this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2026
313 points (98.8% liked)
Animemes
4061 readers
252 users here now
Memes related to anime. Animemes.
Rules
- Don't be a shithead.
- Posts must be a meme with anime or related to anime or weeb culture.
- Use NSFW tag for lewd/ecchi. No explicit hentai.
- Nothing illegal, copyrighted, etc
- Repost only if the last post is 6 months old.
- No AI-generated content.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Fantastic movie!
There is a problematic aspect, but it’s never too problematic to be a deal breaker.
What was problematic?
There's the general sexism present and the objectification/sexualization of Fio. These are both appropriate for the time period and pivotal points to the character development. You have Porco going from believing a girl can't possibly help rebuild his plane to him fighting off a bunch of guys who can't see past her as nothing but an object.
Sorry but this is silly. It’s like someone saying, “Well the bad guy in XYZ movie was a nazi which is problematic, therefore the movie is.” Like, what?
The presence of problematic ideas is not in itself an issue. In almost any instance that Fio is objectified it’s immediately shown that it’s a flawed perspective of the characters doing it, which goes for Gina too (though she’s a badass and knows how to use it to work the people dishing it out to her). The movie’s voice doesnt endorse any of it, and if anything rejects those things outright any time they’re brought up.
Is media literacy even a thing anymore?
Why think about media when you just can simply label something as problematic instead?
Media literacy? Hush now. Sit back and relax while I play you the latest Marvel movie: Thor and The Other Guys - Ouch My Balls editions.
I heard Inglorious Bastards had Nazis in it which is kind of problematic.
Anyone familiar with anime understands why an audience might not trust an anime to portray sexism and pedophilia as a serious character flaw.
Anyone familiar with Ghibli should know they're built different and basically always have been.
Maybe vaguely in general, but you have to look at each show individually.
I've had conversations about One Piece before where the other person didn't want to watch it solely because it had slavery in it, despite every depiction of slavery in the show being blatantly evil.
There's a big difference between avoiding uncomfortable content and mistaking its mere existence in the text as support for the idea.
Im not saying these are problematic, just what others have seen as problematic. They are themes that are part of the story and character. It is silly to point them out as problematic, but people are silly.
Oh yeah, my comments weren’t directed at you specifically, but at the general notion.
Porco and Fio's own grandfather's treatment of her is definitely written into the story to show what figurative pigs and chauvinists they are. IMO chauvinism is the very strong central theme of Porco Rosso. I think they are very much meant to be seen as character flaws. Fio is not sexualized from the perspective of the audience, just from the perspective of the adult men in the story (Though I've only seen the film, never read a manga of it).
There’s a teenage girl who gets overly sexualized, but at the same time, it’s kind of so over the top it’s pointing out the issue that her other characteristics are ignored for it.
It’s also a film set in the 20s/30s in Italy and the Adriatic, made in the 80s, so kind of a product of the time. Apparently the dialog in other languages plays out slightly different, so the English dub might be part of the issue.
Personally, I do not think it’s over the line or gross, but some people do and it makes them not enjoy the movie.
As infinitesunrise pointed out, it's been ages since I've seen the movie, but I don't remember her being sexualized from the perspective of the audience, only the literal pig sexualizing her, and then growing as a person.
We live in a society which sexualizes teenage women, a work including teenage women being sexualized doesn't make the work itself problematic if it's in a negative or simply realistic context.
I could be wrong, it's been ages since I saw it and there's been a lot of really bad things in older media I just kinda memory-holed.
The MC being a pig is a reference to the phrase „Porco Rosso“ (Red Pig), which was used by Italian fascists to refer to communists. He’s actually one of the most ethical characters in the movie. He is sexist at first (as are most men in this setting), but acknowledges his prejudice when Fio saves his life.
He doesn’t sexualize her. She has a celebrity crush on him, but he’s clearly uncomfortable with it both because of her age and because he’s still in love with another woman.
The people who end up sexualizing her are bounty hunters who ambush the pig while she‘s with him in his hideout, but she‘s able to use that to save him (again) without getting herself into any serious danger.
It’s been a while since I saw it, I remember the swimming scene where he’s looking at her but Porco acts perfectly fine
Still better than early Dragon Ball. Hoo boy, I rewatched it recently and I'd forgotten how everyone treated Bulma as if she were a prostitute
I've only seen bits of the original, is the complaint that they literally try to buy sexual favors from her or that, because she isn't a prostitute, it's inappropriate to assault her on a constant basis?
She appears and acts 12–14, ostensibly is 16 according to the wiki; though kid Goku is supposed to be 12 somehow, so the canonical age numbers really don't make sense.
Overall, just a lot of gross sexual stuff targeted towards her. Practically every male character she meets either aggressively flirts with her, or straight up sexually harasses her. As just one example, Goku only gets the Flying Nimbus from Master Roshi in exchange for Bulma full-body flashing the old man with no undergarments. Early Dragon Ball has a lot of really uncomfortable moments lol