So its been about two hours since I watched The Woman Named Fujiko Mine and I need to get this out of my system.
Fujiko is probably the oldest anime sex symbol around. She beat Yoko from Lagann by about 50 years. Feye Valentine is an obvious homage to her. She's the Mae West of anime. If you wanted to speak about how anime deals with the feminine she's the character do through.
Right now anime is having a discussion about fan service. And Fujiko is the proto-typical fan service character. Before fan service was a thing she was sunbathing on the beach. One reading of her statements is that her character at this point operates independently of current anime fan service trends. That nobody is making her do the stuff does.
Buuuuuuut
This is fiction. Somebody is making her have voyeuristic lesbian/transgendered sex with Catholic school girls and yes she does that. They turned Lupin the Third into fetish porn!
Eghhhh.
Somebody up the chain had to think that was a great idea! Somebody had to think that was integral to Lupin the Third. Somebody had to think that was integral to Fujiko's character, which this entire thing is supposed to be explaining.
Look I get it. She will totally seduce the guards. It's part of her established character that she will do what it takes to get the loot including bang a dude. Heck that's half of her old episode introductions as the surprise girlfriend/fiancee of whoever happens to be the mark this time 'round, but let's be honest when you go that far it's not for the "character's sake". You're doing it for audience reaction.
Eggggh. Are we that ill-regarded?
Remember this is the franchise that launched Hayao Miyazaki's, one of the most respected film makers of Japan, career. Turned into fetish porn! And not just Rule 34 fetish porn. Cannon! Licensed!
And that last scene seems to me to be trying to justify it all. Trying to say no no. This is who Fujiko is and always has been, and we feel no guilt or remorse for annnny of it. Look look she's cool with it. So we good? We good?
Well she kind of has to be doesn't she. You wrote her to be fine with it. Meta-narritively that's kind of how brainwashing works.
You took control over her body and made her do all that crap.
I got to watch some Lupin III classic.
P.S. I found out after I wrote this that the director and head writer were women and that makes things make a little more sense. I still have problems with it. But I get it more. Fujiko in any reading represents female sexuality. Part of my problem was feeling as though it were a bunch of dudes in a room justifying her objectification. With that tidbit if feels more like she, or rather the female staff are justifying her sexual liberation and claiming it as a part of her identity independent from any influence those dudes in a room might have had over her character in the past. Better.
Still though Catholic school girls?
You know know that whole plot makes a lot more sense. Hmmmm. I think I may need to write this thing over. Dudes being forced by the machine to dress as Fujiko...
An older model disappointed about how restrained she is wanting to get revenge of the more liberated current version.
...All of a sudden it's starting to make sense.
... A room filled with female constructs.
Yep I need to go back to the drawing board.
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