Sexism In Anime

Of which she only got three for the record.

Well, since we brought up Shokugeki; I think attention should be called to its use of the main heroine.

The funny thing about Momo is that she is a genius and in a way she does live up to it: she’s the best of the students at academic subjects, has good analytical skills, she’s talented in several areas, she has to know the exact composition of every object she creates, and she was one of two students in 1-A that got in on recommendation. But in the world of battle manga, her performance is lackluster, making her feel like nothing special.

When it comes to a main role in an arc, she gets pushed to the wayside. The aforementioned battle between her and Tokoyami lasted 10 seconds, where all she did was create a shield and get pushed out of the ring.

The anime attempts to give her more focus, since we spend some time in her head, watching her struggle with her lackluster performance in the Sports Festival and her lowered self-confidence. The anime-only episode during the Provisional License exam and her team-up with Todoroki vs. Aizawa has her doing more than most of the series, and both are good displays of quick thinking from her, while she gets past her confidence issues with Todoroki. But it’s just...not enough, much like the other female characters in the series.

Her power has the potential for the most creative and strategic thinking, one of the series’ strengths and how most battles are fought, but she just isn’t utilized. Her costume and her being used for (albeit rare and tame in comparison to other series) fanservice makes it all the more frustrating.

But Megumi started as an almost drop out with the "potential" only being hyped later on. Momo was introduced as a recommended student, indirectly putting her in Todoroki's league. And even if she wasn't trained by a pro-hero parent as he was, her first battle showed her as a competent leader and fighter. It's after the tournament that she loses all her talent except for support roles.

Edited by Ayal92 on Feb 26th 2020 at 9:14:07 AM

Honestly, think the biggest issue is Shonen's focus on battles. It leaves very little room for anyone who can't reasonably put up a fight.

And because more often than not, females tend to have abilities that aren't focused on fighting, they end up feeling lackluster.

Having a tactical and strategic mind simply isn't as interesting as having super strength or blowing shit up to a young preteen.

This. In a Shonen, having a lackluster battle record or a non-flashy battle power will quickly get you labeled as “useless” or forgotten, many of which tend to be female characters. Guys Smash, Girls Shoot is ubiquitous in the genre, and that’s if the girl is lucky enough to get a strong offensive power.

It really doesn’t help the perception of female characters in Shonen that most tend to get stuck with support roles and powers. Something like healing, while incredibly useful in universe and something crucial to success, is pretty boring to watch.

Sure, she’s helping keep her team alive, but when it comes to the coolness factor...eh. She’ll get overlooked, or worse, actively hated for her “uselessness.”

Zero Gravity and Creation are cool powers and all, but they’ll never have the wow factor of Half-Cold Half-Hot, Explosion or One For All in a battle scenario.

Edited by ILikeRobots on Feb 26th 2020 at 9:58:06 AM

To use the One Piece argument to back this point up, Nami and Robin haven't been in any fights for a while. They're still super important parts of the plot, Nami being the one that actually navigates the ship the main cast all sail on, and Robin being able to read the poneglyphs to find out the setting's backstory and find their way to Laugh Tale as well as their utility powers being super useful at key parts of the story - they're also important parts of the group dynamic and sources of comic relief and they get plenty of screen time as well as some of the more emotionally resonant character development arcs (albeit arcs where they're damsels). However, there's a marked difference between their earlier appearances, where they took part in more battles, and the later story, where they don't.

Rather tellingly; Sanji, the third most powerful fighter of the group, has more authority than anyone besides Luffy or Zoro despite being the chef.

You'd think the navigator or the Sniper would outrank the cook.

To use the Shokugeki example: Erina is roughly a supporting character for 75% of manga despite being the best cook in the setting, and even then her skills are mostly relegated to supporting roles until literally near the end.

We clearly need more Death Note's. People can't do Power Level Charts in DN so they instead rank Intelligence. Because that's what it is all about, strategy and planning.

My old love Inuyasha is an interesting example here. Kagome isn't much of a fighter for the first half or so of the series but I don't think anyone ever thought of her as useless. I think it's because IY prioritizes drama over action, characters and relationships over fighting.

They prove you can have a really popular shounen that isn't all about action.

Edited by Nikkolas on Feb 26th 2020 at 10:14:25 AM

Boy, you've CLEARLY have never seen online Inyuasha discussions of you think Kagome isn't hated.

This is probably why Kuromukuro just made its Kagome equivalent a co-pilot for the IY equivalent. Being a direct part of the action eliminates half the issues right there.

I still call it Inu Yasha with giant robots. I’m not wrong.

Edited by Beatman1 on Feb 26th 2020 at 1:49:23 PM

Kagome took a lot of flak for overusing the Sit Boy command if I recall, though that was mostly anime Kagome.

She wasn't a great combatant, though her skill with the bow improved. Remember she's actually an Ordinary High-School Student as opposed to the other characters so she had an excuse.

Plus I don't think Sango got any flak due to being a bona fide Action Girl.

But yeah, not surprised Kagome got criticism.

I remember that a huge part of the Kagome hate (if not the biggest factor for it) was Die for Our Ship. Kikyo vs. Kagoome wars were everywhere in Inuyasha discourse during the series’ prime.

Edited by ILikeRobots on Feb 26th 2020 at 11:00:08 AM

I find it hilarious that the biggest arguments in any series is either powerlevel ones or shipping ones.

Oh believe me, I saw a lot of Kagome hate. Been an active IY fan for 17 years now. But it was mostly by Kikyo fans or people who just hated the entire series.

Her lack of combat ability was never really the issue in my experience. Especially since she ends up incredibly powerful.

Shipping wars are remarkable. They're the time when fandom go into absolute fucking flames and characters get hate just from daring to breath the same air as others.

I stopped following sports anime fandom or most things with a primarily male cast because female characters tended to be ripped to shreds by fujoshi. Love triangles and harems are a game of how much a character can be torn down to prop up the opposing ship. I have seen hell.

Never forget voltron. Never.

Edited by Mami on Feb 26th 2020 at 8:42:22 PM

I'd say those two examples in particular have the opposite problem in that people often expect more from them than would be reasonable in the first place.

People talk about Uraraka's and Momo's power as if they should be these OP things that I've neve really gotten, often because it seems like people are probably just kind of making up their own rules in the head for them, instead of adhering to what's been said or shown about them.

You sound like you came out of the anime equivalent of WW 2 or Vietnam. I've been to some Haikyuu threads/forums and the topics of conversation mostly revolved round its animation and tense moments. Mabye I haven't been to the crazy parts of the internet yet

Edited by AbrahamOmosun on Feb 26th 2020 at 11:59:45 AM

x3 - The rest of the world forgot Voltron, we might as well.

Yeah, sports anime can be really bad about the women not doing crap. Hajime no Ippo has really gone overboard into turning its main female character into “Adrian, but worse”. When he inevitably gets back in the ring and she goes all “Rocky, erm, Ippo, you can’t fight!” the meltdown will be insane.

I don't think its unreasonable to expect action from an action series

My first active online experience was tumblr, to give you a clue. The headaches were outstanding. That said, I stopped interacting with the Haikyuu fandom cause the abundance of fujoshi made me feel isolated since I couldn't join in on the 'fun'and my worst online experience is linked to them.

Voltron though, I have no clue what possessed me to follow that fandom for a year plus, there was drama and death threats every month and I didn't even like the show much. Well it reinforced my current shipping beliefs so silver linings I guess.

And yes female characters more often than not have no place in sports anime if the sport isn't girl focused (though most recent sports anime with female leads I know are fanservice heavy).

At best they have a role as the manager. One of the things that bugged me about Free was how there were no girls besides Gou (who can't swim) in the club

Edited by Mami on Feb 26th 2020 at 9:19:22 PM

LSBK I don't see why it is unreasonable to expect two of the most versatile and dangerous power sets in fiction to be depicted that way. If these powers were given to male characters, they'd be easily among the most terrifying opponents in the setting.

, x3 Agreed.

I’m not saying they have to match the power of One For All (it’s special and everything), and yeah, in-universe Explosion and Half-Hold Half-Hot are extremely powerful Quirks in comparison to most others.

But Momo is easily capable of creating cannons with her Quirk among other things, Zero Gravity can drop boulders and huge debris on people (granted, with some help creating it) and render opponents otherwise helpless unless they can fly. The Quirks themselves have high potential; the girls using them just aren’t utilized enough in story to see them shine.

One of the better aspects of the series’ powers is, instead of pulling New Powers as the Plot Demands, characters work at refining and finding new uses and applications for their power. They’ve been growing, but they really deserve more focus, and we could be seeing some super cool stuff with them.

Edited by ILikeRobots on Feb 26th 2020 at 12:30:34 PM

Momo could easily be just as capable as the boys, but her powerset is mainly used as support.

And Uraraka's potential with her powers was only really shown during her fight with Bakugo, who acknowledged her as a worthy and tough opponent.

I don't think its unreasonable to expect them to be much more proactive than they're shown to be given they're all working in the same line of work.

Froppy getting magic frog camouflage powers later was a bit silly

I feel bad for Mina. She's got the Wolverine in X-Men cartoon problem where her power could be pretty fucking hideous and effective but you know she will never blast some mofo in the face with acid so we can watch his eyes leak out of their sockets like jelly. Just like toon Logan will never be severing human limbs with his impossibly sharp adamantium claws.

I thought of this when reflecting on the Bad Powers, Good People theme of that one fight Izuku had. By and large, MHA seems to actually stick with the Bad Powers, Bad People theme. Shigaraki literally decays people and blood-centered powers are almost always evil and look at that, Stain and Toga both have blood-related Quirks.

Mina's power could be destructive and evil but she just uses it to slide around all silly.

Edited by Nikkolas on Feb 26th 2020 at 1:21:00 AM