recent comments

@QCTX: it doesn't have a lot to do with Ichigo Mashimaro, which is a gag manga featuring characters that are to large extent moe fantasies (not a criticism mind you, I am worshipful of Matsuri-chan). Shoujo sosuu takes a more realistic look at young girls, and doesn't really aim for comedy at all (although it does put a smile on your face more often than not). At any rate, there isn't any Miu-like boke character.

As for scanlations, I don't follow those things but FFenril seems to say something exists.

@Enthousiaste: I see how it could become boring along the way. I was never really impressed by Takamichi's attempts at writing manga, for example (partly because his girls from the country aren't really my thing, but I don't find his stories grabbing either), and it seems that there's a lot of similarities between the two. But Shoujo sosuu reads a lot more easily, at least as far as I'm concerned.

@FFenril: spent a good part of the week-end making phone calls and going to travel agencies to cancel everything, but it was pretty uneventful otherwise. Made a few nice manga purchases though; more on that later.

Like I need to like little girls more than I already do :s

I had seen the cover illustration many times before, and I can't say I'm not interested, particularly after having read that. The probability that it will bore me to hell seems to be non-zero, though.

Anyway, it's always a great pleasure to read your writings. Thanks!

I agree with a lot of the things said here and I would like to thank you for the translation as well - it was extraordinarily good English and read perfectly.

I agree that CNN is sensationalist - the media often is - if you want balanced news, then you're probably best looking towards the BBC. They had no right making the accusations that they did and going by the Bible quote - it is hypocritical for a country with a crime rate like the US to infer that what little crime goes on here (meaning Japan) is caused by video games.

However, it saddens me to say this, as an avid consumer of hentai of the most strange and wonderful types, but I cannot condemn the view entirely.

The Japanese woman who wrote in is absolutely correct - there is a healthy amount of sexual harassment towards women still in Japanese society. They are more or less equal, but there are far fewer women in positions of power and they are often paid significantly less in many professions. Face it - Japan is a sexist country. This is not something that can by denied, though actual rape crime is probably significantly lower in Japan than elsewhere.

According to CNN, the existence of rape themed games will turn people to rape women themselves. I am always against this view - petty video game blame for the sins of society. However, how about we turn it on its head. If you go the the Comiket East halls this July on day 3 and make a pie chart of the themes of the hentai manga you see there, over half I guarantee would be rape themed and of that, probably another half violent or non-consensual. Surely the thing to be worried about is the fact that over half of men fantasise about rape in the first place?

This is not new information - it's clear that when the chips are down and men have nothing to fear and no repercussions (eg. in war time), rape will abound. It's almost a natural instinct - you'd be hard pressed to find female soldiers who would freely rape men in that situation. So the point perhaps that CNN is missing is that men who fantasise about rape will buy rape themed games. NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND.

I as well as anyone (especially being into the themes I am) know there is a barrier between fantasy and reality, but then I am a rational person and know that not 100% of the people in society are rational like me. Might playing these games and being steeped in piles of rape hentai and rape doujinshi make a less-than-rational-person more likely to commit rape crime? Probably. So then - why does Japan have lower rape levels than the US? Undoubtedly due to the undercurrent of guilt and honour that runs through every action a Japanese person takes in society - always thinking about others and always thinking about repercussions.

So what can we take home from all of this?

1. Japan is sexist. Women get sexually harrassed, but probably not that much more than other countries. Live with it.
2. Rape games aren't the problem. Rape games are the symptom of the inherent male condition that always fantasises about the power of being able to have sex with anyone and everyone.
3. Rape will happen. Don't blame the video games, blame the offenders.

If anything, CNN should be doing a story about men and how we're all pieces of scum who if given the chance would sink their average sized cocks into any warm body within range...

Hmm...I didn't think I'd be man bashing within this comment. Just to let everyone know - I am on your side, but I think that there is always a danger of becoming biased in these things and not seeing the facts. Thank you Nanashi-san for taking another viewpoint - it was refreshing!

I kinda feel that I'm letting everyone down having this viewpoint!

lets hope they dont and you stay under the rock you live then huh :) no one wants you here in japan anyway! your a muppet.

i bet your having a rape fantasy right now as we speak lol

Take spice and wolf for example,

To be honest it really is about how each person views it differently, especially with sad "obscenity" laws in gaijin countries.

Ouch, that's a harsh way to put it :p. But well-deserved I guess. I could say I've been busy with real life and it wouldn't be a lie, but I do slack off to some extent. Thanks for the reminder. I'll be back to work.

Yeah, most of us are rather disappointed by the anime adaption, to say the least.
And no, I'm not a person who always thinks the manga is better than the anime. They really could have done a better job. The manga is incredibly engaging and it one of the better done manga out there. While the anime, while admittedly, is one of the better anime this season, is certainly sub-par as far as anime is concerned.

It's sad how many will badly judge the manga based upon how the anime is when the anime isn't a properly quantification of how good the manga/franchise is at all.

[...] liking hentai and all. If you’re interested in the whole letter, you might want to drop by Tsurupeta for a full translation of the [...]

[...] about Japanese culture. Nogami Takeshi, a Japanese artist who has himself created hentai artwork, penned an open letter to CNN. "Moreover, the crime rate statistics for both general crime and sex crime in Japan are, with [...]

I would absolutely like more fine-grained statistics from all countries when it comes to crime rates, though.

Per capita can in some cases be pretty confusing, still.

'7.8 rapes per 10,000 people' can technically be as extreme as '15.6 rape victims per 10,000 women', or the exact inverse, depending on the circumstances.

Then there's problems with those statistics that are used for comparisons between countries being submitted by the countries themselves, sometimes made with vastly differing criteria, like one place qualifying any sort of physical sexual harassment as rape, while it might require vaginal insertion elsewhere. Or something.

hey what's wrong with CNN nowadays......???!!!!

i can see how unobjective they are.....

well....i love hentaim, too....but I didn't change into perverted human.......>.<

I have to separate between dream and reality....

DON'T JUDGE US LIKE PERVERT !!!!