I recently came to a decision–life is too short to watch bad anime. When every single week, you feel yourself either angry or embarrassed at having watched a show, it’s ultimately time to step away from it. This is what happened with me and Persona 5: The Animation and FLCL: Progressive. I tried to give these shows a fair shake in hopes that they could possibly be better than the original media they stem from. What I learned in the process, though, is that there is a level of bullshit that I cannot take when it comes to anime consumption.
Persona 5: The Animation
I’ve previously written about my issues with Persona 5, which are numerous. That said, I was hoping that some of the more terrible parts of Persona 5, such as the oversexualization of Ann and the blatant homophobia with two guys and Ryuji in Shinjuku, could improve with the release of the anime. Instead of fixing the issues, A-1 decided to double down on them, as well as adding more unnecessary elements that should never have been approved.
For example, Ann’s awakening to her persona in the game was questionable. In the game, she is on a crucifix, and as she awakens, she is shown writhing with close ups of her crotch and torso and finally, her face with drool falling from her mouth. 1 To me, this is purposeful, especially given the sexual nature of the dungeon. A-1 recreated this, as well as adding in more visible cleavage. In addition, there are added scenes to the anime, such as random shots of Ann’s butt and a totally unnecessary bath scene–complete with ejaculation metaphors!
Given the addition of these new scenes and the recreation of one I already had issues with, Persona 5: The Animation began grating on me. I struggled through episodes featuring more Akechi than I ever wanted, overt Ann sexualization, the horrific social link that is dating the teacher, and then finally, I came to a breaking point. As the Ren and Ryuji go to Shinjuku to gather information about Kaneshiro’s operation, they are approached by two of the worst and most overt homophobic caricatures. While these guys were present in the game, A-1 again decided to double down on the shitty. For the anime, they showed these men assaulting Ryuji, 2 and his supposed best friend Ren just walks away from him.
After this point in the anime, I realized there was no saving it. I already have had negative feelings about Persona 5 the longer we get away from its release, and having the worst parts of the game amplified meant stepping away entirely for me. While there are other criticisms that I could talk about, such as the horrific pacing or the terrible animation , these moments in particular demonstrated to me that Persona 5: The Animation and maybe Persona 5 as a whole are stuck in a mindset that I don’t want anything to do with.
FLCL: Progressive
In preparation for the upcoming FLCL Progressive and Alternative anime, I recently rewatched the original FLCL. When I first watched FLCL during my high school days, it seemed genius. However, on a rewatch, I realized that I had outgrown a lot of the tropes and oddness of the show, while some other parts were straight up offensive. While Jared and I discussed in depth these issues with the original anime, I still wanted to give Progressive a fair shake, since the first episode of Alternative shown on April Fools’ on Toonami seemed interesting. I’ve gotten to the point finally where I have given up on this show as well.
So what’s wrong with Progressive? Honestly, a lot that was wrong with the first show. We’re dealing with underage protagonists who are unnecessarily sexualized, zany Haruko who is still molesting minors and now showing her students 3 pornography but is also the villain, and a plot that might actually make less sense than the original, which had all the plot thrown into one single episode. FLCL is and always has been a mess, and I’m realizing that now as an adult. I don’t have the time and energy to put into a show that feels like it’s stuck in early 2000s Myspace lolrandomXD culture, with an added dose of middle school girl boobs. The only redeemable quality of this show is more The Pillows music, and that can be found in places that aren’t anime that make me want to bang my head against the wall.
So overall, the past few weeks in anime have demonstrated to me what I will and will not put up with. As I get older, I realize that there is a right way to portray high school and younger protagonists, and neither of these anime did a good job of that. It isn’t hard to not sexualize them, to stick to a plot, to consider pacing, and to generally demonstrate some level of maturity, even if you’re trying to hit points of comedy. It’s possible to do–look at Sakamoto Desu Ga? and Tsukigakirei.
I said it at the beginning and I’ll say it again–life is too short to watch bad anime. So, as I purge my DVR and my VRV watchlist of these two shows, I feel happy that I’m no longer subjecting myself to this nonsense. It’s like my choice to never buy Barilla pasta after their homophobic remarks–you know others will still consume it but the choice is there to not contribute to the perpetuation of the bullshit.