If you find anime girls attractive does that make you a pedophile?

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Well, because every anime girl looks exactly the same and is drawn exactly the same way

You are right about this. Not much room for creativity in that style. I mean of you try, it isn't anime anymore.

It isn't really a style, it's more of a medium. There are "styles," but, say, look at the body proportions of, say, Spike:

compared to the proportions of Naruto

two similarly-aged characters, but two very different approaches to their bones and such. Also, <link=http://media.animevice.com/uploads/1/11465/331594-mio_akiyama_through_the_ages.jpg>this very short manga strip does a good job of explaining the typified "look" of anime through the ages. If you recall, Western Animation does similar - each decade adopts various traits, be it Steamboat Mickey-era exaggeration of movements or the mid-90s look seen in Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network shows of the time.

Anime itself really is just a medium, not an art style, and while certainly there is no disputing that various characters across series look like they exist in the same universe, there are just as many hack, play-to-what's-popular animated series from Europe and the US. Anime and manga does have a very Japanese flavour to the way the characters are built, but same can be said of any culture's drawings.

Not all anime looks completely unique, but not every anime character - especially not every anime girl - is drawn identically. You won't mistake a Salor Moon character

http://static.tumblr.com/2qi7fek/PQZlqbmdv/tumblr_ljxtkhnz3s1qeqx6yo1_400.jpg

for a Black Lagoon character

http://vexed.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/f0259l.jpg1.png

...even if they are seemingly built from the same mould, so to speak.

I've read a lot of really interesting essays on this topic (I used to be really passionate about becoming an animator/cartoonist, I did a lot of research, read a lot of books), the Japanese creative culture is one that is absolutely varied and distinctive and it always saddens me when people seem to clump all "anime" in the same melting pot. I think there's a certain degree of... well, I don't want to say "racism," but cultural dissonance, that stops people from being able to look past similarities of a medium that has constantly proven to be an evolving form, especially stylistically.

 

[MetalMagpie]

And don't worry I'm not attracted to IRL children/young teens. (Please believe me, I'm not, I find that so gross.)

Then you're not a pedophile. A pedophile is a person who is sexually attracted to children. You are not sexually attracted to children. You are attracted to fictional female characters when depicted in a specific art style.

This may be connected to you having a preference for big eyes and smooth skin (I don't know you, so I can't say anything for sure), but it could also just be one of those things. Precisely what a particular person finds attractive is very individual to them. And it's dangerous to make any sort of "attracted to X therefore attracted to Y" arguments.

A similar argument that gets brought up a lot is whether a person who finds a grown woman in a schoolgirl outfit sexually appealing is a pedophile. The answer is very simple: only if they also find a child in a school uniform sexually appealing. (There's a whole psychology here about the contrast between a woman's body and the "innocent" clothing, but that's getting seriously off topic.)

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

and it always saddens me when people seem to clump all "anime" in the same melting pot.

Probably a typical error from people like me who have no interest in the medium as you call it and therefore knows little about it.

Well, see, you'd feel dumb for saying it about comic books or American cartoons, dunno why you'd assume different for manga and Eastern cartoons. Besides maybe when the only real exposure to it is through the internet, which really does only showcase a very glib portrayal of what is in the medium.

"Fans" of anime tend to be really bad at portraying the medium in a good light.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Who gives a fuck about the law. Between this (could be considered real people... lol) and declaring pizza a vegetable I think they lost their credibility long ago.

I would have taken a pencil and a piece of paper, drawn a crude stick figure with the caption "King of Australia" and a speech bubble "This man is innocent" and shown it to the judge.

What? It could be considered a real person.

 

[Xanadu84]

Anime has a lot of variety, so you have to address a few varieties. There are adult looking, reasonable proportioned females in Anime, where reasonable is usually on the upper limits of possible, but still possible. Which is fine for your cheesecake and fanservice. There are also unreasonably proportioned adults, which has many of the problems as the unreasonably proportioned children-looking characters.

The whole idea of being attracted to "children" is not automatically bad. There are 17 year old girls who are...well developed. And extremely attractive. You would have to be kind of crazy to not find looking at them appealing. What you DON'T do is, well, anything, and you find blatant sexual exploitation of them on the level of pornography to be disturbing. Not so much because it is not enjoyable as it is they are not old enough to make a rational decision about allowing you to objectify them like that, and your enjoyment is not as important as there potential sexual exploitation. The legitimate creepiness outweigh your ability to enjoy (yet another) nice rack. Animated girls are a bit trickier, because you can't exploit the person involved. Childish traits seem like they should be creepy, but then again, there are plenty of traits associated with youth and innocence that do appeal to reasonable adults. Schoolgirl uniforms and pigtails come to mind (Hey, were a shallow species at heart). So you get into a sticky judgement call of degrees. Does a reasonable person looking at this character with childish aspects get the impression of wanting to sexually objectify girls who are not old enough to make that decision? Yes its a judgement call, but I think you can draw lines in some places. DOA girls like Kasumi are sexually exploited so blatantly, and in such a immature way meant to appeal purely to 14 year old boys, that I think its fair to call them creepy. Meanwhile, a character like Cardcaptor Sakura may have some traits that would count as sexualized, but also count as just being cute or adorable, and are within the bounds of reasonable. A character like Asuka from Eva is a special case, because although she is very young and extremely sexualized, the shows philosophical content delves deep into the concept of teenage sexuality.

Of course at the end of the day, unless you are looking at ACTUAL pornography of ACTUAL underage characters/people, you are NOT a pedophile. Pedophile is an extreme term, wanting to get an erection while looking at Kasumi may be worrying to you in an existential kind of way, but you don't deserve to get lumped into the same category as people who touch kids. Even looking at a naked Kasumi wouldn't exactly count, because childish traits she may have, but since she is drawn, and the only reason why she is underage is because of a number someone typed in a description somewhere. You could definitely look at a naked Kasumi looking for all the traits of a naked adult with complete plausible deniability, even to yourself. Now, one certainly has cause to feel like the sexualization of Kasumi or other infantilized anime characters is problematic and creepy, but unless you are seeking pornography of ACTUAL underage girls, or seeking anime pornography where the characters are clearly pre-pubescent, you don't deserve the stigma of being a pervert. And honestly, there's a pretty good argument to be made that pornographic, animated prepubescents is merely perverted in a pedo kind of way, not straight up Pedophilia, and theres even an argument that looking at pornography, or even having sex with, a (Consenting) underage girl who has undergone puberty is merely perverted (or sometimes not even that). Of course personally, my opinion is that if a girl is under 18, she can keep all her clothes on, and any animated fanservice I see should look like the girl is at least 18.

 

[Fappy]

I've been attracted to animated women and I don't think I'm a pedo. I generally like more adult oriented anime anyway. Does this character look like a child to you?

 

[Bestival]

No. Just like killing someone in a game doesn't make you a murderer.

 

[Judgment90]

As long as she is college age and does not look like an elementary school girl, I don't consider it being a pedo.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

That's only the law in Australia, the law on cartoon pornography differs between countries.

I believe there are a couple of cases in the US where anime porn/doujins have landed guys with legal fees/prison time. Animeworldorder or somesuch covered it. Let's see if I can find it...
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98325-Hentai-Collector-Sentenced-to-Jail-Over-Obscene-Material
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-02-11/christopher-handley-sentenced-to-6-months-for-obscene-manga

 

[King of Asgaard]

Faye Valentine exists, therefore your argument is invalid.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, typically anime women are drawn to be attractive, so the natural response would be to be attracted.

Ofcourse when it delves into the realm of sexualizing prepubecent kids that's I start having problems with it.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I never understood the argument, they look older they are vastly more pretty, unlike real girls who are more ugly and much more scary. 2D ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SodaDew]

I would say no, unless your talking about a child character, like age of infant-12. But with the age group the OP stated I would say your not a pedophile.

 

[DugMachine]

No. Even if you like obviously younger anime characters there is nothing wrong with it. There is nothing inherently wrong with being attracted to the younger human body and seeing as these are cartoons you are doing nothing wrong. Pedophilia can't be helped just like homosexuals can't help but be attracted to the other sex. Difference is you'll get put in fucking jail if you touch a kid and you shouldn't so stick with cartoons where nobody gets hurt.

 

[Mr F.]

No, it doesn't. It's a drawing. Liking underage anime characters is fine because there is literally nothing harmful you can do to them.

Well...

Whilst I agree in nature (I mean, no harm has been done, no harm ever WILL be done, you get the whole idea) and I agree that thought crime is a bad policy (Yet there are plenty of things which count as thought crime. I mean, if you admit to your therapist that you have ever considered how to plot a terror attack you will be immediately referred to the police. The NDA they tell you about doesn't involve terrorism. Not that I have ever been in that position, I just used to be a counsellor in the UK) if you have depictions of underage anime characters who are depicted committing sexual acts you can be charged for viewing CP, at least in the UK.

So again, I agree in nature, but if you were to have any, say, lolicon on your computer, you could go to prison. More so when you factor in the nature of Bit-torrent and the fact that it is automatically being shared with people (= Distribution). Weird shit comes up when you are providing counselling for people.

OT:

Short of lollicon there is nothing wrong with this on any level. It is a fictional depiction of a character, nobody is harmed and the way they are in your "Head" or whatever is different. With a lot of them they are stylised to be cute/beautiful, so it is understandable (And an indication of good art) if you find an anime character attractive.

That said...

Over in the UK finding people under the age of 16 is frowned upon. Unlike in the US, there is no such thing as "Statuatory Rape". Everything is classed as "Rape of a minor" (Minor being anyone under 16) and any sexual act with a minor counts as rape (Unless it is between two females, there the law gets very murky because it has not been properly legislated whatsoever. Urgh. I know too much about this stuff. Its not that I am a creeper, I was considering going into law, particularly the law surrounding acts such as these and whatnot). The reason I point this out is, under British law, having sex with someone who has not turned 16 is considered to be peadophilic, creating images (Even fantastical ones) are considered to be the same, free speech doesnt cover all art work (Lost Girls for example being banned out here yet books like Lolita are not, one is a graphic novel and therefore not covered).

So, what I am trying to say, essentially, is that whilst under the "True" definition of peadophile liking someone who is, say, 14 would not be peadophilic, in the UK it would be. Finally, that true definition really should not be used in discussion. Because, following that logic (Finding those who look pre-pubescent attractive) having feelings for a very youthful 20 year old would make you a peadophile. Which is why the Aussies banned pornography involving girls with small tits.

*sigh* GOD I WENT OFF TOPIC.

tldr; Technically, no it doesn't make you a peado. In the UK, under legislative law, it would be. I, personally, have no problem with it.

 

[TehCookie]

If you're talking about loli's I'd say yes. If you just mean a generic anime girl, no. They're not a child.