People have been trying to warn me for a week now that BTOOOM! will contain an offensive rape scene. So offensive, in fact, that it will be even worse than what I saw in Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun. No, I don’t want to turn this into another post about Kaibutsu-kun. It’s just that the initial claim — that what BTOOOM! contains is more offensive than Kaibutsu-kun — shows a fundamental misunderstanding about the problem to begin with. And trust me, I’m tired of talking about rape too, but hey, when these anime series constantly bring it up, what can I do?
Rape is always going to be exploitative, and hey, the act itself is exploitative (among other things). But look, in BTOOOM!, there’s no doubt whatsoever that rape is wrong. Yes, it’s cheap, lazy, and exploitative for authors to constantly put female characters in scenarios involving rape. We even have a website for a similarly related problem. Still, most people will not watch BTOOOM! and think, “Gee, these men’s actions are A-OK in my book. I have seen the light!” On the other hand, what detractors find troubling about Kaibutsu-kun is the implication that it might excuse Haru’s creepy actions.
Now, I don’t personally agree with those conclusions, but I can see where the detractors are coming from. I definitely also agree that Haru’s actions were creepy. As a result, there’s a legitimate concern that people could watch a show like Kaibutsu-kun, and be convinced that “Hey, if I act like Haru, I’m going to get a cute girl for a girlfriend. Girls like pushy assholes!” On the other hand, if anything, BTOOOM! makes a half-hearted attempt to diffuse a certain misconception a lot of people seem to have about rape. When Mitsuo notices that Himiko isn’t fighting back, he jeers, “If they don’t resist at all, that means it’s okay, right?” He’s obviously raping her, however, so the anime does some good here in contrasting the ridiculousness of his words with the sickness of what’s unfolding onscreen.
Of course, BTOOOM! doesn’t get off scot-free by any means. It has its own unique set of problems. What do I mean? Well, even if the show consistently depicts rape as an immoral act, the episode is full of these lurid shots of the victims. No one’s completely nude, but the show makes sure to highlight the girls’ bodies, especially their breasts. You can see what I mean in the second screencap. This reminds me of how action movies love to show off how cool it is to wield guns, but at the same time, the director wants to convince the audience that gun violence is wrong. But hey, BTOOOM! continues to feel like trashy pulp, so I guess this is just par for the course.
Notes:
• A hot, blonde bombshell just happens to play BTOOOM!. Oh, she also loves to cosplay too? N-no, I’m sure it’s possible. Anything’s possible, right? I mean, Jessica Nigri is halfway there. On that same token, I’m amazed that someone like Jessica Nigri has her own Wikipedia page.
• I’d say something about the ridiculousness of wearing a thong over a full-bodied suit, but hey, this is cosplay.
As a result, what else could I have expected?
• I’m somewhat amused by the fact that Himiko likes to wear a camo skirt unlike the rest of her friends and their green, plaid skirts. Y’know, gotta be prepared. Never know when you might end up stranded on a jungle island, right?
• So I guess all you have to do to enroll someone in BTOOOM! is sign them up and get 100000 yen.
• Evil guys are fat and ugly. On the other hand, good guys are handsome or pretty… unless you’re going to die like that one guy in the episode, then I guess you get to be ugly too. Good to know we’re sticking to the fairy tale conception of good and evil.
Then again, Judgment Flash is a bunch of hot guys in a band so there goes my theory. I’m going to be snarky about it anyway.
• Mitsuo’s plan is horrible. I’d rather keep my bombs than entrust them all to a single person. Deterrence, people, deterrence! Haven’t we learned anything from the Cold War?! On a serious note, I still wouldn’t have turned my bombs over.
• On the one hand, Himiko wonders if the men entrust her with the bombs because they see women as weak. On the other hand, her first reaction to the relief package is “Oh look, there’s sunscreen!”
• When one of the men dies, the crystal on the back of his hand falls out, thus leaving behind hollow blackness.
So… is that just an animation oversight or is there something to this? Maybe the game isn’t as real as it’s perceived to be?
• I wonder if there’s any rhyme or reason to why different players get different bombs. Maybe it’s just random. Or maybe Mitsuo gets the toxic gas bomb because he has bad body odor.
• I don’t understand how Mitsuo just escalates to being a rapist so quickly unless he has always been a creepy person. Of course, since he gets nothing but a single episode of development, who can really say?
• No one really wants to say, “Man, that rape scenario is so unrealistic,” but to be honest, it kind of was. It almost seemed like the four men wanted Himiko escape. But whatever, I’m not going to get too hung up on this.
• I don’t like how Himiko so quickly blames herself for “abandoning” her friends. It just feels too forced and manufactured for her to have something to feel bad about. She informed the cops, didn’t she? What else was she supposed to do? Oh right, fight off four grown men all by her lonesome. Well, she did throw a mean right hook and knock one of them down, so maybe she could’ve saved the day after all.
Wasn’t she feeling guilty for accidentally putting them in that situation in the first place?
I think that + seeing her friends getting raped in front of her = trauma.
There’s no way she could’ve known that the band members were a bunch of rapists. On the other hand, she saved her friends. Had she not escaped, who knows what could’ve happened to those girls. They could be soaking in barrels full of hydrochloric acid now for all they know. Yeah, okay, I’ll admit I’m nitpicking, but shrug, I just think the creator of the story could’ve come up with a scenario that was a little more… ambivalent regarding Himiko’s culpability. She’s pretty much innocent. On the other hand, I get the feeling that all of the other players have actually screwed up in some shape or fashion.
Nah, it makes sense. It isn’t terrible writing but it isn’t good either.
I bet they are all mentally unstable individuals just like her.
The dredge of society.
Dregs.*
Between this, tonari, and psycho pass, the anime community has had a creepy and somewhat disturbing week, sexual politics wise.
“I don’t understand how Mitsuo just escalates to being a rapist so quickly unless he has always been a creepy person.”
Haven’t watched this yet but in the manga Mitsuo outright admit that he had raped someone before.
Yeah, now that I think about it, he admits to this in the middle of assaulting Himiko. I just find it weird that he primarily worries about survival, but as soon as the girl rejects him, he goes into full-rape mode. I can’t imagine what a rapist is thinking, but if a killer is after me, raping a girl shouldn’t really be the first priority.
I’ll agree to disagree here then, mate. You see, from what I’ve come to learn there are two rules of using rape in a narrative:
1. Make sure it’s necessary/adds something to the plot that no other type of crime could in a similar fashion and written with tact
2. Never make it overstay its welcome and/or played up for fetishists
Of course these rules are useful when writing murder in a story too (which a lot of serial killer mystery novels these days seem to have forgotten…ugh). Whether you want Action Jackson or Pulp Fiction doesn’t matter. These rules are absolute, carved in stone.
-Yeah, saying that sounds odd at first, but it’s basically just the same as saying “Don’t make the protagonist insufferable from start to finish” is carved in stone and absolute.
_I’ve used rape in stories before and I’ve read/watched tales from both hacks and masters who have as well.
Good example: Guts’ backstory as a child in “Berserk” (nevermind the rest of the series or what happens to Casca, though). This event (though I think it’s being somewhat shown in the manga was in poor taste in my opinion) actually gave depth to several aspects of the story and especially the character. The scene where he reveals what happened to her, finally opening up in such a vulnerable way, is regarded as beautifully written and some would say rightly so.
Bad example: Victoria’s backstory in “Hellsing”. Just…no. At no point does “corpse rape in front of the dead woman’s daughter” even BEGIN to amount to anything but nonsense. Nothing it accomplishes for the character couldn’t have been accomplished with better writing.
My beef with BTOOM! and shows/stories similar to it isn’t that there’s never a single proper use of the subject matter. Personally the story about the girl with survivor’s guilt from having to leave her friends behind was actually pretty well done…mostly. My problem is that it violates the two golden rules. There’s just so MUCH of it in the story from what I’ve seen via articles and in every case it’s overdone, overplayed, and horribly tactless.
-Before you ask: yes there is a way to write a tactful rape scene. Here’s how: Don’t show it.
One of the most powerful and cruel moments in the movie “The Devil’s Double” is a scene where Uday Hussein takes a woman on her wedding day and rapes and beats her. Not a single moment of it was shown (that I recall). Instead, you see before and after, and the suicide that transpires only drives home what DID happen…out of your view.
…Perhaps “tact” isn’t the perfect word here, but I’m sure you see what I mean. Everything that scene added to the movie (and it added a LOT, to both the characters and the plot) was done without fetishizing the event.
But again, I agree to disagree. I mean, after all, you managed to spin a whole new perspective on a clearly trashy (in a less severe sense) anime called “Highschool of the Dead”. In fact, you did such a great job explaining yourself I had to go back and see the episodes I’d already watched before quitting just to try and capture what you saw. Didn’t help me get into the series at all, but it was interesting food for thought.
I’m not trying to say that the rape scene wasn’t offensive. Neither am I claiming that the rape scene was plot essential. I simply argued that it is less offensive than what you might find in Kaibutsu-kun. I’m afraid you wrote up an entire post to address a point I’ve never advanced. To me, Kaibutsu-kun potentially promotes rape culture to a far more insidious degree. After examining the evidence, it is not a conclusion I would come to, but I still find it far more questionable than BTOOOM!’s sheer gratuitousness.
I never meant to imply you thought of the scene in either light. Sorry if I came across that way, mate. I was simply explaining why I dislike this anime and stories like it specifically.
-I gave the examples of proper usage because in your post because I misread what you meant about the show’s “halfhearted attempt” at certain misconceptions. Nevermind.
That being said, I can’t really see how Monster-kun is promoting rape culture. Yes, the girl falls for him (or what he represents to her, rather) but anyone with a brain can see that “being creepy is bad, mmkay”. I agree that his being pushy could be a subtle nod to the culture, but he’s very clearly shown as mentally disabled to some extent (by the way, his description of how empty he feels when he’s alone still makes me think he’s schizophrenic, but it’s still a toss-up) so I don’t see how his more negative actions could be seen in a positive or inspiring light.
Well, even if I agree that it doesn’t, I don’t think it’s hard to see where others are coming from.
Rape’s evil, man.
But check out those hot teen bodies!
Hey, E Minor? Can I request for you to change that first image into something less violent? I mean I know you’re against misogyny and stuff like how you pointed out in your Kaibutsu ep 1 review, but I feel bad for survivors who have to see an explicit image of rape just before they want to read this review. Hell, they could be just scrolling down to see your SAO finale review and go past that screenshot. You can link that image in the post, but just don’t show it so explicitly without a warning beforehand. Thank you!
Well, not to sound like a douche, but these things happen. The image is perfect for the post and the title since it fits with the theme of the update and what will be the crux of the discussion this time.
I understand you care about survivors and only want to make things easier for them, however we have to understand that doing so only hurts those who are healing rather than helping. Many of them, while they appreciate the sentiment, do feel pandered to. It implies you believe they aren’t strong enough to even pass over such an image, let alone read a post about it. That may be true for those who have recently suffered, but for the rest who are trying to get back to their lives they’ll feel your sentiment as a double edged sword, and in turn it can in fact make them feel weak in their own eyes.
Trust this if nothing else, Kurui K: Survivors are like bones; after they’ve been broken they’ll heal to be even stronger and tougher than before!
They’ll be alright with the image. I bet there’s even those of them who are able to read this post now with no reservations.
I’m not sure how you can say that, not being a rape survivor. Not only are you being incredibly rude to people who have gone through such a traumatic experience, but you’re also assuming a lot of things for a rape victim and people who need trigger warnings. A picture of rape, or any triggery topic, doesn’t just scare a person off. It actually can harm a person on an emotional and mental level. It’s basically an uncontrolled, emotional reaction. You could compare it to an allergic reaction, almost. This is why food labels exist? You don’t just throw a can of peanuts at someone who has an allergic reaction to peanuts and tell them to eat it because it’ll make them recover. That can give them anaphylactic shock – which can even cause death. Food labels exist to prevent that from happening. In the same way, triggery photos for rape victims can also create a very unstable response, and so trigger warnings should be created/photos that can trigger should be avoided.
Also I think assuming that ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is pretty offensive to people who have gone through such a hardship in their lives. Being raped isn’t getting a booboo on your knee and recovering. It destroys you on many levels. Assuming that this kind of response is the best way for a rape survivor is really harmful and inconsiderate.
I’m not going to tell E Minor what to do with his blog because it is his blog, but I would still highly recommend that he’d do a trigger warning and take the photo off to be considerate to those who have been through such a terrible and unfortunate experience.
If this isn’t enough of a helpful explanation, then maybe this will do a better job: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Trigger_warning
Lol you honesty don’t understand how she could blame herself?
First she did put them in that situation unknowingly of course but she felt guilty for it?
Second her friends moved away and the one friend that stayed said she hate her.
Third she felt bad that even though she did get them arrested she left them in the lions den.
This anime doesn’t glorify it and it doesn’t make it look like it has them on display.
One, never said I didn’t understand it. Two, just because I understand it doesn’t mean I don’t find it stupid.
Yeah, sure, a first-person POV of Himiko’s breasts being groped doesn’t send mixed messages at all.
I’m going to go way off the rape topic and just mention one small detail, that will most likely have no effect on anyone’s thoughts on this episode but my own. Assuming from the intro of the episode, Himiko does not play BTOOOM! that much, or is not that good, yet the second she shows up on the island she knows she has bombs, and jumps to the thought that she might have to use them to kill people. Here’s the reason why this bothers me. In the first episode, Sakamoto is so good that he’s even the top player in Japan, I know his team is but he’s the leader of the team so everything goes to him. But, when he ends up on the island, he does not know that he has bombs (before he uses them), nor does he think he needs to kill anyone with them.
Once I saw that Himiko was the only girl in the group, a blue-eyed blonde with large breasts nonetheless, I assumed she was going to be raped, or at least be put in the position of being raped. Then I saw Mitsuo, and thought, “He’s most likely going to get creepy with her.” That is why I did not focus on the rape subject and pointed my attention to the detail that I have mentioned in the first paragraph.
ok feminists this is animation, calm down.
Himiko didn’t actually get raped though right? Like she says numerous times after that thing with akechi that she would rather die while keeping her purity. So akechi really only groped her breasts