I've posted about this before but it continues to fascinate me. I'm also not talking about the more obviously fucked up topic of the sexualising of teenage girls in Japanese media, but what constitutes an "older" person over there.

I'm currently watching the Netflix adaptation of One Piece, and saw some Japanese discussion about the show's portrayal of Shanks and the actor playing him, who looks like this on the show:

Show

There were comments saying that he "looks too much like a man past his prime" but also comments like "I like seeing attractive older men in media" and I'm just confused since he looks like a perfectly normal handsome actor man. They talked about him like Western social media talked about a 65-year-old Jeff Goldblum

I guess you turn into an ossan immediately after your 25th birthday

    • SpiderFarmer [he/him]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Yeah, it has a creepy element for sure. I was called a twink quite a lot in my 20s and now in my 30s I'm seeing people basically just telling on themselves for liking teenagers. I can vouch for having some serious body image issues and I'd rather not open that whole can of worms here.