After a number of anime that were slated to premier in the summer were delayed due to pandemic-related issues, Japan’s fall TV season has begun with a full lineup of new series, including "Wandering Witch," which aired its first episode last weekend.
Based off a popular light novel series, which in turn has an ongoing manga adaptation, "Wandering Witch," also known as "Wandering Witch-The Journey of Elaina," promises viewers a look into a world full of fantasy and wonder. What it won’t be providing, though, are a peek at anyone’s of the characters’ panties.
▼ "Wandering Witch" preview (pantyless)
While that wouldn’t be a noteworthy creative decision in many forms of media, the panty shot has a long tradition in the anime/manga industry. The no-onscreen underwear policy comes straight from "Wandering Witch’s" creator, though, light novel author Jogi Shiraishi.
In an interview with anime magazine Newtype, Shiraishi was asked about meeting with the anime’s production staff, and recalled: “The only request I made was ‘Please do not, under any circumstances, show [the characters’] underwear.’ I’d like the series to keep a broad range of ages in its fanbase, and to be a show that people of a wide range of ages will watch. That was the only major request I made. Meeting with the anime staff was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my entire life…[laughs].”
While some might see the apparent need for the request as a depressing example of how nonchalantly lascivious anime’s visual direction can be, in "Wandering Witch’s" case a glimpse of underwear could have come about even without any particularly purposeful gratuitousness.
Unlike a novel or manga’s still illustrations, animation requires characters to be shown in a far greater number of perspectives and poses, and with "Wandering Witch" being a story about a witch in training who wears a fashionably short skirt and spends a lot of time flying around on a broom, an incidental upskirt angle is something storyboarders and animators might need to consciously avoid (even the heroine of Studio Ghibli’s highly respectable "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" has her underwear visible for a moment in the course of her skirted adventures).
Seeing as how the above-seen sequence from the first episode would have been a prime panty shot opportunity in a less wholesomely drawn show, it looks like the anime’s staff is taking Shiraishi’s request to heart.
Source: Newtype via Otakomu
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2020/10/07/no-panty-shots-under-any-circumstances-please-says-animes-creator-to-animation-staff/
20 Comments
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Aly Rustom
good.
JJ Jetplane
I like this guy.
Mickelicious
Progress. I'm no prude, but those panty shots make me cringe.
timeon
they just lost half of their audience...
yakyak
Then it's not anime!
William Round
The thing is in Netflix and it is quite good both in story and animation quality. Not exactly what I like to see but well done nevertheless. I agree that cheap fanservice would have been not appropriate for this.
Toshihiro
Panty shots are just meant to boost up the show's fanbase anyway. You won't need those cheap tricks with a show with beautiful graphics such as this.
Sneezy
Cool.
Cogito Ergo Sum
He " betrays" his compatriots' obsession with panties !!
KariHaruka
No pantsu? The fanboys won't be buying the BDs then....
Ipanema Beach
This is a great decision and very long overdue. The showing of panties has been banned worldwide for decades yet Japan is only catching up now, surprise surprise.. Thankfully women who show their panties in public in the West get jailed. Japan should follow suit
gogogo
"A tradition" that will get you years long jail terms in other countries.
David Michael Lockard
Reading it in print and feeling it from your heart is great.
The only problem is when you look at the shot in the article it is almost worse than her panties being shown there instead.
Like going from wearing underwear to not wearing underwear. I would question the need for any upskirt shots, with or without panties, and probably wouldn't use any in my animes.
Pukey2
In a civilized country, such a request wouldn't even be needed.
Vanessa Carlisle
It seems most are confused about who that actually condemns. Some people want to sterilize the world. I am thankful I am exposed to those types less in Japan, and only have to worry about being exposed to that mental disease online.
ReynardFox
How monumentally sad is it that a.) he has to ask the studio not to put panty shots in the anime and b.) that this is so astoundingly rare that it qualifies as news...Yikes all around.
lostrune2
Konosuba - the request made the heroine go commando instead