This Is A Problem - Blog Posts

If I ever end up smoking cigarettes, just know that it wasn't me giving into peer pressure, I made that decision all by myself

BNA Michiru x Shirou is a creepy and problematic ship

So I’ve recently been watching this new anime called ‘BNA: Brand New Animal’ made by Studio Trigger and I have come across the ship between the two main characters Michiru and Shirou. I personally don’t understand the appeal of this ship as their age differences are WAY too big and I don’t really feel comfortable with it (even more so with the excuse of Michiru turning 18 in episode 4).

I’ve seen people bring up things from the following list in their arguments for the ship (and similar things like this):

Michiru turns 18 in episode 4 so she’s legal

Shirou’s physical appearance looks around 20

bring up other ships that include age gaps (majority are the same as this ship where one person is SIGNIFICANTLY older in their biological age while the other is in their teens or aka a minor)

They’re fiction...

(If it’s made in Japan) Japan’s age of consent is 13 so it’s fine (though you also have to take into account that different prefectures have varying age of consent laws but in Japan entirely has a law against sexual activity with anyone under the age of 18 as statutory r***. Basically, Japan’s base age of consent is 13 but you need to remember that not ALL of Japan has this as some prefectures have a “corruption of minors” or “obscenity statutes” in place that raise the age of consent to 16-18)          Source: https://www.ageofconsent.net/world/japan

The characters that Michiru and Shirou are based on are a couple

All of these things being used for this ship (and MANY other ships) is just frustrating because it starts to make it seem like excuses to make this ship seem normal and legal. I’ve seen this kind of stuff before and it just annoys me because it just ends up making them sound selfish over this ship and not see how bad it actually is. I mean, if you applied this to reality then I bet people would definitely have more of a problem with it.

Anyway, I might continue this in a more organised format but i just needed to let my thoughts out first and see what other think about it. Please do leave feedback and your opinions on my thoughts, I would really like to see what other people think about it. Thank you