My first ever Manga post is about lolicon. Awesome.

This is in response to a recent Mr Answerman column (scroll down) where Zac Bertschy, the writer, basically goes off on a tangent about Kodomo no Jikan because of the presumably pseudo-paedophile vibes the manga gives off which his perfectly normal, non-fetishist heterosexual nature can’t endorse. Nevermind how the manga isn’t even released yet.

It so happens I’ve got volumes 1-3 raw, and having read them before I’d seen the column, not to mention how Google actually fails for once at providing proper information in English about it, this would be a great opportunity to explain what KnJ’s really all about. Some spoilers after the cut.

I’ve got issues about Bertschy’s opinion due to how he hasn’t even read it, and therefore can’t justify what he said. Unless, I don’t know, he went into the future, got a copy of Nymphet, and realised it wasn’t his thing. That would be nothing if he was just your everyday blogger, but this guy runs a columnist on ANN, and as a result you’ve got an huge audience whose perception of the manga, and anime come Summer, has the potential to be biased.

Shockingly enough, KnJ isn’t about the sex, because there’s none. Neither is it “the first lolicon title that’s explicit enough”, because there’s no full-frontal nudity, and hardly any borderline “my hair is covering the important parts” nudity — just good old-fashioned pantyshots. Of a nine year-old, to be sure, but pantyshots nonetheless.

you’re looking at the longest twin-tails on a character ever, those things reach down to her feet, and yes, this is an accurate portrayal of their relationship actually.

For what it’s worth, KnJ would be better described as an exercise in grounding a series in its fetish-pandering roots. I’m sure you’ve heard of how�scientists are�aspiring to create a self-aware, sentient AI someday? Kaworu Watashiya’s just gotten the ball rolling with the self-aware manga.

It’s a pretty unique situation we’ve got here because KnJ isn’t shy to let you know about its lolicon aspirations. The first few pages of the first volume has the teacher, Daisuke Aoki, walking in on his new class just as the girls are changing post-P.E. There’s your first pantyshot without warning on the third page for you, and the frequency by which you’ll see them later sets it apart from practically any lolicon series you might have seen before.

The thing about KnJ’s that while it’s clearly one of those series that’s stuck between the trinity genres of slice of life/high school (or in this case, grade school)/comedy, the lolicon aspect permeates it unabashedly in no way any other manga or anime I can recall has done; it’s a far cry from Card Captor Sakura’s all-fetish offering, Rizelmine’s rom-com setting, or Nanoha’s now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t teasing. When KnJ isn’t advancing the plot or developing its characters, it’s pandering to the lolicons, and it even manages both when occasion permits.

So on one hand you’ll have scenes like Rin talking to Mimi and Kuro about the colour of panties that she’s wearing today, before turning to Daisuke to reveal she’s wearing gym shorts under her dress; Rin doing a reverse sexual harassment by groping Daisuke on the train; and last but not least a 20-something single guy who’s Rin’s guardian.

On the other hand, you have Rin herself, a character very well-rounded in terms of character development. There isn’t really much going for her friends, the tsundere brunette Kuro Kagami and the oppai meganekko Mimi Usuke, just yet, but she definitely gets sufficient characterisation as a nine year-old whose surreal behaviour actually manages to be justified, as weird as it sounds.

Through the course of the�three volumes so far�Rin’s�backstory’s being revealed bit by bit,�and you get more indication as to her past, why she acts the way she does, at the same time humanising her in a way not many manga or anime series nowadays are prone to do. It’s refreshing to say the least for something of this subject matter to handled in a manner that doesn’t judge the viewer the way a series usually would, and it shows.

While KnJ seemed like GTO territory to me initially, the story takes on a more focused, slightly darker Ichigo Mashimaro approach in the later volumes, interspersed with a lot of Love Hina type gags. There’s an vague sense of a plot that the story’s working to since, you know, it’s all about Daisuke and Rin, and yes, they do kiss somewhere along the line.

But since Daisuke’s the grade school teacher with a heart of gold, and Rin’s being all pushy about it in addition to being his student, it makes for an interesting relationship in denial unlike anything seen before. It’s a great contrast to Negima’s interaction with Asuna, because in Negima’s case all the gratuitous nudity and fanservice diffuses any sexual tension that isn’t immediately obvious; also, instead of rushing all over the place and distracting the reader with unnecessarily long story arcs and 8 million characters, KnJ actually has some kind of conceivable direction that it’s heading to.

So give KnJ a chance when it comes out, and by all means, ignore Bertschy. I think it’s doing a great job with regards to pushing the boundaries of what’s currently acceptable while still retaining an acceptable degree of good taste, and pulling off a decent story at the same time.

this infamous “please come inside me” scene needs context; in the previous page, Daisuke’s teaching Kuro calligraphy, which means he’s close behind her holding her hand while she blushes slightly, which means Rin gets jealous and writes this.

Oh, and in case you’re reading this and wondering “you must be a lolicon yourself, no wonder you’re defending it”: no. The whole idea of limiting yourself or obsessing over a single fetish while watching anime or reading manga has never appealed to me, it’s like being at a buffet and being vegan, if you get my drift.�Not like I watched ever anything for fetish’s sake anyway.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Manga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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