The Animated Neo Feminine

2009-04-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

Since when did girl power mean looking like a boy? In the realm of anime and manga, especially those set in post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk societies, there is a common yet ominous erasure of femininity. This is due to the imbalance of characteristically feminine and masculine qualities in dominant female characters. For reference in the anime and manga to be discussed the definition of what is feminine is important and must be specific. Visually the curves of a woman’s breasts and hips encapsulate femininity, as opposed to the broad shoulders and a narrow figure of a male. Long hair symbolizes beauty, which is characteristically, or stereotypically, worn by females. Non-visual characteristics of femininity are derived from the female biology and the resulting socialization, meaning how the female interacts with things around her. Brash violence is not feminine, while peaceful and strategic means as well as manipulation are. It is feminine to be in harmony with the earth and Mother Nature, therefore caring for other living things is a very feminine quality. Overall, the balance of both visual and non-visual qualities determines the femininity of a woman, and based on this ratio the level of femininity of a character can be sensed and analyzed.

In the majority of post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk anime, leading female characters radiate a low level of femininity, sometimes to the point of androgyny. Yet passive female characters maintain higher levels of femininity even to the point of being hypersexual. It is peculiar to think that the death of the modern world parallels the death of femininity; some might say the harshness of a post-apocalyptic society leaves no room for the feminine. Quite the contrary, gender identity has shifted in anime and manga, allowing female characters to subversively question traditional roles and behavior in contemporary Japanese society. The erasure of the feminine in anime is not an erasure in the literal sense at all; it is a manifestation of the changing identity of the female in real life and a critique of her contextualized surroundings. The changing aesthetics of the female do however give a warning that if the future does not abandon assigned gender roles and identities, it is bleak and fragmented.

In recent years, anime and manga containing shojo, or “little female” (Anime 148) characters have been popularized to the level of mainstream media, yet the real progress is in the contradictions. Themes of shojo culture include “romance, friendship, and appearance,” (Allison 259) as well as an all encompassing “supposedly innocent eroticism based on sexual immaturity.” (Anime 148) Dominated by pre-existing ideals of femininity, like unworldliness, refinement, and the desire for domestic life, (Tsurumi 173) the classic shojo is characterized by “an ultrafemininity that is often passive or dreamy.” (Anime 154)

Take Serena from the highly popularized early 1990’s animation Sailor Moon, a ditsy and clumsy girl in high school with unlikely powers who is more consumed with her social life then saving the world. Although Serena and the rest of the Sailor Scouts are “lacking in psychological depth,” (Vampires 103) they make up for it in girlpower action. Their femininity depends completely on their physical bodies and the superficial, not their internal character; this is the idea of the old femininity, which has clouded the search for female identity. The animation’s Japanese title, Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon, describes the characters as beautiful young girl warriors, (Allison 260) which is exactly what they are. They are cute girl heroes who fight antagonists with evil plots but their characters are emotionally flat. Here is an example of the imbalanced femininity that envelops so many female characters. Visually feminine with long hair and short schoolgirl uniforms, they are a triumphant creation of girl heroes, but failures of depth in feminine virtue. Even some of their early “shojo” predecessors are better examples of female role models, perhaps because of the super commercialization of anything and everything Sailor Moon and the kawaii aesthetic.

The ongoing trend of kawaii, or cute culture rules the consumer kingdom in Japan, and the dichotomy between products and feminine virtue is a growing divide. Kawaii style is described as “infantile and delicate at the same time being pretty,” (Kinsella 220) which radiates the essence of the shojo and traditional femininity. The beyond youthful “child-like, cutie-pie” aesthetic began in the 1970’s, (Kinsella 228) and is perhaps the birth of the split between the visual and characteristic feminine as seen in anime and manga created since then. Just as subcultures established themselves in ideals and aesthetics opposing the mainstream kawaii culture, dominant females in anime began looking and acting less “feminine.”
Women that exhibit kawaii style and shojo attitude are seen as objectively feminine in the eyes of men, which has spiraled into the hypersexualization of this aesthetic. This hybrid of traditional femininity and child-like innocence is not only mainstream in popular culture; it has dominated pornographic manga and anime. Visual femininity in this likeness is artificial and at the root of the erasure of the feminine in animated media. Contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has criticized the superficiality of the feminine aesthetic in his work, specifically in his sculptures titled Project KO2 (1), Miss KO2 (2), and Hiropon (3).

In Project KO2, a cyborg girl that transforms into an aircraft is depicted in the style of anime, yet she is nude and her expression is lifeless like a doll, illustrating the shallowness of femininity in male-dominated cyberpunk fantasy. Miss KO2 stands at six feet tall, a leggy waitress with “ample Pamela Anderson breasts-that part of her anatomy is so aggressively sexual it seems to not belong on her otherwise demure, childish frame,” (Keehn) as described in a review in Swindle magazine. It sold for $567,500 at a New York auction in 2003. (Keehn) It is a paradox that Murakami’s work criticizes the superficiality and commercialization of the kawaii aesthetic and culture yet becomes an object itself, but perhaps that was his intention. Hiropon , an ridiculously endowed girl is seen squiring a theatrical trail of milk from her breasts. Usually paired with Cowboy, a young boy ejaculating a spiraling stream of cum, and paintings Milk and Cream, Hiropon is a humorous critique of the hypersexualization of kawaii-stylized images and the women who emulate them. This clash of childish innocence and hypersexual attributes is the main cause of the feminine controversy, where the visual solution has been androgyny. At the heart of Murakami’s Superflat movement lays the superficial shell of the feminine that is quickly disintegrating. The worldwide reach and propagation of his work serve as a constant reminder that the fate of the female in a post-feminist world is dying.

Perhaps in response to kawaii culture and its effects on contemporary society, loved and famous animated film director Hayao Miyazaki has created distinctive worlds that challenge traditional ideals. At the center his films are “brave, inquisitive, and risk-taking young female characters” that are “far removed from the identity confusion that characterizes many shojo characters.” (Anime 152) None of them embody the pink romanticism of cute culture (Kinsella 220) or get caught up with their trivial social lives. Instead they are “notably independent and active,” confronting obstacles in a manner “that might well be described as stereotypically masculine.” (Anime 154) The lead female in Miyazaki’s 1984 anime, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a perfect example.

Living in a dystopic post-apocalyptic future world Nausicaa is first presented as a “mysterious, perhaps even androgynous figure,” (Anime 166) but reveals her feminine virtue in scenes where she maternally comforts the children of the valley and expresses “her horror of unnecessary bloodshed.” (Vampires 101) Juxtaposed with Nausicaa’s violent slaying of the Torumekian soldiers who killed her father, her femininity is far from traditional. She is a heroine in her own right with balanced feminine characteristics, manifested beautifully at the end of the film when her “‘masculine’ bravery is matched only by her ‘feminine’ willingness to sacrifice her life for the sake of world harmony.” (Vampires 167) Nausicaa’s femininity is an erasure of the traditional and kawaii ideals, demonstrated visually with her appearance of short boyish hair and boxy tunic, as well as her combat skills. Her femininity is instead exemplified through her pure intentions and courageous actions. She lives on in her fantasy realm, which isn’t so different from a post-apocalyptic reality of Earth, serving as a pragmatic model of the balanced female to relate and look up to.

Nausicaa proves to be an icon of the new feminine, reflecting the values of the independent woman in contemporary Japanese society, a woman whose primary concern is not aesthetic beauty and domestication. Take Yuki, the main songwriter and singer from the alternative rock band of the 1990’s, Judy and Mary. She is “a self-proclaimed tomboy, shedding most vestiges of traditional Japanese pop music femininity,” (Stanlaw 82) the same kawaii shojo femininity that so many women get lost in. Yuki believes that “being competent, and feeding and taking care of men is actually more feminine than saying you can’t do anything,” (Stanlaw 83) aligning with the idea of the new feminine which heroines in anime and working women in Japan reflect. Yuki and Nausicaa’s feminine prowess is progressively changing the socialized perceptions placed on women, moving women forward in the hopes of a life not scrutinized by gender.

In 1997 a more controversial new feminine icon that further challenged Japanese historical ideals was born from the hands of Miyazaki in Japan’s highest grossing film ever, Mononokehime (Princess Mononoke). It is indeed phenomenal for an animated film that displaces the myths of traditional Japanese identity, “the myth of the feminine as long-suffering and supportive and the myth of the Japanese as living in harmony with nature,” (Anime 233) to gain as much success and popularity as it did.

Set in the foureenth century Muromachi period, a time of high culture in Japan, Miyazaki destabilizes conventional notions of the era via a violent war between man and nature. Man’s iron ore producing fortress, Tatara was raised by the beguiling and deliberate Lady Eboshi, a “leader who cares for the sick and the outcast but is equally concerned with military matters and the destruction of the shishigami,” (Anime 238) the deer-like ruling spirit of the forest. Her character defamiliarizes ideals of femininity and culture, “showing a more complex face of the feminine,” (Anime 241) one that aligns with militant force and technology. While most historical dramas “use the main female character as a ‘vehicle for tradition,’ Eboshi’s character subverts the conventional notion of the traditional female role.” (Anime 240) In contrast to masculinist tropes of history, the emperor and elite are seen struggling with forces outside of their control, with “the only authoritative guidance coming from a female wolf and the woman leader of a weapons manufacturing community.” (Anime 246) Lady Eboshi challenges the infrastructures of historical and contemporary Japanese society; she is a woman of her work, iron weaponry production. Although eloquent and clad in kimono, her maternal qualities are often masked by her relentless ferocity, mirroring the surge of women postponing or dismissing childbearing and marriage for professional opportunities and independent lifestyles recently in Japan. It is no surprise then that the “average age of the first marriage for Japanese women was 23.8 years in 1995 an 27.0 years in 2000.” (Baba 5) Like Lady Eboshi, women in Japan are questioning the societal structures under which they live by pursuing professional careers and dismissing the stress placed on their fecundity.

Lady Eboshi’s wrath is met with the rage of the ruthless protectors of the forest, wolf goddess Moro and San, the mononokehime, or possessed princess. Introduced when sucking out poison from a wound in Moro’s side, San is clothed in fur and bones, face smeared with blood. Radiating violence and nature through her appearance and fierce demeanor, she is reminiscent of the primordial female, and the blood and war paint on her face suggest “menstrual blood and also an aggressive sexuality that is confrontational rather than alluring.” (Anime 239) San’s sexuality aligns with the young women in Japan who are more often getting abortions rather than marrying the fathers of their unborn children. The rate of unintended pregnancies has increased due to changing views on sexuality; in 1984, “33% of female high school juniors disapproved of premarital sex, but by 2002, only 3.7% disapproved.” (Baba 13) Female sexuality will continue to become less prejudiced by women’s socialized roles to the point of being as objective as that of the male’s.

Women’s views on femininity in relation to the body and its socialization are becoming more independent, like the way San acts upon her beliefs on humanity. Raised by wolves in the sacred forest San detests humans and their civilization; her ability to bond with the non-human is much like Nausicaa, (Anime 241) yet San lacks her capacity to bond with humans with the exception of ally and love interest, Ashitaka. San’s prowess is undeniably female but bestial as well, problematizing the traditional conventions of femininity and natural harmony. Yet her choice of identity comes with consequences. As the film ends with the first chapter of war fought, Lady Eboshi with only one arm left and Moro slain, San is faced with the decision of staying with her wolf brothers in the forest or leaving with Ashitaka. She decides to stay in the forest but visit him, a melancholy ending that “suggests the pain involved in choosing identities in a world in which such choices are increasingly offered,” (Anime 248) the world of contemporary Japanese society. Her decision is not an easy one, yet San chooses to uphold her beliefs and keep her independence, just like the growing number of women who deem starting a career more important than raising a child at a young age.

Even though more and more women in contemporary Japan are adapting the independence of the new feminine, their role in relation to technology is one to be examined more closely. For technological advancement seems to accompany the feminine dilemma and the disruption of harmony with nature. Most often dominant females in anime reject the objectivity of the kawaii or sexualized feminine aesthetic. This is not the case for Major Kusanagi Motoko of Oshii Mamoru’s 1995 animated “cyberpunk-noir film,” (Anime 105) Ghost in the Shell (Kokaku Kidotai). She has a very female figure, yet she is a cyborg, “a liberating entity ‘not afraid of its joint kinship with animals and machines,’ a creature in a post gender world.” (Anime 106) A seemingly harmonious place for a female, Major Kusanagi is not comfortable in her cyborg identity. Although she is most characterized by “her profession of assassin and is never shown with a sexual partner or in any form of sexual association, as if to render her innately free of any basic human ties,” she is in search of her spirituality, perhaps more so herself as female. Her cyborg identity is symbolic for her feminine identity, and throughout the film she looks “through a glass darkly, searching for some fuller image of herself, one that may go beyond her lonely individuality.” (Anime 110) And even though she is part woman, “a ‘ghost’ within her machinery, which means she will live beyond her fragmented body,” (Anime 111) she is so far removed from the femininity of her humanness.

It is commonplace for cyberpunk to disclude female characters completely, yet when an intelligent and highly trained one enters the realm, she is ironically lost in search of her femininity. The film ends with her body destroyed, yet Kusanagi is saved with her inhabiting a new body, that of a young girl. Albeit her head disturbingly remains, “but her body is no longer that of the sleek, hardened, female super agent,” (Anime 111) instead she is clothed in schoolgirl uniform speaking in “a little girl voice, underlining her loss of power and identity.” (Anime 111) Just when she seems to find the part of her that is missing, her feminine balance of identity, Major Kusanagi is nearly blown to bits and her survival depends on her new body of a shojo.

Major Kusanagi’s story is most evocative of the struggle of the young woman in search of feminine identity in contemporary Japanese society. Perhaps her dilemma, although an anomaly in the genre of post-apocalyptic anime, is most significant. It encompasses all the extremes and imbalances of old and new femininity that characters emit, only to end inconclusively. The new feminine is complex, and the search for femininity in relation to surrounding social structures and contexts is endless, just as it is inconclusive. The further science and robotics progress, the more disconnect humans face among themselves and with the natural world, which only proliferates the death of the feminine - or does it? I don’t think so. I believe a new and neo feminine built upon decaying cultural constructions of gender roles will arise. Women will continue to populate the workforce alongside men taking care of domestic duties. Balance of feminine and masculine qualities will form the new ideal and allow for movement towards a world where gender identities are not prejudiced, the aforementioned nearly Utopian post-gender society. The new feminine will continue to change, and anime and manga will continue to explore the “continuum of identity because of the nature of the media themselves. Because anime and manga function in a non-referential realm, they may allow for a more complex form of viewer identification” (Anime 121) than real life can. The future of neo femininity and its reception will progress in alignment with that of technology, until the two reach a balance with their reception in society. Until the populace can come to terms with the ideas, the androgynous and the androids will be rebels without a cause.

Sources

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Baba, Sachiko, Satoshi Tsujita, and Kanehisa Morimoto. "The Analysis of Trends in Induced Abortion in Japan-An Increasing Consequence Among Adolescents." Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine 10(2005): 9-15.

Keehn, Laura. "Takashi Murakami." Swindle (2007) 13 Mar 2009 .

Kinsella, Sharon. "Cuties in Japan." Women Media and Consumption in Japan. University of Hawai’i Press (1995): 220-254.

Murakami, Takashi. “©MURAKAMI.” Rizzoli International Publications, 2007.

Napier, Susan. Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle. New York City: Palgrave Macmillian, 2005.

Napier, Susan. "Vampires, Psychic Girls, Flying Women, and Sailor
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Stanlaw, James. "Open Your File, Open Your Mind." Japan Pop! M.E. Sharp, Inc., 2000, 75-100.

Tsurumi, Maia. "Gender Roles and Girls' Comics in Japan." Japan Pop! M.E. Sharp, Inc. (2000):171-185.

The New Feminism in Anime

The Animated Neo Feminine