Anime and sexism/feminism

[randyj4ever]

Anime would be dull and boring without it.

*pours gasoline into thread, throws lighted match into it*

[sweetshygirl27]

The full 1988 interview with Miyazaki is also available for those interested.

What is a bit disheartening is the fact Miyazaki was admitting, even at such an early date, that by making his own female characters "lovely" they would inevitably become fuel for those with a lolicon complex.

And yet he also asked an interesting question:



At the same time, there seems to be an alternative, more critical view of Miyazaki, partially dealing with the issue at hand, from an interview with Yamamoto Yutaka.



I don't endorse this point of view myself, since it does seem evident that Miyazaki was aware of what was going on and did talk about it as demonstrated by the previous interview, but I remerabered reading it and it's interesting to bring it up in light of the debate.

[STEVEN F]

Oh, I loved Godannar. Does that make me sexist?

Yes, it was a fanservice vehicle. The whole thing was, the females were the main characters, even if they were shown with next to nothing. We've all seen the infamous speech GIF. That doesn't get to the heart of her character being a capable commander that doesn't need any man to tell her what to do.

[Camo13ammo]

I find it kind of ironic that the guy behind series such as Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star and Kannagi is complaining about moe when it's been his bread and butter. Unless this is a case of 'I need the money so I'll do the work', it's hypocritical to complain about an angle you've significantly perpetuated.

[Ms. Sutton]

Yeah, but the point of the over-idealized men in many shoujo/josei manga is that it's the analogue to the hyper-sexualized women shonen/seinen manga. Yes, how you go about achieve the effect is different, but the effect - an unrealistic ideal - is the same. Yes, shoujo fanservice falls into some very specific and often bland archetypes, but so does seinen fanservice.

Further still, what I would consider perhaps even more blatantly sexist or anti-feminist is the trend in shoujo series of Mary Sue characters who are basically always being saved by pretty boys who seem flawless (or are who are a bit flawed, but who will be saved by the love of their devoted girlfriend.) I mean, tons of shoujo manga feature the cute girl who can cook and clean, but rarely do you get the ghibli-type heroines who take on challenges without being objectified or transformed.

Even in josei titles which tend to be a lot better showing realistic characters and relationships, and which often have a strong, independent female lead, you also not only still get cultural stigmas that are reflected in the work (the heroine may be very capable, but she's still worried about being single and 25, something considered completely normal in a lot of the west) but also explicitly bizarre elements that seem plain offensive (Mayu Shinjo's prospensity for putting rape into any context but "this is bad, horrible and wrong" in her manga which are all aimed at female teens and 20-something is mindboggling.) I mean, to be fair their are josei authors who really do make some very positive, forward thinking manga that really espouse a more modern point of view, but it's not necessarily common, and it's as much if not more problematic than fanservice in shonen and seinen works in some ways, as it's a message being directly communicated to that the female audience as "this is okay."

[Christropher Brando]

I'm surprised no one's chimed in about this (unless I've missed it somewhere). I've read the first handful of official translations, and I've skimmed over a few fan-translations for comparison. Everything has been solidly from Lina's POV. I can't rule out that a later segment might be narrated by Gourry, but even if that's so, it would be too late in the story to call Lina's role in the anime a "change".

--Romey

[Greek Gamer]

That's true enough and he does come off as a bit stuck-up, in addition, but any irony or even potential hypocrisy there wouldn't mean that his arguments can't be considered interesting as such.

His angle, at least as he presents it, seems to be striving for creating something that can be enjoyed by more people than just the increasingly exclusive otaku sectors. He thus seems to be rejecting the exclusivity created by the current moe trend as opposed to the presence of such elements in general. I haven't seen a second of Kannagi, for instance, but he claims that his use of humor there had a more universal appeal, as opposed to Lucky Star's.

[blah><]

Then sir, Mazinger Z is the show for you!

Seriously, the fights Koji and Sayaka would get into were INSANE. Koji didn't hold back. Mazinger was also fairly sexist. They couldn't have made Sayaka anymore useless in battle.

[CrossFireX]

You're right that when you set the ideas and the individual apart, the ideas still hold up strongly. I do agree with him that the otaku culture has a dominant inferiority complex which makes it harsh and unforgiving to newcomers and outsiders. Even in the English speaking fandom that's true, as the blogger points out. I've encountered various folks who say crap like "Because I know Japanese and you don't, all your criticisms are invalid". It's this underground community of obsessives desperate to make themselves look better than others with the same interests. It's one of my darkest fears to ever become like that. Thankfully there are folks I've met here and elsewhere who actively buck that trend.

[Triinu]

A play on the lyrics of the first Ikki Tousen OP.