Friday 25 May 2007

Pic of the day: This is not what it looks like! They were accidentally locked in the dark storage room and she stumbled and grabbed hold of his gym shorts... and besides, they are only what, 11?

"Today in Class 5-2"

This is a problematic anime, at least from a western point of view. It seems obvious to me that pedophiles will enjoy this anime greatly, but does that mean no one else should?

As the name implies, the anime is about fifth graders. This means they are severely underage, at the brink of puberty at best. And yet the anime is a romantic / erotic comedy mostly. The main character is a boy who somehow has got an undeserved reputation for being a precocious pervert. After that, everything he says and does is interpreted that way. Sometimes it is hard not to (as in the picture above) even though he is always innocent.

The second theme, besides the string of misunderstandings, is the girl who is his childhood friend and has a crush on him. I don't think this is entirely unlikely. Due to the relentless cultural pressure from the adult world, children often crush long before they are physically or mentally ready for love. A side effect of the so-called heteronormativity, no doubt. The obsessive focus on pair-bonding in popular culture (at least as much in Japan as here). Anyway, the girl is a sneaky sort, and good at guilt-tripping. Sounds like a good candidate for future wifedom. (Japanese families are more traditional when it comes to sex roles than ours. Gender roles, as people call them now, as if it had anything to do with grammar.)

Despite (or because of?) not having a sex life myself, I have found sexual humor hilarious from my childhood onward and to this day. Plus I like romance, which I also ironically have none of in my own life. So I guess I am in the natural target group for this anime. The other obvious target group, as I said, would be pedophiles. This is a somewhat disturbing company to keep. So I won't hold it against you if you ship this anime. Besides, it is only 4 episodes.

One point in favor of the anime is the opening song. It is decent, romantic, and with a sweet and catchy melody. I find myself humming it days after I watched the anime. (Of course this could, in my case, also have something to do with the recurring phrase "just my friend". As long-time readers will know, I could write the book on being just friends. In fact, you would have a hard time finding a friend more just than me, in that particular regard.)

Together with you, all alone in the empty classroom,
Our eyes meet, we draw near...
and you & I should play to our fullest!
You're just my friend, just my friend
but your presence is stuck in my mind.
Why does my heart cry in pain
when I see you laughing with others?
Hey, maybe you have not realized?
more than normal, this infatuation
might really be love...

Baby Love lyrics by Fujibayashi Shouko. Translation: Dragosmore / Triad. (It is not an exact translation, but I don't speak enough Japanese to do it better.)