Simpsons too. Yeah Bart Simpson porn exists. At the same time, it's the Simpsons. Not everyone is jerking off to Bart, most aren't in fact, but a few people definitely are and should be laughed at.
Yeah, neither Simpsons nor DBZ sexualize their child characters, the people doing that in the fandoms are doing it on their own. The closest it ever gets to anything weird is Mai being turned into a kid and kinda being implied to be Trunks' girlfriend, it's an odd pairing but doesn't sexualize them.
It not that it created a subculture so much as it described a preexisting cultural movement, similar to how Triads are often called "Chinese mafia's". The real difference is how much it's tolerated in Japan for how modernized it is. There are people in most parts of the world that would catch a charge if someone was as open about their fetish for children as people in Japan are. There was an issue of Playboy that had nude pictures of a child actress at the time back in the 70's so it's not as if Japan's unique in that aspect, just for how long they've dragged this out for decades now.
A lot of those negative tropes already existed, NGE is more of a critique on them in the existing media. For example, Gunbuster is a similar show that came out about 7 years before NGE did with female children piloting mechs & tries to portray them in a more human manor than most shows at that time but still has fanservice in it that doesn't serve any purpose other than for people to jerk off to.
I'd say it's 50/50 when it comes to Ryukishi. Like you've said, Higurashi had some questionable scenes and a lot of merch centered towards lolicons. That's just not the case in the next installment, Umineko, where the story not only doesn't have any lolicon shit (as far as I remember, at least), but the story surrounding one of the most integral characters, Maria, is about child endangerment and the like, having possibly the best written relationship between a mentally disabled child and their abusive mother. It's just absolutely surreal to read this stuff while knowing Umineko's older brother is making bodypillows of their middle-schooler cast (and Ryukishi's history as a civil servant).
Jesus Christ... Did the developer managed to write all of that through their own experience? It feels way too real.
I was a big fan of his during my tween years, largely thanks to the first Higurashi adaptation. But, over the years, I became really disillusioned with him. Yes, it was partly because of the loli fan service, like the gross OVAs that make me feel sick even now. It wasn't just because it was pedo stuff, but it also ruined the atmosphere and mood of the series. You've got a serious thriller drama mixed with nostalgic fun that you had with your friends in your cosy village with dark secrets, and BOOM! Tits, naked kids, incest innuendos — everybody, even primary schoolers, wants to fuck the self-insert male MC, and so on. It was as if someone had swapped the story for a boring harem hentai game at the last second. Kind of hard to believe Keichii's genuine friendship with the girls after the writer pulls weird shit like that.
I don't think he ever talks about his mother (or if there's even any info about her available), but from the early Higurashi days he had a very supportive family. 07thexpansion, Ryukishi's company, started out as just him, his younger brothers, and his dad doing all the work. There's an old Ryukishi interview that shows how Higurashi is made that stars his family and explains what they do for the company, funnily enough his father was against him playing games in his youth but decided to become the company's marketing researcher.
Holy shit, I thought Higurashi was something he created as a college student in his twenties at most. Basically, this whole company, as well as one of the most notorious thriller anime series, started with a group of middle-aged men sitting at home and fantasising about little girls and how popular they would be with them if they went back in time to the 1980s. So wholesome and relatable — no wonder the game found so many male fans in such a short time back then!
You just described all of otakudom right here.
This might've been one of the homes he visited. There's a reason he stopped being a social worker, seeing the evils of humanity punishing children for existing wears you down. That's why the lolicon pandering and the uncomfortable focus on child abuse coming off more like a fetish than an awareness confuses the hell out of me. Even that scene of Maria torturing her mother to death over and over comes off as pandering to the gorehounds on top of being a moment of pure raw emotion, a very thin tightrope to walk and he manages to male it through despite it. Still, though... makes you ask questions.
What kind of child abuse must a lolicon witness from social work, that leaves even them disgusted and dejected? Something so horrendous that prompts them to create a fantasy of a child taking revenge on their mother?
