18if #09 — Shark Lady, The Penis Genie, and Vagina Immolation

September 1st, 2017

 

That seems like a solid band name.

Impressions:

What the ever living hell was this episode? I'm not even sure where to begin. Basically, to summarize, a universally preyed-upon pop idol is murderously stabbed into a coma, where she becomes a sadist idol producer who turns everyone she knew (including the protagonist and all other males) into her own all-female idol stable for a long bit of training montage, including, but not limited to, lighting crotches on fire and magical girl transformation sequences into lumps of poop. Whose-Her-Face eventually turns the protagonist back into a male, whereupon he gets a permanent erection and is dragged into a torture chamber full of penis-guilltones, sodomy chairs, and dildos, then tortured for the crime of penis-having until Stabette realizes that's not who she really is. She runs off in tears, the protagonist turns his dick into a genie, and sticks everyone else to the walls with goo. Then, he waltzes out, now completely naked, and we get how her life was ruined by paparazzi, having a boyfriend, and how the idol industry are dicks about that.

It's probably the most accurate portrayal of the exploitive idol industry I've seen in a while, and isn't that a depressing thought? That said, I'm not sure it quite aspires to the satire it's purporting to be. It's a little too good-natured in its idol torture, too cheery with the bubblegum pop montage, and Stabette herself too blameless in the perpetuation of all of it while everyone else is pure evil. Asking for a nuanced takedown of the worst parts of the idol industry in a 20 minute episode is a lot, I'm aware, but at the end, the only points it makes are that idols are worked really hard, and that they unfairly get raked over for not being the perfect virginal icon 24/7. Not exactly earth-shattering, and given less time than the CD-selling montage.

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One Lonely Comment

  • arknoir says:

    18ifmonogatari with 50% more fakeshaftmation