Sugoi-Con - Sexism in Anime

There's a fine line between sexy and sexist in anime, according to Scott Frazier, the animator who spent 15 years dealing with the hangups and quirks of that art form and its creators. "Anime has a lot of female characters because the people who make it are men," Frazier said at a Sugoi-Con panel discussion. "If you work on something ten hours a day and you're a guy, would you rather draw men or women?" Part of the reason that anime and manga are sexier than cartoons and comics in North America is because the Japanese are more relaxed about sex, Frazier said...
...but another reason is because the creators of that art aren't inhibited about displaying their preferences (fetishes?) on screen and on paper so their audience can share. "It's nice to have your fixations, but when a director is using his film to masturbate on screen, it goes too far," said Frazier. He points to a couple of shows that display their creators' preferences: Plastic Little (Frazier isn't the only one to call it "Plastic Nipple") and Amazing Nurse Nanako ("It's the most misogynist thing I've seen in the last twelve years," Frazier observed).
The kinkier material from Japan tens to be either in live-action films or in manga. Frazier said it's less a matter of sex than control and humiliation - and it has an audience. Again, Japan is outwardly conservative on matters of sex, but there seems to be a wild collection of fantasies in that country.

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