Virtually Feminist? The pros, cons, and possibilities of virtual idols
Much like the wider idol industry, when it comes to virtual idols, the picture is mixed.
gender equality Tag
Results-
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How Dragon Ball Z helped me fight back against toxic masculinity
While Dragon Ball Z is best known for its epic battles and power struggles, the series has meant much more to me than that. It helped me as a man address problematic aspects of my life and expectations placed upon me that I had up until that point either neglected or outright ignored.
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Decade Apart, Miles Ahead: Lady action heroes in Bubblegum Crisis and Tokyo 2040
Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 aired from 1999-2000, and I have recently discovered that I love it as much today as when I was a preteen girl with a deep hunger for ladies kicking ass.
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Nichijou and the Everyday Epics of High School Girls
Through its central cast of silly, snarky, kind, anxious, energetic high school girls, Nichijou not only showcases many common (and not-so-common) trials of adolescence, but also expands the narrow image of what it means to be a “normal” teen girl.
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Not with a Bang, but a Letter: How Violet Evergarden rewrites traditional World War I narratives
Violet Evergarden reimagines historical discussion of post-traumatic stress, early 1900s literary tropes, and the popular “war narrative” genre, but with a female child soldier as its protagonist. In its remixing and calling back to World War I history and especially women’s history, the series provides a fresh take on an old tale with a strong undercurrent of feminist themes.
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Every Rose Has Its Thorns: Vilifying female ambition in The Rose of Versailles
As a main character, Oscar is an all-encompassing figure who struggles with gender roles, duty, empathy, and more. But with Marie Antoinette and the women who act as villains, we see a more traditional exploration of female power, ambition, and anger.
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A Girl Worth Fighting For: Kingdom Hearts III and the mystery of the missing heroines
Kingdom Hearts’s cast and audience may have grown up, but its tired “boy saves girl” gender politics remain just as outdated as they were when the franchise first launched.
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When Creators Strive to Improve Female Representation: The case of Sword Art Online’s Kawahara Reki
Sword Art Online author Reki Kawahara has publicly stated he wants to improve the representation of female characters in the series… and this is something that’s already observable in his more recent novels. Let’s take a closer look at what Kawahara said and how the series has improved over time.
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Artist Mizuno Junko, guro-kawaii, and girlhood
When I saw Junko Mizuno’s work for the first time, I didn’t really understand the display of squat, adorable girls in lingerie acting violently or brazenly. But the imagery remained with me, a fascinating question at the back of my mind: could this be for me?
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“Boys Can Be Princesses Too”: Challenging gendered stereotypes in Hugtto! PreCure
SPOILERS: This article covers episodes 1-29 of Hugtto! PreCure. The magical girl genre as a whole is often stereotyped as blatantly feminine. Characters fight in skirts and frills, love and kindness save the day, and our magical protagonist is almost consistently covered in pink. As a whole, the genre seems to play off of gender […]
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Lady Leads & Sidekick Lads: Flipping the script in Team Rocket’s “Training Daze”
The Team Rocket trio have never been your typical villains. So perhaps it’s no surprise that their special backstory episode defies as many conventions as they do, taking the classic team origin story and turning familiar gendered archetypes cleverly on their heads.
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Fruits Basket’s Tohru Honda and her Path to Self-Acceptance
Selfless heroines are common in anime and manga, but Tohru is particularly noteworthy because her development throughout the series serves as an example of growing up, coming to terms with one’s feelings, and finding one’s voice. She navigates a very real, very familiar river, fraught with anxiety and self-doubt.
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My Fave is Problematic: Persona 4
No video game has ever hit me quite as hard as Persona 4 did. From Chie Satonaka’s very first moment on-screen, I related to everything about her.
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The Patriarchal Pains of Womanhood in the Films of Studio Ghibli’s Isao Takahata
Through Only Yesterday and The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Takahata Isao interrogates the patriarchal entitlements that strangle Taeko’s and Kaguya’s expressions of girl- and womanhood.
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How Boruto: Naruto Next Generations demonstrates real-world problems with gender roles and work culture
What happens to shounen action heroes when they grow up? How should a hero and his friends live after getting everything they ever wanted? Boruto: Naruto Next Generations looks at the lives of its heroes as adults raising families, depicting them as falling along traditional gender lines.
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Film director Hosoda Mamoru talks gender roles, parenthood, and identity in Japan
We asked director Mamoru Hosoda some feminist-relevant questions about his work in an exclusive interview ahead of the release of his newest film, Mirai.
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How Gokusen’s gangster heroine was softened from page to screen
As Gokusen was told and retold in other forms of media, its sheer audacity was intentionally dismantled and sterilized. Despite being a hardened gangster in the manga, protagonist Yankumi was stripped almost entirely of her gangster characteristics when translated to J-Drama.
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Emma’s Choice: The gender-norm nightmare at the heart of The Promised Neverland
The Promised Neverland begins as a sharply crafted horror story, but it soon reveals itself to be a sophisticated critique on restrictive social practices—including the hellishly limited roles expected of girls.
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Childbirth and Politics in DARLING in the FRANXX
All art, from cookie-cutter crime dramas to Nobel prize-winning novels, reflects the views and mores of its creators and the culture they grew up in. Whether intentional or not, DARLING in the FRANXX touches on one of Japan’s current political hot topics: the role of family and childbirth.
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The Mazinger Problem: On “different times,” “lost in translation,” and the role of translators
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work on the first full U.S. release of one of my favorite franchises ever: Mazinger Z. But while I was all-in for the cheesiness and monster-of-the-week action, I was caught on the back foot when it came to certain elements of the show.
