WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Police in a Pod Episode 5, “Late Night Patrol / Vs. the Groper,” now streaming on Funimation, as well as discussion of sexual assault.
One of the new anime airing in the Winter 2022 season is Police in a Pod, and it's not exactly intended for Western audiences. The anime follows a small police force and their comedic antics, but the idea of making light of a police officer's duty is a very contentious subject nowadays -- especially in North America. Now the anime has taken it a step further and shown another dark side of the law that has traumatized many people around the world: victim-blaming.
In Episode 5 of Police in a Pod, one of the small vignette-style stories focuses on a crime wherein an older man gropes a high school girl on the subway. While he is immediately brought in for questioning along with the girl, it is quite clear the criminal shows no remorse at all.
Episode 5 focuses on Takeshi Yamada, a member of the Criminal Affairs department who is feeling inadequate next to his colleagues Seiko Fuji and Seiji Minamoto. In an effort to prove that he is capable at his job, Yamada spearheads the investigation and soon finds himself overwhelmed by the groper's audacity. Not only is he completely remorseless, he actually puts part of the blame on the high school girl, claiming that she obviously wanted the attention since she was wearing such a short skirt.
While this is completely inappropriate, even in an anime, it's thrown about with such casualness that it's a bit shocking to watch. The worst part is that Police in a Pod takes it one dangerous step further -- Yamada outright asks the young girl what kind of underwear she was wearing. The anime plays this off as the stress of his job getting to him, and Yamada does apologize to the girl, but for the wrong reasons. He apologizes for acting out, but not for suggesting that her underwear had anything to do with the man's actions.
So not only does the criminal suggest that the victim is to blame, but the investigating officer also has a moment where this is the case. This may pass off as comedy in Japan, but in North America, many viewers will find Episode 5 quite unsettling, if not downright inappropriate, to watch. Police in a Pod is showcasing victim-blaming at its absolute worst, and it doesn't paint police officers in a good light when they are already a contentious topic to begin with.
While not all of Police in a Pod's episodes cover stories that are quite so serious, Episode 5 really stands out as a gross miscalculation in what type of content and comedy is appropriate for worldwide viewership.
