The Sexy Asstronaut (formerly Blackcatula)

I’m gonna start operating under the assumption that the whole purpose of Ryoka’s character is to distract us, make us pay attention to the absurdly large sweater pillows on the cutesy dancing tiddy girl instead of the plot twist that’s about to smack us right in the face from left field like the rogue bounce of an unholstered titty hitting you in the face when you run down the stairs

I’m really, REALLY fascinated by all the crazy shit going on in Occultic;Nine, there’s a ton of really cool stuff to dig into (the science of metaphysical concepts like souls and the world of the dead, seeing the world from the eyes of people who practice occult things, using psychology to explain or speculate on occult phenomena, the pressure to conform your own opinion to one or all of the above, and the eternal question of conspiracy - a hunt for a single target to direct all the blame at). I find myself really immersed in every episode. Well, I kind of HAVE to be if I’m gonna successfully speed read those whiz-bang subtitles, good grief!

Not to mention, the art is really fucking ace. The colors are vibrant and interesting, the backgrounds are extremely detailed, and every scene is so beautifully stylized like a good psychological thriller should be. A really tense but immersive atmosphere.

And the characters are amazing too! This series is helmed by the guy who brought us Steins;Gate, and as such, is also full of quirky and weird characters, each of whom has their own important role and backstory that contributes to the concurrent, converging story. I’m really intrigued!

Too bad all anyone wants to talk about is The Boob Girl.

By which I mean, a lot of people seem to ONLY watch the show for Boob Girl, or REFUSE to watch the show because of Boob Girl. Sucks, doesn’t it.

I wanted to write something about how invested in this show I am, but I wanted to do it without having an opinion either way on Boob Girl. But I guess that’s bullshit, because apparently there’s some part of me that still DOES want me to have an opinion. So okay, here’s my opinion.

I don’t know if Ryoka (Boob Girl) is supposed to be a “fanservice” character or not. Maybe she was just shoehorned into the show to get people to watch it or talk about it (cause lol anime boobs amirite). Maybe she’s supposed to be a parody of “lol anime boobs”; just a joke character. Maybe she’s supposed to be some kind of satire, like, “you won’t take this character seriously because she’s a sing-song head-in-the-clouds nutjob with cartoonishly oversized boobs, but she’s actually the PLOT TWIST EVIL GENIUS VILLAIN”. I don’t know. I can’t tell. In a world where a murder scene matches exactly a scene in a yaoi manga drawn by an artist who saw in a [prophetic] dream, a Big Booby Anime Girl like Ryoka doesn’t really feel “out of place”. But I don’t know what she really adds to that world, either. Not yet, anyway. We’re only on episode 4...

But for now, I’m choosing to watch the show as if she’s a character with a purpose. I’m not letting the boobs distract me one way or another. “Some people just have gigantic boobies”, I’m telling myself and shrugging the thought away. And it’s true. Sometimes in real life, people just have big boobs. Like, factually. And that’s all there is to it.

I’m not gonna pretend that anime doesn’t have a boobs problem, nor am I gonna defend the creators if Ryoka’s only purpose is a whole lotta jiggle. But I am going to focus on the fact that I don’t want any of my own preconceived notions - or notions I’ve inherited as a result of automatically conforming to the opinions of my peers - dictating how I should or shouldn’t feel about a character like this. I don’t want to feel like I should automatically roll my eyes every time she’s on screen. But I also don’t want to feel like she needs a huge drawn-out rigmarole defending the use Big Booby Anime Girls to subvert expectations and how everyone is “wrong” for not liking her. I want to see her for what she is, not for what I’m preconditioned to see her AS.

I feel like there’s more I wanna dig into on that subject, but that’s getting off topic.

tl;dr - Yeah, Occultic;Nine has a Big Booby Anime Girl. I’ve accepted that. I wish people were talking more about the rest of the show’s content though. I love this show.