TIL Seinen Manga

Today I Learned that there exists a manga category called “seinen manga” …this is the manga equivalent of the dumb boy book.  Material intended for young males ages 18-30.  Violence and exploitative to women.  I won’t say that all of seinen manga is like that, but if you’re put off because a story is particularly violent and the women seem really cool with pleasing men, then that could be seinen manga.

I was reading volume 1 of Gunsmith Cats.  When I first encountered the name Gunsmith Cats, I thought it was about alien humanoid felines with guns.  No, it’s set in the near-past Chicago.  I don’t know if there are any cats in this manga.  And there seems to be confusion regarding the protagonist’s name:  It’s either RALLY or LARRY.  Considering that it’s a girl, most people assume that it’s not Larry.

There is a part in the story where one of the girls is performing oral sex on a man who isn’t drawn due to the Japanese obscenity standards.  Instead of a drawn penis and scrotum, there is an opaque shape that one has to mentally visualize within the outline of the space. I was uncomfortable with this part of the book and not because I am uncomfortable with underage former prostitutes having sex with strangers.  I think I was more uncomfortable with the triumphant look on her face later after another gentlemen mutters that they had sex twenty times during the night.  The depiction of sex in this book seems rather unrealistic.  Rather.

Also, I thought the two protagonists were lesbians in a relationship.  So that made things weird for me.  (the blow job)

I’m not especially eager to continue with this series.  It wasn’t bad but I just don’t know that I can really speak highly about it.  On one hand, it seems to be a strong case of empowered female protagonists.  On the other hand, it’s a lot of shooting, violence, and sex without realistic consequences.  I must sound like an old man.

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