I want to start this off by saying that I love anime. It contains some of my favorite tv shows and movies, and I deeply appreciate the kinds of stories that it allows animation to delve into. However, I also reserve the right to be critical of the media I consume, even the media I love. Obviously, there are cultural factors in play here, as anime is a Japanese export, and to judge it against my own American sensibilities could be unfair, to an extent. There are differences in humor and what is considered “normal” between cultures and I will endeavor to take that into account. In the following arguments, I want to analyze what I see as some of the more pervasive stereotypes and cliches of women in anime, which seem more a product of a target-male audience than of Japanese culture as a whole.
One of the more troubling cliches is in how sexual assault is dealt with, especially in shounen anime. Multiple shows, like Naruto or Gurren Lagann, feature a hot springs episode where the characters stop at a hot springs, or some sort of spa, where one of the male characters will, without fail, try to spy on the female characters bathing, only to be punched/foiled in their plans by one of the girls, to comedic effect. Although this kind of episode is a cliche in itself, this sort of behavior, of one of the guys being incredibly inappropriate and being smartly dealt with, happens all the time (characters who make a habit of these things are affectionately called”pervy”). What becomes so frustrating about this sort of writing is that the male characters are never held accountable for their actions or asked to change, and in fact the behavior is often framed as relatable to the audience (who are assumedly male). That they are punished by a “strong” woman serves to act as a veneer of punishment, while it is assumed that this is the status quo: that men are always going to try shit and women just always need to be on their guard. While situations like this can be funny the first time, they now just feel antiquated, and honestly kind of sinister.
A larger thread behind this sort of writing is of male creators writing for a presumed male audience (at least for the shounen sort) which can be seen as . As shounen is not a genre, but rather a description of shows aimed at boys fifteen years old and younger, much of the narrative and visual choices can be understood better through this lens. For example, the hyper-sexualized designs of the majority of female characters. A trend that has also been noticed in superhero comic books, anime can put its female characters into some incredibly revealing outfits, for really no reason other than… guys find it sexy? Of course not all shows are like this, and not all female characters are portrayed this way, but there is clearly observable trend of female characters being sexually objectified, both within the story and by the audience. Sometimes the design is excused/motivated by a capable, kick-ass character like Yoko from Gurren Lagann, or Fey from Cowboy Bebop, both of whom wear very revealing outfits. In this instance, Fey’s character design is slightly more motivated by her use of her sexuality as a femme fatale type, but even then she is far more objectified by use of framing and “camera” movement than her male counterparts. Even when the design is somewhat explained by the plot, the continued prevalence of objectified female characters can be very off-putting, especially for non-male viewers, who generally are looking for someone to identify with instead of lust after.
