Forum - View topicINTEREST: Precure Anime Series Welcomes Its First Magical Boy
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#HayamiLover
 Posts: 796 Location: Eastern Europe |
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If you refer to the story of the shoujo anime, then you will find that this theme is not something new or progressive, because this is one of the main themes of the genre, if not most of girl's fiction at all. Thus, I would rather say that PreCure simply broadcasts popular shoujo cliche as mainstream shoujo anime than it says something new. Even when they added a quasi-lesbian couple last season, it was a reference to Sailor Moon's Uranus and Neptune, and the director was directly thinking in an interview whether young girls could understand this appeal to a more adult female audience.
I do not think it was an "open flirt" in the Western sense. He openly expressed a romantic or sexual interest in another guy? Or just been playful? Many anime characters can be playful with others, especially in shoujo, but this is not yet a sign of any interest. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4821 |
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Unless it's on some obscure Tumblr blog or something, I'm not seeing any evidence that women are especially angry about Henri being a Precure. In fact, women seem to be the most excited about this news and women have been wanting a serious magical boy show for like forever. Even a parody show like Cute High was clearly designed to appeal to women and the first few seasons were generally well received by fans. In any case, no anime genre belongs to a single gender.
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Stuart Smith
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To be fair, I think Pikario got a better deal than Henri did. Even if he never got an official Cure title, Pikario had the same power and wand-type weapon that the Cures did so he was far more like a Cure than Henri was, and a lot more important to the story and plot. And most Cure titles are self-given. Henri gave himself the name Cure Infini similar to how Takayuki gave himself the name Cure Gorilla back in Smile PreCure. I suppose Pikario could have just called himself a Cure if he really wanted to. There's a few episodes left to see if they expand upon it and I kind of hope they do because Henri's portrayal kind of bothered me. His appearance and hair didn't change like every other PreCure. Even Pikario's hair changes to a different shade of blue and gets longer when he transforms, making him arguably more in the theme of a Cure than Henri even if he never donned the title. It'd be pretty lame if it was just a one-time thing. -Stuart Smith |
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#HayamiLover
Posts: 796 Location: Eastern Europe |
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What about Nagi from Shugo Chara! ? As I recall, he is not only a canonical heterosexual boy, but also one of the main characters of his show. True, his reasons for femininity have nothing to do with social commentary, but rather are more banal. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Me, OTOH, I read the headline and thought "Oh, you mean like Li Syaoran and Tuxedo Mask, then?" And, if you want to get into US cartoons, Dora's pal Diego and She-Ra's hunk Bow (old or new version)-- There's always been a "token boy" in girl-centric shows, to widen the demographics and present a platonic like-interest to flesh out the character. It's usually not that big a deal unless someone calisthenically sets out to MAKE it one. And it's only in the interests of the current show's creator staff to push the issue and say "It's a victory for gender liberation!", and the niche audience's own obvious interests to try and push it, too. ...But, in Japan as well as the US, Go Woke and Go Broke. 
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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Cutiebunny
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No, what I'm asking is - Why does anyone feel the need to make a special article dedicated to this when, as other posters have previous mentioned, anime such as Shugo Chara and Nanoha already explored the concept, with the former being directly geared at young children. Granted, SG is over a decade old now, but I don't recall there being any posts on ANN regarding Nagi being a magical boy. If there was an article dedicated to Nagi being the first mainstream magical boy, then I apologize - I have a habit of not remembering articles that are years old. While I understand mentioning this if ANN were writing weekly episode reviews as it does with many other series, writing an article that feels the need to point this out for a series it does not feature feels unnecessary. As I mentioned earlier, I am more than fine with anyone and anything being added to the storyline. But I think the uniqueness of the situation should be decided by each viewer. Some might prefer fanfare while others might not give any thought to it because...why can't anyone be a magical being? Reminding your audience of how novel a series is because it has men, women, etc. when most series in that genre don't isn't necessary and, in my experience, makes people focus more on these aspects instead of the storyline, character design, costume design, etc. I want to enjoy entertainment for its production values, not because it is the first example of (insert cause du jour) in that genre. @Juno016 - When I was a young child, redheads were rare and if they existed, they were either the villain or a hero/heroine with sooo many issues (Looking at you, Ariel..) However, never once did I think that I couldn't be like any other character just because I didn't share their same hair color, eye color, ethnicity, species, etc. I identified with a character's personality more than their physique. I think that this is something that we, as a society, should push instead of gearing children to have role models that only physically look like them. Why can't you be Bubbles from PPG if you're a boy? Why can't you be that Disney Princess if you don't look like them? If that character speaks to you, embrace it...even if you look or act nothing like them. |
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capt_bunny
 Posts: 364 |
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Isn't all what you are saying is for a LOT majority anime/manga? The cliche of where the best friend always tells the main girl in every shoujo romance manga that they would be with them if they were a man. Or all of the one-sided romances in them too. First-time girlfriend had that. The Ancient Magus Bride had pedophilia. Technically speaking.... Plus, a lot of anime/manga has age gap couples too. Far more than what you can imagine. Many Disney movies too. But I always found the point of CLAMP's couples that all love has no shape or image. There's even a couple where it was two chobits, a character with a gender and (have many nongender) characters. Plus, to be fair.... A lot of anime/manga does have fanservice with same-sex relationships. I never really saw it as a fetish. Just a way they like making it. To me, it's not hurting anyone as long as they know the difference between reality and fiction/2D. I have to say this because it's pretty hard to like anime/manga when there's a lot of these 'problematic' things you list. |
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CardamonPastel
Posts: 107 |
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Clamp never said Pedophillia is okay. They pushed for the idea that love should be accepted in all forms. athey just pushed too hard and were too open minded, in my opinion. The teacher also didn't pursue the student until she was of age, according to the manga. There is also nothing fetishy about most of the BL ships they created. Yukito and Touya is presented as very normal and even a bit innocent. It's not even the primary focus. |
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CardamonPastel
Posts: 107 |
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Those are old shows. There are plenty of male damsels if you step out of the shounen genre. Hell, even back then, Tuxedo Mask was a big example of a male damsel since the original Anime took most of his useful moments out. |
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CardamonPastel
Posts: 107 |
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Anyone can be a Precure now. What's the point in keeping Precures female? Young boys watch and love the show, too. They deserve to feel represented and like they can be whatever they want to be. It's a good lesson for anyone to learn. That we don't have to conform to whar is expected of our genders. You can not like the idea, but it was never geared toward you, anyway. |
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CardamonPastel
Posts: 107 |
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There are boys that like precure, too. There always have been. There will always be the opposite gender liking things that targets a different demographic, so "women" have been sharing their hobby for years. Also, it's not really for once either. I see plenty of women complain about things that men like that s primarily targeted toward them ( or they assume it is ) and they get upset when men watch it or take an interest in it and people on the outside say they shouldn't be stingy. It goes both ways. No one really owns the rights to declare that only their gender can like this thing, anyway. Maybe it's just your first time seeing it. The message that episode of Precure seemed like it was trying to send seemed like it was directed at young boys, anyway. Its a nice thing to do, so young boys can feel like they can be accepted as Precures too without being treated like jokes like most "magical boy anime". Also, You say "men" and "women" when Precure is primarily targeting younger audiences so it was never really a men and women thing. I mean, older women watch it but its mainly for kids. |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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Good production values, storyline, character dynamics and the like obviously play a large part in my enjoyment of series. They affect whether a show remains memorable, whether I drop it, how big of a fan I become, etc. But there are other criteria that affect my enjoyment as well. There is more potential media to consume than we realistically have time to do so. I ultimately have to make some sort of decision as to what media I want to consume. LGBT-progressive characters, gay relationships, female protagonist in a predominantly male-protagonist medium, big damn women heroes, asexual characters, feminine men, masculine women, feminine women that kick ass, reversal of traditional roles, female producers/writers... that stuff catches my eye and are all reasons why I've started watching a show. It doesn't guarantee that I'll like the show or continue watching it (re: story, plot, characters, production values), but it does catch my attention, because that's all stuff that's interesting and important to me. I don't necessarily need articles that focus on those aspects - I can do the research to find shows that fit my interests - but at this point I still feel like all of these things are still novel and that inclusivity should be noted and praised. Once this stuff becomes more normalized, then yeah, there's no need for articles to focus on those aspects. If I have to hear some father complain to staff about giving his boy ice skates instead of hockey skates (because ice skating is girly shit that is not for men), then I appreciate hearing messages like in this show that boys can be princesses and having it be praised. Let youth be what they identify with. Let them get their positive messages and reinforcement somewhere. |
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#HayamiLover
Posts: 796 Location: Eastern Europe |
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Of course, these are all obvious things, but one thing - PreCure is to a large extent an all-female franchise with a very large yuri bait element that deliberately melodramatizes the show for little girls to attract adult male otaku, who are probably the main representatives of the male part of fanbase. I doubt these people will be happy and tolerant to further increase any male representation in this show. I even guess that it was for this reason that Henri was created as feminine as possible and received Masato in the form of a possible Love Interest, so that adult men would not be afraid that he would hinder their yuri shipping. So, as a guy who grew up on SM and CCS, I can understand your point, but I doubt that a franchise with such otaku-pandering can afford to go this way. You can compare it with the sporty shonen DAYS, whose female manager got so much hate from yaoy shipers that eventually the girl from love interest for one of the MC turned into the girl of some side characters. |
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#HayamiLover
Posts: 796 Location: Eastern Europe |
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@capt_bunny I generally got the impression that many people here are either barely familiar with shoujo, or little acquainted with manga and anime in general. One of the most revolutionary in terms of gender roles anime was shoujo Utena, and Fruits Basket had three (3!) gender-uncomfortable characters, not to mention the fact that you can find more lesbian representation in shoujo than in all shonen and seinen taken.
Of course, the width of the PreCure audience makes this message really strong, but for shoujo as a whole, this is nothing more than a stock message, which also clearly targets the audience of the genre, who have always loved feminine bishonen who like cute things. That is why I am quite skeptical about this news. Now, if we had gotten PreCure with the boy as the main character and who wasn’t gay or crossdresser (not to mention that if Henri should be meant as a representation of male fans of the show, it is very easy to read as mocking "if you are a boy and you like a show about magical girls, then you are gay" lol) for the purposes of the fanservice, it really was revolutionary.
I will have to repeat it again - firstly, in this context fetish means "tastes". Secondly, if you are a heterosexual woman who likes homosexual men, this does not mean that you add them only to masturbate and not write good characters. CLAMP at the beginning of their career already wrote yaoi douji and even yuri erotica on motive Alice in Wonderland. This did not prevent them from creating good stories and a positive image of the characters of any sexuality. |
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