Forum - View topicRomance vs Rape in Manga
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Last week Jason Thompson mentioned in passing that Viz had at one point solicited Hao Airen by Mayu Shinjo before determining that it was "too rapey" to publish. (I remember being aghast that they had even licensed it.) Shortly after that I read volumes four and five of Shinjo's later series Love Celeb. In volume four, Gin (the hero) rapes Kirara (the heroine) against a wall in the TV studio. But by volume five, she's moved in with him and they've professed mutual love. It is also worth noting that Kirara is nearly raped by Hanazono, her manager, and again by Gin's boss, a young politician whose name escapes me at the moment. Shinjo's earlier short story collection Motto Oshiete also contains a rape story where the rapist and his victim end up romantically involved. (As a side bar, as far as I know only Love Celeb is translated into Italian, the edition I read. Most of Shinjo's other works not mentioned above are as well.)
So what I want to open up for discussion is this rape/romance theme in shoujo manga. I know it isn't unique to Mayu Shinjo: Miki Aihara does it (Teacher's Pet), Kanan Minami does it (Renai Shijo Shugi), and even tamer titles like Rinko Ueda's Stepping on Roses have forced intimacy. What do you think of this? Is it uniquely Japanese? While living in Japan my sister mentioned her horror at the rape scenes in Hao Airen to a female Japanese friend, whose response was "Well, she's dating him, so she agreed to sleep with him when she said she'd go out with him. So it's just his right." Chilling, but hopefully a lone opinion. Or do you know/think otherwise? In my view, the youth of the characters in the Japanese rape fantasies is a bit unique (please disagree with me!), since in the U.S. books for a similar age group to shoujo manga tend to be more along the lines of Laurie Halse Anderson's[url=http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Anniversary-Laurie-Halse-Anderson/dp/0142414735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281042161&sr=8-1Speak[/url] and the full-out romance novel equivalent, such as Kathleen Woodwiss' [url=http://www.amazon.com/Shanna-Kathleen-E-Woodiwiss/dp/0380385880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281042259&sr=8-1Shanna[/url]. Sexuality can be a tricky issue, more so when teens are involved. I'm not saying that it shouldn't have a place in shoujo manga. Heck, volume five of Sailor Moon has a sex scene. But sometimes I find the depiction disturbing. What about you? |
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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I don't I know enough about the general opinion of rape-romance in Japan to comment on whether or not it's generally accepted. Though, that friend definitely needs to be educated. How cold-hearted, offensive, and just downright creepy. I do know Confidential Confessions didn't treat it lightly, and I believe had characters who treated rape as if it were the girl's fault and suggested she not talk about it, and the affect on the victim.
I stay away from series where rape is played lightly or as a source of romance. It just doesn't seem right and ignores any and all psychological and physical side-effects. I don't like how the rapist--admittedly, they're usually male--has their behavior glorified and treated as a right or stepping stone to an intimate and healthy relationship. Even forced intimacy---forcefully kissing, hugging, groping, etc.---bothers me. If one partner doesn't want any of it and the other continually pursues it, it's abusive. There shouldn't be any "I wanted it" or "They wanted it, they just didn't know it." Very rarely do I see anything outside of "What I did was wrong. Sorry 'bout that." when the two hook up. Of course, I also don't see manga in general seriously addressing STDs/STIs or anything of that ilk, either. I wish someone would elaborate on that: Does Japan have a system where people are educated on the diseases? Are they well-known in the nation? I know here, Health is a mandatory class, and STDs are discussed in detail, often alongside images. I've also noticed that books for teens from the US, Canada, and the UK never contain rape as a tool for a relationship. Speak revolves around a rape victim and how she closes herself off from the world. Other novels show the psychological results how it affects everyone, including friends and family. To be honest, I much prefer having teenage girls read books with that perspective. Though...Eclipse from the Twilight series did have spoiler[Jacob forcefully kissing Bella. He later laughed when she punched him for it and hurt her hand, and then Bella's father congratulated Jacob for kissing her, even though he could plainly see how Bella was upset and hurt. Worst part was the author defending the action, saying that Jacob knew what Bella wanted and all. Sigh....] Sex doesn't need to be absent, I just think it should be handled tastefully and more realistically when aimed at a teenage audience like that. Unhealthy, abusive, and illegal behaviors like that shouldn't be glamorized and normalized. |
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Well that story is highly disturbing, the manga and the real life reaction to it. Now I love Japan and am quite a Japanophile, but when it comes to feminism / sexism, as well as issues like racism, Japan really has some issues. The trouble is that many os us see Japan through the outlet of anime and manga. Usually those tend to be more progressive / liberal compared to the more socially conservative mainstream society they function in.
In this example we see a clear contrast, where a really disturbing and anti-feminist view comes across in manga. Of course I could say the same of the whole Twilight craze. It's a surprising contrast to prior vampire pop culture like Buffy which was very liberal minded and feminist to an almost alarming degree. (I love Whedon, but even to me he can be a bit overbearing with his liberal views at times.) Twilight is very conservative and, let's face it, stems from the conservative Mormon values of the author. Another contrast in America is how a very pro-gay show like Glee is popular on a network run by a company that also has a giant conservative news network. Very many gay movies get made in Hollywood, but then California goes and passes Prop 8. Now over in Japan you have the whole yaoi / shonen ai fandom and subculture enjoyed by both girls and even gay men. Yet... homosexuality is still very taboo. A gay friend who lived over there for a year or say said his host mother pretty much said that people don't believe there are homosexuals in Japan. When a bunch of friends went with him to one of the many gay clubs in Tokyo, I saw this was far far from the truth. It seems most Japanese are in denial of homosexuals among them. Some friends and I waited outside the club while we let him party the rest of the night away. (Didn't want to straight up the place too much around him. Heh.) One guy outside started talking to us in broken English. He said he wanted to got o America because they were so much more accepted of homosexuals. Well, I said on the whole they were, but it really depended on the city. Still, this was Tokyo and if anywhere I'd thought be more liberal it would be there, but it seems it really wasn't. As for feminism and women rights, I haven't heard as much about it. A female friend spent a year of high school over there and didn't really say too much on the issue. Though from various comments from her and others I'd venture Japan hasn't moved as far with women's rights in the workplace or in personal relationships. Then again you could say the same about various spots and media outlets in America. Hell, don't get me started on women in American comics. Just Google 'Women in Refrigerators' as a place to start. If you have the stomach for it, the 'Goodbye To Comics' memoir by a former DC Comics staffer is a gut wrenching look into the behind the scenes editorial decisions to have a DC heroine get raped and other good old boy events in the US comics industry. I vaguely remember a few bits about feminism in Japan from a pop culture class in college. There was the whole 'wagamama' label. This meant "selfish woman" and many times women who did not line up to get married or have thier own life got labeled as such. Though I think there may have also been cases where the label applied to women who were selfishly living off their parents, the label was also applied to women who did not live for their family or even merely fought for an equal position in the workplace. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Kanan Minami, in a rare show of understanding, did write a short story called "Made Up Myth - Second Rape" about the actual result of the assault on the victim and how people made it out to be her fault. (I believe ShoujoMagic scanlated it years ago, so it's probably still floating around somewhere.) But you're right - the glorification of the rapist's actions is disgusting. In the case of Love Celeb, the hero barely apologizes. In Hao Airen, he acts as if raping the heroine is something he must do in order to win the heroine's affections. That she stays with him is never treated as Stockholm Syndrome. I agree that girls (and boys) should read about the real consequences of sexual violence. Chris Lynch wrote a book about a boy who date-rapes a girl and his attempts to justify it to himself (Inexcusable), and it is chilling - sort of the other side of Anderson's Speak. So it is a bit upsetting that many of the licensed shoujo manga do have some form of forced intimacy, usually kissing. This has showed up in the yaoi manga I've read too - often with the aggressive gay character coming on to the seemingly straight one. We seem to be in a rough spot for feminism in general. The Xenos is right about the evolution of the vampire romance, and you can see it in the toys for little girls too. For all that I got four papers last semester about how the Twilight Saga is the new "Beauty and the Beast," I'm not sure that it is sending quite the right message. Anna Godberson's "The Luxe" series handled teen sexuality in a much less forced way (ok, and was better written). Can you think of any manga series that have handled romance or sexuality well? (Apart from the one RestlessOne mentioned.) The one that comes to mind for me is perhaps not a great example, but in Sugar Sugar Rune, Vanilla's spoiler[sojourn on the dark side] was marked by increased sexual symbolism - revealing clothes, provocative poses, and the implication that spoiler[she and Pierre had sex after he brought her over,]so to speak. It was an interesting statement to make - spoiler[evil little girls] are sexually active, and good little girls are not. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I'm a female guilty of trying out most of those titles listed, at some point or the other in exploring shoujo manga, and I find I can only read some to a degree (Stepping on Roses, Hao Airen) until I'm just too disgusted with it all. But others like Kanan Minami's work I shamelessly read all the way through.
I think it's because Minami, outside of that screwed up Teacher's Pet comic of hers, isn't really all out rape, and more like complete smut for the most part between a girl and her boyfriend. That and I can stand the personality of her main characters (for the most part, some of her other heroines I can't stand) better than Mayu Shinjo's girls. I however think that most of the titles listed with sexual context (all those titles sans Walking on Roses which I hate with a passion) are targeting more of a older teen, early 20s crowd, perhaps the young josei crowd. In fact most of these titles listed are published in the magazine Sho-Comi, which I don't think targets the Nakayoshi age range, but I could be wrong (we're limited when we live half a world away from the news stands). It's my impression that the age range for these comics is the same as the late teens where most girls start discovering the romance novel. Reading some of these titles at first, I was shocked and disgusted that any girl would actually want to read something like this, or even worse, picture herself in the heroine's shoes. It's then however that I think of my mother and her embarrassingly huge collection of bodice ripper romance novels, and recall some of my old psychology classes, and just accept that sexually we are all a bit off to some degree, and it's actually pretty healthy in some cases for women to have rape fantasies. I do worry however that excessive exposure to nothing but rape situations in some shoujo manga to young girls learning about sex through these comics can have a pretty perverted view that all sex is like this, but I'm not about to go demand it all be banned. If I tried banning all bodice rippers here in America, I'd probably be killed the first time I stepped out of my house. Plus I've come to accept I do like a bit of smut in some of my comics now and then, and really wish more would make it over to America, but alas, everyone knows comics are for kids, and if you're making them look like the anime comics, those are always for kids. 
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OLady
Posts: 163 Location: Texas |
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It's been pointed out time and again that rape is about displaying power over someone in the most personally brutal and demeaning way possible. Miki Aihara's Hot Gimmick is a good example of a 'milder' title, but even there the heroine is physically, verbally and emotionally abused over and over again. And the abusers are given excuses; the heroine is encouraged to endure it for the sake of her abuser.
Yes, we dream of 'strong' men who can 'protect' us; it's an atavistic legacy. Powerful men sweep us away in the arms of passion, us and us alone at the center of their single-minded obsession. We are important, cherished, at least for the time it takes to read the book. Women are second-class citizens in all patriarchal cultures. (A different tangent best saved for another time.) However, both Fuyumi Soryou (Mars and Eternal Sabbath) and Ohmi Tomu (Midnight Secretary and theKindan no Koi series) have a much healthier view of love and sex. For those of you truly interested in the subject of interpersonal relationships, let me recommend Marilyn French's book, Beyond Power: the Politics of Sex. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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You're right, to a degree the rape fantasy is healthy and normal in some women - it has origins as far back as early medieval versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Bluebeard." But those bodice ripper romance novels are based on it fairly infrequently. Most grocery store romances are about the man being tamed, and he rarely so much as forces a kiss on the heroine. Seduction, yes; surprise and force, not so much. There's a good discussion of the subgenre in Jayne Ann Krentz' Dangerous Men, Adventurous Women, which is a collection of essays by romance authors discussing the genre and why they write it. I agree that it's significant that the majority of the titles mentioned run/ran in Sho-Comi. The target age group IS that late-teen girl who has left the children's room at the library. But in a way that makes it more disturbing. OLady mentioned Fuyumi Soryo and Ohmi Tomu as healthier sexual portrayals. I don't know about the former, but the latter writes for Petit, a magazine with a higher target age than Sho-Comi. I'm not sure what that says, but it is at the very least strange. OLady also brought up women as second-class citizens in patriarchal cultures. Though that is a tangent/rant that could be given full steam elsewhere, it could be taken as a driving force behind the sexual situations of Sho-Comi manga. What if we were to see the rape fantasy as a way of training girls to see themselves as subservient to the dominating male? It is interesting that of all the negative titles mentioned thus far only two have been translated into English (officially): Stepping on Roses and Hot Gimmick. |
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RestLessone
Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Japan also seems underdeveloped in the animal rights area. Just throwing that out there as well. It annoys me...Greatly.
Oh, yes, by no means should this content be banned. I'll point out how distasteful or misogynistic or whatever it is, but I wont call for a ban. Oh, Teacher's Pet...Isn't that the one where the teacher spoiler[is raped by a student but covers it up to protect him and because "Boohoo, he had a bad past" or something? Then her boyfriend finds out and punishes her for being raped?] See, my problem with so many series is how it's treated as normal. None of them ever delve into the true aftermath, or at least not without blaming the victim in some way. There is a difference between a rape fantasy and a story meant to be portray a realistic depiction of an event. Even a woman fantasizing about rape doesn't want to actually be raped (...as far as I know). They don't go out and condone the act or lie and say it's not a complete invasion. I'm rather glad that the series really haven't made it to these shores. As much as some don't want to admit it, the media, including books, does influence people. Teens are impressionable and sometimes come to conclusions without thinking too deeply about it. It reminds me of how so many start swooning over a character's negative behavior or vehemently defend how a character acts abusively towards their partner, friend, family member, or what have you. Why do they have such a difficult time admitting it's wrong or disagreeing with it? Is it the story just influencing how they view the situation? Do they not want to admit what they're reading is wrong? Hopefully, parents and school education make enough of a difference there, where they're able to quickly separate fiction from reality and act when they are someone they know is in an abusive relationship. Currently, the only series filled with rape or "non-con" (which, really, is basically the same thing in my mind) over here are BL/yaoi. Don't really know why it's so popular in some of those circles, though. EDIT: I don't know too much about the series, but doesn't Black Bird, a popular series here, also contain glorified forced intimacy of some kind? |
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Now I’m not saying women WANT to be raped, no woman wants to actually be raped, but in the subconscious for some there are women who think about it, but not in terms that will leave them traumatized for life. The main reason it’s believed women indulge in rape fantasy is because they’re yearning to be dominated sexually, it's just animalistic nature. This riles feminist plenty, but there’s nothing wrong with this thinking. Sure we may evolve, but in a safe environment with a guy who's careful about the role play there is absolutely nothing wrong.
Women with this way of thinking aren’t to be condemned, and you can’t really train their thoughts away from thinking like this without going to pretty much brainwashing them yourself. It’s just a natural reaction to being told all your life, especially while growing up, that women shouldn't want sex and shouldn't go looking for it. It's because of this why rape romance novels have been so popular since the Victorian era. You repress it, tell a girl she shouldn't want it, so they’re going to escape to romance novels instead where it’s forced upon them, but secretly they do want sex, so they won’t stop reading. This is NOT found only in a culture like Japan, it’s all over the world, and pretty much found anywhere especially with heavy conservative values. I’d while I’m on romance novels, I have to disagree with you, Princess_Irene, that a lot of romance novels don’t typically have rape like these comics. Maybe my mother is just… kinky with her selection, but just about every book I read of hers around the age of 13 (I read everything in the house I could get my hands on) always had the same story line: Girl meets guy, guy rapes girl, girl hates guy but gets stuck with him (sometimes they get to move on to another guy) or needs to stay with him, the hate turns to passion, they marry and live happily ever. Most of those books however are left over from the 70s, infamous for a lot of rape romance novels, but a lot of what I’ve been bored enough to try out from now still follows the same formula. Very rarely with most of these romance novels does the woman’s first encounter with the lead man happen because she’s a willing participate, most of the time from what I’ve read it's forced to some degree. Of course it depends on what author you’re looking at, some hate to write smut in detail, but the ones I’ve found tend to keep to this formula (a formula that bores me now into not reading romance novels). The question is how much detail the author goes into it. A lot of the more modern ones go into serious detail, where as some of the older ones just state it happens and skips over to the morning after. I believe the sooner women accept sexuality in society as a whole, and become more open about it, and the sooner we have people no longer telling us we shouldn’t have sex, especially outside of marriage is when I think we’ll see such stories decline in popularity. Stumbling across manga featuring such story lines at first disturbed me. It was a shock going to it from the typical shoujo fare which sometimes used it as a plot device (Yuu Watase anyone?) but when I started thinking of it as just illustrated depictions of my mother’s romance novels, the shock went away. Sure it’s slightly more disturbing to think about the titles we’ve been exposed to involving high school girls, but that’s because we’re from a western society, and a lot of us here like to pretend teenagers don’t have sex. Yes, it’s creepy to think about girls latching onto the heroines in such manga and thinking them as role models, but it’s also possible for it not to happen. I personally discovered Hot Gimmick, a title that keeps being mentioned here, during high school, and it quickly became popular among my friends. I don’t think any of us at all wanted to be Hatsume. Hatsume was an annoying little idiot with no backbone. The appeal of Hot Gimmick, and what made it so addicting was that it was pure, twisted drama. You don’t have to like the main character of a story to like the story, and you don’t have to see yourself as the main character either while reading a story. For me I was reading Hot Gimmick just to see how much more screwed up that girl’s life could get. Do I approve of the ending? Not really, but it didn’t diminish how entertaining I found the story up to that point. Teacher’s Pet by the same author however was just disgusting to me. I couldn’t understand WHY the author wrote it, and I’d be damned if I can even begin to explain the mindset that came up with that storyline. But I’m not about to knock anyone for liking it, because we all have our kinks, and none of us have any right to criticize anyone else to not conforming to just missionary-style in bed. It’s not anyone else's business if someone happens to like role play in bed, and it’s not the right of anyone else to criticize anyone else for it. So while I cringe in dislike for the main character in Black Bird as she’s forced into a relationship and slowly comes to accept and like it, I don’t think it should be outright banned or such stories to cease being created. There is a niche audience for these stories, and the people reading it may just so happen to be meek creatures who want nothing more to be dominated to some degree. They may grow out of it once they actually experience sex. I don’t think such stories should be available to anyone under the age of 15 (impressionable minds, but everyone matures at different times) so because of this, as long as it has the proper age rating, I really don’t care if they’re making it over here or not. |
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RestLessone
Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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I'm not saying that they should be condemned or anything--most certainly not. I mainly have trouble with the individuals presenting rape and dominance in a fashion where it's normal and the female is either wrong for "letting in happen" or immediately feels inclined to be with the male (genders varying, of course). When I see series that include the subject, it's fairly easy to tell when it's pandering, and it's mostly aimed at adults in the first place. It's more my personal preference--I get annoyed and bothered when I watch a character get abused and fall for the abuser. It detracts from the realism and makes it difficult to relate to the character. I wont regulate what others read, but sometimes their outright obsession with it can get upsetting. If it stays with them and they're careful about it, there isn't a problem, as long as they aren't forcing that kink on others and partners.
From what I know of Hot Gimmick, most readers treat it as a sort of guilty pleasure. They hate the heroine and some of the glorified behavior, but just need to see what happens. It only became worrisome to me when I saw comments that coincided directly with the story's themes and people who didn't see anything wrong in the portrayals of the relationships. I think many of these people do grow out of it. The comments like "oh, that guy just raped that guy, how hawt" always seem immature, where I can just imagine a young teen on the other end. As they grow, and at least begin experiencing real relationships, their thoughts on that might change and, if they didn't initially, they should begin to differentiate real-world and fictional relationships. "I enjoy reading this, but if it were happening in real life, I would definitely get me or my friend help." I just wish I didn't have to fear picking up a title, especially BL, and not knowing what might happen. Publishers can be misleading enough. Tale of the Waning Moon? spoiler["...unexpected night of passion [...]" = he was raped, and actually called it that throughout the book.] EDIT: Also, I don't think it would be as noticeable if there were enough series that treated rape seriously. Whenever it appears, it often is within a series that doesn't use it realistically. There are several books here that delve into issues, but manga seems void of it. |
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OLady
Posts: 163 Location: Texas |
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Yes, Black Bird is one of those, though at the moment it is the man who is refusing to further the relationship spoiler[because he wants to live with her for the rest of his life and she will die after their baby is born.] But there are also others in the story who don't care whether she's willing or not.
Fuyumi Souryo wrote Mars which was published by Tokyopop maybe 8(?) years ago. DelRey published her Eternal Sabbath. Maybe 3 years ago. Mars is a complex story of an unlikely love between a girl spoiler[suffering from being raped by her stepfather repeatedly. She and her mother leave to live alone.] and a semi-delinquent boy and its power to redeem them both. Eternal Sabbath is a science fiction mystery story with a single point of romantic love that becomes the beginning of a new world. Both are well-written and I like her art. Teenagers are very impressionable and more than anything want to belong. If a dysfunctional and demeaning subservient role is presented as normal and desirable, girls will accept it. The boys will take their top dog status as their due. Oh, Littlegreenwolf Christine Feehan follows the old formula, but Lynsay Sands does not. You may want to try one of her stories. |
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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I have a few thoughts that I'd like to throw into this discussion.
First of all, to my knowledge rape isn't "accepted" in Japan. But it seems like this is something that is very prevalent in the culture. Also it's something that the general public is very aware of as an everyday threat. I haven never seen any sign in the culture that shows that the general public will condone actual rape. However, rape does seem to be a common theme in artistic works. And it seems like when it's presented romantically then the general public is more open to the idea. The thinking seems to be "well they are meant to be together so it's ok" or something like that. Like somehow in another level this isn't actually rape. Now my opinion about why this is such a common theme is quite simple. I think these rape/romances are presented as a type of fanservice/fetishism. The idea of a dominate and aggressive partner is actually quite common. I think this theme is meant to spark the fantasies of the reader so they can live vicariously through the characters of these romances. |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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To be frank, I'm a bit more worried about how women are presented in media targetted towards men. These stories are also often read/seen/heard by girls and it looks like there are girls who are starting to see obvious male fantasies as rolemodels.
At Chibicon, a Dutch animecon, there was a girl (16-17 years old) walking around as 'sexy' Miku. Basically she looked like a pornstar with a Miku wig. I disapproved of the costume and explained why. It was the start of a big discussion/fight, even 4chan got involved. There were surprisingly many people who did think it was a good costume. Even more surprising, many of them were female. One of them responded to my "it's just a thrown together outfit with a Miku wig", with pointing out that the girl stayed true to the character because she got the panties right. That's right, she wore the right panties and people saw them. Wow. Girls don't need smutty shoujo manga to get a twisted impression of sexuality. They could pick it from TV (videoclips), mainstream shounen and seinen manga/anime, videogames... I've seen plenty of girls who want to be like Chi (Chobits) without realizing what kind of fetisj fuel she is.
Yeah, I've noticed that too and it's not just the BL manga. I almost ignored Utahime because a summary made it look like it was some sort of smutty forbidden love story, when in fact it's more like this. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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You're right, Tamaria - girls can pick up unhealthy images from places besides shoujo manga, and at least here in New England, I think that's more often the case. In fact, this whole discussion has made me wonder - what age is predominantly reading the titles we've been discussing outside of Japan? I know one sixteen year old girl who was lent Black Bird and was shocked by it, and most teens I know are reading shounen. But I live in a rural area, so I'm fairly certain that it isn't a good representative sample.
Littlegreenwolf, I cede the romance novel point.  The classic model has more rape fantasy aspects than some of the more recent popular authors, like Lynsay Sands, Mary Balogh, and Julia Quinn.
Is the rape fantasy as well-represented in shounen and seinen manga? What is the male side of this - are only girls being given unhealthy messages? |
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Mushi-Man
Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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Well first of all I'd start off by saying that I don't think this is necessarily a "negative message". I'm not saying that rape is good, but I really don't think the authors are putting in these rape romances to try to make young girls think "oh being raped is a good thing". And I find it really hard to believe that people who read these manga are going to reach that conclusion. And ounce again I think it's best to look at this as a vicarious fantasy rather than some unholy message. As for a shonen equivalent of this rape trend, well thats a good question. What is the prevailing, and often negatively looked upon, fantasy in shonen manga. My guess would be the idea of your typical moe subservient girl. The disillusion that the perfect girl is one that is unable to stand on her own and must require the constant assistance of the strong male. These girls are usually shown as being clumsy, unintelligent, weak, cute, and obsessed with the male lead. This is something that society would usually dictate as a negative image of a female. But in the fantasy world of manga and anime that people use for escapism, this is seen as a strong and often positive theme. |
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