Everyone has a comfort level and/or tolerance on what they can watch. Generally speaking, they’re free to look away from content that they’re uncomfortable, like the aforementioned example of Death Note with how the women are portrayed there. I have my own categories of content that I’m too uncomfortable to watch, and I’m sure it’s different from what you find uncomfortable.
Again, it’s not exclusive to anime. Personally, I find James Bond movies’ (massively popular with quite the cultural cache) portrayals of women more problematic if applied to real life, but it’s a work of fiction and we’re supposed to know better. My comfort level does not preclude me from watching those as well as Death Note, nor I’m supposed to assume watchers and fans of those endorse all the themes involved in there.
Some critical thinking from us should be employed as we watch those things especially if sensitive themes are included. Where does it lie in the prescriptive vs. descriptive writing spectrum? Is it meant to teach the audience that something is good or bad (the should/shouldn’t)? Does it describe a particular situation within the internally-consistent rules of the in-universe world (the what, where, when, how, and why)? etc. This applies regardless of the medium.
Agreed.
Everyone has a comfort level and/or tolerance on what they can watch. Generally speaking, they’re free to look away from content that they’re uncomfortable, like the aforementioned example of Death Note with how the women are portrayed there. I have my own categories of content that I’m too uncomfortable to watch, and I’m sure it’s different from what you find uncomfortable.
Again, it’s not exclusive to anime. Personally, I find James Bond movies’ (massively popular with quite the cultural cache) portrayals of women more problematic if applied to real life, but it’s a work of fiction and we’re supposed to know better. My comfort level does not preclude me from watching those as well as Death Note, nor I’m supposed to assume watchers and fans of those endorse all the themes involved in there.
Some critical thinking from us should be employed as we watch those things especially if sensitive themes are included. Where does it lie in the prescriptive vs. descriptive writing spectrum? Is it meant to teach the audience that something is good or bad (the should/shouldn’t)? Does it describe a particular situation within the internally-consistent rules of the in-universe world (the what, where, when, how, and why)? etc. This applies regardless of the medium.