I seem to be posting a lot about comics lately...

[telophase]

...so here's a link to a post by Noah Berlatsky over on comiXology about bad superheroine cheesecake, titled "Adding Incompetence to Insult."

But more often, you get images like those above, where Star Sapphire's costume makes her look vulnerable, not tough…or the Marvel Divas cover, where everybody but Hellcat is making with the bedroom eyes, and the only threat is that Black Cat's costume may pinch so tightly that she actually pops apart at the waist, causing everything from the torso up to go swooshing about like a deflating balloon.

Comments

[chomiji]

You're right that Yaone's body language has a lot to do with it. The big bow is for me the crowning bit of the argument against the idea that it's meant to be a sexy outfit ... it's just a strange outfit! Dokugakuji's original outfit was pretty bizarre too, really.

[octopedingenue]

Body language has such a HUGE impact on how a character design comes across! I doubt I'd notice or care about the skin-exposing outfits worn by superheroines half as much if every shot weren't focused on THRUSTING and TWISTING the exposed and tightly-covered body parts for the camera. Again in Saiyuki, Lirin has proportionately large breasts, but she's seldom sexualized through the way she acts and carries herself. In the picture above, her position makes for HELLO BOOBS, but that wide hands-behind-neck pose is one I've seen most often used by shonen heroes like Ranma and Naruto.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Lirin's large boobs have always thrown me--they just don't belong!--but never the extent of keeping me from connecting with the story, or ticking me off. They're always just a little bit of "What?"

Re: the shonen pose. OMG yes. Yes, yes yes.

In conclusion, I love Minekura and her comics very much.