desensitized: thanks, anime!

[ltgmars]

I was struck yet again by just how desensitized I am to "weird" relationships and things when I was talking to Isaac the other day. Somehow I had gotten talking about Rika-chan's and Terada-sensei's relationship in CardCaptor Sakura (for those of you who don't know, it's basically a romantic relationship between a fourth-grader and a teacher; they get pre-engaged with a ring and everything). So basically a 10-year-old and someone who's presumably in his early-mid-20s.

On top of that, one of my favorite couples is Aoshi/Misao from Ruroken, which is 26/16, which I guess is okay if you ignore the fact that Aoshi's been taking care of Misao since she was 5 or something. And it's not like Aoshi's feeling developed when she was still a kid. In fact, one could argue that his romantic feelings don't begin to develop until somewhere during/after the Kyoto Arc, when she's 16. (Another could argue that he doesn't develop romantic feelings for her at all. Another could punch the other another in the gut for being stupid.)

I mean, if it's love, it's love, but usually large gaps in age like that only make more sense when you're older. Where is it that there's an equation for the "acceptable age for dating"? It's like, if you're over 18, it's half your age + 7. So for me, the acceptable age is 20/2+7 = 17.

This isn't to demean anyone who's in an age-gap relationship. I was just commenting on how something that seems strange sometimes feels fairly normal for me.

Comments

[goshenite.livejournal.com]

*agrees* XD It's still weird when you think about it, though.

Also. Did you get the "acceptable age" equation from somewhere? >D I thought I saw it a while back...

[ltgmars.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a friend of mine who's 22 (just graduated from college) has a 30-year-old boyfriend, and it was really weird when I met him to find out he was 30 and with a solid career and stuff. I was like, "WTF, he's 30..." :/

I don't remember where the equation came from, actually. It seems like an XKCD kind of thing, maybe. *shrugs*

[goshenite.livejournal.com]

XD that's exactly where I saw it! :O

Yay eekery. XD

You know, that's not so weird as my friend who married a 29 year old when she was 19. @_@; (Just last year.)

[ltgmars.livejournal.com]

Whuh, I just think getting married at that age is weird in general. I'm nowhere near ready to get married at this point in my life, though I guess for some people it works for them. (Haha, this is getting into awful territory where I pretty much bash all kinds of "alternative lifestyles" like age-gap dating and marrying early...)

[mahantas.livejournal.com]

I always just add two years in my head to every character's age if they're 16 or over, four if they're under 16. This may be the move of a philistine, but I do not care very much.

HI INEZ WHAT'S HAPPENING

[ltgmars.livejournal.com]

... makes sense.

NOTHING MUCH HOW ARE YOU

So over winter break I'll be home for all of a week. Can I see you??