#and especially shonen's brand of male gaze

[neversetyoufree]

i have come to the realization that vnc is a fantastic example of anime fanservice that appeals to the female gaze. from the character design to the way that intimacy is so closely tied to vulnerability,,, don’t get me started i could go all day

Oh absolutely! It is so obviously catering to the female gaze, lol.

Like, the main 4 characters are all objectively designed to be hot, and Domi and Jeanne are certainly curvy enough, but the camera tends to linger and emphasize certain scenes of Noé and Vanitas in a way that it really doesn't for the gals. Remember that scene where Noé gets bit by Chloé in Gévaudan? Mochijun isn't subtle sometimes. And even in moments like the VaniJeanne scenes, almost all of the focus is usually on Vanitas and his reactions to things. Like, a male gazey version of those scenes almost certainly would not be zooming in on details like Vanitas's blushing and his hand covering his mouth, y'know?

I've said it before, but despite technically being a shonen, Vnc's hornier scenes have much more of a josei vibe to me than anything else. It's totally lacking in that sort of "boobs lolll" tone that usually defines fanservice in shonen media.

(That's also why the couple of moments in the anime adaptation that do get more male gazey really stood out to me lol. They added an extra shot, like, panning down Jeanne's body when she strips in that cabin, and I could immediately tell it was an added shot that wasn't in the manga bc it just felt so jarring and un-mochijun.)

And meanwhile, when it's Domi and Jeanne getting into more actiony scenes, the way they're framed actually makes them feel powerful and cool, and not just props to drool over like you sometimes get. One of my favorite Jeanne panels in the whole series is this one:

because it's such an archetypal "badass action hero" framing. How many times have you seen this exact pose with a woman collapsed on the ground as the hero stands above or just in front of her, swooping in to rescue her from danger? And every aspect of how she's drawn, from the perspective to the power stance to the cape flowing in the wind, is pulled from a "baby's first badass" art guide. And it works! It's a popular kind of shot for a reason! But it's fairly rare to get this kind of classic action hero framing applied to women. It's not often I get to bust out the phrase "female power fantasy," but you can definitely apply it to some scenes in Vnc.

(Even though there's kind of an interesting tension there, since outside her badass soldier shtick, the whole point of Jeanne is that she's a woman who really doesn't have any kind of power or agency. But that's a problem for another day).

I have a feeling this is probably part of why Domi and Jeanne seem to appeal to wlw so much. Because in addition to Dominique being queer as hell, they're both hot women who have scenes dedicated to going "fuck yeah, look how cool and powerful she is" in a non-male-gaze way. That shot of sweaty Domi flipping her hair out of her face in the amusement park doesn't really fit the typical shonen brand of "hot girl," but it absolutely works as wlw bait.