17
Manly is Overrated
One of the trends that I’ve noticed in my anime watching to-date is how a lot of the recent shows have male characters who aren’t afraid of expressing their more feminine side.
Even the skilled warrior Thobari-sensei of Nabari no Ou isn’t afraid to show off his shoujo sparkles every now and again.
And maybe it’s very much an expected fujoshi response, but this trend is a good turn. Call it comic effect or fanservice if you want, but I take it as a positive sign that the Japanese creators are realizing that their audience includes females. Lots of them. Girls who would stick around for the story and the animation anyway, but who wouldn’t mind a bit of inside jokes thrown their way.
Pink sparkles are this season’s new black, apparently.
Another thing that I also noticed about the shows that I’ve been watching is how open characters are to crossplay. Specifically, boys crossplaying as girls. In Genshiken 2 (which I’m watching for the first time even though I know it’s an old show in otakusphere time), Kohsaka has no problems at all dressing up as a girl in Comi-Fes, no less! Granted, of all the dudes in Genshiken, he’s the only one I’d want to see in crossplay, but that’s just my personal taste. When he shows up at the table, Sasahara’s a bit taken aback, but otherwise gets over it and acts like it happens every day. Madarame and Kugayama have even less shame and start talking about Kohsaka’s legs…
Blink.
Yeah, they all now Kohsaka’s not gay — after all, at this point in the story, he’s the only one who actually HAS a serious girlfriend — but if the guy wants to try dressing up as a chick, he can go right ahead.
Funnily enough, Kohsaka’s seiyuu Mitsuki SAIGA plays another interesting crossplaying character in the form of Kei in Moyashimon. (Side note: SAIGA-san is the ultimate reverse trap; she plays so many awesome male characters even though she’s a chick). Kei has his own reasons for dressing as a girl. His friends who find out that he’s cross-dressing are initially shocked, but really get over it quite easily with the minimum of questions asked.
In any case, this trend isn’t necessarily new. Kabuki performers and Shakespearean actors did it as a matter of course. It’s just cool to see it shown in anime as part of the story, and not always for comedy or mockery.
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Saturday, May 17th 2008 at 2:13 pm
Finally! My time to shine! ha ha, I keep telling one of my friends, “If you want to make a girl costume for me to wear at a con, I’ll do it. I just dont wanna pay anything”.
Saturday, May 17th 2008 at 2:22 pm
@Os: do you have a preference which anime girl you’d want to dress up as? But the thing is, if your friends are gonna dress you up, they’d better go all out. It’s one thing to crossplay, and another thing altogether to crossplay WELL.
Saturday, May 17th 2008 at 4:46 pm
It’s more fujoshi pandering than anything else. It’s where the money is. There was an article a few months ago saying that Jump is read by almost half teenage girls. Not that all girls are fujoshi, but that’s not the point.
Though, you can’t really count Genshiken 2, since the source material existed long before the craze.
Crossdressing isn’t really a new trend. Look at shows like Strawberry Eggs, City Hunter, El Hazard, Furaba, Kenshin, Turn-A, arguably Ranma, and too many other series. There’s always been the “male main lead is forced to crossdress for reason” cliche for ages. Maybe how it’s portrayed lately could be new.
I’m probably crossplaying as Nitori Kawashiro (of Touhou, of course) at this year’s Otakon.
Saturday, May 17th 2008 at 4:54 pm
Amen. XD
Saturday, May 17th 2008 at 5:39 pm
Finally! It’s irritating to see people get repulsed immediately by anime that shows the slightest fujoshi vibes. Have you watched Shion no Ou? One of the main males characters crossdresses as well and he’s absolutely manly, not the kaiji-kind-of-manly but still 100% male.
Thobari-sensei is so adorable with all the pink colors behind him ^^
Saturday, May 17th 2008 at 9:07 pm
Why am I thinking of The Lumberjack Song? đ
That being said, for all Japan isn’t openly all “let the gays come out of the closet and marry” like the States increasingly is (go California!), as a culture in general they are just more comfortable with androgyny and the blurring of lines than most of the West. They don’t blink an eye at it.
I think the Samurai and Kabuki Theater had a lot to do with it. After all, it says in the Book of 5 Rings that a good samurai always keeps himself perfumed so that his corpse doesn’t stink on the battlefield.
Saturday, May 17th 2008 at 9:57 pm
Nabari no Ou was already an BL/shoujo in the first place. The Soul Eater one was a joke meant to make fun of you girls. Genshiken just states a trend that some minority otakus do.
The fact is that the sensitive new age guy’s boom period was in the 90s and early 2000s. We’re now seeing a return to the GAR, as men are frustrated by spoilt women who think their men should behave like women.
Oh but I’m sensitive, I always cry.
Saturday, May 17th 2008 at 11:49 pm
Despite being male, I wholeheartedly approve of more girly men in anime, considering how I’ve acquired a taste for traps, hehe.
Sunday, May 18th 2008 at 12:47 am
Very true, Anna. I dont want to just walk around with a bra and call that a costume…
Sunday, May 18th 2008 at 2:36 am
This season has a surprisingly high amount flowery sparkly men imho. I’m curious to see if this trend is here to stay in anime or if some sort of ‘equilibrium’ between the mainstream moe and the traps establishes itself XD
Sunday, May 18th 2008 at 3:28 am
Interesting. I wonder how much of it’s done for comedic effect and how much is actual social acceptance. I do see a general level of adrogny going through a lot of Japanese pop culture (Tidus from FFX comes to mind), but then again I also have seen that go through American culture too (emo bands).
As far as the whole ultra-GAR thing that’s going on right now, I think that’s mostly an artifact of trying to carve out a niche for a show. Because there are far more shows with an increasing level of effeminate men (Code Geass and Macross Frontier both has “beautiful” main characters.)
Sunday, May 18th 2008 at 5:49 am
I don’t like pink at all.
Sunday, May 18th 2008 at 10:38 am
@Link: There’s nothing wrong with fujoshi pandering, is there? And you’re even supporting my first point — that all these rough and tumble shonen series are being marketed both to kids and adults. The kids will think that the boyxboy jokes are stupid, but the adults will go and make doujin out of them.
@rei: no, haven’t seen Shion no Ou, but from your description, it’s something that may be worth checking out XD
@L-chan: You’re right. Japan doesn’t seem to be as weirded out by the notion of a “trap” as much as the West is.
@tj han: Nabari is shoujo? But it was published in Monthly GFantasy, which I technically believe is a shonen mag…? But anyway, not going into that old argument now đ In response to your comment, what other anime (other than TTGL) has these GAR men that you speak of?
@Shin: LOL!!
@Cameron: to ape L-chan’s sentiment, Japan seems to have been more comfortable with androgyny to begin with, at least up to a certain age. I mean, if you look at young Japanese men’s fashion, a lot of those guys look very feminine without losing the fact that they are men.
Sunday, May 18th 2008 at 12:29 pm
Yes and no. When fujoshi pandering is one of the primary aims (if not the number one purpose) of a series, such as Gundam 00 or Rolo’s character design in Code Geass R2, it subverts the substance of a show.
Is there any reason why, besides the fact that Sunrise wanted (the more lucrative or more profit-oriented desirable?) fujoshi market watching it versus the standard otaku market, that 00 has ultra BL-style bishonen protagonists? No, not really. If they had any of the characters stuck in those roles, it would be the same, if not better. Same with R2, where the one and only reason why Rolo is an androgynous teenage younger brother is for “sexy” (to fujoshi, of course) scenes with Lelouch. This is the type of pandering that I dislike. Then again, I also dislike nearly the entire shonen romance-comedy harem genre for the same reasons, so I’m not regulating this to the female segment in the least.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it in Nabari no Ou or Macross F or series where its a very minor element. If anything, it’s exactly the same as having a lolita or bb character or two, as pandering to males.
Sunday, May 18th 2008 at 11:21 pm
Hey Anna, what are your thoughts on Nabari no Ou?
Monday, May 19th 2008 at 12:31 am
@Tim: short answer, I enjoy it very much đ I wasn’t planning to write a long detailed post about it, but if nobody’s gonna write it up in the next few days, maybe I should do it myself.
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