Ironically, if this was full hentai, ala Softcharm, there wouldn't be so many complaints.
Porn is somehow more acceptable than fluff. Says a lot about the state of decay of our societies.
I wanted to mention this, especially after all the "leave the fiction we like alone" replies, but decided not to, because it'll probably fall on deaf—angry and/or troll—ears:
I like a lot of Itou Hachi's work. In the ones having Animal ears
, the fiction is very clear, and it makes it easy to not take the problematic elements seriously (slavery, arranged marriage, a different species whose members may remain like little girls with animal features while they live, etc.) and just focus on the nice art, atmosphere, romance, comedy, etc. When it comes to hentai, it's obvious that its main purpose is to be masturbation material, often without plot and with over-the-top themes. I agree with that if it keeps pedophiles from going after real children, I don't mind any amount of it being created.
The problem with this particular work is that it has a realistic setting, it isn't a hentai, so it makes the impression of asking the question: "Is this fine?" As if it is trying to test or bend the boundaries of what is acceptable.
Then once the grooming in it got pointed out as being wrong, despite how wholesome it's depicted, to answer that question, instead of just replies like "it's just some interesting fiction, we know it's wrong, don't get bent out of shape over it," some people out of feeling something of theirs being endangered, or only for trolling, started defending the characters' actions, moving the conversation again beyond the whole "it's just fiction" reasoning, or even went to "I'm not a pedophile, you're the pedophile!" style of replies.
The replies explaining away or romanticizing the depicted grooming itself are admittedly scary. Not for the people doing that being pedophiles, but for such replies potentially encouraging those who are, and for the signs of ignorance that may apply in the real world, too. What would you do if you were that colleague or schoolmate Ruki talks to, or if Otome were your friend, sister, or daughter?
Content like this may not help refuting claims like "most LGBTQ+ people are after children, too," yet I never asked for its removal. (Though personal experience has shown that the hentai content makes the site unfit for introducing western people to harmless, quality yuri manga in the first place, because a wrong click from a regular story can bring them to a hentai that to them isn't different from child porn. Since I didn't even know about filters back then, not sure if they even existed, I didn't think about setting up a whole account for them and having them sign in before giving any links. Thanks for the advice ahead of time, though.)
last edited at Dec 12, 2019 4:18PM