Forum - View topicThe Women of Shonen
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Aaron White
Old Regular
Posts: 1365 Location: Birmingham, Alabama |
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http://www.comixology.com/articles/50/The-Girls-of-Shonen-Manga
Applies to Anime too... |
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Hmm... it seems to me that it sort of misses the point on several types, and caters to Western stereotypes about manga/anime, too. Despite the authors apparent credentials, she doesn't really seem to understand the material all that well.
For example, while there is considerable overlap between "tomboy" (ontemba) and "standoffish" (tsundere) characters, the article appears to conflate the two into one "tomboy" category. To be fair, the simplistic approach may be simply because she is trying to explain the subject to a general audience. - abunai |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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All three characters are of anime art, not manga. And as abunai said, the author seems to have over-generalized, leaving only seven types, yet most of them need further categorizing. Remember, "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations."
Agreed. For example, tsunderekko are actually more often linked with ojōsama (rich girl with luxurious tastes); ontemba tsunderekko are often also osananajimi (childhood sweetheart) of the main character, and a meganekko (girl with glasses) can be either a dojikko (ditz) or yūtōsei (smart girl, often class rep, student council chair, etc.; a type not mentioned in the article), and yūtōsei should also have mitsuami (braided pigtails)... I think I'll just stop here. 
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countchocula86
Posts: 159 |
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Also, the types that are there just seem to be lists of traits. Which is interesting in a way, but Id prefer some more analysis. What are the trends of these characters? And what about characters that are a blend of types (the more interesting characters, often)
Still fun to read though |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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While it does say the women of Shonen, here the types and characteristics being explained are seen regularly in harem anime. In that certain sub-genre I would say that you would be able to recognize those types, but that is simply not the case with all series that I have seen.
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IchigoK90
 Posts: 1634 Location: Scarborough, Ontario |
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Like others have stated it really seems to be an over simplified analysis if you wish to call it one. However what I noticed from that article? is that the images they used for the character types were from 90s shounen manga/anime. Just thinking of the more recent shounen series like One Piece, Naruto and Bleach its hard to just simply use those character types to describe the women of those 3 series.
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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One trait that seems to be missing is the zealous or genki type character like Tomo from Azumanga or Excel. These characters are the embodiment of energy and have a few traits with the tomboy and klutz but really doesn't fall into either. It's odd that two of the three images are from Takahashi series, yet this trait is missed since I consider Akane and Kagome more "enthusiasts" than "tom boys" which is the closest category I can think of from those presented. I sometimes consider these girls in a yakamashi/urusai category.
There are a good number of maternal characters like Cheza from Wolf's Rain or Maetel from Galaxy Express. There are also a good number of older sister types like Ginrei from Giant Robo, Haruka from RahXephon or Electra from Nadia. I would hardly place these women in the "happy to have casual sex" corrupter of youth older women category presented. These are indeed more eastern style traits since the concept of older/younger siblings is very powerful in Japan.
I think Lucy/Nyu falls into all seven of these categories! |
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Lee1981
Posts: 109 |
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Guess I'll sort of be the voice of dissent here in that I think that with articles like that, you have to be broad because with character archetypes, the more specific you become, the harder it is to find examples that completely fit into the category, whereas if you're broad, the character might still fit into the category, but there there is more to her than simply being the tomboy or the ditz. I'm not a big shounen fan so I can't come up with a lot of examples, but wikipedia says that Neon Genesis Evangelion is of the shounen demographic, and upon reading the article I noticed that some of the characters fit the descriptions. Asuka is the tomboy, always hostile toward Shinji, always in a bitchy mood and generally abusive. Misato is The Experienced Older Woman, always getting drunk in the morning, and there's plenty of sexual tension between her and Shinji. These are both complex characters; there's more to them than these simple categorizations, but they still fit the description, and like any other tropes, they're pretty broad so a lot of things can fit under it but still have enough differences so that they're not identical.
And then we have PenPen, who I don't even remember what PenPen's gender is, but there's the mascot right there; just in the background, but never really doing anything. 
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Boomerang Flash
 Posts: 1021 |
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It seems to me that the author of the article is really only talking about a subdivision of shounen, since she (?) assumes that the main character is male, and that the main plot consists of his romantic relationships, or there exists an important romantic subplot. Without these implicit assumptions, the list makes no sense. A slice of life shounen series like Aqua/Aria features a female lead who does not remotely resemble any of the stereotypes. Nor, as a matter of fact, do female shounen leads like Deunon of Appleseed resemble the tomboy stereotype. A series that is concerned almost exclusively with the world of Men such as Saint Seiya features female characters--with the exception of Athena, who is more of a symbol--whose existence is solely for the purpose of highlighting some aspect of the male leads.
With these implicit assumptions, the list makes more sense. It made an interesting read to see what kind of stereotypes the author would attempt to describe and how she (?) describes them. They are by no means a comprehensive list of the character types even within the subset, but then again, it's quite difficult--if possible at all--to make a list of character types for which no subdivision is possible without the list approaching uncomfortably the number of characters in existence. Take it for what it is: an amusing description certain cliches within the series targeted at the shounen demographic. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Then buy this book: 
While there are many similar books like it, this one 1) is very comprehensive, not targeting on just a single or a few genre 2) has drawn a line between moe and eroticism quite clearly 3) unlike Tohru Honda's books (don't mistake him with Fruits Basket's female protagonist), which are hard to digest even for most self-proclaimed otaku, this one has non-fans in mind, although non-fans wouldn't be able to recognize in-jokes. If ANN can gather over 3,000 copies (the bottom line of balance when printing a book) I might be able to persuade the authors to publish an English edition.
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FLMikeATT
 Posts: 58 |
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Signature Gags: She can't cook! She thinks the hero's a pervert!
Signature Angst Moments: Admitting she really does kind of like the hero; admitting she's Not Really That Strong. So all tomboys are Akane Tendo? |
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countchocula86
Posts: 159 |
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Sounds like an interesting read, but if its not in English its not much use to me, hehe. |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Was there anything in this post of yours that actually contributed to the thread? Any item of information that wasn't more or less obvious to the people reading it? - abunai |
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Paludis
Posts: 46 |
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Was there anything in this post of yours that actually contributed to the thread? Any item of information that wasn't more or less obvious to the people reading it? |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Does the expression "a gentle hint in the form of a rhetorical question" mean anything to you? Too subtle for you, perhaps? Would you prefer that I exercised my moderator powers more directly? On you, for instance? - abunai Rhetorical Questions 'R' Us |
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