Forum - View topicHey, Answerman: Chick Habit
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
I believe there is a series called "Super Gals," and in that series the main character is female, and pretty strong headed without needing too much help from male characters within the story unless there's a good reason for it. Revy from Black Lagoon isn't a weak minded female, then again I don't think the person asking the question can show that series to her daughter
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
If you were talking about those you saw at American anime conventions then they were most likely Asian Americans, not Asians.
Excellent examples, and both were played by Megumi Toyoguchi. 
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Pepperidge
 Posts: 1104 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
Was going to respond to the Bandai Visual question, but got a bit too wrapped up in the whole Spirited Away/CBC debacle which also came up this week.
I will say that it's gotten to the point where everytime I see a headline pop up that casts even the faintest shadow of torment for the company, I jump to my feet, leaving my chair rolling aimlessly on the floor, and scream "DIE DIE DIE!" with a foaming mouth. All of this with a vigour which is borderline demonic. Answerman, is there something wrong with me? |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
GATSU
Posts: 15295 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Yeah, Superbad and Knocked Up really depict women in a positive light.
Plus there's the forthcoming Yawara from Animeigo. 
Um, SNK stopped doing it, because they declared bankruptcy six years ago! Most people would only play their games in arcades, not pay $600 for a cart! They've been living on rehashes and pachinko since then.
Gunbuster 2 would've done fairly well for itself, if handled properly.
I'm definitely doing it for Patlabor.
It is, when I don't even get the original background music...
No, it wouldn't do better, because it'd appeal to the same people who purchased Zipang.
What works in Japan does not necessarily work here. See Kodocha.
I don't care whether they're big, but they're blowing an opportunity to reach a larger audience and expose them to more than yaoi and moe.
If they cared about the fan, they wouldn't be charging so much in the first place. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Sir Hamilton
 Posts: 63 Location: Massachusetts |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
If you want a strong female character look to an Ai Yazawa title. Nana(NANA) and Yukari(Paradise Kiss) are deffinately some of the strongest if not the strongest female characters in anime and manga I have watched so far. I find Nana to be especially insipiring to myself. While they both have princes neither of them are all that supportive and they're both independent women.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
Before I make any other comments, I must say this about the Flake: please, for the sake of the human race, DO NOT BREED.
Geez, I think Zac's on to something with the idea of a generator for these comments. I can completely understand anybody saying "I prefer the Japanese" but for the love of anime, lose the stupidity and grow a brain. A zombie with amnesia has more sense than to write crap like that. Although I suppose we should be grateful to the Flake. He ushered in yet another super mega cute animal pic. Adorable! On to the column! With the first question, yeah, objectified women exist in the media. There are a ton of stereotypes out there for all genders, races, religions, and ages. It's best to just accept it and move on, because you will never see a time when everyone is portrayed perfectly. Cosplay. I wish I could cosplay. Unfortunately, I lack both the courage and the skill to do it. Also, I think the whole pink hair thing is due to the fact that pink is an attractive color to women in general. (At least, it seems to be.) Zac, you really said everything perfectly on the issue of anime fans and ignoring demographic intent. Awesome answer and one that I live by. I'm going to try to remember these comments the next time you piss me off.
I'm going to stay away from the Bandai Visual stuff. (Actually, I think GATSU made some of the points I would have anyway.) This time, I must send in an answer to the question. (Yeah, I'm a little biased in favor of anime. Time to see if I can sell my POV on the subject.) |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Samurai-with-glasses
 Posts: 628 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
... For some reason I'm getting this idea in my head that whenever anyone says "what a strong female character!" in anime, it usually translates into, you know, ordinary people. Or at least as ordinary as those drama types get. Hmm... I suppose anime is really just a rather "stylized" art form. 
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
I've seen some pretty butt-ugly Asian cosplayers. Like, Asian. With the photos taken in Asia. It's worth pointing out that a lot of Japanese cosplayers have really good costumes because they buy them. Yeah, a lot of American cosplayers nowadays get their costumes commissioned or buy them online, but that still gives more room for "error" than store-bought duds. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Serge
 Posts: 162 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Yep, definately, talking about their price, it's about 3 times the price of a Normal US anime subtitled only DVD, I mean you can get the Whole Boxset of Super Gals Season 2, or 3 sub DVD's from MediaBlasters/ImagineAsian for the price of one of their DVD's. What a difference. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Enough with the jingoism, please. There are plenty of nasty cosplayers everywhere. There are a few hot cosplayers everywhere. Some areas have higher concentration of quality than others, but 50% of it is effort (both on the costume and at the gym). And effort can be done anywhere. As for good female role models in anime, may I suggest: - Minami in "Touch" - Cybil in "Black Magic M-66" (even if she forgets her clothes in one scene) - Kuromi in "Animation Runner Kuromi" - Hikaru in "Figure 17" - Madoka in "Kimagure Orange Road" (Well, maybe not POSITIVE, but certainly not sexist) - Chiyoko in "Millennium Actress" - Tanabe in "Planetes" - Nayuta (or any of the women) in "Shingu" - Remy in "Time Stranger" (Goshogun) There are tons of examples, mostly from shonen anime. 80s anime was particularly big on strong women; unfortunately the escapism of current otaku culture seems to mean attitudes on gender issues have devolved somewhat since then. (Or maybe not -- 80's anime was also big on slapping hysterical women into submission.) Also, shonen anime seems to have more strong females than shojo IMHO. (Many guys like girls that could kick our ass.) I think a lot of anime tends to make the main character weak, regardless of gender, as the underdog we're supposed to sympathize with. The pressures of modern Japanese life often make people feel powerless, and so watching someone weak attempt to get what they're after despite their weakness would be something easy to relate to. Perhaps its refreshing that those characters get to exhibit the weaknesses its readers/viewers might feel, but aren't able to express. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Ai no Kareshi
 Posts: 561 Location: South Africa |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
I enjoyed this week's column.
I know that anime is infamous for making sex objects of its women through things like harem series and that bit of ecchi that seems to make it into every single show. But for some reason, I've never seen anime exceptionally guilty of objectifying women – after all, this happens in all media, doesn't it? In fact, I generally find myself much more disgusted with the previews of US films and snippets of sitcoms that I catch on TV than with anime in general. From what I've seen, I must wonder if America really is that much better... Now, I wouldn't count myself among the particularly progressive and liberal, but as far as strong women in anime is concerned, I see many of them around. There's Youko from Twelve Kingdoms, Tooru from Fruits Basket, Juliet from Romeo x Juliet, and that's just picking random protagonist examples from my limited library of reference.
I thought this was hilarious! 
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
athlios
Posts: 6 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
For strong female characters, how about the Major from Ghost in the Shell? Every one of her boys knew that she was the coldest, hardest, most dangrous person in their crew and any of them would have followed her anywhere. Although it is true that for most of Stand Alone Complex I wished that she'd find a decent pair of pants, I still wouldn't have ever described her as particularly sexualized, and certainly not exploited. In fact, the Major seemed to have a quite interseting attitude towards her body, treating it most simply as the machine it was. A good-looking machine, to be sure, which made it useful in some situations, but no more sexual than a really great car. Then again, considering how some people feel about cars, that might not be the best example . . .
My favorite episode of SAC is still the one where Pazu (I think it was) told the story of how he first met her. She put Special Forces from both Britain and the U.S. to shame, and then took care of the sniper who was giving them all trouble. I do think Pazu says that the Major was the only person of whom he was ever afraid. A very interesting woman. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Terrestrial_Cel
 Posts: 99 Location: SF Bay Area |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
Ack! What a subjective question for the Answerfans to answer this time. 'Cmon Answerman, give us more provocative questions like ya used to
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
teh*darkness
 Posts: 901 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
I'm gonna go completely random, and though she's not a main character, I consider Temari from Naruto a very strong, independent female character. That is all.
I would say that I ignored demographics before I started watching anime. I'll just watch whatever I like, doesn't matter what the target audience is. Hence, why I enjoy shows like .hack, Naruto/Bleach, Kanon, Gurren-Lagann, Now and Then Here and There, Fullmetal Alchemist, or Gravion. Except, that I pretty much do not like shoujo. I'd have to say Ouran Koukou is the only one I've seen that was even remotely interesting to me as a male anime fan. And most romance shows, if there is no comedy, are too "dramatic" for me... If I want drama, I'll go live my life, thank you very much. Stuff like School Days, Nana, Honey and Clover, or the new series ef -A Tale of Memories- just aren't my cup of tea. As for that cosplay article, it was kind of obvious that most of those Japanese cosplayers were from photoshoots, hence the series watermarks on the images. And I may have to write in this week, very interesting question. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
ArielTsuki
Posts: 178 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
I wonder if this theme edition of Answerman is going be a new thing from now on? But I'm really loving this week's edition:
@ Women portrayed in anime/manga: For the love of anything, thank you, Zac. It's frustrating to try too explain this with fans who don't understand why some fangirls HATE most of the female characters in anime/manga today. It IS annoying when you read shounen, the girl lead is usually: a) the damsel-in-distress, b) an object of affection for a character, c) fanservice and only fanservice. Even shoujo don't fare any better since the girls are: a) academically retarded, klutzy with a heart of gold, and b) boycrazy to the point that she NEEDS a boyfriend to complete her. And with shoujo, we were supposed to identify with them! But there are a substantial collection of titles that do portray girls in a more positive light, like Utena from Revoluntary Girl Utena, Kino from Kino's Journey, most of the girls in the Read or Die Saga, Yukino Miyazawa from Kare Kano, and Haruhi Fujioka from Ouran High School Host Club for starters. This issue was a big very big reason why I quit shoujo for a while, but Kare Kano brought me back. It's still overloaded with the main chara as the "academically retarded, klutzy girl with a heart of gold" who gets with the most popular, cool boy from school, but the titles that don't follow that cliche is enough to keep me as a shoujo fan. @ The Majority of Girls who Cosplay: Hm, simply because girls like to dress up of sorts, but all the cons I've been to, there's a large amount of male cosplayers as well. Maybe around 60:40 girls to boys really. And someone mentioned that it's because more girls were trained in stuff like that, not entirely true. Heck, most of the designers of clothes for women are MEN.
Agreed, if some people pick up a Japanese cosplay mag like Layers, you would find plenty of plain janes and the not-so-attractive in there. But the costumes themselves were better than we get in an American cosplay costumes. @Man with a love of Shoujo: Don't worry about the small stuff like that. I myself don't care what demographic it's shooting for as long as the anime/manga can tell a good and entertaining story. Although I'm a 23-year old woman, most of my manga collection is shounen, but it's really diverse despite of that. I have shounen, shoujo, seinen, josei, or their subject catergories with something very moe to something pretty hardcore with violence and the such. Go ahead and enjoy, screw what other people say. @ Geoffrey Kelly from last week's Answerfans: Oh, wow. Are you serious? The fans DO have a right to complain about Bandai VUSA's ill-advised marketing strategy for the R1 audience. Unless that DVD comes with some extra stuff, there's no reason that a 2-episode DVD without dubs should cost $40 a pop. With Geneon bowing out of the American anime market, if they really want to survive, they HAVE to understand how the R1 market works. Unless you are a big fan of the show, I don't know why they think this is a good idea. The Japanese might do it, but in America, we try to get the most of our bang in our buck. Most fans, EVEN the ones who ONLY buy and watch no fansubs at all, would find that pricing ludrcious when you're used to getting DVD with 3-5 episode count that cost $10 CHEAPER. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group