I’m surprised nobody is bringing up Rising of the Shield hero here. Bro buys slave children which, while still belonging to him and having magic that forces them to obey his commands, develop feelings for him, presumably due to Stockholm syndrome.
The “MC gets slaves and it’s ok because different world” fad in anime is so annoying. Adds nothing and lazy as hell. I need the writers to at least be on par with my DM in motivating the formation of a party.
Yeah, I mean there’s a reason it’s so common in isekai because isekai is so popular for the same reason: it enables easy, lazy writing that handwaves actual motivations while allowing anyone to self insert more easily.
MC doesn’t have to be a rizzler to pick up girls if he’s picking them up at auction, and neither do you!
isekai is so popular for the same reason: it enables easy, lazy writing that handwaves actual motivations while allowing anyone to self insert more easily
It’s not just because of all that. It also allows most isekai writers to skip 95% of the worldbuilding process! No wonder these things all feel the same.
Yeah but isekai is boring only because it’s lazy and worn out. Slaves is disturbing because it usually is justified by the enslaved somehow deciding they want it after the fact. Like, consent doesn’t work like that. The MC is still a slaver.
It’s so absurdly easy to let the hero be a hero, save someone, then they can follow the hero because they’ve lost their party or need help getting home or whatever. It’s dirt cheap without the ick.
shit, be lazier than my dm, just have the character say they’ve got nothing better to do, why not follow a stranger? Save back story for later, and retcon why they had nothing better to do after the fact.
For example, any of the trope recruiters that target children for military service in any of the bullshit nationalist wars (in anime of course, IRL military recruiters would never be so unethical)
Absolutely true and I don’t disagree. However, in the context of the meme and the discussion it seemed to be the primary insinuation behind calling him as groomer which I think is completely incorrect.
However of course he groomed her into fighting, that much was very explicit. Just not as a predator.
There is also the concept of “positive” grooming, for instance a child given specific education and resources to provide an advantage in something like politics could be said to be being “groomed” for politics or leadership.
I’d say the idea of grooming is more intentional than just regular child-raising, but that might be subjective.
As i said though, the current common usage is almost always negative and sexual in nature, it’s just not a requirement.
There’s a lot of this in the isekai genre. Main character ‘saves’ a slave (who becomes his slave instead) but it’s okay because they want to be his slave because they love him!
I enjoy reading these dumb mangas but I always cringe a bit at how bad the human relationships tend to be.
This is just the stupidest resolution to the situation, I don’t get why so many Mangaka go with it. Just have the MC free them and they stick to him anyway because they are so thankful.
I also cringe, especially when they cry about not wanting to have the slave magic released. wtf
I think Shield Hero popularized this trope though. I don’t remember it being so prevalent 10 years ago, and I think Shield Hero was popular enough to make waves.
I feel like a big thing that changes how one would percieve Naofumi as a groomer is that he doesn’t see any of the children as potential sexual objects. In fact, Raphtalia is quite upset at that point, because she desperately wants him to lewd the tanuki loli and he’s not having it.
One peak oldschool example of grooming in anime is definitely GTO. That guy’s a creep. The only reason it seems remotely acceptable is he’s the protagonist and it’s framed like he’s a good guy and when he’s being a creep it’s funny. In addition to the power imbalance of being their teacher, he also uses huge amounts of violence and gang connections to get people to fall in line. The levels of wrong are layered. It’s impressive in retrospect.
I’m surprised nobody is bringing up Rising of the Shield hero here. Bro buys slave children which, while still belonging to him and having magic that forces them to obey his commands, develop feelings for him, presumably due to Stockholm syndrome.
The “MC gets slaves and it’s ok because different world” fad in anime is so annoying. Adds nothing and lazy as hell. I need the writers to at least be on par with my DM in motivating the formation of a party.
Yeah, I mean there’s a reason it’s so common in isekai because isekai is so popular for the same reason: it enables easy, lazy writing that handwaves actual motivations while allowing anyone to self insert more easily. MC doesn’t have to be a rizzler to pick up girls if he’s picking them up at auction, and neither do you!
It’s not just because of all that. It also allows most isekai writers to skip 95% of the worldbuilding process! No wonder these things all feel the same.
Yeah but isekai is boring only because it’s lazy and worn out. Slaves is disturbing because it usually is justified by the enslaved somehow deciding they want it after the fact. Like, consent doesn’t work like that. The MC is still a slaver.
It’s so absurdly easy to let the hero be a hero, save someone, then they can follow the hero because they’ve lost their party or need help getting home or whatever. It’s dirt cheap without the ick.
shit, be lazier than my dm, just have the character say they’ve got nothing better to do, why not follow a stranger? Save back story for later, and retcon why they had nothing better to do after the fact.
Yeah and he explicitly has zero interest in them sexually or romantically.
It’s fucked up, yes, because it was supposed to be, but that isn’t grooming.
Not a statement for or against your argument.
But grooming doesn’t have to be sexual.
It is, frequently, but it’s not a requirement.
For example, any of the trope recruiters that target children for military service in any of the bullshit nationalist wars (in anime of course, IRL military recruiters would never be so unethical)
Absolutely true and I don’t disagree. However, in the context of the meme and the discussion it seemed to be the primary insinuation behind calling him as groomer which I think is completely incorrect.
However of course he groomed her into fighting, that much was very explicit. Just not as a predator.
isn’t that just raising children?
There is also the concept of “positive” grooming, for instance a child given specific education and resources to provide an advantage in something like politics could be said to be being “groomed” for politics or leadership.
I’d say the idea of grooming is more intentional than just regular child-raising, but that might be subjective.
As i said though, the current common usage is almost always negative and sexual in nature, it’s just not a requirement.
TIL I was groomed to be a contributing member of society and could have lived my dreams of being a strung-out braindead hippie.
I feel so violated.
There’s a lot of this in the isekai genre. Main character ‘saves’ a slave (who becomes his slave instead) but it’s okay because they want to be his slave because they love him!
I enjoy reading these dumb mangas but I always cringe a bit at how bad the human relationships tend to be.
This is just the stupidest resolution to the situation, I don’t get why so many Mangaka go with it. Just have the MC free them and they stick to him anyway because they are so thankful.
I also cringe, especially when they cry about not wanting to have the slave magic released. wtf
I think Shield Hero popularized this trope though. I don’t remember it being so prevalent 10 years ago, and I think Shield Hero was popular enough to make waves.
I feel like a big thing that changes how one would percieve Naofumi as a groomer is that he doesn’t see any of the children as potential sexual objects. In fact, Raphtalia is quite upset at that point, because she desperately wants him to lewd the tanuki loli and he’s not having it.
One peak oldschool example of grooming in anime is definitely GTO. That guy’s a creep. The only reason it seems remotely acceptable is he’s the protagonist and it’s framed like he’s a good guy and when he’s being a creep it’s funny. In addition to the power imbalance of being their teacher, he also uses huge amounts of violence and gang connections to get people to fall in line. The levels of wrong are layered. It’s impressive in retrospect.