A weekly look into American otaku culture

It’s funny how three bloggers have already reported on horror stories that come with purchasing the 2nd volume of the Ichigo Marshmallow manga that was recently released by Tokyopop in the US. I too can verify my uneasiness at my hometown Borders when I had to present this book to the cashier.

The main problem is one image on the back cover with the character Miu from the series. She is in a two-peice bathing suit and licking the tip of a water pistol. This image gives off a feeling of being child pornography, and we fear that a young male purchasing such a book would be judged as a pedophile from the cashier and those around him.

And yet not a single cashier really notices the content on the cover. All they look for is the barcode to scan and that’s it. There is no second glances. There is no jugdement. All this worry and accusations are only in our head. So why has this fear run so universally among all of us who have bought this book?

I think the reason why we have this worry is because we actually love the cover so much. We don’t love it for some kind of pornographic reason. We love it because it is a beautifully designed cover with adorable images. The faded plaid blue background perfectly compliments the cute images of the Ichigo girls. I personally feel that this is the prettiest manga cover I’ve seen in a long time.

And yet we feel guilty about loving this design, because we grow up believing that the only thing a guy would ever want is sex. So to be attracted to an image of a female must automatically be sexual in nature, and to be attracted to an image of a girl must automatically make you a pedophile.

But what if it was a woman who bought this manga? Would anyone ever accuse her being pedophiliac? No, because it’s understandable that a woman enjoying images of cute children is just a sign of her maternal nature, and this is just a sign of a healthy biological clock. As hard as it is to believe, men feel the exact same way.

We love the girls of Ichigo because we want them to be our children. It plays off our desire and longing for fatherhood. Our attraction is not a desire to ruin childhood innocence through lust and sex, but to protect their innocence through love and compassion.

And yet this completely natural desire is considered unnatural to single men in our world today. It is believed that the only thing that single men should care about is getting laid at this age, and so any fascination that he may have about children must be pedophilia. Since we don’t have much support defending against that assumption, we begin to fear that maybe society is right, and that we do have some unnatural sexual desire for children.

But that’s just not the case. The image of Miu with the water gun is precious because she is just a cute kid in a cute swimsuit playing around. There is nothing sexual about that. Yet we love this picture, and we love to look at it. And so we start to worry that maybe this attraction is some hidden pedophiliac desire like everyone says it should be. But the truth is she’s just a cute kid!

So when is it okay to start wanting children? When should a man admit to wanting to become a family man? When does our culture say that this desire to want kids becomes non-sexual? Is it only after marriage?

That’s bullshit.

So my fellow anime fans, please try not to feel guilty about loving stories and images of cute little girls. The attraction you feel towards these characters is completely natural as it is only a longing for fatherhood. There is nothing wrong or sexual with that. We need more then just sex to continue the human race, we need parental love to ensure that those children survive.

So while you are still single and this desire is not yet accepted, then just grin and bare the “pedo” assumption that will happen. But if you’re clever enough, you might actually be able to use this to get a serious girlfriend (of very legal age, mind you) a lot sooner then the rest of the crowd. After all, at a certain point, girls will be only interested in those guys who want children. And your early acceptance of that fact will make you a prime candidate in no time.