Sexist writing in Yu-Gi-Oh!!: Yoshida Shin and Zappa Go
I tweeted about this on my twitter, but decided to make post on tumblr, as the fandom might be still alive here, I donāt really know. Long post ahead, TLDR at the end.
By now almost everyone in the western YGO fandom must know who Yoshida Shin is. He is the man who has been working as YGO screenwriter since DM, and wrote storylines for both Zexal and Arc-Vās manga versions. The western fandom has declared him as sexist, blaming him on poor female writing in the series as well as fanservice of the female characters.
However, in truth, thatās justĀ exaggerated conclusion made by angry YGO Arc-V fans on tumblr who hated YGO Zexal and wanted to blame someone for their reasoning of not liking it. In Japanese fandom, only problems there is about Yoshida, is about him giving some good characterizations, but never giving them deeper continuation or conclusion. There is no talk about him being sexist or worse at writing women than other writers in YGO. And even in Japan, they call out about problematic subjects in anime, as we can see when there was an uproar of childrenās idol anime Pripara, which portrayed in one of itās ending a middle-schooler character in lingerie as in reference for Marilyn Monroe.
A famous quote people base their idea of Yoshida being sexist on is how he said in YGO Zexalās manga, that his series donāt have a lot of women. Many people see this as that he hates women and female characters, when in truth what he is saying in that context is, that he tends to often focus on male characters more than female characters and that he should and works to change that and include more female characters to his own writing.Ā
Even in the manga versions of Zexal and Arc-V, itās hard to tell which decisions in comic are made by Yoshida. He wrote the overall storyline of the manga, but itās as big possibility it was manga artistās own decision or someone elseās working with the manga, to add fanservicey, ship-teasing moments between Yuuya, his brothers and Yuzu, who turned out to be their mother at the end. Especially the famous groping scene is something so tiny and irrelevant to the plot, I have hard time believing itād been worthy to be written by storywriter. Even fandom arguing about age difference between Yuushou and Yuzu is hard to say. Personally, I donāt think younger Yuushou looks older than maybe 15-16, in which him developing relationship with Yuzu who is 14 wouldnāt be problematic.
EDIT:Ā Looking at few writings by Miyoshi, the mangaka, has done in the manga versions of Zexal and Arc-V... He literally talks about female charactersā chest sizes and seems to me that he is behind of the fanservice and female characters being sexualized.
Despite working a lot on Zexal as itās composer, which some people claim has worst female writing in YGO, Yoshida didnāt write every episode of Zexal, he only made scripts for around 40 of them. You can check ANN which episodes he worked on here.
Is Yoshida Shin sexist? I canāt say with absolute certainty if he is or isnāt, but after seeing how he barely has part in writing female characters in YGO series, I donāt think he is more sexist or misogynistic than any other writers in YGO, shounen series usually just tend to have poor writing/treatment of female characters. He seems to be quite your average writer in shounen anime, and if you think heās sexist, you probably should think so is every shounen writer.
However, taking a look in some episodes of Zexal that had the most uncanny, gross and fanservicey moments, a certain manās name pops up as a writer; Zappa Gou. This man has written episodes that include many series people complain and take as example of Zexal having gross and sexist fanservice, such as Kotoriās shower scene in episode 83 and in my personal opinions, episodes that had Rio acting like character from s*scon inc*st anime. Once again, Yoshida had nothing to do with these episodesā writing, so putting blame on him for the fanservice or sexist undertones is unjustified.
If we take a look at Zappa Gouās work in screenplay and composition, you can find a lot of... questionable series. He has written in a lot of fanservice, ecchi and hentai series, which I think explains the uncomfortable sexualized fanservice, or at least raises a question or two. Besides these animes and Zexal, he has also worked on Yu-Gi-Oh!! Arc-Vās first season as writer on 10 episodes. To be more exact, the same man who wrote several fanservicey, sexual ecchi animes and that one scene of Kotoriās towel slipping, wrote most of Arc-Vās first seasonās episodes, that revolved around its female characters. This includes both Yuzu vs. Masumi duels as well as Yuuya vs. Mieru duel. So, if you think Zappa Gou is sexist and creepy hentai writer, note he also wrote many episodes about Arc-Vās female characters, that I personally think explain why Yuzu often acts like basic tsundere love interest from fanservice series, why Masumi had crush on her adult teacher and the whole Yuuya seeing Mieruās upskirt.
Iāve seen people praising Arc-V a lot, especially the same people who talk down on Zexal and claim it be The Most Sexist YGO Season Ever. People talk like Yuzu has top-tier female character writing, when in my own opinion she as well as entirety of Arc-V has just as average writing on the girls department as usual. Sure, Arc-V had a lot of female duelists, but barely any of them had some deeper role or meaning in the overall story. Many characters were written off or sidelined as the series progressed (Ayu, Masumi, Mieru, Olga, Tyler sisters, Sayaka) had only short time on screen (Tylers, Sayaka, Rin & Ruri), or worked basically as Deus Exmachina plot tools (Rey & Bracelet girls). Not to mention the girls never got to won against any impressive characters in serious duels, like in any previous YGO season before. And I donāt even want to begin how Yuzu and Serena got trashed after Synchro arc, the whole damsel in distress and brainwash tropes and so on. The fact people act like Arc-Vās writing on its female cast is higher than in your average YGO are either in denial or blinded by their bias.
I guess my point in conclusion is: Yoshida Shin isnāt more sexist than any other writer in YGO anime and Zappa Gou, who has previously written several ecchi anime, worked in many gross Zexal scenes as well as a lot of episodes revolving around Yuzu, Masumi and Mieru in Arc-V. So think about who is sexist writer in YGO
By the way, I in no way hate Arc-V or itās characters. It personally has my favorite cast of characters after Zexal and I really liked the premise of the series. But what it comes to Arc-Vās plot and writing in both story and characters, I canāt in any way deny it was awful. It had strong beginning in first season, but soon in second season, it went downhill very fast with poor pacing, horrible writing decisions and repeated character arcs - not to mention the finale is the most horrible YGO finale and basically destroys not only Kurosakiās but also both Yuuya, Yuzuās and rest of their counterpartsā character arcs completely. You can like series and yet criticize and complain about its writing, you can accept its flaws and still enjoy it. Man, Yuuya is like my 2nd fave YGO protag, yet I absolutely hate his writing. Wonāt stop me liking his character premise though.
What I do hate is people who ignore facts for their own bias, deny clear flaws and act elitist, as if their biased opinions were only truth. Itās important to accept that things arenāt perfect. You can enjoy series, even if they have bad aspects.
TLDR: Yoshida Shin isnāt in more fault than any of the other YGO writers in the seriesā bad female character writing. He has admitted he more often focuses on men rather than women and wants to work to change that. Female character writing and treatment is usually poor in shounen series like YGO. However, Zappa Go, man who wrote some very uncanny fanservice episodes and poor female characterization in Zexal, also wrote all ofĀ Arc-Vās first seasonās episodes about its female characters and also has been writer in several ecchi/hentai series.
romaincrisis
prguitarman
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
annaxmalina
