The vast majority of what will be transcribed are word for word quotes from Mai's mouth all interruptions/repeats/tangents intact in order to best represent this person in a fair unbiased way as such I will rarely be giving my personal opinion on anything she says this is for archival purposes only.
The 2 hosts will be referred to as host interchangeably.
If I did not tag a quote with Mai then the quote is either from a host or from a 3rd party in one of Mai's Few anecdotes you will see here
If bookended by asterix it is a summary or a comment on or of an event or topic in a stream i did not feel the need to go into detail on
They provided visual aids to comment on I will be providing them as well
*The hosts open with saying that they recruited Mai because 2 dudes talking about this wouldn't be right they then ask Mai's experiences with objectified women in nerd culture*
Mai: "90% of anime has 1 or 2 characters there just for fan service sake"
*no idea where this alice and wonderland came from but they hate it*
Mai: where are her organs?
Mai: i have no real problem with sexy characters being a thing that exist but often times the characters who are made to look more adult in that sense are either A. Underage and shouldn't be portrayed in such a way or B. Its out of character or its gratuitous since when was Alice in wonderland sexy literally 1. Thats a child *wait thats illegal meme*
Mai: "oh but its an aged up version of alice in wonderland" thats still the same thing you are aging up a character just for the sole purpose of sexualizing and profiting off their sexuality"
Mai: if you have a purposely sexy character just doing sexy things thats fine its part of their design its part of their character their a legal adult thats totally cool but thats a child thats a whole kid
*Im not gonna write this whole part up but they talk about women battle armor same shit i have heard countless times before about woman battle armor not being realistic*
*Now she is talking about how mortal kombat sexualized women up until. And including 9 having been fixed in X*
Mai: kitana thats a princess shes royalty you really think she be out there one wrong move from popping a whole titty out?
Mai: those proportions are crazy like absolutely bonkers i can feel the back pain from here
*ill give her points for consistency she takes issue with objectified men too*
Mai: even the men weren't safe the men were built like tanks those men were rectangular you know their shoulders could hide like 3 adult women in them
Mai:I think the proportions for both men and women were hypersexualized and hyper maculi- i don't know the word for that but then when you go to MK 10 they stepped their game up they was like we gon be realistic and so the designs for X and 11 were fantastic
*This bugs me personally cause its inconsistent what did she get breast reduction surgery between getting killed in 9 and becoming a wraith?*
Mai: even in this version she is still showing cleavage which is perfectly fine and she looks fantastic but its just realistic thats an adult woman who happens to be quite sexy but shes not overly gratuitous like obviously designed by a man who is pandering to other men with a game
Mai: I also really like how they gave her more strongly ethnic features like if you go back to MK9 you couldn't tell she is Asian they all kind of had like one face syndrome whereas here its very obvious that she has asian roots
*More talking about lack of armor this time regarding mk9 kitana*
Mai: she looks more kombat ready (in MKX)*the host recognizes the RWBY ref and both Mai and him do a penny impression*
Mai: girl when you're wearing armor doesnt cover anything good intentions and positive thinking aren't gonna protect you from an arrow
*they segue to the topic of The Male Gaze notion that men will always draw women a specific way in contrast to a woman doing so*
*they talk about how this is art of a slave owner being beheaded by their woman slave she is timid and looking away while she does it this was drawn by a man*
*by contrast this woman is rage filled and is more than happy to do the deed this was drawn by a woman*
"You can tell this was done by a man"
*This one emphasizes the boobs she is at a play*
*this one is also at a play but it shows her intently focused on the play*
Mai: my favorite example (of Male Gaze) is Yandere Sim its very obvious that a man is like you know a guy thats never been around girls a guy who might be a little bit NEETish because you can do panty shots and adjust the breast size of the MC and that sort of thing its just like there's a lot of elements that don't need to be there but they are there ofr gratuitous male gaze sake they don't add anything to the plot any kind of immersion or value to the game as a whole but they're there cause its a guy pandering to other guys
and the thing is there is nothing wrong with liking and valuing sexuality and that kind of appeal and thats totally fine but the thing is you are monetizing and devaluing woman to only objects when you do so and yandere sim is my favorite example cause not only is it a train wreck of a game but its so obvious that a basement dwelling dude made it so it was one of my many examples but its my favorite
*guidance councilor from Yandere Sim*
Mai: she looks like a character from prison school
Mai: the thing is I don't mind to have a sexy woman in a game but the problem is A. Shes in a school and B. Shes interacting with minors so im uncomfortable by that it has no story point there is no reason for her to look that way but its there because of the Male Gaze
girl you'd get fired doing that
*they all spend way too long joking about how unrealistic the guidance councilor is and listing HR issues and such*
*they talk about how the make gaze aint going away any time soon and says there is always at least one character for that purpose*
*Todd macfarlane art*
"The male gaze in its truest form"
Mai: its very gratuitous
*Jim Lee art*
Mai: the art is gorgeous ill give it that
"Yeah but sexualizing is still a thing"
Mai: yeah
*Mai talks about how despite the accuracy of the munn costume its still more toned down than the comic and they still dont like the costume*
*they then show a psylocke design they like*
*rob liefeld art*
Mai: girl my back hurts look how muc- her spine is doing *cirk* you know my whole body aches just looking at this that looks painful also keep in mind these mullets the 90s was an odd time
Mai: the problem is like with the male gaze and over sexualization of women and misrepresentation the problem is there are gonna be li- i think a majority of viewers i think well adjusted and smart enough to realize ok not all women look like this but i know there is a percentage a very reasonable percentage of men and women who honestly believe women should look like that
and that A. If they don't look like that then they are not real women
or B. They should fix themselves so they look like that
and so it projects on to them onto women especially that they should be looking a particular way instead of- and so like those poorly maladjusted NEETs living in the
basement think like (mocking voice) " you are not a real woman unless you look like this" you know and also women looking at this thinking "how come i can't look like that" you know and so with them being represented in such a way it just has a negative effect on viewers on people who look at this kind of stuff"
Mai: thats scoliosis
Mai: even tho this is "the realistic version" that shirt is tight tight tight it has like titty pockets so they can be cupped properly and she has a tiny little figure and that sort of thing so its not as overtly sexy but its like its still kinda there nothing wrong with it its ok to have sexy character but its still there i think its funny how the other image her entire waste can be hidden behind her two arms like girl where did your stomach where did your intestines go thanos snapped it out of you
*they talk about kate Upton carls jr commercial where she eats a burger while washing a car Mai calls it Hardees narrowing down her location (2 years ago) she took a moment to remember the other name*
Mai: I think they call it carls jr
*they talk about the male on male gaze citing mortal kombat 9 again*
Mai: (male on male gaze) definition of what a real man is like dummy square not even a rectangle you are a square congratulations you are a mine craft dude
*host asks if a female gaze exists*
Mai: for the "female ga-" i don't know if that is an actual thing i didn't do any research on it we don't really talk about it when you are talking about the female gaze a lot of BL comics do this a lot of boys love yaoi comics do this
"Yuri on Ice"
Mai: yeah Yuri on ice is ver- its pretty gratuitous but i guess people pass it off better in BL they get away with it because its an lgbt thing they're like "oh but it ok cause they are LGBT so it balances it out" and I'm like questionable but i get where you are coming from but when you are looking at Free *she gets derailed by the host mentioning that his gay friend hates yaoi*
Mai: its unrealistic i mean i get its for the "fantasy" but if you think all men or especially gay men are like this then you are an idiot same thing with anyone seeing anything in media like if you think that MK9 kitana represents all women then you are an idiot if you think that victor from Yuri on ice represents all men then you are an idiot so with the female gaze you get stuff like Free then again it kind of gets a pas- not necessarily a pass but its more understanding because its meant to be fanservice they don't mask it as anything else its fanservice and that's totally fine its like with other anime that are fanservicey like they aren't trying to mask it as (mocking voice) "this is like a high quality like crazy good anime" its like its fanservice and thats totally fine as long as they're legal
Mai: but when you talk about Boku no Hero when you have a minor character like momo who is literally a minor a teenager and sexualizing her-*gets cut off by the hosts cringing in agreement*
Mai: i get her quirk i get that that's totally fine but the thing is shes still a minor so that's where the crossroads are at like i get it that's part of her character and that makes sense for her to reveal more skin but shes 15 that's my hard limit that's illegal
but when you are talking about like my favorite Example is black widow you know like with the femme fatale thing there is like they're sexy because that's part if their character they weaponize their sexuality so it makes sense for her to show skin it makes sense for her to look the way she does so im totally cool with that i get that i understand that but the problem with Momo is that's a whole child that's illegal that's part of her character design that's totally cool but there is a line between that's part of their thing vs that's gratuitous and unnecessary that's only there for the male gaze there is a difference there
Mai: its ok for sexy characters to exist but when does it stop being functional and become more gratuitous and unnecessary so i think that's why this discussion exists cause we can't tell like not everyone thinks the same way when it comes to this
*they talk about and praise Hildegard of soul calibur 6 for having realistic full body armor concluding she is still sexy despite proper armor covering*
Mai: you don't have to cancel sexiness altogether a character can be sexy its just that this is not gratuitous its totally within the realm of reason and one of the arguments i hear abou-from like people who think that like the male gaze isn't that bad of a deal is cause like (mocking voice) "if you want all womens armor to look like mens they're all gonna look the same and they're gonna be ugly blah blah blah blah" and I'm like girl shes fully covered up and she looks fantastic you know she still looks sexy and even if she did show a little bit of skin its still functional you know its not like shes only wearing a bikini you know so
*They compare Ivy from soul calibur 2 to 5 and sperg about woman armor again and and praise the SC5 suit*
Mai: i still think this is ok because shes- its part of her character you know the whole dominatrix vibe um and also it still looks sexy and so i think this design makes more sense because again a fighting game blah blah blah but the previous design is just so obviously gratuitous its so obvious whereas this is conveys the same message within a more reasonable boundary
*host asks Mai about femme fatales and her thoughts on characters made to be sexy as a part of their character*
Mai: tbh as long as they are legal its totally fine with me because women can be se- women weaponize their sexiness that's totally fine sunshine and rainbows for me of course the line where i draw is the age thing
and secondly if the problem comes up of when-like i said that small percentage of people who genuinely think "ok women look like that" like those idiots out there who think this represents what women should look like and if you do you are an idiot you know and so yeah i think they can exist perfectly fine even like the super hyper sexualized gratuitous ones I think to an extent like a part of me says its ok for them to exist because if you are not an idiot then you can tell that you know not all women look like that and you shouldn't expect that from people just the problem arises when people think that they should look like that and so when it comes to sexy characters who are designed because their character im like yeah that's fine by me cause sexy characters sexy people DO exist you know like I'm not gonna deny their existence so if a character is designed sexy and acts sexy that's totally cool with me that's totally cool
*they bring up and praise timeskip yoko from guren lagann as a good sexy character*
*host brings up Mai Shiranui of king of fighters as another example of the femme fatale character Mai agrees*
*hosts bring up cosplay and the unrealistic expectation to perfectly match the character 1 to 1 *
Mai: I cosplayed Lucy from Elfen Lied and so Lucy is a very voluptuous character you know its fine yeah um the thing with her is that shes a little controversial because its not as gratuitous in the anime but in the manga she's like full blown nude and so the thing is it kind of makes sense because you know she was like kept as an animal in a scientific facility so she didn't have clothes so it makes sense story wise that sort of thing but also i think shes a minor so i have a problem with that
so most cosplayers censor her with like bandages and stuff so like-and so I've had people come up to me and they're like people dm me and they'll even like in person they come to me at conventions like "its bold of you to cosplay her when you don't have the same body type as her" and I'm like excuse me? Like this is why i cosplay a lot of guys cause i don't like dealing with that cause its annoying cause listen i don't get offended by it anymore cause guess what im a real person this tends to happen but I've had people come up to me be like "that's bold of you to-" you know like they think its a compliment and I'm like where's the compliment! Hmmm?!
Mai: and then with the whole posing thing I've had guys come up to me-like I was uh i think i was cosplaying either Lucy or Miku i forgot which one at a convention a couple years back and this rando pulls- he asks for a picture and I'm like ok sure and I pose the thing is like i think i was doing a basic like whatever pose just like you know with my hands and he was like "oh could you like bend this way a little bit?" Or like he was trying manipulate the way i pose and I'm like no the thing is like unless I'm paying you as my photographer to give me help with posing don't tell me how to pose what you get is what you get you know*laughs* you get what you get
the thing is I've had people ask me that before when I'm taking pictures with them its like "oh do you mind if we do this like together" and I'm like that's cool with me if you want to do a matching pose for the camera that's fine totally cool but this guy is purposely trying to manipulate me to pose a certain way i think yeah i was wearing lucy he wanted me to bend forward
the thing is im so flat you cant catch nothin boy nice try but you're not catchin nothin and so but i felt super uncomfortable but the thing is like but the thing is i was alone at the time cause i had friends waiting in the bathroom right and so i got to wait for them holding their stuff and the thing is im alone with this guy i mean there is people around yeah but i don't wanna be like i don't wanna piss him off cause like who knows what he's gonna do you know? And so i just kind of like oh sorry i can't do that i-i-ill just do this I just changed the pose to like a different one but
and he's like (mocking voice)"ok fine" im like that was so uncomfortable its so obv- i kind of caught on be like you're trying to get me to bend forward aren't you? You know and so its uncomfortable how like when people see the anime like "oh the anime characters drawn this way so you should pose this way too im like girl bye girl bye stay mad
*host ends the design topic finally and goes into writing women tropes like fridging and damsels and love interests*
Mai: i think in western media its pretty nowadays its actually kind of rare to find a basic damsel in distress character kind of character i think its in the west we are more uh aware of that sort of thing in the media
And so when you have like- even Disney are "quintessential family friendly pandering to everyone" you see like the last decade when have you seen like a basic damsel in distress and so some people have argued like tangled and im like girl no
all these girls are independent they like the carry the entire story by themselves a lot of these side characters are the princes that are supposed to save them and so like in the west its not really as prevalent anymore
but when you go to anime when you go to eastern media its sometimes still there i think its mostly just a cultural thing not to say that asian or east people who live in that kind of culture don't respect women its just that they're still depicted as such in certain forms of media and so when you go to certain anime then you get like these female characters who are there just to be pretty like they may not be overtly sexualized but they don't have a personality they're just there to fulfill the role of the girlfriend type or the homemaker type not that anythings wrong with that if you want to be a homemaker if you just wanna be like you know that kind of character nothings wrong with that but the problem with that is it doesn't represent women to their full capacity you know and for the idio- for the minority of idiots who think that like "oh this waifu character must represent all women" then that's a problem but um yes much less prevalent in the west than it is in the east
*the host muses that this is because the west had a womens rights movement and wonders if the east has*
Mai: I'm no historian and to be frank im kinda stupid but um i don't recall i don't think so i don't think they were as open about it and so even like within our own culture like within in Vietnamese culture when i have an uncle who a head of-he's a patriarchy(patriarch) right? If he dies then the new head of the family isn't his wife its the next uh oldest son in our family right and
so like that system is so ingrained in Asian culture that it reflects in media you know how men have certain cultural significance they have more significance than women and so I think that its so ingrained in the culture that um I'm not saying that feminists don't live in Asia they definitely do its just that its harder to break through that kind of patriarchal setup because its so ingrained in the culture unlike America where its not as uh because we are a melting pot of culture so its not as strong here than it is in homogeneous countries even then but but people do have a misconception that asian women in particular are disrespected or they're meek
I have a story that's kind of crazy so my brother my girlfriend my parents and I mean* laughs* my brother HIS girlfriend my parents and I went on a cruise-we went on a cruise ages ago like a family thing like my brother and his girlfriend are getting married so we were cool with her going on vacation with us my brother and his girlfriend were at the bar at the cruise and the thing is they ran out of seats and so they were sharing one buttcheek each on a stool right cause they were outta seats you gotta make do with what you've got and so this older gentleman next to them like he turns to my brother and he's like "oh are you not gonna give your seat to your lady?" My brother he's like exasperated he's like he gets off the seat he brushes it off for you know like sit on the seat ma'am and so the guy is like "well i get that in your culture in your country it may not really respect women but here in America we do"
And so my brother-my brother he joins us later for a show cause i was hanging out with my parents the whole time my brother and his girlfriend come down to meet us up for a show he's fuming cause like that guy is either really stupid or really ballsy to tell him that to his face and so I don't want to enforce the stereotype that Asian people don't respect women they do its just that its not as prevalent or radical as it is in the west and so and so don't you dare take me out of context and say like (mocking voice) "oh asian women are blah blah blah" like girl shut up
*host brings up a fucked up ms marvel story where she was allegedly mind controlled raped fell in love with her rapist and gave birth to a baby that rapidly grew into said rapist*
Mai: that's a big no thanks from me
*host brings up another story this time of a love triangle between emma frost cyclops and Jean where emma disguises herself as jean and brings scott into her mindspace to fuck essentially raping him*
*Emma frost was essentially a slut and is now a more well fleshed out character*
*host brings up fridging which is a trope of killing a character usually a significant other for another characters development Avatar airbender is brought up as an example to Mai's begrudging acceptance*
Mai: yeah i get it it spurred Sokkas growth but we knew Yue for 2 episodes
*host brings up the origin of the term*
Mai: someone put an F in the chat
* they discuss how things have changed for the better citing 1 note female characters are mostly not in the west anymore and citing the cosplay is not consent movement for progress there*
*mai brings up the female gaze and says that needs work too*
Mai: Men also deserve- I've seen girls HOUND like Free cosplayers for like swimming anime? They hound them for pictures they're like (mocking voice for girls this time hooray for equality) "oh here lets put you together with other Free cosplayer can you guys like touch each other or something" and they're like "noooo"
you know and its even towards other other girls like i cosplay a lot of guys- i cosplay todoroki from boku no hero academia um convention back in october so im manning a booth because the booth owner could not make it to the last day and they already set up the booth and so me and some friends were taking over the booth and taking care of some things
so the booth was backed against the wall so we had about few feet if space there's a wall behind us and next to us is the door to the exhibit hall the dealers hall exit right? And so you know how when the doors open you have that little crevice behind where you can hide during hide and seek?
The little like you know the little slot back there so im close to that i'm like on the the left side of the booth these bunch of female boku no hero cosplayers come marching towards me-they someone spots me cause i'm cosplaying todoroki and they're like "omigosh its a todoroki cosplayer" im like you know like hi how are you buy some merch *laughs* and the thing is they start rushing me its like you know like when you get ptsd you get those vietnam flashbacks? I had vietnam flashbacks
and you know how todoroki and his dad don't have a good relationship in the anime like you know whatever I'm i don't know if I'm that far in the story so they were sing-they started singing to me a song in a tune of like jingle bells about how like Todo was like abused by his dad like laughing about it- thing is they also were closing on me pushed me badly physically pushed me back so far i was in the crevice of the door and the wall and I'm just like stuck in a corner facing the wall like get them to go away please don't touch me please leave me alone and so my friends are with me they're like "oh my god what's happening" and so one of my friends yuki literally got in was like trying to physically remove them from the immediate area cause at this point they're like inches away from me I'm like don't touch me don't touch me don't touch me and so they did go away after a while of a few pointed glares from the rest of the people at the booth and so they backed off only one of the girls who was cosplaying uraraka was like "hey I'm really sorry about that um yeah" and I'm like*whines* girl why why did that even happen? I don't like that you know its like the *clap* female *clap* gaze *clap* is *clap* also *clap* a *clap* problem its not as prolific but its there and its a problem and *whines* it was uncomfortable i just wanted to be boy with white and red hair
*the hosts say the my hero fanbase is bad and they could do a whole ep on them*
*talking about how they could do an ep dedicated to cosplay horror stories*
Mai: i feel like of course nowadays whenever anyone sees a guy creeping on a female cosplayer we are quick to call it out now right but when you see girls doing it to guys or girls cosplaying as guys people are like "that's ok because its a guy" and I'm like its dumb its not ok its a two-way street you can't say one is ok and one is not its either all ok or all not ok and to me neither are ok
*hosts bring up and shit on momokun for her cosplay harassment to Mai's agreement*
*Mai keeps pepper spray in her pocket for men or women who think there are no boundaries while she cosplays*
* host brings up Avatar again this to note the many good female characters and praise Toph as best girl Mai wants toph to punch her*
*Mai praises Titania of fire emblem path of radiance,bayonetta,Alice of Madness Returns*
*host brings up and praises female kamen riders nonspecific*
*host praises Korra and Asami to Mai's emphatic agreement she also adds praise for Kuvira as a villain saying she was better than Ozai host brings up mako so they can collectively feel sorry for him having his exes hook up*
*they end by musing if a man has ever been fridged saying thats a conversation for another video*
