Just for me to collect my thoughts on anything noteworthy or suspicious. I forget a lot of things in the series so this should help me keep track and anyone else who wants to look back without rereading the whole series.
As I was looking on YouTube for vnc videos I happened to stumble across a video I had watched last year when the vanime first came out. It was an initial review/impressions of the vanime from the first two episodes. By, as the title says, the anime youtuber Glass Reflection. When I originally watched the video it deeply displeased me so I left a dislike after finishing it and moved on. Now, upon catching sight of it again I'm making a response for ostensibly personal reasons.
Before we begin I'd also like to acknowledge the audience reaction to this video was skewed decidedly negative or at least lukewarm. Compared to other videos he has made featuring first reactions in the same format, vnc's like to dislike ratio is significantly worse, though not obviously egregious. The comment section is also an interesting case but we'll get to the comment section.
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First, let's talk the actual video content. To give you an idea of the tone of the video the first thing he says about vnc is "... I believe it contains a plot and characters that only Studio Bones can possibly handle." So far, doesn't say too much about the series but it isn't a statement I take any particular offence to. Prior to vnc getting an anime announcement I myself would have said that, yeah, this would be a good Bones anime.
Yet he immediately follows this statement up with, "I'd more quickly summarise the series as tumblr bait, but tumblr ain't around anymore." Making a joke about tumblr being dead, fine, I myself am a tumblrina and honestly still kind of funny. Very "Stop telling people I'm dead" "Sometimes I can still hear his voice" vibes. However, the term tumblr bait in itself ruffles my feathers. I find the phrase and the implications it holds to be troubling. Tumblr has a reputation for having a userbase comprised of either teen girls or queer people. So an adult man who is (presumably) straight saying such a thing feels like punching down. I'm not saying it's unforgivably problematic, tumblr deserves to be made fun of, I only think the comment being made so fast out of the gate justifiably made me raise an eyebrow.
But my raised eyebrow went WAY higher when he instantly continues with "fujoshi bait might work too as a descriptor but I don't think the term is as widely used as it could be." To make sure everyone is on the same page on this 'fujoshi' is a term for women who enjoy or create works centred on mlm romances in the realm of anime and manga. However, the implications of the word are a little more derogatory, especially in western anime spheres (I'm unfamiliar with the term in Japanese fandom spaces in present day), usually denoting fetishisation of mlm or some level of delusion. It's also linked to sexualisation often.
The implication he makes by stating the term is not being widely used enough is that we as a community should be more exclusionary against women making and enjoying mlm content. It treats media involving queer men as inherently low brow entertainment and instantly assumes a level of insincerity within non-explicit queer subtext. I think an attitude like this is quite nasty to be displaying so immediately.
Dear readers, everything I just said was in the first 25 seconds of this video. And after he said these things his conclusion was essentially that if you understand what 'tumblr bait' and 'fujoshi bait' mean you know everything you need to know and you don't need to watch the rest for his more detailed thoughts.
