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The YouTube channel ‘Ask Japanese’ is a channel full of videos of a reporter going out in the public streets of Tokyo to interview people about different major topics that are brought up. Two videos that caught my attention and helped a lot with the development of this project were in regards to what Japanese girls envy about Foreigners.

Though the Japanese girls that the reporter interviewed has said a lot of points about what the envy about Foreigners, two points stood out to me and they were the about personality and natural looks. In terms of personality, a lot of the interviewees said that they are jealous of how foreigners have an “easy-going” and “down to earth” personality. They are envious of their “welcoming aura”. Some of the girls that were interviewed said that if they were to compare that personality with Japanese people, Japanese people would just keep all their thoughts to themselves because they are not people who really express their opinion. One interviewee even said that she once had some foreigners ask for directions and she compared herself to them where she said that she would just keep the question to herself and just look up the directions on google maps instead of asking.

The other point that stood out was their jealousy towards foreigners’ natural features. With many mentioning “long legs”, “different eye colours” and even “being tall”. The interviewees were all envious of these features. Some of them described Japanese facial features to be “flat” and not as “deep” as foreigners. They even compared their own faces to babies. Facial features such as big eyes, tall nose and lid creases were mentioned a lot when the Japanese girls interviewed were asked what features they were jealous of.

What interesting to see here is that the Japanese girls that were asked this question gave a lot of answers regard natural features. Areas such as the eyes, nose or skin were things that they were all mentioned as something they are jealous about from foreigners. What was more interesting is their answers regarding personality. Where they said Japanese people tend to keep to themselves, they are jealous of foreigners having the ability to “feel free”. As a culture that very much sticks to the rules and listening to these answers, you get a sense of the small bubble these girls have been living in and wonder what kind of morals they were brought up with.

Link 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edg6J0cDhuY

Continuing on with the series, the third episode features Kae, a young girl who is also a manga illustrator and dreams of creating her own manga series one day. Kae is described as a lazy girl by her mother Kiyoko because of the lack of cleanliness and work she does. When it comes to appearance, Kae only owns clothes that were either Japanese schoolgirl or ‘yankii’ (a subculture that rebels against the societal norms by dying their hair, customising uniform and always instigating a fight). Kae described herself as someone that wanted to show off her best assets, but she only talked about her “large breasts” and said that she didn’t want to look ‘eroi’ (erotic or sexual) just because of her chest, so she hides away her whole figure in loose-fitting clothing like a-line dresses or shift dresses.

Kae was drawing ever since she was young and when asked what she draws, she answered saying that she tends to girls that fit her ideal image of a female she wanted to be. With illustrations of girls with long legs, long arms and a round face around her home, most of the illustrations that she drew all had sad expressions on them. When asked if she thought of herself as beautiful, she said she never had. Kae had said that whenever she out in public, what she admires are the people who can show off their body and their best assets, but she was always afraid to do that. With the idea of how she could get negative comments like “that’s not cute” or “you got fat”, she said that she tends to take those comments seriously that that effects her negatively. Kae’s mother, Kiyoko, said that in Japanese culture, there is no prominence of the gesture of affection. Whether or not it’s saying “I love you” or a kiss or even just hugging, those feelings are present, but repressed because of the feeling of embarrassment performing those feelings, especially in public. It is very rare to see PDA around in Japan because of this. The fact that the idea of self-love is not pushed around more often leaves very little space for women feel confident about themselves in a society where she is expected to do as their told.

Comedian Naomi Watanabe guest-starred in this episode and met with Kae to talk to her about herself and how she found self-love which helped her become herself today. An interesting fact that Naomi pointed out was that ever since she was young, she remembers the idea that she was always “brainwashed” into thinking that if you weren’t skinny, then you wouldn’t be treated as a woman or even a person. Only until she got into the entertainment industry was when she realised that there are definitely people that would like her for who she is. Even though she was receiving negative comments in regards to her appearance and herself, she took the negative power to fuel herself into becoming better for herself. After a beautiful and very cute transformation, Kae realised that she showing off her best assets were never about just wearing plunging neckline clothing or short shorts, but there were other styles that could have allowed her to be who she wanted to be and the fact that she had people rooting for her allowed her to gain confidence in herself to be who she truly wanted to be.

The Queer Eye TV franchise just released a special series where they go to Japan. This four-episode series is about the Fab 5 going to help individuals in Japan search for themselves with massive makeovers and confidence boosts. The first episode features a woman called Yoko Sakuma, a hospice nurse who gave up her own home to take care of the elderly because of the experience she went through feeling the loneliness of her sister’s passing. Her friend Fumiko nominated her to go through this transformation because she sees Yoko as a person that does a lot for others and none for herself.

When she was young, Yoko’s dream was to be a mother and make apple pies in a warm home, but because of her lack of self-confidence and the pressure of society wanting a female to look the ideal image, she “gave up being a woman” (’onna wo suteru’). With the pressure of needing to look beautiful being too high and prominent in the culture, the only way to feel relief from it is total abandonment of being a woman. Yoko was someone that owned a lot of what she described a “big and baggy” clothing due to her “above average weight” body type where she “doesn’t have that hourglass waist”. When she was asked if she ever looked in a mirror and thought she looked beautiful, she answered that she didn’t.

What this episode really concentrated on was the idea of self-confidence and taking care of one’s self. Yoko said that a woman at her age to change and stand out from others would gain negative views of herself. She further stated that models and actresses are different from “regular, normal people” and that is a standard that is hard to achieve. What Yoko wanted was a space where she felt free and open to be herself. She said that it’s “nice to be told to love yourself” once in a while. While the signs of affection aren’t as prominent in Japanese culture, this would explain her statement. Model Kiko Mizuhara made an appearance in this episode and explained that in Japanese culture if you’re not stylish in a conventional way, you’ve basically given up on being a woman. For her, she wanted to enjoy fashion “not as a woman, but as a person.” With a very strict ideology where women are suppose to dress a certain way and act a certain way, to be told to be authentic to yourself sounds like freedom. Yoko ended up with an amazing transformation and realising that she needed to take care of herself more so that if she were seen to be caring for herself more, it would make people around her happier.  What ended as a joyful and tearful transformation allowed Yoko to feel more like herself and express herself in a way that lifted the burden of being who she was before.

Within the Boys Love genre, one of the most popular manga series and recently adapted into an Anime is the series ‘Given’. A story about love through music and emotion, we follow the band Given through their lives and how they cope with their love problems. Given is formed with members, Mafuyu Satou, Ritsuka Uenoyama, Haruki Nakayama and Akihiko Kaji. I will be using both the Anime and Manga to review and analyse this story as both present elements of Boys Love in a similar light.

First off, what makes ‘Given’ unique from other Boys Love stories is that this story takes on romance through the element of music regarding loss and new discoveries. Consider ‘Given’ as the middle ground of ‘shōnen’ and ‘shōjo’ in the romance music category of shows. While we switch perspectives throughout the story, they are all within these four boys. Focusing on Mafuyu and Ritsuka, these two high school boys meet on a staircase, where Ritsuka sees Mafuyu sleeping while hugging a guitar. Their relationship starts when Mafuyu asks Ritsuka to fix a guitar string for him and finds out that he can play the guitar. What started Mafuyu’s fascination regarding music comes from his late boyfriend, Yuki, who commits suicide after a little fight with Mafuyu when he stupidly asks “Would you die for me then?”. Unable to share his feelings of loss, Mafuyu asks Ritsuka to teach him how to play the guitar so it would allow him to share a passion that Yuki once loved before his passing.

What gives ‘Given’ the ‘shōnen’ portrayal is that it’s a story about how the boys are wanting to be a better person and it’s all in a male’s perspective. However, what gives it the ‘shōjo’ edge is the romance storyline involved. The two main couples (Mafuyu and Ritsuka, Haruki and Akihiko) both have a relationship that is there is always one of them supporting the other. In the first few volumes, we can see that Ritsuka is the one that pushed Mafuyu into music to the point of no return and this gesture is justified by the fact that through the process he has fallen in love with him through his music. Same goes with Haruki and Akihiko’s relationship. Though Akihiko was technically in another relationship, Haruki was still supporting Akihiko in his choices because he loved him and Akihiko recognises this because he knew all along. What is rare to see in Boys Love and even in ‘shōjo’ is that two couples have recognise their love for each other not just blindly through love, but with the added factor of understanding where they came from in the first place. Their mutual understanding of each other is what gives these four a more balanced and fair relationship, compared to the relationships we see in both ‘shōnen’ and ‘shōjo’.

In terms of characters, out of the four boys, there are definitely two of them that are designed to be viewed as the “beautiful boy” and they are definitely Mafuyu and Haruki (though Ritsuka has been said to look exactly like his sister). Mafuyu’s character design is very soft and how is portrayed throughout the story is that he is very much the shy, introverted kid. Haruki, however, what gives him the feminine edge is not only his long hair but the fact that he acts like the mother of the band, where he handles pretty much all the admin regarding the band. You could say that Haruki and Akihiko are the parents and Mafuyu and Ritsuka are the two kids that they adopted. Throughout the story, there is a sense that Mafuyu and Haruki are the “uke” (bottom of the relationship) and Ritsuka and  Akihiko are the “seme” (top of the relationship).  

Given is a well done Boys Love story that combines the elements of ‘shōnen’ and ‘shōjo’ through the romance genre with the use of music as the key bonding tool. Not only is the portrayal of the four boys so diverse but so emotionally captivating, but what gives this show their balance and their popularity is how relatable the show can be for everyone. Though the story is shared through four completely different guys, you can always relate to one of them and get a sense that joy where your story is somewhat being shared too. Not only is Given a warm heartfelt story about love through support, but it’s also a very in-depth story about recovery and the importance of an equal relationship.

Where we have male fantasy through the sexualisation of women, comes the female fantasy through the sexualisation of men. What is regarded as a ‘fujoshi’ (腐女子) or a “rotten girl” is the label being given to girls that are fans of the ‘yaoi’ genre. ‘Yaoi’ or “Boys Love” is a genre in the male perspective written by women for women. To quote Galbraith (2011), “In a country where patriarchal family values persist, fujoshi are critiqued for pursuing yaoi and are described as rotten because they are attracted to fantasies of sex that is not productive of children”.

‘Mahōshōjo’ (魔法少女) or the “magical girl” genre has been argued as a medium that sounds like it’s opposed to expectations Japanese society sets, but in reality, it isn’t. This mainstream genre is constantly on prime time TV and targets their young girl audience with a beautiful fantasy fiction narrative. A typical storyline would involve a middle-school girl suddenly gaining magical powers and goes on an adventure to fight evil and protect her loved ones. What is key in identifying a ‘mahōshōjo’ is the elaborate transformation sequence and it incorporated into the show, where the “average girl” turns into a superhero.

What makes the transformation very important is that at that moment, that is when the young girl protagonist, who was constantly following society’s rules, suddenly turns into a completely opposite person. Though there are critics that say the transformation scene feels more like a make-over scene more than a power-up sequence. Another argument made is that the magical gadgets that are used by the female protagonists to complete their missions (wands, compact mirrors, magical animals, etc.) are later seen on sale as merchandise. There are some who argue that the ‘mahōshōjo’ genre is more like a 25-minute advertisement more than an actual Anime show to enjoy. Scholar Saito Minako believes (according to The Artifice, 2019) that the need to look beautiful and depend on cute gadgets to complete their duty educates young girls to be good daughters and workers when they grow up. The formulated exposure of feminine standards set by these television programs are clearly a powerful tool to define and mould girls to fit society because of their young age and their ability to take in information that is shown repetitively on a daily basis.

As far as the ‘Otome’ goes, this storyline is very unique in which it conforms to the ‘Shoujo’ (少女) genre and the ‘Otome’ (乙女) genre. Dance with Devils is an ‘Otome’ franchise started by the company Rejet, a company that specialises in making some of the most popular ‘Otome’ games today. I will be using the Anime and the visual novel game to complete this analysis as this would be easier to understand.

Ritsuka (the female protagonist, the female character you’d play in the game) is a good high school student, but one day gets called to the student council’s office where she meets four pretty boys (all different personalities and develop a love interest in her) who obviously have a different motive as to why they called her into the council. Ritsuka is revealed to be the holder of the “grimoire”, a forbidden item that lets the owner be the ruler of the world. Of course from a viewer’s perspective, we totally understand and know that all the boys that are her love interests are after the “grimoire” and not her, but in typical ‘Otome’ fashion, as the storyline progresses, each one develops a relationship with her and falls in love with her at the end (which even leads them to sing about how much they love her in the last episode of the show, when she’s in danger). We even have the sibling (who’s actually her cousin) love element in this show, who also falls in love with her.

Visual mediums in pop culture range from a variety of genres, literally you can think of any combination and it probably exists. Romance sports, Comedy music and even magic samurai, I bet you can find a show under any of those categories, but there is one genre I feel that is not talked about a lot internationally, and that is the ‘Otome’ (乙女) genre. ‘Otome’, literally meaning ‘maiden’, is a genre that is targeted at a female demographic, and by the looks of it, it’s more specifically at a female demographic that have romantic desires that they can’t get in real life. With visual novel based games like ‘Nil Admirari no Tenbin’ and ‘Collar x Malice’, these narratives often start with the female protagonist (aka you, the player) getting into different situations with a group of five to six different men, each one with a different personality. The aim of the game is to level up your relationship with all the men, but with human instinct existing, the number one thing that would often happen is that you will only level up (or even max out) your status with ONE of the men out of the many in the game.

On a visual stance, you would understand why this genre is very much aimed at the ‘Otome’. Many of the stories that the genre offers have a very soft colour palette, beautiful illustrations and most important, pretty looking boys. These three main elements of ‘Otome’ literally exist in one of the most popular genres in Japanese pop culture, and that’s ‘shoujo’ (少女). The only difference that ‘Otome’ and ‘Shoujo’ have is that is really the ‘Reverse Harem’ element. Where ‘Harem’ (where one male character is surrounded and loved by multiple female characters) exists, ‘Reverse Harem’ is bound to co-exist with it. Not only does is the female character surrounded by so many boys, but in a lot of the storylines, the female character is a lot more helpless than the female characters in ‘Shoujo’. Though this genre is targeted at a female demographic, it really pinpoints down to a very specific group of females, and it being females that are probably single and don’t have real-life boyfriends to come to their romanticised needs.

When you look at Japan, the traditional yet unfair image of a woman would “traditionally” label her as a second-class citizen. As history tells us, women in Japan were just treated as “baby-making machines” and were expected to stay at home and do all the housework. According to Izawa’s Gender and Gender Relations in Manga and Anime (2000), “Japan has tended towards idealising male dominance and female submissiveness”. It doesn’t come as a shock if you were to see this observe this when visiting Japan because history writes the traditional roles both sexes have.

It even comes across in Japanese pop culture, especially in ‘Shoujo’ (少女) manga. It doesn’t matter if it’s a typical romantic comedy or a supernatural ‘harem’, the majority of stories in 少女 manga are all about how the main female character falls into complete submissiveness to her male love interest. How many times have you seen a 少女 manga where the female protagonist has thoughts about something relating to life and have it all lead back to her male counter partner? The idea is that Japan idolises the idea that the male sex is the more superior being.

Kimonos come in a huge variation of patterns, but when it comes to each pattern design, there is actually a meaning behind each pattern technique that is used.

Asanoha: Geometric shapes that represent hep leaves, they represent growth and good health. They can usually be found on children’s clothing to symbolise them growing fast and strong.

Kiku: The Chrysanthemum, this pattern design represents longevity and rejuvenation

Karakusa: Inspired by plant stalks and tendrils, this pattern represents eternity.

Seigaiha: The imagery of waves creating arches, this represents peace, good luck and good fortune.

Shima: Also known as the Yoshiwara Shima, this pattern that was imported from an island outside Japan symbolises how the town it came from draws you in and holds you. A common description of the pattern would be they are like chains that hold a community together.

Kikko: Inspired the shell of a tortoise, this pattern represents longevity.

Koushi: This pattern has two different meaning depending on the thickness of the lines. If the lines are thick, then it represents power, but when the lines are thin, it presents elegance.

Koi: Driven by an urban legend of a Koi fish turning into a dragon, this pattern represents success in life or a successful career.

Yagasuri: The symbol of a fletching arrow. This pattern is usually seen on kimonos worn at graduations or weddings. It represents the idea of steadfastness and determination.

Kame: Quite literally, the pattern is made up of tortoises. Symbolising their long life, this pattern represents long life and good fortune.

Sakura: The staple symbolism for the spring season, this pattern is one of the most popular among women’s kimonos, especially during the Coming of Age day (where they celebrate the young women turning 20 years old, the age of beginning an adult life).

Igeta: A simple box shape with elongated lines, this pattern represents a well,  which symbolises life and good fortune.

Tracing back to the Heian Period (794-1185), the Kimono was only worn for special occasions like weddings and tea ceremonies. It was first worn with the Hakama (which is a Chinese influenced long skirt without the division in the middle to separate the legs) and a Mo (a type of apron), but it then fell out of fashion and that’s when the Obi (a wide sash on the waist) became popular. Kimonos weren’t always considered everyday wear until the Kamakura period (1185-1333). The versatile garment was an item that was easily layered and altered to suit any season. It was very popular up until the Meiji period when fashion started to adopt western clothing style.

The colours of a kimono were then designed based on the season, gender, political ties or even family ties. Each colour of a kimono can mean a different thing:

Black: Dignity and formality

Blue: Represents elements of the natural world (eg. The sky or ocean). It symbolises peace, stability and security.

Pink: The staple feminine colour for the Kimono. Represents the springtime with a youthful and fresh aesthetic. It symbolises good health and vitality.

Purple: This colour was only worn by people that were wealthy enough because of how hard it was to actually make purple dye a long time ago. It was commonly worn by royalty.

Red: Considered the scared colour. Represents the vitals of life: the dawn, fire, blood, etc. It symbolises wealth and authority.

White: Purity and the divine

Yellow: Bravery and refinement

The kimono is considered the clothing that classically represents a woman in Japan. Traditionally, it would be worn with the right side under the left and with an Obi around the waist with the knot tied at the back. One of the versatile elements of a Kimono is that it’s all made in one size for women, so when women put the kimono on, they can custom fit their kimono to their bodies with the help of the Obi.

While there are kimonos for men and women, women actually have more types of kimonos than men ranking from non-formal to formal. In the non-formal category, we have the Onsen, Yukata and Komon kimonos. Onsen kimonos are usually the ones that you can find in your hot springs hotel. It’s for you to wear just as a casual form of dress when you go to the hot springs or a bathhouse. A Yukata is a kimono that is usually worn for warmer weathers, especially during the summer. You can see these all the time at summer festivals and especially at firework viewings. The Komon Kimono is considered as something that you could wear just around town with a casual setting. It has an overall pattern design where it’s repeated. Formal kimonos are a little more distinctive when it comes to identifying women, especially with their marital status. The Iro-Tomesode and the Kuro-Tomesode are two types of kimono where they are both worn only by married women, while the Furisode is worn by young unmarried women. What differs the Furisode kimono to the other two is that the sleeves are a lot longer and the pattern designs are a lot more colourful and playful, purposely making the unmarried woman in it stand out.

According to Eri Izawa’s ‘Gender and Gender Relations in Manga and Anime’ (2010), “Japan has tended toward idealising male dominance and female submissiveness”. That common image seen today could have come from many points of history regarding women and their role in society, but probably one of the most well-known points in history would be the role of the Geisha.

Geishas are high-class professional performing entertainers who would attend to their guests (who were usually and generally male) during special events and occasions. They are professionally trained in the various traditional forms of art that a Geisha uses as their performing art. According to Charlea Jefe’s blog post on Inside Japan ‘Are Geisha Prostitutes? Geisha History and The Prostitution Myth’ (2018), the roots of where the Geishas came can be traced back to the 1200s with a group called “shirabyoshi”. Even though they were not the traditional Geishas we see today by any sort, they were still trained and taught the same arts, but they were 100% prostitutes. By the 1600s, they turned into ‘Oiran’ (花魁) or “woman of pleasure” which then led the misunderstood image of these women were prostitutes. Even nowadays in the present, there is part of pop culture where they use the image of a geisha as an unpure woman because of the prostitution myth. A good example would be from the manga ‘Shokugeki no Souma’ (食戟のソーマ), where a high school girl tries a dish and the flavour get so deep into her, she feels herself soiled and says “Now I’ll never be a bride!”, with, of course, the highly sexualised pose and tease of nudity.

While Geishas are traditionally considered as professional artisans in their entertaining performing arts, there was the common myth that they were prostitutes, but truth be told, they’re not. While they might of increased in numbers during the courtesan era during the Edo period, they first and foremost identified themselves as part of the entertainment class and never considered themselves prostitutes.

But why?

After WWII, allied forces in Japan went to engage in prostitution with girls that were dressed like Geishas on the streets. Of course, it is naive of someone to think of every woman who has the Geisha makeup or a beautiful silk dress to be a lady of the night, but that didn’t stop them from not doing it. This could have led to the myth being a worldwide misconception, with soldiers being sent back home to America and sharing their stories about how they got with a Geisha girl when really it was just an outright prostitute.

When it comes to women’s identity in Japanese pop culture, Anime shows reflect more of the stereotypical roles that women uphold. Because of how diverse and abundant Anime is, there are so many characters we could go off of to see how Japanese culture wants us to see women. If we were to talk about women’s role in Anime, the closest thing to Japan’s reality would be stories from the “Shoujo” (少女) genre.

Japan sees the long term female gender role as the family carer while the male gender role as the one to make all the money for the family. If we were to take a look at all the female protagonists in 少女, there is a pretty good percentage of them that would conform to the societal expectation that Japan holds. These girls would be seen at the weak female protagonist, doing everything she can to bring herself up to a level where she can stand side by side with her male counter partner that she is (and most definitely will be) madly in love with. But we need to take one thing into consideration, and that is (and you may not believe it) there is a significant percentage of male fans when it comes to female characters in Anime.

In terms of Anime as a whole and not just the 少女 genre, there are so many female characters for males to choose from. One genre that is very popular within the male gender would most definitely be “Harem” (ハーレムもの). Harem is a genre where the male protagonist has a very polygynous relationship with at least three or four other girls in the show. I don’t think there has ever been a show that I’ve watched where at least one male character in the show that always talked about their “dream harem”, which as a female viewer, is sometimes sickening to see. But it is understandable, considering the overly sexualised culture that Japan has within its’ society.

If you were to visit Japan, seeing pornographic manga in convenient stores like 7-11 is very normal. There’s even a genre in Anime that is basically pornography and that is very popular with the male audience. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see all this sexualisation of women. As cited by The Artifice’s ‘Can Manga and Anime Contribute to Feminism and Gender Studies?’ (2019), they state these type of shows “rely on feminine, sexualised aesthetics when character building”. If we were to mix the “weak” (Deverell, 2018) with the “sexualised”, we get a character that is both loved and supported by fans because of their sheer belief in themselves to see the problem through, with the addition of their sexualised personality. If we were to take this matter psychologically, it wouldn’t be a surprise that there are a lot of male audience viewers who love the female characters, regardless of if they have a dominant personality, or even just a stupid mind, because what attracts the most in the female body they possess. It’s not hard to find a show where at least three female characters with massive breasts that dress down to the nitty-gritty. A perfect example would be Erza and Lucy from Fairy Tail. Both strong female characters, but hyper-sexualised to where every fight scene they do, each battle outfit they have only cover 40-50% of their body.

‘Kimetsu no Yaiba’ (鬼滅の刃) is a Manga (most recently adapted into an Anime) that centres its’ story with a brother and sister duo Kamado Tanjiro and Kamado Nezuko. Tanjiro is the eldest brother in his whole family who sells charcoal to make money for his family. One day when he comes back, his entire family had been killed by a demon, except his sister Nezuko, who inherits demon blood and turns into a demon herself, but with human instinct. Tanjiro is then determined to set out and find a way to turn his little sister back into a human.

Straight off the bat, you’d think from reading the synopsis, Nezuko would be one of those “damsels-in-distress” where she would have her brother do everything for her, but you’d be mistaken. One of greatest things that this narrative possesses is the idea of gender equality when it comes to power. Yes, Nezuko is a demon with super strength and never fed on a human for that power. Tanjiro, on the other hand, is working his way up to be on par with his sister. Tanjiro joins the demon slayer corps and learns the swordsmanship like the “Breathe of Water” just to be able to protect not only himself from demons, but his sister as well. This type of relationship wouldn’t be considering the “Initially Unequal Relationship” (Izawa, E. 2000), but more like the “Stable, Equal Relationship” (Izawa, E. 2000). The story is told in the point of view of Tanjiro (of course, as this is a ‘Shounen’ show), but Nezuko does play a big part in this story as well because everything Tanjiro is doing is taking him one step closer to turning his little sister back into a human. However, throughout this show, there is a very balanced relationship between Tanjiro and Nezuko where they always save each other.

Tanjiro and Nezuko are the two eldest siblings within the six that their parents had. If we were to follow tradition, when their parents pass, Tanjiro would be the one to inherit the title of the head of the family, while Nezuko would be the stand-in mother in this situation. In the manga (before the death of their family), Nezuko is often seen helping their mother taking care of their little brother and sisters. That proves that Nezuko was always following the traditional role when she was human, but after she got turned into a demon, she finds herself in a new light where she understands that she needs to protect the ones she loves. It wouldn’t be right to say that Tanjiro is her “idealised love” (conforming to the typical ‘Shoujo’ formula) as they are siblings. It would be right to have the obvious sibling and family bound. To be honest, Nezuko is actually quite a badass (and very cute) character after she gets turned into a demon because she uses her own instincts to fight beside her brother. She isn’t conforming to any old tradition where the woman just stands back and lets the man do everything. She’s there to not only support Tanjiro, but she’s there to fight beside him. You could even argue that Tanjiro is supporting her in fighting, honestly.

To quote Georgie Deverell’s ‘The Power of Identity: Women in Anime’ (2018), female characters can be split into two categories, the “weak, meek, shy and pure” and the “excessively dominant, angry warrior”. If we were to take these two categories and analyse the females in Anime. It would give up a clear distinction between how both types of females are depicted in not just pop culture, but even in everyday life.

As part of visual research for this thesis, watching Anime and reading Manga was one of the main sources I used because of how easy it is to access. Of course, there is a lot of shows under the “Shounen” (少年) and “Shoujo” (少女), but going through the catalogue for the 少女, one show caught my eye was a show called ‘Orange’ (オレンジ). [Heads up, this will be a spoiler talk. So if you haven’t seen it, go watch it first and then come back]

‘Orange’ is about a girl called Naho Takamiya starting her sophomore year of high school where she receives a letter from herself from 10 years in the future. Within the letter she receives, it asks her to erase her regrets from 10 years ago while naming all the events that she had with the new transfer student Kakeru Naruse. The story mainly focuses on how Naho tries to erase the future Naho’s regrets by changing her own past in a parallel universe. Since this show was adapted from the manga (as many Anime usually are), I will be analysing the Anime, as the show adapts the whole story and the manga doesn’t go any further with the story.

Watching through the 13 episode it offers, it 100% complies with the stereotypical “formula” that a 少女 has. You have Naho, who is the main girl trying to save Kakeru from ending his life because of his sad backstory and lack of self-confidence. Throughout the whole show, Naho is always questioning her ability to save Kakeru. She literally plays the main support role for Kakeru, and this fact stays true and proven to be right by her friends who all get letters from their future selves as well, asking them to help Naho save Kakeru. In the beginning, she doubts her role of being the support for him, but as the story develops, Naho starts to rely a little more on Kakeru to save her from doubting herself, because (of course), Naho loves Kakeru.

A 少女 will definitely have an idealised love, right? Well, this show definitely makes it obvious when it comes to Naho’s love interest. When Naho is around her usual group of friends, she’s usually happy and laughing around with them, but when it comes to Naho only being with Kakeru, She looks a lot happier. She probably feels a lot happier when she’s with him because of how: a. the whole story revolves around those two, b. He is her love interest and c. Naho feels happy because she feels that she’s saving Kakeru by being there to support him. If we were to follow the set “formula” that a typical 少女 would have, It would be very obvious that Naho’s happiest times would be when she is with Kakeru. Throughout the show, Naho’s feelings for Kakeru develop very quickly but at a good pace. If we were to state the relationship style that ‘Orange’ shows, The “Unequal Relationship” (Izawa, 2000) would best fit this model. Naho follows the “old stereotype” that Izawa states in her article where the female characters are usually “shy and weak”. Not to say that Naho is always “shy and weak”, but as the story goes on, she slowly shows more of her anxious side because of Kakeru’s influence on her. As cited by Izawa, she says that the “heroine’s mind is always devoted to her chosen male partner”, and, that statement, 100% follows through with Naho towards Kakeru. Not only is 80% of Naho’s dialogue all about Kakeru, but there will always be an excuse for her to link whatever the situation is back to something related to saving Kakeru.

A side note to add since the topic is about “traditional” female gender roles in Japan. I wanted to enlighten a little bit on Naho’s parents. The only time you see Naho’s parents is when she’s at home in the living room. Throughout the show, you only ever see Naho’s mother in the kitchen and her father on the living room couch. If we were to semiotics to analyse these scenes, Naho’s parents pretty much conform to the ideal societal image of how both genders are supposed to be. Naho’s father is always seen sitting on the couch either drinking a cup of something, while her mother is always in the kitchen doing the washing up or cooking dinner. Naho’s mother is conforming to the stereotype where the female role is the family carer.

It’s true that in Manga and Anime, there are a lot of genres that allow us to have something to enjoy. From Fantasy Isekai to Romance Comedies, There will always be something for everyone. But following from my previous observations, I said that the stories could be split into two distinctive categories, “Shounen” (少年) and “Shoujo” (少女).

To give a quick summary of both genres, 少年 mainly focuses on the development of the main male character with a storyline balance of drama and comedy ranging from sports, adventure and slice of life. 少女 commonly has a storyline where it focuses on the development of human relationship using the perspective of the female protagonist. The major difference between these two genres is that in 少女 there is a big deal of the storyline revolving around the female protagonist doing what she does because of her idealised love interest.

Of course, in both genres, there are considerably both strong and weak characters in both genders; but there is definitely a stereotype that has been put on their roles in both side of each narrative. 少年 will typically have a male protagonist trying to be the best he can to achieve what he sets his mind to. Each 少年 will typically have their main three characters the developing male protagonist, his best friend/rival (who is probably more powerful than him but is still developed through the story) and the female character as support or motivation. What you will see in a lot of 少年 is typically you will have the female character fall far behind their male counter character in strength and determination and that their only role in the whole story is to uplift and support the male protagonist in times of struggle. Manga and Anime like ‘Naruto’ (ナルト) and ‘Blue Exorcist’ (青の祓魔師) definitely prove these points with trio characters like Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura and Rin, Yukio and Shiemi respectively. Although nowadays with newer franchises like ‘Boku no Hero Academia’ (僕のヒーローアカデミア) and ‘The Promised Neverland’ (約束のネバーランド), the stereotype of the female character just only being a “support character” is starting to be challenged and broken through with new ideals (not to mention that nowadays, there are actually a lot of female voice actors who are voicing said male characters in 少年).

With 少女, the narrative typically starts with the female protagonist who meets with a male character who is mysterious, aloof and maybe even a rival. The typical story would mainly focus on the female character doing everything she can to get closer to her male counter and she would slowly start to rely on him. You could argue that in both 少年 and 少女, the story tends to have the same stereotypes, the only difference is that one is told by the male perspective and the other is told by the female perspective. With shows like ‘Ao Haru Ride’ (アオハライド) and ‘Orange’ (オレンジ), throughout the whole show, you’ll only get the story out of the female perspective; but before the final episode, you’ll see the whole story summarised by the male counter character before the climax of the storyline. Even if we see the story for weeks from the female perspective, after watching the male perspective, you start to see sympathy for the male character and root on the female protagonist to be there for him because of his (and honestly usually is) a very sad back story leading the male character to be the way he is. There is a certain “formula” that both genres take on to reel in the audience and build these characters for people around the world to love.