It's Akio. I like Akio. Akio's thrilling and funny to watch. He's a sexy, devious, weird motherfucker.

Never be Akio, is sound advice.

Never be Akio. Alway be Shiori.

Right?

Okeh, maybe Wakaba, with less jumping on people when they're leaning out a window.

I am not a fan of the poster. It seems to hint at older fans as primary suspects for predatory behavior. Being an older male anime fan, I only interact with other people in my age group because of the male predator mentality that is getting more and more prevalent in society. If I decide to hang with the younger crowd it is always males like myself. Of course, I am usually like the big brother of the group.

Last edited by yusaku (04-04-2014 02:40:44 AM)

What percentage of anime fans will get this reference?

Decrescent Daytripper wrote:

The reference is't so much "Hey, recognize this show!" as it is "Hey, do't be the dude tweaking yer nipples in public, yo!" It's in no way reliant on it being a preexisting character. It's about his expression, state of dress, body language and actions.

And if you recognize him then there's the added bonus of: ''And also don't be the dude who molests people mentally and emotionally cuz it's, ya know...not nice.''

I luhv Akio and I think this poster is hilarious, btw. Presents it's message without making anyone (very) uncomfortable. Would be nice if they made one with a female, say, Ragyo Kiryuuin maybe, just to balance things out, idk

purplepolecat wrote:

http://s28.postimg.org/ghajkflzd/178209 … 3767_n.jpg
Thoughts? Obviously having a no-harassment policy is good for a con, but does it give our Big Bad an unfair rap?

Ah, so it’s Akio who got featured in a no-harassment poster; not public!harassers like Happosai or Ataru Moroboshi, but stealth!seducer!Akio . . .

Is it so easy to call people out on polite-society-style mindfucks nowadays, let alone reporting them to anime cons organizers?

Unlike many other anime male characters, Akio is not a grab ass in public, nor will you catch him making inappropriate sexual comments/gestures in front of strangers. He works his seduction only on people who’ve known him for a period of time, and are already attracted to his looks, wealth AND cultured mannerisms.  And, the other parties in these cases are all eager participants in their interactions.  Most importantly, the blatantly inappropriate things -- like all things in the polite society -- will always happen in private.

So, how do con-attendees even "speak up" at seeing an Akio-style "harassment"?  How do they even spot it happening, when the potentially incriminating stuff is gonna happen off public view?

Or, am I to assume that the organizers are actually telling people to snoop around private areas like car-interiors and motel rooms looking for some juicy ‘questionable’ activities to report on?

Even supposing an attendee really does that, and comes upon something like this near the con site:

Are they then suppose to intrude, and then end up as the creep since these two people - both old enough for such things in the area where it happens - could actually be a couple like their appearances suggests?

Perhaps the organizers assume that no one has ever seen SKU before, and that anime fans will see some Calvin Klein model-type ethnic anime guy on the poster and somehow go “Yuck! Creep ~”.  And then what? Are they telling attendees to report topless guys who may or may not be touching his nipples while smiling?  Right. I can just imagine actual charges being laid against Mr. Topless once the police gets called in over such a solid definition of harassment.   

Seriously though, anime has no shortage of lecher characters who’re well-known for public, blatant sexual harassment.  Why skip over them all in favor of a grayer than gray character like Akio if you wanna promote your no-harassment policy?  Isn't clarity of message supposed to be a big point in every ad's design?

Decrescent Daytripper wrote:

gorgeousshutin wrote:

Ah, so it’s Akio who got featured in a no-harassment poster; not public!harassers like Happosai or Ataru Moroboshi, but stealth!seducer!Akio . . .

Because Ataru is a comedy lecher and about fifteen who never rapes anybody, never tweaks his nipples in public, and doesn't hit on girls  half his seeming age. Emphasis on the comedy bit.

Except Akio never does any of those things in the show itself (he never tweak nipples in pulbic, females go to him by desire, and his physical age is 18-19 with real age 1000+).

Yes, Ataru is comedic, but his behavior of grabbing girls publicly - a reportable crime in real world - is a lot more relevant to the kind of sexual harassment one could find at an anime con than the cultured seduction that Akio does (almost impossible to find in an anime convention of all places).

Akio, on the other hand, isn't a guy anybody can handle. Akio fucks you up and if you regret it later, or even  immediately, you'll probably feel  it's your fault.

Exactly. Akio's behavior is not something attendees/organizers at a con could "speak up" on cause even if an 'Akio' is there, his behavior would be impossible to define/pinpoint as predatory from a bystander's POV.  So why use him as the poster boy?  If Ataru is too young (he's certainly not too young to get charged for sexual offenses), the use Happosai or City Hunter or the likes - men over 21 who grab ass & cause problems at public places.  Even if you want to use non-comedic male chars who , there are many in anime.

]it's about how flagrant he's being.

If Akio is an openly flagrant character, then yes.  But Akio is a stealth seducer.  His behavior pattern is not something that a con attendee could point at and scream "Creep!"  Using him as the sexual harassment mascot is as 'off' as calling all 'successful seducers' 'non-con rapists' - those terms are simply not the same.

Ataru, and those other male chars I've listed above, are all openly flagrant.  They are all legit "creeps" should they appear in real world with their fondling of even strangers.  Screen caps of them grabbing ass and whatnot can sent direct message of what con attendees should/could 'speak up' about.  Using Akio as con harassment poster boy is plain off, cause he does not display 'outward public behaviors' one could report over.

Last edited by gorgeousshutin (04-05-2014 01:32:51 PM)

Yes, Ataru is comedic, but

If I were making an anti sexual harassment poster, I wouldn't want a character whose sexual harassment is played for comedy and who is also basically the protagonist and love interest. By selecting a character whose negative attitudes and actions are played for comedy, I'd think you're sending the message that "Don't be this guy even though *winkwink* it's actually okay." There are yards and yards of essays and writeups about how Akio's behavior is explicitly not okay, but while Ataru engages in -arguably- more direct action, he's still seen as a bumbling, loveable loser. 

The poster gave me a chuckle, but I'm always a bit ambivalent about these things at cons -I don't know how much they do or don't help, although I haven't been to one in, oh... six or seven years. The landscape was very different then, I think.

Edit:

Screen caps of them grabbing ass and whatnot can sent direct message of what con attendees should/could 'speak up' about.  Using Akio as con harassment poster boy is plain off, cause he does not display 'outward public behaviors' one could report over.

I think you'd have scored a point if A) they had used screen caps, and B)They hadn't selected that particular image of Akio. As it is, I do thinks screencaps might have been even more effective than just creepster nipple tweaking.

Last edited by MissMocha (04-05-2014 02:57:37 PM)

I'm no expert, but I'd wager that most harassment at cons is caused by incompetence rather than malice. Young, over-excited guys who don't have much in the way of social skills or experience talking to women, who don't have a good grasp of personal boundaries, and are slow to realize when they are being politely told to get lost. Pretty much the opposite of Akio, who knows to the millimeter how close he can get to a girl before she gets creeped out enough to move away.

I'm not excusing this behavior, but I think the best harassment policies are the ones that give simple, easy to follow guidelines to the potential harasser, without demonizing them, e.g. "You can't ever glomp or otherwise touch someone without explicit consent", or "don't be afraid to approach complete strangers, but if they tell you to go away, you have to go away." You might think that this is obvious, but the con crowd generally is pretty low on social skills (see above, "soap & deodorant").

The downside to demonizing harassers is that then no-one considers that they themselves might unintentionally harass someone.

Frankly, I think that the people who selected Akio for the poster might not even be all that familiar with SKU; I think there's a good chance that they just googled 'anime sexual predator' and this particular creep happened to come up on the image search. And since this image depicted an older male who's leering and fondling his nipples in public, they thought, "Perfect!" and went with it.

Nova wrote:

If we're going to get into awkwardness versus harassment, then it's time to page Doctor Nerdlove.

Everyone go read that then come back.

False dichotomy. Awkwardness is a possible explanation, it's not an acceptable excuse. Attempting to understand the cause of something is not the same as excusing it, but it can inform the way you tackle the problem.

EDIT: after mulling the article over, I think that may have been the point he was trying to make, but he doesn't come right out and say it.

Last edited by purplepolecat (04-05-2014 06:48:39 PM)

gorgeousshutin wrote:

MissMocha wrote:

As it is, I do thinks screencaps might have been even more effective than just creepster nipple tweaking.

unless fan-made, I recall no actual Akio scene that could liken him to a creep who'd stoop to harassing girls in a public place like a "con", because that's just not what he is.

Did you.... did you read what I wrote? I was arguing that IF screencaps had been used, your point would be better made because as you've stated, there is no scene where Akio is unequivocally disgusting, like playing grab ass or something, whereas Happosai or maybe even Rei's Grandfather would be a better source for those actions. I was kinda' coming in on your side there, Shutin. I was also stating that I think a screencap could be better as it would show an action and not just a glance (a creepy as fuck one, albeit). In this instance, I'm reasonably sure that the whole argument is moot, because as we have both pointed out, there's nothing in the show to support those behaviors. (Which, actually, brings up a very interesting aside when you consider how predatory every "romantic" moment is in SKU, and that, on the surface, they play on all the intended romantic hallmarks of shojo animes. There's an analysis in that I think, if anyone cares to go for it. Romance in Shojo as Viewed through An Utena Tinted Lens)

Akio's behavior is not okay in that he plots high-class, cultured romance with starry-eyed females with intent of using them to serve his purpose. 

Akio is a seducer+ manipulator, not a public sexual harasser aka con creep.

They are not exclusive. If anything, the "con creep" I fell victim too was much more the former than the latter. While personal experience and anecdotal evidence counts for only so much, I can say from my own experience that the actions you're choosing to refer to as "con creep" happen in a lot of places. Hell, the most recent groping I received was on Disney property, from an older woman. Squeezed my ass. I was pretty pissed. I saw plenty of older men at cons using their age, wisdom, experience, promise of connections or exposure to win over girls. Honestly, probably as many of those as the assgrabby kind. 

Those two terms are neither equal nor interchangeable, because the two's actions are completely different.

Both are in it because they view the person they're after as an object. Ultimately, they're the same thing, just differing levels of "good at it" and approach (as an aside, someone who views people as objects, man, I wonder if there are any of those in SKU...).

The former uses sophisticated words and luxury setting to dazzle girls into throwing themselves at him

Kinda' sounding like you idolize him here, dude.

A con creep that people can "speak up" against, in particular, is someone behaving in a definitively 'illegal' manner in  public.

So a creep is only a creep in public? That's... no. People can be creeps in a crowded con hall, in an elevator, in a hallway, in a dealer's room, in a room, in a parking lot or garage. There is no limitation on what a creep is, and where they can be a creep. I feel like when you say the above, what you're saying is that the only people who can report creeps are third party. Yeah, it's encouraging people to speak up about gropers, but I think they also want attendees to let them know to speak up when it's happening to them. I wish I had been half as brave when I was 14-19 and attending cons!


I'm not gonna lie Shutin, I think you're polishing astrays on the Titanic, here. You're upset because a particular image was used in a way that you interpret as being wildly out of character with the experience of con creeps. Well, first off, it's not. Second of all... man, you didn't even respond to the comedy argument I made. Here, I'm gonna quote DD, 'cause yeah, he phrased it way better than me:

You put a comedy panty thief on there, or Ataru running around town looking at women in their underwear, it's comedy, he'll have his big dumb comedy face in, wide-eyed and drooling slackjawed and... impact lost.

Man.. DD you posted while I was writing this. I should just abandon ship, but... eh. I wrote it.


Edit:

That Akio poster is the organizers purposely equating a male seducer of willing girls to a public sexual harasser of unwilling girls; they're blatantly playing on certain fans' misandry and using it for humor purpose.

If we're to believe in sexual equality, then that ad is every bit as offensive as a "no-prostitution" ad that features Kozue - one that falsely and purposely equate her promiscuity with her being a prostitute.

AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAAH oh my god, the misandry card, really? So, we paint Akio as a vile seducer, and that's... misandry? I don't care if I get banned for that, but man, come on. Really? As far as the prostitution..."argument," there's NO equivalency! Akio being correctly identified as someone who engages in sexually aggressive behavior is in no way the same thing as saying a promiscuous girl is a prostitute. Jesus christ.

Last edited by MissMocha (04-05-2014 07:01:58 PM)

purplepolecat wrote:

Nova wrote:

If we're going to get into awkwardness versus harassment, then it's time to page Doctor Nerdlove.

Everyone go read that then come back.

False dichotomy. Awkwardness is a possible explanation, it's not an acceptable excuse. Attempting to understand the cause of something is not the same as excusing it, but it can inform the way you tackle the problem.

EDIT: after mulling the article over, I think that may have been the point he was trying to make, but he doesn't come right out and say it.

My reading of it is: "Genuine social awkwardness may cause someone to accidentally be creepy, but some people use 'social awkwardness' as an excuse to purposefully do creepy things and that is bad." Basically a case where the victim of something should not have to accept it just because it may have been accidental, and that arguing otherwise is taking away the victim's agency.