What can I say other than I love postmodernism! And I see another amazing statement from Yoneyama.
The leering angle at which we look at her, the sultry look in her eyes, the way the tits are positioned just over the surface in a way that would be an uncomfortable pose for her, but makes her body sexy: the fact that that's exactly how she used her burgeoning sexuality in the show to assert her maturity.... Similar to how Lipstick-Rei is portrayed staring blankly as she has been ordered to look good for Gendou's/Reifans leering eyes:
I hate to break it to you, but most art is sexualized, it's an inherent part of the human condition and subsequently our artworks since the dawn of human history. Consider Venus of Willendorf, Michelangelos David right up to modern pop music videos. Evangelion is especially infamous for depicting its cast in skin-tight plug-suits (the epitome being Asuka's slut-suit in 2.22), and its fandom turns it up to 11 regularly. Despite one could question the ethics behind depicting 14 year old girls in a sexually pronounced manner - I don't really mind it, as it's a fruitless conversation to have, since for the reasons stated above it is not unique to Evangelion. In the end it's a cartoon aimed at a teenage audience, and while the forced sexiness might be self-serving it
is a huge reason for Evangelion's ongoing success. So if sleazy Otaku populating their rooms with depictions of underage sex-objects means I get to see more of Anno's directing, I couldn't care less.
Nothing about this is revolutionary - this observation is something Miyazaki and Anno lament for like 40 years now and it propelled
Takeshi Murakami into international superstardom.
BUT anyhow, her illustrations really make me
question my willful ignorance. It makes me feel sleazy for ignoring this huge probably problematic part of this artwork I love so dearly, and that's why I think Yoneyama Mai's pieces are fantastic statements of my ambivalent feelings. Like I love Apple products, completely ignoring the conditions they have been produced in. But as with Evangelion portraying its female cast like objects to be lusted after, and like Apple builds its Computers in conditions not accepted in the West, both of them are just indicative of a system in disarray. Most Anime is founded on the sex drive of incels, most consumer products are produced in terrible conditions. The difference is me not only accepting it, but in these particular cases celebrating them with a blind eye to its further troublesome implications.
When I saw lipstick-Rei getting ready to be a slut for Gendou/you (TM) I thought this was a (happy) accident, but seeing her depicting Asuka in a slutpose in a bathtub (!) no less, just goes to show she knows what she's doing. Great observation, done in a subtle manner but also just on a sheer technical level, superbly realized.
kuribo-04 wrote:I dunno if it's meant to evoke the bathtub scene. It's framed differently, it's a different place and she has clothing on. As for the sexualization of the characters, these illustrations just continue what the show already did. In theory the characters could be older here, if that makes you feel better about it.
You're completely missing my point. I'm not feeling bad about it, I'm celebrating, that her artwork goes beyond "oh this looks cool/this turns me on" and actually talks to me.