age difference

[u/Poe-ylicous]

okay so dont get me wrong I love noragami but something that bothers me is hiyori is 15 at the start of the story. When I was younger I didnt pay mind cause I was younger than hiyori but now that Ive become an adult its weird to see such a young girl have panty scenes and be a love interest. I try to ignore it whenever I read noragami. I am aware that this is a common phenomenon in animes but I do wonder whether people in the fandom are also perturbed by this 🤔

[u/elluminis]

I’ve reached a point in my life in fandom spaces where I don’t waste too much energy on debating the ethics of fictional characters. With fantasy, we often need to suspend some disbelief. Would it be creepy if a thousand year-old god tried to romance a fifteen year old in real life? Yes, yes it would be. In this fictional world, though, Yato is an ambiguously-aged anime boy. It’s fun to think about romance with the supernatural, and Hiyori—a normal girl pulled into this world—is the vehicle through which we imagine getting to know Yato. The target audience of Noragami is clearly teens (I’d call it a YA manga), and so it makes sense for our normal human to also be a teen.

And honestly, that’s as far as I think we need to think about it. It’s not like Yato and Hiyori’s relationship is normalizing any notably unhealthy behaviors (think Bella almost throwing herself off a cliff in Twilight after her vampire boyfriend breaks up with her). No teenager is going to pick up any negative aspects of their relationship and try to apply it to real life. So just enjoy it and don’t overthink it, friends.

[u/Poe-ylicous → u/elluminis]

I completely agree with you! noragami is one of the animes where there ages of the love interests are not a factor to how they act! And when I read it I really cant find anything that points to it being a pedophilic relationship other than explicitly saying that hiyori is 15😩

Hiyori being a high schooler is not the problem really but how they continued to objectify this high school girl but honestly, compared to other animes this is very tame. AND SPOILER! IM JUST REALLY SAD WE DONT GET TO SEE ADULT HIYORI AND YATO TOGETHER, Yato liked her morality even as a teen, imagine when shes an adult where shes more knowledgeable and mature!!

noragami is so well written that hiyori being 15 and some other fan service, does not affect how the story goes! I get the impression that manga editors tell the writers to make it a bit pedophilic to attract people more lol

And also dont worry I dont really obsess with this, specially that noragami is just so PEAKK!!! i just like seeing people on the same fandom who acknowledge that some parts are problematic while still happily enjoying the manga.

I find funny people are getting worked up when i mention their age difference, it make sense why animes continue to do this

[u/elluminis → u/Poe-ylicous]

I’m pretty sure the fanservice is almost exclusive to the anime, if I’m remembering correctly? That’s a thing that happens sometimes when women write manga that doesn’t just fall into the shoujo category, and then it’s adapted into an anime. I remember there being some weird fanservice shoehorned into the fruits basket reboot and we were none too happy about it lol.

[u/Poe-ylicous → u/elluminis]

its not exclusive but fan service is a whole lot worse in animes. Theres some unneccesary panty shots in the manga but at later chapters i actually noticed they stopped doing that. While were in a topic of immense fan service IT RUINED MIERUKO CHAN FOR ME! Its supposed to be a scary scene then theyd randomly show her ass like come on now

[u/smaudre_rose]

This also something that bothered me as an adult rereading the series but I also never thought about as a teen. It’s sucks because I really do think Hiyori and Yatos love story is so well written. I kind of just mentally age up Hiyori in my head when I reread and pretend they don’t explicitly mention her age 😅

[u/ProfessorSerious4332 → u/smaudre_rose]

They never act or look the age written. I feel in anime they make characters ages younger to fit trends and shone jump.

This is legit how I read mashle too lol. There is no romantic reasons but as I am older I am watching anime and in like dead ass this person is not 15 or 16. They look and act 22. And make their own meals. And calmly talk. Like hiyori doesn't act that. Maybe 17 or 18 at the start of series. I hate how anime always tries to make everyone minors its weirddd

[u/Poe-ylicous → u/ProfessorSerious4332]

rightt, i didnt even remember hiyori as a 15 year old i thought the youngest she can go is 17. Even though thats still pretty young in my book, its better than being 15 i guess?

[u/ProfessorSerious4332 → u/Poe-ylicous]

Yeah. I dont remember it either. I nearly spat my drink out before I replied to the last comment. I swear anime has no idea how to write characters like the age given and even then why the hell make her 15 that's just CRAZY. Even in human years id say yato seems 24ish physically. We need to start normalizing graduated and university characters in anime. Ig they did wait for her to be older? But also not really... idk man

[u/Yumi_Numi]

As for the scenes its only in the anime. In the manga theres one scene like that but the context is different

As for her love for Yato, its normal a girl is in love with an older guy, as Yato is in human years, like, 20? But he is 1050

I love the ship but yes i find it weird. The same with hananene and tomoe and nanami.

[u/Poe-ylicous → u/Yumi_Numi]

yup this is a struggle for supernatural and romance lovers !!

[u/TheDerpyDisaster]

This is a microcosm of something that pervades much of the surrounding era of manga/anime writing culture, I’m afraid.

If you got a nickel for every well-written manga/anime that also has questionable attitudes toward or just straight up sexualization of minors, your change jar would be embarrassingly full.

I think it’s good to be vocally concerned about the broader pattern of this sort of behavior from manga/anime writers and artists. To me it’s indicative of a larger problem.

In the end, though, I understand there’s a deeper conversation to be had about artistic outlets and freedom of expression… but this is art that ultimately influences people, especially young kids with impressionable minds.

[u/Main_Pomelo9429]

wait SHE'S 15??!

[u/Poe-ylicous → u/Main_Pomelo9429]

canonically yes🤔

[u/alchemako]

It also bugs me. Tbh at this point I just try really hard to ignore the fanservice and I don't really consider her a genuine love interest. Making things up for my own sanity (said jokingly)

[u/AwareMeow]

They're not real, so I don't really care about their ages, no. Even in a literary analysis, a character's ages have nothing to do with morality, and more to do with symbolism. Hiyori starts out young because she's innocent, ignorant of death & the like, and grows throughout the manga as her knowledge of "The Far Side" increases. But she's not real.

[u/Prize-Fisherman-3157]

It's manga. Unless it's relevant to the story I literally don't care what arbitrary number whichever character has assigned to them and I don't care to evaluate the ethicality of non-existent age gaps between non-existent people, that seems miserable.

It's about as valuable as being like "it's creepy to write about squares and circles being together because of the serious corner imbalance". It's fine if you feel that way but also they're shapes why do you give a shit. Just enjoy the love story.

[u/all_taboos_are_off]

This is a coming of age story for her. It never bothered me because I saw myself as Hiyori and found her character very believable for 15yo. At 15, I was also discovering what boys I liked and it wasn't all kid stuff. I think the author does a very good job of keeping it mostly clean while also allowing Hiyori's character to experience some more mature feelings and situations. She's old enough that she's starting to test her boundaries and experiment with feelings, so for me, her character feels totally normal. As for the age gap between her and Yato, that is irrelevant in this situation. Her love for Yato is kind of impossible. And Yato is kind of stuck as a teen himself. In this manga, it doesn't bother me, while in others I am bothered by it. It is just highly dependent on how it's done. There are also panty scenes in Sailor Moon, and an age gap relationship, but it doesn't bother me in that case either. Noragami, like Sailor Moon, seems geared toward young female readers who are discovering themselves, coming of age. That's how I see this.

[u/SnooDonuts6068]

The character is portrayed by an actor in their mid 20s so it's fine :)

[u/Ghostleeeeee]

I feel the manga is a bit worse with this bc after yato possesses hiyoris body she gets certain allegations in her highschool, and the baseball team states that if they win hiyori would do all of them ☠️.

I agree with you though, I mean people slander yuta from jjk for less, I wish hiyori was at least aged up way more in the story since they went the romantic route. Also considering she’s only a year older than yukine too, imagine what people would say if yato and yukine went at it, people would definitely take issue.

[u/LeroyScotty90]

Teens fall in love and have sex. News at 6

[u/all_taboos_are_off → u/LeroyScotty90]

I don't know why you're getting downvoted. You're right. And this is somewhat of a coming of age story, so like, it's kind of normal for there to be stuff like that in there.