Fanservice in Gachiakuta
warnings: minor spoilers for the manga/anime, discussions of amo's trauma (pdfilia, csa)
i'm kind of sick of seeing people pretend like gachiakuta is the perfect newgen manga / anime and has absolutely no flaws. here are my 2c:
gachiakuta DOES have moments that can be considered fanservice, ESPECIALLY in the anime. and it also DOES portray minors in a questionable lens at certain times !!
a lot of gachitok (nightmarish place, never go there) are trying to paint gachiakuta like it's absolutely perfect, with no fanservice, no unnecessary nudity, etc.
yes, amo is traumatised and due to being 'raised' by mister, she never got new clothes. her dress we see her in is the same dress she was sold in when she was around 5-6 years old. it's torn in the middle, likely because it was ripped open / tore in the middle as she grew out of it. but, that does not change the fact that the animators are creating all kinds of insane angles to show off more of her body. we have a shot from between her thighs, the shot where enjin takes her boots is changed so we can see her from behind. there are several uncomfortably angled scenes that were adapted and changed from the manga just so we could see more. this is less a problem with kei urana and more a problem with the japanese anime industry and what it normalises.
we have to keep in mind, kei urana and the editors of gachiakuta are still working in an industry that has existed for (depending on when you think anime was created) over a century! therefore it is entirely unsurprising that they're still weak in spots like this : exploiting the bodies of women, or girls, in order to 'appeal' to certain audiences.
another thing, just because kei urana is a non-male mangaka, doesn't exclude her from the issues within the industry. i forget the specific chapter, but one of the title panels is riyo (who is, sixteen years of age) showering, fully nude. what did this add to the plot? absolutely nothing. so why was it there? what other reason then fan service would it be there for?
this is just my frustrated ramblings because i am so tired of new gachifans trying to portray it as the perfect dreamy manga/anime series with absolutely no flaws. it's not just fashion decisions, and backstory relevance, there is absolutely fan service in gachiakuta, and the mangaka being non-male doesn't take away from that. it's not suddenly okay because a non-male is drawing the minors in suggestive positions or even fully nude because the intention is still there : the angles, the nude panels, that one entire chapter of riyo on rudo's bed with the zoomed up shots of her legs, exist to appeal to specific audiences.
i'm not saying gachiakuta is as bad with fan service as like one piece or dr. stone, but i'm saying it's not devoid of it either.