Why is it always old salary men(or women) turning into high schoolers 😭 and then crushi...

He wasn't that old

He's probably late 20's to early thirties :(

High schoolers in these stories are usually 16 give or take....thats more than a 10 year she gap

I think he was probably mid 20s. Not disagreeing with your point tho

As an old man yaoi enjoyer I agree, but I’ll be honest the real reason why they romanticize high school life is pretty boring it’s mostly because employed adult life is so bleak in Japan. Like even all our commercials, songs, dramas etc take place during high school cuz to most people here that’s sadly like the peak of their social life

Like part of the appeal of the salary man/woman getting reincarnated as a high schooler is that they get to escape their dogshit corporate slave reality and return to the peak of their lives.

Damn. What about uni??

No yeah I agree on that part, but it fucking weirds me out that they ALWAYS fall for a kid you're telling me there's no sexy teacher you can fall for?

And I think part of it is the normalization of pedofilia in Japan cause anime as a whole is pretty lenient towards that

Oh yeah there’s definitely a problem with pedophilia and the overall sexualization of women and minors in anime/manga. But tbh I’ve come to find that usually you can kinda tell whether they’re sexualizing/objectifying minors or whether they’re just romanticizing the general school life/aesthetic from how they draw, write and choose to portray their characters in general. I notice esp in anime targeted towards men u can tell they’re sexualizing minors from how they draw their bodies to how they make them behave and talk childishly and it’s really gross. But in a lot of these shoujo/yaoi genres written by women, aside from the setting, they more or less talk and behave like adults. I think the reason why they keep on choosing the high school setting instead of uni like you mentioned is because one it’s easier to draw landscape/background wise and two because it’s ripe with lots of fun tropes and plot devices like school festivals, phys ed, assigned seating, uniforms, lunch time, student councils, the “shoe box locker area” that for some reason is where all the drama happens, sending classmates to give the sick student their schoolwork, making the high achieving student tutor the problematic student, stereotypical character tropes (delinquents, nerds, popular kids, etc) and just in general a more diverse variety of characters that wouldn’t otherwise spend time together or be in the same space if they didn’t have to attend school (unlike uni where you can choose your own clubs and classes and you’re more or less segregated by your major). Also the stress of career/job stuff is a lot more distant so there’s that too. But yeah it’s a thin line and I totally get the discomfort especially if you’re not familiar with all the cultural connotations that are just instinctively in the background to the typical Japanese reader, esp with all the gross stuff that DOES get normalized in other genres.

Idk, even though women aren't as outright with it I think there's a problem of normalizing borderline pedofilic behavior there too. Even if it's not as sexual in nature that is still a 15/16? Year old kid...a 30 you salary woman should NOT find that attractive, and if they do, should not pursue it.

I get writers focusing on that setting for slice of life or things set in Japan.

But if it's literally fantasy, then they can make it a university instead of a high school matter of fact, universities were created first, the concept of high school came much later so it would make more sense even just historically. Not to mention in a lot of these types of media they get divided into courses room magic course, swordsmanship course, etc blablabla.

Or just, yk, write about a character that's also around that age transmigrating into it. There is absolutely zero need to always make it an adult falling for these pubescent teens.

It's frankly pathetic to me seeing how these so called mature adults fall into the schemes of dumb 16 yo's like they have no backbone.


And it's not just a Japanese thing. I'm not japanese, but I am Asian, and I see it across multiple countries.

Tbf I don't have a problem with an adult protagonist reincarnating into a younger person and then falling in love with someone mentally younger, I just have a problem when they fall in love when the other is not an adult and it isn't addressed that they have mentally turned into a teen as well.

I've just read so many stories with this plot and I just brushed it off but as I've grown older and started writing stories of my own I've realized that those aren't just things that happen to be settings, those are active choices by the author.

I totally understand getting the ick from authors using problematic plot devices in what would have been an otherwise unproblematic story. And maybe I’ve just become too numb to these things and I shouldn’t be as unbothered as I am lol. But I also understand that even if it’s a problematic and avoidable plot device, for a lot of readers it’s important that they get to vicariously live as an unemployed high school student again through a silly fantasy story. Those readers may not be us, but I think it’s fine that other readers get to enjoy that kind of escapist fantasy. I’m inclined to think that sometimes even if a story element is problematic it’s okay (which I totally understand is not an idea that’s comfortable for everyone).

For example, I think it’s good to point out that readers find the high school characters here attractive not cuz they’re pedophiles but because these are hot anime guys that are more or less portrayed as adults (like in Riverdale, Twilight, etc). And we’re allowed to assume that the mc falls for the male lead for the same reasons — because the dude’s got adult rizz (he is his former coworker on the inside after all).

I think at the end of the day these types of romances (whether it be this or Riverdale or Twilight or Call Me by Your Name) are pretty harmless because one they don’t ask to be pedestaled as a realistic or healthy romance and two because despite our own qualms and discomfort, we know that like other uncomfortable plot devices like cheating and murder it’s not something we want to replicate in real life.

Also, with these silly “turn your brain off” smutty romcoms, there’s kind of an unspoken agreement between the author and the readers that unless otherwise stated, in this fictional world we are allowed to assume the agency and consent of these characters. I recommend ContraPoints’ Twilight video, she explains it a lot better than I do. But I like to think of it like roleplaying with a partner, we’re assuming that everyone involved has agency and is ultimately okay with what happens, and that we can always stop. No one wants to get hurt, humiliated, or be in an exploitative power dynamic in real life, but like role playing and BDSM, in a safe space where everyone has agency and we know that everyone is ultimately okay, those kinds of imaginary problematic devices can be a source of disavowal and pleasure. I can see how this might lead to normalizing problematic things in real life, but again women have written and read “toxic” romances since the dawn of time but that’s never been the real source of normalizing sexual abuse and pedophilia as much as all the real patriarchal laws and institutions that actually normalize and encourage that behavior.

ur writing essay in mangago

What can I say I put the big in big bigbig big boobs

Yeah but so did I we're having a discussion

I respect your take though I don't agree with it.

And I'm not really judging the readers- cause they're just consuming. So you eat what you gotta eat even if the delicious food has bits of dirt in it, cause you're not going to ignore a whole meal just cause there's one minor easily ignorable ingredient you don't like.


What I'm judging is the author's choice of putting it in. Escapism is great. I have a chronic case of daydreaming, I get it.


But it's just always some salary man/women and kids, and that's alarming.

Ik I'm in the anime community and we turn a lot of common sense off to be able to enjoy it but like goddamn even in that bullshit idol incest show they addressed why it wasn't creepy for an old doctor to be into middle schoolers, I'll literally take any reason just give us SOMETHING.

On that note, it's also worrying the "raising the ml" trope

I'm the first to say that it used to be one of my favorite tropes as a kid and I loved seeing the mature mc take care and win the trust and devotion of the younger ml but now as an adult....while I don't think the individual characters can be faulted nor do I think the author's are anything worry some, I do think it's a bit weird how it's a whole romance trope.

And I say this as someone whose one of favorite series is svsss. But...yeah.

Oh yeah, completely agree. I think we’re more or less on the same page. Personally hoping these tropes die off one day (feel like modern yaoi is getting better? or at least theres no Super Lovers type yaoi trending anymore like back then

Although admittedly I did gobble that shit up too albeit with a severely upset stomach

Omg you brought back flashbacks from Vietnam lmaooo

Yeah I read tons of disturbing things as a kid tbh. Sometimes I'd know it was wrong in a vague sort of way and others it would fly up over my head. It wasn't till like years later where I'd suddenly remember and go "wait."


Lmfaooo

Also I just didn't think about ages then. They weren't something I worried about and I also always gave the characters my age in my mind. Years later, suddenly remembering tho made me go