LITTLE IN THE MIDDLE BUT SHE GOT MUCH BACK~ Yeah, baby, when it comes to females, Cosmo ain’t got nothin’ to do with my selection. Thirty-six twenny-fo’ thirty-six? Haha, only if she’s 5′3″!
This post, my friends, is about bitches. Along with my fellow blogger fraynds that I linked all up in here, I’m going to be discussing how gender relates to anime. However, my specific focus is FEEEEEEMALES and just why quite a bit of them are so fucking STUPID. And yes, I am going to be looping Sir Mix-A-Lot — Baby Got Back while writing this entry.
If School Days was set in America, the characters would be a billion times as stupid, would be a billion times as Christian, and would not even have a fraction of the sex they have in the show right now. Needless to say, it’d probably play like an episode of Degrassi (FUCK, THAT SHOW IS AWFUL). In any event, I can’t relate to Degrassi-like characters–which are a good representation of America’s youth, by the way–or the characters in School Days, PARTICULARLY THE FEMALES.
I MEAN OKAY I CAN UNDERSTAND MAKOTO. He’s like a lot of guys out there–he just wants the nookie, the snatch, the culmination of all things holy: PUSSY, and lots of it! Sure, that makes him an asshole, but he’s not what’s so frustrating about School Days. In fact, a lot of male characters are so boring that I can’t be bothered to give a damn about them or they’re understandable because they’re male, which pretty much translates to “a stupid d00d ruled by sex hormones for the better part of his life.” sry2say. It seems like chicks in anime have more depth a lot of times and that more work goes into them. Maybe it’s because they’re more emotional? IDK MY BFF JILL?
THATS RITE, HO
Really, it’s the bitches that are so perplexing to me, the ones in School Days as well as a lot of the ones in other series. I think, “Part of it has got to be cultural differences.” but then I read something like the Saishuu Heiki Kanojo manga and go, “Wow, this Jap was able to create a story with characters that display emotion I can relate to or at least sympathize with, why can’t more Japs do shit like this?” Another part of the problem is that a lot of series I’m thinking of where I hated the chicks were originally eroge. That being said, of COURSE the females were ridiculous and just existed to have every orifice fucked by some alpha male.
As a side note, I’m sick of eroge that get turned into anime. The Fate/stay night anime showed promise and all (too bad that the adaptation wound up sucking balls), but FSN is the exception to the rule. The School Days anime is tolerable because it’s so infuriating. But then you have shit like To Heart and Nanatsuiro Drops and it’s like… eroge were meant to be FAPPED to, not taken seriously.
SERIOUS FUKKEN BUSINESS
Right, I just finished Elfen Lied yesterday. As far as I know, it was not based off of an eroge. Dude, Yuka. What a fucking dumb bitch. Childhood promises don’t exist IRL, niggawut. EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT. I remember being totally “in love” with some kid in preschool or something, but dude, that didn’t last more than like one entire fucking week. Yuka was such an eyesore, and not even an interesting one, ugh. Every time she was on the screen, I wished she was off the screen and dead in a ditch somewhere because all she did was whine, cry, get angry over stupid shit, and call Kouta a “BAKA~!” once he was out of ear-shot. I have no problem not being able to relate to characters, but it’s when they’re not interesting that… yeah, well, I lose interest. Yuka did not amuse or interest me, and neither did Misaki (N.H.K. ni Youkoso!), Louise (Zero no Tsukaima), Mikuru (Melancholy of Suzimiya Haruhi), Shirley (Code Geass), Tamao and Nagisa (Strawberry Panic), etc.
YUKI IS SOOOOO MUCH BETTER THAN MIKURU OK
Overall, a lot of chicks in anime annoy the fuck out of me, whether they’re originally from an eroge or not. I wonder if I’m more critical of female characters because I’m female. Then again, I pretty much act and think androgynously, so I doubt that’s the reason. Or, as JRoxas brought up to me, a lot of series pander to young Japanese males who are only interested in submissive loser hos. I guess that’s a large part of it.
Audience! What’re your thoughts? Do you find that you’re more critical of anime characters that share your gender/sex/wut? And/or are anime chicks really just dumb as hell a lot of times? Why or why not? TALK TO ME, GAIZ. (This post didn’t turn out all that well. I’ll try to do better next taims lol. )
Anime ‘chicks’ are generally tailor-made to the male otaku’s preference. Of course, this means there are innocent, submissive and klutzy girls. You can’t deny that this appeals to the majority of male otakus.
Sometimes I have doubts on whether the average female teenager/kid in Japan behave this way. Come on, girls who are that pure and dumb probably stay that way for 10mins before they get taken advantaged of i.e raped.
And I have more stuff to say bout male characters, probably cause I’m a male as well. You’ll never hear the end of what i can say bout Makoto that fag.
Well, considering that most of these characters are made by men….
GIRLS SUCK UNLESS THEY’RE A CUTE NAIVE LOLI
okay thats a lie, but. Unless they are wielding some sort of weapon and kicking major ass COUGHREVYCOUGHCOUGHSABERCOUGH, chances are they are a useless moeblob. I mean fuck, Kanaria’s even got a kickass weapon!
ps: ilu ilu ilu
I am very sorry to mess up the awesome-ness that is linking while quoting the modern bard Sir-Mix-a-Lot, but I haven’t written anything proper for this. >.> Perhaps by the end of the day I’ll have written a response to this nonsense but x.x lol missed deadline.
In terms of what gender I’m more critical of… I have a tendency to assume that all people in general will be fucking stupid and unable for me to relate to, so perhaps I’m used to the complete lack of relatable female characters in anime. Being bisexual also usually means that I can conveniently objectify them along side the dudes they were tailored for (with a few exceptions, obviously), so if the majority of characters are dull as hell, it’s cool cuz I’m not really trying to relate to them anyway.
Damn I’m a pessimist.
In any case, I don’t pay attention to dude characters because male characters in anime, if they aren’t the Nice Guy stereotype are typically the badass male ego “holy crap I’m so fucking manly” dude, or the “Omg I suck at everything but I’ll try my hardest and somehow pull out some fantastical skill outta my ass” guy. Or Shinji. And those are all not that interesting to me, being that I tend to like bitter, sarcastic, curmudgeonly type dudes. Who are also secretly nice dudes.
Ack, wrapping it up, I swear. What I’m trying to say is, very much like people, the large majority of characters are boring because they are meant to relate to the boring normal everyday person. This can pretty much be said for most mediums. I guess the trick is finding what kind of watered down, or exaggerated personality type is something that represents a PIECE of something you can relate to. Of course, finding a whole person would be cool too, but I wouldn’t expect it. Especially not when it comes to boobs — I mean females — in anime.
Hm. What to say.
I´m more critical to behaviour than gender. I hate Makoto on how he acts, I hate Saito for how he acts. At the same time I hate Siesta for trying to break up Saito/Louise.
Doesn´t matter what gender it is, as long as they behave like idiots I will dislike them.
“In fact, a lot of male characters are so boring that I can’t be bothered to give a damn about them…It seems like chicks in anime have more depth a lot of times and that more work goes into them.”
I think this is largely because the creators want a character that the male otaku can superimpose themselves on top of. Having a character who’s too real or too different from the otaku that are trying to identify with him is probably a detriment for those people.
Considering that the average Japanese teenage male is even more socially awkward around girls than his counterparts in other areas of the world, it’s impossible to have actual interesting male leads in many of these shows without alienating the primary target market.
I personally find the Emiya’s and Saito’s and Yuuji’s and Shinji’s of the world pretty annoying, so I’m not exactly thrilled to see these characters in every other anime out there. I would much rather have the Ginko’s and the Archer’s, but unfortunately it seems good male characters are perhaps even harder to come by than good female characters.
And to answer your final question, yes, I am far more prone to be critical of a male character who’s a pussy or who’s simply one-dimensional. It’s easy to forgive a female character for being annoying as long as they’re cute…although even that only goes so far. :P
Hilarious and true. I can count the number of realistic female characters in anime just on one hand, which is why I’ve stopped watching most eroge’s and harem shows. Doesn’t stop me from admiring those anime chicks assets, though. I’m a male; I’m entitled to it.
Nice, Marmot. Made me laugh, and yes, I do tend to be harder on the males in most shows–though it’s only in recent years. I have to admit that a big reason why I am an anime fan today is because I could identify, at the time, with Shinji in Evangelion; he is a repulsive character, but he’s also a pretty realistic depiction of a depressed teen boy. People sometimes forget that depression looks very, very much like self-pity to an outsider.
Totally agree with all the prior comments about the lack of character development in male protagonists as being intentional, a blank slate for the viewer. And it’s only gotten more pronounced as games become an increasing source for popular anime adaptations. Honestly, I don’t think we can expect or hope too much out of most of those kinds of productions, given what they are and where they came from. The ones that try a little harder, like anything by Key, still tend to fall into a lot of the same storytelling traps and cliches or, in trying to be different (“Air” anyone?), do it very clumsily. I’m starting to realize that adaptations like Higurashi and Kimi Nozo (yes I know you hate it Marmot, but I don’t) are the exception. Rare exception.
Finally: heh, I actually didn’t like Saikano myself, I found it over-the-top in the bad way–though there were some powerful scenes. And I really liked NHK overall, though Misaki is a lot blander in the TV show than in the manga. You might want to give that a shot.
“I think, “Part of it has got to be cultural differences.” ”
I hope that it’s not the main point though, since sometimes you just have to shake your head, look to the sky and scream “WHY!?” when a certain character acts the way they do.
And then you have anime that spins off on that idea of the submissive and makes it positive. I’d say Hitohira as an example, but that would rather be less of the main character being submissive and more of just having no confidence. But I’m sure it does happen. I know it!
Cuz it ain’t no fun if you ain’t got buns, hun. BABY GOT BACK *does ass-spanking dance, grinds*
No one’s brought this up, but I find spineless/weak/indecisive males disgusting and abhorrent only because they remind me of myself at one point. We’ve all had the need to grow up. No one’s born with mature thinking, MANLY MAN principles, or chivalry. It’s a learning process.
In that same way too do I mentally chastise those useless/wimp/loser protagonists that do the things they do. It’s like looking at an older version of myself do the same stupid things again, to be honest; on the other hand, when I find myself annoyed with them without the self-identification bit, it’s usually because the character’s perpetuating some lame stereotype that I’m thoroughly jaded and sick of.
Anime chicks are probably dumb as hell because intelligent, strong-willed females who are assertive and articulate would probably remind those loser otaku of real-life and their many rejections, etc etc. True story. This doesn’t explain how Haruhi is more popular than Mikuru, although the tsundere part might.
Hige: No-one wants to see that. :P
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