Shirahama does so many good things with WHA but one of the things I deeply appreciate from WHA, and something I've never seen within manga/anime, is how strongly Shirahama calls out sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Lulucy's backstory, and the instance where she pursues the man with the goggles that lets you see through clothes, and strongly makes a case on why that is illegal, and completely rebuffing the man's attempts to say that it's actually not a big thing, all men given the chance would take it, that it's something actually 'freeing' and good about it. And it gets entirely shut down, and Esteath, a man, who is in power, instead of shutting down Lulucy, supports her and agrees with her on the severity, completely shattering the man's arguments (and later you see other men in the story also respond similarly!).
And it's like... to see this in anime and manga? Which frequently has main characters be voyeurs and sexual harassers and it's just 'normal', and/or played off as gags? Where female characters are often so heavily sexualized and objectified? Like, Naruto, One piece, even more recently, boku no hero academia, (and yeah these are shounen but it's also shows that are fairly ubiquitous) have characters that are considered positive, part of the main cast (or important to the main cast) that are actively voyeurs, sexual harassers; let alone characters that verbally sexualize and objectify women and girls. And the list of anime/manga goes on, where you see that type of behavior. And it's normalized, it's considered exactly like what the guy when caught says; oh it's not a big deal, it's actually even a good thing, freeing, this is normal and what every guy wants. And Shirahama just smashes that argument, calls out that this objectification of women and girls isn't normal, and that normalizing this sexual harassment creates a culture that is dismissive of cases of sexual harassment and abuse, allowing harassment and abuse to continue unchecked.
And like... as a story that is mostly geared towards girls? Having a story like this that says this is not okay, in cultures that are rife with the messages that these behaviors are normal, aren't an issue and you should just take it? It's needed, god, it's needed, and I hope this can help young girls (and even reminding us older folks) in drawing boundaries and calling out behaviours in real life that aren't okay.
