Content warning: rape, bestiality, degradation, fantasy racism
The artist Asanagi, publishing h-doujins through the group Fatalpulse, has acquired something of a reputation on the portions of the english-speaking internet that read eastern pornography, and for good reason; they make masterfully-crafted comics in which absolutely awful things happen to the "victim girls" mentioned in the title of their longest-running series, and for a lot of people this is understandably off-putting.
That said, a lot of people tend to overlook the nuance of how this is presented; it's generally not just straight up misery porn, at least not the way it's often handled. Usually the situation is presented as something the "victim" actually likes quite a lot, and simply didn't want to admit, generally because of societal factors. Now don't misunderstand, obviously the scenarios portrayed in these works would be absolutely immoral in a real-world setting; "She just didn't want to admit that she wanted it" isn't something you can in good conscience say about a real person. But one benefit of fictional media is that you can be omniscient, and see what characters really think, regardless of what they say, and that creates an interesting dynamic in some cases.
Take the example of the 21st VictimGirls comic, "Livestock: Happy End." In the title alone there's already the implication that what's occurred isn't really as tragic in context as it immediately seems; and again, to be clear, the events contained herein are obviously horrible at first blush. A rich nobleman has built himself a harem of girls from an animal-eared race which he considers to be lesser, and done so through the use of magical garments which cause them to become subservient and affectionate toward him, even as he abuses and degrades them. Clearly this is wrong, and in many cases it would be presented in such a way that most if not all of the appeal lies in projecting onto the nobleman, as the girls would uniformly not have any desire for this situation without the magical brainwashing; they would genuinely be victims. And possibly this is true for many of them, but things get interesting when you look at the case of the main character, the woman who makes these dresses.
She looks down on the man, finds him disgusting, even before discovering that this situation is less than morally airtight; but when she discovers the degree of abuse his girls are suffering at his hands, she finds herself hopelessly aroused, having to push away thoughts of pleasure at the idea of meeting such a fate, and remarking later that she spent 3 days in a state of near-constant masturbation; and although she maintains a moral opposition to the situation, she ultimately puts on the dress willingly.
What this effectively does is give the submissive and masochistic segments of the comic's audience a perfect candidate to project onto; some may point out that this arguably muddies the waters in terms of moral messaging in the story, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but in this case I think that what is gained is greater than what is lost.
This really cuts to the heart of why I dislike the moralizing so endemic to discussions surrounding pornography; It's not that I think there's no place for moral discussion of art and its messaging, there absolutely is, but in the case of pornography it's really overtaken all other discussion, and in many cases the stigma surrounding taboo sexual activity and depiction does more to marginalize harmless perverts who simply want to put themselves in situations most people would avoid than it does to stop those who would bring genuine abuse to a prospective partner. Moreover it arguably creates more opportunity for abuse, as a lot of non-standard sexual subcultures are obliged to operate in seclusive and covert ways, which unfortunately creates an environment where abuse can occur out of the public eye and where victims are strongly disincentivized to seek help because admitting where and how it occurred can have adverse social consequences, or even legal ones in some of the more suppressive regions.
I'm not saying everyone should stop being put off by the sight of a brainwashed girl getting fucked by a dog, but it'd be better for everyone if those who do enjoy such things could be stigmatized a bit less and encouraged to be more open. Then again, it'd be nice if society were more open in general about sexuality and more willing to listen to people's experiences in non-judgmental ways. In the meantime, at least we've got dedicated pornographers willing to cater to our disgusting fetishes.
VictimGirls 21 - Livestock: Happy End gets a 4/5. Clearly not for the faint of heart, but if you're into this stuff, Asanagi is good company to keep.
The artist Asanagi, publishing h-doujins through the group Fatalpulse, has acquired something of a reputation on the portions of the english-speaking internet that read eastern pornography, and for good reason; they make masterfully-crafted comics in which absolutely awful things happen to the "victim girls" mentioned in the title of their longest-running series, and for a lot of people this is understandably off-putting.
That said, a lot of people tend to overlook the nuance of how this is presented; it's generally not just straight up misery porn, at least not the way it's often handled. Usually the situation is presented as something the "victim" actually likes quite a lot, and simply didn't want to admit, generally because of societal factors. Now don't misunderstand, obviously the scenarios portrayed in these works would be absolutely immoral in a real-world setting; "She just didn't want to admit that she wanted it" isn't something you can in good conscience say about a real person. But one benefit of fictional media is that you can be omniscient, and see what characters really think, regardless of what they say, and that creates an interesting dynamic in some cases.
Take the example of the 21st VictimGirls comic, "Livestock: Happy End." In the title alone there's already the implication that what's occurred isn't really as tragic in context as it immediately seems; and again, to be clear, the events contained herein are obviously horrible at first blush. A rich nobleman has built himself a harem of girls from an animal-eared race which he considers to be lesser, and done so through the use of magical garments which cause them to become subservient and affectionate toward him, even as he abuses and degrades them. Clearly this is wrong, and in many cases it would be presented in such a way that most if not all of the appeal lies in projecting onto the nobleman, as the girls would uniformly not have any desire for this situation without the magical brainwashing; they would genuinely be victims. And possibly this is true for many of them, but things get interesting when you look at the case of the main character, the woman who makes these dresses.
She looks down on the man, finds him disgusting, even before discovering that this situation is less than morally airtight; but when she discovers the degree of abuse his girls are suffering at his hands, she finds herself hopelessly aroused, having to push away thoughts of pleasure at the idea of meeting such a fate, and remarking later that she spent 3 days in a state of near-constant masturbation; and although she maintains a moral opposition to the situation, she ultimately puts on the dress willingly.
What this effectively does is give the submissive and masochistic segments of the comic's audience a perfect candidate to project onto; some may point out that this arguably muddies the waters in terms of moral messaging in the story, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but in this case I think that what is gained is greater than what is lost.
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| Look, some of us just really want to be treated as "lesser" for a while |
I'm not saying everyone should stop being put off by the sight of a brainwashed girl getting fucked by a dog, but it'd be better for everyone if those who do enjoy such things could be stigmatized a bit less and encouraged to be more open. Then again, it'd be nice if society were more open in general about sexuality and more willing to listen to people's experiences in non-judgmental ways. In the meantime, at least we've got dedicated pornographers willing to cater to our disgusting fetishes.
VictimGirls 21 - Livestock: Happy End gets a 4/5. Clearly not for the faint of heart, but if you're into this stuff, Asanagi is good company to keep.
Gosh this is by far easily my favorite doujin; Asanagi is a spectacular artist but this in particular works wonders for the degradation kink taking it to such a wonderfully extreme degree. I appreciate your efforts to explain the problems with the way people "moralize" around such content. I kinda wish I could be more open about liking this sort of doujin without people being upset with me over it.
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