its so weird when i see ppl talk abt this because both sides are wrong!
ima use inuyasha and kami-sama kiss as examples
so i saw a post where someone said that tomoe and his gfs relationship is problematic, which i too was worried it was, then they said its bc hes 600 years old....
holy illiteracy-
then ppl started saying it isnt problematic- because its fiction??????? or bc age of consent is lower in japan (btw age of consent being 13 in japan means they can consent to other minors, its still illegal for adults to date minors there so its actually not a justification)
both sides were NOT cooking
tomoe is a fictional race and is presented to be a late teen, i imagine him being 18-21, but he also presents himself as a highschooler at her school so id say 18 or 19
his gf i see as 17 which she actually is in the anime and shes 16 in the start of the manga
so no i dont personally see this as a CRAZY age gap bc they are in the same age range, the whol 'hes a 600 year old man-' is just dumb bc hes not a old man like he has the mind and body of a teen bruh
anyways the 'its fiction' is not a justification ESPECIALLY for shoujo which is targeted at teen girls because this means its normalizing behaviors/relationships that could be dangerous irl and lead to grooming
this is why i HATE sesrin with a passion bc its essentially a guy dating a girl he took care of when she was 8 as soon as she turns 18
anyways i hope this comes off as common sense but i see NO ONE ever explain it this way
also i dont think time period is a valid excuse either depending on how its handled, i write alot of historical fantasy so i get wanting to be historically accurate but if its handled in a way that glorifies these relationships instead of handling it with meaningful intention then it just feels like a excuse to write abt ones weird fantasies
also a lil unrelated but i feel like publicly shipping kids with adults to 'cope' is creepy, if your gonna do i keep it to yourself because fiction effects reality and its important not to normalize this stuff in media