Incomplete Thoughts on Lolita Culture

How loli is too loli? 

Enju - Black Bullet

Recently, I wrote a fairly scathing review of Black Bullet, primarily basing my dislike on the character Enju, a 10-year old who is used suggestively in marketing for the show and goes beyond an innocent childhood crush in her attempts to start a relationship with her young adult partner.

While Enju fairly clearly crosses the line into "not okay" territory from "they just look younger" territory, it brings up the question of just where exactly that line is.

Anime Review: "I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying" Gives a Positive View of Married Life

Anime Review

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying

It's a miracle! A full blown miracle! Marriage being portrayed in a positive light in modern media targeted at young adults! That's not to say, I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying isn't without its problems.

Kaoru is a workaholic with her stay-at-home husband who is a huge nerd for all things anime. He spends most of his free time on blogs making an income from home and makes references to things even I don't recognize. Together, several 3-minute shorts featuring their antics and the story of how they met ensue.

The length of the shorts is perfect; I tend to be turned off of most 4koma based works because 30 minutes of random silliness is a lot to digest. And yet, I also find myself wanting more of I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying. The problem is the show tries to include so much in so few episodes, that it feels like its unsure what its doing. The whole gimmick of the show, a husband who is a massive nerd, gets tossed aside rather quickly in a stampede of side characters we never get to know very well. With only 13 3 minute episodes, the show should have focussed more on its most core elements and let people who enjoyed it find other aspects in the original manga.

There is some perverted humor (albiet almost entirely between married couples, which is refreshing in its own way in a world that acts like sex is boring once you've tied the knot) and one side-character is a yaoi artist who is brought up a few times for comic relief, but overall this series is a fun miniseries that leaves a smile on my face every time a new short is released. There's a genuine love between the main couple that gives the entire series a positive, heartwarming feel even as it stumbles to figure out its identity.  With the entire series clocking in at under an hour, it's good enough and fresh enough to be worth the time each episode asks you to invest. Did I mention how happy I am to see a show with a positive view of married life?

Story Rating: B
Recommended (For Adult Viewers) 

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying is available on Crunchyroll.

Anime Review: Black Bullet

Anime Review

Black Bullet

In the not-so-distant future, a race of giant, zombie-like parasites invades mankind and wipes out most of humanity. Thankfully, the remaining humans find that the parasites dislike a specific metal called Varanium, and use it to both surrounded their town and make weapons... like the Black Bullet.


Black Bullet kind of feels like if Attack on Titan met Alien. Or, it might if it would back off a rather disturbing lolita complex. Rentaro, who suffers through the terrors of the first parasitic attack and becomes part of a resistance movement, fights parasites with his partner Anju. Anju is part of a race of creatures that contain the DNA of the parasites but are somehow immune to turning into giant slimy bug monsters, and suffer from some heavy racism by regular humans.

A few episodes in, it was clear that Anju is the real star of the show. She's got the most backstory and an interesting blend of still being a child and having grown up too quickly. Oh, and she has a crush on her partner, who is either 6 or 13 years older than her depending on what part of the script you ask.

The dynamic between Anju and Rentaro has the chance to be really adorable. Rentaro has a sort of a fatherly complex towards Anju and is frustrated by the hardship the young girl faces. Anju, having presumably never treated nicely by anyone before Rentaro, has a childish crush on him.

Except... it's not so childish. And that's Black Bullet's biggest problem. In the very first episode, Anju makes two attempts to get Rentaro to sleep with her.

Yeaaaah.... that's not creepy at all.

It's rare for me to write off an entire show because of one aspect I dislike, but Black Bullet's treatment of its prepubescent secondary protagonist is too messed up for this critic. This is a shame, because the show has a lot of positive qualities like an interesting world and great pacing. It's one thing to have a character look young. It'd be another thing if Anju's mature behavior was frowned upon and shown as a sad sign of how quickly the cursed children had to grow up. It's another to feature a 10-year old girl in a show's promotional magazine spreads posed suggestively.

Just... ew.

Story Rating: B-
Not Recommended

Black Bullet is available to watch for free on Crunchyroll.