i have so much beef with this show. I watched it because it was recommended as a reverse harem and advertised to be goth and dark. it turns out is primarily a comedy.
I cannot recommend this show if you are not 16+ and able to critically analyze the problematic parts of this show whilst still appreciating its humor. I continuted watching because it was funny but there was also an aspect of hate watching to it. I wanted to see if they would rectify any of the glaring issues (spoiler alert they did not). I am a black woman. the casual racism directly targets and affects people with my skin color. The sexism didn't affect me as much as it angered/confused me. It was so outlandish to me, but i will get into that later.
its funny. its funny to me, someone who has been watching shoujo since preteen years and understands the tropes. My sense of humor was developed by anime, so anime humor is easier to land on me. It won't be funny to everyone. Its better if its not funny to you cuz then u wont feel a reason to watch it!!
for clarification: the funniness of this show is not related to the racism and sexism im about to rant about. those aspects aren't played for laughs, theyre just part of the show.
the main character sanako is goth to her core. she likes splatter films and taxidermy and human organs. her best friend is an anatomy mannequin. this is portrayed as both a nasty part of her character but also what makes her herself and she thankfully doesn't change by the end.
what i dont understand is the existence of the gothic lolita gag characters (called the goth loli girls in the dub). This show is in no means a love letter to goth girls because of the running gags these shitty characters do. They are portrayed first and foremost as ugly, annoying, out of touch, and given undetailed basic gothic lolita outfits. They are the only goth characters in this show apart of sanako. Thats especially bad for a show about the way apperances affect someone's life.
i think its rlly stupid from a marketing perspective to simultaneously embrace japanese goth aesthetics and caricaturize the people that love the subculture in real life. I'm not japanese, but I could gather from this and prior knowledge about the misogyny directed at lolitas that this is just a stereotyped caricature written for/by people who dislike eccentric women.
it would be insensitive of me to fall into a double standard about sexual portrayals of minors in anime. Its not as egregious as many anime targeted towards men, but I can't pretend its not there. the opening is pretty bad tho why are they naked why are there feet angles.
the reverse harem of the show consists of 4 boys: Kyohei (ML and sexist), Ranmaru, Yuki, and Takenaga. One of the running jokes is that Ranmaru regularly sleeps with adult women. HUH?? Hes shown pretty sexually sometimes, usually as a joke, but its impossible to watch this as an adult and not feel some type of way. You can't even argue age of consent; they are supposed to be 15 years old.
the racism of this show comes from the recurring 4th wall break shown in every episode. It begins with a title card showing 2 dark skinned, afro wearing, loin cloth bearing people dancing. ill just show you
i dont even know who they are trying to make fun of here tbh. Are these south asians? Are these africans? who fucking knows. You don't need to be targetting a specific group to be casually racist. I'm not going to explain how racism works for you, I hope you can come to your own conclusion as to how this would be a slight bit offensive to dark skinned people.
this break card is shown in every. single. episode. sometimes twice!
first ill explain the context for this if you haven't watched the show. Sanako becomes an extremely introverted goth media lover after a boy she confessed to her called her ugly in middle school. real asf. She is sent to live with her rich aunt who is housing 4 teenage boys in her mansion (i dont remember why lmao). The goal of Sanako's stay is for the boys to fix her and make her into a real lady
the biggest culture shock to me is that Sanako does all the housework and cooking for these 4 unrelated boys of the same age as her. This was treated as normal and expected in the show.
this blew my american mind of course. sexism just manifests in different ways here. its really hard not to see this expectation as backwards. I thought back to when I was a 15 year old. I was an AP kid; I had plenty of homework everyday. I have 1 brother who is about the same age as me. We did the same chores. My single mother still cooked for us (not on the days she worked). The point is, in black american culture everyone in the household pulls their own weight. The only gender expectation was that my brother took out the trash once a week. And I dont even agree with that!
knowing that japanese highschool is full of hard tests and cram schools, I dont think this is the expectation for the average girl in Japan. However, Sanako's submissiveness is shown to be the part of the idealistic, domestic life of a teenage girl if school wasn't an issue.
I did know someone who experienced a bit of this expectation though. She is not asian, she is Nigerian. hi if ur reading this lol im talking shit abt ur family. It shocked me when she told me she is expected to cook for her grown ass parents in 7th grade. There was a lot of pressure on her to not only do the cooking, but also do very well in school. I said all this to say that the expectation for young girls to perform domestic labor to perfectly able family members is not just present in shoujo and is very harmful to the girl's social livelihood. Even then, my friend would not be expected to cook for people unrelated to her, unlike Sanako in this stupid ass fucking show.
back to the show, there are multiple scenes and gags of the boys weaponizing their incompetence in housework to show how Sanako's compliance to their wants is "needed" in the household. and it pissed me off everytime.
I was really curious as to why this portrayal of women would be in a shoujo anime. The whole point of this show is that Sanako is being turned into a "real lady". This is an english translation of an entire concept of archetypal woman in japan. The Yamato Nadeshiko is the idealized docile housewife archetype of a Japanese woman. According to Wikipedia, "though outwardly submissive and obedient," the yamato nadeshiko is "internally strong." In America, submission and obedience is a lifestyle that a woman could be expected to fall into after being married. So obviously, the concept of submission is not unique to Japan, and I'm not trying to say that Japan is more sexist than America. (Although, from my social work class I know that technically, black american culture is proven to have more fluid gender roles)
The main lead, Kyohei, puts the most pressure on Sanako to do housework for the boys. Kyohei is the worst. He is genuinely, purposefully rude when he doesn't immediately get his way. He fucking flips out when Sanako isn't obedient to his constant hunger for her cooking. This is supposed to be endearing in the show. I hate this fucking manchild that Sanako is supposed to end up with.
half of this show was watching the boys be incredibly incompetent while Sanako "willingly" sacrifices her time to grocery shop, clean, do laundry, and cook for 4 boys that are completely unrelated to her.
The message that this show provides by the end is that Sanako's weirdness is fine as long as she does all the housework
fuck this show man