Wickett

Started Battle Game in 5 Seconds last night, stronger start than I expected honestly, so I'm curious to see where it goes from here.

I had to think back for a minute, but I do remember seeing a couple of anime where the mom or dad found the manga and was happy to see it, making for a humorous moment embarrassing the child. This child was around the age of 16 or 17, however, and I was curious how early this kind of material usually gets in the hands of Japanese children. It is still my personal takeaway here that the average temperament and attitude of an American is vastly different in this regard as opposed to Japanese. It is no surprise to anyone that I agree in a more traditional approach of closely monitoring children's access to media and what they take in, however, it doesn't appear to be harming the typical Japanese family all that much to practice what they do. The divorce rate in the States in 2023 was 40%, whereas Japan saw a 1.2% divorce rate in 2023. No family is perfect, divorced or not, but those numbers are in my opinion an amazing testament to what the Japanese hold dear and I greatly respect it.

You can place text inside of the spoiler function when replying (looks like an eye icon) if you want to discuss spoilers. Everyone has opinions, of course, but I genuinely wondered if those people ever really got the meaning behind the story to begin with and understood exactly what was explained.

I would like to say first, that I almost wish sometimes that it hadn't become as popular as it did, simply because being more popular also brought on more criticism that I don't believe it deserved. Attack on Titan was crafted with the ending in mind as soon as the first chapter was written. The sheer amount of mystery and foreshadowing that took place in the first seasons and then have called back to in the final season and its parts was incredible. Season 3 is packed full of story progression, and when you enter the final season, at first, you won't even be able to recognize it as being the same story in some ways. The whole thing was a journey for me from beginning to end, so I'm glad you're enjoying it and I hope you like the way it was wrapped up.

I can assure you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that while they are still outnumbered there is a large percentage of people in our country that have no use whatsoever for asceticism and fully back a hedonic life, particularly in the direction of sexuality. I don't present it this way simply because I disagree with it, but I can also add that their goal is to do whatever they want with zero consequences. The consequences being, primarily, the destruction of the classic nuclear family that our country was built on. It's at this point that I would very much like to stress something, because after reading your reply this has become quite apparent to me. The temperament of the average American is not the same as the average Japanese. This is neither a good nor bad thing, as far as I can see, but it does create differences that stem from that within our two societies. On the topic of Japanese culture and mindset, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I can assure you that the way sexuality affects the typical American does not seem to be the same at all to the average Japanese. We (and by "we" I mean Americans with more traditional values) discourage sex work and pornography because we've seen it destroy families and the emphasis on sex within a marriage. We value these things as the bedrock of our country and culture. You describe the Japanese as being a people that can more easily engage in such things without it affecting their growth and family life down the road. On the average, Americans cannot do this. We crave what we take in, and the fantasies of pornography give our youth an unrealistic concept of sex that if attempted to obtain will harm their growth and their hopes for a family. This is interesting but it also doesn't surprise me, seeing as how the Japanese have always come across to me throughout history as being incredibly and admirably disciplined. This is taught and understood fairly well here in the States I would say, but the difference here is in the moderation of each desire. Don't eat too much or too little, same with sleep, and with sex, the difference in our cultures becomes more notable. The classic American conception is the use of sex in a marriage as the ultimate expression of love and reproduction, whereas in your country apparently it isn't as strict. I can't say that I personally agree with this, but I understand it as a cultural difference, and I don't look down on it. This is why I went ahead and stated my opinion of the apparent differences in our temperaments, and I'd like to call back on that now. We look on sex as something that can and should be controlled. You can't survive without food and sleep, but you can technically live and die without ever having sex. Obviously, if no one ever had sex and reproduced then you would die out, but I'm not speaking in those terms, merely how sex affects a single human body. I understand and agree with what you're saying here, but I am also informing you that pornography isn't an outlet that generally helps us, it just makes us want the real thing even more, which I absolutely believe contributes to sexually related crimes. The self-discipline truly does appear, to me anyway, as being way higher in your country, and issues such as these accentuate that. This is not from asceticism, this is from little to no proper rearing and education of children, and how to not be criminals. We do not believe people should not have sex, we believe they should have sex within a stable marriage and family situation. Not open and free sex with anyone at any time. Again, when I say "we" I mean people with older and more traditional values such as myself. I obviously don't mean to speak for everyone. Help me understand here, are you saying that Japanese children are freely exposed to sexuality as a base desire the same as food and sleep? If I'm understanding that correctly, what ages are we talking about here? Also, I can assure you that the negative impact you believe it has on children not to expose them to it, is the exact negative impact it has on children over here to expose them to it. In closing, I didn't really have anything to add to much of the middle part of your post, but I did want to mention that I found your explanation of some of the social hierarchy to be really interesting and informative as well.

Typically I enjoy addressing individual points as we have been but for time's sake today I'm going to try and consolidate at least a little bit and summarize. I've also just recognized that because of the way that your conversation was going with Clayton, I did not quite understand what your intended theme for this thread was initially, and it's now quite clear that the discussion had strayed greatly, so I apologize if by chance I only aided in doing that, but it wasn't intentional. It's true that across the board the open expression of graphic sexual themes in the States is generally frowned upon (my earlier point was that many of our cities have become way more liberal on such issues in recent years). The West was predominantly built upon Christian values, which as we all know centers such issues around the importance of strong marriages and families, and it is a major problem over here that pornography interrupts the typical Christian's idea of what a healthy sex life looks like. I am among this way of thinking as well, though I share very little beliefs with modern Christians in my country. This being said, in the way that I generally try to approach and handle people, the world is huge and people have completely different ideas about what is right and good. I may not agree with them, but I would hate to make someone think they're less than dirt because they've grown up differently than I have, and I would absolutely say, unequivocally, that a very large percentage of Americans are way too high minded about their ideals, all while failing to prove the validity of their own. It's a hypocritical attitude that I detest. At the risk of sounding a bit silly here, it's been fun to sit and have a fleshed-out conversation with you, being in your lovely country I have admired and dreamed of going to for years. The perspective is interesting and it's a lot of fun. Lastly I will simply say, that after repeated studies of the affects that porn has on the brain, I have personally come to the conclusion that it is cheap, a distraction from more important things, damaging to the pleasure centers of the brain due to abuse of dopamine, and trains the brain to put too much emphasis on the act of sex. I battled it as a teenager, and can say from someone who has experienced both sides up close and personal, that I am genuinely a happier person with it not in my life. It sells so well, and it's thrown in our face at every turn. I don't think I'm something great because I can "resist something evil", but I wish people would consider stop making easier money off something as base to a human as sex appeal, and let people try living a life without it.

I don't know, you disagreed with me and my assessment. Westerners ask this question? They don't already know by how obvious it is? I've been looking into this and the general takeaway is that it's extremely hard to know these numbers exactly. Some show males beating out the females in terms of readership where another study I read that had a very small sample of participants came out way more female. Regardless of this, my point still remains the same. With all due respect, I don't believe you're explaining yourself that clearly. I'm not getting a very accurate read at all as to where you stand or the overall point you're trying to make in this portion of the conversation. Are you saying you believe a Japanese person in New York City (for example) saying that large anime breasts are sexually appealing when watching an anime would be considered strange enough to lose social status? I really don't believe this to be the case at all. If you told someone you had 15 different anime character body pillows that you regularly did stuff with then yes, then you'd be crossing a line, but the average Westerner isn't going to Batman slap a Japanese person for saying that sex appeal in largely drawn anime breasts exists. If I've missed your point entirely, please let me know. In regard to asceticism, only in some areas. The melting pot idea has worked less and less with time and the States in general are more divided than they ever have been culturally, and a good deal of this is due to differences in religion and background. Cultures range all over the place here in the States and there are many religious people here who can recognize that sex appeal exists without thinking you're going straight to hell for believing that. I agree that it's respectable to show restraint and think of yourself as having a spark of divinity you might say, guiding you in the direction to act based on principle that helps others instead of living a hedonistic lifestyle, but to think less of someone because their culture sees sex a little differently and judging them harshly as though you yourself are some beacon of higher morality is literally what the lesson in the Bible was supposed to prevent. It is, in fact, destructive to the brain and the more consistently you watch it the more damage can be done. It can take months for the brain to recalibrate after quitting it, and the desire for the easy dopamine release can be as hard to kick as illegal hard drugs. This being said, condemning a person for a cultural difference or something they struggle with isn't the way to go. The United States absolutely dominates the world in the exportation of pornography, sitting at 24.5% with the UK being second at 5.5%. The States, as a collective whole, needs to get themselves in order before thinking everyone else is in the wrong.

Between it being about gaming and Japan, I thought I'd start a thread for this in case anyone else here is as interested in the ongoing conversation (if you want to call it that) between Ubisoft and a large portion of the Japanese people. I, personally, feel like it has raised many questions and exposed many holes in the tactics that Ubisoft has used, and I'm glad that Japanese fans of the series are calling it like they see it. In case the community isn't as interested in this as I am, I'll save some typing for later. Would be curious to know what everyone thinks.

We're a country that has destroyed young minds with porn and we export porn more than any other country on the planet. I don't think Japan has anything to fear in terms of liking sexual things, and anyone who would go after them should drop the stone and look at some numbers. I completely understand and appreciate the desire to translate, you might say, the cultures so that things for people traveling abroad are protected as well as possible, but this doesn't play into my original reason for entering this thread to begin with, and that's the reason why some manga breasts are drawn large. You're 100% right that these things contradict one another quite often, but this was the top result I received when I search "percentage of male and female manga readers" Shueisha Reveals New Circulation Numbers, Demographics for its Manga Magazines - News - Anime News Network

Cool, doesn't change the fact that it's true. If I were walking the streets of Kyoto, I'm not going to approach a woman with larger breasts and tell her she has excellent sex appeal. No one with any sense would do that. Fact still remains that emphasized larger chested manga girls are drawn that way to add a variety of sex appeal. That study was conducted in Japan. Granting only that it was in 2019 and demographics alter the numbers slightly. It's the mangakas that are predominately female at 70%, but their audience appears to be more males. I also specified quite clearly that a great number of manga/anime girls do not have large chests, because not all people find them as attractive. Again, everyone knows this, but for the readers who like a larger chest, they are drawn larger to capture their attention. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be surprised by this truism that women like sex. I think Fifty Shades of Grey and recent monster romance books have proven that a large number of women like erotica. I would also hazard a guess that the reason manga sells so well to women in the States is because much of the media over here has been rehashed to death and is boring to many, myself included. You started a thread about emphasized breasts sizes, and I'm talking about that. If a female character has unrealistically large breasts, even covered up, its intent is sex appeal. There's no other reason to do that. If there's a lot of unrealistic jiggle physics in play, its intent is sexual. If they're always halfway hanging out, its intent is sexual. It's along the same lines that larger eyes on female characters is cute. I get that socially it's much different than the States, I love that about the Japanese. I respect it, but there's no erasing biology.

I like it, actually. Definitely pulls from multiple successful storylines that have been used in the past but sounds original enough to me. I agree that an underlying theme involving the sacred objects is definitely a good idea, and I think it would work well if presented similarly to Shadow of the Colossus in that you have a nagging feeling all the way through that something isn't right. Any chance you'd have the desire to make one of the final characters that can be learned about more the grandfather? Could be cool.

Is this something that's actually recorded or documented somewhere, that well-endowed anime women are intended by the mangaka to speed up the romance plot? If not, I completely disagree. One single blush frame would do a much better job at that, on top of the fact that countless manga/anime have flat chested women who have an obvious and immediate love interest where the story doesn't have to spell it all out. Getting us back to the fact that people like breasts, generally larger ones, and therefore larger breasts are drawn on some female characters. There's no deep underlying meaning here.

It's a little thing called instant gratification.

In my own personal experience, I don't see that the ratio of anime viewers has tilted more towards women than men. Rather, anime is simply more mainstream and less of a niche interest than it used to be, drastically increasing the likelihood that you'll come across a woman who watches anime. According to a study done in Japan in 2022, the percentages are approximately 62% male and 38% female, and that ratio seems to have remained fairly consistent. I also haven't been able to find any data to dispute that overall conclusion either. In the effort to find it, however, I did stumble across some numbers that I found quite interesting. Psychologically, men and women are not actually all that different. It's only in some subjects that the differences are accentuated, and this is also reflected in how men and women rate anime. (source- The Bunny Advocate — Gender differences in anime ratings (tumblr.com)) On top of finding that the men and women in the study were more careful and deliberate with their ratings (as opposed to other media such as video games), both peaked at 8, with the only real difference being that women generally handed out more 10s than men.

Ninja Kamui, so far so good. About what I expected, nice having Kenjiro Tsuda though. He's a favorite VA of mine.

*long exhale* I don't know if I really want to put my name in this thread but after the back and forth for weeks I just want to say, while thorough conversation and fleshed out opinions are great to see, can we keep in mind that we are talking about the size of a body part? A body part that is considered by approximately 99% of the world to be sexual in nature and therefore considered to be highly attractive. The intent here isn't to squash the conversation, but goodness, they're breasts. Of course they're often times going to be made larger whenever a stroke of a pencil can make them so. According to Anime News Network in 2019, approximately 67.5% of manga readers are male. Generally speaking, guys like breasts, it's why games like Stellar Blade exist. The creator openly stated that he wanted a character that was appealing to the eyes. I'm not sure how basic math and biology are being ignored here. To come at this from another angle, I think the question itself loses some validity since a large portion of manga/anime girls have average, small, or even non-existent busts. If every single one of them was massive then I'd wonder why so much emphasis, but since only some are large the answer becomes quite clear. Sometimes people want their characters to have a little extra sex appeal.

I remember about 16 years ago a prominent member of an old and long-gone forum I used to frequent made the prediction that soon in-depth articles would fade away or cease to exist completely, and in so many cases he wasn't far off. Because of the ability to skim through things so quickly on a smartphone we value quantity over quality. The average person would rather flip through 100 clips at 10 seconds a piece instead of sit through a single 30 minute video a day where you may learn a lot about any given topic. Short tweets or Facebook messages. A picture and a description on Instagram. Heck, even dating has been boiled down to a vague personal profile and swipes. Clayton has a point, the single biggest draw to the average forum is engaging discussion and the thought out sharing of opinions. The problem is that the ideal probably won't become the reality.

At this point in life, I realize that to some degree my username is a bit cringe as the hip youngsters say, but the backstory is somewhat wholesome and it stuck. Approximately 18 years ago I found out through a Return of the Jedi game for the SNES that the main Ewok in the movie's name was Wicket. My father and I already had a long running joke about how funny and cool the Ewoks were to us, and when I found this out from the game I started using Wickett with an extra "T" because I felt it looked better and more balanced. Later I began to use iWok as a play on the original Apple iPod commercials while still keeping Ewoks involved. It was around this time that I started a YouTube channel (one I only really started using a few months ago believe it or not) and the name Wickett was already taken, so I went with WickettTheiWok. To this day I still use Wickett and in some games where that's too long I go by Wick.

Mm yes, devastating indeed.

Can't remember if it was Bleach or Gantz, but both were awful as manga in my opinion.

April 2025 and January 2026? That'll be perfect to binge during World War 3.

I was going to make a whole topic about this but probably more appropriate to simply summarize and post it here. I finished 86, which was by Crunchyroll's rating a classic high-quality anime. I hated it. I'll put the rest in spoilers just to be safe than sorry for anyone who potentially hasn't seen it.

As generic of an opinion as this probably is, Levi is one of my all-time favorites across the board. I have always appreciated strong support characters that accentuate the leads, in his case of course with Erwin and then later his rivalry with Zeke and regret over Eren. Also doesn't hurt that Hiroshi Kamiya is my favorite voice actor. Hoshina is extremely similar given his relationship to Mina. I like that he can switch over to humor on que as well, but overall he doesn't strike me as interesting of a character in general so far.

I, personally, do not understand how anyone could complain about Kafka's character. I actually find him very relatable. He's surrounded by gifted and adept youngsters who practically walked through their exams and he has almost nothing to bring to the table except his depth of character, which ends up being the only reason he was able to overcome. What makes him special is his heart, which again, is another Shonen trope, but it's done excellently. While I don't think the current sense of humor in the story will change, I do feel like that next season, especially by the end of it, his character will be much more confident and hardened knowing that he's found his place (and is probably extremely good at it).

Not here to be long winded or anything about my overall take away with the first season of this anime, but I do personally believe it is at least deserving of applause for bringing as much entertainment to my week as it did. It's Shonen done excellently, not groundbreaking but solid none the less. It has a great mixture of action, mystery, humor, and sentimentality. Each episode had something to offer and none of the 12 episodes felt tired or stale. I also felt that the voice acting left nothing to be desired, as did the animation. I have never read the manga so I really don't know what to expect in season 2 (which of course has already been green lit), and I'm very much looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.