I feel like a big thing that changes how one would percieve Naofumi as a groomer is that he doesn't see any of the children as potential sexual objects. In fact, Raphtalia is quite upset at that point, because she desperately wants him to lewd the tanuki loli and he's not having it.
One peak oldschool example of grooming in anime is definitely GTO. That guy's a creep. The only reason it seems remotely acceptable is he's the protagonist and it's framed like he's a good guy and when he's being a creep it's funny. In addition to the power imbalance of being their teacher, he also uses huge amounts of violence and gang connections to get people to fall in line. The levels of wrong are layered. It's impressive in retrospect.
Soulg@ani.social 1 day ago
Yeah and he explicitly has zero interest in them sexually or romantically.
Senal@programming.dev 1 day ago
Not a statement for or against your argument.
But grooming doesn’t have to be sexual.
It is, frequently, but it’s not a requirement.
For example, any of the trope recruiters that target children for military service in any of the bullshit nationalist wars (in anime of course, IRL military recruiters would never be so unethical)
Soulg@ani.social 21 hours ago
Absolutely true and I don’t disagree. However, in the context of the meme and the discussion it seemed to be the primary insinuation behind calling him as groomer which I think is completely incorrect.
However of course he groomed her into fighting, that much was very explicit. Just not as a predator.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 day ago
isn’t that just raising children?
Senal@programming.dev 22 hours ago
There is also the concept of “positive” grooming, for instance a child given specific education and resources to provide an advantage in something like politics could be said to be being “groomed” for politics or leadership.
I’d say the idea of grooming is more intentional than just regular child-raising, but that might be subjective.
As i said though, the current common usage is almost always negative and sexual in nature, it’s just not a requirement.