Attractive Animation

 For those of you who know me, and I am assuming most of you don’t, I am an avid fan of cartoons and anime. The other day I was watching a rerun of Yu-Gi-Oh and Yugi played the Dark Magician Girl. A buddy of mine happened by my computer as he played the card and said, “You know the subbed version is better, the translations are more accurate”, because he is one of those, but then he said, “And the Dark Magician Girl has a bigger bust in the original version.” To which I responded, “What does the Dark Magician Girl’s boobs have to do with me enjoying an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh?” He said, “Because Dark Magician Girl is hot and the original makes her hotter.” And then it occurred to me, Dark Magician Girl is hot, but she is not a real person, so is that really even a possible statement? I mean if they are not real people, then can they be labeled as attractive in any manner? An entertainment consumer who grew up watching Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry as cartoons and then moved to a live action set of shows would say no, but there is an entire generation of people who grew up seeing Misty from Pokemon, Mimi and Rika from Digimon, Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Kim Possible, etc. who would say that yes, cartoons and anime characters can be very attractive. I mean let’s be honest there is an inspiration for cosplay and a reason that they have indeed made sexy Halloween costumes for some of the aforementioned characters. I think it boils down to the mindset that a child has growing into their teenage years when things start to “set us off” in the nether-regions. The older generation was taught that cartoons are funny, maybe even insightful, but definitely not attractive. Of course, there are a few outliers whose first love onscreen was Jessica Rabbit or maybe even Lola Bunny, but for the most part you had a live action person to fall in love with. But for my generation, we were never told that an animated character wasn’t attractive that way. We watched Megara from Hercules and Mulan and as a child thought “What a cool person”, but as we got older thought, “What a woman”. And of course, l am just talking from a male perspective. Let’s not forget, there had to be a young girl who just fawned over a bad boy like Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston, or a brooder like Avatar’s Zuko. So I would say yes, animated characters can be attractive and whether Dark Magician Girl has big boobs or not, I was always a fan. But that is just one man’s opinion. Thanks for listening to me ramble. I appreciate it. See you next time.