This anime have a profoundly disgusting aspect: face-hate propaganda, as one of the main characters wears face-diaper most of the time.
It is easier for animators to deface important character and don't bother drawing facial expressions, but there is no art in that. Face-less character have as little appeal as mannequin or a brick wall.
This is just another example of de-humanising trend in contemporary culture where human face is no longer considered important to convey emotions so it could be just removed/dismissed.
It might be even something much more sinister, right from the playbook of Antonio Gramsci's cultural propaganda, to normalise faceless-ness and affect human psychology through that.
This annoying trend became more common in the recent years with anime shows like Goblin Slayer and even live action TV shows like Mandalorian where protagonist never takes helmet off, so it does not even matter who plays his role because neither actor nor acting matters any more, when there are no facial expressions to communicate with viewers. Isn't this the most effective way to remove actor from acting, as well as to destroy the most important aspect of non-verbal communication?
Well, not really... definitely not. I didn't even saw it hinting any face-hate propaganda thingy. Her mask somewhat plays a role in indicating her low esteem. It's not really implying that she used it because she hates her face, but rather it's like a defense mechanism for her to hide her insecurity. I don't know if this culture is also prevalent in other continents, but there's that 'cancel' culture here in southeast Asia where people tend to cancel or bring down people who didn't meet their standards—especially the beauty standards.
The FMC is a live streamer so I understand why she hides that flaw (her buck teeth). She's afraid to be judged and ridiculed—and yes, it sounds ridiculous because it's just teeth what harm would it do to her reputation? A lot..because not all people can accept flaws—and lately I saw a lot of people like that. They tend to feed on the flaws—even the minor ones—rather than the good stuff.
Anyway, she didn't really wear that face diaper all the time—she mostly just wears it when she's outside her house and of 'course with Cherry. I don't know if you have watched the movie, but it does have a lot of nonverbal communication that was portrayed, and no—the animators didn't deface any of the characters for they're all animated in a way that they'll project the emotions that the creators wanted them to convey—and even with the mask on, the eyes still can speak and so as the hand and body movements.
Anyway, thanks for reading through my review and see you around.
Normalising embarrassment of one's own face is definitely not a pro-face attitude. If character is portrayed in such de-humanising manner, it really is beyond bad taste. Because, you know, why don't we hide our faces behind a mask in all public situations? What would human society become if everybody does that?
It's not entirely normalizing, but that's how they cope with the harshness of those people. I'm even one of the constant users of that face diaper because I know I can't change how people would react and judge my appearance, and I totally can't block my ears from listening to their insensitive comments so to avoid their judgments I tend to hide the things that most likely would be judged and so as the FMC. And no..it's not dehumanizing to feel insecure about your own flaws. It's normal to feel that way for not all people are resilient to criticisms, so if that's how they'll feel comfortable in public, why prevent them from having that mask?
Well not everybody in that movie is like that (same with real life)— for it's literally just the FMC who's wearing a mask and I think she's the representation of those people who have a hard time dealing with their insecurities, and in the end, she somehow overcome it (and I hope one day, I will also!).
Face-masks are ugly and anti-social. Promotion of ugliness (and vulgarity) in art (and anime) is not a "representation of people with insecurities". Would you like to see more face-masks in art(-gallery) or less??
Imagine face-mask on Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" -- that would be vandalism. I do not like vandalism in art and anime.
In healthy society, face-masks are redundant and unnecessary. I would like to think that we both want to see more beauty in anime, rather than more ugliness.
(FYI, FMC is uncommon and ambiguous abbreviation: https://www.abbreviations.com/FMC)
Ok... that's your opinion and I respect it, but for me, art isn't just all about beautiful things. I know we all have different perceptions of how we see art, but I think it's all about expression—expressions of people's feelings and perceptions. Not all feelings are beautiful, so the portrayal will really vary especially in the current era now where diverse forms of art exist.
Da Vinci came from a different era, and I think it would be unfair to compare a completely different expression of art. Face mask on Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is definitely weird—I mean it's Da Vinci's art so we totally have no right to do that to his art...besides Mona Lisa looks confidently mysterious so I guess there's no use for her to hide behind face mask.
And yes, I also want to see more beauty in anime, but we all have different views about what's beauty. For me it isn't just the absence of flaws, but rather the presence of confidence and acceptance of the insecurities which like I said, the FMC somehow achieved in the end.
(Btw, FMC is Female Main Character. I've been using it since then, so I thought people here kinda understand it by now..hehe)