High Guardian Spice

Crunchyroll (where a lot of us watch our anime - at least from what I've heard) is starting their own animation studio!

One of the new shows launching in 2019 is High Guardian Spice, which is kind of like Little Witch Academia. It's not exactly "anime" style but it has that sort of moe style to it. I know Netflix and Amazon have started making their own original series so it's fun to see that we're getting the same from Crunchyroll.

Miroku, you might not like what I'm about to say but here's my honest opinion on that show:

The art style looks nice. The writing and execution remains to be seen but it could very well turn out to be a really good show.

Having said that, I won't watch it. In fact, I cancelled my Crunchyroll subscription and deleted my account there because of it. Why? It's because of the people working on the show.

First, I was a paying subscriber to Crunchyroll because I wanted to support the anime industry. If they were taking a good chunk of my $7 per month to fund this new animation studio, my money was being allocated for something other than what I was led to believe as a paying customer.

Why don't I want to fund this? The promotional video for the show claimed that the staff was "diverse". They made it a point to state that their writing staff was 100% women. That's fine but it's not diverse. There are at least two other all-female animation studios that produce fantastic work. The promotional video also had a very arrogant tone, claiming that other studios had forgotten how to do good 2D animation. This is a subjective statement but not something a brand new studio should boast before having a portfolio of successful work.

I do not like any company to use discriminatory hiring practices. It seems it should be illegal for any U.S. company to discriminate based on race, gender, etc. but there is apparently a double standard in practice. Kate Leth, one of the people working for this studio, has a history of making hateful statements toward men on Twitter.

I'm no vehement anti-feminist but I don't like bigotry regardless of the perpetrator. This is why I will not support the show.

Huh. Yeah I don't use Crunchroll - never cared for their video player. I stream elsewhere.

So of course this is the first I've heard of this show. From what I've read here, all I can say is "get woke, go broke". I'm not looking to get banned so I'll hold off on my views about the sjw stuff.

SirAuron, "SJW" is a pretty loaded term so be careful tossing that around.

Anyway, so that people can judge for themselves, here's the promotional video in question:

You already know my thoughts on the video itself.

I think what has happened is that the movement for real equality and fairness in society has become corrupted by hate. That's what irks me about it. It taints any legitimacy these movements may have.

On Saturday, September 1st, 2018 at 5:27 pm, Nitrocosm said:

It is from a place of privilege that you say that. "Don't hate us because hate de-legitimaizes your cause, muh feelings but f*** your feelings"... Yeah that logic doesn't pan out, Nitro. Sorry, not sorry.

Hate is justified when it's in response to systematic oppression, which is an act of hate in itself. And I wouldn't even call feminists hateful. It's more frustration when, even in 2018, women and ethnic minorities still don't enjoy the same status as white men. So you need to understand that you still have privilege when you say "don't be hateful".