Why do so many Japanese anime suck at female characters?

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Current Events » Why do so many Japanese anime suck at female characters?
cuttin_in_farm
02/12/2023
05:29 AM
#1
They dont do anything. And they almost always have a beauty/romance subplot. No matter what.

At least Shonen.

The the author cant write women always fails because half the time gender is irrelevant.

Like, imagine if Todoroki in MHA was a woman. Literally nothing about the story or background would change.
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_____Cait
02/12/2023
05:31 AM
#2
Spoilers the male characters suck too
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0Renegade
02/12/2023
05:32 AM
#3
male characters are pretty one dimensional too in shonen. We just dont say anything cuz they usually have plot relevance and not "plot" revelance like female characters
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NeonTentacles
02/12/2023
05:34 AM
#4
The waifus are pretty great tho >_>
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Kaiganeer
02/12/2023
05:34 AM
#5
the primary audience for anime prefers it like that tho

it's not highbrow art, chief, it exists to sell blu-rays and figurines that the fans can cover in nut
UnfairRepresent
02/12/2023
05:38 AM
#6
Because it's a sexist society. Writers don't think about women with agency and the marketing will tell them not to have female main characters because it won't sell.

That said, western female characters aren't a whole lot better.

Famously Remember Me had it's budget cut by 66% because the developers insisted on making the main character a black chick. Then the game flopped.

Up to you if you want to blame society or the developers not funding it.

Then they wanted to make Life Is Strange and couldn't get backing from any major publisher so they had to release it as an episodic game to cut costs.

And sticking with comics and superheroes, you can count the good main female characters on one hand. So man are just "Take the male version and call it a girl" like Supergirl and Hawkgirl and the 500 female spidermen.

There's both Black Cat and Catwoman who are the same fucking character.

And then there's bland asshats like Captain Marvel and Black Widow who have no consistent personality.

So you're left with Wonder Woman and Harely Quinn and while writers have turned Harely into a goldmine it's impossible to ignore that she just started out as "Female Joker, also domesitic abuse victim"

Turns out 40 year old men who hang out exclusively with 40 year old men talking to marketing departments run by 40 year old men trying to sell things to 15 year old boys aren't thinking about strong women beyond the hero's victims and girlfriends when they write stories.
^ Hey now that's completely unfair!
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MarthGoomba
02/12/2023
05:54 AM
#7
UnfairRepresent posted...
Because it's a sexist society. Writers don't think about women with agency and the marketing will tell them not to have female main characters because it won't sell.
Magical Girl anime doesn't exist???

Or all the SoL where not a single male character exists?
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Kloe_Rinz
02/12/2023
05:55 AM
#8
Youre watching shounen
SpiritSephiroth
02/12/2023
05:56 AM
#9
It's funny since I always thought Anime characters were better written than western media.

UnfairRepresent posted...
Writers don't think about women with agency and the marketing will tell them not to have female main characters because it won't sell.

????
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Nukazie
02/12/2023
05:57 AM
#10
there are women centric animes though, watch those
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MarcyWarcy
02/12/2023
05:58 AM
#11
there are plenty of women with agency in anime. stop watching anime meant for high school boys
SpiritSephiroth
02/12/2023
06:01 AM
#12
I barely watch anime anymore and even I know there are good written anime females.

Maybe it's the type of anime you watch like what others have said? I watched Ergo Proxy back in the day and loved Re-l. Or CC from Code Geass and Motoko from Ghost in the Shell.

One more is Battle Angel Alita.
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blackrider76
02/12/2023
06:50 AM
#13
Kloe_Rinz posted...
Youre watching shounen

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JuanCarlos1
02/12/2023
06:54 AM
#14
Cause a lot of times its turbo nerd virgins writing the stuff
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NeonTentacles
02/12/2023
07:00 AM
#15
Youre only watching a genre of anime bruh. It'd be like watching old James Bond movies and complaining about female portrayal in the entire film industry lol
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Prismsblade
02/12/2023
07:21 AM
#16
In shonen at least they tend to range from either super powerful top tier combatives to borderline useless fighterd/support roles.

With almost no inbetween to what I've noticed. Compared to western comics that usually have no trouble balancing them out strength wise.

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Senta
02/12/2023
07:27 AM
#17
Prismsblade posted...
In shonen at least they tend to range from either super powerful top tier combatives to borderline useless fighterd/support roles.

With almost no inbetween to what I've noticed. Compared to western comics that usually have no trouble balancing them out strength wise.

Well, in Western Comics, women have to be kept out of the kitchen and as far away from the fridge as possible. We know what happens.
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Raikuro
02/12/2023
08:55 AM
#18
X-Men has awesome women, too bad the movies and cartoons tend to make them garbo
lilORANG
02/12/2023
08:58 AM
#19
Sakura got to fight that weird puppet guy.
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Raikuro
02/12/2023
09:01 AM
#20
lilORANG posted...
Sakura got to fight that weird puppet guy.
The old lady Chiyo was fighting him... Sakura was literally as useful as a piece of wood used to make a puppet.
Gwynevere
02/12/2023
09:24 AM
#21
You're watching a genre of anime literally made for young boys and wonder why the female characters suck ass?
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W_S_C_M
02/12/2023
09:43 AM
#22
Anime gonna anime
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IronChef_Kirby
02/12/2023
09:46 AM
#23
By incels, for incels
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Crimsoness
02/12/2023
09:49 AM
#24
Why do so many Japanese anime suck
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yusiko
02/12/2023
10:05 AM
#25
Raikuro posted...
The old lady Chiyo was fighting him... Sakura was literally as useful as a piece of wood used to make a puppet.


for parts of it yes but several times sakura was not being controlled and those times the fight ended up going in their favor
sakura sucks most of the time but the sasori fight was one of her best moments and shouldnt be downplayed
she was more than just a piece of wood in that fight
yusketeer
Master_Kazuya
02/12/2023
10:11 AM
#26
They're written by incels for incels
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IMNOTRAGED
02/12/2023
10:34 AM
#27
Kloe_Rinz posted...
Youre watching shounen

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Dakimakura
02/12/2023
10:44 AM
#28
Kaiganeer posted...
the primary audience for anime prefers it like that tho

it's not highbrow art, chief, it exists to sell blu-rays and figurines that the fans can cover in nut

this guy gets it
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cuttin_in_farm
02/12/2023
11:26 AM
#29
Gwynevere posted...
You're watching a genre of anime literally made for young boys and wonder why the female characters suck ass?

Yes. Because when I was a young boy myself, my favorite characters tended to be the women in cartoons. Like Numbuh 5 or Shego.

If anything, it being for young males is precisely why having relevant and important female characters is so important. If they are only presented as prizes and love interests, it sets a bad precedent.
A show of kindness may not do much help, but a show of cruelty may do much harm.
ChrisTaka
02/12/2023
11:32 AM
#30
cuttin_in_farm posted...
Yes. Because when I was a young boy myself, my favorite characters tended to be the women in cartoons. Like Numbuh 5 or Shego.

Congratulations, you're in the minority.
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cuttin_in_farm
02/12/2023
11:45 AM
#31
ChrisTaka posted...
Congratulations, you're in the minority.

I dont think you have proof on this.

Like, who was everyones favorite character in Teen Titans? Theres no way it was Robin.
A show of kindness may not do much help, but a show of cruelty may do much harm.
ElleRagu
02/12/2023
11:55 AM
#32
plenty of manga and anime have good well written female characters, plenty of good female protagonists even.
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NoxObscuras
02/12/2023
12:24 PM
#33
Kloe_Rinz posted...
Youre watching shounen
This. It's a problem with Shounen because the main audience is young boys, so that's what they focus on with the characters too. And the majority of the most popular anime tend to be Shounen. But there's a lot of variety out there if you look.

cuttin_in_farm posted...
I dont think you have proof on this.

Like, who was everyones favorite character in Teen Titans? Theres no way it was Robin.
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Solar_Crimson
02/12/2023
12:28 PM
#34
Shonen gonna shonen.
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SpiritSephiroth
02/12/2023
12:41 PM
#35
cuttin_in_farm posted...
Yes. Because when I was a young boy myself, my favorite characters tended to be the women in cartoons. Like Numbuh 5 or Shego.

If anything, it being for young males is precisely why having relevant and important female characters is so important. If they are only presented as prizes and love interests, it sets a bad precedent.

Yoruichi from Bleach, literally every female character from Kakegurui, One Piece, Attack on titan, and probably tons more from other huge hitting shonen anime's recently (That I haven't seen since I rarely watch it anymore).

I'm sure people who are more versed than me with anime can come up with more examples of strong/well written female shonen characters. Heck, check out Claymore and tell me those female characters are useless.

TC you can't generalize a whole genre when your own experience with it is miniscule.
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yusiko
02/12/2023
01:31 PM
#36
when sailor moon was in its prime it was incredibly popular with boys as well as girls
so boys dont want strong female characters doesnt hold up as a justification for so many shonen female characters sucking

and yes there are awesome shonen female characters but they are a minority
yusketeer
FL81
02/12/2023
03:15 PM
#37
the obvious solution here is to start watching more yuri anime instead
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Kimbos_Egg
02/12/2023
03:19 PM
#38
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NeonTentacles
02/12/2023
03:23 PM
#39
cuttin_in_farm posted...
I dont think you have proof on this.

Like, who was everyones favorite character in Teen Titans? Theres no way it was Robin.
When I was a kid, mine was Starfire, but only because I thought she was hot and wanted to bang her >_>
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cuttin_in_farm
02/13/2023
07:05 AM
#40
SpiritSephiroth posted...
TC you can't generalize a whole genre when your own experience with it is miniscule.

I dunno how you can put words in my mouth while also assuming something in the same sentence. While ironically saying people more versed than you could probably name more anime. Just an odd post all around.

Tsunade in Naruto is a female character that is written decently in Naruto. But the vast majority of women characters are abysmal so it doesnt really matter. Naming one character isnt really disproving the issue.

A female driven anime like Claymore should do better. And Attack on Titan has great characters.

But I stand by my statement that women characters in most anime seem to be really bad.

A show of kindness may not do much help, but a show of cruelty may do much harm.
SpiritSephiroth
02/13/2023
07:13 AM
#41
cuttin_in_farm posted...
I dunno how you can put words in my mouth while also assuming something in the same sentence. While ironically saying people more versed than you could probably name more anime. Just an odd post all around.

I'm not generalizing myself. Although I could have put my own words across without sounding condescending towards you so I apologize for that.
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Current Events » Why do so many Japanese anime suck at female characters?