Forum - View topicLittle Girls in Anime
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DemonDragonJ
 Posts: 116 Location: Somewhere in the United States |
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This topic is not intended to have anything to do with hentai anime or with pedophilia, even if the title suggests such a thing.
I have been witnessing a trend in Japanese animation recently; creepy, emotionless little girls, such as Anju Maka from Karin, the girl whose name I cannot remember from Onegai Teacher and Onegai Twins, and that little girl in Chrono Crusade, whose name I also cannot recall, due to having seen only the first several episodes of that series, and not very recently, either. What does everyone else think of this trend? |
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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You can add Momo from Shinigami no Ballad to that list.
I think that these so-called "emotionless" girls are intended to serve as a "message bringer," the observer who guides the main character(s) either subtly or unsubtly on whatever their goal may be. I think it's the same reasoning to put them in there as why many anime have the stereotypical energetic girl. There has to be many types of personalities to fit into an anime (you can't have them all be the same), and for relatively less serious anime, you can explore these stereotypes. I'm not sure if this is really such a new trend, but I guess it's just another typical anime personality.
She was definitely not emotionless. Azmaria Hendric, "that little girl in Chrono Crusade, had a very noticeable personality and was obviously very attached to her new friends after being abused in the past. I would almost call her moe (and I believe she was a contestant in the moe tournament held in this very forum). |
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DemonDragonJ
Posts: 116 Location: Somewhere in the United States |
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I apologize. I have not seen the entirety of Chrono Crusade, so I judged her to be emotionless from what little I saw of her. Thank you for enlightening me on that subject. |
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Stupidman007
 Posts: 394 |
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You can add Primula from Shuffle! to that list, what else is similar about them is that they all have a specific type of look, including a light hair color. Also, it would seem like they all appear in shows that are mainly focused on teenager romance series.
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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Yeah, check out the Christmas episode for all the proof you'll need if you have any doubts. I know what you're talking about though, and it is kind of creepy when it's in excess. I mean, even the girls in Gunslinger Girl had personalities and emotions greater than some of the others you see that follow the trend. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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Morino Ichigo is the girl you're looking for from Please Teacher! and Please Twins! And as others have said, if you see Chrno Crusade through to the end, you'll see a bit more emotion out of Azmaria. Actually, I once thought of making a similar topic to this awhile back, because I've seen lots of girls with this personality. I've found that they often have the role of making dry sarcastic comments and other jokes as a way to balance out the high-energy antics of the other characters. Some other examples include Chika from Shrine of the Morning Mist and Hinata from the Amaenaideyo!! series, who sort of has a reason for being that way, due to spoiler[trauma from her past involving demons and her using her powers accidentally to kill people]. Primula from Shuffle! is another example of the emotionless type, though she doesn't play the comic relief role that these other girls do. She is quite creepy in general. Of course, Primula is very much a visual and character ripoff of Hoshino Ruri from Nadesico, who has been hailed as one of anime's most beloved characters. Oddly enough, she's quite similar to an even more-beloved character, Ayanami Rei from NGE; if we had to point to a trend-starter for these kinds of girls, I'd point to Rei--her empty/emotionless personality captured the hearts of fans, so imitating her = road to success. |
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hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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Well the damn well better, Gunslinger Girl is a character piece if they didn't have personalities then there'd be little point would there? |
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Keonyn
Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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Well, my point was in comparison to what they were, which is essentially brainwashed cyborgs conditioned to kill without remorse or concern over the victims which certainly would indicate a personality similar to what we see discussed here. I guess my point was that they effectively built a complex personality off that, they could easily do so with a minor character from most other anime as well.
From what I've seen of the personality type it really just seems like a weak character thrown in to fill a void and that even a character with reason to be cold or unfeeling or emotionless could still easily have some degree of personality to her. |
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Fui
 Posts: 339 |
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I think it also usually adds to the moé trait (萌え) of the character by making them appear to be especially innocent or naiive. Right now the characters Rei Ayanamifrom Evangelion and Yuki Nagato are coming to mind...
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IchigoK90
 Posts: 1634 Location: Scarborough, Ontario |
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I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Kanna from InuYasha. I guess you could include Yuki from The Melancholy Of Haruhi Zuzumiya. Anyways I think having a quiet girl in anime is just keeping the stereotypical characters except adding a twist by making them young little girls.
"Believe it!" - IchigoK90 |
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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Exactly at the time of NGE there wasn't really a character like Rei. In fact she was the anti-anime heronie, whereas Asuka was more like the normal mold at the time for your typical hero. But yes since EVA there have been so many copy cat of Rei, and yes it a tip of the hat to EVA. And much like Zalis has noted using this type of anime character does have a trend of making a big name anime which equals money. Till next time, Delta Kiral |
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selenta
Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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This really isn't a surprising trend, they're hitting a very simple and very deep part of the psyche of males (females to a far lesser extent). Please please please don't take this the wrong way, but here's my take on why these characters are used, especially as pseudo enemies.
Society tends to place women at a weaker role than men, but at the same time tends to place certain other stereotypes on them i.e. more emotional. The quiet ones used as enemies are the simplest: quiet loli girls nearly always have superhuman powers, and if they're quiet we assume they're not talking because they're thinking. Thinking enemies scare people in a way that rage driven enemies can not, if you can't plan you're just not as dangerous. Just a few people off the top of my head: Itachi (Naruto), Aizen (Bleach), Lucy (Elfen Lied), Johann Liebert (Monster). Being young is another thing that can make enemies scary. All sane humans have maternal/paternal instincts, it's just a biological response to seeing kids. They want to protect said kids from harm or guide them. Of course these instincts can be overridden by any number of things from prejudices to past experiences, but the instincts are still there even if they're not acted out. Thus the thought that someone you feel like you want to protect and guide has a power beyond your realistic comprehension and wishes to kill you completely undermines your instincts. The fact that they're girls is where the society assumption that girls are weaker comes into play. Being girls makes it seem all the more surreal and odd to people that they have these powers. In other words, a girl with the intellectual capacity of an adult, the looks of a young "weak" girl, and often superhuman abilities makes for an incredible paradox in people's mind and we all know that people fear what they don't know or understand. 
What about on the good side? Most of the same principles apply, I can't even think of a single show that involved a really quiet, dumb, insensitive girl who never changes. If a girl like that is in a show, she's usually one of the main characters and the show is ABOUT her changing into a normal person; think: Eureka 7. But far more likely is that she's a quiet girl who's very smart (or at least witty) and who (once again) has supernatural powers of some sort; think: Yuki (Haruhi Suzumiya), Hinata (Naruto), Kirika (Noir). If we assume there's only four types of characters it becomes simple, there's: smart and hyper, smart and quiet, dumb and hyper, and dumb and quiet. I'll be honest, I like having a varied cast, but a dumb quiet girl without powers is just.... meh. The dumb and hyper and smart and quiet categories are used a lot as lots of interesting situations can come up with characters like that, but the 4th category is pretty rare and I would like to see more of it: that of the smart and hyper category (though Haruhi would fall into that category)(hmm, maybe that's why I like that show so much?) |
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-gecko-
 Posts: 285 Location: Near Seattle, WA |
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@selenta: your post immediately made me think of the episode of Galaxy Angels where Vanilla says, "Not a third time..."
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selenta
Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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? I don't get it. Sorry, please explain.
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-gecko-
Posts: 285 Location: Near Seattle, WA |
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Well, obviously you would have had to be familiar with GA's Vanilla. Keeping in mind the portrayal you rendered, Vanilla is the quite reserved one, but when a criminal had been harrasing her pet(?) AI stuffed thingy, Normad, she stepped in quite forcefully. I hope that gets across, it's the best I can do. |
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