Sexism in japanese media the portrayal of female characters in shonen anime and manga = phân biệt giới tính trong truyền thông nhật bản chân dung các nhân vật nữ trong shonen anime và manga
Despite its economic advancement, Japan is lagging far behind the rest of the G-7 nations in terms of social progression, especially that of gender equality This inequality can be seen reflected in all corners of the Japanese way of life, from work culture to mainstream media culture For a long time, the distorted portrayal of female characters in Shonen anime and manga, which has been largely contributed by deep-seated misogyny, has been a topic of discussion among countless online communities and academics This thesis uses thematic analysis to provide an extended analysis of the problematic writing of female fictional characters in anime and manga, specifically, that of the Shonen demographic, shown through the common use of sexist tropes and recurrences of gender stereotyping, over-sexualization, etc… that can be observed from various works from the 2000s up until recent years Through this examination, it can be seen that while there are some improvements, there are still many persistent patterns that limit female representation in anime and manga The study also touches on how these patterns of portrayal are reflections of the role of women in Japanese society, and in return, what negative consequences they bring to viewers Overall, this study highlights how sexism infiltrates popular media in a covert manner and hopes to serve as encouragement for people to be more mindful and critical of the media they consume, especially entertainment media
Keywords: anime, manga, Shonen, sexism, female characters, media representation
Regardless of what postfeminism might make one believe, it is an indisputable fact that gender inequality still exists in every country across the world Still, some countries are doing a better job at closing that gap than others, namely Nordic countries like Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, etc Japan, despite being one of the most advanced countries in the world, with the third-largest economy and many technological advancements, is very much behind in the process of achieving gender equality compared to other developed countries According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021 from World Economic Forum, while countries of the same economic level as Japan like Germany and the UK ranked 11th and 23rd respectively, Japan ranked 120th of 156 - the lowest rank among developed nations This result was in spite of the efforts made by the Japanese government in recent years to close the gender gap, and it can be said that not a lot of change has occurred on a large scale Sexism against women is a huge problem in Japanese society, which can be seen in many aspects of life in this modern but traditionally driven nation From the workplace culture with
“maternity harassment” making women unable to continue working corporate jobs after pregnancy (Nippon, 2020), to entertainment media like anime and manga with its use of sexist tropes, misogyny is seemingly all too common and normalized in Japan Although there has been a rise in the Japanese public consciousness, especially that of the younger generation, when it comes to the discrimination that women have to endure on a daily, the problem becomes one of dealing with more subtle instances of ingrained sexism Anime and manga, two very popular forms of entertainment media in Japan that are being consumed by over 30 percent of the Japanese population according to a survey in 2019 by the Nippon Research Center (Statista, 2022), are notorious for their sexist content like objectifying and sexualizing female characters or disregarding female representations within stories which is more commonly seen in Shonen works
With the rise of feminism in recent years, the general public is becoming much more aware of gender inequality and women’s issues in our globally patriarchal society This awareness is especially heightened in online spaces among younger generations namely Gen
Z, as the youth is embracing activism much more than the older generations (Spiers, 2019) Being the generation that grew up with technology and globalization through the Internet, they understand better than most, the power of the collective through social media and its potential for good causes Because of this, Gen Z is seemingly more politically conscious of the art and media that they consume and is more vocal with their opinions online These things all led to the Internet community as a whole being increasingly critical and outspoken about how female figures are being portrayed in mass media Thanks to the upsurge in the popularity of Japanese animation (Brandwatch, 2021) - better known as anime, and its comics version - manga, the ways that female characters are being depicted in these media forms have become a topic of discussion in many online spaces Many argue that these problematic depictions are reflections of our patriarchal society, and are extremely detrimental in the long run since in many ways, they are perpetuating the cycle of sexism in our society, and further drilling misogynistic beliefs into consumers' minds Others argue that while misogynistic portrayals do exist, they are mostly harmless because anime or manga is simply entertainment media for children or younger adults, and they should not be taken seriously There is even a proportion of people who deny that these sexist portrayals even exist at all Overall, there is a lot of discourse around this topic
As a university student who has been studying and researching Japanese culture for almost four years, the topic in question fascinates me to no end I am of the opinion that sexist contents fueled by real-life sexism in anime and manga, especially in Shonen works, are way too prevalent to go unnoticed, and have major negative impacts on media on an artistic level and customers on a societal level Being an anime consumer and an intersectional feminist myself, I was motivated to write this paper, to dissect this problem and shed some light on exactly how female figures are being unfairly portrayed in Shonen anime and manga and what kind of impacts these portrayals are causing
As aforementioned, it was the disagreement on this topic that has encouraged me to write this study, hence, the main purpose of this is to solidify my stand on this topic being that sexist content not only exists in multiple Shonen anime and manga works, it’s also to the extent that it becomes a pattern and is a manifestation of the systemic discrimination against women in society My aim is to demonstrate precisely the ways in which female characters in Shonen works are being misrepresented, by conceptualizing and analyzing the problems that can be seen in the methods of depicting female figures in popular Shonen works released approximately two decades ago to date and by giving specific examples from said works for analysis On top of that, this research will also examine the correlations between the real-life sexism in our world, specifically in the context of Japan, and the mistreatment of fictional female characters in anime and manga Conversely, one other factor that motivates this research is the potential repercussions that these sexist representations have back on our community as audiences consume this type of content without acknowledging the problems residing in it
The problems discussed in this study are drawn from the portrayals of female characters in ‘popular’ Shonen anime and manga works issued from 2000 to the present day The titles were chosen based on the following criteria Firstly, they ought to be Japanese animated series and comics which means they are produced and written by Japanese people, and use Japanese in their original releases, not to be confused with aneni and manhwa (South Korean animation and comics) or donghua and manhua (Chinese animation and comics), despite their possible similar styles and visuals This was to strictly keep this study within a socio-cultural Japanese context Secondly, chosen titles must be classified as Shonen, as opposed to Shojo Shonen, with its literal meaning in Japanese being “young boy”, refers to a target demographic of boys between the ages of 12 and 18 Hence, Shonen works are ones that aim towards this audience group, rather than a genre in the typical sense of the word, as Shonen can include action, sci-fi, fantasy, comedy, etc The reason for this was in order to make sure only widely consumed titles were picked since Shonen as a whole undoubtedly has the most publicly recognized titles among other demographics such as Shojo, Seinen, or Josei Thirdly, a selected series needed to have a large proportion of its episodes or volumes being released from the year 2000 up until the time of writing this study The basis for this was to stay up to date with the current situation of the Japanese entertainment media scene in Japan, in relation to the present-day socio-political state of Japan and the world at large The final criteria to be chosen was that the works had to be “popular”, with popularity being judged based on various internet sources like social media, top 10 lists on anime and manga websites, etc Once again, this was done to ensure that chosen titles were unbiased representations of what has been being consumed most widely among Japanese and non- Japanese audiences
The selection of works to analyze was done after reading plot summaries and watching or reading at least half of their available content Although there might be many perceived similarities and overlapping in themes and plot lines between the chosen titles, it is important to note that the selection process was not based on content but rather on the
“popularity” mentioned above While the chosen titles were not diverse in genre, as they are mostly what is called Battle Shonen, or were they the most widely known anime or manga series, they are extremely popular among anime and manga consumers and are frequently talked about in online spaces like Twitter, TikTok, etc Ultimately, the following titles were picked: Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen Most of these are classified as Battle Shonen - a sub-genre of Shonen that contains a lot of action, competitions, and fights as the main storyline
To accomplish the aims of this study, the following questions need to be answered
1 How are female characters in Shonen anime and manga being portrayed in a sexist manner?
2 What are the correlations between those portrayals and the state of our society regarding sexism and women issues?
3 What are the societal repercussions of those portrayals?
This study’s methods of acquiring data entailed reading and watching the original materials of the chosen anime and manga which serve as the study's primary source, allowing for the collection of qualitative primary data Secondary research methods like online researching sources such as previously conducted studies, books, newspapers, blogs, social networks, etc were also utilized, which allowed for the gathering of qualitative and quantitative secondary data
For data analysis methods, qualitative research methods, mainly thematic analysis, were used Being one of the most common forms of qualitative analysis, thematic analysis is perfect for identifying and analyzing the overarching themes within data, while being flexible as it does not require any specific process or rule in order to be conducted (Braun & Clarke,
2006) Due to my personal extensive experience with anime and manga, this research has taken a deductive approach as opposed to an inductive approach, for I have formed my opinions prior to this research, based on personal observations and already existing studies
To quote Caulfield (2022, “Different approaches to thematic analysis” section), “a deductive approach involves coming to the data with some preconceived themes you expect to find reflected there, based on theory or existing knowledge.” Following the examination of the primary source of data, patterns were linked together into cohesive and broad themes that suggest discriminatory attitudes toward female characters They were “Underrepresentation”,
“Trivialization”, “Sexualization”, and “Gender Stereotyping” The content of this study was centered on these four main themes In addition, a latent approach was also adopted in order to read into the subtext and implications underlying these extracted themes
As mentioned before in this paper, the topic of female representation in anime and manga has been frequently discussed and researched, especially in recent years In this study,
I will attempt to bring to the table unique values that have not been observed in previous studies Firstly, many of them analyzed works from both the Shonen and Shojo demographics (e.g Unser-Schutz, 2015), whereas this study focuses on Shonen works only because the majority of the most widely consumed anime and manga titles are categorized as Shonen Secondly, there are pieces of literature that have used quantitative content analysis as a data analysis method, with coding data to deduce statistical results about the sexist content in anime (e.g Reysen, Katzarska-Miller, et al., 2017) This method, while effective and objective when providing results, did not go in-depth about the content of the chosen works to analyze the nuances in the portrayals of female figures in each work For qualitative studies that conducted a thematic analysis to dissect in detail the ways that female characters were depicted in specific titles, they typically examined one to three titles (e.g Bueno & Bello, 2017), which might hinder the objectivity of the research because of the small samples of titles being analyzed To improve on this, this study provides detailed but open interpretations of the portrayal of female characters within contexts of a handful number of titles, as an attempt to give a more comprehensive view of femininity and sexism shown in popular anime and manga Furthermore, by providing the social and cultural context of Japan, as well as making relevant connections to the media studies field and the sociological aspect of it all, such as gender studies, feminism theory, and so on, this study discusses the implications of those problematic portrayals for current Japanese society Lastly, previously conducted research got their data from dated anime and manga works, whereas this study uses older and more recent works to give up-to-date insights into how the state of female representation in anime and manga has not improved a whole lot over more than 20 years
This study consists of five main sections
- The first section is the Introduction This section presents the rationale, purpose, research questions, scope, methods, and structure of this study
- The second section is Chapter I It presents the theoretical background of this study
- The third section is Chapter II It presents the content of the research conducted for this study
- The fourth section is the Conclusion It presents the conclusion of the research conducted, an overview and limitations of the study, and recommendations for future studies.
Theoretical framework 13
1 Sexism, gender roles, and stereotypes
Oxford University Press (2010) defines sexism as "prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex" Sex, being assigned at birth, refers to the biological and physiological aspects of males and females as determined by anatomy, such as chromosomes, hormones, reproductive organs, etc (ONS, 2019) Sexism, at its simplest meaning, can happen to any sex, but it is women and girls that have to face it daily on a systemic level In this study, solely the topic of sexism against women will be discussed
As a tool for the patriarchy, sexism upholds male domination and maintains patriarchal social structures through discriminating beliefs and practices on the basis of sex and gender, implemented by individuals, collectives, and even institutions (Masequesmay, n.d.) Sexism can take many forms It could start with the idea that the male sex is superior to or more valuable than the female sex, then transcend into real-life consequences like social domination and economic exploitation of women
Ambivalent Sexism Theory, proposed by Glick and Fiske (1996), put forward the stance that sexism can be divided into "hostile sexism" and "benevolent sexism" As explained in the study, hostile sexism manifests in misogyny, which is antagonism and antipathy for women, often expressed through overt negative views of women, like seeing women as incompetent, unintelligent, overly emotional, etc On the other hand, benevolent sexism reflects views of women that are seemingly positive, like regarding women as nurturing and caring, suitable for mother and child caretaker roles, as perpetual victims in need of male protection, or as objects of heterosexual desires These views insinuate that all women should take on the traditional gender role of mothers and caretakers, that women are weak and need to be protected, and should be put on a pedestal by men for their sexual purity and availability Therefore, although on the surface, benevolent sexism may appear harmless, it is immensely damaging to gender parity and limits women's personal, professional, political, and social prospects While hostile sexism is typically easy to recognize because it poses blatant prejudices against women, benevolently sexist attitudes often go unnoticed and do not get identified as an expression of gender-based prejudice because they are flattering at first glance Furthermore, social and cultural norms may even endorse benevolently sexist beliefs, rewarding individuals who conform to them, making it harder to abolish sexism as a whole
Kilianski and Rudman (1998) suggest that people find it difficult to imagine the coexistence of both hostile and benevolent sexism in an individual’s beliefs and attitudes Despite this, in reality, it is very rare that women are perceived by others in an entirely hostile or benevolent manner, and most people often report varying levels of both benevolent and hostile sexism (Glick et al., 2000) The two forms of sexism work together to reinforce traditional gender roles and maintain patriarchal social structures that position women as inferior and restrict women to a lower social standing than men (Glick & Fiske, 1997)
Traditional gender roles for males and females being upheld is a common form of socialization based on sexist concepts Gender is a social construct that refers to norms, behaviors, and social roles associated with being a woman, man, girl, or boy (WHO, n.d.) Despite having different meanings, it is often being used interchangeably with “sex” when discussing matters involving sexism Gender roles, typically centered on the concepts of traditional masculinity and femininity, are social roles that men and women in society are expected to take on, ranging from how they should think, and talk, to how they should act, dress, etc based on their sex In itself, going along with gender roles is not inherently bad, as people can find it comforting to adhere to something they have been accustomed to from the moment they were born However, gender roles can be immensely problematic as they can reinforce generalized views or preconceptions about men and women, also called gender stereotypes A common stereotype about women and men is how these two genders are polar opposites, and therefore ought to perform vastly different and complementary roles For example, women are considered emotional, all while being weaker and less capable than men, especially when it comes to logic and rationality For this reason, they are deemed unable to be leaders in the fields of business, politics, etc, and instead, better off sticking to what they do best, which is domestic work like cooking, cleaning, taking care of children, etc, all while still having their role trivialized when compared to men’s role (Masequesmay, n.d.)
It is important to note that, like stereotypes about any marginalized group, although some gender stereotypes are about positive or neutral attributes such as women are superb at caretaking, all of them are assuming and harmful for they impose expectations and limits on what men and women should and can do Furthermore, gender stereotypes can be used to justify the discrimination of people based on their sex and perpetuate the gender hierarchy of our society
Media, also can be referred to as mass media, describes any channel of communication such as print, publication, news outlets, cinema, or broadcasting that reaches people widely (Merriam-Webster, n.d.) In general, it was proven that media has the ability to shape consumers’ knowledge, influence, and reinforce their perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors (e.g Valkenburg et al., 2016) For example, increased exposure to pornography was found to be linked with less egalitarian views and more hostile sexism toward women (Hald et al., 2013) This might be because pornography often depicts women in a rather dehumanizing way, making them seem like sex objects or sexual commodities that exist solely for male gratification (Garry, 1978) Far from being exclusive to live-action mediums, many studies have shown that the same phenomenon can be seen in animation For instance, Reysen, Plante, et al (2017) conducted research that suggests greater preferences for, and likely greater exposure to the action genre of anime, a genre filled with supernature and fantasy portrayals, is associated with favorable views of paranormal beliefs Both of the two above-mentioned instances show how certain content is connected to certain attitudes in consumers in ways that align with the content itself Whether these are cases of content influencing people into thinking and behaving the way that they do or people simply gravitating towards content that is agreeable to them, is up for theorizing There were studies that have proven either of these stances to be grounded in reality (e.g Potter, 2011; Klapper,
1960), so the plausible answer here is a combination of both: media exposes people to new beliefs and at the same time reinforces existing beliefs It can educate us for good, but also promote and perpetuate problematic ideas, so the more we understand its power, the better we can protect ourselves and avoid being manipulated
Media representation is how media deals with representing particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, topics, or events to audiences (BBC Bitesize, n.d.) Proper representation and diversity in media matter for a number of reasons Firstly, from a psychological perspective, it can be a source of validation and support for audiences of marginalized groups, especially the youth Growing up while consuming media filled with warped representation or little to no representation at all of one’s own community could lead to the internalization of beliefs about what an ideal life should be or how people should aspire to be like Secondly, from a humanistic political perspective, exposure through media representation can help break down prejudices of underrepresented groups that people might have preconceived notions about If more people from different backgrounds are exposed to each other, the assumed standards will be interrupted, resulting in reduced stereotypes across communities Lastly, from an artistic perspective, having proper representation in media entails opportunities for people of different groups to express themselves in creative spaces This means more perspectives being explored, creating new and diverse stories, which in turn expands the artistic landscape and allows artists to progress further in a medium All in all, good and fair representation matters regardless of target audience or genres
Historically, women have been underrepresented and misrepresented in mainstream media Men and women are generally represented in social roles according to culturally dominant ideas about gender, with women being portrayed as domestic and family-oriented, and men as career-focused breadwinners Tuchman (1978) developed the concept of
Symbolic Annihilation to emphasize the way in which women's achievements often get overlooked, criticized, or trivialized in media, and seen as less important than their looks or sex appeal Though outdated, the study is still relevant to how female figures are presented in today’s mass media - through the lens of gender stereotypes With all the power that media holds in our world, there is no doubt that female representation in media has a huge impact on society’s perceptions of women The messages conveyed through the portrayal of women in media get embedded into the unconscious cognitive part of the brain which is just in charge of processing perception, memory, learning, thought, and language (Kihlstrom, 2013), in other words, one learns without knowing that they are learning
The image of an idealized Japanese woman is someone gentle, submissive, soft- spoken and above all else, she is an excellent homemaker and is always devoted to taking care of her husband and children (Ko, 2018) This idea is reflective of society’s attitudes towards Japanese women, which is rooted in the existing gender norms about how women’s main contribution to society is giving birth and raising children, all while being secondary to men For a long time, this has been an excuse to keep women out of working spaces, because they are deemed as ill-appropriate for politics, business, and other white-collar jobs Even now, as more and more women are entering the workforce, they are often restricted to roles such as an ‘office lady’ - a term for a female office worker who performs generally pink- collar tasks like serving tea and clerical or secretarial tasks, which reflect the traditional housewife role Not only at work, but the discrimination against women and girls is also prevalent in education, with many instances of girls being held to a higher standard of school entrance exam scores than boys (Senda, 2018) The most notable incident of sexism in
Japanese education was when Tokyo Medical University, one of Japan’s most prestigious medical schools, admitted to deliberately altering the entrance exam results of female applicants for more than a decade to cut down the number of female students and ensure more men became doctors It was said that the extreme working hours required for doctors make it impossible for women to become doctors because they have to get married and take care of children (McCurry, 2018) This only proves further that Japanese society still sees house chores and childcare as the main responsibility of women, not men It is to the point that women are harassed and forced out of their jobs after becoming pregnant or after returning from maternity leave - a phenomenon called “matahara”, abbreviated for “maternity harassment” A survey released by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation in 2015 stated that roughly 20% of working women in Japan have experienced matahara in the form of psychological or verbal abuse, unfair treatment such as being dismissed from a job or demoted, and other forms of harassment (Matahara Net, n.d.) Even when women are not faced with matahara at work, there is still a lot of unspoken pressure for them to quit their jobs as it is extremely difficult to work and take care of kids with limited support from their husbands, a shortage of public-funded day-care, and few policies to allow flexible forms of working As soon as kids are old enough, mothers return to the labor market as part-time workers with low income and limited promotion opportunities, despite their capability and education (Shoji, 2018) Because of this, Japan has the third-highest gender wage gap compared to other developed nations, with women getting paid 26.52% less than men on average (OECD, 2014) All of this is not to say that push back against gender inequality is not present in modern Japan, but sexism against women is still immensely prevalent, and more efforts from people and the government are very much needed
Anime, also known as Japanese animation, and manga, also known as Japanese comics, are two extremely popular forms of Japanese media, with manga being the most widely consumed media in Japan (Matanle et al., 2014) and anime being more popular internationally for its accessibility Shonen, also written as Shounen, is a target demographic of young teen male audiences between the ages of 12 and 18 Works classified under this category are marketed and aimed at this audience base and published in Shonen-labeled magazines, with the most popular magazine being Weekly Shonen Jump It is important to note that the Shonen label is not informative of which genre a title falls into, as it can contain a range of genres from action, comedy, to romance, etc Another point worth mentioning is target demographic of a given work does not imply its actual audience Shonen works are some of the most famous anime and manga out there Because of this, it is not hard to imagine that their audience base is not limited to young teen boys but also older audiences and female audiences In fact, for a long time, half of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine’s readership has been girls and women, according to a report from Nikkei Style (2012)
The notion that art imitates life is supported by the famous Greek philosopher
Aristotle in his book Poetics when he argued that it is only natural that humans create art that imitates the things around them, from people, objects, events to beliefs (Aristotle, 1961) This is why it is important to consider the significance of culture while looking at a piece of art Artists and creators are inevitably influenced by their cultural beliefs and values, so as a result, looking at the socio-cultural situation that a work was created under is a good way to understand contexts and dissect the significance of details in said work Japanese arts and media are no exception, as they are filled with Japanese depictions of life For example,
The portrayal of female characters in Shonen Anime and Manga 22
This chapter examines the sexism in Japanese media, particularly in anime and manga titles, and its associated patterns of underrepresentation, trivialization, sexualization, and stereotyping of female characters In addition, how these patterns correlate with the state of our society, and their societal repercussions are also discussed The chosen to be analyzed works that are Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen, Death Note, My Hero Academia, Bleach, and Demon Slayer It should be pointed out that most of these series exhibit two or even all four patterns of female character mistreatment but are not touched upon in every section that they can be
In each section, only two series are examined to provide illustrative evidence for the sake of conciseness, yet it is important to note that these patterns of depiction are repeated by countless existing Shonen works On a different note, the patterns can occasionally overlap, such as the sexualization of female characters can sometimes be seen as an act of trivialization or gender stereotyping
This section of the study discusses the basic representation of female characters, as in the number of presented female figures in media, and whether or not female characters were central to a piece of media, specifically fictional media since the topic of discussion is about anime and manga It poses the question of the significance of female characters to the narrative of given titles: is she important to the main plot or is she just there to support the journey of the male characters? When she is important to the plot, is she just a plot device to move the story forward and get sidelined after or is she a full-fledged character with agency and a journey of her own where she learns, changes, and achieves growth as a result of her experiences in the story? These aspects are explored in the following
Throughout history, women have been underrepresented and have their roles trivialized across media worldwide, especially in fictional media A report by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (2014) revealed that among 120 film titles from 11 countries with the most profitable film industries like the US, India, Japan, etc, only 23.3% of them included at least one female protagonist and 30.9% of named characters appeared on screen were female This result is consistent with results from other research about female representation (e.g Anderson & Daniels, 2016), showing how women are far less likely to be seen in media than men The fundamental reason for this is sexism, and by extension, stereotypes about genders Women’s lack of access to media professions like news producing, filmmaking, etc also reinforces this glaring inequality, as men tend to report and write stories about and based on their own gender’s perspective (Hsiao et al., 2021)
According to the same report from Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2014, among the creators of top-grossing movies from 2010 to 2013 in 11 countries, only 20.5% of them were women, with France and Japan falling behind considerably with a 9.6 and 9.5 to 1 gender ratio respectively for male and female filmmakers
The anime and manga industry in Japan also suffers the same problem of lacking female representation in stories and in real life, as the industry is very male-dominated with not a lot of women in high positions (Scanteni, 2020) Possible explanations for this range from male chauvinism, to gender prejudices, to studio culture filled with sexual harassment against women (Wescott, 2020) In an interview with the Guardian published in 2016,
Yonebayashi Hiromasa, a former film director, and Nishimura Yoshiaki, a former film producer of Studio Ghibli - Japan's most globally acclaimed animation studio, have stated some questionable viewpoints about the relationship between genders and animation making Most notably, when being asked about the possibility of Ghibli ever employing a female director, Nishimura stated that while men are idealistic, women tend to be realistic, implying that women are unfit for the type of fantasy films that the studio is well-known for (Michael,
2016) This statement raised eyebrows because it is impossible to truly judge if men can do a better job at directing Ghibli’s fantasy films than women when all of the studio’s films were directed by men Nishimura later apologized for his sexist remark (Barnes, 2016), but this incident was very illuminating of the general prejudicial mindset of the anime industry on women being film directors The lack of women in charge in the industry is paralleled by the scarcity of women and girls present in anime and manga titles Reysen, Katzarska-Miller, et al (2017) examined a handful of episodes from popular anime series and found that only a third of the characters that appeared on screen were female This corresponds with the findings of another research by Unser-Schutz et al (2015), with female characters accounting for 27.01% of characters and 34.64% of overall lines in the ten Shonen and Shojo manga chosen In the same research, with only Shonen works taken into consideration, a low percentage of 12.77% of the casts were female, and they took up only 16.60% of lines in the stories With the already low number of female representations, one would imagine that the roles of female characters would be emphasized to make up for the gender imbalance, but within the narratives of Shonen titles, it is all too common to see female characters get sidelined and boxed in supporting roles for their male counterparts When they are not being used as non-important side characters who are just there to be the token girls of their respective series, they are relegated to being plot devices, such as damsels in distress in need of saving from male protagonists, all while having little character development or agency of their own
The following section will take a look at one older and one more recent popular Shonen title to point out consistent patterns of underrepresenting and trivializing female characters: Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen
Naruto (Kishimoto, 1999 - 2014), known as one of the Big 3 anime/manga titles for its immense popularity and influences on the industry as a whole, tells the story of its titular character Uzumaki Naruto, a young ninja who is on the journey to achieving his dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village With female characters only taking up 8.7% of the cast based on the canon manga material (Unser-Schutz, 2015), the series is one of the prime examples of how Shonen underrepresents women and girls Its main heroine, Haruno Sakura has been considered by many to be a prime example of a badly written female character in Shonen because of her lack of fighting ability and her purported bad personality traits like being selfish, being mean to Naruto, or being obsessed with her crush - Uchiha Sasuke In reality, non of these claims are entirely true, especially when looking at her character in the entirety of the two-part series Many seem to not realize how characters having flaws is not a bad thing in itself, and characters can and should grow and change In retrospect, Sakura has one of the series’ best overall character development, portraying themes of overcoming your weaknesses and immaturity through hard work and resilience and being strong while still embracing kindness and love One of the biggest problems with her character, however, is how under-utilized she is in the story Being the tritagonist, she is supposed to have the third most important role in the series but is constantly sidelined to give way to other male characters’ stories, and is given no story arc of her own There are no canonical insights into her family life, and the audience barely knows anything about her backstory except for the fact that she was bullied for her looks when she was small The arguably most important aspect of her character, her development in terms of strength and confidence as the story progresses, does not get proper focus the same way that her male counterparts’ development got Similarly, most other female characters of Naruto were also given the same treatment but even worse, with little to no plot relevancy and minimum character development, which is often excused by some with the fact that they are side characters, even though many other side male characters were not treated the same way This, accompanied by how female characters of this series are often forced into stereotypes like most of them being healers instead of fighters at the end of the series, makes them seem like they were only afterthoughts, brought into the story to fill up the space and not portray anything meaningful
Another well-known but more recent work, Jujutsu Kaisen (Akutami, 2018 - ) follows high school student Itadori Yuji after he becomes the host of Ryomen Sukuna - the King of Curses, and joins the secret society of Jujutsu Sorcerers with the goal of killing Sukuna The series, once again, has a small number of female casts, only two of whom can be considered prominent and recurring characters, Kugisaki Nobara and Zenin Maki, with Maki only being a lead supporting character On the bright side, the series does not fall victim to clichés like having its female characters being perpetual victims in need of protection or being sexualized, which in itself is already a big improvement compared to other Shonen works old and new alike However, the show still ends up undermining its female characters’ importance to the overall plot of the story, with the prime example of this being the series’ female tritagonist, Kugisaki Nobara She starts out as a compelling character with personality traits that are non-conforming to the stereotypical Japanese feminity, like being unapologetic about staying true to herself, confident and self-assertive to the point of being cocky, all while not shying away from traditionally feminine traits like loving to shop or caring about her beauty While the two male leads of the story constantly burden themselves with concerns about other people’s well-being and use it as their reasons for moving forward, Nobara is self-interested and self-motivated, which is very refreshing to see because female characters often get coined as the compassionate and empathetic ones rather than male characters In addition to the interesting characterization, in the beginning, she is shown to be on the same level as the male protagonist and the male deuteragonist of the series in terms of strength and fighting ability, making her their equal - something that is not very common to see in Shonen These points make Nobara quickly become a fan favorite when the anime started airing, but as the series progresses, patterns of character trivialization start to show During one of the series’ climax arcs, which has not been animated yet, Nobara faces a powerful enemy and is eventually put in a critical state where she is on the brink of death This happens around chapters 125 to 126, which were released in October of 2020 Up until the point of writing this study, chapter 182 of the manga has been released and Nobara has not been seen in the story since then, and her status has not been confirmed to be dead or alive by the narrative or the author The reason for this could range from this being a marketing tactic to keep fans on their toes and Nobara has always been intended to be written off at that point of the story, to this being the author's plan and they intend to bring her character back into the story later on Either way, this has been a huge letdown to the writing of Nobara’s character, as up until the moment of her alleged death, she had little plot involvement and no character development at all, while her male counterparts have been constantly learning and growing bit by bit as the story goes Right before her supposed demise, readers got to peek more into her mind through flashbacks of her past life in the countryside where she grew up This, while touching, still felt like a lazy attempt on the author’s part at making the audience feel more for her to prop up the emotional impact of her death, without taking the time out to fully flesh out her character Furthermore, as of now, her passing away did not have a significant impact on the plot, because it served no purpose other than creating shock value for the audience and motivations for the male protagonist of the series - Itadori Yuji, which is a very common trope in Shonen: characters dying just for the sake of furthering the character development of protagonists Nobara’s gruesome death was set out as a way to put Yuji into a state of complete despair and quickly became irrelevant after a few chapters, all while barely getting any reaction from other characters in the story One might argue that this was all done on purpose to eventually reveal the plot twist of Nobara still being alive and she will be given more development and plot involvement later on Others might even consider this as wishful thinking considering how female characters have been treated in the history of Shonen The fact of the matter is that Jujutsu Kaisen is still ongoing so it is uncertain whether or not the author has any future plan in mind for Nobara, however, even if they do decide to continue with Nobara’s story, it is not farfetched to say that their execution of her character so far has been lack-luster and undoubtedly contributed to the trivialization of female characters in Shonen anime and manga in general
It has been mentioned above that media representation can help provide positive validation for the youth and marginalized groups Women and girls being underrepresented had and will continue to send harmful messages to audiences that men are the cultural standard and women are unimportant or invisible It insinuates to young girls that their stories are not important or unworthy of depicting or caring about It was argued that Shonen anime and manga are meant for male audiences anyway, so there is no need for female characters to be represented as boys only identify with characters of their own gender It was already addressed in the above section of this study that the notion that only boys and men watch Shonen is untrue, but even if it is true, male audiences need to see proper female representation too Boys are introduced to anime and manga early on in their childhood, making these media one of their first impressions of how the world works Them not seeing enough female characters existing and contributing to the fictional stories that they consume, might feed into an attitude of seeing women as insignificant and less important than men
This section of the study discusses the sexualization of female characters, as in how fictional women are treated more like sexualized objects rather than characters with their own agency, which includes patterns of portraying them with unrealistic body proportions, zoom cuts of their intimate body parts, etc for no other reason than to appeal to male audiences It takes a look at whether or not a female character was dressed in a less appropriate manner during certain circumstances of the story compare to her male counterparts, such as wearing a skimpy top and a short skirt during a fight while the men wear jackets and long pants In addition, this section also examines the degree to which female characters are sexualized compared to male ones, to show that the sexualization of women is not simply a “sex sells” thing, but has a gendered implication behind it, most likely sexism
Women have long been sexualized in media across the world, especially in fictional media Sexual exploitation of women in the media dates as far as the 19th century
(Blakemore, 2018) and is still prevalent to this day in modern society according to a report by the American Psychological Association (2007) A 2011 study conducted by the sociologists of the University at Buffalo found on the covers of The Rolling Stone magazine, a well- established media outlet owned and run primarily by men, 83% of women featured were sexualized, as opposed to 17% of men (Donovan, 2011) As previously mentioned, the scarcity of women in charge at high positions in media industries has left female characters at the mercy of men’s presumption of women and male fantasies In the current postfeminism era in which there are a lot of societal perceptions about how feminism has partially or completely accomplished its goals, it is easy to frame the sexualization of women as empowering through the notion that it is self-chosen, and simply women being confident in their sexuality However, the hyper-sexuality depicted, most of the time, does not emphasize the freedom and liberation of women, but rather plays into male sexual fantasies, and focuses on how much it can serve men’s titillation first and foremost In feminist theory, the “male gaze” is a term referring to the act of presenting women in visual arts, and literature as sexual objects, from a male heterosexual perspective, for the pleasure of a presumptive heterosexual, male audience (Eayon, 2008) The term was coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey which is still just as relevant today as it was in 1975 when her study of this was first published She argued that the male gaze creates an imbalance between subjectivity and objectification in visual media, in which women are represented as passive objects being viewed under the eye of male desires, rather than people The male gaze in essence is a manifestation of unequal social power between man and woman, and it is the main perpetrator of the pervasive culture of sexualizing female characters in media It is prevalent everywhere in our patriarchal society, from film to literature, to advertisements, etc, shaping how men and women view the world and themselves, and how people create art and media
Japanese anime and manga, without a doubt, also are influenced by the effects of the male gaze, hence the hyper-sexualization of female characters in these mediums Sexualizing women is an all too common occurrence in Shonen to the point of absurdity, making titles aimed at this demographic hard to consume for new viewers who are not familiar with the