>>281193694
>>281196914
I just feel like Tsucc's libido informs his work too much to fully separate it. I don't mean that as a criticism, either; I just feel like something worthwhile and meaningful is lost if we're coming at this from the whole "Made in Abyss is good is you ignore the weird stuff" angle I see so often.
Look at the Volume 14 cover. It's objectively really fucking good, but it's also the work of an unrepentant shotacon. I'm not into that shit, but I'd be a fool to think that the author being a shota-appreciator didn't wind up informing Reg looking beautiful there. See the problem?
It's a similar thing with the gore. People appreciate the shock factor of it, but do you think that emotionally-effective guro scenes like that came from the mind of some normal, boring dude?
To go even further, and maybe concede a point to the reddit antis who say you can't separate fandom from the author, Tsukushi is (to his CREDIT) very engaged with his fans. The amount of sharing and involvement (i.e. fanservice by definition) with the author MIA fans enjoy really is a cut above what other fandoms get. Bro chats with his fans and lets them watch him draw. He retweets their fanart and hornyposts. He is, himself, a Made In Abyss fan, and the most powerful among them.
I feel like "death of the author" is harder here.
THAT SAID, if the author were really turned-on by beetles and he drew a beetle in every chapter to fap to, that wouldn't mean that beetles were pornographic.
But then again, we're talking about titties, not some random non-sexual thing, so maybe that's a dishonest comparison.
To be clear, I LIKE artistic nudity and it makes me happy that such a brazen example of it is SO high-quality that you'd legitimately look tasteless to dismiss it outright. I just feel like the horny is almost integral to the work.