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Cake day: January 12th, 2024

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  • This is still be kind of a rant so bare with me. I’ve been reading SpyXFamily and was thinking of showing my partner the anime, even though she never watches anime. It was so wholesome that I felt like it was the kind of show she’d love (we watch a lot of Bob’s Burgers, Great North, Great British Bake Off, etc over and over, she also enjoys Ted Lasso).

    But then I reached the chapter where Yuri had dinner with them and I reached a speed bump. I just finished the chapter where he helped Anya study and hit it again. She’d 100% find the character gross. His constant thinking of his sister when Anya read his mind, his crazed jealousy over her kissing her husband instead of saving a kiss for him, his dislike of a little girl, his obsession is too much for me reading the manga, and it’s probably worse when you have to hear it out loud in the anime. It’s not even funny to me, and it wouldn’t be for her, either. I’ve seen people defend it as being an anime trope but that doesn’t help when trying to get other people into the hobby or seeming weird if you’re new to it. (Same thing with lolicon or fan service in other anime.) Which is too bad because it’s otherwise a great show I think she’d love. She already complains about the “pedo tropes” of anime she’s heard of, so I don’t want to enforce her expectations of anime being all like that with characters like that. At least he doesn’t show up until a bit in.

    Idk, I haven’t finished Haikyuu yet, I got up to the end of the Hulu seasons, but I’m hoping that will maybe work instead. It’s not too anime trope-y, at least none of the gross tropes, just a couple of OP main characters and a classic Shonen underdog, but that’s not an anime only thing. Everyone loves underdogs in sports stories.

    I saw a good comment on Reddit by a user named NozakiMufasa that reflected my feelings well I’m just going to quote it here:

    I’m speaking mainly as a bit of an older fan. But I’m so damn tired of anime having to be like this. Yall know what I’m talking about. Yall know its an open secret. It’s like no anime is allowed to be 100 percent wholesome or 100 percent just a slick well made show. So many anime throw in weird or taboo elements that are just so uneeded and unwarranted.

    Spy x Family was a legit wholesome show. It felt less like a weird anime and moreso a genuinely good cartoon you could show the whole world. One you could show a family and it be an enjoyable watch. Anya, Loid, & Yor are genuinely sweet and well written characters and their hidden backgrounds gives off a feel of classic shows like I Dream of Genie or Bewitched.

    But no. Anime has to be weird. Let’s make one of the characters love their sister. Fuck this. We were so damn close. An anime that was trying to be good.

    If anyone has any other suggestions of wholesome anime I, an older Shonen fan and Cowboy Bebop and Trigun fan, and her, an anime newbie, would both enjoy without being too slice-of-life to bore me and not too weird anime tropes in it to freak her out, let me know. I’m going to keep reading SpyXFamily by myself, I guess, and just push through and endure the chapters with Yuri in it. Maybe one day, if his appearances are rare enough, I can show her the anime.