Violet Evergarden is visually beautiful but morally disgusting
Just started Violet Evergarden. The animation is breathtaking and I really do like the stories (especially the love between family members & friends), but seeing adult characters grooming kids is nauseating.
So far I've finished episode 5, and I'm kind of scared to continue watching the show. I hope it gets better, but judging by the show's stance on a barely-teen princess being proposed to by a prince in his mid-20s, I doubt it. And yes, I am taking into account the norms of that era especially during times of war where the mortality rate is high and there are far worse age gaps e.g. a child with 50 year olds -- it is still disturbing for an adult to be attracted to a child who he even acknowledges is a 'crybaby'.
Can't say I'm surprised that this is just another anime romanticizing pedophilia and taking advantage of kids' naivete, but it never stops disappointing me how many people can ignore this just because it was set in the past. Normal does not equal to okay, legality doesn't mean morally acceptable; aside from the difference in physical maturity and brain/social development between a child and an adult, the extremely off-balanced power dynamics between the 2 groups is glaring and nothing but predatorial. Seeing people in the story and irl supporting the unions of these age gap couples makes me want to hurl.
I wish more mangaka/animators have the moral backbone to go against the grain and care about the impact of their work on victims/survivors of pedophiles and groomers, rather than gaslight society into thinking not all predators have bad intentions.