Oversexualization isn’t a new thing in any form of media because sex sells but lord almighty does anime take this overboard. Ecchi, fanservice and ridiculously proportionated women. You can find entire threads of conversations of people discussing an anime and the only thing being discussed is the outward appearance of the female characters. Nothing else. Not her thematic role, depth or any of that. Entire fanbases dedicated to a female character who offered the story NOTHING but a banging body. It’s exhausting.
At times I wonder how it feels like to consume Japanese media as a woman. It’s no big secret that Japan’s view on women can be seen as a bit dated. It’s a country of tradition, but sometimes change is needed. I find that this translates into Japanese narratives; mainly video games, manga and anime. Not to say they aren’t tons of great female characters out there in their literature, but it’s harder to find. If you were to ask me to name off the top of my head, great female characters from manga/anime I'd have to sit down and think. Ask me the same question about comic books and I’ll never shut up. Now this is a tricky topic because for the majority of great characters, the gender doesn’t really matter. That’s not what defines the character or makes them memorable. But for the aspects that are female specific, we never see them properly explored. Begin rant. “Deres”. This is the worst type of female categorization. Not to say male characters can’t be classified this way either, but it’s a marketing thing with female characters. Do you like tsundere girls or yandere better? This type of characterization is gimmicky and lazy. It traps the character within specific parameters and never allows them to grow outside of them. Sure there’s nothing wrong with creating characters that have personalities that would otherwise categorize them as such, but to make them a staple in every series makes it stale and makes the characters one dimensional. In the case of tsundere females, it always seems more like a cheap marketing scheme to sell that character instead of an earnest effort to create a girl who may actually have trouble expressing her true feelings outwardly. Next issue is that the women are always submissive and victims. Idly following behind a man, not expressing herself. Being soft spoken and conditioned to stay in her lane. But if she’s outspoken, it’s seen as tomboyish, unladylike and undesirable. These are the type of messages a lot of these anime portray. If she is the serious and in charge type of character it stems from a back story where she was probably physically and psychologically abused. Therefore making her seemingly strong exterior a defense mechanism for dealing with her tragic past. Very rarely can you find a competent mangaka who actually explores a woman’s character by what inherently make men and women different. What society expects of us (exploring and breaking those stereotypes) and obviously the biological differences. Wolf Children's Hana is a great example of the trials and tribulations of being a single mother. In addition to the previous point, female characters can be downright useless, undermined, ignored and consumed by the notion of love. This surprises me to a certain extent because I see this happening in manga written and DRAWN by a woman. For example: Katekyo Hitman Reborn that is written and drawn by Akira Amano. Haru, Kyoko, Nana Sawada (Tsuna’s mother) and Lal Mirch. Haru and Kyoko literally chose the role to cook and clean while everyone worked on saving the future. Like future obedient housewives. Lal is supposed to be one of the most powerful characters in that universe but we never get to see that at all. Tsuna’s mom was abandoned by her husband but is inexplicably love struck with him even though he’s never around. Something her own SON struggled with because in his eyes, he was a dead beat dad. What about the girl who’s character is solely defined by how badly she wants to have a boyfriend or something? Without love or some boy (or girl) to fawn over that girl literally has nothing else going for her. Video games that eventually completely give into its fan service sub-genre and becomes all about boobs, panties, bathhouse scenes and bedding the male main character. Sometimes you have a compelling story being told and somehow it turns into a harem of one guy being lusted by anything with ovaries. Oversexualization isn’t a new thing in any form of media because sex sells but lord almighty does anime take this overboard. Ecchi, fanservice and ridiculously proportionated women. You can find entire threads of conversations of people discussing an anime and the only thing being discussed is the outward appearance of the female characters. Nothing else. Not her thematic role, depth or any of that. Entire fanbases dedicated to a female character who offered the story NOTHING but a banging body. It’s exhausting. Don’t misunderstand. Manga and anime have lots of cool,deep, complex women as characters. There's nothing wrong with being in love, having a harsh past or even being the a house wife, stay at home mom. That isn't the point. It just seems that in manga and anime these are the only options a female character has. Japan needs to step it up and realize that it's probably time for some much needed change. End petty rant.
18 Comments
Mr.Haru
6/27/2015 09:15:03 am
I've had some time to look this over and I'm really only going to be quoting here and then replying since I'm not sure there's a way to reply directly on the post itself on the site.
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Jonathan Rodriguez
7/31/2016 03:23:15 am
"As opposed to what: uke and seme, bishi or the 'deep and brooding' characters that sweep female's hearts off their feet despite having more problems in them than a book of the Twilight series?"
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Jonathan Rodriguez
7/31/2016 03:23:41 am
"As opposed to what: uke and seme, bishi or the 'deep and brooding' characters that sweep female's hearts off their feet despite having more problems in them than a book of the Twilight series?"
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InfiniteEyeroll
9/8/2018 01:32:56 pm
I was hoping to give your thoughts on this a chance, like see what another perspective on this issue would be, but the fact that you’re one of those wannabe cool guys who think Sakura is useless, I’m just not gonna bother anymore and not waste my time.
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Aaron Stiefel
1/28/2017 11:32:00 pm
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Mr. Jones
1/28/2017 11:34:50 pm
Don't find the animation good? Watch Redline. Or anything by Miyazaki. Or the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.
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Sally Carles
1/28/2017 11:36:21 pm
The thing about anime is that it's like prime time television. It covers every genre from comedy to drama, romance to action, sci-fi to horror, etc. It targets every age group from children to adults. But people don't say film is terrible just because they dislike Disney movies. There's roughly nothing similar about Soul Plane and 12 Angry Men other than the medium of film. The same can be said about the difference between say Manyuu Hikenchou and Monster.
Sammantha Hellensky
1/28/2017 11:37:41 pm
My parents are not very worldly. They think Olive Garden is amazing Italian food, they don't watch foreign movies, they don't have friends from other cultures, they don't care about other countries unless America is involved with them, etc. So they're not exactly the ideal audience for anime, and I personally would have never tried to get them to watch an anime movie. However, one day, my mom's coworker gave her Grave of the Fireflies, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies, a gut-wrenching anime about two children trying to survive after their town is bombed and their mother died. My mother was entranced by this movie. She didn't care that it was about another country and in another language; she only cared about the story of these two children. We cried for large portions of the movie -- she's a woman who totally supports America's actions during WWII, but this anime film still had the power to bring to her tears. Later, I did some research on the film and found that the story was from a book, and the book's author had turned down live-action versions of the movie because he didn't think real children could convey the characters or real scenery could look like the post-bombing landscape. Roger Ebert gave the movie 5 stars and put it on his list of "great movies" and it's highly ranked on a lot of animated film lists.
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NotWorthy
1/28/2017 11:40:30 pm
Honey-boo-boo is horrible, therefore all western series are horrible, and game of thrones etc. is also horrible.
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AxhyBoy
1/28/2017 11:41:16 pm
The animation being cheesy and repetitive can be said about any type of film/show you are watching. You just have to find the ones that don't have repetitive/cheesy scenes.
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Professor Ospin
1/28/2017 11:45:37 pm
So is it? Is otaku culture sexist?
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Professor Ospin
1/28/2017 11:47:08 pm
One of the driving motivations of shonen stories is the desire to protect those the hero loves. Often this is a female character. While this seems chauvinistic (she can’t take care of herself? Please!) , it is actually a show of how superior women are seen. They are worth giving everything. Sacrificing everything.
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Professor Ospin
1/28/2017 11:48:02 pm
st fetish) poses. Is is sexism? Some think so. However, Kill la Kill does not discriminate against women. The female characters are strong and are the leaders of the world. If it was a sexist anime, men would be in the lead positions pitting the women against each other. These men would then watch. Rather, men in Kill la Kill are almost invisible. There are a few male characters that are soundly beaten into the dirt.
TheOneAndOnly
1/28/2017 11:51:16 pm
I'd rather you not insult my intelligence by claiming that sexism is something that "a guy like me doesn't seem to get", first things first that assumption you made there could be considered sexist in of itself; but unlike you I'm not going to resort to ad hominems to prove my case. Secondly I was commenting on a very specific aspect of anime which were the "fanservice" scenes, which the argument to be made in that case was the objectifying of people. The fact that I centered my initial post on that aspect of sexism doesn't mean that I am ignorant to every other part of it, that's just you making an assumption about what I know and what I don't know; which I don't exactly appreciate.
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Deliciouslydone
1/28/2017 11:54:22 pm
Anime has been pretty sexist to women, mostly because most of the stuff was aimed at men. Things are changing now, but that doesn't change that quite a bit of the medium is sexist to its characters.
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Nope
1/28/2017 11:55:22 pm
This is unfortunately the world we live in. People are so afraid to offend. Those offended make such a stink, and can ruin your entire reputation by telling the world that you are the worst thing you can be called in today's age: a bigot.
Chunchunmarun
2/24/2017 01:49:36 pm
I think your a feminist and your looking at the world trough the narrow minded lens of feminism.
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Chunchunmarun
2/24/2017 01:59:42 pm
P.S. THERE IS SO MUCH ANIME & MANGA TO PICK FROM ... JUST SUPPORT THE ONE THAT REPRESENT YOU BEST AND SHUT UP
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