neighborhood story: feeling conflicted about ai yazawa.

[@devontamosley4487]

Thanks for pointing out the issues of anime. People keep saying that anime is better than western animation when really is not. Anime has the same issues like western animation. Even though I like anime, but I'm willing to be open-minded and unbiased to call out its issues.

[@balaynganiyebe]

rightttt, so many people turn a blind eye to it and say it's a cultural thing, when it's rather more applicable that it's just has a different nuance than the typical western piece

[@tyjordanflophour]

There's a common theme of characters written to be way older than they really are and it never goes well. I'd rather have no lgbt people in a story than whatever they've been putting in em back then. And the antiblackness in a lot of non black stories is disgusting. Intended or not, aesthetic or not, if it looks just like a racist caricature then guess what? A lot of issues in anime get brushed away with the (very racist) infantilization of Asian people during commentary ( as I'm familiar stateside). Very tired of the "they didn't know any better" defense. As if these aren't grown people who read books, watch movies, etc just like a lot of us around here. I really be sounding like a broken record with media criticism because it's like everybody copied off each others homework.

[@nguyenhoangnam8609]

The defense of Japan's cultural insularity can only goes so far. While these works are certainly likely to be intented primarily for a Japanese audience and harkened to themes, motifs, tropes, cultural conditions etc. prevalent in Japan, they are also inspired by and intended to be export to other countries as well. While overreach in analysis can happen, one must recognize animanga as a transnational product and treat it as such.

[@DI-QueenmoEMino]

As a black woman who is a hardcore anime lover and loves manga as well. Anime, like with any piece of media, has its fare share of deep seated issues within it that shouldn't be looked over or act as if it can't be criticized. Especially in regards to anti-blackness and how white anime fans keep making excuses for Japanese artists or anime creators on why some still can't seem to get black characters looking right or still using old racist ways of drawing black people. Like there's shouldn't be no excuse for that crap nowadays, like if Shinichiro Watanabe could properly get black people looking right in Cowboy Bebop during the 90s, then some of these other anime creators or mangaka artists have no excuse to not know how to properly draw black characters in 2023.

[@Zixjndjdudj]

I know this comment is a month old but you took all the words right out of my mouth. This is exactly how I felt when it came to the whole project sekai blackface thing. They drew and animated one of the bands in blackface with tribe clothes, Messy hair, and shark teeth necklaces but what put the nail in the coffin tho was that in the episode they were supposed to be dressed as “lions” of course me and a bunch of other people were upset and calling it out but at the same time ofc a bunch of white anime fans came to their defense and infantilizing them treating them like their babies saying that it was “gyaru” and that we were uneducated even tho it very clearly wasn’t and anyone with a working brain can see that it was clearly blackface. Its sad because it’s another example at how people continue to infantilize and baby these grown ass adults as if they don’t have working internet like us and they know they can keep getting away with this type of shit because people will defend them and keep treating them like babies. It’s pathetic and laughable honestly. I like anime too but am so so tired of people babying Asians. It's literally racist in itself and it has got to stop

[@espeon871]

Im an asian fan but like its annoying too although it doesnt directly affect me, it still affects other fans' enjoyment of the story and media. Neighbourhood story has cute aspects, like the main manga story but like the random anti blackness and colorism that stems from japanese biases esp at that time, affecting yazawa's perception and writing of dark skinned people and black people which is so weird esp when she characters like junko who's implied to be blasian. She writes non cishet character so stereotypically and badly too, she also handles darker skinned characters so bad because of japanese colorism, her implicit or/and active biases against certain grps really ruins the whole experience sometimes because its like an annoying burn spot on a good dish. Id rather she handle stories with just cishet light skinned japanese people exclusively if it means we dont get racist jokes and transphobia 😭

[@espeon871]

@@ZixjndjdudjGYARU?? Gyaru is nothing like that, so done with some mfing anime fans who just pull random japanese subcultures or cultural quirks as a way to excuse blatantly bad behaviour and transgressions. Gyaru is inspired by african american styles since it derived and was inspired by a singer, amuro namie's style which was influenced by people like destiny's child, janet jackson etc, then to use that style to try and justify a game skin that is obviously based off of racist tropes is ignorant and harmful. These ignorant fools with no understanding of the fashion subculture using that as a way to excuse blatant anti blackness by infantilising asian artists as if they cant google search or hire a consultant is crazy and harmful.

[@DI-QueenmoEMino]

@Zixjndjdudj So true. The Infantilization of Japanese creators from white anime fans is so irritating and exhausting.

[@DI-QueenmoEMino]

@espeon871 Yea, I've noticed that too when it comes to her works and series. It's truly a mess. 😬

[@Kikketta11ify]

To be honest this anime is one of my favs (i am lucky enough that in my country they dubbed the anime and translated the manda so i have the physical copy for all the volumes, i mainly like it bc i’m fond of coming-of-age girly stories and especially because i feel so so close to P-chan! (I also read her as ace but i thout it was just me self-projecting so it felt nice you mentioned that too). I agree with all the flaws you pointed out tho, the way the handled Seiji’s sexuality was just terrible… i felt uncomfortable reading it, also Mikako seemed to have more chemistry with basically anyone but her love interest 😅 Tsutomu is a good guy but he’s just so plain boring. And some of the illustrations gave strong lolita vibes from mikako which also made me uncomfortable 👉🏻👈🏻 (Oh and side note, the fatphobia is even worse in the anime as they have a whole episode about Mai weighting herself and starving because she wants to lose weight, and that’s even more confusing because in the anime she’s not even slightly bigger than anyone else as she is in the manga, so.. yeah)

[@nguyenhoangnam8609]

It kinda show us the consequences of her pratice ... but also affirm at the end that her goal is good by show her happy to have lost weight so yeah ... still fatphobic .... which is a shame since I like her and want to see more of her.

[@Kikketta11ify]

@@nguyenhoangnam8609 yeah i know the episode was intended to convey the message that if you want to lose weight you have to do it healthily but the whole thing was still kinda meh

[@poutinepush7863]

Your hair is soo cutee

[@Eosinophyllis]

seriously!! the blue hair looks fantastic on harri

[@RoseCalyx]

​@@Eosinophyllisand the matching little rhinestones 💙

[@harriyanna]

thank you so much!!

[@marmanes5198]

While I agree that it’s a shame that Risa did not take the grant to go to London with Mikako, from a narrative standpoint she serves as a mirror to Mikako: the latter priorizes her career, the former her love life, and I interpret it as the author saying that both options are valid. I’ve talked to many people who are pissed that Yukari and George break up at the end of Parakiss, but that is the point: their careers take off after breaking up and Yukari ends up having a healthy marriage, while Miwako stays with Arashi in a (presumably) abusive relationship.

[@DarceyDawson]

I appreciate that you pointed out all of the social problems in Neighbourhood because I have been seeing photos of it around the Internet and I’ve been really wanting to watch it, but now that I know about the homophobia, transphobia, and racism, I'm really glad I hadn’t because I don’t really want to waste my time with something that makes me feel gross for being me. I really like your channel and hope you continue making great work!

[@KikoElGatito]

While i do think for the most part ai yazawa's art and fashion is pretty and cool, i feel the way she depicts black people or dark skinned people negatively is a reoccurring thing in her works it seems. I didn't know neighborhood story had racist shit, but sadly not suprised as I recall Nana also had some racist crap, like I remember there being a black face gag in the anime along with the pink one having a sister being dressed in gyaru, complete with greyish ashy skin and pale white lips. It doesn't help said character is told that she belongs in the jungle and she be tarzan looking like a monkey. Like seriously, wtf is this. And what's ironic is that the pink one has two seemingly black coded friends and they seem alright, but they seem to be put on the sidelines at times, and the female friend was the one used in a black face gag. Also, another reoccurring thing i noticed that's sus is how there would be relationships between old and young people, like a teen and adult. Feels pretty uncomfy. Like i could give credit where credit is due with ai yazawa's work such as writing some interesting characters and serving looks through her works, but i really can't ignore the racist shit and sleazy depections of minors that is present every now and then.

[@espeon871]

Fr, i love her fashion drawings but thats because she has a bg in it but her cultural biases show whenever she deals with dark skinned or black characters, junko is blasian and even she was used as a joke poking fun at darker skinned women by kyosuke. Ai yazawa is an excellent writer when she handles things she understands and knows about but when she doesnt it leads to her cultural biases eg colorism, racism peeping out. The way she writes certain queer characters like isabella too, i think her sleazy depictions of minors again is a cultural biases since in japan its not really all that taboo to have very young girls be portrayed in that way or its not taboo to have young girls be posed in certain ways cuz theyre young girls and its not sleazy its cute type which i assume she was going for. Overall, i love her fashion art and her character building but whenever she deals with non japanese and non cishet characters, her implicit and active biases comes in and it gets weird. I'd rather her work just deal with cishet japanese people only because it wouldnt have included weird instances, her lack understanding of subcultures that doesnt fit the conventions of japan and the time eg gyaru also informs her "jokes" along with her biases.

[@scentedpapers6569]

This is what i've been saying but thr fandom likes to play red herring "b-but Hachi is so sad!! But Hachi would never!! B-but Ai Yazawa is a goof writer and the racist jokes are just a product of its time!!" Sure but maybe i don't like it when a FASHION MANGA who takes lots of inspiration from BLACK FASHION and subcultures twists it into her own aesthetic and constantly advertises a "punk" brand is REALLY RACIST..? Folks, just remember that Ai Yazawa doesn't like minorities. "Maybe i'm just a girl written by Ai Yazawa" but if you are black, brown, fat, or unconventionally attractive she hates you💔

[@whatdoesitmeantolive17]

@@scentedpapers6569 you’re not a victim bru. if you’re fat thats your own fault not ai yazawas

[@nguyenhoangnam8609]

I have not read the manga but have just finished the anime. The two sounds quite different (though certain flaws such as underutilized side characters remain). I wonder whether there were substantial changes. In the anime one change maybe that later chapter might not be adapted since it seem to me to end before the manga, but there might be more alterations. PS: I also like P-Chan and want to see more of her.

[@Kikketta11ify]

The anime and the manga are quite similar actually but the anime stops much earlier and also adds a lot of filler episodes that are absent in the manga

[@nguyenhoangnam8609]

@@Kikketta11ify Thanks! I suspect that the show end before the manga considering the somewhat abrupt conclusion. Fortunately, it seem to hit the brake at the right spot. I just finished the anime and consider it a flawed but overall enjoyable 90's time capsule.

[@Kikketta11ify]

@@nguyenhoangnam8609 tbh everything happens so so fast in the second half of the story (manga) and it left me with a bittersweet taste so i’m overall happy the anime stopped before lol

[@harriyanna]

@@Kikketta11ify the pacing of the last 3 books was AWFUL

[@Kikketta11ify]

@@harriyanna FOR REAL😭

[@Purplefrilly]

I think they changed a bit for the anime Vs manga. Yuuske likes Bodyco first but he finds she’s still in love with her childhood crush before they get together and yumi doesn’t come until after they date

[@RikaRieGaming]

I hope you talk about Super Gals because Ran broke that ending with "Tsutomu" curse lol.

[@dreamgrlarchive]

OOP WHEN I HEARD THAT SPARKLY INSTRUMENTAL START! YOU KNOW I LOVE MARIAH!!

[@Mojo97]

I cannot, and will not continue Nana. Hachi's forced rockstar engagement was enraging for me. I was SCREAMING at my PC monitor. I love it and hate it tbh. But overall, the anti-blackness in Ai Yazawas's work is too loud fa me, LMAOO. Eye can't...

[@kostajovanovic3711]

Neither will Ai Yazawa continue with Nana

[@priscilla8068]

Trust me I took what you said with a grain of salt but I'm not going to watch anything that has anti blackness in it, I don't care if it's intentional or not. That monkey image is enough to turn me off the manga and anime. I'm tired of giving non black artists especially Asians the benefit of the doubt whne it comes to things like these so I won't be wasting my time. Btw I love your whole look and that blue afro looks so good on you.

[@balaynganiyebe]

agreed with this whole video, most of the art and story hold up so well but Wow did this age like milk

[@sanbanapoy]

I still can't get over how boring Tsutomu was. Like we learn all these things about him like how he's fawned over by a lot of people his age but what else is there??? 😭‼️‼️‼️ Ain't shit here‼️‼️‼️ So watching Mikako talk about how great he was just had me eye rolling a little. Idk why so shoujos are always so deadset on making the male love interests so boring once they're not in their povs. You see this shit all the time. Mikako had more chemistry w Pi-Chan if anything

[@harriyanna]

we call this "anime's every man problem"

[@terezikinnie7945]

About the "big girl" thing. In asian countries, Korea and Japan specifically, have extreme weight stsndards. You could be 1kg over the "weight standard" and be considered fat, so Ai yazawa being a Japanese woman and having weird, kinda icky, quirks like this in her writing is understandable. Including the very casual nudity. Her art style is also very copy and past when it comes to body type. So it's not clear until otherwise stated.

[@HarunoMaxwell6115]

TW: SA, r*pe, toxic relationships, antagonization of a s***dal character, and death Note: the author was kid when writing this fic The characters in Neighborhood Story going through the same trash over and over again and their ages feeling inconsistent reminds me of this terrible Dork Diaries fanfic on Wattpad that I had *unfortunately* finished reading. The entire story is just Nikki and Brandon breaking up over and over again because one of them accidentally kissed someone else who they thought was their partner, someone forced themselves onto them, or it was dare from their friends. The way they reunite sucks cuz Brandon’s like, “I would never do that to you, bby, I will always love you,” and Nikki let’s him back into her life. I would be fine with this since the author used these events to make their relationship stronger, but when these characters still act like the same middle schoolers from tenth grade to COLLEGE, I lose interest and get frustrated from the repetition. It also sends a toxic lesson to stay with your partner and never fix their problems that end in constant breakups or stop their friends from proposing those dares. Any male for female OC in the story just exists for that stank conflict and are usually one-note. I don’t remember Michael’s personality, Kyle’s the good-hearted celebrity who I rooted to be with Nikki so we can get something NEW in the story, and then Olivia is the antagonized s***dal girl.

[@HarunoMaxwell6115]

TW: Injuries, sickness, ableism against depressed people, SA Olivia is introduced as Brandon’s ex girlfriend who was cyberbullied and kicked out of the house for attempting to unalive herself. Many months later, she calls Brandon for help because she’s homeless, and when they meet again, she…. Ugh… kisses him on the lips as Nikki appears out of nowhere and later breaks up with him. I really wanted the story to have Olivia feel realistically resentful against Nikki for “taking” Brandon when she was at her lowest. Mackenzie might have used her emotions to ruin Nikki’s life, but Olivia fights back Mac because Nikki and Brandon aren’t cheaters and terrible people in general. I wanted Olivia to befriend them, accept that Brandon is in another relationship and that they could reunite if something happens between him and Nikki (she doesn’t have to force him into a new relationship, which this fanfic does and could stay single with an adorkable friend group). Instead, she becomes a shallow Mackenzie clone with her SH tendencies completely replaced by cartoonish villainy mixed with ableism against depressed people. She ends up giving Nikki a leaf that gives her super cancer, whose symptoms include scarring, dizziness, fatigue(?), and aggressive behavior. The worst symptom is that Nikki cannot love Brandon or she’ll die quicker? What in the Brave New World is this Disney ahh disease. I call it Deadly Illness Explaindno where an unrealistic disease infects a character for cruddy plot progression. Turns out, Olivia, disguised as Nikki’s doctor in Nikki’s texts (not even a clever disguise), lied about that symptom to tear the couple apart. Later… Nikki is tied up by Patrick, and he SAs her (why do horrible DD fics on wattpad make him the r*pist?). Brandon punches him, and it turns out that he’s actually Marcus; his gf, Chloe, Olivia. It was a flipping prank to make Nikki think she was dying of a incurable disease, and Olivia actually died of cancer a while or longer ago?!? Not only does it show us that Nikki has the worst friends, but also the context is worse because a drunk Marcus SA’d her before Kyle saved her. Marcus never gets rehab, and Chloe doesn’t urge him to do so… ugh…

[@HarunoMaxwell6115]

TW: Medical emergencies, injuries, death, ableism(?), and forced undressing Aside from that terrible stuff, the plot ignores important plot points that could have offered something new or expanded on existing storylines to flesh itself out. Some are even rushed. Maybe it’s because of the story’s length (over 70 chapters) and the author’s lack of ideas. Nikki’s aunt was going to marry Mac’s uncle, so the dork and diva would have been cousins who could have resolved their years of conflict. Unfortunately, Nikki’s aunt collapses and is rushed to the hospital, and her fate is never revealed. I expected it so much that I commented #Where’sJenna on several chapters. Even if the girls were sure that she would live and the wedding would be rescheduled, why does Mac still injure her potential cousin during her friends’ Bloody Mary dare and get away with it? Mac never gets any punishment for that and orchestrating Nikki and Brandon’s breakups. Instead, Nikki cuts her off from her life and never talks to her parents or the authorities about her. The worst of the writing besides those flipping breakups are what happens to Nikki’s family in the last few chapters. Nikki’s parents randomly die in a fire without any mention of the homeless old lady they took in, and then they are alive at Nikki’s wedding. Brianna is sent to an asylum because of a painful head injury, and she believes that she’s a monster. We don’t know what mental illness she got, so it’s too vague that it needed more proper research. Nikki just encourages her and leaves her be, not mentioning the poor treatment of asylum patients. I wanted to see Nikki fight for her little sister’s well-being. In fact, I expected a physical fight in the asylum, which was why I trudged through the other cringy and boring chapters. Then in the future, Nikki’s daughter, who is 10 by the way, gets forcefully stripped by some bullies at the mean girl’s parties and terribly injured, so her legs were amputated. The doctors and police suspect that their parents abused her and cannot let them see her in two months… and that’s where the story ends as intended. Despite its intention, I did not like the ending because it goes way too fast to shock the readers instead of building up tension. Good parents being accused of abuse is such a great premise and we could have had more of that if it wasn’t for the downer ending.

[@HarunoMaxwell6115]

Tl;dr - The DD fic suffers from repetitive storylines, shallow characterization, and poorly handled subject matter.

[@espeon871]

Wtf 😭

[@Purplefrilly]

Wow the manga sounds so problematic I only saw the anime which I have mixed thoughts about, it was meh for the most part

[@pearl_heartsss]

P-chan is the best character!

[@harriyanna]

she was so precious

[@secretcode1700]

I remember watching Paradise Kiss and seeing Isabelle’s character being dismissed. I thought I was the only one who felt uncomfortable and thought it was weird so I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw how weird this is. I also thought it was interesting that they were portrayed much older than they are, and I remember seeing someone say that Ai Yazawa wanted to show the parallels between adult life and teenagers lives and how they are struggles that can be faced no matter what age, but I’m not sure entirely so don’t take my word for it! I’m also so glad I saw this video! I wanted to watch and read this, but now I’m happy I saw this video so I could know! I wish more people would talk about these problems in this work.

[@comelordjesus4078]

I've seen other seens like that one in nana about black people. I don't really get good vibes from her

[@comelordjesus4078]

Scenes*

[@secretcode1700]

Wait really?!!! I haven’t watched Nana so I’m not sure what this scene is.

[@Ayelet.M]

lol

[@nicatina]

blue hair and pronouns?💙👀

[@hyperballad4971]

the algorithm is seriously playing games with you smh.. i used to watch your videos every week & the bell is on but it’s been long time no see 🥲

[@harriyanna]

i know :-( i been so sad about it cause i miss yall!