UKC

The trailer for an upcoming Japanese anime television series centred around Sport Climbing has been released. Iwa Kakeru! (Aim for the Top!) - Sport Climbing Girls is a female-focused animation featuring competition climbing characters and is due for release on 3 October.

Yikes

Re: criticism re: "skimpy and unrealistic clothing" - the anime character clothing seems to match that worn by some American female climbers.  

Wearing that amount of clothing in the UK could lead to hypothermia. *lol*

Ok but real talk. 

Having spent time at some competitions that drew international teams, that kind of outfit is actually pretty common. 

Why are most people fine with a topless/vest wearing shredded guy, but triggered by a woman wearing closer fitting clothes, even when there is a perfectly functional reason for doing so?

Why are we *still* viewing womens bodies as something that needs to be covered up, disguised, hidden away? 

I know this is an anime but I am so bored of the double standards. Considering that the creators even state the anime is primarily aimed at a female audience, I'd say it's a generally positive thing that women with a muscular, athletic build are being depicted as normal rather than the exaggerated, impossibly thin characters that are still endemic in western animation.

'Skimpy'

Seriously? 

I'm inclined to agree. Didn't watch the trailer but from the picture I was wondering what was excessively unrealistic about the clothing. Nothing I wouldn't expect to see at the wall during summer.

Though the amount of definition given to the breasts of the woman on the bottom right does feel a bit unnecessary.

The trailer is very 'teeny' and is mostly about someone discovering climbing and realising it can provide both a physical and mental challenge, plus competition etc. All very normal and realistic. 

But some women look like that, right? Put it this way - if it was a guy with a chiseled set of pectorals, would you think it was unnecessary or simply depiction of the body composition of a specific individual? 

In my opinion this is societal conditioning, pure and simple. We've been taught that it's inappropriate to see the shape of a womans body, beyond a certain 'point' of modesty. Men are not held to these standards. 

Not sure that women dressing in any particular fashion for sport is big news these days, in the western world anyway.

I dont agree that the body shapes used are typical. Looking past the size zero aspect, just the faces with massive eyes isnt normal. From what my better half tells me, currently the super thin toned look is what women are supposed to look like at the moment, its apparently in fashion. Hence young teens who arent that shape see this and feel they have to look that way, which is where the damage is done.

Personally if they want to make it accurate for the masses, I think it needs to contain at least 75% of the following.

Someone half frustrated and depressed with a finger injury.

Someone moaning that they are either to tall or two short.

90% of the climbers hung on the rope not actually climbing.

Some old guy moaning about the grading (sorry old people ).

90% of people all different shapes and size just mooching up a 6a happy with life.

... I agree in principle but are they woman? According to the article they are 'high school students' and the title of the series is "Sport Climbing Girls". Just seems a bit iffy to me.

Agree, which is why I find it weird that it was emphasised here. 

Fair enough. The anime eyes thing is part of the style, in all honesty - but the other comments on body image ring true. I just meant they don't have the impossible disney princess waistlines. 

All of this and more! Oh, and that random fella doggin his way up an indoor 6b with a full trad rack on his harness  

I think you've strawman'd off into something else.  Not denying anything you have said isn't valid ... only I don't think it has much to do with the article.

Sticking with the actual post ... let's flip things around.  Imagine "male focused animated comic featuring high school boys in skimpy clothing".   F*ck no!!!

Something is wrong with our world these days that we animate high school kids, male or female, in skimpy clothing and unrealistic body shapes ... and then argue about whether it empowers or disempowers people to do so.

This is the kinda sh1t that gets shared on dodgy internet chat rooms.  

Step backwards.

I think I can honestly say I’ve never seen someone’s t shirt get sucked 3 inches inside their cleavage. Unless you are stapling it in there I doubt it’s even possible for that to happen. 

But other than that, broadly I agree with you. 

I'm not sure I have any problem with the clothing but why do they all seem to have such huge tits?

If you flipped it around to be about 'boys' climbing and they all had huge packages bulging in their shorts it might feel like it was over-sexualised somewhat...

Yas!!! Finally a show that I can enjoy with my anime geek pals. Looking forward to it :-D

Yes, that's true. Good point! I stand by my assertations on the language though. 

I was going to make a comment about fan-service in anime still being pervasive in my original post but then thought it detracted from the overall point - perhaps missed the ball a bit there as it's basically what everyone else is saying. 

Was this on purpose because it's very good?

I think that's typical Anime style (and I'm not about to check 😁 )

glad someone got it...😀.

Yep, a lot of the modern anime style displays girls bustier than it's common. One could say sexist? In this current culture of being offended, we can be offended. But I simply will not watch it and not care...

Maybe they're sponsored by the Japanese Plastic Surgeons Association

They're slightly busty but they're also hench which definitly isn't a body type you often see portrayed for women. 

Your points are all 100% valid.  You are totally right.  There are double standards for women and men and we must fight it when we see it if we ever want it to change.  For me personally, and I might be wrong , I don't think this is an instance of double standards here though.

This particular stuff, framed around high school girls, gives me the creeps.  Internet chat rooms are full of, basically, exactly the pictures in the article depicting young/high school age girls.

I think Japan (the country - not the people), and other places, has a problem with the over sexualization of young girls.  TBH ... bit surprised the article ran on UKC - climbing related or not.  Quick google "does anime over sexualize young girls" returns heaps of articles on the topic suggesting that there is a problem here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/57eaaf23-0cef-48c8-961f-41f2563b38aa  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/57eaaf23-0cef-48c8-961f-41f2563b38aa  

Grim stuff indeed. Thanks for sharing though, it was eye opening. 

Perhaps some of the issue is with the observer rather than the pictures in this case - taken at face value it's sporty girls in activity appropriate clothing facing up to a challenge. It's not the fault of the artists that some people can perve over more or less anything. 

The general manga/anime fixation with late-teen girls and their objectified presentation is troubling. But maybe this sort of thing could go some way to tipping the balance back towards inspirational/empowering rather than exploitative/creepy

I assume you don't know what a sports bra is?

I assume you haven’t looked at the picture?

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-04-24/iwa-kakeru-climbing-girls-...

Not sure about empowering.

My wife thought (paraphrasing) 'over-sexualized characters, the faces of young girls but hyper-stylised adult sexuality. Where are the more flat-chested, as thats more common with skinny women than big breats. Good to see muscles but too thin. Bet they're drawn by a man.'

Is it just me....  I've thought for a long time that anime is cartoon porn

I'm slightly surprised the outfits are not skimpier 

though the only "anime" I've seen is the kill bill bit

Indeed. Looks horrible, but then I'm probably not the target audience!

Until we posted a want in the classified area this week we'd not been here in a while. Each to their own, good luck with the new direction.

Anime is the style. 

I think manga maybe the subset of pornographic material.

Manga means cartoon

Anime is an animated cartoon 

When my son was a student, their house was raided by the police because one of the guys had loads of manga porn on his pc and they (the police) were considering whether it was child pornography.

No charges and his pc was eventually returned. I understand it would have taken some time to go through all the material 😁

Any tentacles in there?

Inevitably.

TBH could happily do without the topless guys at the wall. Particularly the really sweaty ones who scream to tell everyone how hard they're trying on their 6c proj.