As for the final arc, the bakeneko one, it might sound strange but I really liked how Setsuko’s death is “sexualized”.

When her boss assaults her he is not trying to SA her. He is trying to impose himself physically to her so she stops threatening him professionally and socially. Yet, in their struggle, her bra (or camisole, but very clearly a piece of underwear) is revealed and he ends up between her legs while holding her above the bridge.

It is a very sexualized position and it works so well for what the story is trying to tell. Her boss is assaulting her/trying to destroy her article not only because he is corrupted. He is doing that to her because she is a woman.

Setsuko is almost right when she accuses him of being jealous of her. He is slightly jealous, but most of all he despises her. Because she is a woman. He dislikes that she is trying her hand at “serious” journalism (he wants to send her back to the lifestyle rubric of the newspaper), he probably dislikes that she dresses in an androgynous fashion (the fashion of the 20-30’s was often criticized for being too masculine and the anime drew our attention to this fact), etc. and is hoping that life is going to bring her back to her natural place without him intervening. When life doesn’t (because there is no such thing as a natural place for women), and she manages to uncover a bigger scandal than he could ever do, he starts sabotaging her not only because he is corrupted, but also to bring her back to her “proper” place himself.

Therefore, framing his physical assault of her the same way as SA makes that facet of their dynamic completely explicit. Setsuko is not only killed as a journalist threatening the statu quo would be, she is also killed as a woman threatening the statu quo (here the patriarchy).

Showing that through the choreography of the fight was such a clever choice.

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Inktober day 26: predatory

I was a bit nervous about this drawing as soon as I planned it, but in the end it was a lot of fun :)