Angela and I were watching the first episode of an anime called ‘Rec’ yesterday. The plot summary is as follows:

Matsumaru was stood up by a girl whom he had asked to go out with him. When he was trying to throw away the movie tickets, a girl blamed him for wasting the tickets. So, he gave her a ticket, and he went to the movie alone. However, at the theater, he found that girl reading the subtitles aloud.

This is the love story about a common man and a girl who has a dream to be a voice actress. Her apartment was in a fire, and they began to live in the same room together. Meanwhile, she was adopted as the voice actress in the TV commercial of Shomaru’s company’s product.

Video seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrUyccikALo

What struck me as interesting was how they started to living together. In the first episode, they went to the movie together and then went their separate ways. Matsumaru remarked how close they lived to one another. In the middle of the night, he heard sirens so he decided to investigate. An apartment building went up in flames and it just so happened to be the girl’s (named Onda Aka). He finds her sitting on a swing clutching a pillow, the only thing she was able to salvage, completely dazed. Concerned, he brings her back to his apartment and gives her a place to shower and sleep.

This is where it gets interesting. She is completely distraught and begins crying again. Matsumaru comforts her and tells her that everything will be fine and that he will help her get back on her feet. He then hugs Aka and she nuzzles into him, feeling secure and warm. They then look at each other, he with emotions running wild and she with teary eyes, and kiss. Next thing you know is that they start getting intimate. The scene fades but it is implied that they did the horizontal mambo, bumped uglies, scrumped like bunnies, road the baloney boat to tuna town.

Is this common? It is a well known tactic of men to prey on women who are emotionally vulnerable. Don’t believe me? We’ll look for women who have just broken up with their boyfriends, just got a divorce, just left a funeral and then we’ll try and seduce them with the main goal being to get freaky with them. Then again, maybe this is one of those more ‘advanced’ techniques and you may not know too many men who have attempted this. Take my word on it, though, it works.

Although the sex is consentual, is it fair? Do women know what’s going on? What is going through their minds during this time? Or are women so in need of that sense of security and warmth that is provided by sex that they give into the moment? Matsumaru’s stumbling into this lands him in a relationship with someone that he just met. He even begins to question what he’s done in the second episode by asking himself ‘At this rate, isn’t it as though I’m keeping her just for sex?’, so the makers of this series aren’t trying to portray him as a predator but as a normal guy who also questions the validity of his actions.

Again, this begs the question: why do women do it?