Melody of Oblivion eps 3-5
These episodes featured Bocca and Sayoko in a resort-type town where the citizens know about the monster, but quietly let it take their children as long as it lets them live in peace, aside from the occasional lynch mob.
Essentially, the whole part of anime where Our Heroes go around checking out how other parts of their society and seeing how they deal with The Evil.
I feel compelled to point out that, mixed in with the misogyny and the WTF-ery, there are some interesting bits. The world mythology, while common for anime, is interesting, it has some nice "heroic coming of age" vibes, and there are some fun send-ups to westerns. For all that she's deliberately a brainless fanservice girl, Sayoko has a fair bit of common sense. If a monster attacks, she doesn't stand around screaming, waiting to be rescued, but instead takes off running. If someone else is screaming and waiting to be rescued, she grabs them and keeps going, and she seems to glom on to what people are really like fairly well. I like her, and would probably like Bocca, if they could decide whether he's a stoic, an idealist, or a pervert.
But the misogyny...oh, the misogyny. How can I sum it up to get the point across in the simplest way possible...
Let's try this:
The main female character (who is essentially a walking fetish) has manacles on her wrists with chain links attached. When the object of her affections (as yet, it's unclear whether or not he returns her affections, or has any interest in her beyond not wanting her to get killed off chasing after him) uses his powers, the chain links perk up and point her in his direction, and he goes running.
Some more "WTF Japan?" misogyny from these episodes:
In one scene, Sayoko is in Bocca's room wearing a robe. Somehow, he ends up pulling the sash of her robe and she goes spinning and lands in a centerfold pose on the bed, and they have a long conversation while she stays in the pose. In another, she's in his room wearing a towel, and his arrow lifts up the towel and chases her around the room, then whips it off of her and she goes spinning and lands in a centerfold pose on the bed, and they have a long conversation while she stays in the pose.
When Bocca wants them to camp out in a tent, she objects because he's a pervert and there aren't two beds, only futons. He tells her she's being silly because there are two futons, so it's the same as two beds, while he's sitting on both futons, which are already laid out. (Ok, normally, this would just make me go "yeah, horny boy" and not really notice, but here...) After this, she announces she's going to go out and make some money so she can go out and get a hotel. Bocca grabs her arm and, when she asks what he thinks he's doing, he says it's how she makes a living anyway. (Really? I got the impression she was a pickpocket and a scam artist, not a whore.)
Multiple times, women end up straddled on the headlights of Bocca's Ivermachine, with their shirts pushed up to their crotch. When this happens, they gasp and pause for a minute before getting off or finishing what they were saying.
It continues with the implying women are enjoying sex when there's no sex going on, including a girl jerking and gasping (showing only her head and chest) and then two people embracing mostly offscreen, with the girl bouncing and going "more more more."
At one point, a female character is naked and on all fours and gasping in pain, with men lined up behind her as one brands her back.
I feel like I'm forgetting something important, but I forget what.
You know, I can't help but think that if this anime weren't so caught up in trying to be abstract and clever, it'd actually be pretty good. It has the rudiments of a good action anime with deeper meaning behind the action, but that gets lost in the dressing. It's kind of like how I loved the first arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena, but after that, the animators started trying to see how abstract and symbolic they could be, to the point where all I could really process at the end was that someone was driving around in his car and seducing people with it and the guys were lounging on the car with their shirts spontaneously springing open, and people were having sex in the backseat of the car and I did not understand and could not tell what I was supposed to be getting from that except that the car had somer serious mojo going for it.
Essentially, the whole part of anime where Our Heroes go around checking out how other parts of their society and seeing how they deal with The Evil.
I feel compelled to point out that, mixed in with the misogyny and the WTF-ery, there are some interesting bits. The world mythology, while common for anime, is interesting, it has some nice "heroic coming of age" vibes, and there are some fun send-ups to westerns. For all that she's deliberately a brainless fanservice girl, Sayoko has a fair bit of common sense. If a monster attacks, she doesn't stand around screaming, waiting to be rescued, but instead takes off running. If someone else is screaming and waiting to be rescued, she grabs them and keeps going, and she seems to glom on to what people are really like fairly well. I like her, and would probably like Bocca, if they could decide whether he's a stoic, an idealist, or a pervert.
But the misogyny...oh, the misogyny. How can I sum it up to get the point across in the simplest way possible...
Let's try this:
The main female character (who is essentially a walking fetish) has manacles on her wrists with chain links attached. When the object of her affections (as yet, it's unclear whether or not he returns her affections, or has any interest in her beyond not wanting her to get killed off chasing after him) uses his powers, the chain links perk up and point her in his direction, and he goes running.
Some more "WTF Japan?" misogyny from these episodes:
In one scene, Sayoko is in Bocca's room wearing a robe. Somehow, he ends up pulling the sash of her robe and she goes spinning and lands in a centerfold pose on the bed, and they have a long conversation while she stays in the pose. In another, she's in his room wearing a towel, and his arrow lifts up the towel and chases her around the room, then whips it off of her and she goes spinning and lands in a centerfold pose on the bed, and they have a long conversation while she stays in the pose.
When Bocca wants them to camp out in a tent, she objects because he's a pervert and there aren't two beds, only futons. He tells her she's being silly because there are two futons, so it's the same as two beds, while he's sitting on both futons, which are already laid out. (Ok, normally, this would just make me go "yeah, horny boy" and not really notice, but here...) After this, she announces she's going to go out and make some money so she can go out and get a hotel. Bocca grabs her arm and, when she asks what he thinks he's doing, he says it's how she makes a living anyway. (Really? I got the impression she was a pickpocket and a scam artist, not a whore.)
Multiple times, women end up straddled on the headlights of Bocca's Ivermachine, with their shirts pushed up to their crotch. When this happens, they gasp and pause for a minute before getting off or finishing what they were saying.
It continues with the implying women are enjoying sex when there's no sex going on, including a girl jerking and gasping (showing only her head and chest) and then two people embracing mostly offscreen, with the girl bouncing and going "more more more."
At one point, a female character is naked and on all fours and gasping in pain, with men lined up behind her as one brands her back.
I feel like I'm forgetting something important, but I forget what.
You know, I can't help but think that if this anime weren't so caught up in trying to be abstract and clever, it'd actually be pretty good. It has the rudiments of a good action anime with deeper meaning behind the action, but that gets lost in the dressing. It's kind of like how I loved the first arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena, but after that, the animators started trying to see how abstract and symbolic they could be, to the point where all I could really process at the end was that someone was driving around in his car and seducing people with it and the guys were lounging on the car with their shirts spontaneously springing open, and people were having sex in the backseat of the car and I did not understand and could not tell what I was supposed to be getting from that except that the car had somer serious mojo going for it.