Lifesize pillows

[HarutoAsou]

Do people that buy these actually have any attraction to REAL women? I mean buying one of those life size pillows basically screams "hey, I can't get a woman in real life so I'm going to sleep with a giant anime girl printed on a pillow cover." Some aspects of Japanese culture (mostly the "otaku" culture) I just can't understand whatsoever. I mostly date Korean and Japanese girls and both of them say if they walked into a guys room and saw that they would turn around and walk out.

 

[aquamarine]

If you look at the sort of men that buy those pillows, you'll notice that they don't have a snowballs chance in hell of getting laid by anyone other than their rubber tamago kanojos. It's more sad than gross to me as I half feel bad for the poor buggers, but at the same time, they certainly aren't helping themselves by eating nothing but cup-o-ramen every other day.

 

[Sakunyuusha]

I personally don't think there's any difference between the following:

• a life-size pillow of an anime character
• a life-size doll of an anime character (not a sex-doll)
• a smaller-than-life-size doll " " " "
• a resin figurine " " " "
• a life-size poster " " " "
• a life-size wallscroll " " " "
• a smaller-than-life size poster or wallscroll " " " "

Either all of these are fucked up enough to make your Korean girlfriends turn tail on a guy or else none of them are. That's my take. Each of these sends a woman the following message: "I have an attachment, be it emotional, sexual, or both, to people who don't really exist."

To me personally, out of all the guys who buy these pillows, there are at least x% (where x is anywhere from 1 to 99, just not 0 nor 100) who are still interested in real women but who fit any of the following:

1. they're romantically frustrated. They want a real life partner, but in the meantime they're settling for second best. (Think Wilson the beach volleyball from Cast Away. Never saw the film myself, but my understanding is Tom Hanks' character talks to a beach volleyball as though it were a human companion. He does this, paradoxically, in order to prevent himself from losing his sanity.) I see the pillow the same way for this group of individuals. They're not buying the pillow because they've snapped: rather, they're buying it out of a genuine emotional need, one which if it were to go unfulfilled for any longer than it already has done would indeed probably lead them to snap.
2. they're geeky and see the pillow as otaku fun. These are the same sorts of people who may own one or more of any of the following items:
   - mousepads + wrist-rests that are shaped like an anime girl's face plus boobs
   - t-shirts that say things like "Seeking Japanese Girlfriend" or "Anime 4ever" or some such
   - anime wallscrolls and/or posters decorating the walls of their apartment / bedroom
   
   You know what the simplest extension is of this sub-group? People who have an anime wallpaper on their computer. And do you know how many people do? Neither do I, but we're probably thinking the same thing: "plenty."

My list ran out there at just two sub-groups, but I think these are the two big ones, and I think you'll agree that there are probably a fair number of people ("x%" I said, remember? Somewhere between 1% and 99%) who own one of these pillows and yet who still would like to:
- date,
- fuck, and/or
- marry
a real-life human being.

 

[Sakunyuusha]

Part 2 of my reply focuses on hentai and non-otaku fictional character attachments.

Hentai: there are plenty of women in this world, dare I say over 90% of them, who would turn tail and run away from my apartment if they saw what I have on my hard drive and in my bookcase. Seriously! Chobits, Love Hina, and other series which appeal to male virgins are just the tip of the iceberg: all the girl's gotta do is land her pupils on one of my ero-tankoubons and it's Game Over. Does this mean I have no interest in real women? Hell no, of course it doesn't. Does it mean I've given up on real women? No! Didn't I just post a thread last week about asking this one girl out? Hentai is, pure and simple, my preferred means of releasing sexual tension / experiencing the physiologic and psychologic pleasures of sex in tandem. Some guys masturbate to imagined images in their mind's eyes while they stand in front of a toilet or outstretched tissue. Some guys masturbate to pornography. Me, and others like me? We prefer hentai. It's just a different stroke for a different kind of folk, that's all. We all still want to find love in this world, and enjoy a vigorous, fun, pleasuring sex life. Hentai's just there to:
(a) fill the gaps while the missus is away, and/or
(b) fill the long-ass gap preceding the meeting of, courting of, and marrying of the missus

Non-otaku lifesize likenesses of fictional characters:

• Jesus Christ, crucified, life-size on a blanket or quilt
• Sunday comics characters (e.g. Garfield, Snoopy) as larger-than-life-size plush dolls
• hunky Hollywood studs (e.g. Brad Pitt, that vampire dude from Twilight) adorning many a teenage North American girl's bedroom wall
• gorgeous Hollywood ladies (e.g. Catherine Zeta Jones, that trailer trash girl from Transformers) on a teenage guy's bedroom wall, likewise

Wait a minute, you say. Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta Jones aren't fictional: they're real people! True. But they're a larger-than-ordinary-life pinnacle of human perfection (say some: beauty's always up for debate, of course). 99.99% of women do not look like CZJ. 99.99% of men do not look like Brad Pitt. That they are "real" in the sense that they exist doesn't mean that the girl or guy who drools over them isn't guilty of that same sin you're laying down at the feet of Pillow Guy. Both of them are lusting over something that isn't going to translate into real life. The only difference is the reason behind why the translation isn't going to happen.

Wait a minute, you say. Snoopy? Garfield? Jesus? These aren't people you crush on! These dolls and blankets are just ornamental! That's my second point: if it's possible for an ordinary person to have an ornamental (i.e. non-romantic) attachment to a life-size likeness of somebody, then I'd argue it's just as possible for some of the otaku to have the same thoughts and feelings towards their girl-pillows. They may go moe over the girl-pillow. They may get an erection just by seeing her. But it's not because they find pillows sexy. (lol) It's pure, pure psychology. They find the idea of the woman sexy. The idea of the woman whom this pillow girl symbolizes. This pinnacle of female perfection. The perfect hair. The perfect breasts. The perfect eyes. That adorable smile. That adorably embarrassed manner in which she's knotting her legs together. So on and so forth. You know what? This is no different from the Brad Pitt / Catherine Zeta Jones posters from before. There, too, you've got men and women who aren't in love with a piece of paper, and who aren't necessarily creepily obsessed with the actual human being that is known as Brad Pitt / CZJ, but who are aroused by the idea this man/woman represents. The perfect eyes. The perfect jaw. The perfect hair. The perfect lashes. The perfect smile. The perfect nose. The perfect everything.

Conclusion: in the end, I think over 50% of Planet Earth suffers from a Pygmalion complex. The difference between us individuals is the flavour of our complex. Some people go to bed with a pillow-girl, others a poster-girl, and others, like Pygmalion himself, a statue-girl. But each of us -- including Pygmalion! -- wanted to find love with a real human being. Isn't that the point of the story of Pygmalion, after all? Why else would the plot then develop with the statue coming to life: if not to try and grant Pygmalion's wish?

 

[HarutoAsou]

I personally don't think there's any difference between the following:

• a life-size pillow of an anime character
• a life-size doll of an anime character (not a sex-doll)
• a smaller-than-life-size doll " " " "
• a resin figurine " " " "
• a life-size poster " " " "
• a life-size wallscroll " " " "
• a smaller-than-life size poster or wallscroll " " " "

The difference between the rest of these is you don't go to sleep with them at night. Well...maybe the life-size doll you do (even if it's not a sex doll) and that is the creepy part. If someone is that starved for attention and needs to keep their sanity by having a pillow to talk to (of course that is just one option) then they should get out more and talk to people, even other "otakus" who atleast share the same interest.

Also comparing a drawing with a real person isn't really a fair comparison. I agree that celebrities look what the media protrays as "perfect" but they are real people, flesh and bones and not something drawn on a piece of paper with oversized eyes. Maybe it's just the fact that I've never been attracted to an anime character. I understand they are suppose to be drawn attractively, because honestly, who wants to stare at some fat anime girl, but it just never appealled to me.

I also wouldn't argue that girls may turn tail and run at your HD or whatever, I understand that some girls don't like guys that watch porn and I have around 10 GBs on my HD, but the fact is I don't flaunt my love for a fictional character that I sleep with everynight to everyone who walks into my place.

The main reason I brought up this debate is I was looking at the bedroom pictures on otacool (I was linked in another topic on this forum). Sure, as Aqua pointed out, half these guys are lepers, but with the amount of money they spend on their anime stuff (some of them have a better place than I do) they could buy some decent clothes, clean up their appearance and have real girls and real sex. Instead they are content sleeping with an anime pillow.

Maybe it's also the fact that these pillows are half naked and just make the guys look really desperate as well. I have no problem with "figures" of some sort, I happen to love Super Mario and have a few on display, but Mario isn't dressed in a 2 piece bikini and nobody thinks I beat off to Mario figurines when they aren't around which I'm sure is the image reflected on those that have these pillows and figures showing their panties off.

I don't mean to bash anyone in particular, even though it's unavoidable with a topic like this, but it would be kind of interesting to get insight from these type of people as I know a few of them exist on Akiba.

 

[Sakunyuusha]

I was playing Devil's Advocate, as is a very bad habit of most nerds online. It's all cool: you and aqua are probably right about a good many, if not most, of the people who do in fact go so far as to be one of these pillows. I was just saying, I wouldn't lump all owners of these pillows into the same category.

But even for the guys who act like the pillow is their wife/girlfriend/intimate life-partner, I'm still not sure we could rule them out of liking real women. Think of it like this: you've got men who like real women and not pillow-girls, you've got men who like pillow-girls but not real women, so why can't you have both and why can't you have neither? And I think you can, actually. I'm sure there's got to be some dude who's a little weird and kisses his pillow-girl and snuggles with her and dotes on her and stuff who'd still say to you, "I'm open to a relationship with a real woman, too. I don't discriminate on the basis of what she's made out of." Or something like that. ^^;

As for the hentai comment ... seriously? ^^; Tell me if you don't see what's ____ about these two attachments!

#085: attractive, very pretty
#283: adorable, you just wish she was your girlfriend so you could give her a big congratulatory hug

The brain's an amazing thing. It's so, so weird to me to imagine that you can't see it. And it's probably just as weird to you to hear me say that I do see it. It's like me knowing there's a leprechaun on the table and writing you off as not having the gift, and you knowing there's no leprechaun there and writing me off as insane. lol

 

[roundeyedevil]

I personally don't think there's any difference between the following:...

... [*]they're geeky and see the pillow as otaku fun. These are the same sorts of people who may own one or more of any of the following items:
- mousepads + wrist-rests that are shaped like an anime girl's face plus boobs
- t-shirts that say things like "Seeking Japanese Girlfriend" or "Anime 4ever" or some such
- anime wallscrolls and/or posters decorating the walls of their apartment / bedroom

OMG! you mean im an otaku???? i dont have the mousepad (yet) but everything else is in my souvenir bags. INCLUDING a printed pillow case! but thats normal right?:nosebleed: