Everyone is Wrong about Onimai

what if I told you that odimai isn't just some weird lollycon pandering show but actually provides a useful case study in understanding the psychology and origins of Japanese anime manga fandom of course on the surface this anime is anything but intellectually stimulating odimai is weird extremely weird and there's no way around that and the more you think about the premise the more bizarre it becomes for the uninitiated onimai for titled onichan wa ushimai or onichana is done for is a lightly controversial anime manga series about a shot of neat named mahiro oyama who gets drugged by his younger sister mihadi and is magically transformed into a middle school-aged girl for whatever reason instead of patenting her invention that can reverse aging and change someone's sex mihari uses her new pharmaceutical miracle drug to save her brother for being a need instead of selling it to Big Pharma which is weird the wholesome I guess as the story progresses mahiro adapts to his new body and role as mihadi's little sister eventually it starts going outside and eventually even enrolls in school again perhaps just a little weird the original Maga was actually extremely popular in Japan a 2020 web poll of what manga readers most wanted to see adapted into anime only my placed third beating out both chainsaw man and spy family a 2021 poll placed onemai at seven just one place below spy family and barely edging out komisan can communicate but the onemai anime has faced let's say a troubled debut in the west unsurprisingly the illustrious Western anime journalistic class panned the show writers for anime News Network referred to the show as quote pure lollycon garbage and centered on a pedophilic gaze another referred to the show as horrific for totally separate reasons the show became the center of a minor Twitter controversy over whether the show counts as a kind of transgender allegory for what it's worth mahiro uses the pronoun ore which is generally seen as a masculine way of addressing oneself but I want to argue that viewing onima is a story about the pedophilic secularization of young girls or as a transgender story is in both cases reductive at best rather I want to make the case that onima is the product of the specific characteristics and consumptive behaviors of Japanese otakuru onima is a story about seeking Alternatives particularly of how what seems to be a problematic attraction to fictional Girls is really a way to escape hegemonic Norms of sexuality and gender to unpack what I mean here we have to start with what otaku are where the subculture origin needed and how that origin is deeply intertwined with an affinity for cute girls or bishojo most people are familiar with the term otaku as a slang term to refer to someone of its obsessive interest typically in the realm of anime and manga the term originates from the Japanese word otaku which is a kind of formal way of referring to one's home but the lesser-known history of otaku is that the modern image of a person typically a young man with an extreme affinity for anime and manga originated with male fans of Shojo manga in the 1970s prior to the 1970s the style of Japanese Comics most popular of boys and young men was called gekiga literally dramatic picture gekike utilized bold lines sharp angles and dark cross-hatching to create a sense of realism the aesthetic antithesis of the soft lines round shapes and a light shading that are prevalent in modern manga during the 1970s while began to stagnate and lose relevance Shoujo Manga ostensibly aimed at girls and young women underwent a major transformation the largely female Shojo manga artists began to experiment with more complex mature and even sexual themes in their work it's from here that they'd be Shonen or beautiful boy character originates it's from be Shonen that the bishojo characters that are so ubiquitous and modern Manga and Anime descend the development of the bishojo and by extension lolicon is most associate of the manga artist azima hideo while erotic gekiga did exist Azuma instead took inspiration from Shojo manga taking the aesthetic trappings of Shojo manga and applying them to the cute round characters found in the works of tezuka Osamu such as Astro Boy in 1979 azima among other Shojo inspired male artists published The Fan magazine Sai Bell which became a most known for an erotic parody of Little Red Riding Hood that Azuma had created this would kick off with what later become known as the quote-unquote lale Khan Boom at this point it's worth briefly exploring the etymology of the word lollicon the word is a portmanteau of the term Lolita complex a phrase originating from the 1955 novel Lolita by Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov in the book a middle-aged literature Professor known only as Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed with and sexually abuses a 12 year old girl understandably because of these Origins olikon evokes highly suspect images of illicit predators and illegal relationships of children in the western imagination but in the Japanese context that Association isn't as clear consider the subculture of the lead of fashion that is popular in Japan which is only really related to the navacopnado in a perform puncture away if at all during the so-called lollicom boom of the 1980s the term lalecon generally did not refer to older men sexually Desiring real girls but rather a more General affinity for fictional girls that became associated with male Shojo fans the popularity and reach of lolican at this time also complicates Notions that their base some sort of distinction between upstanding mature or serious anime and degenerate lollycon garbage shows like Space Battleship Yamato Mobile Suit Gundam or super dimensional Fortress Macross which are often held up as examples of serious and mature anime all feature a cute girl character who became popular with and was Often sexualized by fans Miyazaki hayao's directorial debut the castle of kagaviostro became extremely popular with volleycon fans specifically because of its character Clarice Miyazaki for his part hated the fact that his character were so popular with lollycon fans and publicly expressed his higher at this reality but the popularity of Clarice among lollycon fans ultimately played an influential role in raising miyazaki's profile as a director that's in this context I would say otaku started to take shape as a term for some of an unhealthy and often dysfunctional relationship of anime and manga funnily enough the modern connotation of otaku originates from the popular lollycon fan magazine manga budiko started in June of 1983 nakamuriakyo began publishing a column in manga budiko entitled otakuro kenkyo or otaku research init nakamori begins to denigrate manga anime otaku particularly those of an affinity for baldacon are fictional girls he describes otaku as failed men and that their affinity for fictional girls and women over real ones is symptomatic of Psychosocial dysfunction as well as mental and sexual image maturity he argues that otaku are unable or unwilling to grow up and assume normal adult responsibilities like joining the workforce and raising a family in the Crux of the problem for nakabori and its Protege AG Sonata is that otaku have an immature perverse and disgusting Affinity or fiction over reality this scripture brings us back to onimai and its main character makiro mahero is for all intents and purposes the Pinnacle of this failed man that nakamuri describes he becomes despondent over his inability to measure up to his genius little sister and becomes an otaku need as a result the fact that literally turning back into a little girl begins to cure him of being a need reinforces his contention that otaku are immature and unwilling to grow up but I'd argue that it's not the becoming a young girl itself that explains Mojito's Improvement in mental state rather it's how this position removes a difficult Society to expectations he felt burdened by which is ultimately why I don't think this is meant to be a transgender allegory there's a reference to the manga to how mahiro and mihari used to have a very close relationship with each other as kids but mahido slowly closed himself off because he couldn't live up to the expectations of bringing bihadi's brother and ultimately felt like he was just a burden on her I think makido's position as someone who is unable to and uncomfortable with the societal expectations foisted upon Him helps to explain why this manga is so popular especially among Japanese viewers while a case can be made that the anime in particular sexualizes mahiro I don't think that the fan service is really what draws people to the series I imagine that if you were to ask people why they enjoy reading or watching onimai I highly doubt we get a bunch of responses saying that they're in it to get the Rocks off the Mojito most people would probably say somehow they enjoy the story and how it's fun and lighthearted but more so I think that Mojito's pre-transformation dilemma resonates with many readers which is an underrated reason for onimai's popularity and surprisingly broad appeal in the early 1990s the Japanese asset price bubble popped plunging the Japanese economy into a deep economic malaise that the country has never recovered from the bad economy left many young people adrift unable to find a good jobs and start families it's not a coincidence that it's also around this time in the early to mid 1990s that we see the affection and desire otaku show for fictional characters particularly be Shoujo takeoff and popularity while the Japanese economy writ large was struggling the anime manga industry was booming at this time one show in particular the 1995 Neon Genesis Evangelion transformed the anim industry with its explosive popularity one of the most concrete demonstrations of that popularity was the reaction to the character of Rey ayanami Rey was apparently so obscenely popular and so appealing that Ava reportedly increase the market for character figurines tenfold one of the effects of Ava was not the normalization per se of being in love with a fictional character but such feelings certainly became much more common after the show came out it wasn't uncommon among otaku for their first love to be a bichojo character like Rey unsurprisingly this trend would continue into the late 1990s and 2000s with the development of an entire genre dedicated to the escapades of cute anime girls in this book otaku and the struggle for imagination in Japan the cultural Anthropologist Patrick Galbraith who has basically become the preeminent English voice on odaku and lale Khan describes an interview he did of a man in Honda toru Honda suffered with depression and suicidal ideation finding solace in anime which he says saved his life he attempted unsuccessfully to quit being in otaku and join normal society as he explains loving fictional characters is a low-cost low stress way of finding meaning in society increasingly beset by economic and social woes where many traditional Norms of masculinity and success have become less and less attainable Honda's story is representative of many other voices that have appeared in galbrae's work people who find solace in the 2D world after being alienated from the 3D one an important point to emphasize is that otaku are not unable to distinguish between reality and fiction as is sometimes insinuated the original concern and apprehension towards otaku popularized by nakabori's Kalam and magaburiko was that otaku have a perverse and debented preference for 2D women over 3D ones what I'm ultimately trying to get at is it a preference for 2D anime girls is not necessarily indicative of Psychosocial dysfunction but rather can be an alternative way of approaching sexuality and gender bringing it back to onimai mahiro becoming a cute girl is symbolic of how many otaku finds Solace and fictional characters mojito is saved from his anti-social Lifestyle by literally becoming the bishojo that he and many other odaku idolize his idea of saving otaku from their Lifestyles is somewhat of a Trope itself even within anime and manga for example welcome to the NHK is ostensibly also about an Acer who is coaxed back into normal society but the progenitor of this idea was to franchise dinsha otoko or trained man that became extremely popular in Japan during the mid-2000s dencha otoko is allegedly based on a true story from the tech sport 2 channel the story Chronicles a 23 year old otaku who intervenes to stop a group of women from being harassed by a drunk man on a train hence the title trained man the train man eventually goes on a date of one of the women known only as Hermes the popularity of the story inspired something of a paradigm shift in Japan while a story does perpetuate certain stereotypes of otaku as slowly and asocial it reframed the discussion away from Notions that otaku are inherently perverse sociopathic or dangerous an image spread by the media in the wake of a series of heinous murders that were wrongfully attributed to anime and manga consumption at its core the idea of dencha otoko is that otaku are just misunderstood men waiting for the right woman to come along implicitly the ideas that odoku can be saved from their lifestyle and said path to Salvation lies in entering into a traditional heterosexual relationship this is also a theme reinforced in a welcome to the NHK which follows a similar story be it in both cases a traditional heterosexual romance is Central to the main character's Rehabilitation back into normal society onima takes a very different perspective on this issue of fixing otaku odima is at its core a story about a young man who turned into a need because of his inability to live up to the pressure Society placed on him or works like dencha otoko or welcome to the NHK at least implicitly suggests that otaku can grow out of their obsessions and return to a society acceptable state of being odimai seems to imply the opposite my potato instead of growing up literally regresses in age becoming a young girl but becoming a young girl then frees him from the expectations that crippled his life eventually allowing Camp to progressively return to a normal life the popularity of onimai is reflective of how that story resonates with many otaku of how Manga and Anime provide an alternative way to understand sexuality gender and growing up then becoming a salary man who worked himself to death and starts a family with a wife and kids he barely sees because he's at work all day one way to read this is that perhaps otaku are just fundamentally immature and maladjusted turning into a young girl as a way to escape social realities does seem to reinforce this but I'm not entirely sure this is the case in his book beautiful fighting girl a psychiatrist Saito Tamaki documents his research and understanding of otaku and otaku sexuality his key argument is that otaku's affinity for 2D girls is not the result of sexual perversion and immaturity but a result of an alternative understanding of the distinctions between reality and fiction Saito uses the Japanese term for reality genjutsu to refer to what's known as the real world he then uses the English lone word reality to refer to the perceived reality of fictional worlds he argues that for otaku genjitsu is not intrinsically better than reality and that their attraction to anime girls is precisely because of their fictional nature not because they resemble real 3D women in the context of onimai I don't necessarily think that most fans of the story literally want to become young girls but rather the distinct fictionality of the story particularly in the context of escaping social or economic pressures is a relatable draw all for many fans of the series ultimately onimai is not a story about pedophilia and I really don't think it's meant to be read as a transgender story either though it is popular with many transgender people onimai is the product of particular histories and connotations surrounding Japanese odaku for those who are drawn to anime and manga because they feel alienated from societal expectations they don't want to or cannot live up to unimai is an interesting thought experiment in what it would be like to live with those expectations removed to step into the role of the cute girl that for many provides a reason for being

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Length: 18min 18sec (1098 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 08 2023